Yadda Youda Ya ©

The Fiber Show at the Milwaukee Artists Resource Network

2011-10-14T22:21:00.019-05:00

In the window at MARN is a family of ghosts on a clothesline, at first glance. With closer inspection of Judy Dubrosky's cut muslin garments you will see hand stitching. There is an embroidered splotch on a shirtsleeve, a spidery growth on the abdomen of a dress and long jagged marks sewn across a baby's outfit. Something has happened here and the title of each piece contains a date. But what? The viewer may be left trying to surmise and imagine the stories behind the stitches, while the artist has found a way to come to peace with a family's worth of wounds and sorrows. Even nature's current theme of autumnal decline works nicely with Dubrosky's hanging garments and reminds me of an alter for dia de los muertos.

Shannon Molter has a different kind of nature decline in mind, that of indigenous and environment. Inside an exquisite black felt frame is a topographical 3D slice of what looks to be a coast made out of layers of starched fabrics. Black beads in a few clusters shine in invasion. It is beautiful and icky all at the same time. There is also a dress Molter made out of the same material. By the dress on a pedestal is a horse harness. The harness is complete with hand sewn leather lips and sharp nasty brown teeth I am told which are really the toenails of coyotes.

Molter's piece that stays with me the most is a map of the United States she has woven out of human hair. Different shades of brown, blond and grey divide America into territories. Ironically the hair that makes up the majority of what we know of as Texas looks a bit like a buffalo.

My crocheted hats are there in the show too.

Leslee Nelson like Dubrosky is remembering past family events though fabric. Nelson's "memory cloths," pictures and sayings that come from the artist's experiences are embroidered onto handkerchiefs that were passed down to her. The stitched quotes of wisdom and simple figures have a definite look of outsider art. Another artist who comes to my mind while looking at Nelson's memory cloths is Maira Kalman, illustrator for the New Yorker and fellow embroiderer because they share sentiment and style. Nelson has had the longest art career in the gallery and it shows. The only other thing I have to say for them is that you must see them because they are wonderful.

Susan Buss's five pieces could win the contest for "most likely to be hung in a fiber exhibition."They are weavings. They are not even close to boring so don't even think that for a second! The colors and optical patterns jump out at you flashing their signals. The craftsmanship is flawless and it bends my brain in half to even consider what Buss must have gone through to get them so perfect. I think they would look especially good in my yurt (I don't have one yet, but I will one day, right?) because you can stare into them for a long time.

Jamie Lea Betsch has also made good yurt art.

Her funky abstract pieces are mostly flat and could be easily rolled up for ease of travel. At the same time I think that since fiber is still the beginning of a new direction for the artist (as she told me) she could move further and further away from the comfort of the wall, because wherever she does that there is so much added character. The gestures that the art has as it grows out from the wall could be described as "curious" or even "friendly." Her use of pastel candy colors is completely exciting and delicious. I am relieved that she is working on her MFA at UW-Milwaukee; this means she is serious about making more of her absurd dada-pop.

This show is up through November 4th 2011 at the Milwaukee Artists Resource Network, 5407 W. Vliet Street. Gallery hours are M-W noon-7pm, Weekends 10-4pm. Come seeeeeeeee it! It was curated by Maggie Sasso.

Hat for Watering the Garden.

2011-10-06T13:28:00.002-05:00

Some hat I made.

2011-10-04T21:59:00.002-05:00

See June, 2011, Milwauk'

2011-08-18T10:40:00.008-05:00

A visit to see Harmony, Troost

2011-07-17T13:18:00.002-05:00

Margaret drinks tea, laughs, prepares a picnic

2011-07-17T13:06:00.004-05:00

Let my love like the sunlight surround you (it's too yellow to sleep)

2011-07-17T12:06:00.003-05:00

Frida, Jessica, Lottie bakes a pie

2011-07-17T11:58:00.003-05:00

The Allan Winkler Visit

2011-07-17T11:50:00.002-05:00

Curiosity killed the cat

2011-07-17T11:46:00.002-05:00

A vacation while everyone else was at work

2011-07-17T11:37:00.004-05:00

the invisible house with cacti in front

jessica's house

Eaten Recently

2011-07-17T11:24:00.003-05:00

carrot and pistachio hair, teff face
parsley cilantro quinoa, mushroom, asparagus not sure

cilantro alfalfa quinoa bok choy cumin avocado
purslane, millet, collards, lettuce, salmon
mung fettuchini arugala, kale, hemp seeds and oil
mung fettuchini, catfish, celtic sea salt, and mystery greens
collards, cherries, millet, almond butter, lettuce, olive oil and cinnamon

2011-06-27T11:20:00.002-05:00

strawberries on goat whey sprinkled sweet potato noodles with frozen raspberries and dash of nutmeg.salmon mung shoots carrot mushroom splattered celtic sea salt
clams sauteed broccoli and something else I forget.

