I am so very excited for this show!

Dear Friends & Colleges,
Happy New Year! I would like to encourage you to start 2008 with a fantastic show opening at Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery Friday, January 4th from 7-10pm. Providence based artist, filmmaker, and performer Xander Marrow will be joining us in Milwaukee, her show Tucker Neath’ the Covers will run through January 30th, 2008 and should not be missed. It’s a treat to have her work on display and I hope you get a chance to check it out!

Tucker Neath’ the Covers

Work by Xander Marro (Providence, RI)
January 4th- January 30th 2008

Opening Reception Friday, January 4th 7-10 PM
{artist will be in attendance}
Open late Gallery Night Friday, January 18th until 10PM
Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery:: 2375 S. Howell Ave, Milwaukee, WI.
www.paperboatboutique.com

I first met Xander Marrow in the summer of 2003 when, by chance, I booked a show for her touring puppet theater in Milwaukee. She performed her piece the Birdsongs of the Baharoque and bizarre and dreamy performance that utilized puppets, song, dance, film, lectures, sets, lights & costumes.

I was sent a package of posters to help promote the show. This was not like any other press kit I have ever received. Enclosed were the most shockingly beautiful silk-screened posters I had ever seen. Layers of pinks, reds and gold made up a striking advert for the soon to come performance. To this day the poster is a work of art I treasure, hung at my home. This was my first taste of the silkscreen work of Xander Marro.

Skip to 2006 I was in Providence, RI shooting footage for my upcoming documentary Handmade Nation and I had arranged a visit the Dirt Palace, a collectively run feminist art space that Xander is the founding member of. The entire building (an old library) houses up to seven artists who work in a variety of mediums, sharing studio space, performance rooms and housing a store front gallery installation space.

While getting a tour at the Dirt Palace and seeing the amazing worked it housed, a library, darkroom, printing studio, performance space to name a few, I was shown the guest room. In the guest room was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, laid out on the bed, a quilt. But this was no ordinary quilt; it was a red, and velvety, a patchwork quilt that had the art of Xander Marro interwoven within itself. When I asked about the piece Xander replied with an explanation along the lines of “Every time I print poster or a design on paper I also print it on fabric, then I piece the fabric squares together and make quilts”. Xander's artwork had taken on a new form in my eyes and the beauty of her illustrated work was now also a functional piece of art, laying there for guests to curl up within its designs.

Xander will be joining us from Providence to install her show which will include two finished quilts, a site specific installation of the Museum of Very Small Things, and affordable pieces of silk screened fabric for you to work into your own quilts or hang on your wall!

- Faythe Levine, Paper Boat Gallery Curator

Artist Bio
Xander Marro (American b. 1975) is a fake scientist/olde style tinker residing at the dirt palace; a feminist cupcake encrusted netherworld located along the dioxin filled banks of the Woonasquatucket river (which is to say in Providence, RI USA). From this post she makes movies, puppet shows, prints and phone calls. Her adventures underground have included curating the “Movies with Live Soundtracks” film series and performing in various theatrick/musical formats as one of the variety of her alter ego’s (Madame Von Temper Tantrum, Lady Long Arms, Lil Blood-n-Guts, Madame Von Malt Liquor etc.) Of recent days she has gotten herself deep into the wild world of community organizing around neighborhood social justice and human rights issues.

Open Call

I received this from my old friend Dan Beckman in my inbox this week:


Call for all artists, creators, crafters, sculptors,
drawers, writers, instalationists,sound makers,
painters,etc:

Waterfall Arts, a contemporary art center located in
Belfast and Montville, Maine is announcing an open
call for artists to participate in its Spring 2008
exhibition: “Treading Lightly: One Foot at a Time.”
The “curator” for this open show will be a one cubic
foot box. 12" x 12" x 12" x 12" All work conforming to the “curator’s” dimensions and
the exhibition’s theme will be included in the
exhibition; (2D or 3D) This is an open, non-juried
show. Also, the works can be smaller than one cubic
foot.

Criteria for acceptance in the exhibition:
Work should address our human imprint on the earth
reflecting Waterfall Arts’ mission of
“generating awareness of the deep connections between
art + nature in the lives of all people.”
This can be done by simply creating art using recycled
material. Your iterpretation of the Waterfall Arts
mission statement is strongly encouraged
Work can be in any media, but must be one cubic foot
or under in size.
For multiple entries, we ask that your personal
footprint reflect Waterfall Arts' mission statement
and the exhibit title by "Treading Lightly", making
sure there's room for everyone to contribute to the
show. Artists with multiple entriesof more than 5
pieces must also contact exhibit organizer Dan
Beckman by email at dan@waterfallarts.org. or phone at
207-338-2222

All works should be mailed or delivered to

Waterfall Arts, 256 High Street , Belfast , ME 04915
by February 15, 2008. No work will be returned unless
accompanied by prepaid postage and return packaging or
picked up in person. All works must be installation
ready with appropriate hanging hardware. Works will
be installed in the order they are received in
Waterfall Arts’ Clifford Gallery and Corridor Gallery.
We are expecting hundreds of entries from around the
world to fill the Clifford Gallery and the 5 levels
of the Corridor Gallery for a visual impact on the
grandest of scales.

