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The end days!
Remember how I was really good about updating my internship journal for almost every day? Ha ha, that enthusiasm disappeared after I left for London and had the best 3 weeks of my life! So, this entry is going to be the best summary of the last few days of the workshop that I can desperately attempt to remember.
I recall upon coming back from London, everyone was hustling to work on the Nick Cave piece. As far as I know, Nick Cave will be doing a performance on the 7th or 8th floor of the Workshop, with dancers wearing some of his sound suits and maneuvering around many curtains made up of small bits of bamboo strung together. We had ordered about 20-25 of them, and had to remove every other strand and lengthen the remaining strands so that they were the proper length. This involved A LOT of wire cutting and tedious re-stringing of bamboo pieces. The bamboo bits also tapered at the bottom, so it was incredibly challenging to reattach the strands while still allowing for a natural flow from large to small pieces. After a few days of doing this, I became a bamboo expert and had to train a couple of the wonderful education people (Ryan and Shelby), so I could enlist them as personal slaves. I’m quite certain I worked on these curtains for most of my final days interning.
The one other thing I helped work on was dying shoelaces for a piece by Nari Ward. Nari is a really cool guy. I know this because I went to the opening for his exhibition where he did a talk regarding his show, and gave some really fascinating details about his politically-centered work. The shoelaces I dyed were for a piece that spelled out “We the People” in Olde English font, where thousands of holes were drilled to create the outline of the text. The holes were then filled in with the shoelaces. He did a few similar pieces before, one being a large star. I dyed many many many shoelaces with Kate Abercrombie, the master printer. We had many different shoelaces, flat, round, neon, earth-colored, and they were all swirled around in a large vat of black dye. It was a laborious process because we basically stirred the laces for 30 minutes non-stop while listening to NPR. Ugh. Anyway, it was still really neat to say that I worked on a Nari Ward piece! His show is still up at the Workshop, I highly recommend going!
Well, that is my final entry for my summer at the Fabric Workshop. Overall, it was an incredible experience despite the sweaty trips to fabric row and days after days spent doing tedious tasks. I learned a lot from it, including new sewing skills and various methods of working. I even became inspired to do more textile-based work for the future, and working here has also inspired me to pick up sewing again. It was also excellent to make so many new contacts and meet people that have their foot in the art world. I hope that I never forget what I learned, and that these new skills will help me land a job once I graduate (or I will be praying nightly to Art Jesus).
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Day 21 at FWM
JUNE 24TH, 2011
Seriously…I suck at this. I literally have no idea what happened on this day. Pretty sure I just sewed cushions for 5 hours while silently cursing Kippy. I mean, I love sewing, but you can only sew so many cushion covers before going absolutely mad. That is all I have to say about this day. Please forgive me.
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Day 20 at FWM
JUNE 23RD, 2011
So, my entries have been falling behind because my roommate FINALLY moved out, but unfortunately he took the internet with him. Yesterday, I bought a new router and the nice Comcast guy came in and gave us new internets! Technology!
Anyway, Thursday was kind of a boring day. The founder of FWM, Marion Bolton-Stroud (affectionately known as “Kippy”) decided that the orange cushions on the FWM’s fancy $1600 plastic-ass chairs can no longer exist. Why? Because apparently orange is the color of death in China. Thanks, captain! Bre and I were assigned the tedious task of creating patterns of the cushion covers to make new ones. And we only have about 30 to hand sew! Shouldn’t take more than forever!
We spent the majority of the day making the new patterns. There are two different cushions, one is more of a circle shape, and I worked on the one that was sort of square. I’m really specific. I got a good pattern worked out and sewed a few test covers, and the final one turned out okay!
Later that day, Bre and I did some online research (went on Facebook) to find solutions for something Nick Cave wants to do at the Workshop. Nick Cave! Not Nick Cave from the Bad Seeds (I wish). Anyway, this project is still in the very beginning stages and I’m not sure if I can even reveal any details! So I won’t. That’s all for this entry. Womp womp!
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Photo post! Photo post!
Last week, I took some photos of the studio, Kiki Smith stuff, and some Tristin Lowe/Alice stuff. So…here they are!
Kiki Smith quilt that we sewed the stars (buttholes) on
Close-up view!
Liberty of London fabrics and ribbon ready to be matched…I love the black one on the bottom
Fabric and other studio supplies
Mock paper bow we used as a model for Alice’s apron
Another view of the 5th floor
Some Tristin Lowe sample fabrics
Machine embroidery sample
Sample board for Alice
I theeeenk Andrea made this applique
BUT I MADE THIS ONE. MUSHROOMS4LYF
Various pairings by myself, Bre, Yoorim, and Abby
Close-up of one of mine. I really know how to match!
Abby and Yoorim and many pieces of beautiful fabric
Hope you guys liked all my peekchars!
