See?

My Installation 'Forgetful Psychic' sneak peek. If you are around these mountains, please come see it in person on Friday from 7-9. Or 6-10. Or I can show you some other time.

You. Or me. I lost track.

This is my favorite part.

My installation has a suggestion box. 

You know. 'Cause why not?

Thanks for giving a damn!

On Saturday.

Photo by Vikki Cruz.

"If we could learn to see sideways..."

The name of this blog is "Millions of People Happy." I'm sure I've written it somewhere, but in case there are any new readers out there, the thought of making "millions of people happy" is what motivates Kermit-the-Frog to leave his swamp and move to Hollywood in the original Muppet Movie. This was on my mind when I came out here two years ago, particularly on the days when I would ask myself "what the **** am I doing here?!"

I think most people who know me would attest to the fact that I am a positive person. I can be very sarcastic, but I am by nature pretty cheerful, or glad, or "happy" (to use a more meaningless word.) I was reading some of my older posts the other day, and it occurred to me that on this oh-so public blog thing, I present to you strangers an often dopey-sounding super-positive look at things.

So I've been thinking about how its probably only my really close friends that know how I've been in a bad mood for the past couple of years...(and lets just skip the "moode" puns) Things have been on the upswing since I had my wisdom teeth out in January. And folks, I must say: these days, I am sincerely happy.

I'm a frantically glad optimistic mess!

Okay, on to some news:

On Saturday I was a vendor at the LA Printer's Fair. It was a long hot-as-the-blazes-of-hell day in Carson, at the International Printing Museum. In spite of the heat, it was a FANTASTIC day. This place is amazing, it was a very well-attended event, and I came home with a nice pile of money to roll around on.

Look, I took pictures!


You go to a "printers fair" and may count on good signage.




I'm selling books now. I make books, and I sell them.


But, really.


So much type and so many type cases for sale...




There's no part of me that wants to own a press right now, and if I did it wouldn't be a letterpress. But OH it was fun to look around!




mmm.....this place is amazing. Sure, the heat may have had a little to do with it, but I spent most of my time walking around smiling like an idiot.


Come on.


It was damn hot. See?


This little lady is going to have some of my paper sculptures hanging over her bed. She's excited...just sleepy from the heat.

Anyway...what a good day. I'm teaching now, and that's keeping me on my toes...but I am going to look for more events like this to do in the coming months. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks for reading.

The Happy Ones.

So, I've been on spring break from CSUN this week, which has been a pretty successfully balanced time of rest and productivity. Okay, maybe a little more rest than productivity...

I've also had lots of good news this week.

The "calculations and waiting" in my last post refer directly to my apartment-hunt. I've lived in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles for almost two years (well, come august), and I've been in my current apartment for over a year. I like where I am, and after a brief investigation into moving more drastically out of my neighborhood, I decided I'd rather stay put for now. I know these streets, I like walking to places around here, I like driving up to the observatory as needed, and I like having a familiarity with the check-out folks at my market.

But dang it, I need more space! My little studio apartment has been good to me, but in recent months I have felt more and more crazy because of the stiflingly small space. And street-parking. So I've been looking at apartments for a while now, and it really helped me clarify what I want in a place to live.

Geeze, this is wordy.

To sum up, I am moving May first into a place that I am very, very excited about. Besides having room for a couch AND a bed, it also has a petite dining room, hard-wood floors, a GARAGE, a telephone niche, and all sorts of 1930's detail that makes Michelle a bit giddy. It's the one-bedroom apartment that feels like a home, and it's the same price as one I looked at that was in a dark building with EIGHTY units. Bizarre.

Okay, so that's the big news. Let me tell you about my summer plans.

In July I'm planning on making a short trip up to Seattle, (never been there) to stay with my friend (from WVU) Myra. I'll be teaching a two-day bookbinding workshop at the Kirkland Arts Center, where Myra is the educational director.

In late July/early August, I will be at Penland (as I mentioned last post) for Arthur Hash's metals workshop. So excited to play with metal again. It's been a while!

Afterwards, I'll be hanging around P-land for a few more days to do my thing at the fancy-pants auction, and I hope I can persuade these girls to join me:



After THAT, I'll be making my way to Atlanta, Georgia (not sure I've ever been there, either...) for a residency at the Art House. I'll be making things and having a show. I'm excited.

I'm planning on posting more work for sale in my shop today. Not all of it is brand new....as I begin organizing/packing for the move, I've been finding pieces that I've forgotten about, (most have been in shows and have been resting in frames in a closet) and I'd like to find good homes for them. I do not make art to hoard it all in boxes and closets.

v e r y l o n g l i n e s.

I thought I'd share the statement I wrote to accompany my work at Surface Gallery. I know I'm a terrible tease, considering I haven't posted any images of the work for the show, but I'd love to hear what you think...



statement: very long lines

A few months ago I taught myself how to spin yarn with a drop-spindle. Besides becoming obsessed with the repetitive nature of the craft, I was also fascinated by the spatial paradox of the process. In my tiny little apartment, I could sit in a small space and create a very long fine line. Yards and yards and yards of creation, wound up into a tidy, compact space.

