Thank you, 2008

Although people from all over the country are saying good riddance to 2008, I must say that 2008 was a great year for me.

At some point over Christmas, I jokingly said that my iPhone had dramatically improved my life. While I don't seriously think that is the case, I do think that it has something to do with spending less time behind the computer. I was quite pleased to look around my studio at my opening and realize how much work I had created in the last year.

I have spent most of my life thinking about what I wanted to be when I grow up. I started reading "What Color is Your Parachute?" in the 9th grade. I mentioned this to a friend last week and she said, "Oh yeah, I remember when my dad gave that to me." My life's work was my obsession. With a full commitment to my art, I started out 2008 by finally taking a class at the Corcoran after living in DC for three years.

This class stressed me out. I was taking it way too seriously. It was like all of my life's hopes and dreams hinged on how well I did. Sometime during the month of March, I got over it and just got to work. I also had the realization that I didn't need to spend all of my time searching for ways to make things work. Instead I wanted my work to speak for itself and people would come to me. That made all of the difference.

By the end of the semester, I found myself right where I always knew I needed to be. From the first couple of weeks of classes, my classmate told me each week that I was a book artist. As part of my final critique, my teacher recommended that I go to Penland. Timing was right and I no longer had any excuses not to go after ten years of having that at the top of my wish list. So I went...

The above picture is one of my favorite photos from my time at Penland. We were sitting in the cafeteria with my parents. I turned around and snapped the picture. My mom commented, "No wonder you like it here. Everyone thinks just like you." Until that moment, I had no idea that she thought I thought any differently from her or the rest of our family. I finally was in a place where I was meant to be. Even though my skill level was pretty low in comparison to so many of the artists there, it didn't matter. People were so generous with their ideas, encouragement, skills and creativity.


An excerpt from my journal on Monday, May 5th, the month before I went to Penland.

The first week I was there, I had continuous dreams and conversations about shape shifting. This was too much of a science fiction concept for me. Just totally not what I am about. But after finally realizing the messages I was receiving, I accepted the fact that in that week I had transformed from one person into another.

I also had an aha moment that I had found my medium of the narrow, but remarkably broad, medium of book arts. I spent my four years of graduate school studying how remarkable artists evolved into themselves. I read about their childhoods, their education, their friends, their influences, etc. These artists were my role models for how to become an artist. But I still could not put my finger on my medium. What was it?

Finally one night around 11 pm when I made my list of the dozen projects I was trying to accomplish within the two week period, I realized that this is it. I love paper, books, paper dolls, pop-ups... these were all of my favorite toys when I was a little girl. I would have never considered these formats an acceptable art form until spending time working with them at Penland.

Once I returned home, I wanted to make sure I didn't lose the momentum of the two weeks. I got to work practicing skills I learned. So after that, Amy contacted me about creating the ten projects for church, entitled Telling Stories. I considered these ten projects to be quick creative exercises, all of them stemmed from the work I did at Penland. When I finished, I found that I had a nice body of work.

And that's when I got pregnant. All of my creative energy was hidden away from me, deep within my body. I wanted to do nothing for the next two months. I stopped reading, writing, dreaming, blogging, coming up with ideas... pretty much all of the core of who I really think I am. I was shocked to realize that I only had four blog entries for all of November! I guess I was also pushing my little grandma cart back and forth moving into my studio. I was never sick, just a complete zombie stuck to my couch. It was the first time in two years that I really wanted a job. When you are self-employed, you have to keep things moving. I just wanted someone to tell me what to do. Fortunately my energy came back just in time for me to complete the tobacco project for my sculptural books class and a few projects for Christmas.

At my opening, one of my friends said to another, "I remember last summer when I met Caroline and she was reading business books." Yep! I am not sure how but I managed to shake that pretty quickly and finally become who I am supposed to be. I honestly must say that I am surprised at how easy it has been. Way easier than my experience of being a successful entrepreneur. One of my goals for 2009 is to somehow slip in my touch of business experience without freaking the artist side of me out.

So thank you, 2008, despite all of the financial fears and wake up calls we have faced! And Happy New Year's! I am excited about all that 2009 has to bring - more art projects and studio openings, some evolution of our family store, and, most of all, motherhood. A lot to look forward to... plus a promise of more blog entries from me. (But much shorter than this one!)

PS - If you hate those annual letters, I am sorry. I think that this turned into one.

My gift from Grandma (plus a buried lead)

Merry Christmas, everyone! We have had a wonderful Christmas, so far.
And today, I was lucky enough to see my Grandma Merritt, even though
her entire assisted living was on lockdown due to a stomach flu.

