I have been doing some drawing recently, multi layered drawings that develop slowly after much rearranging, a collage of lots of drawings from past, present and a created future, creating and unearthing at the same time. It is quite difficult for me to believe that a drawing is the end result, so used to things going from drawing into the sewing phase, but since this process mimics the layered net embroidery I did over the summer, I feel as though these are informed from some new dimmension and that these are the product of a much longer journey, not the first time that my drawing have been influenced by sewing. I am curious to hear your thoughts.
I embroidered these for a darling of mine. It was based on some wonderful shared experiences. It was such an interesting canvas to work on and I want to do it again and again. So here's the deal. I can do yours, or a gift for a loved one, you tell me what special secrets you want to unfold over them, or of course you can let me surprise you. You either give me a pair you already have, or you order a pair and have them sent to my address.
The standard price is £200 for the sewing, any post and packaging costs will be added on top of that.
if you have a simple idea or want real rubies on them, I will adjust the price accordingly.
If you are interested email me at louise.riley@gmail.com we can discuss, maybe even have a skype over a cup of tea regarding designs.
Documentation of a performance piece I created for the show 'Ex Deo Libertas', for The Life is Art Foundation in Sonoma, California.
The piece creates a parallel universe, the complete focus between the artist and the model creates this otherworldly intimacy where nothing else exists. The remnants of this communication being recorded/stitched in the 'portal lense'.
The flying nature of it, floating above the crowd, a dreamlike self, above a waking self, plays on notions of reality.
A short film, in front of my embroidery 'Raw Vision' created for the show 'Ex Deo Libertas'. The focus of all my work for this show was looking at things from different perspectives, inspired by the controversiality of working on a marijuana farm whose aim is to generate support for the artists of Life is Art Foundation. Anything controversial essentially means that it can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. Raw Vision's inception was the focusing on the purest human view, the retina flips the image we see over and it is the brain that flips it back over. Therefore upside down is the view before it has been judged, the tiny tiny portal of the present.The beauty of the farm, its gardens, land and view was gaspful, it took me about a minute to get my pens out, plot myself into the vegetable patch and draw and draw and breath in, throughout my stay I was always taking more in, delving deeper into my exploration. It had me under its spell entirely.
The poem was written in a hotel room at 2am the day after I left the farm, where I was feeling overly whelmed and fiercely inspired to write. The writing is below, for those who want to take a closer look.
Sunrise Sunfall
Where have I been?
Pioneering in fresh freedom.
Rolling around rulelessly and rolickful,
hope and belief overflowing the coffee cup
We put our golden, swollen hearts on stakes
and marked the land with our treasurous experiences,
so that the gods and extra terrestrials
will see the history of happening on this real map.
It was real wasn't it. wasn't it?
I am not sure.
My conception of this concept is so blurry.
So many ways there are to look at one thing.
I took my glasses off when I arrived,
saw what I could
and filled the rest with imagination, intuition and gut
and it was a wonderful wonderland.
Her too long embraces completely disarmed me,
it felt as natural as my birdie-beating heart could allow
and when the warm, just filled, belly pressed against mine,
well it felt like immaculate conception.
And you, I looked into the double eclipse in your eyes
and so much entranced was I, that I jolted when you blinked.
If i was able to put into words the adventures I had on your face
well, you may have imposed limits, or charged entry.
Yeah, headshaking human beauty everywhere.
There was her sweet sweetness and big smallness
and his squeeze and rasp and strengthful softness
and her golden shining hair and campful clarity.
Her wit and walk and wavy ponytail
and her moving mouth and goddess gate
and his moving body and weighing mind
and his gentle way, melting my sometimes brash boldness.
Her smooth parallelagram face and rainbowchain gums
and his wildly practical ticktocking mind
and his mutual love of logic all
and his girly-guyly dimple smile
My loves.
Could I put a photo in a frame on my bedside table,
well that would be as forlorn and flaccid as a
butterfly with a pin in its once flightful self.
I could get a laser
and ceremonially trace the rim light of
the moon making a fineline landscape
on the cusp of your hair?
Yeah, there were scapes everywhere,
sea of knee scapes
glass menagerie scapes
bathing beautyscapes,
all the way to the peripheryscape
and thats when we were cougars
and then foxes
and then wolves.
Yeah, we were beasts
and now I have no idea
which is my totem animal,
since I channeled so many up on that hill.
I was there, I snorted and leapt,
dived and made quick ferral decisions,
my paws ruffled through chickens with you,
bones and flesh and wishes a-flying.
I know savour is the answer,
but I am not there yet,
I have watched the future become the present,
but I can not yet let the present become past,
so fresh the affair,
a storm flashing and waving,
epiphanating around in my mind
and thrashing around to my core.
Can I stand up on the table and scream?
I want to cry and sob
and say that I am covered in splinters and scars
inside and out,
because I have loved deeply
and been deeply all,
deeply this and deeply that
and it lingers still,
though it suddenly feels pornogrpahic,
something to hide under my coat.
Just like the obscene view of the city
through my glasses back weighing on my nose.
I am not free,
I just drank from the cup,
and the cuppeth overfloweth.
and I knoweth
because if I was free I could just flow
and I wouldn't know the difference
between one life and the next,
but then would this have been such a miraculous pleasure stream?
Would I have felt the sunshine shine right through my transluscent self?
Would I have laughed so thoroughly I thought I might
turn inside out or shed a skin
with the writhing contractions happening from within?
I did fly,
I flew above all of you and saw things from the sky,
I turned the world upside down for a while.
I made the sunset with the might of tiny steps.
I was free, it was me, I am redhanded
I feasted on joy and soft-spot stew,
I felt love I still can't conceive of how to deserve,
The Catalysts - The God and Goddess of all Creation
photo - Lisa Lozano
photo - Luke Gilford
Visible only to the keenest of attentions, CATALYSTS floats high overhead in the skylight above Eiffel Society's three teared ceiling. Embroidered in thread on tulle, its figures change with light and appear to float. In response to my enquiry as to whom I should embroider to be the God and Goddess of all creation, Kirsha said: Mythological characters of course. Who is the architypal couple that represents all you are thinking about? I said: No, they have to be living people. Kirsha: What?!! Why?!! I said: That is just the rule! They must be living. K: Well... it should be the founders of the New Orleans Contemporary Art Center then.
And that is who was embroidered.
It was so beautiful up there, all these floating lines and shapes with the sunset flooding through, the air was so hot and still, it felt like how I imagine being inside a bubble might feel. I was pretty terrified at first, it was so high and deliriously hot that it made you feel a little unsteady, sweaty hands don't inspire confidence, but slowly I got into it and by the end, I was hanging off the sides without a blink. One fear down, a few more to go.
.....and everybodies favourite, the back, bravely photographed by Lisa Lozano on the roof of the building!