All works will be for sale unless otherwise noted.
Artists have the choice to donate 100% or 50% of sale
price to Waterfall Arts Youth Arts scholarship fund.



To participate or for more information email
info@waterfallarts.org or call 207-338-2222 and ask
for Dan Beckman.

Please feel free to pass this open invitation on to
other artists who may be interested in participating.

NY Times & invite to speak in Pittsburgh in 2008

I forgot to mention that I was quoted in the New York Times Magazine last Sunday in an article written by Rob Walker. You can read Handmade 2.0 HERE.
This is the illustration they used, I think it's great.........Today I got asked to be a part of an event happening in Pittsburgh this April. It is a symposium which is in conjunction with a year-long festival called "Women in the Arts: Founders, Pioneers, Instigators". I'm pretty excited! More news on that later.

Have a good Christmas if you do that sort of thing- otherwise, stay out of the way of those crazy shoppers!

This is how we do Christmas

Last week I took stills for Sam Macon while he shot the video Christmas card for the agency he directs for in Chicago called Radar. You can check the stills out HERE
and this is the final result....

Wooden Robot Recording

This week my band Wooden Robot recorded a long overdue album at Howell Street Recording
with Shane Hochstetler.

Thanks god it's over

It was a busy busy last week....

I had a piece of work at the Milwaukee Art Museum for the Cedar Block Show.


I interviewed Debbie Stoller for Handmade Nation while she was in town doing a book signing.




My band Wooden Robot played at the Paper Boat for the David Stein opening

The next morning at 9:45 these folks were waiting to come into Art vs. Craft













The rest of the photos from Art vs. Craft are HERE

This week is recording with Wooden Robot!!

Vacay photos!

Arriving to Orcas Island via ferry boat!


Doe Bay where we stayed on the island one night....


Thanksgiving....


My mom in the aging room at their dairy


good times were had!

A Visit to the Ribbon Factory

Milwaukee is home to Cream City Ribbon and I was lucky enough to not only go there for a tour, but to have the owner donate ribbon to Art vs. Craft for the gift wrapping table! They are the only factory in the United States the makes ribbon this way anymore, it was absolutely amazing to watch. You can custom order any color and even get anything you want printed on it... my mind was reeling after I left with possibilities. Check out their site and if you happen to order ribbon from them, do me a favor and let them know I sent you!

Check out the entire photo set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flyingfishdesign/sets/72157603334341327/

More on this soon....

the next 9 days

Going on vacation to Seattle was the best, except when I got home there was so much to catch up with! All of this stuff is happening in the next week:

This Friday the 30th I will have a piece in the "The Ramirez Box" at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where Thirty artists create new works with limited resources, and in the spirit of Martin Ramirez. 8PM-midnight $5 members/$7 general public. Another collaboration between MAM and Cedar Block, in conjunction with the Martin Ramirez exhibition.

Saturday, December 1st is the closing party for the current show at Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery from 6-10pm in association with the KK Holiday Art Walk. Check out San Francisco based artist Michelle Blade who has paintings, zines and prints on display along with Seattle based artist Diem Chau who's miniature crayon sculptures will blow your mind.......

Friday, December 7th join us again at Paper Boat for the opening reception of David Stein, an old Milwaukee resident who is now based out of Portland, OR. Stein's work is best viewed in person since what he creates is so intricate and detailed photos just don't do these amazing paintings justice. The reception will run from 7-10PM with a special appearance of Milwaukee's own Wooden Robot at 8:30 who will play a short set to welcome their old friend home. The show runs through December 31st.

Saturday December 8th is Round 7 of Art vs. Craft, now located in a new space at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 790 N. Van Buren St. from 10-7pm. ONE DAY ONLY!

30 for a day.

This is a photo of my birthday present from Nathan I got yesterday when I turned 30. This is a box (a very fancy leather box I might add) that has two plastic chairs (which I collect) with a small trunk in between them. On the back "wall" there is a little "frame" that reads "you are invited". In the trunk is a miniature flight itinerary for a trip to Mexico where we will be meeting up with my best friend Andrea & her boyfriend Derek. I have the best boyfriend ever.

Besides turning 30 yesterday I also finished my first book manuscript with Cortney Heimerl within the same 24 hours. Not a bad birthday.

Anyhow, I kept a blog for the last two years HERE and decided, a new age bracket, a new blog. No good reason, just starting fresh. So here I am at the Chicago airport, waiting for a connecting flight to go home for Thanksgiving (the first time in years, maybe 6 or 7) and I'm really excited about being 30, what I'm working on and where stuff is going.

More soon.