The Dream Rocket

Early this year, I collaborated with three other artists to create a panel for The Dream Rocket. When it’s completed, the project will be the largest collaborative art project in the world! It consists of wrapping the 37 story tall Saturn V Rocket replica in Huntsville Alabama with a quilt. The theme for this global art project is Dare To Dream!

Gail Smuda, Annette Mitchell, Jill Snyder Wallace and I each created one part of a 24″ x 24″ panel. Our theme was “Women Can” and we agreed to use hand imagery in our panel pieces. We are all fiber artists, so each panel had sewing and embroidery. Annette added in printmaking. We kept it pretty simple because chances were good that you might have to look up 20 or 30 floors with binoculars to spot our piece in the quilt! Once completed, we sent our pieces to Gail and she sewed them together and sent in our quilt piece. I figured that would be the last we saw of our work. But no!

Here it is as the opening image of a video that The Dream Rocket has on their website! It is also the first quilt you see featured in full in the video.

As an added bonus, we just received word that our quilt piece, “Women Can” will be in an exhibition at the Earlyworks Children’s Museum in Huntsville, Alabama. The show is scheduled to be running May 1, 2010 – August 1, 2010. If you happen to be in the area, stop in to see the the show! (No need for binoculars!)

Tiny Little Fiber Sculptures

These two little sculptures will be on display at the Twist of Lyme exhibition at Long River Studios in Lyme, NH from May 1 to May 22. This show is a group show with the Women’s Caucus for Art, New Hampshire Chapter. The opening for the show is this Saturday, May 1st from 4-7 pm.

Time Capsule A

Time Capsule B

A few months ago I convinced myself that if I tried to work small, I could whip out a dozen or so small sculptures to sell on Etsy (cue wild, maniacal laughter!) Ha! I found out that working small was just as difficult as working large and these little puppies pretty much threw me for a loop. I made four sculptures in all  but I only liked these two well enough to have them photographed.

They are about three inches tall and I recently made tiny little pedestals to better display them on a tabletop.  They were inspired by a book I have of gorgeous photographs of seeds. The photos were taken with an electron microscope and the colors, shapes and textures of the seeds are so rich and beautiful. Seeds are like time capsules…all of the information from the generations before them is locked up in a tiny vessel, ready to regenerate when conditions are ripe. I just read about a 5000 year old lupine seed found in a glacier. They planted it and it grew! Nature is so amazing…don’t you think?

Social Networking…a blessing and a curse!

I'm so confused!

So many options…Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Flickr, Websites, yadda, yadda, yadda. Where to begin and how far to take it?

Here is what I want…

I want a genius application where I can just type in all of the information ONE TIME and decide where it goes. Click:Facebook, Click: Blog, Click:Website, Click:E-card blast and I am DONE! No need to log in and post in each application. I know you can feed Twitter into Facebook and your blog. You can feed your blog into Facebook. You can E-mail posts to your blog which then goes to Facebook. Flickr? Who the hell knows.

I just spent the last hour and a half trying to link my blog to my Facebook page . Did it work? Who knows?! I think I may have actually linked it twice. Once in Notes and once with Networked Blogs. If you are getting two posts at once, then let me know and I’ll try to take one of them off. Sigh…

So, I’m calling all you geniuses out there to GET TO WORK! You will make a kabillion dollars if you design an elegant and easy to use application for all of us social networking nuts. PLEASE!

In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions for managing this stuff. Let me know. I’ll bake you a pie and share the good news with the world.

The Gandhi Project…A new collaboration with an old friend.

I have started a new collaboration with my friend, Mario Alberico. Mario is an old friend from college (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign…Go Illini!). I was rooming with his wife, Claudia, when they met and fell in love. Mario was  majoring in Art History and I was in Graphic Design. Claudia was studying Interior Design. A year later, I met my husband, Scott, who was getting his Masters in Industrial Engineering.  We all got married right out of school and have been great friends ever since! Our kids were born about the same time and we hung out together quite a bit when we lived back in Chicago. We make a point to see them every time we travel to Chicago. A few years ago, Mario built a gorgeous studio on the third floor of their home and we always take some time to hang out and talk about “ART” during our visit.

Mario is primarily a  painter but he does incorporate collage and mixed media into his work. We have talked about collaborating in the past, but finally bit the bullet and the last time I was in Chicago, we organized a studio day to get started.

