Now for something completely different

Throughout my entire life, art has been a constant necessity that keeps me (somewhat) sane, bringing me solace in a uncontrollably chaotic world. As some of you may know, I originally got my Bachelors degree in Painting and Drawing from the College of Arts and Crafts — and no, even though I went to a school with “Crafts” in the title, I didn’t minor in crocheting. Unfortunately, somewhere after graduation my love for painting took a swan dive; although I continued to draw and make art (occasionally forcing myself to paint), I never really showed my work to anyone, and for the next seven years I became focused on a new obsession: watching as many horrendous, wonderful, weird and obscure films as humanly possible. I  spent countless hours in front of my DVD player and VCR (yeah, that’s right… VCR: all the best worst movies are always on VHS and completely unavailable on DVD), writing movie reviews, articles and zines, as well as keeping intensely detailed journals.

After having watched thousands and thousands of films and TV series, I taught myself needle crafts in late 2009-early 2010, and everything changed pretty drastically. Something about knitting and crocheting really connected me with the making of things like I had rarely experienced before. This, in turn, pointed me back toward my love for making fine art. I took my fervor for needle crafts and my new attitude towards creating and used them to breathe life back into my deflated passion for painting.

My latest ongoing series, Pink Period, takes a hard look at various aspects of historical and modern female life, questioning and comparing points of womanhood from the angles of past and present. I’m still working with the medium of crochet (and other fiber arts), but it’s now combined with my own surreal and symbolic language of imagery, bringing an exciting new component to the work and its processes. After taking much of this past year to build up this new series, I’m excited to announce the launch of my new fine art website, http://shovemink.com. There you can see other series and works I’ve been creating and get some background information on the pieces featured. I have a lot more ideas for future pieces, so keep an eye out for new work sometime soon.

(And don’t worry, Croshame isn’t going anywhere!)

Pieces from the Pink Period series: