Shifting Sites!

This blog has moved!

I'm slowly transferring posts from this studio blog to what used to be my portfolio blog. I've retitled the site Jana Morgan Studio. One reason for making the shift is that Fiber Art Studio was hijacked by bots who were difficult to shake. A year later the bot issue is resolved, but I've had time to reflect on the direction I want to take my studio blog.

I realized I wanted to have a blog that encompasses all I do as an artist rather than be limited to fiber art. Fiber art has always been just one tentacle of my practice -- a large one, but not the whole of what I do. Jana Morgan Studio should more appropriately represent the different media and directions my work is taking / has taken over the years.

Collective Memory Walk

Here are some people at the opening creating their own "Walk from Memory" to add to the collaborative piece, Collective Memory Walk.
The instructions I offered were: choose a ground and thread, retrace your most memorable walk in stitches.




opening photos taken by Reverend BLAMO

The idea behind the piece is to translate experience and thought into a tangible object / narrative. Through the mediation of the material, the stitched memories begin to look more like one another than the original territories or, specifically, the walk each person took through his/her territory.

As new visitors come to the show, the piece continues to grow. The overall effect looks a bit like Tibetan prayer flags.

Show opening at Fitchburg State College's Hammond Gallery

September 15th was my show opening at FSC's Hammond Gallery. We had a turnout of 135 people, which was excellent. 110 people (thus far) have participated in the collaborative project where everyone stitches a memorable walk.

Over the next few days and weeks, I'll post pictures of the collaborative piece along with my other pieces including the Walking and Driving in Los Angeles: Retracing a decade in a month map being stitched as a performance over the course of the exhibit.

The show runs until October 20th.

Hanging the Show

I (with the help of two student curators) will be hanging the solo exhibit at Fitchburg State College's Hammond Gallery this weekend. Here's some info about the exhibit:
Fiber Art Kicks off CenterStage Season

The final nesting place

Bird's Nest Dress, 2009
off-loom garment free-woven from shoe strings,fabric scraps, ribbon, wool yarn and felt

Building the Bird's Nest Dress, progress notes 3: What to wear in this particular naked city

I'm working on a solo exhibit for Fitchburg State College's Hammond Gallery (Massachusetts) in September called "What to wear in the Naked City." The show is a psychogeographic exploration that stitches together connections between the psyche and environments – both the body's immediate environment (clothing) and the larger environments of cities. I'm interested in how places imprint themselves on the mind and how this imprint affects (easy or encumbered) movement through those places.

Pieces for the show include clothing built of found objects from 3 places I've lived recently: Los Angeles, CA; Knoxville, TN and Fitchburg, MA.

The Bird's Nest Dress (below) is constructed from shoestrings and other scraps found in Knoxville, TN. Here's what I've built thus far:


For more about the Bird's Nest Dress, click on the label "Bird's Nest Dress" below.

Building the Bird's Nest Dress, progress notes 2: Do, undo, redo

Because the process of the Bird's Nest Dress is free-form, I've had to rework the structure of certain parts several times. Here are some pics of the uninterrupted progress: