Haystack '09: Part 1

(*Note: Ok, in the interest of keeping blog entries down to a reasonably digestible size, I've decided to cover Haystack in two entries; dedicating an entire entry to the class itself. So... consider this part 1!)

On top of all the other incredible experiences I got to have this summer, the season culminated with a session at Haystack Mountain School of Craft which was, as repetitive as it's starting to sound, totally amazing. Two more weeks of new friends, delicious food and astounding artwork. OH man... and the scenery!

(View from the dining hall.)

Haystack is located on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine; one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Driving there was so crazy because I started on 95 and the roads just kept getting smaller and smaller. At one point on a two-lane highway some where in the middle of Maine I passed a nut store with a giant wooden squirrel outside it. (I'm not kidding- that thing had to be at least 15ft tall...)


Because the campus is actually on a island, you have to cross 2 causeways to get there: tiny roads with water on either side. Some days the water was right up next to the pavement and the next time you'd drive by it would be so far out that you couldn't even see it. Tides are awesome.

(So is fog!)

The campus itself is composed of absolutely stunning structures. The architect designed the buildings to have as little contact with the ground as possible, so as to allow as much natural wildife as would be found an undisturbed mountainside. Which translates to an interconnected collection of dorms and classrooms that feel like they are constantly floating just above solid ground: like a New England clapboard treehouse!

(View of the dining hall from the deck of the textiles studio.)

(There were more kinds of lichen than I had ever encountered in my life! They grew everywhere- even between the floor boards.)

(Crazy stairs! Turn around for a view of the ocean...)

(Just to the right of the peninsula and straight out to sea!)

(Especially magical at nighttime: the view from outside my dorm.)

The weather was stunning. 75*- 80* during the day- warm enough to demand a daily ocean swim- and mid 40*'s at night! Perfect sleeping weather! Swimming in the ocean was freezing... most days I had to convince myself to get all the way in. But I was determined! I think I only missed 2 or 3 days out of the entire session!

(Myself and Clair at the beach.)

I could go on forever... but I'll try not to. Suffice it to say: fricken' gorgeous. And full of amazing people! Haystack is signifigantly smaller than Penland so the dynamic is a little different. Whereas I made a couple of instantly close and lasting friends at Penland, I met a ton of different people a little bit less intensely well at Haystack. Which isn't to say that I didn't come away with some (hopefully) life-long penpals and art buddies... but I felt like I met MORE people at Haystack even though there were only half as many than Penland.

(Elizabeth, book arts/pin hole photography; Anna, enameling; Joanna, knitting; Sin Nae, enameling. Ice cream on a day trip to.. uhmm... Stonigton? Some tiny Maine sea town on Deer Isle.)

(Joanna again, Jeanne and Brece: all knitting.)

(Anna, myself and Colin, husband of Janet Morton and publically elected Mayor of Haystack. Yes, I am apparently singing into a beer. ps: thanks to whoever took this photo! It is awesome.)

Although I was scholarship student, as a TA, I was lucky enough to not have to work in the kitchen or do other work study jobs. Which meant that I got to spend a little bit more time with the members of my own class.

(The whole knitting class: this photo will make infinitely more sense once you see the artwork, I promise!)

Other fun stuff we did that wasn't class related:

Went to Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies: the totally bizarre (but tasty!) curio and jam shop down the road from campus.

(Sin Nae and Elizabeth.)
Lobster Picnic on the rocks by the ocean!

Hot Shop Dance Parties!

Totally undescribably amazing. But the art will knock you dead. So stay tuned!

The Pie Diaries: Month 1

I have always considered September the month that actually marks the beginning of the new year. Having spent the majority of my Septembers starting a new year of school, I guess my tendency seems pretty natural. Since finishing school, I find September to be a loaded month, even without the beginning of classes to look forward to: it's the month that ushers in my favorite season (fall) and the month I find myself most susceptable to catching a case of Epic Ennui (what is my place in this life? Le sigh...) So it seems fitting that this September be the start of a new and ongoing project; one that, although serious to some, is intended to... shall we say... lighten the mood a bit. (The mood, perhaps, but not my weight.) Thus, I introduce to you:

The Pie Diaries.

