Blue Motor Mollusk

In my effort to prepare for a show in March, I have been scrambling to come up with compelling imagery for new photo weavings of engines and plants.  When I saw this engine at a Pick 'n Pull in Richmond, CA, I was struck by the bright blue color and how it hung, suspended, in the gutted out blackness beneath the car's hood like an octopus emerging upward from a great abyss.  Have you ever seen a blue engine?  I sure haven't.

I then mirror imaged the engine in photoshop and combined it with imagery of succulents. The mirror image effect is interesting to me in many ways.  Not only is the symmetry pleasing to the eye aesthetically, but the symmetry gives the engine an insect-like quality. As nature and technology are fused together, a writhing, organic life is breathed into cold machine components.  It is a marriage of stems, leaves, tubes, and bolts, giving birth to a hybrid creature which is part machine, part plant.

Photoshop test.  Click on image to enlarge.

After showing this image to my boyfriend, he gave me some very good feedback.  He thought the circular image in the middle looked too face-like.  Like a grinning caterpillar.  I agreed that it was a bit "too much".  What if I squeezed the engine image together more to fuse the two eyes into one single eye?  I did some readjusting in photoshop and the result was far superior creating a more ominious creature.  Now the engine resembled more of a squid beak as opposed to an Alice in Wonderland caterpillar.

After hours of cutting and then 10-11 hours of weaving, I was finally done with this monstrosity--the largest weaving I have ever created (30" x 60").  



THE FINAL WEAVING

"Blue Engine", 2012, Woven Photographs, 30" x 60". CLICK TO ENLARGE

"Blue Engine".  DETAIL.  Click to Enlarge.

"Blue Engine". DETAIL. Click to Enlarge.

Live Weaving at the Vagabond Ballroom

When my friend Rusty Lindgren invited me to donate art at his friend's charity event, I had the idea of doing a Live Weaving as performance art and then auctioning off the finished piece at the end.  I had always wanted to see if I could pull this sort of thing off and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment.  Also, since I am preparing for a show in March, featuring photo weavings of engine/plants, I thought this would be a good way to get the ball rolling and force myself to start coming up with images.

I spent two days prepping before the event, and rather frantically at that.  My amazing boyfriend, RJ, helped me cut the images into 1/2 inch strips and brainstorm a good weaving set-up.  We decided that the audience would be able to see the weaving best if it was up against a wall vertically, instead of my normal horizontal method of weaving on a table.  RJ had the great idea of using a door as a portable weaving platform and it worked so well that I am going to adopt it as my new method!

Weaving vertically saved my neck from having to bend down constantly.  I wove for 6.5 hours in total comfort.  Usually, when I weave on a horizontal surface, I have to take breaks every 15 minutes to stretch my back and neck.  I am thrilled to have found a new method!  See what happens when you push yourself out of your comfort zone?  You learn new things that you never would have otherwise.

This was the most fun I had ever had weaving thanks to the amazing music from the DJs, the hilarious stand-up comedy, flame dancing, free drinks, and chatty friends.

Andrew Lowe was the winning bidder for my piece and he had enough confidence in me to bid on an unfinished work.  What a guy.  And half the proceeds went to Hackers for Charity, a non-profit that offers technical support for organizations in Africa.

After another 1 1/2 hours of weaving after the auction, I was finally finished.  Such a fun night and I learned so much about what I was capable of as an artist.