I am one of the few family members to receive a Christmas present.
And, this is it! Can you guess what it is? If you can, I will mail you
a surprise. I'm serious this time. I made the same promise a couple of
years ago with the Club 575 haiku contest.

The secret behind the haiku contest is that I asked Lauren to judge
the contest. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of
Florida. She picked Henry's poem. So I felt like that it might appear
to be a little biased since I was married to the winner. Plus I didn't
think he needed a surprise for winning, since I honestly believe being
married to me is full of surprises every day.

Just to establish a firm set of rules: if you were at mom's on
Christmas Day or work at Brighton Gardens, you can not win this
contest. Other than that, it's fair game. First one to guess wins and
you can submit as many guesses as you like by commenting below.

BIG HINT (and, big news):
Today, I am 17 weeks pregnant. (Yes, this is the buried lead.) I am
due June 4th. And my grandma informed that I can use this gift with my
baby. I imagine that this is the first of many treasures to come.

Merry Christmas!

Fire in Boca

I finished my last holiday project today. Just in the nick of time.
Last week, I asked Henry to draw a picture of Tony, my brother-in-law,
in action. Plus I asked him to also draw his truck. Tony has served
the Boca Raton Fire Department for many years now. He even made the
cover of several international news outlets as he cleaned up the
anthrax mess at The National Enquirer a few years back. Needless to
say we are very proud of his hard work. I thought a little handmade
book art would be the perfect gift.

We are opening our presents with the Armijos tomorrow. I'm pretty
certain that Tony is not an avid reader of Beyond Friendship Gate. So
I hope that I haven't ruined the surprise. But I'm quite confident
that I am safe.

The covers are six by eight inch canvases painted with abstract
flames. This is my first attempt at a theater style book, although
there may be a more specific name. The covers close flat and the
little truck, firefighter and gray smoke are afixed to the accordion
folded sides. The front frame of black paper is supposed to look like
palm trees up top, the tree trunks on the sides and flames down below.

I had really hoped to finish the project before leaving DC, but quite
a few things went unfinished. So I had to pack my exacto knife, a
small bottle of PVA, and a few other tools. Needless to say, we had to
check our bags. One was full of tool and toiletries, plus all of our
unwraped gifts. Now that's my final project. Off to that task next.

15 of the World’s Most Creative Papercraft Artists

Check out these fifteen amazing paper sculptors featured on Web Urbanist. I have seen a few of them before, but their work is amazing. My goal is to work my way into this list.

Thanks, Sarah and Amy!

At last - my tobacco project

Tobacco Project from Caroline Armijo on Vimeo.

Finally a video of the finished piece! After Christmas, I plan to include close-up photos of the text and the audio files. I can't wait to spend some time reading the piece. Because of the woven texture, complete thoughts aren't visible. But I imagine that there is some interesting "visual poetry," as termed by another Brazilian visitor to my studio.

This project is based on the idea of recreating a latch hook rug, like I made with my grandmother. I wove twists of tobacco and strips of craft paper featuring three essays I wrote about my childhood.

The first was The Story of My Scar, which describes my account of cutting my right hand with a Dr. Pepper bottle when I was kindergarten. The shape of the final piece is taken from the shape of my scar.

The second essay was about spending time on the brown shag rug at my grandmother's house. It includes the issues of severe allergies that I had through elementary school.

Finally, the third essay, is a humorous memory of my grandparents afraid of a perceived snake on the rug. I was too frightened to take a look, but glad I finally did.

I also created audio recordings of the essays, which would ideally play on a loop as part of an installation.

Studio Tour

Joel requested that I post some photos from my studio. I took it to the next level and made a couple of videos of my studio. They are both shot as my space was set up for the open house from a couple of weeks ago. The first is highlights the work on display. The second is a quick 360 of the entire space. Enjoy!


My Studio Tour from Caroline Armijo on Vimeo.


360 of the Studio from Caroline Armijo on Vimeo.

I am on my way to show my tobacco piece in my final class. I will try to post the final pictures before we leave for Florida on Saturday morning. However, I have lots of last minute projects, which didn't stop me from taking a nap yesterday afternoon. So I may have to fill you in after Christmas.

What is this tool?

Why do I have it? Where did it come from? Have I ever used it before?
All very good questions. The answer: I don't know. My guess is some
kind of scrapbooking tweezers since it says making memories on the
side of it. (Which you would be able to read if my iPhone had the
ability to focus!)

I receive a lot of grief for having this collection of things, which
now lives in my studio, but never using them. I have heard several
times why don't you just get rid of them. First of all, I hate
throwing things away. It kills me to put anything useful in the trash.
And I do periodically purge and create little give away piles.

