Tracey Emin: Thoughts on her most recent show

My love for Tracey Emin continues to grow by the handfuls, so I was thrilled when she was showing at the same time I was in NYC. She showed in the Lower East Side, it was my mother and I's only reason for venturing that far down into the city... other then Katz's Deli and their pastrami sandwich and homemade pickles....

Her show situated itself on the wall and took on 3 of her classic forms of working, printmaking, embroidery on fabric, and neon word signs. I walked quickly past her prints, looking into each one of them but failing to take any interest.The subject matter: Emin's vagina rendered in a very sloppy way, often accompanied by backwards words. They were all the same, reinforcing an idea she has been working and reworking for many years. The prints are no longer surprising or edgy, but redundant. I moved on. What caught my eye was a large scale tapestry.


photo taken with a iPhone... sorry for the quality.

I admired the beauty, the craftsmanship, the intricacy and the obviously restraint. I loved how the essence of Emin's thoughts were contained in this one piece.

Nothing touches...with flowers splaying forth from her. Emin may be in the white dress but nobody asked her to get in it. She is wearing it but it has nothing to do with be married. In fact, it has everything to do with not being married, not being in love and not being content.

But perhaps this isn't Emin's point. Maybe it's mine and she got their first. Lately, I've been working out the notion of female desire to have it all; high powered career, kids, husband, friends, sex life, physical perfection, money, home. Enim is certainly desirous... but she admits that she doesn't have it all. In fact, it seems that what Emin has in spades is repetitive, deep-sewn anger. And I'm am increasingly interested in where that came from, not only in Emin, but in women in general. In a time where women can have it all, what are we missing?

Wanting to Want: Musings on Desire

Thoughts in Process: Thoughts on Process: Thoughts for Progress:

The follow words are written to help my class visualize what I am trying to produce over the next few weeks. I am including the process, origination of ideas and thoughts on the end product. Settle in. I hope you enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/magazine/29sex-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Women who want to want&st=cse

I read an article over break about women who want to want….. sex. The article emphasized desire as a media construction, and arousal as the real sexual feeling that most women experience. So this desire, this highly sexualized personae modern women are supposed to employ, with fancy outfits and fun sex toys could all be modern marketing ploys. But even if we are aware that the media creates this expectation, we can still want it. This article, about a modern myth forced on a modern women, reminds me very much of Betty Freidan’s Feminine Mystic and the modern equivalents of the issues she raised in her liberating (at the time) novel.

So I have started creating work in relation to this idea, materializing it, breathing into it and hopefully helping to demystify desire. I am hand-stitching I want to want I wish I wanted, repeatedly onto my slip, the slip I wear underneath my dresses and smells like me. From far away, the slip looks like a delicately decorative undergarment meant to entice. But when you read the words, I hope the hesitation comes across.

I see the slip being a piece by itself, but I also hope it becomes a character in a view and a large scale photograph. The video would involve me as the subject in the garment. The environment with be close cropped but warm and inviting, sexual in nature. I see myself tracing the words that I have taken hours to stitch on the garment, taking my time as I trace the words with my fingers. I hope the whole experience with encapsulate the juxtaposition between the words and the action, showing the tug of war that is occurring between wanting desire and having it.

I also see this as a photograph, large scale and imposing in its nature. The images in my mind right now are both alluring and at the same time create very strict barriers of what is possible. The garment entices but the words repel. I want to create that in the photograph as well…. more thoughts on this as they come to me.

Is this issue personal? Wanting to want. Thinking I should want. Being pressured to want. These are all issues I think about regularly in regards to my personal choices my artistic output. The issue of being told you want something, believing you should want something, and thing then not wanting it is a powerful issue in my life, especially in regards to my role as a female. In a lifetime when women can “have it all” what can I really have? What is really possible in the expanses of just one person? Because really, it’s just me and I only have one lifetime. So how do I choose what to want?

A new idea: digital work in progress

The are digital proofs of works that I hope will become touchable objects. I have taken my grandmothers linens that she embroidered upon and careful kept in perfect condition, and essentially, destroying them. I am destroying by re-appropriating. Right now I am working with modern media images from magazines that show that tug or war modern women play in today's society. Are we sex icons, working women, wives, mothers, housekeepers, warriors? Are we everything. Or really, are all our "selves" completely and completely washing away a true identity.

I find the embroidered linens to be the perfect canvas for a exploration of self. Made in a time where women had few options, the product of their lifestyle came through in standardized crafting... embroidery, sewing, knitting. All of which have recently been reclaimed by the DIY generation. But their is a sadness in these linens. They were made and used sparingly. Treasured but rarely admired. And so I blend the modern with the old. A newly trendy act with it's standardized origins. Combining visual imagery with handmade object, I hope to use craft to create art. I hope to emphasize our modern access to many choices on the canvas of a time where they were far less options. I hope to bring two words together and show how things are still sort of the same.

Body Shots....ya know.

Just wanted to add context. I was using my high contrast lights... so the light is a little intense. My apologies.