The goals: 1. To make a new pie for every month of the year. 2. To collect a group of reliable, tasty recipes for at least 12 different types of pie. 3. To perfect the art of the gluten-free pie crust.

Yummm. Here we go!

September: Peach Mini Pies

I bought the fruit for my first pie at the Clark Park Farmer's Market: New Jersey Peaches; and I decided to use on online recipe (find it here!). Ok, so I know that using online recipes might be a bit lame but... I guess that's part of the project- to amass a collection of reliable recipes. So I wrote it down.

(Super Hot mixing bowl handmade by Adam Conway!)

Now, for me, the trickiest part of pie is the crust. I've been living gluten-free (ha! who am I kidding? Gluten-lite? Low-gluten? Little-to-no-commitment-ability-even-in-the-face-of-killer-stomach-aches?) for about a year now, so I've had a chance to try more than a few gluten-free pie crust recipes. The low-fat, no butter, rice and vegetable oil crust, albeit healthier than any crust has the right to be, is usually pretty good. But... the Fresh Grocer's on 40th didn't have rice flour so my only choice was to buy a Gluten Free Perfect Pie Crust Mix! (Just to check it out... y'know.) It called for 10tbsp of butter AND 10tbsp butter substitute... But man does it taste delicious.

(My kitchen is tiny! I rigged up this space-saving spice situation: 10 layers of magnetic latex primer, green paint to match the dishes and magnetic spice containers from the Container Store! It makes me happy.)

I had everything all mixed up and ready to go when I realized that, in the craziness that surrounds moving I had completely lost track of my pie pan. ??? There are still so many things I keep forgetting we don't have! At least now we have a decent spatula... trying to flip eggs with the Snowflake Shaped spatula was just a joke. Anyway, I had no choice but to make cup-cake sized pies.


Aren't they the cutest little things you ever did see? Amazing. And tasty! The size-to-crust ratio means that the mini pies are mostly crust but seriously, anything with that much butter pretty much has to be delicious.


I declare the first month of The Pie Diaries a success! A tasty, flakey, peachy success... Stay tuned for October... my guess? Kahlua Pumpkin Pie! (I'll make sure to buy a pie pan by then.)

Snow Farm Summer 2009!

After one of the best summers at Snow Farm Summer Arts Program for high-schoolers, during which I took (I kid you not) maybe 200 photographs, I managed to accidentally delete all but 4 of them.  !!!!  So, here is a visually truncated description of this year's totally fantastic session.  

(Camp Director Christine with Assistant Director Jocelyn.  Apparently, they were Just 

Married.)

Almost the entire staff had returned from past summers, so we started the session like a well oiled machine.  The night before all the students arrived, Abigail and I silk screened enough t-shirts to clothe the entire staff!  Unfortunately, however impressive this show of momentum was, as soon as Mike was hit with the first water balloon we were embarrassed to realize that we had used the WRONG kind of printing ink...  washable.  All the shirts were running and staining!  Egads!  So we took all the shirts back and vowed to replace them by the end of the session.  We tried not to get too down about it and started classes with resolve.

(Photo by Abigail Heuss, metalsmith extraordinaire.)

Unlike last year's textile classes, this year we had plenty of students to fill both the morning and the afternoon class!  Plenty of ideas and enthusiasm to go around.  Susannah and I also fiddled with the content and schedule of the class- mixing up the tried and true(ish) schedule of the last two summers.  The newly written course description reads like this:  

 

The two week summer textiles program examines both the artistic and socio-economic life-cycle of a garment.  Students will not only have the opportunity to design and create their own garment/creation, they will also get a broader view of the global textile market.  The class will move from 2-d design into 3-d:  starting with dyeing and shibori (a highly controlled Japanese resist-dye process similar to tie dye), then adding patterns and images through silk-screening and finishing the session by using the fabrics they have designed/ printed to sew a functional garment or object.  Class conversations focus on the social, economic and ecological implications of fashion-based culture and how each student can start their own revolution by using their ingenuity to redesign their wardrobe.  Although the class is based around garments, individual students are always encouraged to use their new skills to make other things:  stuffed animals, non-functional art pieces, etc.  The more creative the better!  This is a great class for anyone who loves color, imagery, patterns and thinking outside the box.