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Day 19 at FWM
Busy-Ass-Day! And what are those initials? B.A.D. Because BAD is what covers my mood right now. But BAD doesn’t mean my job was bad! It just means that my landlord/realtors are DICKS and their dickwadishness is putting me in a bad mood. Womp womp!
We spent ALL day prepping for the Theaster Gates lecture. I honestly didn’t know who this guy was until tonight (yeah, I suck), but as I had hoped, he was amazing, wonderful, inspiring, and hilarious all at once. One day, I hope people say that about me! Here is his website: http://theastergates.com/home.html
Last week all of the carpeting was put down for the lecture, which took place on the 8th floor of the building. Bre, Yoorim, and I spent most of our time transporting chairs, cleaning all the dirt off chairs, and organizing chairs 18 inches apart and making everything look real purty. When everything was completely set up, it totally looked like a wedding ceremony was about to happen! Speaking of which, apparently NOBODY has gotten married in the Workshop and the 8th floor is kind of perfect! Huge space and plenty of opportunities for decorating. I digress.
Before we started helping set up for the lecture, we were sent to the 6th floor, where all the printing gets done, to help Kate (a master printer) pin down silk so she could print scarves with art by Willie Stokes. This was pretty awful and tedious, but whatever, at least I learned something new!
I also got to help prepare food before the lecture, which included hummus, veggies, fruit, and cheese (some of which was really disgusting). Have you ever smelled weird ass cheese filled with chives? It looks and smells like something a goat just threw up. And don’t even get me started on bleu cheese. OH MY GOD. During the lecture, I had the most pleasurable task of hanging out by the 4th floor in the stairwell so none of the guests snuck in to see where the slave labor takes place. Pretty crappy but I did get through some particular difficult levels of Angry Birds.
We did get to see the lecture, and Theaster was magical. His talk was part gospel singing (he seriously sang to us), part comedy, part preacher, and all awesome. There was also some African American lady that was TOTALLY preaching with him. It was awesome! Theaster is African American too and does create art with racial components, but he also addresses issues of abandoned houses, temples, and really knows how to beautify reclaimed wood.
Didn’t get out of work until 9, walked the 30 minute walk home (waah), and now I’m in my bed, thinking about chocolate milk, and the cat I’m adopting in a month. Did I mention that Fairmount Pet Shoppe hired me? THERE IS A GOD. AND HE IS A CAT. Not relevant to this blog…but I started work at the pet store yesterday and I absolutely loved it. Can’t wait to go in tomorrow! Keep reading, I plan on uploading studio pictures from the Workshop that include Liberty of London prints! Suck it, fashion majors!
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Day 18 at FWM
Hey! I no longer have to type the date with my entries because I am actually doing them on the corresponding day! Wow! So, I’m still at work at the Workshop as I’m typing. When I got in today at 11, the other intern, Yoorim, had already finished stitching the buttholes on to the Kiki Smith quilt. I finally took some pictures of the goings-on here and will be posting them within the next few days.
Our next duty was to cut and arrange LIBERTY OF LONDON fabric and ribbon in order to make skirts for the Kiki Smith owl/cat stuffed animals (which retail for a spine-tingling $250). We spent a long time matching the BEAUTIFUL floral prints with equally stunning ribbons to create the skirts. If you guys don’t know about the owl/cats, there are some for sale in the shop now. Basically, it’s a cat on one and an owl on the other with a skirt that is double-sided with two different L.O.L. fabrics. It’s a hipsters dream animal that they can afford with the money in their trust fund! All joking aside, it’s a fun project to work on. I believe we’ll be sewing the skirts next week, but Andrea has to approve all of our combos, of which I have also taken pictures.
So now, we’re filing artist information which is grueling and tedious but not bad because I stumbled upon TOM FRIEDMAN’S FILE. He is my favorite artist by at least 20 miles so I almost died when I saw it. One day I’ll meet him and he’ll agree to hire me to be his art slave forever in his studio in Massachusetts. I’m going to stop typing now before I really creep you guys out. Will be updating soon with pictures!
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Day 17 at FWM
JUNE 14TH, 2011
Well, I have just had a WONDERFUL 5 day weekend spent with my boyfriend, my parents, and my cats. Although this has nothing to do with my internship, I applied for a job at a pet store on Fairmount and am waiting in anticipation to find out if I’m hired. The place is great and has a window of rescue kitties up for adoption. I plan on adopting one when I get back from my study abroad trip to London.
Remember in my last entry when I typed about the Kiki Smith quilt? Well, that is what Bre and I did ALLLLL day. We also met a new intern, Yoorim, who hails from Korea and goes to school in Rhode Island. She seems like a sweet heart and she’s great to work with. We hand stitched our little butts off all day! 6 hours of hand stitching actually kind of turned me into a raving psychopath because I spend too much time concentrating very deeply on stitching perfect butthole asterisks in this beautiful quilt and it got to the point where I could no longer thread a needle. It turned out alright, though, because we got SO MUCH of it done! Hopefully it will be done by Thursday, which is the next day Bre and I come in to work.
