Art Show: Part Two

As I mentioned in my previous post, my upcoming art show, Environmental Portraits features installation, along with drawn, stitched, and painted artworks that explore actual portraiture or present a portrait of our society or place runs from July 8 til August 5, 2016 at LARAC's Lapham Gallery in Glens Falls, NY.

I also mentioned I was in awe of the other artists I am paired with. Check out some of their work below & visit their websites!


Teri McCans

Teri McCans is an artist and firefighter living in Colorado. She is originally from New Jersey, and earned her BFA from the College of New Jersey. She served two combat tours in Iraq, as well.

Enigmatic, Equivocal by Teri McCans

From Teri's website: 

Teri transforms her interpretations into a visual language that is accessible yet befitting the world’s complexity. She finds immense joy when her work connects to those not accustomed to the world of Art. Although her work is influenced from personal narrative; her use of color, shape, and form is universal and recognizable.

Kamilah Campbell

Kamilah Campbell, originally from Philadelphia, she earned her BFA from Clemson University, and her MFA from Notre Dame University. 


The piece below is from an installation at Brozosport College in 2014, where Ms. Campbell taught Sculpture.

Ms. Lady by Kamilah Campbell

From Kamilah's artist statement: 

My work is an iteration of the African-American home where the beautiful and grotesque nature of its interior is represented in a physically and psychologically engulfing surface or space.

Susan D'Amato

Susan D'Amato earned her BFA from the University of Connecticut at Storrs and her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an Associate Professor at the School of Art at Syracuse University.

detail of The Taxonomy of Air; from the Ten Thousand Things by Susan D'Amato

From Susan's profile page at SU:

Susan D’Amato is interested the visual and conceptual relationships between the body and universal forms. She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and has exhibited her work extensively in prominent venues throughout the United States and abroad.

As you can see, I am in some rather talented company! I can't wait to see the show. & I hope some of you will be able to come. 

Happy stitching!

The Big News: A Week Late... unless you follow me on Facebook

A great friend (Thanks Julie!) pointed out that I did not add my "Big News" announcement to my blog! Where is my head lately. Unfortunately, not in blogging mode. I had a lovely weekend in Vermont, as you can see below (images from my Instagram)

#meleenandcharlottesvermontgetaway on @aprilsongstress

& this weekend I am running a 200 mile relay from Saratoga Springs to Lake Placid with 11 other people I barely know. Crazy, right?

#RagnarADK 

& now for the big news...

My embroidered portraits will be featured in an upcoming art exhibition at the Lapham Gallery in Glens Falls, NY. This is my first ever art exhibition! My work will be shown along with pieces by three other immensely talented artists that I am humbled & flattered to be paired with. This is a major step in my, dare I say, art career.

I want to thank all of you for your support over the years. & a special thank you to the wonderfully supportive people in my life who inspire & encourage me to do things I never thought possible.

#embroideredportraits #artexhibition #embroidery#whatisart #bignews #imsoexcited

https://www.facebook.com/Aprilsongstress/photos/a.377598175642489.84854.377450278990612/871776676224634/?type=3&theater


I am so very excited about this opportunity!

Happy Stitching!

Announcement coming Monday!

Big, no HUGE, announcement coming Monday! I am so excited I can barely contain myself, but I want to make sure all of my ducks are in a row.

#bignews #imsoexcited

Happy Stitching!

What is art?

 My favorite comment came from anna_hohoho "I love you [Madonna] and respect oh so much. But russians have freedom, right to chose what they do. But our country is different to America. Events in russian church shows that. Russians can't show their ass in church because its a simbol of being pure like an angel. I don't go to churches. But my granma does. She took part in world war 2. And I don't want her to see pussy riot in there. Because its disrespectful for the memory of winners. So, I really believe that you just want freedom and love. But some times people are different. And freedom are different... I ho[p]e you will understand."

Other Russians commenting had some valid points about the differences in culture. They also mentioned that the "police" in the image are actually not police, but "peacekeepers." One Russian women, alisenok_bg, with some of the best points kept commenting to get her point across, & eventually said Pussy Riot should go "to the countries where people appreciate and encourage so called art." As her frustration with other commenters mounted she began to show her elitist view of art. Having a high-brow opinion of what art is & isn't doesn't negate her other comments, but it brings up the question "Is what Pussy Riot doing art?"

In this Russian woman's mind, it is not art. Based on her comments, I gather she loves her country & culture, & was trying to set the record straight regarding a post by a singer she likes enough to follow on Instagram. Her country, as we could tell by the opening sequence of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, boasts some amazing artists. But that is not the whole story. Let's take Kandinsky.

Reiter (Lyrishes) by Kandinsky 1911, Museum Boijmans Beuningen*

Born in Moscow in 1866, Kandinsky was raised in Ukraine, & studied law at the University of Moscow. But he studied art in Munich (my favorite pieces come from this period), only to return to Russia in 1914 due to World War I. Then with the rise of communism & its strict view of art as "for-the-people" propaganda, he returned to Germany, until 1933, when he moved to France. France is where he created his most significant works & he became a French citizen. Many times his non-representational art was challenged as "not art." 


So, why am I writing about this on my embroidery blog? Haven't all crafters at some point in time wondered if what they create is art? Haven't we had others belittle our work, or creativity? Art is subjective, that's what makes it great. What one person loves, another will hate. Where someone sees a tree, someone else will see the meaning of life wrapped up in years of symbolism. Where a government sees anarchy, an individual sees freedom of expression.

Working on my redwork self portrait

Is what I make art? If you asked me 5 years ago, I would say "no." But now? Now I say "Hell yes!" I am using my chosen medium of thread & fabric to create something as a form of expressing myself. If nothing more than to say a traditional craft like redwork can be used in a different way. My redwork speaks to me. I can only hope that it resonates with others. Kandinsky's work seems to be standing the test of time. We shall see if Pussy Riot will. As for me? I am just hoping to leave a legacy for my daughter, to create, no matter what.


*Image attribution.