The socio-economic part of the class was the most exciting new element for me.  I bought a huge map of the world and, as part of our daily class routine, I had the students "map" their clothing by putting a pin into each of their garment's country of origin.  It ended up being a great experiment!  We didn't even know

 where a lot of the countries were,  so it often doubled as a geography review.  It was great to see which countries ended up with the most pins:  China, Mexico, the US, El Salvador....  There were tons and tons in Central America.  Unfortunately, sessions at Snow Farm sort of hurtle to a finish and although I was hoping to be able to do some statistical analysis of our findings, no suck luck.  Oh well, next year!

(I even told them that if anyone complained about being "bored" I'd make them go look up sweatshop conditions in the countries with the most pins.  Nobody complained...)

It was the perfect jumping off point from which to have a conversation about Where Stuff Comes From and Where It Goes when we're done with it.  Our annual trip to the Salvation Army served as a perfect example of the latter part of that equation.  The Salvation Army in Hadley MA is one of the largest thrift stores I've ever been to:  row upon row upon row of perfectly wearable garments, organized by garment type, color, size.  Literally, anything that you could be looking for- no matter how specific your criteria- you can find there.  And no matter how much stuff you buy, there is always more stuff getting hung up.  The life-cycle of a garment is not simply defined by the amount of time that it is in fashion, or even by the amount of time an individual chooses to wear it.  It begins with fiber cultivation- farm to harvest to yarn, moves onto weaving/knitting and then into a factory for garment construction. It's packaged and shipped to a store all before consumers even have access to it.  Hundreds of people have touched each and every

 garment that you wear.  And once we've decided to discard clothes, they don't just disappear:  thousands of pounds of textiles are recycled, donated, and sent to third world countries every year.  

This year's textiles class had a chance to enter into that conversation and were given the opportunity to take control of their own participation on the system through new techniques for designing their own garments.  And they made some really amazing stuff!

(Myself and Jasmine in dresses that we made:  hand dyed fabric, silk screened, and patterned from a dress we bought at the Salvation Army!)

We also FINALLY got the photo emulsion with sun exposure to work this year!  We've been trying every year since I started at Snow Farm so it was so exciting to finally have success!  To celebrate, I had the classes participate in a print swap!  Each student made a screen using the photo emulsion and then printed enough patches for everyone else to get one.  At the end of the session we swapped and everybody got to go home with a piece of art from everyone else. It was awesome! 

(Left to Right.  Top row:  My Gentle Alpaca, Emily, Jasmine, Drew.  Second row:  Juliana, Juliana, Kelsey.  Bottom row:  Eliana, Chelsea.) 

One student, Emily, even decided to use the mapping project as inspiration for her patch!  She drew a picture of the globe and labeled the countries:  the size of the label reflects the ratio of production as reflected by the number of pins in the class' map.  Fantastic.  It reminds me a lot of the WorldMapper,

a project that redraws the earth's continents according to different statistics.  (Definitely play around with it if you have a moment!  It's enlightening, to say the least.)

(A terrible cell phone photo of Emily's print.  Apparently, my scanner isn't working either.  Damn.)

We also had our first male student in class this year who decided to take the class because he was interested in toy design.  He was a 2-d artist who drew these amazing characters and he was hoping to learn how to make them into 3-d stuffed animals.  It was great to try to help his realize that goal!  And he totally did it!  Nope!  I don't have any photos of it!  (Damn damn double damn.  Hopefully, I'll eventually get my hands on some and I'll add them to the bottom of this post, I promise.)  Drew added a wonderful presence to the class and although I was worried that he would feel ostricized by the girls who have a strange but undeniable commitment to listening to Disney music during class, he informed me one day that "what?  Hercules is my favorite movie."  AMAZING!  

(A stuffed monster I made with a teeth-shaped-welt pocket for eating things like the dried up fabric markers.)

Outside of classes, the session was full of fun activities!

Like cardboard robot dance battle fashion shows!

Stealing whole bowls of gluten-free chocolate cupcakes!  (Ok, that one was just me.)

Complaining dramatically about how loud the kids were at night time!

Building a pizza oven!  (Technically that was second session but I'm running out of photos..)

After the session was over and the students had all gone home (or away until second session) we had one of the most prolific silk screening parties of all time.  Seriously,  I silk screened for almost 15 hours straight!  Including!  New and improved (aka NOT washable) staff t-shirts!  

This summer was fantastic.  I'm so thankful to all my co-teachers, art friends and amazing students.  Snow Farm is one of the most fun and satisfying things I do all year long.  Hopefully, nothing will get in my way of coming back next summer!

The Craziest Summer EVER. (And a half.)

Gah!!  I can't believe it's actually been, like, 2 full months since I updated my blog!!  Especially since my summer was SOOO full of amazing art-adventures!  Unfortunately, it was also full of super crazy-making moving/ homelessness situations that have prevented me from having the time or peace of mind required to sit down and articulately express the amazingness of the summer.  (See??  Still not really articulate!!)  I sat down about 5 weeks ago to write an entry about Snow Farm (already overdue at the time,) only to discover that all but 4! of the 200! photos I had taken during the session were GONE!!  Totally inexplicably!  Full disclosure:  I'm sure that by "inexplicably," I really mean, "through my own stupidity and lack of proper reflexes" but it's still a blow.  (Don't worry-  I'm still going to throw together an entry from pilfered Facebook photos... of which there are about a million.)

AND! even though I am finally settled in my new place (did I say finally?  I meant finally!!!)  my already bumpy re-entry into the general pattern of my life was made harder when my computer hard drive crashed.  !!!  Even though I had everything backed up... and even though I still had 16 days left on my warrantee...  somehow, getting all my information back has still been ridiculously complicated.  (Stupid cocky bastards at the damn apple store.  They always make it sound so easy!  Liars.)

So... in conclusion... excuses excuses... but STAY TUNED!!  Lots of awesome stories and photos are coming this way soon.  'Cause I gotta get on with my life and I feel like it's on hold.  

But in the meantime, here's an interesting poster that Erin and I came across during one of my multiple over-night stays in Boston.

  

Last Chance to Check Out THREADS!

All right, now I know you all want to hear about my superincrediblyfantasicallymagic time at Penland, but in order to really do it justice I'm letting myself digest a little before posting about it. (Aka... I'm waiting to sort through everybody's photos on facebook. What? I didn't get ANY of me inside a giant kitchen pot or in my crazy armadillo costume! Ha! Now you REALLY want to hear about it, don't you?!) Anyway, I've got a couple things in the meantime:

I can't believe it's been a whole month already, but the Threads Exhibition is coming down this weekend! In case you're having trouble remembering... the Code Quilt that Nellie and I put together last fall is currently hanging in an exhibition at SOMArts in San Fransisco as part of the annual, month-long, queer arts/party festival! And this week is your last chance to see it!! Here is a list of the other (amazing!) artists that participated in the show:

Threads Artists:

Adams, Atticus Ahearn, Bren Der Ananian, Greg Baldwin, Mara Ball, Jasper Gregory Bazant, Micah & Ramstad, Emmett Boudreaux, Zee Boyer, Travis Buitron, Michael Claude, Teri Clausen, Alex Collins, Liz Cros, Muriel Cummings, Torreya Ellsworth, Angela Faulk, David & Johnstone, Michael Fiveash, David Gerard Romero, David Gratland, Paige Hammond, Harmony Hanasik, Jason Hellstern-Kjoller, Henriette Hillman, Patrick Hogan Finlay, Onya Hubbard, Katherine Huron, Sade Kahn, Jesse M. Kahn, Jesse M. KillerBanshee Lohner, Harold Lopez, Steven Vasques Lorch, Kate/Fletcher, Welly Maida, Lee Menone, Christopher Metzger, Cyle Monday, Zak Muholi, Zanele Naschke-Messing, Ali Pepe, Sheila O'Arwisters, Ramekon Rinehart Kurz Roberts, Lacey Jane Robinson, Michael Sylvan Roseborough, Tim Rossi, Kjerstin Rubiku, Anila Sanders, Jeremy Simms, Jeannie Telford Keogh, Catherine Tess, Rebecca Ulrich, William Cricket Waters, Irene Whitehead, Anna Wilson, Angie

(Uhm... ok, so they kinda effed up our names, but y'know, whatevs.)

But see?? Don't you want to see that show?! I do! But unfortunately, I didn't even get to go to the opening 'cause of my class at Penland. (Which I wouldn't have swapped for the WORLD!) Here are some photos from the June 7th opening:

Ooooh... those look like hot queeeer people!!!

It looks like they had a pretty good crowd! And the gallery looks PACKED with amazing art! Is that another quilt I see there in the background?? Oooooh, I wish I could have been there!

And there's the quilt!! Look! Someone's looking at it!! Oh, man, I feel like a REAL artists! (Also, I think that's Alfred Hitchcock in the background... Hmmm...)

Everything looks so pretty...

All in all it sounded like a great show! If anyone out there reading this actually got a chance to see/experience the show, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Highlights? Anyone I should look up artist-wise? Kthnx.

Penland stuff coming soon, I swear.

Penland '09 (in IV Acts)

Sorry I have been so neglectful about posting all about my numerous summer adventures! Things have been crazy here in Nora-land... but I promise, much reminiscing and story-telling-via-blogging will be had over the next few weeks. Let's start with Penland!

PENLAND! (That's right- I said V (five, 5) Acts... 'cause any less wouldn't do it justice.)

Act I: Penland- the Place

Penland Mountain School of Craft is beautifully situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. (It's about an hour outside of Ashville.) The buildings that make up the campus are all gorgeous, historic structures... that are cock full of studios and creative people. Arriving there was like arriving in Rivendell... if Rivendell was full of artists and beer! It was pretty awesome!

This is pretty much the view from my studio. !!! I was in suck sock... not culture shock exactly... but location shock. I think of myself as being a woodsy type of girl but... having spent the last few years almost exclusively in the city, all of a sudden being surrounded by trees and plants (and poison ivy) was sooo shocking. And fantastic!

The building with the work study dorms (the Craft House) had this amazing porch with wooden rocking chairs. I actually wish I'd had more free time so that I could have relaxed on this porch more.

And every surface was covered with art! Every day I discovered another amazing hidden pocket of art. It's the perfect location to get totally immersed in your art.

Act II: Life as Penland Workstudy Student

In order to afford my studies, I was offered a work study scholarship which meant that I slept in a shared dorm and was given a job to perform every day. The dorm somewhat resembled a make-shift WWII hospital: just a row of beds separated by curtains. (Really not as bad as it sounds... I didn't end up getting that much sleep anyway.) And my job? Pots and dishes. !! Do you know how many pots and dishes are used to make food for 200 people!? A TON! I swear, I was armpit deep in cauldron-sized pots for 2hrs after 2 meals a day! The skin on my hands immediately started peeling off (they're still, 4 weeks later, pretty dry! Dish Lepracy!) But it wasn't unenjoyable at all! There's a sort of instant comradery that's established between the kitchen work studies students... Plus, it was like we got to have 2 hot, wet, sweaty dance parties every day! (I can't believe I have zero pictures of me head and shoulders inside a pot but... apparently we were all too busy to take photos.)

I made some amazing friends pretty instantly:

(Sasha, ceramics; Amanda, lithography; Shawn, books (and griping); not pictured: Anna, lithography; Arthur, ceramics.)

And we spent a lot of time hanging out :

(looking for the llamas), going to Asheville:

(and getting lost in Tennessee), swimming (and avoiding the poison ivy) and visiting eachother's studios:

(clearly getting a lot of work done). The Core students (students who live at Penland, taking classes and working in the studio for 2 whole years) also provided us all with some brilliant

activities!

Getting ready for the Andy Warhol Factory Dance Party!

Artists have the best costumes. They're the Marilyn Monroe print! Get it?

Drugged up floozy, rich patroness and crazy lesbian Valorie Solanas. (Holla to my feminist reading group! That's right, I'm carrying a copy of the SCUM manifesto and a bubble gun with which to shoot Andy. YES!) There are a whole bunch more photos but they're a little too incriminating for the internet. Hahaha... oh, good times.

Act III: My Penland Class

The class that I took was titled "Alternative Clothing and Pocketology" with Jan Ru Wan. It was an amazing mixture of specialized instruction on sewing perfect pockets and creative, intuitive art making.

One of Jan Ru's assignments was, and I'm not kidding you, to find a 4 leaf clover every day of the session. !! We were supposed to bring the clovers to class so that we could put them in our sketchbooks. We were also supposed to keep a journal about how we felt while we were searching. Our class become both the crazy pocket class AND the class that was always out in the field looking for 4 leaf clovers. But we found a surprising number of them by the end of the session!

(Shawn and me looking for clovers.)

Our other assignments were more pocket based. We were instructed to bring a complete men's suit, which we then took apart seam by seam. We were supposed to explore the intracacies of tailoring, be inspired by the nuances of the fabric and history of the suit itself. And most of my classmates were. Unfortunately, having taken apart quite a few suits in my artschool career, I found myself a little less awed than my classmates. So I instead poured my creative juices into the next step of the process: build a new object or garment from the deconstructed suit pieces.

(The studio in action.)

Act IV: My Art Work

So, I plan on doing a little bit more writing and posting a much more elaborate blog entry on this piece after I've had some better photos taken, but here's the short story of how my Armadillo suit came into being.

As I mentioned before, I was in complete shock over being in the woods... especially because I really don't consider myself a city girl. So, I was thinking a lot about human animality and how that animality manifests itself in our actions and our clothing. Some animals have their protection built into their bodies: turtles have shells, armadillos have scales and apparently lepracy. The suit, a symbol of conservativism, professionalism, business... was at complete odds with my current location and in the way i was thinking about myself. Also... because of a certain housing crisis (my not actually having one) the idea of an animal being inately imbibed with their own home was especially interesting to me.

I started by creating a repeat image of scales or shells and printing it on the suit pieces.

Then, I built a jacket.

Referring back to the animal-defenses, the shape and structure of the jacket is determined by the contents of it's pockets. With huge, balloon pockets at the hips and tiny pockets in the shoulders, the sillhouette of the body gets larger and more intimidating the more stuff that gets stashed. My thinking was that the act of stashing stuff into pockets would become a visual manifestation of anxiety: the more anxious you were, the more stuff you would need on your person, the larger and more obvious your anxiety would become. There was also a secret zip pocket back pack behind the razor back panel.

Unfortunately, all the photos of me IN the suit make me look like a crazy person, so I'm not going to post them. Again, once I get some better photos, I promise I'll post something longer. :0)

Act V: Loooot

The trading potentials were endless. I printed a bunch of armadillo iron-on patches and traded them with the other artists like legal tender!

I got a bunch of great ceramics, some great lithograph prints, some jewelry, some photo prints... now all I need is a home to hang things in! And, in the process of trading, I made connections with some truly amazing artists and craftspeople. Check out the newest additions on my etsy favorite's page to see some of their work!

Oooh... le Sigh. That was long. Ok, so basically I could never explain all of the amazing fun times I had at Penland. But thanks for reading!