Eaten Recently

2011-06-25T18:06:00.004-05:00

cilantro garnished asparagus carrot mushroom catfish avec cumino
buffalo turnip soup
cucumber with mustard

This is what a quarter-life crisis looks like.

2011-05-06T22:43:00.002-05:00

click to make big.

RECENT OCCURRENCE! All in one day

2010-09-24T21:41:00.005-05:00

2. I biked across to the other side of the city to go to the farmers market. With my magic hands that can clasp a total capacity of 1 pound I selected one precise pound of onions, yams and green peppers each. This dumbfounded the farmer when he weighed my items on the scale one by one. Then I realized I forgot my wallet. I owe him $8.50 to be payed (paid) next week.1lb of bell peppers (the whole reason why I bike 5 miles, they are organic and conventional bell peppers are particularly toxic.)

1 lb of YAMS (they look not like potatoes)

1 lb of onions magically measured by my hand.

3. I biked home and then threw away my shoes. They were falling apart, but they spent 35 years in the back of my Mom's closet. I always hated them as a kid, but I knew that one day I would like them and wear them. That day came, and today came the day they fell apart and I had to throw them away.

Erin Hinz

2010-04-05T21:43:00.011-05:00

Let me tell you about about Erin Hinz. She walked around with me in Paris eating her foie gras and moaning. She pointed out every exquisite butt of putti (angel child statues) that we passed. We went to a small theater that no tourist ever ever visits and saw a movie that we only had our vast imaginations to describe what we believed took place. (It had something to do with perfume, unpaid favors and whoever the next door neighbor really had a crush on.)

Erin like myself lives a life divided between what is happening as we breathe and what we fantasize is happening as we breathe. This makes her the ideal traveling companion to far away places. I encourage you now to see what she is coming up with these days in a land of her own...

www.erinhinz.com/home.html

The Pagoda in Action

2009-12-12T12:14:00.009-06:00

On the day of your birthday, a luminescence expels itself from your body. Here we see that light exuding from Jessie on her twenty-second completed revolution around the sun.

More crochet? http://notanjacrochet.blogspot.com/?spref=fb

A Word on Determination

2009-11-10T10:48:00.004-06:00

This man lost his keys to the lawn mower. He had another pair yet, the pair he lost had a nice yellow plastic handle. He searched inside the lawn mower, he searched in the grass. The neighbor boy came, he is good at eye spy games, but he did not see it. The man waited till evening and got out a flashlight, he did not find it. Then he invented this stick with magnet on the bottom. For two days he walked around the yard with this stick. Finally six days after he lost the key, he found it.

Spectral Spotting!

2009-11-10T10:40:00.004-06:00

Another reported spotting was made from http://anjanotanja.com.

Authorities are still investigating this matter and are not at liberty to release any current theories.

This is the freeway, this is the freeway, this is the glorious freeway this is the freeway sooooooooong!

2009-01-06T23:54:00.002-06:00

At one point I had come up with a fifteen minute long song in celebration of all my favorite landmarks on the freeway: the cyprus trees, the cherry picker, the 3-d billboard, where I once saw the stray cat, my best friend's exit.

Recent Occyrance Occurance

2009-01-03T17:14:00.001-06:00

This WAS NOT planned.

Recent Occurance!

2009-01-03T17:06:00.001-06:00

Someone's entire life story may be revealed at the farmer's market.

Recent Occurance

2009-01-02T11:44:00.001-06:00

The sky cow! God is a cow!

I'm goingta miss my old roommate.

2008-05-22T01:05:00.002-05:00

Remember: cleanliness is next to godliness.

Narugugh!

2008-03-21T21:55:00.004-05:00

No more words! Just grunts and photos.

Barabooboo

2008-01-05T10:00:00.000-06:00

We drove for hours. Our destination the circus world museum was a block away.

And then! An old man couldn't see us and a quick BAM. It was all over just like that.

(No one died.)

Error

2008-01-03T23:45:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately winter is out of order and therefore had to be canceled today.

Enough

2008-01-01T15:46:00.002-06:00

Plan for the rest of the day:

Cry and feel frustrated.

Lash out at dinnertime.

Yowl outside.

This is the story of 2007

2008-01-01T01:28:00.000-06:00

Each of the following posts is what happened. For more JUICE just squeeze me a q.

I am shocked when I think back to all the events that took place in one smallish year.

