Perhaps the most stress I felt this summer was from committing 3-5 works to a feminist Blue Stocking group art show in Iowa City. Here's a sneak peak for the September show at PS1 in IC. No for-real title yet, but I'm thinking "Emerging." is simple and appropriate. The theme of the show is "Women that Inspire." This is my sister who modeled for me in my mother's wedding dress from the 60's. She’s holding geodes from the town our grandmother was born in.  

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I'm sharing this piece of art because I think it's so important to push ourselves out of our comfort zones to create artwork. I love the summers because I have time to make artwork outside of my classroom setting. For this show I had an excuse to buy a bunch of awesome new art supplies (which was especially important because I left my art room at Metro and my current job is without a classroom and I'm no longer surrounded by pastel and ceramic dust...sad face emoji). I also had to dig deep for inspiration and a make artwork within a broad theme. I had so many troubles coming up with an idea. Like so many things in my life (ie. my graduate research) I had a million ideas and it took me WEEKS to narrow it down. In the meantime, I learned how to embroider, started a moth and butterfly collection and researched federally endangered prarie plants of Iowa. 

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Art as research. As I created sketches, created a couple of pieces that I was not fully enthused about and struggled with process verses content, I decided that I should scale back my material and technical ambitions and focus on the story. I decided to tell the story of my sister's triumphant rehabilitation from alcoholism. I intereviewed her, took inspiration from our conversation, asked for suggestions and conceptual collaboration and we came up with a common visual language that referenced the women of our family as well as symbols representing her independence, her freedom from anxiety, her previous self, and her new self. 

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Man, I'm half way to an artist's statement! Thanks for listening!