50 by 50 Stitches on my Spanish eyes

A tiny section complete of my overly ambitious x stitch self portrait of my eyes. Tiny, but still, woot!

First 50 x 50 section completed.

I'm finding it helps to break this piece down into 50 x 50 stitch squares. Otherwise I'll go mad with longing to see it come together.

The long view: One tiny section on the path.

Which is strange. I've always been a "process" maker who loves to plan and slowly build a piece. In the face of a pressure-filled and busy time at my corporate day job, I find myself having a harder time transitioning into the slowed-down process time.

My work kit spread out on my sofa.

This frustrates me. I'm hoping that, by being conscious of this trend, I can be less tortured by it.

PA and PE, 1990. By Peter Alexander at the Getty.

Headed to LA this week. (2014 has been a wonderful travel year so far!) What I'm most excited by? Spending time with the lovely family we're visiting, exploring Joshua Tree National Park and my first ever Dodgers game. And the fascinating LA grid, which is beautifully interpreted by Peter Alexander in PA and PE.

Interpreting these eyes in stitch.

For now, back into the corporate salt mines, I go.

Outside of my normal - a crafty kitty

Last month I was asked to take part in an online experiment for embroidery bloggers. Alyssa Thomas, the designer and owner of Penguin and Fish, sent me a very simple and charming crafty kitty pattern. Although I rarely use patterns or stitch kitties, I loved her injunction to do whatever the hell we wanted to do with the design, so I went for it.

Craft Cat. Hand embroidery on watercolor paper.

Crafty Cat was stitched into a painted watercolor paper background, on top of stitched fish scales. I wrote about the experiment on Mr X Stitch.

I want a cat.

Meow.

Penguin and Fish featured a collection of all of the experiments on their blog. There are some talented stitchers out there, including Nicole Vos van Avezathe and Leigh Bowser. Ch-ch-ch-check it out!

Pixels of Time, Pixels of Stitch

I'm struck by how stitching a cross stitch is like building an image in the form of pixels -- each little x is a point in space grabbed from our vision and transformed into a threaded pixel.

Pixels.

As I get back to work on the self portrait of my eyes, I'm reminded of the beauty in stitching. How it transforms our visual perception of the world by slowing everything down. Each tiny stitch turns our vision into a threaded moment.

Building the image of my eyes, stitch by stitch.

This is true in terms of the time it takes to translate imagery to stitch (the experience of capturing the image by putting the needle into the fabric) and in the tiny physical space of the stitch itself. For example, at burst of light in the contour of my eye socket becomes both a pixel of thread and a pixel of time -- the moment of time it takes to make the stitch.   

Transforming a contour into thread.

I've only worked on one other x stitch -- Frame 11 for Aubrey Longley-Cook's RuStitch animation.

Wild Durham Springtime, 2014.

Very slowly getting back in the a groove with my art practice. Rebuilding it pixel by pixel in the green Springtime.

Stitchsperation Abudanza

Charles Bridge, shapes, Prague.

Rome. Venice. Prague. Three very different cities I recently visited with my mother. At the risk of sounding achingly cliche, I was overcome with an abundance of inspiration for my artwork.

Colusseum, shapes, Rome.

John Lennon Wall, texture, Prague.

Room of Maps, color, composition, layers, Vatican City.

I break down the visual inspiration taken from these photos into three categories: Texture, color, composition.

Under the Charles Bridge, shapes, Prague.

Texture, light, Rome.

Saturated life, Rome.

The colors in Italy are the colors I live in. The ochre, burnt umber, saturated hues.

Composition, colors, saturated life, Venice.

The gothic edges to Prague capture a layer of my disposition. Like dark, lacy lines overlaid on other images.

Texture, shapes, Prague.

Texture, composition, gothic edges to life, Prague.

And everywhere, the textures. And everywhere, watching the bursts caused by the sunlight.

Light, texture, Venice. 

Texture, color, Rome.

What you can't capture in these photos (and there is so much I can't capture) is the feeling of travel. The openness it brings to your imagination if you let it. And I try to always let it.

Composition, detail from Hall of Maps, Vatican City.

Mood, texture, composition, Old Jewish Cementery, Prague.

Composition, mood, carabinieri, Rome.

Especially at home. Must be open to your surroundings. Your world, both of the senses and of your emotions.

Light, color, Venice.

Color, layers, composition, Rome.

I will miss being called "bellissima." I felt like my most unrestricted self.

Colors, Rome.

Everything. Paul Klee at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

I felt bellissima.

Tiger Bea(s)t

Rebecca Grecco of Hugs are Fun, my swap partner for the Mr X Stitch Bestiary Swap, made me the most divine new feline friend.

Misha, by Rebecca Grecco, 2014.

I call this colorful x stitch tiger Misha! 

Rebecca has some sick skills with color and stitching. She is a talented pattern designer and warm, creative member of the online stitching community. I'm thrilled to have one of her pieces in my collection. Thank you, Rebecca!

Bamboo pendant by Rebecca Grecco.

I particularly love her kaleidoscopic rainbows and her sleek X stitch pendants. I need to make myself one from one of her kits, which she sells in her etsy shop.

The next few weeks will be quiet for me here. I am roaming, not worrying about being productive. Just taking in the beauty of faraway cities, sketching, and spending time with my sweet mami.

