and then there was happiness and certainty.

I'm happy to report that I finally heard back on my scholarship application to the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I had applied back in February for a scholarship for Nick Deford's embroidery workshop scheduled for July, and I received notice last week that I received a scholarship for 50% of the tuition, and 50% of my room and board, which will enable my attendance!

This summer I will also be interning at the Newberry Library again, in the conservation department. I cannot wait to be with Barb, Giselle, and Becky again; these amazing women with whom I feel so connected and who teach me so much.

Sometimes there are moments when I feel that I am doing exactly what I am meant to do, and there is this potential in the air, where I can almost see the path in front of me. In these moments everything seems to work out; the answers become apparent without any seeming effort on my part.

I have just enough thread to complete a project. I find nails that are the exact color of the eyelets I used to support my paper. I have a scrap of book cloth that is the exact color of my stitching and the perfect size to use for the covers of my book. I'm going to Paris, Brussels, and Bruges and amazingly have the money to do so. I have a mentor who is allowing us to stay in his apartment in Paris for only $100 each for the week. My dear friends Ingrid and Jeremiah who I have not seen in years now (as they have been living in California) will be in Paris for the summer, and miraculously staying in an apartment one block away from where I will be staying.

These things happen and I feel that they were meant to, that they were always going to, that I simply had to wait and I would realize. Perhaps it's merely the immanence of summer and the excitement inherent in the chance to recuperate and spend time with friends, but I don't believe it's that simple.

Also, at long last I have completed the stitching on my previously pictured artist book. I now have to make the covers and the box to house the book, complete the arduino electronics, and write my art history paper (all before thursday) and I will be finished with my work for the semester (with the exception of critiquing my students and submitting grades). I can hardly believe that I can actually see the finish line, and it seems a tangible possibility.

new show

I alter... I rectify...
Thursday, May 5th, 7-10 pm
Bad Dog Gallery
808 E Garden St
DeKalb, IL 60115

Advanced Fibers exhibition featuring the work of:

Mary Baker
Jenna Goeringer
Mary Hintzen
Liz Z. Howell
Erin Paulson
Katherine Wolf

Mary Hintzen will be giving a live performance at 9 pm.

I'm working tirelessly towards this deadline! Well, maybe not tirelessly; I'm already pretty exhausted. But I will not concede!

I was screaming and no one could hear....

At long last I have some in process photos of the artist book I have been working on for the past month. It is based on a sound wave of my voice saying the words "I was screaming and no one could hear". The structure is the folding structure that I learned from Melissa Jay Craig, and the paper is handmade kozo sheets made with Eastern sheet formation. It is all hand-embroidered; as you can see I still have a lot more to go.


Ultimately the book will be housed in a handmade drop-spine box, also containing a hidden arduino lilypad which will allow for the viewer's interaction to reveal part of the title.

This is the mock-up; you can see that the book can open further.



This is the book in its current state.

Eva - one more time.

"I have learned anything is possible. I know that. That vision or concept will come through total risk, freedom, discipline. I will do it.

...It's not the new, it is what is yet not known, thought, seen, touched but really what is not, and that is."

~Eva Hesse

Eva

"Sometimes I feel there is something wrong with me. I don't have that kind of precise mind or I just don't feel that way. I feel very very strongly in the way that I feel, but I don't stand on a kind of system. Maybe mine is another kind of system... [My works are] much closer to soul or introspection, to inner feelings. They are not for architecture or sun, water or for the trees, and they have nothing to do with color or nature or making a nice sculpture garden. They are indoor things."

~Eva Hesse

Eva

"If I can forever lose panic I know I am then capable of being a great artist, great person. That terror stands so in my way. It is a haunting paralyzing experience, one of which I stand in dread of occurring, and when it happens it is even worse than what I anticipated."

~Eva Hesse

I can tell you so much more in 25 seconds than I ever could before.

Currently installed at the Glass Gallery in the Holmes Student Center, Northern Illinois University.