my love for you.

bloggy vacay.

i hope you all are having an awesome summer. i spent the weekend in the cape w/ a friend and it was delightful. lots of seafood, sun and bad tv. i couldn't ask for more, now could i? anyway, i just wanted to post and say that the blog is gonna be on a break until august. i recently got a second job and i am completely overloaded. burning the wick at both ends as it were. in short, i'm exhausted. so i am going to take some time and get a little organized w/ the bloggy. also, my birthday is coming up w/in a week...and i don't know, i always try and get a little reflective around this time. please be safe, i hope the summer is treating you as well as it has been treating me. i appreciate all your comments, emails and readership...it really means the world to me. so until august 1st or around about there, i bid you a sweet farewell. love, meighan.

q&a w/ faythe levine of handmade nation & GIVE-A-WAY.

as usual i am really excited to bring you folks my latest q&a. but this q&a i am especially happy to post up, as it is w/ faythe levine co-owner of paperboat gallery and boutique, co-author of the upcoming book handmade nation: the rise of DIY, art, craft and design and film documentarian of the upcoming film of the same name, handmade nation. i absolutely love what faythe is doing. she is a woman not only living her dreams but someone who works hard to help others realize their own. faythe is an amazing example of a woman who cultivates a community. always passing on artists and film clips to me for my love for you, she is a definite inspiration to me...and i've only met her online! so i was very excited to get to ask her the below q&a's. check it out, i hope you guys enjoy it. i love what she has to say about the importance of cultivating creative youth programs, her admiration of her peers the power of DIY and craft in a world that is in perile and just her overall enthusiasm for the world of DIY and craft. she is beyond inspirational. for real.

but wait! there's more! this saturday, july 19th poketo is hosting a silent auction to help raise funds for the documentary handmade nation. if you are in the LA area, you should most definitely make a point of going to help support this worthy cause. there is a ton of amazing art that has been donated, by many of the artists we love (to see what will be donated go here.)!

for those of us, who can't make it, faythe has sent me the craftifesto screen print  illustrated by kate bingaman-burt as a give-a-way! i know, i know, very exciting. so please enjoy the q&a and leave a comment to be entered in the give-a-way. i will choose a winner on tuesday morning. thanks faythe!

to donate or help support handmade nation check the blog or shop in their etsy store.

your upcoming documentary and book handmade nation catalogs and documents the new wave of craft and DIY culture. can you tell us a little about the film and the book?

both the film and the book showcase a wide variety of creative people, methods, places, and events from around the country. my intention is to document the thriving independent art community and the people who are a part of it.

craft is very close to your heart, can you talk a little bit about why you wanted to document the rise of DIY art, craft and design?

it was really obvious around 2003 that something was happening within what we now refer to as the DIY community. indie craft fairs, galleries, boutiques, and online shops all were popping up everywhere. this was not just happening in the United States but around the world. it was very important to me to make sure that this energy and community was captured. creating and nurturing a supportive creative community is not something to be taken lightly. i noticed there was a hole that needed to be filled and i figured it may as well be me to fill it.

did you grow up around crafts? what were some of your favorite craft projects as a little girl? what do you like to work on now?

i have this amazing lineage of artists in my family tree. i like to think there is an “art gene” in my DNA. but the reality is, i was very lucky to grow up with two incredibly supportive parents that encouraged my creativity from a very young age. as a kid i think i was into what most girls my age were into - making piles and piles of friendship bracelets. summer camp and girl scouts encouraged bead looms, lanyards and ceramics. after taking my first black and white photography class when i was 12, i was hooked on the darkroom. now...i don’t have so much time to work on my own artwork, but when i have the opportunity i am a big fan of hand sewing, appliqué, embroidery and sequining. collage and assemblage work somehow fit into that train of things too. but, first and foremost, i will always be a total photo nerd, i take pictures constantly.

you spoke to over 50 artists, crafters and movers and shakers in the DIY/craft world. that must have been an extraordinary experience for you. can you share any special moments you had on this exciting journey?

interviewing people that i have the utmost respect for was a complete life-changing experience. i think that meeting artists in their workspace was always my favorite thing to do. getting to see first hand where people make their creations was really magical. also, having conversations about survival as an artist was really powerful for me. discussing things like time management, financial stability, health care and how we can make a creative lifestyle work for us, that was totally empowering and really kept me going during the production.

also, filming a feature length documentary with micaela [o'herlihy, director of photography for handmade nation] was amazing. she somehow managed to travel with me 19,000 miles and shoot my film, keep up her personal art career and be a single mother. that was an amazing thing to witness and i always want to share that with people, i think it’s really encouraging to mothers who are trying to balance their lives.

can you tell us about some of the indie artists you met who we may not know about?

it was interesting because most of the people we interviewed i had planned on a head of time, but there were a few folks we met along the way that we ended up spending a lot of time with. for example, mandy greer is an artist that we were introduced to via curator yoko ott in seattle. mandy’s work is flat out amazing she does large scale installation work using a lot of “craft materials” and we spent a lot of time in her home with her husband (paul margolis, who is a master quilter) and their two year old son.

another lovely woman we met was artist jenine bressner. she gave us a fantastic lampworking tutorial in her providence, RI studio. [she's] a great spokes person for how D.I.Y is not only an adjective but a lifestyle.

can you share w/ our readers what was the common theme you continually heard form the people you spoke w/?