Mario working on the box assemblage for the Gandhi Project

Mario had been hard at work getting a box assemblage started. Outside his comfort zone for sure! I loved it and appreciated the fact that he was sensitive to my preference for assemblage, sculpture and collage. He had been collecting some objects over the years but not really doing too much with them. Now he has an outlet!

The beginning

We spent a lot of time talking and ultimately decided to use Gandhi as our starting point, our inspiration. Our goal for the project is to create a modular installation.We will create some pieces together. We will do some work independently and we will send some work back and forth in the mail.

To get started, we rummaged through his studio and put objects into the box, took objects out, painted, painted again. We will work on the central assemblage together when we can arrange visits. In the meantime, we have are working on three large electrical junction boxes to incorporate into the installation. We will each work on a box independently in our studios and send the third box back and forth in the mail along with a journal to communicate with each other.

Neither one of us has any preconceived idea of how this will turn out. Right now…it’s process more than product.

I am reading and learning about Gandhi and how his principles fit into my life. It’s immediately apparent that it’s not really about Gandhi…it’s about us and how we want to live our lives…

But that is for another post! Stay tuned!

Art Collaboration

Collaborative Artist Book created with Gail Smuda for the installation... Then, Now and Always: Feminist Reflections on the Great Gatsby.

On January 30th, Gail Smuda and I gave an Art Collaboration Workshop at WREN. We had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed our day. We structured the workshop by having the attendees work in teams of two. Each team had to create at least three mixed media pieces together. One piece was put into a book that we assembled on site and donated to WREN as a community art project to be shown in the gallery. The remaining two pieces were taken home by the attendees. Check out pictures of the book on Flickr by clicking on MY PHOTOS.

We talked about the great rewards and potential pitfalls that come with collaborating with others. Gail and I have had a great experience collaborating on our installation for the WREN exhibition. We share a similar aesthetic and work ethic. We respect each others opinion. Each step of the way, we talked through our ideas and mutually decided on the next step or direction. As a result, we created a piece that was truly a collaboration…neither one of us can claim that it was our idea or work…we did it together.

Working on creative projects with other artists can be a wonderful experience. Here are a few things to think about before starting a collaboration…

• The most important consideration…Do you share a similar work ethic?
• Do you share a similar aesthetic?
• Do you or your potential collaborator have a big ego? Collaboration is a sharing of ideas not making someone else realize your idea for you.
• Do you share a similar overall vision? You may not have the details in mind, but the scope is there. For instance…you both may know you want to create a large outdoor installation about Peace.

Working collaboratively with another artist or team of artists gets you out of your solo studio experience. You are often able to help create something that you would never have been able to do alone. Sharing that amazing experience and being inspired by others who are equally invested in the project can be extremely rewarding. That is why I love collaborating!

Free Form Crochet

Mutation: Specimen D from the Nature Regeneration Series

I create some of my fiber art sculptures using a technique called Free Form Crochet, also known as Scrumbling or Patternless Crochet.  Basically, I use single or double crochet stitches, increasing or decreasing as I go along to create interesting forms or shapes. Sometimes I work in the round creating a sort of bowl or tube shape, other times I work with flat pieces and then combine them to create different components of the sculpture.

Mutation: Specimen D was created using different free form crochet components sewn together. I felted a few of the components to create smoother surfaces. The glass beads are all sewn on by hand. One at a time. I like a little bit of sparkle on my sculptures! The beads catch the light and bring the piece to life. This piece measures approximately 8.5″ wide x 11″ high x 3″ deep. I can’t even begin to count the hours it took to complete the piece. I imagine it’s at least 100 hours.

I work in bits and pieces creating the different components for the piece. I work while I watch tv in the evenings or listen to podcasts. Sometimes I’ll bring a portion of a piece to work on at a meeting or while waiting for an appointment. I like the portable nature of fiber art. I can work just about anywhere and I am not tied to the studio. Some people knit in public, I create my art!

The opening of “Upcoming” at The Gallery at WREN

The Gallery at WREN

It was a cold, snowy night but that didn’t discourage local supporters of WREN to come to the opening reception of Upcoming: A Postmodern Look at Nature, Women’s Issues and Collaboration, my two women show with friend and artist, Gail Smuda.

Gail Smuda and I with our collaborative installation in the front gallery space.

Gail and I had worked to put in the installation and dress the front windows. WREN did a great job hanging the rest of the show. They were a pleasure to work with over the past few months.