Some inspiration: Look and love.

http://www.joettamaue.com/index.html
I love the intimacy of the imagery and the way she embroiders as if she is drawing.
http://www.joychristiansen.com/index.html
I'm fascinated by the way Christiansen combines image with text and object. It's pretty much the epitome of what I'm working towards.
http://historically-inaccurate.blogspot.com/
I love the way Saja stitches and the canvas he chooses to use. I'm looking at a lot of embroidery and textile art lately. I'm finding that the more tactile oriented arts are driving my ideas towards an increasingly focused point.
http://www.calebcolephoto.com/pages/one/one.html
I love the humor and compassion that Cole embodies by wearing other people's clothes.
http://www.feelingstitchy.com/
Simply fun.
http://www.donaldyoung.com/mcelheny/josiah_mcelheny_index.html
I get lost in McElheny's pieces. They are beyond beautiful. Beyond sensual. Just beyond....

Sewing My Own

Hello all. I am posting detail shots from my work this quarter. The time went fast and I feel like I just got started on this project, but I very excited about the possibilities. I haven't figured out how I'm going to present that actual clothing items... but I'm working on that. I don't have shots of the shirts in their entirety as of yet, but that's coming.

Working Artist Statement

The act of sewing simultaneously mass-produces and individually stitches the threads that bind our exterior identities. Utilizing photography, embroidery, and feminine postures, I hope to explore the modern female’s agency over exterior representation. These pieces carry my residue through application of personal text, image, and labor, creating an explorative and conscious construction of self. If social identity is constructed through the presentation of clothing decisions, then I strive to take representation one step further, adding real bits of my inner identity to the mass produced, making each piece one-of-a-kind and one-like-any-other.

The Work

This was the first piece I did where I felt like I got my point across. The images from here on out are not the work itself, but detail shots of the work. I stitched the names of all the people in my life who had a hand in making me who I am. I wanted to add real bits of my identity to the clothing conveying more of a truth through what I wear.


Black, long sleeved turtle neck

This piece is called the boyfriend t-shirt. I've scripted my relationship history around the collar of the shirt. I plan for this piece to continue as my love life evolves. It's really important for my pieces to weather and change as I do, that was one of the reasons for using clothing initially. The immediacy in connection to the body presented the best canvas for a truly interactive piece.

Blue, v-neck t-shirt

This piece focuses on the image and the character's relationship to clothing. I wanted to convey a skepticism and an irony, commenting about clothing, on clothing.


Blue draw string skirt, knee length

With this shirt called the Little Black Dress, I was playing with the idea of the shifting identity and how the body changes shape based on what it's wearing.


Black t-shirt



Detail shot.



Detail shot #2

In this piece, I was working with the possibilities in layering meaning that happens when I combine the clothing, embroidery and photography into one work.

Size 14 juniors baseball t-shirt






I think that photography and sewing have some interesting parallels. Both processes create collectible objects. And both, at their fundamental level, are seen as things that anybody can do.
And both photography and sewing, in combination and separately, are ways we convey character and self image.

Printed on inkjet fabric

And here I am playing with labels, both literally and physically. I used the available language presented on our clothing to create a new, playful dialogue.

So that is what I accomplished this quarter... along with adjusting to a new city and a new school. I would love to hear feedback.

First visit to Turk's

These photos were taken just outside Bath, NY at a cluttered thrift store on top of a lake called Turk's. I only had 50 mins before closing so I'm just beginning. This place is full of happy accidents and I can't wait to explore all of them.

Post for Core Review

These are the images I made over the summer. They have no theme other then portraits. But I've enjoyed making them and and getting a lot of ideas while working with my friends and family.





Honors Project

Illusional Landscapes

This group of images is my attempt to visually represent my split home life. My dad lives on a farmhouse in Southwest, Ia and my mom lives in a contemporary home in downtown Des Moines, Ia. I have combined the most beautiful aspects of each living style into one image, creating balance and harmony between my two worlds that have always remained so separate.

I’ve stitched together outdoor panoramas of mainly rural scenes, taking my time on beautiful fall days to make multiple exposures in the quiet serenity of country roads. I was welcomed into many homes in my mom’s neighborhood, enjoying the distinct glamour of each family’s decorating style. And then the process of selection begins. I combined images based on color temperature and my ability to maximize the more interesting parts of each landscape. With each new creation, I strive to maintain the integrity of both landscapes while also discovering how they fit together.







Anything but Yourself

“When you look in a mirror, it’s hard to see anything but yourself.”

The mirror simultaneously creates and defines my exterior presentation. I rely on my reflection and my critical judgment as a consistent barometer of my attractiveness. I know how my body looks in every position. I know what expressions my face conveys. I know every unpleasant feature I possess. Above all, I know how to best present myself. Because of this lifelong study, I am fully aware of the person I exhibit in everyday life.

I am fascinated with the idea of “mirror as truth” and how we, namely women, use our studied reflection to determine physical behavior. The young women reflected in my mirror had no idea what they looked like at the moment my shutter clicked. The image reflected back to them was one of me, taking their picture.

The idea of not knowing what you’re presenting to the world is uncomfortable, especially when confronted with a camera. To compensate my models used practiced poses extracted from studied and perfected daily behaviors, using their past mirror experiences to the influence their current mirror situation.

Amy J's Headshots

There are the reposted images. Again, feedback.