Art Shows

My Awesome Weekend at Maker Faire!

Art Shows, Uncategorized

This was my first time participating in an event as large as Maker Faire. I must say that it was a lot of work and that two weeks later, I am still tired and recuperating, but it was well worth it. I met a lot of other makers and got to hear about all the interesting projects they were working on, along with meeting a new audience of people that were interested in my work. I also went home with 3 Editor’s Choice ribbons from the team, I totally wasn’t expecting that. Especially when I felt like I was getting my ass kicked with all the traffic that was coming to my area, that really boosted my spirit 😀

I was super worried that I wouldn’t have enough promotional materials and handouts for my workshop, but I surprisingly went home with a little more than half of everything that I brought with me. I ordered all sorts of things like stickers, magnets, postcards, and even refreshed my inventory of  business cards. These will come in handy for the next event that I do, so I’m not going to stress over it. It’s always better to be over prepared than not at all.

(Photos below of workshop participants and my two special people :D)

I had to make some last minute modifications to my workshop, but it honestly went off without a hitch! I had originally planned on showing everyone how to manipulate thin wire to form an armature with pliers but after second thought, I decided to make it more child friendly for smaller children. I ditched the wires and pliers altogether and swapped them out for paperclips. I just showed them how to link everything together and tape it up the same way I would have with the thinner wire. After that, I showed them how to cover the piece with clay and gave them a handout with more instructions for them to follow at home. When I look back at everything, I made the right choice since there were quite a few small children that were having difficulty with the paper clips. The extra time was definitely to get them up to speed with everyone else so that they wouldn’t feel left out.

(One of my smaller groups from the first day)

My only regret was that I didn’t have enough time to actually look around the festival. There were so many exciting things that I saw on the website and I missed the majority of them. Next year I will have to bring more friends and family to help out so that I could run away for a bit. I would also make sure that everything in my area is set up on the first day before the social party so that I can walk around and see more of everything before the public does.

Seeing everything the night before hand was pretty surreal and sweet! Can’t wait till next time!

Promotional Materials Are In!

Art Shows

And yesterday’s package of magnets concludes my promotional materials for my  setup two weeks from now, I can’t wait! I printed from 4 different printers (Psprint, Uprinting and Atlantis Printing, & Moo) and the colors match perfectly, I’m glad all those print production classes that I took paid off!

 

Big News!

Art Shows, Uncategorized

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I’ve been accepted into the World Maker Faire convention at the New York Hall of Science! I’m so excited, and I can’t wait to update you all with my work in progress shots of me preparing for my booth!

Career Goals

Art Dolls, Art Shows, Completed Dolls, Work in Progress

This piece is something that has been on my list to create for a while, but I finally decided to put it in motion when I saw the open call for the “Where We Are” show at the Puffin Foundation in Teaneck NJ. I’ve been wanting to submit some work to them, but I haven’t had anything on topic with their shows since they are usually very political in nature. This piece called “Career Goals” is about the glass ceiling that women of color encounter when trying to advance in their careers. Working in the corporate sector, I’ve had the pleasure of picking up more job responsibilities without the proper title or a pay increase, and years after leaving a position, I learned that I was making $6,000 less annually than my male counterpart in the same title as me. This piece hits home in so many ways for me and I’m glad that I was able to figure out how to put it together. The busts and the men are made out of paper clay, and lambswool was used for the hair. With the men on top of the “glass”, there is a smaller one facing the opposite direction of the group, he represents the few minority males who get to climb the corporate ladder, but often work in isolation. I plan to make more pieces that explore these type of topics that affect people of color.

 

First Mini Maker Faire at Barnes and Nobles in Forest hills!

Art Shows

This past Saturday was my first and Barnes and Nobles’ first Mini Maker Faire. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, whether I would be on a panel or if I would just be demonstrating how I go about making my dolls. Luckily for me they just expected me to show my dolls to people and explain how I construct them. Seemed easy enough, but what I didn’t know was that I would be the first table directly in front of the elevator on the second floor in the children’s department. I love children and all but I WAS NOT READY lol! The staff had to sneak me out so that I could take a break and they also had to block the children so that I could pack up to leave when it was time for me to go. I really enjoyed them, they asked me everything from how I made the dolls to why did they look so sad. One was extremely pro-active, she had her mother take a tally of all the materials I used so that they could pick them up and get to work on making a doll that very evening. Another little girl outed her mom who secretly called my dolls creepy by shouting “I don’t think they’re creepy, I love them!”. She gets a gold star in my book for coming to my defense. Overall, the staff was amazing, the children were adorable and inquisitive and I went home without any of the promotional cards that I brought with me.

Me and Ignacio’s Installation at boom! Theater Company

Art Dolls, Art Shows

Here’s a few pics from Me and Ignacio’s latest Installation “Melanchromatic”. It was part of boom! theater’s monthly salon show that showcased poets, comedians and boom!’s very first screening of Puzzle People which is a weekly series about two friends who love puzzles more than people. It was an amazing night!

New Orleans… 2.0

Art Shows

So me and Ignacio ended up going back to New Orleans. Mom wanted to go so we just figured we’d take her since we kinda knew where things were from being there this past January. It was surprisingly cold there last time but this time it WAS HOT, just unbearable! It was a straight 96 degrees everyday kind of week, now I know why the tickets were so cheap! We were able to see some of the things I missed last time due to me working on an installation. I really wanted to see some of the historical places that traced back to slavery such as Congo Square and the LaLaurie mansion which we did, but unbeknownst to us it was also the 10th anniversary of hurricane Katrina.  We attended quite a few hurricane Katrina exhibitions which were very informative and at the same time, heart wrenching. There was also an artist market that started at 7pm and ended at midnight on Frenchmen street which was perfect since we were busy trying to catch day time events and our hotel was a few blocks away. I think we need to start working on a night time artist market here in New York, that was ingenious! NOLA, we shall meet again!

My Finished Piece, “Women’s Troubles”

Art Dolls, Art Shows, Completed Dolls

For those who haven’t seen this piece named “Women’s Troubles” in its entirety on Facebook, Instagram etc., here it is completed. As I may have mentioned before, this piece explores the problems that women face in the workplace and at home. At work, women face issues such as being overlooked for promotions, unequal pay and sexual harassment, while at home they are to assumed to take on all of the domestic duties. Our roles have changed drastically but society still views us as being less than that of our male counterparts, making it very difficult for us to succeed in the workplace.

The Evolution of Feet

Art Shows, Completed Dolls

With this last piece that I’ve worked on for Innuendos, I found myself sculpting a couple of things for the first time. The most challenging out of them all were the eight arms hands down (no pun intended!), but the most unusual out of my first time items were the feet. I never bother too much with sculpting feet on my dolls because I am very anxious to get to all of the other mundane tasks of doll making such as sanding, picking out fabric, the dreadful sewing, hair gluing, etc. I usually just paint some simple shoes on like a ballerina slipper or a sock and get on with it. It came natural to me to create them, I just found it unnecessary to focus on them for my characters, just like ears. (There’s only one Melandolly that I’ve created with ears lol!). This time I felt the need to have actual feet. I wanted to have one foot bare with toes and everything and the other in a high heel. The bare foot is on the domestic housewife side of the piece while the heel is on the career woman half of it. I wanted to play up the “barefoot in the kitchen” phrase and also create the ideal vision of a business woman in heels.

Want to see more? Come see the finished piece at the Andrew Freedman Home at 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10452 from March 6th through April 1st!

The opening is this Friday from 5:30-9:30pm, hope to see you there!

Bronx Artist Documentary Project Group Show

Art Shows, Publicity

After about a year of planning, the Bronx Artist Documentary Project has finally made it’s debut at The Andrew Freedman Home this past Saturday September 13th. The project consisted of 30 photographers documenting 80 artists as they created artwork. I had the opportunity of being the only crossover artist to be on both sides of the lens. I was documented for a period of five sessions as I worked on various projects and I photographed three other artists while they worked in their studios. It was a great experience to meet other artists in the neighborhood and see how they began and ended their creative process. It was rather easy for me to document them, but I found it quite difficult for someone else to document me. I was very aware of the camera and tried to do everything in my power to make sure that my surroundings wouldn’t be as messy as they usually are. Overall, it was quite a bumpy ride but I think that we can all say that we’ve made a few new connections along the way  🙂