Visual Scavenger Hunt

The opening reception for the "Beasts" series show at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA was wonderful and exciting and overwhelming. I was, however, struck by something while showing a few individuals my show this past week. I wonder whether much of the pertinant messages of the works may have been lost that big night. I have developed a sort of visual scavenger hunt to try to highlight some of the themes that are woven into the fabric of the works. If you are local to Worcester,Ma and would like to meet up with me at the theatre to see if you can find the elements I list below please contact me and we can arrange a time. The gallery room where the show hangs is off limits to the general public but a meeting with the ArtsWorcester staff (508-755-5142) or myself (janemhoughton@gmail.com) can be arranged to gain access to the show. 

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"New Haven" 12" x 12" Acrylic, gouache, ink, vintage papers, tissue paper and hand embroidery on tissue SOLD 

Incorporated into the pieces are reminders of our shared cultural values. These values butt up against the industrial and financial practices our community and political leaders carry out. These practices impact life for all of us on this planet we share and sometimes run counter to one another. It is this tension that I elude to throughout many of the pieces in the "Beasts" series. Can you find examples of them in the pieces? 

 "Humans are a cultured and civilized species" 

• find a tea party set with china cups
• find wallpaper patterns featuring abstracted natural beauty. Ask yourself where this type of wallpaper is often found.
• Can you find the evidence of hand written letters and cherished literature? What habits of life from the past do we still practice and what has replaced them? 

"Religion gives us our guidance to be godly beings"

• find a Madonna-like figure
• find a Tree of Life image (used by Christian teachers of Biblical stories during the Spanish Conquest) 
• find Mandalas (used as a mediation tool by Buddhist practitioners) 
• find a pagoda (used in most East Asian communities as a religious structure) 

"Commerce brings wealth to all layers of society" 

• how many pieces contain vintage food labels and advertisements?
• how many food labels that you find would not be possible without the work of the honeybee and other pollinating insects?
• can you find Monopoly money? 

"We value our heritage, often handed down through folk arts and hand made traditions" 

• Can you find traditional design patterns from African tribal dress?
• Can you find evidence of hand embroidery? 
• Can you find vintage sewing patterns?

"We feed the hungry and heal the sick"

• Can you find food stamps?
• Can you find examples of endangered plants and trees often used in traditional medicines and researched for their healing properties? 

"We make sense out of chaos in order to understand our world" 

• Can you find places that I used a grid pattern to mimic the categorization of species and specimens often found in Natural History museums and laboratories? 
• Can you find illustrations cut from vintage text books and field books of insects and birds and plant life? 

...and finally, how many endangered and at risk species can you name? 

I am planning a meet-up at the gallery in the Hanover Theatre on December 30th at 10am. 

Please join me to view the show and search for these and other clues in the works! 

Opening night!

The opening of the Beasts series at the Hanover Theatre was a big success ...or at least that is what the Curator and Board at ArtsWorcester tell me. I was too overwhelmed and over joyed to pause long enough to take it all in. My daughter surprised me by flying in from Colorado and my dear friend Karen from Chicago. My aunt and uncle and cousin flew in from Denver. My sister-in-law and niece and nephew came from Vermont. Many, many local friends and friends of ArtsWorcester and the community arrived to celebrate the evening with us as well. My reaction to my far flung relatives making such expensive efforts to come lend their support was, "It's just a bunch of paintings on the wall!" 

It's a surreal experience to welcome a crowd into the previously intimate relationship between myself and "the zoo". It's wonderful and exciting to share the experience of the work with strangers and long time friends. It feels miraculous when someone shares their insight into the work and it hits the nail right smack dab on the head.

"The portraits remind me of the regal portraits that hang in great halls" 

"I find myself being sucked into the little worlds you have created in each piece" 

*photo credit  - Natalie Ackerman

*photo credit - Natalie Ackerman 

I am grateful for the opportunity to share this series with the community of the Hanover Theatre and I look forward to hearing more about what people come away with. 

Please contact me @ janemhoughton@gmail.com or the staff at ArtsWorcester 508-755-5142 to make an appointment to view the series which will hang until the end of February 2015. 

The mending box

Today is my late grandmother's birthday. "Nanny" was my teacher in many things: how to have a sense of humor throughout life's ups and downs, how to care for things that grow in sunny windows and small patches of soil in the garden. She taught me how to knit and how to embroider and do crewel work. She gave me my British roots that I am so proud of. I spent just about every weekend at her home when I was young. In the morning, after Grandpop went downstairs to make his coffee, I would slip nto her warm bed and listen to her tell me about coming to this country as a toddler with her parents. She ran the family owned dry cleaners as a teenager with ten younger siblings at home. Back in those days dry cleaners fixed missing buttons and ripped seams without being asked. Growing up I remember a box that was kept on top of our second refrigerator in the laundry room that was labeled "Nanny's mending box". When she came for her weekly visits she would check that box and take the ripped jeans that needed patches and new suit pants that needed hemming home to be mended and returned the following week. I believe that towards the end of her life, before moving to a nursing home, this job helped her feel helpful and needed and of course she was. I remember the sadness I felt when that box remained empty because Nanny could no longer sew a perfect hem and no longer had the energy to even replace a missing button. 

I began my quest to figure out a way to incorporate embroidery into  my work as an homage to my Grandmother. I couldn't get her off of my mind and embroidery kept popping up in my imagination as something I wanted to try again. I hadn't really done any embroidery stitches since I was a preteen but I remember every stitch she ever taught me: chain, stem, satin, french knots! I feel her with me these recent late nights as I stitch through layers of delicate tissue to make the pieces for my Beasts series. I hope I have made her proud and I hope she celebrates with me on November 10th, the opening of the show in Worcester. My Uncle Bob, her son, will be flying in from Denver to be there and I hope that makes her happy too. Her place in my life was the key to so many things that bring me peace and grounding. I am a grateful and blessed grand daughter. Happy Birthday Nanny, you are forever loved and missed. 

stitched and painted "bling" for the "The Meek" piece 

"creating small worlds"

Update from my messy and busy studio : 

in process detail: " tail feathers" from the Green Peahen piece - the final piece before I hang the "Beasts" show

I have been spending many many long hours in my studio stitching and painting in order to finish all my ten pieces for the "Beasts" show that will hang on the 27th (in a week) and open on November 10 at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA. The hardest part is to remain focused and level-headed. I find it's easy to loose perspective when I am working under this much pressure as I ignore the other roles (mother, wife, friend, as well as my three other part time jobs) in my life. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way. Sleep is for sissies. 

A friend on Facebook recently described the above vignettes as me, "creating small worlds for all of (us) to fall in to" ... I love it ! That simple encouragement kept me going as the tired voices in my head tempt me off track. That comment tells me that actually I am exactly on the path I have chosen and I just need to keep going. 

When a butterfly flaps its wings...

Last weekend I drove south to Madison, NJ to my dear friend's new community book store/art gallery/community gathering spot: Short Stories. Barb invited me to be her first art show and I am honored to be in such a vibrant and beautiful space! If you are in the area please stop by and offer Barb and her team some support. If you are not in the area but want to support the idea of a small town book store please visit her Kickstart site. You never know what Barb's efforts will spark in other parts of the country or world. You may have heard about the concept put forth in a talk by Edward Lorenz ; he discussed the phenomena where a large storm can have it's origins in the flapping of a butterfly's wings in a far away part of the world, months before. 

Barb Short and I in front of a showing of some of my smaller, whimsical works. 

I continue to work away to complete my "Beasts" series before it hangs at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA on October 27th (opening on November 10th). Currently, I am embroidering the bugs, moths and butterflies that will be placed on "The Meek" piece. 

in process - stitching bugs 

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In process "The Meek" diptych 

10/11/2014:update ... I completed some of the "bugs" this week

detail: monarch   Embroidery on tissue paper 

Calloplophora graafi (NOT endangered) 

in process detail - Luna Moth, Garden Tiger Moth - both not endangered. Still on the sheet of tissue paper it was embroidered on: the Blue Butterfly which was successfully reintroduced to Britain after being listed on the endangered list. 

embroidered "bling" to be placed on "The Meek" piece  - had such fun with these! 

Embroidery and the Whale

I have finally put the final embroidered details on my Humpback Whale piece in my Beasts series. It take tenacity and patience to work through all these embroidered details but that's what I signed up for when I moved in this direction. 

detail of the whale's barnacle-covered snout. 

Please click through the gallery below to see more details: 

"Antongil Bay" - Humpback Whale .  36" x 72" x 2" (overall dimension for diptych) 

Wall paper

Process on the tissue paper cut out background to the Green Peafowl piece (working title)...meant to mimic the elaborate wall paper found in "civilized" and "cultured" homes and buildings. In these rooms of civilization we teach values and mold policies that effect our planet and the co-journeyers we claim to love. 

in process - right panel of the "green Peafowl" diptych 

in process detail

in process detail

Messy Menagerie

It's a messy menagerie in the studio today...

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                                         ...just glad they don't poop or need to be fed 

Slow Down

My theme this week: 

print and card for sale in my Etsy shop

I once had a medium tell me that my late father and brother were both pleading with me to slow down, I shouldn't feel I need to do it all, etc.... It's been a hard thing to really embrace but I am trying. 

This week's focus: 

"The Meek" diptych - in progress, pre-embriodered beetles, moths and butterflies...

24" x 24" and 12" x 24" Acrylic, oil stick, gouache, ink, colored pencil on wood panel

detail of "The Meek" in progress 

• Beginning the embroidered "bugs" for this large piece 
• Researching species and palette for the next piece in the series, the Green Pea Hen (like a peacock, only green and endangered) as well as tree and plant life species...stay tuned! 

general color layout for the Green Pea Hen diptych 

Inch by Inch

I feel comfortable revealing my Global Talent Search submission as the finalists are announced tomorrow. 

"Tiny Terrarium"  GTS submission 2014

I am glad I have been completely distracted by a short term project these past ten days or so. It really kept my mind off of the outcome of this contest. I feel I am in a good place - even as my demons keep asking, "Who do you think you're kidding?" ... if I am lucky enough to be one of the 50 out of 999 artists who are given a second assignment and are advanced to the next round I feel I am ready. If I am not awarded a place in the next round I feel I have a direction and intention and certainly projects that are waiting in the wings. I will be inspired and ready to work no matter what. So, tonight I will try to sleep and hope that these two quotes guide my dreams: 

“Trust that when the answer is no there is a far better yes down the road”

— anonymous

“inch by inch success is a cinch! ”

— Lilla Rogers (http://lillarogers.com)