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.
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