Knotty.

Working on the foliage. The trunk was all Candlewick knots, which are much too small for the foliage. Even French knots are on the small side with the Perle 3, so I’ve combined the two. I get to keep the in front, half infinity movement of the Candlewick, with two wraps added. This gives me a bulkier knot, with the added plus of keeping movements which are now automatic. I usually work with thread lengths of 65 to 85 inches, because it takes very little time to go through that length of thread. Click for full size.

© C. Ford, all rights reserved.

SaveArtSpace: The Future Is Female.

Elise Peterson, “Grace Meets Matisse.” All images courtesy the artists.

From hawking sports cars to hamburgers, advertising has always relied on the objectification of women to market products. But starting June 26 SaveArtSpace, an arts organization that transforms advertising spaces into canvases for public art, is reclaiming New York City billboards for the female gaze.

SaveArtSpace: The Future is Female will showcase work by female artists on advertising spaces across the city. The exhibition includes a variety of media and styles, ranging from cartoon sketches to puppet-like sculptures. In one piece, titled Grace Meets Matisse, artist Elise Peterson has photoshopped Grace Jones’s iconic Island Life album cover onto Matisse’s La Danse, distorting the painting’s dimensionality in certain ways but contributing to its overall sense of movement.

Lissa Rivera, “Boudoir” from the series Beautiful Boy.

You can see and read much more at The Creators Project and at SaveArtSpace: The Future Is Female.

More Color, More Pride.

There’s a new Pride flag in the wind. If the people behind the MoreColorMorePride site had bothered to make their video shareable, I wouldn’t have had to go to youtube searching for it, and would have missed all the people who are extremely upset by this inclusive move. The upset isn’t surprising, but the bigotry and pained ‘reasoning’ employed, well, I’ll just say I expected better of queer folk. I’m not sure why I expect better, being bi and having dealt with all the nasty views in that regard over the years. I guess I remain more hopeful when it comes to queer folk.

I think it’s a fine idea, an in your face reminder that inclusiveness matters, and a rather gentle reminder to always check your privilege.  You can see and read more here, and download the art to make your own stuff.

NSFW: Female Gaze at The Museum of Sex.

Amanda Charchian, Celine, 2016.

The exhibit starts tomorrow!

Artists include: Aneta Bartos, Anna Biller, Amanda Charchian, Nona Faustine, Monica Kim Garza, Rebecca Goyette, Joanna Grochowska, Koak, Natalie Krick, Natalie Krim, Joanne Leah, Kristen Liu-Wong, Pixy Liao, Maidenfed, Shona McAndrew, Sophia Narrett, Polly Nor, New Level of Pornography, Taira Rice, Erin M. Riley, Amy Ritter, Lissa Rivera, Scientwehst, Tschabalala Self, Marie Tomanova, Brandi Twilley, Paula Winkler, Jessica Yatrofsky.

You can read more at The Creators Project, or just head over to MoSEX for tickets.

The End Brings The Beginning: The Great Upside Down.

The trunk and branches of the tree are finished. Took long enough. Now, to get the immense span of foliage done. To do this in the frame, I have to do it upside down. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem for anyone else, but while I’m not dyslexic, I am prone to transposing, letters, numbers, spaces, and directions. I just know I’ll be humming along, all pleased, then it will hit me, “fuck, it’s backwards!”, and I’ll have to like it, because it’s not like I’ll be willing to rip it out and redo it. Current Hours: 1,169. Skeins Used: 183. (That’s 1,464 meters of thread, or 1,592 yards.) Click for full size.

© C. Ford, all rights reserved.

The Ghost of the Fortress.

The Ghost of the Fortress has become a permanent fixture at the Mark Rothko Art Center and Gallery. Per rq: a sort of monument to warhorses (who quickly became obsolete with the advent of more modern technologies), and thus is wrapped in gauze as a symbol of the uneasy life and death these horses (and, by extension, soldiers who served with them) experienced. As the sculpture concept declares (and I translate loosely from the article): “Usually what remains after war is not medals or grand victories, but crippled and ruined lives.” And for this reason they shied away from a heroic depiction of the warhorse (no bared teeth, flailing hooves, free manes flying in the wind). The authors of the piece drew inspiration from photographs of the wounded from WWI, and as it’s probably the last war that saw active-duty warhorses on the premises, they produced this restless ghost.

Via Delfi Kultura.