hello chicago!

i am so happy to announce my new representation at Ashes & Milk in Chicago! since the moment i saw their online gallery, i was completely taken in and have dreamed of being able to offer something beautiful to the collection. i am honored that Ashes & Milk is presenting two of my embroidered territories. read more about this work here.


Territories 11
available at Ashes & Milk

territories 13

7.5" x 5.5" (paper size)
embroidery on paper
angela simione, 2009

available at black fence

looky looky!

territories 12
15" x 11"
embroidery on paper
2009

this is what i've spent the last three days working on. lovely! i've been so taken with how much the hanging strings on these pieces resemble a girl's hair so i tried to exploit that resemblance further by braiding it. i love it! and i think it really starts to push certain metaphors to the forefront of the work: body as landscape, traditional expectations or ideals of the female, the longing for a white picket fence childhood or life, etc.


detail

i think i may add a pink or black bow to the end of the braid to really bump up the little girl associations that this piece presents.

i'm still working on the jumbo version of this and it is going to take me a long long time to get it finished. the size that the last three of these have been is 15" x 11" and it's at least a good 10 hours of stitching. the jumbo one is 4 times the size so, mathematically, it'll be a 40 hour work week to get it finished and that's only if i work on nothing else. yeah right. i like bouncing back and forth between works in progress, applying what i've learned with one piece to another, testing ideas, and just exploring the possibilities certain materials offer.

paper is so versatile that while i'm working on one piece i get so many ideas for future works that i've got to stop for a minute and write the ideas down so i don't forget them. i've lost a great many wonderful idea by assuming my mind can hold on to every whimsical thought that passes through while i'm working. and these pieces in particular are so meditative that i lose track of time and get lost in thought quite easily. that's something i've always loved about sewing and cross-stitch and crochet... all the traditional women's work that i get caught up in. i'm just so attracted to using the lineage of these activities in an art context to talk about identity, loss, longing, day-dreaming, hope. there's an inherent poetry in these traditions that i'm trying to bring to the surface and highlight. i think i'm on the right track with these territories...

but i'm also thinking of changing their names. yes, there are definitely part of the entire territories series i've been working on for the past year, but they have been such a turning point for me that i really think they need a title of their own... they are definitely different than the earlier work and don't have anything to with notions of the decorative like the others do. there's something so quiet and humble in these last three embroidery pieces that i want to honor it. they need to have their own title. i've just got to think one up. :)

territories 11... (until i change the name)

territories 11
15" x 11"
embroidery on paper
2008

this is what i was doing when the clock found midnight and we began a new year. i really love this work. even the doing of them. it's pretty time consuming stuff but the more i look at these pieces the more i love them, the more i feel like i am on the right path here.


detail 1

i'm thinking that continuing to link this work to the territories series isn't really adequate or accurate at this point, especially since i've got more in the works and plan to continue in this vein for a little while longer. i think they need to be viewed on their own terms and not in relation to the previous work. all this to say... i'll be changing there names before long.


detail 2

first, i've got to pick my favorite metaphor these pieces have inspired: not an easy task. do i want to talk about domesticity? do i want to talk about the self as territory, the body or mind as landscape? or history as landscape? it goes on and on and on and i'm gonna be giving this some serious thought.

in the meantime, i'll keep stitching away on the next piece- 4 times the size of these little beauties and will take a couple weeks to be completed. good thing i love doing it or all this sewing would be torturous. seriously though, i think this is some of the prettiest work i've done in awhile and i'm very happy with them.

territories 10

stitching, stitching, stitching...

the metaphors are endless...


15" x 11"
embroidery on paper
angela simione
2008


detail

collection...

last night before bed, i spread out a small collection of drawings and paintings i've done over the passed few weeks and was really pleased with what i saw-
there is such a solid direction and cohesiveness to this work that i guess i was entirely unaware of until seeing a few grouped together.



protect
24" x 17 3/4"
oil on canvas
2008

my investigation of the need for protection and the pleasure of safety are leading me to see the new poetry that is born inside trauma and fragmentation... the loss we tolerate when we put up fences and wondering where i can find the space to build a site of hope within all this obsessive seperation and fear...




untitled haven
9 3/4" x 6 1/4"
mixed media collage
2008

of course, we need fences but when do we stop building them? where is the guideline that we can turn to and say, "oops! one too many, let's take that last one down. we've lost too much."




all my cages were empty
5" x 5"
ink on torn book page
2008

sometimes the desire for protection doesn't rise from a healthy place. in the case of the edited document, it's a need for protection from embarrassment and an unwanted, damaging exposure. it hides information angrily... maliciously... a sign of the corruption of the one who wields the big black marker.




Anonymous Girls study
7 1/2" x 5 1/2"
ink on paper
2008

but i'm trying to find beauty anyway... these delicate phrases that remain in spite of the obliteration i've done to them.




dust flower
8 1/4" x 5 1/4"
acrylic on book page
2008

how gorgeous is the fragmented phrase "a dust flower". stunning. poetic. destruction and loss turned against itself.




the penalty (detail)
13" x 10"
mixed media collage
2008

i feel like i'm on the right track.

sneak peak

still recovering from staying up all night printing, but coming away with some work i really like makes it worth being dead on my feet. i'm in the process of completing an edition i started that night. 15 so far but i'm thinking of letting the edition swell to at least 30. we'll see. in the meantime, here's a preview:



breach
11" x 15"
wood cut with hand-painted elements on paper
(ink, gouache, glitter)
2008

definitely the next incarnation in the 'Territories' series and i can't wait to finish the edition and lay them all out and see them together. i'm hoping i can get it finished up by monday but i'll be cutting it close.