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Another day in paradise

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 09:03

Today I awoke.

That's it.

I awoke.

Much to my chagrin, honestly. I was not at all thrilled to be awoken by the sound of footsteps going up and down the stairs above my room, but even most importantly, I was dismayed to look at my phone, see I slept way past my alarms, and was STILL exhausted. I got 11 hours of sleep and I felt like shit. I have spent this entire day feeling downright miserable. I feel as though I have wasted a day, and on that note, I am going to go to sleep so I can spend tomorrow as productive as humanly possible. I have to do laundry, work on my Petronas Towers piece, start thinking about what I'm going to make for 6x6x2010, update my website with new work, give some boxes to a woman from Freecycle, pick up my paycheck, go to the bank, and what else? Oh, yes. I am going salsa dancing in the evening. It is my last day off for a week, so I have to make the most of it.

I *need* to get this piece done for the Texas Museum of Fiber Arts call. It's due on Monday, but I don't think I'm going to get it done! At least I have one finished for the exhibit, but I really, really want to have two there. I even know how this one is going to turn out. There is no frustrating second thoughts or do-overs like my Paris piece, but I made the mistake of choosing a very detailed structure...

What can I say? I'm up to my ass in alligators.

One fish, two fish...

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 11:20

So after a considerable amount of thinking, I have finally made two fairly large goals for my work for 2010 (if not the foreseeable future!).

With my paintings I aim to bring to light some of the inner workings of my imagination and lift back this veiled curtain of reality to entertain and enthrall and beg my viewer to ask "What if?"

Using primarily fabrics I resolve to use fiber as a medium to recreate some of my dreams and fantasies while further exploring a skill passed through my family for generations.

I aim to document the journey in better detail now that my housing situation is under control. I am excited to participate in such a journey and I encourage you to join me. I use twitter for frequent updates; Facebook for exclusive behind-the-scenes updates, and my newsletter for the larger once-a-month update that really is just an overview of what I've been up to!

I encourage all forms of participation and insight into the creative process. I hope you can join me on an interesting journey through the daily life and (not so!) exciting times of a contemporary (workaholic) artist. Watch while I balance my art career, my other two jobs, my sports, my dysautonomia, and my spirituality.

Paris is all done!

Thursday, 04 March 2010 23:28

I'm not sure if you've been following these updates on Facebook, but for those of you who haven't, this piece has been started and thrown out 3 times before I was able to make create something I was satisfied with.

I got the inspiration for this piece when I was stranded in Detroit a few weeks ago. Walking mindlessly through the airport killing ungodly amounts of time, I noticed that the people who photograph for postcards are really quite talented. They are able to make even the ugliest of cities (like Detroit) look quite lovely and welcoming.

Suddenly, standing in Hudson News, I got the idea to create postcards for cities out of fabric. The series is still to be named, and ANOTHER surprise exclusive to newsletter subscribers... whoever comes up with the name that I decide to use will be awarded a set of handmade notecards!

Anyway! I started this piece with no idea of how it was going to go. In fact, I even asked someone what their favourite city was because I was creatively blocked and looking for input!

This piece is made with a variety of media. The water and the sky are both hand painted cotton using Pebeo Setacolor.

The Pont Neuf bridge is cut out of fabric, details added with charcoal, painted with acrylic paints and a sponge, and then attached to a layer of wax paper underneath so when you touch the bridge it feels kind of rough and hard.

The lights (which I took a considerable amount of artistic license on) are created out of black ribbon that was fused and stitched to the background with small tiles of venetian glass stitched to the top with gold thread.

The word "Paris" was drawn on fabric, fused, stitched, coloured with markers then embroidered.

And then....the tower. The tower was drawn on printer-friendly cotton fabric sheets, painted with acrylic and Setacolor. Hand stitched, hand embellished, and then fused to the background and appliqued.

Nude Nite this weekend

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 11:14

Paris Well, well, well. This piece is coming along quite nicely, I must say! I already got the tower done, and now I need to finish the detail and the hand stitching. I just added some borders earlier and I need to finish embroidering the word "Paris" and I think I'll be all done!!

Nude Nite Tampa is this weekend! Go check it out if you're there! It's going to be fantastic!

In other news, I am getting ready to write and send out my monthly newsletter, so I really must cease blogging for a day or two so I can get this done! Wish me luck!!

I can haz internets!

Wow! For those of you who aren't aware, I've been moving....and moving, and moving some more! I JUST got my internet situated. The router that was set up in the house is a DSL router where someone plugged in an ETHERNET cord to the spot where you'd plug in your computer to the ethernet and it somehow routed the signal for about 36 hours and then died. I looked at it today and went "Oh, duh!" and brought over the router from my old place, and now I have working, and reliable, internet!

My house is slowly coming together. It is a construction site in various stages of completion, but we are getting it pulled together and it is starting to look like a home. During this process I have also been working on a piece for the Texas Museum of Fiber Art. The piece I have been working on I started and scrapped. I am on attempt number 3 and I finally feel like I have my shit together. I feel like I actually enjoy where this is going, and hopefully by Monday it will be finished. The theme of the exhibit is a mix of cultures. Different materials, locations, etc. My piece is about Paris with the Eiffel Tower, the bridge and water. The theme of my new series came from a postcard I saw while stranded in Detroit 3 weeks ago. All these cities that are quite ugly manage to have fascinating postcards with great colours and a festive font portraying the name. I've decided to recreate postcards of cities out of fabric. The series will be 16"x20" and will have a variety of media, but the primary tool is fiber. I thought this would be great for the Texas Museum of Fiber Art because of the variety of media I am using. I drew the Eiffel Tower onto fuse-able fabric, painted it, and stitched it. The sky and the water are hand painted fabrics, and the bridge I painted with acrylics and I left a layer of rigid paper under the fabric to give it the feel of stone.

My newsletter is coming out on the 1st, and one of the topics will be the creative process and why I do things like restart a project 3 times.

Here are some behind the scenes pictures of this work in progress. My goal is to be done with it by Monday so I can start on one of Stockholm or maybe Istanbul while starting some small pieces for the 6x6 show at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center's third 6x6 exhibit! :) Stay tuned! More details to soon come!

Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for exclusive behind the scenes updates throughout this process!

http://www.facebook.com/NizhoniStudios

http://www.twitter.com/elizabethgray

Detail: Water