Last week I had my neighbors over for some impromtu crafting. It was really fun to spread out all our art supplies on the floor, remind each other how to knit, distract LJ from her studies, eat amazing homemade vegan gingerbread cookies and feel like actually our community here in Brooklyn is cozily small. The other cool thing is that C. comes from the town next over from mine, so it was fun to catch up about Maine and share memories from growing up there.
Category Archives: Art
DJ Vintage’s Dancers at Brooklyn Museum First Saturday
I was really happy that some of my photos were deemed worthy to go on the Brooklyn Museum’s flickr account, including this one! You can find the Brooklyn Museum on flickr and see more photos from First Saturday, including a marriage proposal. It’s really nice to see evidence of this great community event we work so hard on every month going out to the wider world.
Talking to teens at Bookworks
One of the higlights of my time at Bookworks, besides seeing the show and a space where awesome people create beautiful things, was getting to talk to a group of teenage girls and their parents about making zines. I find it funny that wherever I go my Museum Educator skills are being put into practice, but I enjoy it. It was wonderful to talk about what it was like to start making a zine when I was the girls age in a rural place not unlike Asheville and where zine making has brought me. Even though I haven’t made a personal zine in three years, I still really connected to zine making and the desire to create and share personal work with the hope of connecting with others and sharing ideas about changing the world (and yes, I really beleive that) . So the idea that I could encourage teenage girls to create a zine (or anything, really) was pretty intensely moving and fun as well. I should mention here that Bookworks offers zine making and other cool classes for teenagers as well as adults. At the closing of the show the teenagers in the zine making class will get to show off the zines they have made in the workshop. This is such a great idea because it adds to the conversation of zine making and combining zines and bookarts. Bring on the next generation of zinesters!
Zines by Sara Jaffe and Poster
Sara Jaffe’s zines, with Amy Greenan’s in the background, plus the beautiful show poster!
Indulgence and riffRAG #1
Another view of some of my more recent zines. For a full view of the show and Bookworks as well as Emily, Sara, Molly and Amy’s zines click on any of the Asheville photos to get to my flickr account where there is a slideshow!
Indulgence in Evolution of Cut and Paste
Emily K. Larned, of Red Charming, organized a small book arts show called “Evolution of Cut and Paste” at the Parsons Gimbell library in 2003 that showcased 4 lady zinesters turned bookartists, Sara Jaffe, Molly Kalkstein, Amy Greenan,herself and me! The second generation of this show just opened at Bookworks in Asheville, NC, brought there by the wonderful Bridget Elmer. Shown here are some of my zines and books that are in the show… I loved looking at the show again, it was just as vibrant and exciting as it was in 2003 and I think really showed how zines are still exciting in a digital age. Looking at Amy, Molly, Emily, Sara’s and my work all together again in a space as exciting and condusive to creativity as Booworks really made me excited to make another issue of my personal zine, Indulgence, which I have been publishing since 1998. If you are in the Asheville area before December 15th, please stop by the show, it’s truly unique and inspiring.
Italy and Blue Ridge Mountains
I love the juxtaposition of this very classical looking sculpture against the Blue Ridge mountains, which are supposedly the oldest mountains in the world. It recalls some of the contradictions of the Biltmore estate… where you are and where it tries to take you.
Chihuly at NYBG
I’ve been meaning to blog this since I went with O. two weeks ago for the last day of the Chihuly show at the New York Botanical Garden. At first I was skeptical, but it was actualy a really beautiful show and I loved how the glass and natural forms and colors interacted. It was kind of a cross between an easter egg hunt and walking tour and I loved the process of suprise and discovery. I also loved the excuse to walk around outside on a fairly chilly day. There’s a whole slide show up on my flickr account, so you can see way more…
riffRAG print edition issue 2
This is the fruits of late nights folding, cutting, sticking with transfer adhesive, measuring, sewing… riffRAG issue 2 print edition! With a silkscreened cover by Em Sixteen and original prints and postcards by 6 aritsts, plus comics and articles, I have to say I am really proud of the results. My favorite part is this time around you can take the prints out and hang them on your fridge, in your office, on your wall, wherever… for more information and to order you own copy visit riffrag.org.
Caroline Mak at Bluestockings
Caroline Mak gives an artist talk at the riffRAG issue 2 launch party where she talks about her pieces, process and love of industrial materials. I like to call her “professor Mak” here. Thanks to Joelle running to the apple store and convincing them to re-open the store to get the necessary cable, the show, power point and all, could go on. I am so indebted to my friends. See more of Caroline’s work at riffrag.org and carolinemak.com
Killerfemme 