Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes (but not quite so majestically)
Heck, it's a post that raises this blog from the grave.
I couldn't bring myself to delete this (which probably says more about me than anything).
I tried (in vain?) to make a proper site and it is a step a new direction. It had a lot of ad's because I am currently between 'major' jobs and frankly, this bugged me. So while I save up to get a proper domain I will post here in this good ol' spot. I have changed the name but it's still here and so am I.
I have been using Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest for the majority of my journaling while I have been on blogging hiatus, though as life and grad show loomed overhead I opted out of both for a spell. But if you want to see what I have been up to, it's a good start :)
A few years back I ceased updating a blog called The Girl Lives, it was a space where I could share my life and thoughts with those around me while promoting creative friends and things that I found engaging. And though that stage of my life is thoroughly over, I have missed blogging quite a bit.
It's been a while since I wrote a proper post, so forgive the potential blandness. I just completed art school after umming and ahhing about going back for most of my 20's. It's strange when you work toward something and feel you are on track, only look back in the wrong frame of mind and feel it was wasted somehow? To get through Uni I worked on freelance design and illustration jobs and picked up a stylist position at a local fashion brand to keep money trickling in. Working in fashion was eye opening, I have had friends that have travelled down that path, and when confronted with how to make an ethical garment (and a profit), many closed up shop or side stepped into something else. There was a great podcast on Close Knit about this, which I enjoyed immensely. But I digress.
All the way through art school I found myself moving further away from painting and printmaking and into textile based works. The school I attended didn't really have a textile department, or it did, but it moved out of the university to become the Australian Tapesty Workshop (I could be wrong here?). To have an art school without a textile department when so many students were interested in the field really baffled me. Things like knowing how tight funds were and seeing how all subjects embraced contemporary thought and technology sort of ruled it out. So I began to teach myself how to weave, mend clothing and embroider better. When it finally came time to present my work at grad show I felt like I fell flat. I made a sculptural work out of my partner's aunt's linen smocks (she was a painter who had recently passed away) that encouraged people to connect with each other. In my mind I was drawing parallels between alienation in the gallery, how to approach the art world as a woman, and the clothing that houses our body while we are on this journey. Having spent most of my "practice" to date leaning toward textiles and relational aesthetics, it only seemed natural. Clothing demarcates the body, it protecting us while helping to form our identity. I read this article and listened to a podcast interview on Thread Cult with the curator, Wanda M. Corn. To me this said a lot about the role of fashion and textiles for some, if not most artists. I wish I could have made it to the exhibition, it sounded amazing.
One late night in 2015, I jotted down an idea for a project where I contacted lost friends and mended a garment for them. It's still chugging along slowly, I have a few items which I have been sitting on for a bit too long. This work exists, so there is a continuous thread that ran through this idea to a few other artists, especially Lee Ming Wei and Yoko Ono. When I first searched for mending projects I naturally came to a lot of Japanese boro techniques and I found Tom of Holland on Instagram. To see the ground this movement is gaining excites me. I did a call out, I mended the clothing of some friends while getting to know them better. The experience of it made everything else worthwhile.
Clothing should be made to last or at least mended or altered when the time comes. In art school felt so frustrated at not being able to articulate my ideas successfully through a medium like a lot of my peers, it's such a raw space, and I can't help but feel there isn't enough emotional support in those spaces, but I will save that for another post? I felt more alienated than ever after grad show, my personal circumstances made it difficult to reach out and so, I turned inward and I wrote to make sense of it all, which is part of what I do.
I have been knitting of late, determined to understand it better and put the vintage patterns I have collected over time to use, as well as darning a few jumpers. My grandmother taught me to knit and embroider. Knitting wasn't easy and I gave up when it came to purling. But last year I took the plunge and ordered a pattern book from Good Night, Day and sat down with some circular needles and it began to make more sense. Youtube had my back when it came to decreasing or binding off and I've frogged a project that I twisted all my purls on, but that's life. To me these actions put everything into perspective, you can listen to friends talk, or an audio book or just knit your internal chatter out and into something which will give you comfort or protect you. I use the loose threads and wool to make other things, everything feeds into something else. I love it so much, I don't know where this will lead and I don't really care for now?
Oh! and if any one local is reading, I plan on hosting an open house / craft group soon. Please shoot me a message if you're interested. There will be more info soon :)
I couldn't bring myself to delete this (which probably says more about me than anything).
I tried (in vain?) to make a proper site and it is a step a new direction. It had a lot of ad's because I am currently between 'major' jobs and frankly, this bugged me. So while I save up to get a proper domain I will post here in this good ol' spot. I have changed the name but it's still here and so am I.
