Friday Favorites is a weekly series of posts about my favorite things, inspirations, people, and other favorites. Enjoy!
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"Lewisite", 2011
colored pencil, acrylic, graphite, embroidery on duralar.
h1n1 virus, 2011
colored pencil, acrylic, graphite, crochet doilies, glasshead pins on duralar.
we are family: blue and brown beds, 2010
colored pencil, acrylic and thread on embroidery on duralar
Lisa Solomon is a true inspiration to me for so many reasons. I mean, she juggles being a professor and an online teacher, an artist, with being a mom and wife, and creative force behind MODify. Lisa does indeed wear many hats. (And I have a feeling they are all beautifully crocheted from colorful pearle cotton). Lisa's artwork grabbed me the minute I saw it, many years ago. Her delicate crochet and thread work of viruses and toxins, her beautiful visual interpretation of the radiation migration of the Fukushima Diachi plant caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster, and her felt tank installation (a hard steel machine built for combat rendered in beautiful colors of felt), her work makes me think about the concept of art in a way I never did before. Its hard to explain, as art can be sometimes. The feelings that art can evoke can't always be described perfectly.
I am lucky enough to own an original piece of Lisa's , from her domestic scenes series, "Two Lime Chairs".
I knew I wanted to include her as soon as I started my Friday Favorites series and she has graciously allowed me to pick her brain so that we may all read more about her world. Mixed in between, I have included images of some of her work (I selfishly tried to pick my favorites, but narrowing it down was hard). Here goes!
Doily No. 83 (Orange) 2010, acrylic, graphite, embroidery on duralar
Lisa,
I am so excited to have you in my Friday Favorites series! We have known
each other for sooooo long online, yet we've never met face to face.
That's never stopped me from calling you a dear friend and creative
inspiration.
Fukushima Diachi, April 11, 2011, 2012, Embroidery and graphite on Duralar
Here are a few questions-
Sycronized Tanks: Radial Formation [Charcoal, Orange, and Yellow], edition of 3, felt tanks, glasshead pins
1. I love that your art combines the components of art and craft, and
elevates to fine art. And how you straddle the line of strong/severe
with soft/delicate (I'm thinking of your beautiful felt tanks as an
example of this, pictured above). How do you describe your work to someone not familiar
with it?
Wow. What a
nice thing to read and for you to say. I'm definitely interested in both
art and craft and how the two work with and against [in some cases] one
another. I've also always been interested in why there is such a
hierarchy [sometimes] between the two pursuits.
It's
interesting that you point out the dichotomy in my work because it's
definitely something that has become an integral part of how I work and
think. It sort of all came together for me one day when a friend was
sitting with me in my studio. I'm half Japanese and half Caucasian [my
dad's side of the family is Jewish]. My friend is also 1/2 and 1/2 –
same combo. She was noticing that she felt that my work had a very
Japanese sensibility to it, but that it was also distinctly NOT
Japanese. As a joke I said that since I was a happa the work was happa –
she exclaimed that was IT. As I thought about that more and more it
became clear to me that in essence I was a "hybrid" and that I was
making a "hybrid" type of art work too. I tend to mix materials in
strange or different ways [crochet on top of glass, embroider fragile
paper], or push ideas against one another. I do things that seem
slightly wrong, or off, or mixed up: I leave long threads as evidence of
my work, I make frightening things really cute and pretty – like the
tanks, or war chemicals molecularly represented by doilies, I take
"craft" and force it into the "art" realm, I make big things small and
small things big…
I'm not sure if that answers
how I describe my work… so let's see…If I'm giving the stuck in an
elevator speech I usually say that I'm a mixed media artist that makes
things rooted in the act of drawing. That my work utilizes a lot of
traditional crafts – like embroidery and crochet – to talk about things
that are both personally and culturally of interest to me. I work on
both an intimate small scale and a grand installational scale depending
on the project. My
“drawings” have seemingly found a place between 2-D and 3-D, shown on
the wall, and yet concurrently existing and yearning to be off of it. In
this tenuous position my work is, in many senses of the phrase,
“between states.”
