I have blogged about the process of this piece but I'm just getting around to a final post about it. I finished stitching the edging on this weaving just in time for the "Brave New World; Fiber Art in the 21st Century" Exhibit which went up in the second weekend in September. I really needed that extra push of having it going into a show to finish this before the subject matter became totally obsolete. That's how fast things seem to move on the internet and social media these days. When I began the draft for this weaving TikTok wasn't even on my radar and now it's just as popular (or more?) as Facebook and probably more popular than Twitter (now X?) is. In 20 more years will these even be a thing? And what will they have morphed into?
I digress. I don't like social media. I'd delete my Facebook if I didn't have to use it for my art business and to keep up with my friends and fellow artist's event here and there. Ultimately I don't scroll through any of my social mediums much because I'd rather be enjoying time at home or doing my artwork. It has it's place, but I've worked to make it a very tiny place in my life for my sanity. It's not healthy for me to be on it all the time and it's absolutely depressing how it sucks me in and I'll completely loose an hour that I'd rather be doing something I actually enjoy. Such as weaving this piece.
This weaving is called "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time" which is a quote from Chris Thile when he was hosting a favorite radio show of mine on NPR. He was talking about how he was alone at home and got on Twitter: Is there a thing to which brings us less joy yet we devote more time? This sentence exactly describes how I feel about going down that social media rabbit hole. I think it was at a time that I had the Facebook app completely removed from my phone. I chose greys and blacks for the base colors because social media tends to make me feel dark and grey. If you look closely there are threads of color in both warps representing the occasional good that can come from interacting with it. Now that I'm further removed from the making of this piece I'm remembering that I designed the edging with the "connected to Wi-Fi" symbol. During the weaving of this I cursed myself that I couldn't just stop weaving when I felt like I had had enough, I needed to get to the other end with the Wi-Fi edging to finish the piece. I really enjoy that little extra bit that I put into the design that at least I notice even if no one else does.
The beaded edge took some sampling as I wanted to switch it up from my usual stitch. This bead stitch is a netting pattern instead of my usual St. Petersburg chain stitch. I haven't really had the time to think about whether I like it better than the other, I didn't have it up on my wall long enough to fully process this portion of the final piece before it was off to be hung. Possibly more on that later.
I have my usual nit-picky things that I need to fix or wish I had done better but ultimately I was really happy how it turned out looking hung in the middle of the Adrian Center of the Arts gallery space. I also plan on never naming a piece with this long of a title again.
(This photo was in my last post about the Brave New World
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