Whatever the hell I want to do

Oh yeah. I can do whatever the hell I want to do.

Tales of Accidental Bestiality. A new made up library catalog card.

Woke up this morning and remembered that I am free to do whatever the hell I feel like doing. Go where I want to go, meet whoever I want to meet, create whatever the hell I want to create.

Section of a new piece I finished last night. More to come.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the symbolic mirror and saw myself again. Saw all the art I've made and the new things I've tried and the good life and love that I've attempted to bring to people around me.   It feels great to remember who I am, what I am. The incredible responses that I get from other people I meet in the world.

Me riding the rails in NYC. Photo by Erin Core.

That's freedom. Onward.

Seeking inspiration

I'm drifting a bit in the creative shoals lately. Kind of stuck in the silt.  No one can rescue me. I must rescue myself.

March 2014, Inspired to Stitch, featuring Michelle Kingdom.

I'm grateful to have my monthly Inspired to Stitch column for the Mr X Stitch website. Even if I'm struggling to make art myself, I get to have these amazing email conversations with artists about their work and their process.

Michelle Kingdom, who I interviewed for the March 2014 column, has a wonderful way of talking about her work, which is fantastic. Tiny, mysterious narrative worlds. I admire it so much. 

the years fell, and grew into vines. Hand embroidery by Michelle Kingdom.

She inspires me and challenges me to focus on the stories that I want to tell in thread. And in life.

WIPs: Frabbit & a Giant Pair of Brown Eyes X Stitch

Working hard on a couple of projects.

Frabbit in various stages.

My Frabbit (named by the always imaginative LA artist Ellen Schinderman) is a layered watercolor stitched piece. Not sure how he is going to turn out.

CocoaEyes.

And I designed and made the initial stitches on CocoaEyes, a self portrait of my eyes. A selfie, actually. The piece is huge and will take ages to complete. It's my first x stitch design and only the second x stitch I've attempted.

Let's go.

Gifts for my peeps & sunshine

It was an exhausting work week in the corporate salt mines. I've been barely able to focus on anything creative. This does not make me happy. But good times with my squeeze and friends and the the warm weather and sunshine... these take away all of the blah.

Sketch for a new stitched watercolor project. Influenced by the sun?

Started this very beginning of a new stitched watercolor design.

For my dear friend Juline's birthday. Durham is her town!

Finished a badass Durham tank top for my badass friend Juline's birthday.

Crazy cute baby boy sporting 45-insert logo.

And received this lovely photo of a friend's son looking like a super hip baby in the 45-insert onesie I made for him. He looks like a mini Beastie Boy!

Even YouTube couldn't help me figure out how to change the ribbon.

Retrieved this wonderful artifact from the past... a manual typewriter which I plan to use on my card catalog library cards for books I've made up. I have a couple of ideas for new books that I'm excited to explore, but I haven't had the space or energy to sit down to write them out. And I have no idea how to change the ribbon on this typewriter!

Peter Corcoran has been coming to my rescue for... let's just say many years.

Off to see my Pops who used to work with typewriters 40 years ago. Pops to the rescue!

Poor, dead Edward Q

Stitched up my first fantasy library catalog card for a book that doesn't exist.

Edward Q, Seal Hunter (2014). Hand embroidery on a fantasy library catalog for a book that doesn't exist.

Poor Edward Qautsaulittuq, 1879-1919, Inuit seal hunter from Labrador, Canada, who fell in love with a seal.

She rejected him.

Who wouldn't want to read poetry about seal murder, ardor and the frozen sea?

He spent several months roaming the shore, writing poetry, reeling from the sting of insufficient love. A happy ending was not in store for Edward Q. In his introduction, professor Jaques Niege-Neuf describes the poet's demise, found frozen on the ice with his verse against his chest, in a seal skin journal.

Stitched with 2 strand of DMC cotton.

Yes, I'm being playful.

My deck gargoyle is equally sick of Old Man Winter.