2. I know that you, like me, are always rolling around the idea of
how we define what we do in our minds. (I loved your post about this very subject
here.)I know it's important to have that 30 second speech, but why is it so hard? What are your thoughts?
Yes
yes yes. The definition of who we are and what we do. I think a lot of
this comes as an external pressure. People want to put you in a box so
they understand you – but I think it's also important for you to define
who you are – OR – who you want to be too. I mean, you can manifest
things if you name them right? If you want to BE an artist/florist/baker
then start saying that you are – and acting like one [and if you don't
know how to do that – do what you feel that person would do] and then in
a way you just become that…. The act of doing/making/naming is powerful.
I
think it's hard because the declaration of whatever it is that you do
takes confidence, right? And I think many times artists/crafters/makers
live in a world of self doubt to some degree [at least I do, and most of
my creative friends do as well]. I think, too, we don't want to appear
cocky or too self-assured. That can come across very icky [we've all met
that person right? And gone eeewwwww?]
I can
really tell, though, that things are shifting for me. Maybe it's as I'm
getting older. Maybe it's just the time spent. Maybe it's because I'm
just that much more invested. Maybe it's cause I can't turn back, but
more and more I'm realizing that even though it's HARD to make that
declaration – that I should. We don't make it any easier on ourselves….
And that in many ways society doesn't make it easy on us either. But in
the end – I have earned whatever label I want to put on myself. I am
passionate about and honored and privileged to do what I do. It is not
an easy way out, or a joke, or something to just pass the time. So I
want to own it, you know? I keep asking what is it that I'm so fearful
of defining? Any label I pin on myself [artist/crafter/designer] is
easily removed or exchanged for another.
3. What are your favorite sources of inspiration? How do you record your ideas?
Inspiration.
Oh it's everywhere I think. It's in the car as your mind wanders, it's
in the radio/tv/magazine story that catches your fancy. It's in the
objects that you surround yourself with, or pass by on the street. It's
in the way the light changes from season to season. It's online
[although it can be overwhelming there too]. My friends. My friends are
endless sources of inspiration [like you]. My kid too. It's so cliché,
but she sees the world with such fresh eyes. Everything is still new and
fun and waiting to be discovered. That is so so so inspiring. I find
just work itself inspiring. The act of doing, making, thinking. Rest is
also inspiring – possibly because it seems in short supply – heh heh.
I
record ideas the old fashioned way in a sketchbook. I'm totally
addicted to instagram. That is both an inspiration and recording device.
I still record ideas and thoughts on my blog [although blogging has
definitely changed A LOT since we all started ages ago, I still like
that it's a place to collect and share]. I write myself dumb notes in my
datebook [yes I still keep a paper datebook]. I still pin things to the
wall, and collect imagery that is meaningful to me. I have folders and
folders, stacks and stacks of research and inspirational things that
live in my studio.
3. Give us a glimpse into what a day (or part of a day) of doing artwork looks like for Lisa Solomon.
Hmmmm.
Let's see. It all starts with coffee. Then I saunter into my backyard
studio to get to work. If I have any emails or things that have to get
done I do them first thing so they aren't hanging over my head. Then the
day will depend on where I am in a project. If it's the beginning of a
project there's a lot of research. So I'm online, or reading books, or
making sketches, or trying dumb ideas out to see if anything is going to
work. Sometimes if I'm in a research phase I'll try and take breaks to
do something fun like draw in my garden – so that I'm actually MAKING
something. Sometimes I get a bug up my butt to make something [could be
anything – a tote bag, screenprint] and then I have to get that out of
my system. If I'm on a deadline – like a certain amount of work has to
get done for a show or the like I might be in head down just get work
done mode. In which case I kind of have a plan and am just trying to
check things off lists. Although even if I'm in this phase I'll try and
take a moment or two to snap a photo, or make a small drawing, or do
something "just for fun" outside of what I'm working on. I have found
that I need to keep a little window open for experimentation – for the
happy accident – and it generally happens when I least expect it.
But
the day? The day itself? Wake up – hang out with kid. Get her to
school. Switch to tea. Do any "work" emails. Check out what friends are
doing online [while eating some kind of snacky breakfast]. Enter studio.
Get to work [usually while listening to NPR]. Lunch around 1pm. Look at
work while lunching – figure out what needs to get done or changed or
started. Check out what friends are doing again. Back to work. Pick up
kid. Repeat. If I'm lucky I get almost 2 full days a week in the studio
when I'm teaching. A lot of times I do handiwork [crochet or simple
embroidery stitches on pieces] at night while watching TV after the kid
has gone to bed.
Wallet Size Me, 1978, 2004 Embroidery on satin (back side showing), vintage embroidery hoop
5.
In your book,
Knot, Thread, Stitch: Exploring Creativity Through Embroidery and Mixed Media, you pulled together so many
creative ideas for using thread to draw, embroider, and create. It
caused me to look at so many new ways to create with your simple
techniques (embroidering a portrait is on my list to do very soon).
What's your favorite type of embroidery?
(Wait, is that like asking you to pick a favorite child??)
Ha
! It is kind of like asking me to pick a favorite child. I actually
tend to keep my stitching fairly simple in my artwork. I use
thread/embroidery like drawing. It's a line. It just has a bit more
depth and texture than other types of line. It can become an accent. An
area that immediately represents the hand even more…
In
terms of "crafting" I'm a huge admirer of hardanger embroidery – mostly
because my grandmother used to do it – but I've never ventured to try
it. At least not yet. I keep meaning to incorporate it into something
I'm working on, but haven't figured out how yet.
6.
I know there are many of us all over the world who are contributing to
the
1000 doily installation you are creating for later this year. Can
you give us details about it, and where and when it will be?
Oh
the 1000 doily project. The first time I have really asked for help
with a big project [from people other than my mom and immediate friends
who usually offer to help me before I ask them]. I have been completely
overwhelmed with the response to this. I am going to do a show later
this year – November 2013 at Fouladi Projects in San Francisco. http://www.fouladiprojects.com
The working title is Sen which is 1000 in Japanese. 1000 is a big deal
in Japan – think 1000 cranes for good luck, or 1000 buddhas [there's a
temple in Kyoto which houses 1000 buddhas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanj%C5%ABsangen-d%C5%8D]…
I wanted to use this idea of 1000 – but within my own lexicon. So I had
this vision of 1000 doilies. And I wanted to tie it to other things
that really interest me namely color and color theory.
I
use a very particular kind of crochet thread in my work – I love it
because it comes in crazy colors. So I figured – what if I used 100
colors of thread and made 10 doilies in each color.voila 1000. I'm going
to pin them to the wall in some sort of arrangement – I haven't quite
figured out how exactly yet, but I'm thinking about it [constantly]. In
rainbow order? Or from light to dark? Or a combo? Or in a pattern – like
a radiating circle [like the Japanese flag]?
There's
actually a little bit more to the story, but I'm kind of superstitious –
I tend to not reveal plans for work until it's complete – but I had to
talk about this project a bit to get it going ;) so I'm OK with saying
this much. When I get all the doilies back from everywhere and I'm ready
to put them up I'll talk about the other components that are in play.
I
have been completely and utterly overwhelmed by the generosity and
interest of these amazing women all of the world who are helping me do
this. It has become larger and more meaningful than I could have ever
imagined. I always talk about how women are connected by these domestic
acts of making and this project feels like a perfect manifestation of
that. It's SO fun to see people post their progress on instagram or
their blogs; to get emails and notes and gifts from women saying what
the experience has meant to them – or that it's ignited a spark in them
to continue making something else … that is so humbling, and really
really makes my heart happy.