Second, you never know when a tool might come in handy. Even if you
have no idea how to use it! I've been guilty of buying a few tools at
Michael's just because they looked intriguing. A few years later I
have taught people how to use them in my classes at Paper Source, so
my gut was on to something.

I do know that yesterday these tweasers were a complete God-send as I
began weaving the strips of written text into my tobacco project. I
think that I had tried to use these mystery tweezers once before and
couldn't intuitively grasp them. I know that sounds crazy, but they
weren't working for me.

But yesterday, they were perfect. I had dreaded adding the text to my
piece, because I was certain that the tobacco would flake and crumble
as my clumsy fingers tried to weave the text. Once I thought of these,
I was able to easily weave the three pages worth of strips. I could
stick the tweezers up through the light, inside the loops of the
tobacco and down through the hardware cloth. So much easier than I
anticipated.

And I loved the feeling that I was actually suttering up my scar. I
felt somewhat like a surgeon, minus the blood. At least three of the
six pages of were my recollection of cutting my hand on my
grandmother's front porch, which is were this piece gets its shape.

Granted I still spent at least four hours doing this, but it wasn't
stressful in the least. Well, not until I had heard "Here Comes Santa
Claus" for the ninteenth time of the day. That's when I decided to
call it a day.

Sewing the Muse

Big thanks to Heather for sending me this inspiring video of Brooke, Travis' sister. It is a little long at 29 minutes, but well worth it. It is a great example of adding enthusiasm to your passion and expanding it into some pretty amazing collaborative pieces. Enjoy!

The work and artistry of Asheville dressmaker/performance artist R. Brooke Priddy is featured in this special episode of Art Seen Asheville which captures the spirit and essence of the creative community of Asheville, NC. Includes interviews with Rene Treece, Amanda Boekhout, Julie Armbruster, Paul Olszewski, Chris Bower and Alison Watson. Music by Josephine Foster. Produced for public access tv station URTV in Asheville, NC by Ursula Gullow.

No more sticky nicotine fingers

Yesterday, I went to class determined to finish at least the tobacco
portion of my project. I packed some snacks, which proved beneficial.
I ended up stating in class until 7:30 pm. That's twice as long as our
normal class time. But my teacher was helping a student, the Christmas
carols were blaring, and I couldn't bear to think of having to spend
more time in Studio East, aka my steamy guest bath.

On Wednesday night, I wanted to gag as I packed up the tobacco for
class. Some of the leaves still had their sweet smell. They were
typically still supple and sticky. I could easily twist and weave them
into the hardware frame. But others were quickly drying up. And some
smelled plain awful. I don't care if I ever handle any form of tobacco
again. I'm not sure why I felt so compelled to make this project over
the last year, but I am glad I did it. Even if it doesn't sound like
it right this minute.

So I still plan to add text by weaving in strips of craft paper. This
piece is based on the scar on the palm of my right hand, which I cut
on a Dr. Pepper bottle in kindergarten. I considered dying the paper
with my favorite soft drink, but I think I'll try to match the color
instead. Otherwise, it would be a major bug magnet, leaving it more
vulnerable than it already is.

At this point, I feel pretty confident that I'll finish the project on
time. I've eeked out a few Christmas gifts from Amazon. Now I just
have a few more handmade goods to complete. And I'm still not certain
about putting up our little tree at this point. Maybe I should just
have a giant picture made at Kinkos and hang it in its place.

Studio West

Welcome to Studio West, aka our guest bathroom. Since my move to the
studio, Henry started calling our apartment Studio West. Technically
speaking, it should be called Studio East since we leave to the east
of 9th Street.

This weekend, I quickly realized that my tobacco would never last in
my studio space. The humidity had dropped from 22% to 12% during the
cold spell. And my tobacco leaf on display shriveled to a crisp by the
end of the opening 24 hours later. Stanley suggested that I lay the
leaves out next to the shower and turn on the hot water. So our guest
bath became the obvious hot spot.

So I've been hard at work twisting and weaving the tobacco into the
hardware cloth in no specific rhyme or reason. I am hoping that the
project will at least survive until next week. At this point, my goal
is to complete the tobacco weaving before class tomorrow. Then I'll
weave in the text.

As with most of my projects, this one doesn't look exactly like what I
had in mind. But I believe that the twists maybe a little more durable
than the strips of cut tobacco. (Keep your fingers crossed.) Plus, I
love some of the beautiful twists and rosettes that have turned up. I
also like the variations of the stems and a couple of the dried tips
of the leaves.

