This was my first big forray into lace making. I barely knew how to crochet, and I'd never done any prior filet crochet. I had to stop about 15 rows in and make a small doily just to figure out what the hell I was doing. I still think it was an inspired idea, and it's one of my favorite pieces.
Apparently I wasn't alone: In 2010 this piece was accepted into a show entitled "From the Tongue" at the Lotus Gallery in NYC.
From one of my favorite Nine Inch Nails songs: "Lay my hands on heaven and the moon and the stars, while the devil wants to fuck me in the back of his car... nothing quite like the feel of something new."
This is a quote from Frank Warren, the creator and maintainer of Post Secret. I heard it in the middle of a bad patch of what was later diagnosed as bipolar depression, and it saved me. I worked on the project while in treatmet for the depression. It's one of the few pieces I've kept, as a reminder.
I made this piece as birthday present for my mother, because, well, she's related to these people, she knows...
A piece I made for my girlfriend, inspired by a line from the movie "American Zombie". (If you haven't seen it, you need to. It's an awesome mockumentary about the zombie population of Los Angeles.)
This piece was also made while I was in out patient psych treatment for being bipolar. I'm not sure if that plays into this piece, but I kind of hope so.
I come from a long line of women who sew, and do other crafty things. For years I dabbled in assorted crafty hobbies, but none of them ever stuck. It wasn’t until I discovered the Subversive Cross Stitch Group online that something clicked in my brain, and I thought, “I can do this!” I’ve been delving into the needle arts ever since. So far I’ve figured out how to do vaguely obscene things with cross stitch, embroidery, crochet, and needle tatting.
Most of my pieces make me laugh. There are a few notable exceptions, but for the most part, I make these things because I think they’re funny. Many of them also double as a form of art therapy, allowing me to take anger, or even rage, and turn it into something funny, beautiful, and obscene. From coworkers I loathe to a death in the family, I find one of the best ways to deal with my feelings is to put them into my projects. And when I do it right, the end result makes me giggle.
While I have dabbled in many different needle arts, my favorite is creating the grid-based designs used for cross stitch and filet crochet. (I'm a big fan of pixel art as well.)
My best inspiration comes from emotional events in my life, but a fair amount also comes from the materials I work with. "Cute" or "meaningful" picture frames are one of my favorite targets, and the more over the top they are, the better.