The mother as an artist. Disbanding the myth of the artistic sanctuary and a space to create.

Two and a half hours of embroidery, feeding, changing, entertaining, and cuddling.

Photography: Marcus Salvagno
Editing: Karl Fitzgerald
Music: Line of Flight – Revolution Void

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This piece was created for “It’s Never Too Late to Mend”.

The Making and Baking.. was born out of a desire to contribute to the conversation about the value of handmade.  All too often purveyors of handmade goods find themselves having to justify their prices in the face of mass production of consumerables.  Comparing a uniquely designed, handmade piece of clothing against a one of thousands, sweat shop produced item shouldn’t even happen, yet it does. And far too often makers are left to defend their ‘high’ prices, when the reality is that the mass producers should be the ones explaining their prices. This Is Handmade is a brilliant video project which works with this idea.

The Making and Baking.. was also inspired by observations of gender within the arts. As a mother and an artist I rarely have the luxury of uninterrupted creative time, I share my creative space with small children and I have to manage gallery time with childcare.  These are not really issues that phase me as my children are my muses and are very much a part of my practice. What interests me is the different status that artists attract due to their family status. Certainly my experience and observation of group shows is that it’s the single guys who get the most time and attention paid to their art.

Luckily for me, my practice tends to attract similarly radical curators and art workers so my colleagues have always been open to supporting my children being present and part of my art. However, I know this is not reflective of the art world as a whole.  Hopefully this piece will plant some seeds for people to think about the way they value art workers as parents.

Thanks again to Marcus, Karl, Hannah, Jose and the kids for helping put this piece together, arohanui xx

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Y’know economics can be really boring. All that lingo, boring white dudes and acronyms. Anyone would think they made it boring on purpose so we wouldn’t pay attention to how much economics is the single greatest driver of our planets destruction. And anyone who thinks this has nothing to do with craft oughta read this.

What we really need is economics with wicked beats, and plain speak. Then maybe we would pay attention and sort this madness out before our lovely planet is unfit for habitation.

Oh wait, here you go.

Watch. Share. Agitate.

(check out the fence stitching)

http://realestate4ransom.com/

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(apologies the imbed is really small, youtube have changed their imbed system and I can’t work out how to make it a proper size. Here’s the video page if you need it)

One of my favourite crafts and an especially awesome craft to do with kids is bleach stencilling. We have a heap of bleach stencilled clothes in the wardrobe now and we always get great comments from our friends. It’s a great way to whip up a quick protest tee out of an old shirt too. Or you can use old scraps of fabric and make patches. Just remember the test spot. Some fabrics don’t take it at all and some colours are picky. I find greens and blues usually work best.

The singlet I used in this tutorial video was one of a pile of baby singlets I had donated to me. They’ve all been spunked up with an image of the great wind vane sculpture down at our community garden where we hold our Braybrook Sprouts Permaculture Playgroup. I’ve made a pile of these singlets to give to all the wee ones that join our group.

Bleach stencilling is a fabulous way to teach kids about how the fun works. As you can see in the video it literally works like magic in front of your eyes. And there’s so many other teachings you can incorporate depending on what you use as your stencil. Maybe use some shape blocks to make a picture. Or use some shapes found in the garden like leaves. Just ensure the edges are very close to the fabric or they will go blurry.

Have fun with this tutorial and feel free to share it around.

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I’m sorry folks, I’ve not really been quite up with the play with the blogging thing recently.  But I’m trying to get better I promise! One really super important thing that I let slip was the fact that I’M IN A FILM! And so is Casey, and Gemma and Pip! And even better, Anna made it (mostly) all by herself!

Anna in Frankie Magazine

Making it Handmade is a documentary about:

A seditious and subversive subculture is gaining momentum in Melbourne. But rather than wielding megaphones and placards, they’re cross-stitching slogans on hurricane wire and constructing plush female genitalia from craft supplies.

Following four local women who’ve taken a seemingly staid past-time and injected it with a youthful, modern aesthetic, filmmaker Anna Brownfield shows a side of craft more closely aligned with punk DIY culture than with Martha Stewart and ‘home sweet home’ tapestries.

“I wanted to show that craft was no longer daggy but had moved into a new era and was being reclaimed by women who had been brought up as feminists.” – filmmaker Anna Brownfield

And it’s AWESOME!  Making it Handmade just had its premiere screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival and was insanely popular.  There was only one screening and it was one of the first to sell out.  And there was so many people sad they missed out.  But don’t fret, there are more screenings being planned as I type.  There’s also plans afoot to take the film to other centres so those of you in far off places can see the awesomeness too.

