Pulp Function

That is the name of my favorite exhibit currently at the Michener Museum. It's a great place to go on a rainy day, which yesterday was. Here is a description of the show: "For decades, innovative artists manipulated paper products as a means of creative expression. This process is rooted in older traditions that are often culturally unique such as origami in Japan or Scherenschnitte in Germany. Contemporary artists, especially since the 1970s, have pushed the possibilities of this malleable material even further. Pulp Function surveys a wide variety of artistic expressions using handmade paper pulp, recycled paper, paper cuts, cardboard, papier-mâché, and folded paper. Tactile and familiar paper innovatively used include industrial strapping, paperback books, egg crates, trading cards, US dollar bills, diapers, NYC transit maps, photographs, Tyvek—and much more! The 3-D objects in this exhibition range from jewelry and clothing, furniture and lighting, to vessels and purely whimsical sculptural pieces and everything imaginable in between! Organized by the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, and curated by Lloyd Herman, founding director of the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery, this exhibit includes more than 70 works and is accompanied by a full color publication. "

Unfortunately, the "publication" did not have a picture of my favorite piece, so I had to take a picture of it myself. Genius that I am, I neglected to write down the title and the artist's name. So here it is, untitled and annonymous... You can see that it is made from a cardboard dressform, with a paper dress pattern draped over it. The paper is impregnated with bees wax. I love bees wax, I love how it smells. Please notice how this form is pierced with pin holes and also studded with the heads of pins. You can see the pins in this side view. Isn't that CRAZY? I love that kind of obsessive work. There were a lot of different things in this exibit, but some you can't photograph because they are behind glass. Here are some more dresses that were part of the show.

Strings: Continued

I've finished phase 1 of the string experiment. I have now basted all of the strings to the base fabric. I worked on this for hours Saturday. I sat on the couch in front of the TV and watched/listened to an art documentary called Art City. I watched part one of this documentary months ago, and I have this weird feeling of deja vu, because this weekend, just like the last time I watched Art City, I went to the Michener Museum. I'll post about that soon.

So anyway, I love working in front of a documentary. Hearing the artists speak of their work sort of soothes me, and urges me on. Part of it is  because it is interesting to hear what they have to say, but part of it is because half the time they are so full of shit it is funny. 
My thought is, if these people are legitimate artists, then I certainly am. It's 

liberating for me to think that at this point in my life, there is little or no chance to make it as an artist in a commercially successful sense, so I can and should do what ever I want.

Back to the experiment, I have started securing the edges of all the strings with different stitches on my sewing machine. It's kind of a cheesy crazy-quilt-style thing. Every now and then I change the spool of thread and get a different color, keeping to the red-pink scheme. I really enjoy working in such a way that I need to "problem solve" as I go along. I place colors and shapes randomly, and the I need to figure out how to fill the remaining spaces. I think that's fun.