2024 is for goals

2024 I have finally given up on any “side hustles” that don’t directly affect my art practice. So that leaves art and ORO House. And ORO House is something co-owned by my husband so I don’t have to do everything. As soon as I made the decision to quit all the other things I received a grant to attend a residency and was accepted into my first artist residency. I will be going to Oaxaca, Mexico to learn about silk screen printing with natural pigments. I am so excited about this, because I’ll finally learn how to extract the pigment from my indigo. And it’s just further confirmation that I’m heading in the correct direction.

All that being said I’ve started some new work. I am currently working on a new piece titled “I Am the Seed”. I am exploring using natural dyes, embroidery, and various seeds that I’ve grown and saved myself to create something of a self portrait. I’m super excited about it. And I’m so happy to finally just spend my time making the things I need to make.

Here are some sneak peeks into the new piece.

I first got the idea for this piece during one of my many walks. It came like a bolt of lightening. But that was a couple months ago and it’s since had time to transform into what it’s becoming. I’m excited, because this version incorporates all the favorite parts of my work. And I believe will be a visual treat. Initially the figure was going to be unnamed and without gender. But as I was searching for inspiration for posing I came across this image of a children kneeling, blowing a dandelion. And then I knew it was a child. And then I realized the child was me. When I was around 10 I planted my first seeds. Seeds from an orange I had eaten earlier that day. My mother told me it was unlikely that they would grow, but I wanted to try. I eventually had about 10 orange seedlings and several cherry seedlings. I had one in particular that I would take back and forth with me as I went between parents (California to Kansas). Something you definitely couldn’t do now. We tried to plant it at my father’s house in Wichita, but it didn’t take. But the seed was plant in me. And now decades later my entire life revolves around seeds and plants and what I can do with them. And since I live in AZ I may take the time to get a bunch of orange seeds to put in this piece, as a prayer of gratitude and acknowledgement of that young girl who wanted to try against the odds.

*Please excuse the video formatting. They were taken to make tiktoks etc. It’s a recent development to be able to upload videos directly to the website. Now I have to figure out how I want to make videos now.