Automation is Deadly

Ekphrasis is a detailed description of a work of visual art in writing. But why can’t art be translated into knitting too? This work of Ekphrastic knitting is based on a Truism by Jenny Holzer. Holzer’s Truisms are an ongoing series of maxims that are meant to spark conversation. The words of Jenny Holzer have been posted on storefronts, scrolled on giant screens in Times Square, shown in LED lights spiraling up the Guggenheim atrium, and projected on buildings. And now, plastered on a toque for you to wear.

You can find the pattern here.

I have some great news to share finally. I was just chosen as the 2023 Artist-in-Residence for Glacier National Park! Although I have never been there it has been top of my list to go. And now I get to spend a blissful month in a cabin on Lake McDonald in June 2023 just to make art. It was an intense application process and I am very grateful to Glacier for choosing me and taking a chance on a knitting textile artist.

Hopefully more updates here as I prepare in the next year and a half as well as during my residency.

New Beehive Exhibition

The New Beehive Exhibition is now on view. You can see my finished artwork in the exhibit but also as the featured piece for all the marketing. I haven’t seen the exhibit yet but will be going this Friday. I can’t wait to see all the creativity from artists in Utah. 

New Beehive

I am so honored to have been accepted as one of the artists to do the New Beehive artwork for the Utah Division of Arts and Museums. It’s a collaborative artwork made up of 30 artists’ work. The goal of the New Beehive project is to explore, expand, and challenge the uses of beehive iconography in Utah. Artists from diverse creative and cultural perspectives were invited to propose an original artwork inspired by Utah’s state symbol, the beehive, or associated imagery such as honeycomb, bees, and beekeeping.

The project gives each artist a wooden hexagonal frame in one of two sizes. The artwork has to fit within the frame. For the project, I will be creating a knitted textile artwork mimicking honeycomb and bees using paper yarn. I am using yellow for the honeycomb and black, yellow, and white for the bees. 

Lately I have been creating a series of artwork that includes knitting endangered or threatened species in Utah out of paper yarn to emphasize the fragile nature of these species and their ecosystems. One of these pieces in the series, called Species of Concern: San Rafael Cactus, is in the State of Utah art collection. 

I hope to be posting progress pictures as I knit over the next couple months. 

In Sight, Out of Mind Exhibition

I was invited by the Springville Museum to participate along with 14 other artists in a new exhibition called In Sight, Out of Mind. The exhibit explores nature as a creative inspiration and allows artists to see what is hidden in the natural world.

Here is their description of the exhibition:

Though we are constantly surrounded by the environment, it is easy to overlook. Through their artwork the Utah artists in this exhibition force us to consider our environmental oversights.  Their work brings to focus forgotten landscapes, surprising juxtapositions, and the impact of human activity, probing the viewer to examine their relationship to the world around them.

Featured Artists: Carel Brest van Kempen, Royden Card, Virginia Catherall, Cody Chamberlain, Reid Elem, Havoc Hendricks, Levi Jackson, Stephanie Leitch, Travis Lovell, Vincent Mattina, David Meikle, Cat Palmer, Gilmore Scott, and Josh Winegar

I have several pieces in the exhibition. It is a very beautiful and inspiring collection of art. I encourage anyone to go see it (socially distant and in a mask of course). It will be open until August 7, 2021. http://www.smofa.org/insight-outofmind.php

2020 Utah Design Crafts Artists Competition

I have three pieces in an exhibition at the Brigham City Museum for the 2020 Utah Design Crafts Artists Competition. These three pieces are from my artist-in-residency last year at Capitol Reef National Park and reflect the varied landscape in the waterpocket fold. Sandstone Cliff shawl won an honorable mention too!

Fruita: The historic town of Fruita, within Capitol Reef National Park, is no longer inhabited by pioneers. But visitors can still pick ripe fruit from the lush orchards under the looming orange cliffs of the Waterpocket Fold.  

Sandstone Cliff: Nearly 10,000 feet of sedimentary strata were deposited in Capitol Reef National Park. This layer upon layer of sedimentary rock records nearly 200 million years of geologic history. Rock layers in Capitol Reef reveal ancient environments as varied as rivers, swamps, deserts, and shallow oceans. Fossils found in these rocks give clues that these sandstone layers were deposited when the region was at or near sea level, far below the current elevation.  

Strike Valley: Strike Valley can be seen from a spectacular overlook in Capitol Reef National Park. It is named for the geological feature where a valley runs parallel to the strike of underlying rocks. From the overlook, you can easily see the 100-mile meandering valley of roads, streams, and strikes. With the Waterpocket Fold to the west and the rugged cliffs of the badlands  to the east the valley makes for a dramatic furrow in the earth.

Mulberry Pouch

Just for fun I created this cute little pouch inspired by all the mulberry trees that were fruiting a few months ago. We have a lot of mulberry trees in urban Salt Lake City (see below) and there are many public trees that you can harvest. You can tell where they are because of the purple stained sidewalk underneath them.

 

I gathered some mulberries and died some bamboo silk which turned into a beautiful purpley-silver. I created this pattern to mimic the drupes of mulberries on a tree. I also knit one up in a mulberry colored yarn because you can’t have too many pouches! The pattern is in my Ravelry shop.

 

Notes from the pattern:

In an effort to be self-sufficient, 19th century Mormon Pioneers in Utah began raising their own silkworms to create a silk industry in the West. Silkworms must feed on mulberry leaves so LDS Church leader Brigham Young ordered 100,000 mulberry trees from France to be planted around Utah. Although Utah’s sericulture was a failed enterprise, the mulberry trees still thrive throughout the state allowing urban harvesters a bounty of berries every spring.