My day in the spotlight and...production time.

A quick cold drink and script review

 Early this week I traveled to Toronto to shoot a video for a company called WorkInCulture
for their YouTube Channel (estimate posting-September) Karen  and Susan, my contacts there, are so  great and are ready to take on some serious work on behalf of us Canadian artists that contribute so much. Being an artist is not for sissies. I am not kidding when I say it takes diversity in our practice to make being a professional artist work.

I am not a T.V. star...I have pretended on occasion, truth be told....and had a few brief opportunities as an "extra" and such while living in  Atlanta, but certainly not what I would call any real experience. Goofing around here filming my statement for my piece "Cleaning House" with my pal Alec Ross hardly counts.

I was greeted by the warm and professional, Brad Dicks as I entered the studio of Heather Shaw of Pilo. It was sauna-like with the lights..Heather filmed prior to my arrival and I was followed by Kim McBrien I was soon followed by the (A-dorable) "Hudson" the kitten...He had me at "meow". We filmed, we lunched, we filmed a bit more, and I was on the road to deliver work to the Craft Ontario guild shop, make a quick stop at the gallery/office to say "Hi" to awesome staff and beat it out of town before rush hour.

Image of Hudson by the fantastic and amenable, Brad Dick with WorkInCulture, who was so easy to work with!

AND...Production...

 Ahh. It begins. last year, I suspended any commercial scarf/hat production work for a couple of reasons...

1.) I was creating work for the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum. Glad I did, as I not only made some great work, but enjoyed some long,decadent  summer days with friends...time I will not ever get back and I made to most of it...Heaven.

2.) (big reason) I really wanted to distance myself from the "functional" work and concentrate on my fine art practice.

Reality, however, has kicked in and these are great sellers and there is a demand. With a fantastic new assistant on board, I am ready to design some exciting things and get them out the door so I can work on a new body of sculptural work for 2 solo exhibitions in 2015 (yes, details soon!)

These are hats from over a year ago and they were popular in Toronto....

I made a new one today in PINK with this template...but will be switching it up.

These are my fantastic "collage scarves" that were Niche Award finalists in 2012,but we will be switching it up this year with some exciting stuff. Maybe a combo...who knows?! Having an assistant will be fun as she, Susan Farber, an artist in her own right, is a real delight and has feltmaking experience (YAY!). I look forward to the dialogue and experimentation. It will mean not everything goes out the door, but the journey and development will be so productive and will feed us both. LIFE IS GOOD. I am one fortunate woman.

Ciao, Ciao (a clue as to where I will be soon, but not soon enough!..sigh!)


Visit my site www.andrea-graham.com