I have been using Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest for the majority of my journaling while I have been on blogging hiatus, though as life and grad show loomed overhead I opted out of both for a spell. But if you want to see what I have been up to, it's a good start :)
I made a post when I started my other site which outlined my intentions and set the tone and all that jazz (after all it has been a bloody long time between posts and a lot of water has passed under this bridge!) I will copy and paste it below the following image. The image is of an automatic embroidery I completed on a found shirt back in 2016 (I use black and white for images which refer back to previously made works). I'll talk more about automatic embroidery another time as I have a few artist books that I have made on both mending and automatic embroidery that explain it best. I will pop these in my Etsy shop for anyone who is interested. And I will link the shop here at some stage too!
For those who have already read the following, thanks for reading the first post! I promise I won't be repeating content like this at all (hopefully, I guess never say never?) and for everyone else, thanks for reading :)
For those who have already read the following, thanks for reading the first post! I promise I won't be repeating content like this at all (hopefully, I guess never say never?) and for everyone else, thanks for reading :)
A few years back I ceased updating a blog called The Girl Lives, it was a space where I could share my life and thoughts with those around me while promoting creative friends and things that I found engaging. And though that stage of my life is thoroughly over, I have missed blogging quite a bit.
It's been a while since I wrote a proper post, so forgive the potential blandness. I just completed art school after umming and ahhing about going back for most of my 20's. It's strange when you work toward something and feel you are on track, only look back in the wrong frame of mind and feel it was wasted somehow? To get through Uni I worked on freelance design and illustration jobs and picked up a stylist position at a local fashion brand to keep money trickling in. Working in fashion was eye opening, I have had friends that have travelled down that path, and when confronted with how to make an ethical garment (and a profit), many closed up shop or side stepped into something else. There was a great podcast on Close Knit about this, which I enjoyed immensely. But I digress.
All the way through art school I found myself moving further away from painting and printmaking and into textile based works. The school I attended didn't really have a textile department, or it did, but it moved out of the university to become the Australian Tapesty Workshop (I could be wrong here?). To have an art school without a textile department when so many students were interested in the field really baffled me. Things like knowing how tight funds were and seeing how all subjects embraced contemporary thought and technology sort of ruled it out. So I began to teach myself how to weave, mend clothing and embroider better. When it finally came time to present my work at grad show I felt like I fell flat. I made a sculptural work out of my partner's aunt's linen smocks (she was a painter who had recently passed away) that encouraged people to connect with each other. In my mind I was drawing parallels between alienation in the gallery, how to approach the art world as a woman, and the clothing that houses our body while we are on this journey. Having spent most of my "practice" to date leaning toward textiles and relational aesthetics, it only seemed natural. Clothing demarcates the body, it protecting us while helping to form our identity. I read this article and listened to a podcast interview on Thread Cult with the curator, Wanda M. Corn. To me this said a lot about the role of fashion and textiles for some, if not most artists. I wish I could have made it to the exhibition, it sounded amazing.
One late night in 2015, I jotted down an idea for a project where I contacted lost friends and mended a garment for them. It's still chugging along slowly, I have a few items which I have been sitting on for a bit too long. This work exists, so there is a continuous thread that ran through this idea to a few other artists, especially Lee Ming Wei and Yoko Ono. When I first searched for mending projects I naturally came to a lot of Japanese boro techniques and I found Tom of Holland on Instagram. To see the ground this movement is gaining excites me. I did a call out, I mended the clothing of some friends while getting to know them better. The experience of it made everything else worthwhile.
Clothing should be made to last or at least mended or altered when the time comes. In art school felt so frustrated at not being able to articulate my ideas successfully through a medium like a lot of my peers, it's such a raw space, and I can't help but feel there isn't enough emotional support in those spaces, but I will save that for another post? I felt more alienated than ever after grad show, my personal circumstances made it difficult to reach out and so, I turned inward and I wrote to make sense of it all, which is part of what I do.
I have been knitting of late, determined to understand it better and put the vintage patterns I have collected over time to use, as well as darning a few jumpers. My grandmother taught me to knit and embroider. Knitting wasn't easy and I gave up when it came to purling. But last year I took the plunge and ordered a pattern book from Good Night, Day and sat down with some circular needles and it began to make more sense. Youtube had my back when it came to decreasing or binding off and I've frogged a project that I twisted all my purls on, but that's life. To me these actions put everything into perspective, you can listen to friends talk, or an audio book or just knit your internal chatter out and into something which will give you comfort or protect you. I use the loose threads and wool to make other things, everything feeds into something else. I love it so much, I don't know where this will lead and I don't really care for now?
Oh! and if any one local is reading, I plan on hosting an open house / craft group soon. Please shoot me a message if you're interested. There will be more info soon :)
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