Henry warned me that the final piece might look a lot like Mr. Hanky
from South Park. My concern was that it would look like Mr. Hanky
after he had passed on and began to dry up and fall apart.

This weekend, I met someone who passed through my studio, who was
visiting from Brazil. I told her about this most recent project, as I
had the process on display. She seemed quite excited and wanted to
follow along online. I promised her that I would keep her up to date,
even if it was a complete and utter failure. More to follow...

Another Open Craft Night: Origami Nativity Scenes

Adding to my collection: my only nativity scene, which I bought in Spain, 1998

You may remember that last year, Sallie and I lead a craft project as part of our annual church Christmas party. We made snowflake ornaments. They were a smashing success. Plus, I already had the materials on hand. Same is true this year.



I became so excited when Nancy shared with me a copy of instructions for how to make origami nativity scene. What a perfect craft. If you like, you can make a tree or a star as part of a group project. Or you can go nuts and make an entire nativity scene for you to take home and treasure forever. It is totally up to you. As I alluded earlier, I still have a full drawer full of origami paper in 20 different shades of colors. Perfect. We can really take this project to the next level. And I am more than ready to share this paper. I bought it in 1997 with the launch of fortunehearts. Honestly, I am ready to let it go of it after eleven years.

Yesterday I was breaking down boxes at Paper Source and realized that I needed some cardboard to create the stable. I was just thinking of taking home one piece. But as I broke down each box, I realized that I could just take the boxes with lids. They would be perfect... somehow. Right? Plus you have to love using items that would otherwise be recycled/thrown away. So I left the store with bags full of boxes in hand. Let me tell you, this severely limited where I could sit on the bus ride home. But someone felt sorry for me and moved to the front of the bus leaving me his seat.

If you don't want to take on the daunting project of a full nativity scene, you can also create a Christmas carol cootie catcher, which is the traditional children's game that includes this Christmas carol song guide. If you can't make it on Friday night, of course, you can create it now for free. Fold it up and then drive your officemates crazy with Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

I am sure the craft activity will be all loosey-goosey, but those events are my favorites. Have I made a sample yet? Of course not! I am saving that for Friday morning. But I promise that I will have at least attempted it once and that we will have fun. There will be Christmas Carols, chili and cookies, too. Maybe I'll make white trash!!! No promises, though. Plus it's completely free. In our depressed economy, you can't get better than that.

Be there or be square.

Calvary Baptist Church
Friday, December 12, 2008
6pm (but you can come later)
8th & H Streets NW, Gallery Place

This Weekend: Three East Coast Events {NYC, DC & NC}

There are three events happening, each near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately I can only make my own. If I could time travel, that would be another story. I would definitely hop in on each.

1] NYC - Flux Factory Auction at Hungarian Cultural Center in Soho


“Nostalgia for the Sea II” by Lauren Wilcox

Lauren Wilcox has donated an amazing piece to the auction. If you're in the NYC area on Friday evening Dec 5, and have some time and cash to burn, stop by the Hungarian Cultural Center in Soho for some wine, food and a little dose of cultchah. $30 cover charge. Silent auction from 7 to 9. All proceeds go the good folks at Flux Factory to help them find a gallery space.

2} DC - F Street Arts & the Downtown Artist Coalition - Open House Dec 5 & 6



This week marked my first work day in my new studio space at F Street Arts as part of the Downtown Artist Coalition located at 923 F Street NW, Room 202. This weekend we are hosting two openings.

* First Fridays - Caos on F Street - Dec 5th 5-8 pm
* Downtown Artists Coalition - Artists Studios & Galleries Open House Dec 6 12-5 pm

Come by to see my new space, check out a few of my pieces, and meet my flat mate, Stuart.

Several of the other studios in the building will be open, as well. Plus make time to check out the Holiday Market, which is also happening on F Street just a block over in front of The National Portrait Gallery. We are also located right above the Cowgirl Creamery, a definite must see if you are a foodie. (And, this is a great opportunity to do a little handmade Christmas shopping.)

More info...