Also would like to mention that the building is owned by a kooky old man named Clint (he signs his name in quotation marks). Today, we had a terrorist drill and were told to gather in the artist’s studio on the FIFTH FUCKING FLOOR. Because, you know, we’re totally safe that far above ground in case the terrorists decide that they hate the shit out of us artists! He also informed us that canned corned beef lasts for YEARS (he knows this because when he was in Vietnam, he ate corned beef from WW1 or something) and we should stock some in the Workshop! Thanks, Clint! Canned corned beef: fighting terrorism since WW1.
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Day 16 at FWM
JUNE 8TH, 2011
Day number two of cleaning up! This time, Bre and I had the special task of organizing all the tables by color and size and wiping them off with some kind of smelly cleaner. Again, not very exciting or interesting!
Here is the exciting part of the day: WE STARTED WORKING ON A KIKI SMITH QUILT. If you don’t know who Kiki Smith is…
Here is one of her drawings:
(http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2011/01/18/kiki-smith-sculpture/)
Here is one of her sculptures:
(http://visualarts.walkerart.org/detail.wac?id=1532&title=past%20exhibitions)
Amazing, right? The quilt is somewhat hard to explain, but it is standard quilt size on a beige, spotty linen. The border is about 8 inches wide on all sides and features navy blue asterisks that look like little buttholes! I mean that in a good way, I love the butthole aesthetic. The center is a series of hands either empty or holding flowers or candles, and there is also a drawing of an eagle. Everything is screen printed navy blue and the hand, flower, candle, and eagle imagery of have a glowing yellow background. It is BEAUTIFUL. Bre and I’s duties are to hand stitch nude colored asterisk stars (buttholes) based on the patterns given to us. We spend today practicing stitching the buttholes so we really know our shit once we do it for real! Can’t wait to start next week!
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Day 15 at FWM
JUNE 7TH, 2011
I thought about taking a break from my wine and Lady Gaga-fueled blawg entries, but fuck it. I feel magical! This week is an easy week because since the opening is all done and over with, all there is to do is clean up the gigantic mess we created. Bre and I basically spent most of the day doing menial tasks such as organizing thread and bobbins, sorting needles, and folding fabric scraps. This was great because I actually love organizing despite what my mom might say about me. We also sorted the pattern pieces into a giant folder that will eventually find a home in archives. An important thing about the Workshop is how vital documentation of work and processes it. One of the wonderful workers, Carlos, spends a lot of time photographing EVERYTHING from installation to sewing to de-installing. Carlos is awesome and he has a cat named Cake and is so very nice.
Unfortunately there isn’t much more to type about today. A lot of cleaning, a lot of organizing, and a bit of standing around trying to find something to do. Such is life at The Fabric Workshop and Museum the week after an opening.
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Day 14 at FWM
JUNE 3RD, 2011
It’s First Friday! And do you know what that means, dear reader? It’s the opening of CLOSE AT HAND AT THE FABRIC WORKSHOP AND MUSEUM! HOLY HELL. After 3 weeks of slaving away, the day has finally arrived for the doors to open and streams of hipsters, rich old people, and artists to arrive and eat free cheese and say snooty things about art! HOWEVER, the opening isn’t until 6, and there is still way too much work to do.
Although Alice was looking pretty in her red dress and now completed apron, there was still steaming to be done! I would also like to mention that the buttons were complete and looking amazing. The fabric pieces with the machine embroidery were hand-stitched to the buttons by none other than Ann Gaziano, a part time apprentice at the Workshop. The apron also looked fabulous. The two pockets were adorned with beige colored penis mushrooms that one could only see if they got up close. Bre and I spent a lot of the morning steaming the dress and apron to make it look pristine. It was originally incredibly wrinkly due to how often it’s been handled.
We also spent more time slaving away at the 2nd floor installation, doing painting, running errands around the building, and assisting the professional installers with hanging work and cleaning up. Later on, Bre and I were summoned to fold gallery notes. I’m pretty positive we folded at least 400, if not more. When 5:30 rolled around, we busted out our sexy nice clothes and headed downstairs to find out where we would be stationed. I was fortunate (lol) enough to be put in ~*~coat check~*~. A pretty boring job, but at least I got to sit down.
Highlights of the evening were…
A brief but enjoyable conversation with Martha Madigan
Drinking free red wine
Being told I look good in the coat check window (although that was kinda creepy) and…
A ONE DOLLAR TIP. Which makes my total income from the internship $1. Whatever, it looks good on my resume, right?
All in all, the opening was a great success and everything looks BEAUTIFUL so you guys should come check it out stat or I am no longer your friend!
Until next time…
H. Danger Tomlinson
P.S. I don’t have pictures from the opening, but this guy (J. Bussmann) does!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40780730@N05/
The photos are great so you guys should check them out.
Here is a great shot of Alice:
