Back in nyc

hey!

I’m back in nyc, teaching again and getting back into the working too many jobs. Woo! Glad to be back!

I’ll post some adventure and printmaking pictures soon, but wanted to post a couple of new mixed media friendship bracelet sculptures to tide you over. As usual they are primarily recycled or reused materials of personal topical significance. Bad pictures, on an off white wall (eesh), but you get the gist of the direction they’re headed. Fun changes!

I hope you had a wonderful summer.

Best,

Katie

PS In the meantime my instagram account has way too many summer adventure pictures… you can look at that. It’s my whole name (well most of it). Same title as the blog.

Canary ❤️s Coalmine

Two Lakes and a Waterfall. Broken, Mending

Thesis Show Coming! (Recreation)

March 18th to 22nd. Reception Wednesday March 20th from 5 to 8 pm.

Working title: Recreation.

With a focus on different ways humanity navigates in and works with nature, this interactive installation combines recycled materials, fabrics, live plants, painting, sculpture and printmaking to create a strange situation involving outdoor activities. You are invited to experience this version of nature, recreations of natural environments and recreational activities, from the safety of Compton-Goethals Gallery.

Travel Directions:

You can take either the 1 train, or the A,B,C, or D. The 1 has a stop at 137 (which says City College on it), and you just walk east (the stop is on broadway), walk through a little park right away, then keep going to Amsterdam Ave, and up to Compton-Goethals Hall between 139th and 140th. The A train is really fast, and the 145th stop is great, and if you take a train on that line head west once you get out of the train. The stop lets you out at St. Nicholas and 145th, so walk uphill toward Convent Ave, and west on that street (turn left onto Convent, it’s beautiful) until you get down to the campus at 140th, the first building on the right once you go through that metal gate thing is Compton-Goethals but you have to go up some stairs to get to the entrance because there is another building sort of stuck in the corner of it (weird, you’ll see) which is not the right one.

oh how i love to paint!

Hello fellow art enthusiasts,

Today and yesterday I went to my studio to paint, I started a few new pieces. One is of a dandylion, one is of a lentil, one is of some kind of weed i don’t know the name of (i picked it when weeding my parents garden in california last month). The whole plant, with a special attention paid to the roots. I love love love my studio, and even though it’s freezing cold in there, I have been having so much fun.

This week I have been helping my rockstar painter friend Emily Lux with a mural class she’s teaching at Hillsboro High School. I am really just helping with the painting. The class is almost over, so the students already know what they are doing. It’s really fun! She teaches 4 classes a day, and the largest mural (designed by the students and painted by them too) needs to be done really soon. So I’m there to help, just painting finishing touches, so it will be done by spring break. It’s a really big wall.

I am glad to have a couple of days off this week, so I can help her! Also I LOVE painting. I painted on that mural for like 6 hours on tuesday, and tomorrow I will do the same. On tuesday I went to my studio afterwards and painted for another 2 hours, and I suspect I will do the same tomorrow.

The parts that I have been working on are mostly rural bits, farmland, fields. Trees, grassy areas, stuff like that. Making sure there is no white wall showing, or charcoal lines. I even painted a little clearcut. I’ll try to take a picture of that so I can show you. My first clearcut painting. It’s not very big, but there are stumps.

It’s really really fun! I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Those kinds are tough man, they start at 8:30 am. I haven’t started painting at 8:30 am since, well, maybe never. I certainly have done other work at that time of day, but not painting in public! It’s fun! The kids are generally very nice, and I am so happy to be able to help them with this. They are amazing artists, the mural is gorgeous.

I tried to crochet again today, and had tried last week. Only for 10 minutes or so (that is really hard! I want to go for longer.) but my wrists and hands still felt bad weird afterwards. Up my arms even. Damn! I need to make more sculptures. I need to. But I may have to change my sculptural medium soon. I don’t think this is sustainable for my human body to keep this up, although it is better for the earth to use reclaimed plastic for sculpture. I guess I need to pay attention to my own wellbeing too. Damn.

I am going to make a couple more sculptures, but it will end up taking me much longer than I had anticipated. And I need to save my hands for other things like making money. The sculptures haven’t made me any substantial money. I have sold a few, but they are so time consuming, people do not want to pay me enough. Hard to actually bust my hands forever for under 1/2 of minimum wage, yep. And it is nearly impossible to subsist on compliments alone. I have tried this, it is hard to eat compliments, no matter how nice they are.

Please know that I do not mean to complain. I appreciate all of the support I have had for my artwork. Everyone who has ever bought a piece of my art, come to one of my shows, read my blog, talked to me, supported me at all, I want to thank you so much! Thank you. You have brought me through the tough times and helped me understand that art is like breath or water. I want to thank you all so much. I really couldn’t do this without you.

So, anyways, good people, I will do some things and make some stuff, and let you know how all of that goes.

Thanks for reading this! Thank you for your continued and cherished support.

Love, Katie

PS (relating to a previous post) The glass added to paint is fun! I’ve made some great surface with some of it. Very lovely, luminous, and with translucent paint over it… it is beautiful! The texture is great, and it soaks up my thin thin paint like… well, I’m not sure. Reminds me of painting on sugar cubes, although I have not actually done that yet… (mostly wood, canvas, plaster, paper, bricks, cinderblocks, foam, and some random stuff like rocks and bottles and feathers and string). Anyways it’s working well, and I will post a photo soon.

HELD ROCKS!

hi folks!

today i went to HELD Vegan Belts and was going to take down my sculptures… well, I reorganized them. so many of them are still over there. for now!

along with the wonderful work of robin and aran selki, which includes beautiful paintings and gorgeous amazing puppets!

micah perry, the fabulous, told me some great things about the sculptures too! he pointed out that they are made from petrolium, once alive (in ancient times), and when i retrieve them after their “life” in their discarded bag state – i breathe new life into them again! thank you micah! i need to quote him instead of summarizing. it was a very eloquent description and it made me nearly cry! so cool! micah is smart, and knows how to talk about art. he is awesome! he runs held, you should go talk to him, he’s often there. 3033 NE Alberta st, portland.

the sculptures will be moved around soon again too, for your viewing pleasure.

i also will be painting a little (ok, maybe 2 by 6 feet?) mural in HELD soon! stay tuned for details about this. i know, so far, that it will include birds smoking cigarettes and probably gossiping, and a rocket. maybe i will surprise you with the rest. should be fun!

i’ll post when i start, and maybe some drawings of ideas, then you’ll have to visit to see me working on it! i’m super excited. i really really really love painting murals, but haven’t worked on one for 6odd months! ahh! that long? that makes me feel weird. i need more big painting in my life. i just want to paint big! dang.

ok, have a great evening.

best,

katie

those are a couple of photos taken at held by my friend.

2010! dang!

hi there,

now it’s 2010. how strange! a new decade, and some new fun things to do! whoo hoo!

i just wanted to post something on jan 1 2010, for fun. not that i’ve got too much new to say this second. a few things i guess.

i just got back from trying to go to the movies, but no luck! it’s a holiday, and the movie was sold out! avatar in 3D, and we tried to go to a matinee, which is still really expensive, so we are going on sunday instead. and we almost went rollerskating, but realized that it is a rainy holiday so the rink will be full of little kids and we are clumsy and (i in particular) might fall on them. i have done it before. i do not want to injure anyone, or myself. so no.

but i think we are going on an outing soon anyhow. or maybe i’ll make more plastic bag yarn and casey will continue to work on that program he’s been working on 12 hours a day for the past 2 weeks… who knows, we’ll see what happens.

here is a picture of the plastic bag yarn i’ve just made.

i’m consolidating things, turning that giant pile of plastic that is my life into a smaller pile of plastic yarn balls. more useful. and i’m glad to have it wrangled, or beginning to be wrangled, so the art process will be more easy afterward. i’ve spent 10 or 15 hours in the past week cutting and looping and winding this huge amount of brown bags into double thick yarn. i also made 10 smallish balls of many colored yarn (well, like a pink ball, a yellow ball, a black ball, a blue ball, a “clear” ball – which is not clear after it is yarn that is crochet). also i’ve been working on finishing the last season of ‘buffy the vampire slayer’ while i make yarn. intense. that is a long series. i love it! it took me over 10 yeas after the series was on ty to actually watch it though. a few good friends convinced me how great it is finally. i love the multnomah county library, they have everything! i wish i could jump kick monsters in the throat like buffy, but i’ll just save the world in other ways. leave that kicky stuff up to someone else.

so here is a photo of my newest pile of yarn balls.

oh! i think i hear the sump pump in the basement. i should go check on my paintings down there. i’ve got this really big one, one of my favorites, on a couple guitar stands in a room with a hole in the floor. anyone want to buy it? anyone with a big wall? it’s really good and really big and needs a home. i’ll look for a picture of that to post too…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Katie

this painting is looking for a new dry home.

that last picture, the “www.katiespain.com” part is superimposed, it’s not like that in real life, in case you are interested. let me know and we can negotiate. it’s maybe 5 feet tall by 8 feet long.

so excited!!!!

hi folks!

it’s been a bit since i posted anything, i’ve been distracted by cranberries, mashed potato, cashew ‘cheesecake’, and things like that. but now that it’s black friday, and i don’t want to buy anything, i’m getting ready for the next fun things.

o i am so excited about tomorrow!!!!!!!
the event at HELD is  going to rock! please come see my work and if ya want i will even teach you how to make plastic bags into yarn! OMG!

i hope to see you soon, in between 4 and 7 tomorrow evening, saturday november 28th, 2009, at HELD (3033 NE Alberta, in Portland). it’s going to be so much fun!

ok, i am going to eat things now…

yay!!!!!

ps i am going to move my studio over like 3 spaces, within the same studio warehouse of fabulousness, Switchyard, and i will post updates about that as it happens. so far i’ve just been organizing a little, and packing up small things into the only boxes i have. it’s only like a 20 foot move, but i still need some of that packing magic to happen so it’ll go smoothly.

fun times!

crochet event @ HELD

Hi folks,

I am going to have a crochet event and closing party for my show at HELD VEGAN BELTS!

The event will be Saturday November 28th, from 4 to 7 pm.

HELD is located at 3033 NE Alberta St., Portland, OR 97211 and it’s regular hours are 11am to 7pm tuesday through sunday.

I’ve got a bunch of crochet plastic bag sculpture up there, and lots of BRAND NEW PAINTINGS!

I will also be teaching people how to use plastic bags to make yarny stuff! A basic knowledge of crochet or knitting is helpful for this, and maybe some plastic bags, although I will bring a bunch with me too.

Please bring your crochet hooks and some scissors, since I don’t have enough scissors for a large group of people. You will find it much easier to have your own supplies, and then you can continue to work on whatever it is you start at the workshop.

FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope to see you there and then.

Thanks folks!

Best,

Katie

 

This is not done, but you get the idea.

 

 

Hanging art at HELD Vegan Belts TODAY!

Hi!

Have you ever wanted to watch an artist hang a show?

Well today is your lucky day!

I will be hanging art (sculptures and paintings) at HELD Vegan Belts! Thats 3033 NE Alberta
PDX, OR 97211… the store is open 11 to 7 Tue. through Sunday, just so you know.

I’ll be hanging while the store is open, so you can come watch art be installed, come look at (buy!) some belts that are the best and strongest and most cool ever, and hang out with rad people.

Just letting you know about this… it’s going to be fun.

I’ll post photos of the installation soon.

Best,

Katie

Bags? For me?

Hello everyone,

I have been fortunate enough to receive used bag donations from many nice people. Thank you everyone who’s saved these ‘one time use’ bags after their proposed uses, and gave them to me to be made into things that will last thousands of years as art instead of out in the environment causing chaos and death! Art saves seals, whales and albatros! Yay!!!

I am looking for more bags too! Always!

I had a ‘bag drive’ at my last installation, but didn’t receive any bags! Ha! I didn’t advertise very well, nor did the gallery. I am not sad, the closing event was great.

If you or anyone you know has tons of (or some) bags that you don’t want or don’t know what to do with please let me know. I’d be happy to arrange some kind of something with you.

In Portland I’m happy to meet with you and take your bags off your hands, or if you’d like to ship bags to me I’d be happy to reimburse your postage.

I am looking for colorful bags, primarily. Whatever colors. Brown even. I am also looking for clear bags, like drycleaner bags. As big as possible with these ones, I’m going to do an installation about water soon.

I just wanted to offer up my art as a place for the bags to go.

Thank you so much for considering this!

I need brown and red and yellow bags, fyi, for a commission. I am excited to do this new sculpture. I do make the art for the good of the world, but I don’t often sell the pieces (yet) so it is always very exciting when people are interested in having them! I’ll post a photo on here of it… it’s a bit like the edible tuber pieces I had at the Jungle show.

I’ll post a photo of the newest one of those… it’s on the pedestal below, I am imagining it will look similar, but smaller. And brown, I think. I’ll know about that later today though. And then, the best part (for me) the making!

Thanks for reading!

Best,

Katie

Exciting plans for November show at HELD Vegan Belts!

Hi!

I am really excited, I talked to my friend Micah today, who’s just opened a new store…

So! In November you will be able to visit a new installation of my crochet reclaimed plastic sculptures at the fabulous new & wonderful HELD Vegan Belts – that’s 3033 NE Alberta. Come over to see the art after the 6th. Please come visit this wonderful new store, and see my sculptures up close! HELD has belts and such made of reclaimed material! Very vegan & no carbon footprint! They are the coolest belts ever, and some of the best people you will ever meet. Please come support them and me by coming by the store!

On Friday November 6th there will be a fundraiser event for one of the folks who started HELD. He recently had a cancerous tumor removed from his head – which was, of course, very expensive. The fundraiser will help him pay for some of these crazy expensive bills. This super fabulous event will include music, a raffle (with rad prizes), and lots of other fun things. My art will be up too, and if you buy a piece of my art during the event a percentage of my sales will also go to his medical bills. If you want more information about this event please contact me and I will give you details. Here is the HELD website so you can see the coolest belts ever: http://m3house.org/HELD/

I will have a closing event for my show at HELD too, for Last Thursday, November 26th. I will update you about this closer to the event itself.

Thanks for your support!

Best,

Katie