there were a few common themes that transcended lifestyle differences. one was that most people stated that they had “always made stuff”. to me this really stresses the importance of investing in youth culture and making sure that there is resources and funding for kids to have the ability to explore creativity. another similar statement that came up was that this is not a trend - most artists we spoke with stated that they don’t see an end of the tunnel in regards to the resurgence of handmade, craft and art. i think that our generation is finding a way to maintain a living as working and taking advantage of technology and what it has to offer (viral networking, online shopping, information sharing) and supporting one another.

so many people that are involved in DIY/craft grew up around arts and crafts. what do you think it is about the DIY/craft that has lead to such an enormous sub-culture?

i believe we are ready for change in a time of immense global disaster and distress. community and creativity are both viable ways to do something positive and together the two are very approachable and powerful.

you are incredibly busy, every time i speak to you you're on your way some where or creating or setting up for something. you curate shows, you co-own Milwaukee's paperboat boutique and gallery, you're a writer, a film maker, a musician...girl you are dynamic! how do you do it all?

ha! people often ask me this question - i'm no superwoman and something is always getting less attention than it should and i am learning the lesson of how to say “NO” to stuff (it’s sooooo hard!)

BUT, i would honestly be miserable living my life any other way - i just try to prioritize and check stuff off the ever-growing list. there are just too many connections to make, people to meet, information to absorb...to not keep moving forward. lisa congdon made this rad gocco print that is in my studio that says “it’s always worth It”. that is my mantra right now.

within the past five years or so artists like jill bliss, monica canilao, lisa congdon and nikki mcclure (just to name a few) have really helped to blur the line between arts&crafts and contemporary art. looking back on the early 90's did you have any idea things would move in this direction? was there a specific moment for you when you started to realize that this was an actual movement happening?

in the early 90’s i was a teenager ripping up magazines and typing out angst-y rants on my typewriter to put into 'zines. i didn’t give any thought to art, craft or how that would influence the rest of my life. if anything, the current aesthetic seems so normal and comfortable to me i don’t think i can really step outside from my box to really see how the punk/D.I.Y/riot grrrl culture of the 1990’s has affected modern art and design.

however, when i participated in my first indie craft fair (renegade chicago, 2003), it was the first time as an adult that my punk roots were “revisited” (they never really left). basically, it was a blend of my teen years and what i am currently involved with and that is when i knew that something big was happening.

that being said, there is still a separation of craft and contemporary art. for instance a few years ago california college of arts removed craft from their name. whereas here in boston, mass college of art added design to their name. why do you think there is such a wide gap between craft and design? do you hope that documenting and opening DIY and craft culture up to a larger audience will lessen this separation? have you started to experience that on this journey already?

honestly, i don’t think i can summarize why there is such a wide gap between craft and design without personal dialog with someone. yes, i do hope that the documentary will provide an insight for those who may not be familiar with what is going on within the D.I.Y. community. this would ideally lead to a dialog with a wider audience and raise awareness about what opportunities are out there for designers within the D.I.Y. scene. as a side note, the cover story in (which i am included in) the august 2008 HOW magazine is on handmade design.

can you give any advice to people who want to start their own craft circles or fairs? what are some good resources to begin w/?

currently there are so many resources online for people to tap into. i’d start with these few gateway sites then just start clicking on links and seeing what is out there!

www.craftster.org
www.theswitchboards.com
www.supernaturale.com
www.craftmafia.com

can you tell us about some of the events and opportunities that are coming up to help support handmade nation?

our blog is the best way to keep up with events, you can always shop and support us via our etsy shop.

upcoming events:

july 19th: silent art auction, poketo headquarters, LA, CA
august 7: jane addams hull-house museum, chicago, IL
october TBA: institute of visual arts, milwaukee, WI
october TBA: kohler arts center, sheboygan, WI

maxwell loren holyoke-hirsch on tiny showcase.

tiny showcase just released a print by maxwell loren holyoke-hirsch about an hour and a half ago...and it's simply beautiful. titled "of stars and other somebodies", it's delicate and wonderful and definitley not a print to pass up. maxwell's characteristicly scratchy line work portrays a gramaphone, birds and stars in this print on a peachy blue background. as usual: the best!. hurry up on over to tiny as i'm surprised there are still any of this print left.

matthew palladino.

last week when i was rooting around on the interwebs, i was reading michael hsiung's blog.  michael had posted a really beautiful, intense painting, it was at once gorgeous and totally effed up. i loved it. there wasn't much info other than a link back to the artist's flickr page. i quickly clicked on it getting lost w/in the art work. it was the flickr page of san francisco artist matthew palladino. besides the intensity and vibrancy of matthew's work, what i noticed first off was how quickly his work moved me.

last month, when i interviewed elbow-toe one of the things we talked about was how an artist's work can really hit you, move your soul as it were. since that conversation, i have been thinking a lot about that sentiment. really paying attention to visceral emotions that accompany my mindset when i view art. matthew's work does that to me instantly. his paintings get under my skin and really pull out emotions. his sharp colors and folkey-esque painting style is hard to tear my eyes away from. as a girl who grew up in the inner city w/ a family who championed craft, matthew combines a sensibility in his work that really speaks to me. plus, the painting of the geometric bandanas below entitled "chris johanson as a conflicted gang member" is just plain genius. no doubt about it.

i vote for art.

for those of you familiar w/ twitter, the above image is a sign to you as *groan* twitter is down again. for those of you who are not acquainted w/ the less than buoyant whale, it's the infamous fail whale that graces your screen when twitter is above capacity or "stressing out" as twitter likes to put it (oh, even the cute little microblogging company we love has spin lingo...). he or she (whatever your preference) appears when you can't view your twitter account. originally created by yiying lu you can now purchase this chubby whale as a print through the good folks over at i vote for art.