And now, for no good reason except the colors make me happy on this dreary, cold, gray winter day (not as bad as Edward Q's cold, but depressing enough for me) Look at Arturo, my art hound, with bright flowers and my artwork in the background. 

Arturo wags his tail!!

Hurry up, spring time. I'm barely hanging on!

String Box 2 (for my squeeze)

Greens and blues. I’m using these colors more so far this year. I don’t know why.  Weeks of dreary, gray weather have me longing for green leaves and blue skies? For a verdant Spring? Maybe.

String Box 2, 2014. Watercolor paper, merino wool thread.

I tried the string box design again, this time in a larger piece (8 “ x 8’) with softer, merino wool floss. (Instead of the tightly wound No. 8 pearl cotton.) And I like it better this time. The lines are more clearly defined. The squares firmer. Angles stronger.

The piece measurs 8 x 8 inches.

I made String Box 2 for my boyfriend.  For Valentine’s Day. The colors are deep, rich and complicated, like him. I added some playful reds and yellow threads. Those colors, in this context, remind me of his wicked, irreverent sense of humor.

WIP. I may wind up playing with more negative space.

His mother is a very talented, successful artist whose work I admire a great deal. He has several of her luminous paintings in his home, so it’s a little intimidating to give him a piece of my artwork. But I can’t be afraid to make what I make and to share it. That would not be me.

 

WIP. Pyramid.

These angles and lines… I can’t get enough of them. My sketchbook is filled with grids – some with curving lines. Some like circus tents. I want to paint them and stitch them. But  I only seem to have time to sketch them or muse upon in those liminal moments before I wake.

In the sun.

I can’t imagine being free from this longing for more time.

Hiriam B.

Meet dour little Hiriam B.

"Hiriam B, 1919." Hand embroidery into a post card,  2014.

I stitched him for my darling friend Erin on from a postcard of a photo called "Cotton Flax and Barley, 1919," by Louis Buhle, from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

Detail of feather, fern and crossed fly stitches.

Hiriam B is a fantasy figure. I have no idea what the real boy's name was when he was photographed at the Children's Garden in the early 20th Century. I imagine that the borough ran a program for city children, teaching them about horticulture in the midst of their urban landscape.

Sketchbook scene.

My Hiriam B. didn't live into adulthood. Despite the photographer's efforts to coax out a smile, Hiriam refused.

My Hiriam B. smiled only when he was with his little brother Samuel, who did live into old age.

Hiriam B. made up surprisingly happy tunes for Samuel, which the two boys whistled together. Even as an elderly man, walking up and down the shoreline in Miami Beach in socks and sandals, Samuel never stopped missing his beloved older brother. And he kept whistling, even when he could no longer conjure Hiriam's compositions.

For Erin, with all of my love.

For 87 years, Samuel smiled enough for both of them.

Library Geeks Unite!

Oh, the card catalogue... How I miss those wonderful treasure troves of information!

Robert Louis Stevenson Stitched, 2014. Hand embroidery on card.

So many moments of discovery in my childhood involved me in the public library, peering into the long wooden drawers, flipping through the neat little cards of of information about everything. 

I remember the manual typewriter font. I remember the slightly musty smell. I remember the sense of wonder that there was so much to learn about the world, so many books written about every imaginable subject, so much possibility. And all of it codified!

Detail of Robert Louis Stevenson portrait.

I loved the library. In my small Connecticut town, it was an oasis for smart, nerdy girls like me. I wasn't a sporty kid. I wasn't a popular kid. I was a serious kid, dark and heavy of heart. A reader and a dreamer.  

WIP. This portrait was surprisingly difficult to stitch.

My boyfriend brought me this card from his recent visit to the library at the University of South Carolina. I found an image of Robert Louis Stevenson, a linoleum cut by Catherine Kanner, which I based this tiny stitched embroidery on. And I learned that the Prayers Written at Vailina was composed in Samoa, so I added some crossed fly stitch vines.

WIP. I'm trying my first shashiko embroidery with a kit I purchased at Purl Soho. Strange to use a kit.

A simple piece that makes me happy. I can envision a series of card catalog pieces of imaginary books. Books I wish I wrote. Books I wish were real. I can at least make the cards real.

Eclipse - First finished piece of 2014

Detail from Eclipse, 2014. Hand embroidery, pearl cotton & watercolor.

Thank you so much for all of your comments about String Box, which I wrote about in my last post and made for the Phat Quarter swap.

Eclipse, 2014.

Here is Eclipse, a piece I made from the same color family. In fact, I painted the background watercolor on the same day; I was in a deep, juicy, saturated color mood and stuck to red, yellow and crimson paints.

Framed.

This piece was made for my badass Pops. It was his birthday on Sunday. Oh Pops, you are a wild man.

Me and my badass Pops in the 1970s.

I've made several honeycomb pieces. One of my favorite things to do with embroidery is to layer stitches. The honeycomb pieces are already layered.

WIP. Made with pearl cotton, size 5.

String Box was an experiment with longer stitched lines. I've tried to bring a layer of the longer lines to the honeycombs.

What I made the fabulous Kinsellas for Xmas.

Off to NYC tomorrow for a quick visit to the fabulous Kinsella family and to attend the opening of the groundbreaking Queer Threads exhibition at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Aubrey Longley-Cook's RuStitch animation, for which I stitched a frame, will be featured in the show.

I'm ready to tackle the gray boxes.

When I get back to Durham, I want to tackle some new work on my gray boxes, which are the opposite of the juicy, saturated colors of my last two pieces.

String Box

I tried a new geometric pattern with this piece. I'm digging it. I can't wait to experiment more with the boxes and lines. The mark making.

String Box, 2013. Hand embroidery on a watercolor.

String Box was made for the lovely designer Rebecca of Hugs Are Fun as part of the Amuse-Bouche, Phat Quarter Swap. 

Framed, String Box, 2013.

I came up with the theme for this swap because I didn't want anyone to feel much pressure to make something too large. What is an amuse-bouche? It’s a scrumptious little hors d’oeuvre. A stand-alone treat for your taste buds. Literally, one could translate it from the French as a “mouth amusement.”

In our stitchy case, I defined it as a tiny visual (rather than a taste) treat.

Out stitching in public. Cocoa Cinnamon, Durham, NC.

It was great fun to make something for Rebecca, a wonderfully creative stitcher, designer and blogger. She has been incredibly supportive to me as I've been experimenting with watercolor stitching. And she has a great flair for color in her own work, which you can see on her website.

Painting my watercolor backgrounds. I made the one on the right for my Pops. Coming soon.

The String Box background was painted at the same time I painted one that I used for my Pops. More to come about that piece, soon. It is called Eclipse.

WIP: Gray boxes, a new project.

Tonight I'm painting simple gray backgrounds. I have an idea for something new that came to me while I was between sleep and wakefulness on Saturday morning. I'm geeked to start working on it...

DynamO!

Sometimes you just get lucky. Check out the FANTASTIC present that Jamie "Mr X Stitch" Chalmers made for me!!

DynamO, X stitch, by Jamie Chalmers (2013.)

I consider myself insanely fortunate to know and work with Jamie. What a huge hearted, big vision, crazy talented force in the contemporary needlecraft art world. I love this guy.

Jamie in action. (Photo by Emma Beckett for Urban Threads.)

I remember when Jamie first asked me to contribute to the Mr X Stitch site. I was visiting my brother's family in Austin for my nephew's high school graduation and I got a FB message from Jamie, asking me to take on the Too Cute for Mr X Stitch weekly column. Even though I'm not inherently attracted to "cute," I leapt at the chance.

Push Stitchery by Jamie Chalmers features groundbreaking needlework. One of my favorite textile art books.

Now, in addition to the Too Cute Tuesdays, I'm writing a monthly column for the site called Inspired to Stitch (my latest column comes out this Tuesday, featuring a provocative and talented NYC artist) and organizing the Phat Quarter artist swaps. And if I didn't have a corporate career, I'd want to do more for the site.