We are looking forward to traveling up to WREN again on January 30th for a Gallery Talk at 11 am about our work and a Brown-Bag Lunch conversation about art collaboration at noon. At 1:00 on the same day, we will be giving a workshop on Art Collaboration. Participants will work with a partner to create collaborative pieces for an artist book that will be displayed in the gallery. For more information and to register for the workshop, go to www.wrencommunity.org.

I want to thank WREN and especially Kristine Lingle for all of their hard work making this show a reality! The exhibition will be up through February 1st, 2010.

Upcoming: A Postmodern Look at Nature, Women’s Issues and Collaboration

"Then, Now and Always: Feminist Reflections on The Great Gatsby, Collaborative Installation by Laura Morrison and Gail Smuda (Photo Credit: Charley Freiberg)

UPCOMING: A Postmodern Look at Nature, Women’s Issues and Collaboration is my current show with artist, Gail Smuda. The Exhibition will be up until February 1st, 2010 at  The Gallery at WREN in Bethlehem, NH. The show features a collaborative installation along with our mixed media artwork. Gail’s work focus’ on artist books and embroidered textiles, my work consists of mostly fiber sculptures along with some mixed media collage.

Gail and I created a collaborative installation based on The Great Gatsby for the exhibition. At first we thought we would do a piece based on marriage and were on the hunt for an antique bridal gown. We went down to the Vintage Fashion and Textiles Show in Sturbridge on a quest and quickly realized that antique bridal gowns were both rare and costly. However, during our quest we came across a beautiful, delicate summer lawn dress. We fell in love and bought it. It reminded me of summer parties on the lawn and Daisy from The Great Gatsby. Gail agreed. That’s when the work on the installation really began…

A delicate and lovely dress.

Here is what we wrote for our artist statement…

Collaborating can be an amazing experience and when it goes well a transcendent one.

This was a true collaboration as each of us would be hard pressed to say who came up with what specific idea relating to the whole.

We found the dress first and totally agreed that it was “perfect”. We weren’t sure for what at the moment but perfect still. The discussion led to, “The Great Gatsby” and from there each part flowed in a seamless way to the piece as it is. The contributions were equal not only in objects but in concepts. Our focus was the three women and how each of them reflects their time but each also has a timeless quality. The wife, mother, “other woman” and single woman are still with us and the idea of classes of women still holds true to some extent. The educated, the poor and the wealthy in this story come up against each other with dramatic results. As artists our focus also went to the constant use of descriptive colors for objects – what the women wore and the obsession with white. White as in nature, white as in race and class and white as a theme relating to nature and summer in particular. While Fitzgerald had the men as the focus we felt that the women were so strong we could feel what the next step in their lives might be.

The result is this collaborative installation that perfectly reflects our shared vision.

New Year’s Resolution…Just Do It!

January in New Hampshire...Beautiful!

It’s been quite some time since I posted last. I’m constantly thinking about blogging but not doing it. So, instead of trying to create the “perfect” post for the blog, I have resolved to do as the Nike ads say and “Just Do It!”. I trust I will find my way as time goes by.

I started the New Year with my two women show opening at The Gallery at WREN on January 8th (more on that exhibition in a later post). The next day my family and I went snowshoeing up at Bretton Woods and really lucked out. They were offering free trail passes and snowshoe rentals. SCORE!

It was a cold, but lovely day and we really enjoyed the beauty of the mountains. I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful state!

Happy New Year!

Artist Date to Contoocook Needlework Gallery

So many art supplies...so little time!

A friend and I took a quick “Artist Date“ to the Contoocook Needlework Gallery to stock up on supplies since they were having a sale. This amazing shop is stocked unusual needlework fibers such as silk, linen, cotton, soy, wool and metallics. I am particularly drawn to their beautiful hand-dyed variegated fibers. You can’t get this stuff at Michael’s or Joanne’s…that’s for sure!

As usual, whenever I walk into a store like this, the artist in me is completely overwhelmed with the colors and I stupidly tend to buy what I already have. NOT THIS TIME! I got myself organized and brought my stash of floss and made a point of filling in with some new colors. I bought a few more hanks of hand-dyed variegated floss and several spools of very cool metallic threads.

Poking around in local shops for unusual supplies is a great way to get your creative juices running. Now it’s time to head down to the studio and clear some space for sketching out some ideas!