Back with a vengeance.

I am back and ready to kick some arse. After a good strong round of antibiotics I am off the couch and working hard. I have a lot of new and exciting ideas from my first group critique. I am considering very highly doing some quilting, and tackling some difficult subjects dealing with what makes someone a woman, femininity and female politics. We'll see what it ends up as!
I am reading a really good book called The Subversive Stitch and another one dealing with The Everyday. I have others on board to be read once i'm done with these two!

Artists and things i'm looking at this week:
Curtis William Readel

Tim Tadder

Sarah Greaves

Who knew there was special thread for feminine products?

This site is biased toward menstrual cups but has some interesting history regarding feminine hygiene products.

Severija Incirauskaites

Laura Splan

Carina Ubeda
Carina Ubeda and other female artists
This art deals with menstrual blood, so if that grosses you out don't click. Or do.

Nina Katchadourin

Hrafnhildur Arnardottir

Critique

Working hard. Examining decoration all around me. Reading quite a few books on decoration and stitchery.
looking at these artists:
video
sculpture

Not very much this week.

whoops

So I dropped the ball. This is me, blogging two days late. It's easy to blog when I don't have to but when it's a necessity I seem to forget...
In any case, this week has been filled with visual and literary discovery. Woohoo! I am working with  items and processes and trying to discover what is gendered and what is not. Through this research, using books and discussions with other artists, I hope to get to the root of which objects I might focus on for my show. I am exploring the technique of embroidery on cardboard, paper and other combinations of materials.
These are the artists I have been looking at this week, along with many embroidery artists found in books.
MAtthew Stone

Ridiculous Olek crochet

Craft, Academia, and the 21st Century

Some fashion show

Lillith by Kiki Smith

Isabelle de Borchgrave

begendagain

First week of school is (almost) done!
I was nervous but everything has gone pretty smoothly, including  teaching. Need to work on rivets, i'm so bad at them. Teaching them wasn't hard, but most of the students had better rivets than my examples! That's pretty poor. I practiced quite a few times to make good rivets for the demo, but of course in the demo I couldn't get a good rivet to save my life.
I have started experimenting with a few things for my thesis. Still need to hash some things out, looking for help from my advisor next week. Got about 2 hours of real work done tonight, and socialized quite a bit! It's been fun to meet all of the incoming grads, and to say hello to all the 2nd years once again.

This week i've been looking at:

Egon Schiele

Eyal Gever

I want to buy these

Tang Chiew Ling

Dan Webb

First week, Fall semester

“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.”

—	James Joyce

First week of school has started and is going strong! I learned Monday what it is like as the teacher when making a dumb mistake in front of the class; VERY embarrassing! The class went off without a hitch, and i'm interested in seeing what the ladies in the class come up with for their projects. 

Here are some artists i'm looking at as I go into my first week:

Yore Gorgon

Markus Schinwald at the Venice Biennale

Taylor Holland

Sina

Alejandro Maestre Gasteazi

Sarah Maloney

Arrowmont

Sitting at a computer in the BEAUTIFUL Arrowmont library. This whole campus is just amazing, very comfortable and peaceful. Who would think there is a street full of tourist trap goodness right down the driveway!
Just finished with an Abstract Quilt workshop with Elizabeth Barton. She was a very good teacher, helping all of us to achieve good design and teaching me the basics of quilting. She opened my eyes with a few new tools. I was especially amazed by the darning foot for a sewing machine which allowed me to sew a freehand pattern onto my first ever properly made art quilt. The dye process for the fabric was also incredibly exciting. I immediately went back to my room and ordered dyes so I can do it at home!

Being away from home and immersed in art is an experience everyone should try. I plan to come back here every year, finances willing, or try a different art institution to get my fix. It allowed me to work in a new and exciting way, to change my style and way of thinking about work. I also learned valuable skills that I will hopefully take into my thesis work.

Elizabeth was a big help in pointing me towards some great female artists. Here is a list of some that we used as information or learned about:
Sonia Delaunay
Lee Krasner
Agnes Martin
Julia Loffredo Triebes
Mary Fedden
Elaine De Kooning
Beverly Pepper
Joan Mitchell
Helen Frankenthaler
Yayoi Kusama *
Lee Bontecou *
Bridget Riley
Eva HEsse
Rosie Lee Tompkins (Effie Mae Howard) *
Pat Stein
Elizabeth Murray *
Amy Sillman
Rachel Whitehead
Tracy Emin *
Ghada Amer *
Tomma Abts
Tara Donovan *
Sun Kwak *

The ones with the stars next to them are the women I was particularly inspired by.
Also she suggested Diane Itter

Where you can always find me.

Well Hello there stranger. Where did you come from?
Inspirations over the summer have been plentiful. Here are some things i've been looking at:
Bruce Metcalf, Contemporary Craft:A Brief Overview

Gerardo Feldstein
Figurative sculpture

Tom Beddard

Gerasimos Plantanas
Photography

Artiphany
Design

Motoi Yamamoto
Sand sculpture

Sandrine Pelletier

CANDY!

Heather Hansen

Dennis Oppenheim's Two Stage Transfer Drawing

Judith Ann Braun
Finger print art!

Baptiste Debombourg

Do Ho Suh

Aurland look out
Architects: Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen

Tran Nguyen

So it seems to me that most of the work that i've been into this summer has been destructive, decorative or work that uses the body directly in the work or in the making of the work.
I suppose all work uses the body in some way, but these are more direct ways of using the body where the piece depends solely on it, and if you were to remoce that specific body the piece would be completely different.
I am very interested in the destructive, or the seemingly destructive. To me it ties directly into the disposable, because disposable things are inherently destructive.
As for the decorative, I have an addiction and refuse to seek help. Decoration is what makes my world beautiful and I refuse to give it up. So there.

Off to Arrowmont school of arts and crafts this week to dye fabric and create abstract quilts with it. Another tool under my belt!