The talented Mr X.

Jamie's newest venture is Weave, a social network for stitchers. I haven't had a chance to sign up yet, but I will be doing it this weekend. Stitchers... check it out.

Detail. The aida sparkles!

I love this DynamO piece so much. Seeing masterful stitching like this is person is a little humbling. Even the ground aida fabric is flawless. The shading of the stitching is delicate and perfect. Jamie is a master craftsman.

OK, now I'm extra motivated to stitch and create. Thank you, Jamie! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Happy Gift Making for People I Love

Xmas present for my fabulous sister-in-law Charisse.

My family is small. I have one brother, who I adore, who lives with his wife and two teenaged boys in Austin. My sister-in-law Charisse is a special soul and hugely accomplished woman. Charisse and Joe have been incredibly generous and supportive of me for so many years.

Cucina apron with Arturo, my art hound, which was a gift from my boyfriend and is made from spun, recycled newspaper. Love him!

I made Charisse an apron stitched with her name. And I'm happy to report that she loves it!

"Cucina di Castagnoli" is stem stitch. The border is feather stitch.

I also made myself a gift... this Corcoran, Durham, NC, cami. I made my brother on that says Corcoran, Austin, TX, too.

Modeling my CORCORAN, DURHAM, NC, cami. This font is my favorite.

WIP. Stem stitch in No 8 pearl cotton.

Making gifts for those I love and seeing them smile makes me crazy happy.

RuPaul X Stitch Animation, Take 2

RuStitch animation frame projection.

Where did the time go?  It's been weeks since the opening night festivities and performances at the Serving Face exhibition in Atlanta. What a beautiful and unique experience. 

RuStitch animation frame, from behind, projected.

At the Barbara Archer Gallery on December 14th, I reconnected with the other artists, viewed new work by Aubrey Longley-Cooke and watched live dance and drag performances. 

The actual RuStitch animation by Aubrey was projected on giant screens in the open gallery space and it is stunning.

Threads dividing the gallery space after the closing performance by Lavonia Elberton.

Aubrey created two animations from the 35 x stitch frames of the 35 participating artists -- one of the front side of the finished frames and one of the back. Both are wild explosions of color and facial expressions. 

In the gallery. Frame 10 (left) by Tricia Hersey-Patrick, and Frame 11 (right) by me.  2013.

When Aubrey first explained that each artist would work from his or her own color palette, I wondered about the fluidity of the finished piece. Well, it is so appropriate and perfect for the energy of RuPaul. 

Lavonia Elberton leading dancer in for the final performance. (Aubrey is the tall man in the background in snakeskin.)

I was particularly moved by the closing performance of Lavonia Elberton, who was featured in her own embroidered animation, a solo piece by Aubrey.

Still from the Lavonia Elberton animation by Aubrey Longley-Cook, 2013.

Lavonia is (at the moment) a bearded drag queen and a textile artist in her own right. She stitched a RuPaul frame and created and wonderful performance art piece to close the evening, leading dancers holding balls of thread/yarn into the space. The dancers flitted about the space, dividing the gallery goers into small, intimate groups made out of triangles of thread. It was a wonderful way to create a stolen moment of intimacy with strangers, pressed as we were into each other, the thread binding us together. 

X stitch animation frames in the gallery.

I am proud to be a part of the project. Insanely proud to be a part of the embroidery as art world. To be included in the boundary-pushing creativity of a project that effortlessly entwined digital animation, live performance and community artwork. 

Me being goofy excited before leaving for the opening.

Aubrey is a special man. A special artist.

With performance artist Tricia Hersey-Patrick in front of our frames.

Now I'm hungry for more opportunities to work with other textile artists in person. Starving.

RuPaul X Stitch Animation, Take 1

It's finally happening!!

Aubrey Longley-Cook's latest embroidery animation is premiering December 14 at the Service Face exhibition at the Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta. And guess who got to be a part of it?

RuStitch Grid, by 35 artists. Aubrey Longley-Cook (2013)

Me!  I stitched Frame 11.

A little background... In February of 2013, Aubrey gathered 35 artists at the Wonderroot studio in Atlanta to participate in an X stitch workshop, where each of us stitched one frame for a new animation he created. I knew it was crazy to join this -- I was in the midst of a terrible flare of pernicious anemia and it involved driving six hours, one way, to Atlanta, three times in three weeks.

Opens 12/14/13

I was so weak that I couldn't drive myself, so I wound up taking a bus for the last trip, which turned out to be a fantastically colorful and fun experience. Jamie Chalmers later told me he thought it was a bit "mental." A six hour drive is basically the length of an entire country in his neck of the woods (UK).

Frame 11, WIP 1, Olisa Corcoran (2013)

But there was no way I could pass up the opportunity to meet and work with Aubrey, an artist whose huge talent and creativity is matched only by his warmth and sense of inclusion.

With Aubrey. I love this photo because I look so star struck! (And anemic.)

The RuPaul animation is part of his larger exhibition called Serving Face. Here is the description from the Barbara Archer Gallery:

Serving Face investigates and documents Atlanta's drag queens by combining traditional embroidery techniques and animation. Co-presented by Barbara Archer Gallery and Goat Farm's satellite location Erikson Clock, Serving Face will showcase Atlanta artist Aubrey Longley-Cook's portraits of drag queens, paired with work created by his RuPaul Cross Stitch Animation Workshop – a collaboration of 35 artists. 

Frame 11, WIP 2 (2013)

And their explanation of the term "serving face":

The term “serving face” is a drag-community expression used to describe a queen striking an intense pose. Longley-Cook's portraits offer intimate glimpses of his subjects as seen through vanity mirrors.

Frame 11, WIP 3 (2013)

I'll be in Atlanta for the opening. If you're in the area, please join us! And please look for me and introduce yourself. 

I can't wait to see the animation!

Watercolor Backgrounds, Sketches & a Bit of Self Reflection

This birthday-Thanksgiving corridor has been blissfully relaxed. I was spoiled by my family and my squeeze. We made a non-traditional, luxurious holiday dinner of shrimp scampi, rested and chillaxed.

Slanty City. Sketching on tracing paper over a watercolor background.

In my crazy effort to live this mashed-up life as an artist, writer/blogger and full-time, biotech-industry career woman, I know that I overfill my days. I get up at five am to do CrossFit bootcamp and I jog on my off days. It's like I'm racing to fit it all in.

Painting small watercolor backgrounds for new embroideries.

And I think I know why. I spent so many years at the mercy of my insecurities, unable to take the leap to focus on my artwork. Too unsure of my abilities to attempt to write about art. I feel like I'm making up for lost time. I want more time, more life.

Bull City Xmas. Thinking about how to turn this Hardscrabble Wondrous image into a holiday card.

But this pace takes its toll on me. I've felt out of gas lately. Part of it is a chronic problem with pernicious anemia that is out of whack at the moment. But part of it is that I've probably taken on too much. That's why this little break has been so restorative. I've slept for 11-12 hours every night. I feel like I'm slowly regaining my energy.

Relaxing painting, with my sketchbook nearby.

I'm very excited about my upcoming Inspired to Stitch column, coming out on Tuesday on Mr X Stitch. Please check into the site to read my interview with an edgy, wildly talented artist from New England.

My monthly artist interview for Mr X Stitch runs on the first Tuesday.

For now, I'm exploring a new piece I'm calling Slanty City, that emerged from my sketchbook. And I'm  luxuriating in rest. So luscious.

Slow WIP & Screw You!

S l o w l y stitching on my Chained Stones piece.

Detail from Chained Stones. Pearl cotton and merino wool on a watercolor.

Quietly enjoying living my life.

Layering chain stitches.

