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"I Think It's Time"
mixed media soft sculpture with working clock
mounted on wood block
I like how these two creatures are in conversation with one another. It makes me wonder about what they're thinking.
Saturday morning we are leaving for a week's vacation to visit my family on the Eastern shore of Maryland. I'm looking forward to diving into the waves, spending time with my sister and my brother and his family, and, of course, to eating Maryland crabs.
"Things With Wings" got a great review in yesterday's Portsmouth Herald. Here is the excerpt about my work:
But by far the most exciting pieces come from a newcomer, Abby Glassenberg. These "soft sculptures" drew the hand of my 4-year-old companion immediately toward them. It's hard not to touch these birds, lovingly crafted from fabric and uncannily expressive. They could turn their head at any second and maybe nibble your finger.
The delightful interplay of collected objects in these pieces, of thread and familiar bits of fabric collaged go beyond cute. These have character sewn into them, a careful touch that comes with big skills at the sewing machine, a good collection of trusty fabric, and an understanding of fabric panels coming together to create a convincing three dimensional piece. Doll construction, at its roots, is sculpture. These are fine art.
How nice is that! Read the whole article here.
If you click on the picture of Nest of Thread VII (which sold, yeah!) on the Three Graces Gallery website you can view photos of each piece on exhibit and see what has sold and what is still available.
I'll Meet You There
mixed media collage and soft sculpture
12" x 24"
(paper ephemera, wood, Guinness bar towel, wire, floral tape)
This is the end of the Guinness bar towel. I used every little bit of that thing - the best .25 cents I've spent in a long time. I'm on the search for another.
I've been rescuing books from the Wellesley town dump book recycling area. I need more and varied paper ephemera and I need a better way to store all my bits of paper (shoved into a giant accordion file is probably not the best solution).
Swimming lessons have been terrific for all of us. Roxanne loves the one-on-one attention from her teacher. Stella loves being in the gym childcare room where she feels she is at nursery school. And I love swimming for half an hour every morning. I forgot how much I love to swim.
"Things With Wings" opening last night at the Three Graces Gallery, Portsmouth,NH.
A bit over two and a half years ago when I started this blog I had just begun to sew in earnest. I was making all sorts of things, but soft toys seemed to be what excited me most.
After sewing for a few months a local baby store began selling my bears and I was thrilled, but when they sold out, that was it - I just didn't want to make twelve more of the same toy.
Then I started selling pieces at Indie craft stores and high end gift shops and that was cool because I could make one or two of each pattern and they didn't expect a dozen of the same thing.
And I did some local craft shows, and quickly learned that I really don't like doing craft shows. The most popular item on my table were the sock monkeys and I began to feel so angry that out of every creative thing I'd made the sock monkeys, which were really nothing special to me, were flying off the table. No more craft shows for me.
In March of last year I had my library show and got a taste of what it was like to put pieces on display in a gallery-type setting and it felt so good, and nearly everything sold. When the show came down at the end of the month, I was a bit at loose ends. What to do next?
And then I realized that I wanted to be free to make things that didn't take just two hours to finish, or six hours even. Things that were really complicated and would be unsalable unless in a gallery (do you remember this crisis? the "gallery or gallery gift shop" crisis? if you do, bless you that you've been readying my blog so carefully and for so long!), but I didn't have any sort of gallery lined up to show them in.
I figured I would plow ahead anyway and I held on to everything I made in the hopes of building up a body of work to show at some later time.
And last night that time came, and it has only just begun. It really was incredible to see things I've made hung on two different galleries' walls in the same night, in two fantastic shows. I feel now like I've figured out where to go. Doing this is what I should do now. I'm an artist. Hurray!
"Ode to Cornell - What Would Joseph Do" juried show opening last night in Salem, MA.
One more picture from the shows here.
"Raptor II (Out on a Limb)
mixed media scultpure
(Guinness bar towel, muslin, wire, polyfill, floral tape, acrylic paint, Paperclay, scrap wood)
When I was packing all the pieces to take to Portsmouth for the show , it was this one that was the hardest to let go. I felt I should make another. Of course, it is not quite like the first. That's something I love about things one makes with one's hands - no two are ever quite the same.
Awesome news today. Two of my pieces, "Get Ready. Get Set" and "Nest of Thread VI" have been accepted to the juried show, "Ode to Cornell: What Would Joseph Do?" . The judge was Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Cheif Curator of the Peabody Essex Museum and a world renown expert on Cornell. I drove my pieces to Salem on Tuesday evening to drop them off and there were so many amazing pieces of artwork coming in the door it was rather intimidating! But I'm so glad I gave it a go.
The show coincides with the final weekends of the Peabody Essex Museum's exhibition "Jospeh Cornell: Navigating the Imagination" (which I saw last weekend and was totally amazing). The opening is tomorrow night (yep, the same night as the opening of "Things With Wings" in Portsmouth) from 7-9 pm. If you are near Salem, please come! I will be at both openings - Portsmouth for the early bit (6:30-7:30) and then Salem for the later bit (8:15-9:00). Yeah!
These nine pieces will be on exhibit at the Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, as part of a group show, "Things With Wings". The show opens this Friday, Aug. 10 and runs through Sept. 8. The opening party is this Friday from 5-8 pm. I hope you'll come by and say hello if you can!
I am checking with Kim, the gallery owner, about how people who cannot come to the show can go about purchasing pieces and I will let you know soon.
*Okay, I checked with Kim. Please feel free to call her at the gallery at 603-436-1988 or email her at kim at threegracesgallery dot com to inquire about and/or purchase any of these pieces. She would be happy to tell you what is still available and to ship pieces wherever you would like.
Thanks for all of your support and encouragement as I was making each of these little bird creations! It was so enjoyable for me and not to worry, there are more birds to come.
"disassembled"
mixed media sculpture
(muslin, embroidery floss, yarn, glass mason jar, wooden box)
Charlie is frightened by this piece. I think it would be creepy if the doll were a baby. As she is now, I think being a severed head becomes her.
Roxanne started some swimming lessons in the mornings for the next few weeks, adding a bit of welcome structure to our days. Here she is "posing" (which means sticking her belly out) in the wading pool on the front lawn.
I'm working with her on learning to wait for things, without her asking over and over (and over and over) for them. Here is little picture I drew of Roxanne eating her lunch AND THEN having her popsicle.
I hung it up in the kitchen. This way, when she asks at 9:00 in the morning if it time yet for her popsicle, I can put my finger over my lips and point to the picture. This works so well!
And here is a little picture she drew for me to look at when I am having trouble waiting.
I love the last part - I think that's me lying happily on the floor next to a puddle of popsicle juice.