But one thing I do feel. It feels like it has been 2008 for a long time. Even though it has only been going for an hour and 31 minutes. Now 32 minutes.

January

2008-01-01T01:22:00.002-06:00

February

2008-01-01T01:13:00.000-06:00

Not much happened other then learning the complex social dynamics and technical skills of a printmaking major.

March

2007-12-31T20:29:00.001-06:00

"You could be banned from the state of Kansas and you may have to pay us 1000 dollars each."

APRIL

2007-12-31T20:22:00.001-06:00

Here I am trying to look remorseful on April 25th. Convincing?

Mumbling Misty May

2007-12-31T20:15:00.001-06:00

June

2007-12-31T20:10:00.000-06:00

Summer school.

Apartment adventures: Monina squatted on my couch for a month.

The longest day I spent outside and watched the sky until no more light was left.

Jghhgjhgjhjhjuly

2007-12-31T19:58:00.001-06:00

On the 31st I took a handsome picture of a rag.

August

2007-12-31T19:46:00.000-06:00

Drove back to school with my parents. Stopped in Hannibal Missouri to see where Mark Twain grew up.

School Resumed.

September

2007-12-31T19:42:00.001-06:00

New friends Edouardo and Sovannarah.

Learned how to sew with a machine FINALLY.

Oooo October

2007-12-31T19:38:00.002-06:00

That kitchen supplies only thrift store discovery trip with Margaret.

NOvember ugh.

2007-12-31T19:34:00.002-06:00

Epic orange week: wore monochrome, ate orange lived in entire orange gallery working on collaborative orange projects.

December

2007-12-31T19:27:00.002-06:00

2007

2007-12-31T19:23:00.001-06:00

I am shocked when I think of what has occurred over the duration of the past year.

Re: Photos taken during Moysha's visit

2007-12-28T16:02:00.001-06:00

On 28/12/2007, GARFIELD!!! wrote:

Well. When I was young, young, young human being (3 or 4 years of age.) I was not fond of the name "Anja." In fact I didn't like being a human being at all. I would have preferred to have been a cat. So I adopted the name of a popular cat so that everyone could clearly see that I was one. People kept calling me Anja despite my efforts. It was then that I would yell: I'M NOT ANJA I'M GARFIELD! Then people started calling me Notanja.

Around age 4 or 5 I felt sorry for the name Anja and decided just to go along with things. I should change my email signature though, because too many people ask me about it.

--
SINCERELY, NOT ANJA I'M GARFIELD!

HiberNation

2007-12-28T15:47:00.001-06:00

Well!

Uh. I'm. I'ma

I'ma long-snouted elephant shrew- yahoo! I run with my pack of crumpled clothes and reading material. A barricade from the bears who repeat everything that is stated on NPR in excited yells.

And hibernation is sweeping the nation

because the foundation

is leveling higher and progressively whiter:

the loose eyelashes itched offa God's face

are replacing exits with mounds of stay-in-your-place.

Uh-yeeeah

--
SINCERELY, NOT ANJA I'M GARFIELD!

The Yowlings are Back

2007-12-26T02:47:00.000-06:00

I did it again. Here is my second attempt at being a MUSICIAN. If you like the whistled songs of happy janitors or particularly moving furnace ditties then NOTANJA may be just the kind of music for you. Especially if you haven't a solid music education. I like my stuff a lot and I want to share it but I do realize that I well um. Just go and have yourself a good hear for yourself. ( Just click on the The Yowlings are Back headline.)

UNRELATED SIDE NOTE:
Also, If you are named Treehorn McAllistor I have a message for you.
END OF SIDE NOTE, IGNORE! IGNORE!

Merry Christmas Grandma.

2007-12-19T00:29:00.001-06:00

This is where I can fall asleep for 12 hours at a time.

2007-12-17T12:19:00.000-06:00

Attempt 46: Sunlight Breaks in Crack of Trash Can

2007-12-08T22:56:00.000-06:00

It has been about four days of sitting on banana peels that should have been composted. Now I am ready. I only vaguely remember how to lift the trash lid back up. I am making the trip. Sharp and cold winter air slices into my nostrils. I close the lid. My vison is completely green from the light. This is remarkable because I forgot about light and seeing altogether.

Sound is the only thing that seems to penetrate the metal of my capsule. Someone driving past is blaring that Elvis song "Blue Christmas." I think it is dusk since the cries of the crows are present. The furnace of the building behind me growls defending its inhabitants. Some of the plastic bags in the other trash cans are flapping since it is windy. My favorite sound of all is the bag of chips that someone is eating out of around the corner.

Come on over here into the alley.

©