BUT, I'm not thrilled about getting older. This birthday is bothering me. I'm physically stronger than I have been in years. I have great friends, a wonderful family and a fantastic man in my life. I'm living more fully and with more creativity than I have in years. And people tell me I look reasonably young. So, what's the problem?

With my brother Joe Corcoran, Catskill Game Farm. A long ass time ago.

It's the freaking number. I don't like it! It doesn't feel like me. So, screw the number!

Cooking selfie.

And happy birthday to me, mofos! 

Inspired to Stitch for Nov 2013 -- Personal Geography

If you haven't seen my latest Inspired to Stitch column on Mr X Stitch, please check it out.

I decided to do something a little different for November. I asked several textile artists the same question and collected their responses into a "round-up," with photos of their work. Think of it as a mini gallery of wildly different pieces on the same theme. In this case, "personal geography."

Screen capture of Mark Bieraugel's beautiful work.

The column includes work by Mark Bieraugel, Megham Willis, Annet Spitteler, Jamie Chalmers, Kathryn Simmons and Olisa Corcoran (ahem, me.)

I'm very excited about the Inspired to Stitch column for December. The featured artist is a secret... Look for it on December 3rd!

WIP: One Stitch at a Time

Experimenting with a single stitch on my current watercolor piece, Chained Stones.

Work in progress.

It's all chain stitch. I'm using size 5 pearl cotton for all of the colors except black, which is Vineyard Merino wool.  Working with the wool is new for me -- it's usually used for crewel work. I love the stretch.

Detail of Chained Stones

Keeping the color palette simple. For me, anyway.

The back looks like fault lines to me.

I may include other stitches in the piece eventually, but for now, it's just the chain.

Lots of stitches to add.

Looping here and there.

"I still don't understand"

Last weekend, and only because I was asked, I attempted to describe my process of embroidering into watercolor paintings to the white-haired proprietress of a local needlepoint store. 

Honeycomb Rings, 2013.

She just blinked at me, behind a thinly disguised veil of mistrust, and said,"I don't understand."

WIP: Chain Stitch Stones.

Because I'm an idiot, I kept trying to explain what I planned to use the lush wool threads I was purchasing. I even showed her photos of my work on my phone. As if that would help.

Measures 8 x 8 inches, plus matte and frame.

Hand over her mouth, she replied in a lavishly dramatic whisper, "I still don't understand."

Detail, Honeycomb Rings, 2013.

As if it was my problem and I had to solve it.

Art Over the Atlantic, Part 2

Egads, I hit the swapping jackpot in the latest Phat Quarter Swap.

Full Fathom Five, 2013, by Bridgeen Gillespie.

Check out this gorgeous artwork I received from artist Bridgeen Gillespie. The theme for this swap was simply the number five, which I selected to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Mr X Stitch web site.

A fellow poetry enthusiast, she took inspiration from Ariel's Song from The Tempest.

Side view. Photo by Bridgeen Gillespie.

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;


Those are pearls that were his eyes;


Nothing of him that doth fade,


But doth suffer a sea-change


Into something rich and strange.

An illustrator, fabric designer and all-around creative goddess, Bridgeen lives in Northern Ireland and is the owner/director of the design company Cherry and Cinnamon.

I adore the texture of the layered fabric and the wrapped coral. Photo by Bridgeen Gillespie.

As you can see, her work is utterly unique. For instance, I've admired the way she creates depth of texture with the layered, raw edged fabric and the rich, wrapped coral. (You can read about her process for the piece here on her blog.)

Images of Ireland by Bridgeen Gillespie.

As a phrase,"full fathom five" means that something below five fathoms of water. That is, drowned. Lost to sea. I see oceanic inspiration in Bridgeen's work, most obviously in this gorgeous post card from her "Images of Ireland" collection that accompanied Full Fathom Five on its journey across the Atlantic to me.

Stitched Selfie by Bridgeen Gillespie, from her website.

Indeed, the sea is "rich and strange." As is so much of Bridgeen's artwork. As is so much that I find beautiful in this world.