First draft: Artist Bio

Christy Adair is currently creating a body of work that centers on the themes of personal and national identity, as well as spirituality using a variety of fibrous materials.  She was born in raised in Henderson County, Texas and currently resides in Texarkana.

Christy received her Bachelors of Science degree in arts education through Texas A&M - Commerce, and has been teaching high school art for eight years. She is currently working towards her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M – Texarkana.

** This definitely needs some revision as it isn't very interesting and doesn't even hold my attention at all.. **

Artist Statement

In the corner of my bedroom growing up was my mother’s sewing machine and scrap fabric pile. Among the ever growing mountain of fabric were clothes long outgrown, old curtains, sheets worn thin, and other fabrics that had a variety of roles in my life. As a teenager with a rather peculiar sense of style I once had to rescue my favorite, hideous dress from the depths of the scrap fabric pile; sentenced to impending doom. Out in the world today there are large amounts of discarded fabrics that have played prominent roles in someone’s life.

We spend approximately thirty six percent of our lives depositing hair, dead skin cells, various bodily fluids, and other proofs of life through our sheets into our mattresses while we sleep. The suggestion of spiritual death permeates through my knitted pieces with the use of discarded sheets. By choosing this media, I am alluding to how much of our lives can easily be spent on the ‘stuff’ of the world that we can quickly be consumed with if we are not mindful; things that do not matter when seen in the big picture of life.

In relation to the knitted pieces the flag pieces are an exploration of my thoughts, feelings and beliefs on politics and the state of our nation as it stands today. I feel that to be a responsible citizen of America you need to know what you believe politically and why you believe it. By exploring familiar iconography and texts I am solidifying my political beliefs why encouraging the viewer to question theirs.

Sewing One Oh... Oh No.

I tried to learn how to sew today on this dinosaur of a sewing machine. The lady who was trying to teach me did a really great job of figuring out all of the archaic ins and outs of this thing. She finally got the thing threaded and ready to go, however the thread wouldn't catch the bobbin and even google coudn't even help us with that one. We surrendered. Time to call a professional - they better be old. Ancient sewing machine: one - the two of us: nada. We do live to try again another day, however. We will succeed.

Knitting is going well. My studio time consists of cutting sheets for an hour and a half and then knitting for a couple of hours. I usually spend  three to four hours at a time in the studio.

I am playing with the idea of getting this thing mostly constructed and dying it. I realize some of the underlying patterns and colors will show through, but I think it will need something to unify it. My previous knitted piece was tied in on itself and linked together, so unification by color wasn't necessary. Since this piece will hang from the ceiling and  have the two columns I'm thinking that it will need to have a similar color to them.

In each of the two columns there will be an abstracted mass that will represent an figure.  Think this form, but without the snake:

There will be a third column but it will be very short and no 'figure' inside of it.

The red knitting on is the start of the 'net' that the columns will hang from. I like knitting on the straight part much less than the round, but I think I got a system working out for me now.

The working title of this piece is Portrait of a Family Consumed and will represent my husband, myself and a child that we lost early in the pregnancy. This will also speak on how quickly and easily we can get consumed by the unimportant things in life: our wants and desires for things and stuff, and how if you give into that consistently and continually it could lead you down a path of self destruction and spiritual death.

Agnes Martin Gold

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36073257/Agnes-Martin-Writings

Someone scanned in one of her books! Worth the read.. don't try to print it out - they want a membership fee. Pft...

Artist Statement Stew??

Ginger asked if there were some good tips or advice for writing an artist statement. I found a few websites that help walk  you through the process. My artist statement will be posted when I have a little brain room to think about it.

http://www.mollygordon.com/resources/marketingresources/artstatemt/

http://artiststatement.com/ (this link references the first one.. )

http://www.artstudy.org/art-and-design-careers/sample-artist-statement.php Examples - some of what NOT to do.

http://10gallon.com/statement2000/ Brain dead yet? Fill in the blank and let this page generate your statement for you!

Knitters? Please... and some textile artists

Magda Sayeg

www.magdasayeg.com

Dave Cole

www.davecoledavecole.com

Elaine Reichek

http://www.elainereichek.com

Barb Hunt

http://www.barbhunt.com/

Janet Morton

http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/IAR/morton/samples.html

Sally Spinks

http://www.sallyspinks.co.uk/Home.html

Tom Deininger

http://www.tomdeiningerart.com/

Sara Rahbar

http://www.sararahbar.com/

Liz Collins

http://lizcollins.com/

Pippa Andrews

www.pippaandrews.com/

Looms Constructed

I tried to knit on some existing looms that I have last night, but it didn't work out. Wouldn't you know that the looms are specifically designed to knit yarn and not strips of fabric?

So, today I constructed the two looms I will need for my hanging project this semester. Let the knitting begin! The circle loom will be for two 6 - 8 foot columns, the straight loom will be used to create a 7'x7' square knitted piece to connect the columns and it is what will be suspended. Sketches to come soon.

 

I also bought my domain name today. christyadair.com is under construction. Things are starting to happen!