Downtown Artists Coalition
Artists Studios & Galleries Open House
Saturday, December 6, noon - 5:00pm

Artwork by Contemporary Artists
Gediyon Kifle
Studio 201
Photography

Stuart Gosswein & Caroline Armijo
Studio 202
Paintings, Book Arts and Paper Sculpture

Caos on F
Gallery 203
Paintings, Ceramics, Furniture

Reyes + Davis
Gallery 302
Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture

Downtown Artists Coalition
923 F Street NW
202.255.5050

Metro: Gallery Pl-Chinatown, exit 9th & G streets
or Metro Center, exit 11th & G or 12th & F streets

3} NC - In Every Room - Re-Opening Celebration Dec 5 & 6



In Every Room, a gift boutique of old, new, and eclectic pieces located in Elkin, North Carolina, is definitely worth the drive. We visited last Saturday afternoon. This favorite shop has expanded with a new location at 126 West Main Street (beside Royall's Soda Shop) and new merchandise. The shop now features clothing from Even a Sparrow a Boutique (Juicy Couture, Nu Collective, Bailey 44, Zooey and Diabless), gifts and accessories from The Vintage Home, and Jewelry from Sassy Gems.

Join the Re-Opening Celebration Friday, December 5, 4-8 pm and Saturday, December 6, 10 am - 5 pm.

National Day of Listening at the Farm

Last week, instead of hitting the early morning sales to celebrate Black Friday, we opted to head to the farm to pick up some tobacco for my art project, a latch hook rug made out of tobacco and craft paper featuring stories about my family. Coincidentally, it was also the National Day of Listening. This seemed completely appropriate as we gathered around the bin of tobacco and discussed quite a few topics for about an hour.

My family raised tobacco in my early childhood, but had stopped farming it by the time I reached middle school. Somehow I came up with this idea that I really wanted to make a latch hook rug out of tobacco. I spent a lot of time making these rugs with my grandmother as a child. Although they weren't out of tobacco, instead kits of kittens and Sesame Street characters from the craft store. But I would spend a lot of time on my grandmother's carpet, which was a brown shag and I was highly allergic to it. In fact dusting brown carpet could be my arch nemesis.

So when it came down to finding tobacco, I had to call on Stanley Smith, one of my favorite people from Stokes County. Most everyone from Stokes County knows Stanley because he is the lead auctioneer for Stokes Realty and Auction. Almost everyone I know from Stokes County ends up having an auction to sell of all of their worldly possessions before or after they leave this world. And in fact, it is worth the six hour drive to return for the event. This is Southern entertainment at its best. I know that my friends will kill me, but I would take a good auction over ACC basketball any day.

Stanley also auctioned off my piece for the Stokes County Art Auction this summer. It went for 100% of it's value, so I call that a success.

Not only is Stanley an auctioneer and serves on the County Commissioners, he is a long time tobacco farmer with his father John. There are not that many tobacco farmers left. I knew that he was my best hope for finding some tobacco. Plus, I also knew that the trip would be highly entertaining. And it was!

Friday's trip was Henry's first visit to a tobacco farm. We also got to see quite a few people hanging around, including John, Stanley's Dad, Will, his son, and Bobby Boyles, another familiar face from my high school days. I don't believe that Bobby wanted to believe that it had been quite so long since high school. Every time I threw out a year of when I last saw Beverly or Joe, he corrected me by subtracting off about five years.

So we talked about high school, mom's farming memories, the tobacco farming process, how to twist the tobacco and even how to attempt to make my project without it completely falling apart. I am still worried about that last one. But only time will tell. It is due in two weeks from today. I have a pair of gloves to help prevent the nicotine from seeping into my skin as I weave. Henry, who fondled a few leaves for about an hour, was not so lucky. He left feeling a little sick.

Thanks, Stanley!

My first work day at the studio

Today was my first work day at the studio. After at least a dozen
trips with my little grandma cart, I am finally all moved in. Last
night, Henry took the lead on building this great shelf and desk unit
from Ikea, along with a rolling file shelf.

I spent a fair amount of time putting things in their place. The
problem is I have so many different containers that I'm not sure what
is hidden where. So, I TPA'd (temporarily put away) my supplies and
cleaned off a space to work. This large table was irresistible. I
desperately needed to begin work on my final book project for my
sculptural book class.

So I sat down and began to plot the shape of the scar on my right hand
on an enlarged grid. This involved a little more math than I could
comprehend. Hmmm... I was tempted to contact Vince via Facebook and
ask him how to plot out this ambiguous shape. After a struggle with
counting tiny squares, I realized that I could simply draw points
based on the larger grid and connect the dots. Perfect! Besides it
doesn't need to be perfect. It's my art project!

So we will see how it goes. I am quite nervous about it. How did I
allow a seven week project turn into a two week project? At least now
the pressure is on.

Come by and monitor my progress this Friday evening and Saturday
afternoon (12-5 pm) at F Street Arts, 923 F Street, NW, Suite 202. The
Holiday Market will be happening at the same time on F Street in front
of The National Portrait Gallery. Bring your Christmas list and shop
handmade this year.