After the screening there was a short panel with Anna, Casey, Pip, Gemma and myself and there was some nice interesting questions asked.  I’ve had some amazing feedback from people since the screening. Friends have told me they had their horizons shifted once again and strangers have got in touch with overwhelming levels of inspiration bubbling out of them!

So were you there? What did you think? What was your favourite bit? My favourite bit was watching all the happy people making stuff and seeing my now three and a half year old looking little and cute as a one year old!  It was exciting for her too.  It was the first time Tara had ever been to the movies and she was in it! Not many kids can say THAT.

For more information and to keep up with future screening news check out Anna’s blog http://www.annabrownfield.blogspot.com I’ll try let you know too. But yeah, bit slack on the blogging..

xox

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As readers of Radical Cross Stitch will know I am a big time fan of Melbourne community radio station 3CR.  There is nothing like turning on the ol’ wireless to hear people from my own communities talking about news and issues that are relevant to me and the lives of the people around me.  And it’s even better that I never hear any loud voices screaming at me to quickly empty my pockets into the hands of giant corporate consumerist empires!

So I didn’t hesitate for a second last year when the fine folk there asked me to contribute to the 2010 Seeds of Dissent Calendar.  I still consider that piece to be my greatest stitching achievement so far and I was super happy over the weekend to finally pick it up from the framers after a 12 month hunt for the PERFECT vintage frame.

Well I promised that I’d make the pattern available and at long last it’s now in store.  And if you hurry and grab it over the next couple of days it’s half price (sale ends Friday).  Proceeds go straight to 3CR! If you don’t already know the 3CR Radiothon is on NOW! So you should pop over to their website and become a subscriber. The theme for radiothon this year is Handmade Radio and subscribers get a copy of CRAM which contains a fab pattern to make your own radio! Including some wee cross stitch embellishment patterns from me.

Need more reasons to love 3CR? Check the spunks in this wee clip

3CR Radiothon TVC 2010 from 3cr on Vimeo.

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See I think internet censorship is silly, rather pointless, and inevitably ineffective. I would even go so far as to say that it is a policy equivalent of fucking for virginity.

Our political leaders are supposed to introduce policies that REDUCE the problems in the most cost effective way. Not flick rubber bands at problems in a way that not only makes them harder to solve but creates a whole new raft of problems in the process, not to mention costing a big bundle of dollars.

If the government really wants to deal with the problems of sexual exploitation in our society perhaps they might want to start by looking at their own policies that treat women and children like tradeable commodities. Perhaps if the exploitation of women and children wasn’t so wholeheartedly endorsed by business, media, police, our governments etc etc then people wouldn’t find the sexual exploitation of women and children so enticing.

But big picture issues and solutions don’t fit so neatly into electoral terms do they?

What gets me the most about this whole internet censorship thing is the AUDACITY of the Minister to say that it’s to help parents protect their children.

Excuse me? If I needed help protecting my kid, I’m afraid the government is probably the last place I’d look. I would much prefer tax payer dollars were spent educating parents, teachers and anyone else who has interaction with kids and computers on the issues surrounding net safety, respect for women and how to empower kids to protect themselves.

Do we seriously think rape and sexual assault would be such big problems if our kids were empowered to respect all genders. I know thinking back to my teenage years there were far too many guys who thought it was ok to treat girls like objects and even more girls who just did not have the skills to stand up to it.

At some point we, as a society, have to do something real about this issue. And sadly, despite the rhetoric of ‘Australia Says No’ I doubt it’s gonna come from the government. So it has to be up to us as parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, siblings and friends. Anyone wanting to read more on feminist parenting might want to start with ‘Raise Some Hell’. And if anyone reading this post knows of any good resources it would be awesome if you could share them in the comments.

Finally, I urge you all to drop a line to Stephen Conroy. He really is being quite a fool about all this malarky. And the more people who tell him the better.

http://nocleanfeed.com/

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This cross stitch was hand stitched on antique linen. In between breast feeding, changing and entertaining twins and feeding and hanging out with a three year old, it took me about 3 weeks to complete.  It has been framed in an antique brass frame with the original mounting board to complete the aged feel of this piece.

This piece is for sale and proceeds will go to the campaign to stop internet censorship.  Maybe someone out there wants to buy it for Stephen Conroy?

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(I was all nerves and excitement, so I had some problems focusing on taking pictures, but at least some of them turned out ok.)

Entrance hall of the exhibition: "Craft for a better world"

QR codes by Kakariki, Mario Map by Cross stitch ninja

A part of four panels by Faythe Levine

"Oh, Sorry was that your land?" by Kakariki, "Homes for all" by Cross stitch ninja

A fabric world map of craft zines. Strings tied to them to show where they come from. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

And a clip from local news programme Smålandsnytt (in Swedish).

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The upcoming Interventionist Guide to Melbourne show has given me plenty of time to think about the role artists play in our society and how much art is constrained by our economic system.

Any artist that spends more than five minutes thinking about the world around them will be aware of the effect gentrification has on their lives.  But it seems very few really understand how it works.  I see far too much art around me – especially street art – that plays into the hands of the gentrifiers.

I was gonna write a big rant on this but instead I URGE you to download and listen to this episode from the Renegade Economists instead.  It sums up so brilliantly the economics behind why artsists are just pawns in the speculators profit game.

What really frustrates me is when I see really brilliant creative minds who go cap in hand to the land lords asking for good deals on rent for creative spaces when really it should be the other way around.  Especially if you think about how much value artists contribute to communities.  Or arguably even worse is when artists set themselves the task of ‘prettying up’ a decaying suburb.  Rather than questioning why there’s row after row of boarded up shops, they just go and paint pictures on them.  The owners freakin love it, I assure you.

There are countless examples of how artists move into a run down area, get cheap rent, make the place awesome and desirable and then get priced out of the area when the speculators cash in on their efforts.

The question I have to ask is, as artists when are we going to educate ourselves on these issues and collectively stand up against it?

Rent is one of the reasons we started the Craft Cartel.  We wanted to create a market space for crafters who were doing truly interesting things.  It was apparent to us that so many crafters were making stuff that was palatable for the retail sphere not out of desire but out of need.  There’s no point making stuff unless you know for sure someone is going to buy it, especially if your craft is a major source of income.  And if you want to sell your stuff in shops the pressure is even greater as the shop owners have such massive overheads.  Especially rent.

So we made a real concerted effort to have super low stall fees at our markets because we wanted people to be able to have a space to bring the really crazy stuff.  The political stuff, the kooky stuff and the stuff that really makes you squirm..

It’s very much a labour of love for us.  The stall fees went to covering the costs of the market but didn’t go near covering our costs to organise and promote.  But the payment was in the fantastic community that arose out of it.  We had sellers say to us that they loved coming to our markets, not to make money but to have a great time!  So as far as we were concerned, it was a raving success.

So it really gets me going when I know that crafters are busting their asses to make sustainable, interesting, awesome things and there’s so many people out there sitting around trying to figure out how to make money off them.  Be it stupidly expensive markets, yet another bloody internet marketplace or (what really makes my skin crawl) advertising space – we even rip each other off!

It is the monopoly capitalist system that makes it so hard for makers.  Yet it’s so rare that we sit down AS MAKERS and use our creative skills to come up with new ways of doing things.

But sometimes people do. And I want to pay massive respects to those people.

If you want some inspiration or some more info I recommend you check out some of these resources:

• Community Land Trusts – a bloody good working example of reformed local economics
• I Want To Live Here – Born to Rent – win $3000 by making a short film about gentrification. And there’s some good writing about gentrification on that site. Especially check out the blog.
• The Antagonist Movement – just discovered this NY crew and LOVE!  Actually gives me a reason to want to visit that fine city..  What really pressed my buttons was this short doco I found on Wooster Collective. It’s brilliant.  Watch.

The Antagonist Art Movement – For Dummies from Anthony Ferraro on Vimeo.

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I couple of weeks back I posted about the OutdoorKnit mission to Love up the Bute Street fence in Wellington.  Well, they went back out last weekend, and invited a whole heap of people to join them.  And the results are simply gorgeous!

The results are simply stunning!  I am so inspired by this work.  And given the lovely spring that appears to finally be knocking at our door here in Melbourne, I’m amping up to get out and do some more fence stuff.  More info on the OutdoorKnit day and a link to more photos on their blog (and Fan them Facebook peeps!)

Also, The Sidestrip did a short film piece on the day with a lovely wee interview with Nikki

Awesome!

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So almost a year on and some philistine (guessing the landlord..) cut it off!  Clearly not happy with the community questioning the ongoing waste of such a precious resource the local landmark was destroyed.

The MRCC was clearly not going to let this go unresponded to.  So a few days later we were out again, this time armed with bright green wool and tummies filled with Pho.

What the hell is going on?
Why is this block still empty?
Why are there 11 other vacant sites around the primary school?
Why does the State Government continue to believe the outright lies of the property industry that the housing crisis is driven by lack of land?
Why do we still allow this waste of our most precious resource when there’s over 100,000 people every night in Australia with no place to live, let alone call home?

We’ve had enough.

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