The one where I work through how I feel about people touching my art

I make a lot of things. Books. Crochet pieces. Books made out of crochet pieces. I paint in things and on things and then sometimes cover them with gold foil. I handle my things while I’m making them and I’m not usually particularly gentle with them because sometimes these bits and bobs have to be (wo)manhandled a bit to get them to do what I need them to do. And after I’m finished working on the pieces, I like for others to get to handle them as well. Because so much of my work is tactile, hanging them on the wall and then denying folks the pleasure of touching them makes me by turns itchy and angry.

Of course, this goes against the usual rules of museum and gallery installation. There are exceptions, I’ve seen and read about installations (usually fiber art – go figure!) that allow touching but they are rare. And I’ll admit it’s a tricky prospect. Once you’ve spent months or years on a particular body of work that encapsulates your livelihood for who knows how long allowing people to handle and possibly damage your work is panic inducing. Trust is a fragile thing and never more so than the times we find ourselves in currently.

But “no touching” shouldn’t be a “one size fits all” solution. I personally would like my next show to be more inclusive of allowing people to touch the works gently so they can have a full experience.

But why though?

Here’s my best example. I make these tassels:

And they are so squishy and fun to hold! That’s one of the reasons why I’m obsessed with making them. And I want you to get to touch them so you can experience that joy as well. If there’s a “no touching” policy in the venue where my work is, you don’t get to squish it gently and then release it to watch it sway and cast shadows on the wall.

I’ve been thinking about how I feel about people touching my work for a while now. I explore it some in Creative Energy. This process of coming to understand what I want to make and how I want to share it with others is really interesting for me and I hope it’s as equally as interesting for you.

New work

The last few weeks I’ve been making weavings again. Previously when I’ve done weavings like this they became Walk Softly and Carry This Stick. I loved that series but am trying some different things this time. The new works are a color series in blue at the moment. I currently have two pieces finished and I’m working on a third. And of course there will be tassels! I’m still thinking about how I will present these pieces. They are still incubating in my mind. I don’t want them behind glass because: tassels! So I’m working through how they are going to go together. Stay tuned, I guess!

Also this week I took a tiny book I’d already made and turned it into a list of things that make me happy. When I was done with it, I made it a tassel. The last thing on the list inside the book is “holding tiny things that I’ve made in my hand.” So this piece is like a happiness inception — folding in upon itself by listing things that make me happy while also being a thing that makes me happy.

Changing my mind

In college, I was all about making big art. I wanted to make the biggest things I possibly could. One of my senior projects was a triptych of canvases that sat in a basement for years because I had no place to hang them.

Scale is one of those things that art excels at. Bringing our attention to the scope of an issue —think Christo and Jeanne Claude’s “Surrounded Islands” or Kara Walker’s “Sugar Baby” (the complete title of this work is “A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant” and if you’ve never seen video footage of this work, I highly recommend the video embedded in the link above.)

But work at that grand scale is out of my reach now. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say I don’t have the energy for art at large scale these days. So instead I find myself turning towards the small and handheld. Works that are manageable for me both in terms of time and space constraints and what holds my attention and that I can execute. I used to be a little bit sad about scaling down (pun intended) but now I find myself of an age that I just want to make things and have people enjoy those things and that is more than enough.

Tiny, handheld pieces are perfect for people to be able to hold, see, touch, and experience. So if you see me in person, be sure to ask what I’m working on because I will probably hand it to you so you can see and touch it for yourself.

What about you? What are you rethinking or changing your mind about in your practice? I’d love to hear about it! Email me or start a conversation by leaving a comment on this post! If you’d like to keep up with what I’m working on, I’d love to have you as a newsletter subscriber. I include blog posts from here, cool things I find online, and pictures of my dogs. Sign up here.