Vacation O, a-hoy.

See you on the flip slip, brutha.

When you miss your man, you do crazy things

How does a stitch artist with nerdish tendencies deal with her man traveling traveling more than 8,000 miles to far away Hong Kong?

Latitude,  chez squeeze.

By stitching him the latitude and longitude of home so he can find his way back. That's how.

Me? I'm headed to Prague next week.

Frabbit of the Fens

Say hello to my little friend.

Detail of Frabbit, 2014. Hand embroidery on layered watercolors.

Frabbit! I made him for Sarah Hennessy as part of the FFFoF Bestiary Swap that I organized for Mr X Stitch.

Frabbit in the sun.

He is a fishy rabbit. Or a rabbity fish. Frabbits have gills and can breath on land. Through the Middle Ages, Frabbits were thought to be mythical creatures, hidden away in the Fens of England.

The only recorded sighting of a frabbit was in 1745, in Lincolnshire, England, at the estate of Lord Lupino.

Based on a drawing from Lady Thomasin in 1745.

No one knows how Lupino managed to capture a male and female pair. The locals whispered about dark arts. What is known is that Lord Lupino's black-eyed daughter, Thomasin, sketched several studies of the furry, scaly beasts, before she mysteriously disappeared, along with the Frabbits, into the Fens.

Frabbit, 2014.

My Frabbit is based on Thomasin's drawings of the male Frabbit. She called him Fabian.

Hennesseflorium Swirlanicus, 2013.  Hand embroidery by
Sarah Hennessey.

Frabbit's new owner, Sarah, is a wonderful, inventive embroidery artist. I remember falling in love with "Hennesseflorium Swirlanicus," her studies of fantasy plants. Her etsy shop is filled with her clean, fresh, swirling designs.

Frabbit of the Fens.

Frabbit is a layered watercolor, stitched piece. Sarah reports that she likes him. I am SO relieved.

WIP: My cross stitched eyes. Slow going and huge.

Next up: More stitching on my giant, cross stitched eyes.

Coming soon: Wait to you see the amazing beast that I received from Rebecca as my part of the swap!

Whatever the hell I want to do

Oh yeah. I can do whatever the hell I want to do.

Tales of Accidental Bestiality. A new made up library catalog card.

Woke up this morning and remembered that I am free to do whatever the hell I feel like doing. Go where I want to go, meet whoever I want to meet, create whatever the hell I want to create.

Section of a new piece I finished last night. More to come.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the symbolic mirror and saw myself again. Saw all the art I've made and the new things I've tried and the good life and love that I've attempted to bring to people around me.   It feels great to remember who I am, what I am. The incredible responses that I get from other people I meet in the world.

Me riding the rails in NYC.
Photo by Erin Core.

That's freedom. Onward.

Seeking inspiration

I'm drifting a bit in the creative shoals lately. Kind of stuck in the silt.  No one can rescue me. I must rescue myself.

March 2014, Inspired to Stitch, featuring Michelle Kingdom.

I'm grateful to have my monthly Inspired to Stitch column for the Mr X Stitch website. Even if I'm struggling to make art myself, I get to have these amazing email conversations with artists about their work and their process.

Michelle Kingdom, who I interviewed for the March 2014 column, has a wonderful way of talking about her work, which is fantastic. Tiny, mysterious narrative worlds. I admire it so much. 

the years fell, and grew into vines. Hand embroidery by Michelle Kingdom.

She inspires me and challenges me to focus on the stories that I want to tell in thread. And in life.

WIPs: Frabbit & a Giant Pair of Brown Eyes X Stitch

Working hard on a couple of projects.

Frabbit in various stages.

My Frabbit (named by the always imaginative LA artist Ellen Schinderman) is a layered watercolor stitched piece. Not sure how he is going to turn out.

CocoaEyes.

And I designed and made the initial stitches on CocoaEyes, a self portrait of my eyes. A selfie, actually. The piece is huge and will take ages to complete. It's my first x stitch design and only the second x stitch I've attempted.

Let's go.

Gifts for my peeps & sunshine

It was an exhausting work week in the corporate salt mines. I've been barely able to focus on anything creative. This does not make me happy. But good times with my squeeze and friends and the the warm weather and sunshine... these take away all of the blah.

Sketch for a new stitched watercolor project. Influenced by the sun?

Started this very beginning of a new stitched watercolor design.

For my dear friend Juline's birthday. Durham is her town!

Finished a badass Durham tank top for my badass friend Juline's birthday.

Crazy cute baby boy sporting 45-insert logo.

And received this lovely photo of a friend's son looking like a super hip baby in the 45-insert onesie I made for him. He looks like a mini Beastie Boy!

Even YouTube couldn't help me figure out how
to change the ribbon.

Retrieved this wonderful artifact from the past... a manual typewriter which I plan to use on my card catalog library cards for books I've made up. I have a couple of ideas for new books that I'm excited to explore, but I haven't had the space or energy to sit down to write them out. And I have no idea how to change the ribbon on this typewriter!

Peter Corcoran has been coming to my rescue for...
let's just say many years.

Off to see my Pops who used to work with typewriters 40 years ago. Pops to the rescue!