Although the work included in “very long lines” is not made of Michelle-spun yarn, this interest in the spatial complexities of creation has certainly informed this body of work. My current living/working space is very small, and this has affected my art in ways I am just starting to understand. For years most of my work has been petite, or made of many petite fragments. I made a conscious decision to work on larger pieces for this exhibition, making an uncomfortably small workspace even more uncomfortable. It is part of the work that is invisible to the viewer, but working through this discomfort is part of what the work is about.

In creating these airy, open compositions, I am satisfying my desire for a place (or state of mind) where there is room and time for intricate detail, room for growth, and even room for un-organized “stuff” to comfortably exist.

My work is an autobiographical exploration of the non-linear nature of memory. The repetitive nature of my processes, (printing, mark-making, sewing) facilitate a meditative mind wandering, thus each finished piece becomes an abstract record of my thoughts. The “very long lines” refer to time lines, conversations, landscapes, paths, and distances between friends. I often equate interactions or conversations with tangible threads: loops as repetitions, tangles as complications.

Everyone We Know...

...and the wisdom in their teeth.

Highlights from my submission for the Art House Co-op's most recent Sketchbook Project. They sent me a moleskin sketchbook, I put a pink hard-cover on it and filled it with loveliness. I started working on this in January, when I had my wisdom teeth out. At the time, there was nothing else in the world that I could think about.











Check out more images at my Art House Co-op profile.

Tulips and other Pretty Things.

O, its been cold and rainy and wonderful out here in California. I love it. I've been very busy with work and art. And tulips and letter-writing. Can't believe its already mid-February. Deadlines are sneaking up on me from all sides.

But I wanted to take a break from my productivity to at least post some pictures, and a "hello" to my mom, who likes to check in on the ol' blog.





I'm spending every possible moment working on work for my upcoming show, "Very Long Lines" at Surface Gallery in Bakersfield. The work is larger than usual, and also very open: lots of lovely white space. And also lots of intricate tiny detail. I may be going blind!

I'm not ready to start sharing this new work with the world, but I will post some pictures of some of the "source material."





Journal drawings, August 2007.



Magazine image of a river...this has been taped to my wall for a few months. I know its upside down. The Polaroids are from a sunrise in Northridge, maybe in November.





I made these sketches in 2001, in my little seventh floor drawing studio at Murray State University. They were images from dreams. Very vivid dreams about art I had not made...don't worry. I'm not about to start writing about my dreams on this blasted blog.





More recent journal notations...December 2008.

Okay. Back to work.

ufos.

This weekend I finished up my images for the Scavenger Project for the Art House Co-op. Above is my response to the "Unidentified Flying Objects" prompt. It is a Polaroid Transfer with a little sewing and pocket-watch gears.

I posted more of my images for this project at my Flickr account. Enjoy. I did.

Space.

I am itching to make some big art. Everything is rather cramped right now in michelle-land.

This is a big ink drawing on mulberry paper...spent a lot of the weekend drawing all these dots and circles. It's lovely and huge and delicate, and I want to make many more of them.

Yeah...that's all for now.

All the new.

I've been very busy lately. Already a month into classes at CSUN and LMU, and I'm pretending it's autumn in Los Angeles, even though it's still too dang hot. But I'm wearing plaid, so....it must be fall.

The images above are of the work I mailed to the Art House Co-Op in Atlanta, Georgia for their "Collecting Objects" project. Today I signed up for what sounds like another fun adventure, their "Scavenger Project."

Here's good stuff: I actually found Lost Found Art while teaching my 2d design class. Who knows what I was talking about at the time.

My friend Ann Flowers has started a blog, haunted by pretty ghosts. Check out A Beautiful Party.

CSUN has wireless internet everywhere, which leads us to my next recent discovery: how fantastic is Pandora Radio? Why didn't I discover this sooner?

Here's a breakthrough moment in the history of the universe:



Well, actually like most things in the universe, this breakthough is rather a looping-around of something I was doing years ago......


So, I've made 115 sales to date in my Etsy shop. I listed some new things on my birthday...check 'em out.

I'm working on a stack of applications, proposals, and entries.

I'm also working on etching big zinc plates, and taking out some of my agression on a litho stone.

Elle Decor

In the current issue of Elle Decor, there is a tiny, blurry image of one of my pieces on page 70. My friend Paula's store, Henry Road is featured, and that's my piece entitled "Blood Oranges and Spiders" above the mantle. Neat, huh?

I've been busy adjusting to my work week. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have LONG days at Cal State Northridge. But long days in a printshop are actually very enjoyable. And I'm not fighting LA traffic...

...I'm out-smarting it.

My 28th birthday is friday! I'm going to the Hollywood Bowl for the first time, to see Brian Wilson & the LA Phil & fireworks.

And I'm buying myself flowers.

More tomorrow: for those keeping count, tommorrow is my one-year "etsyversary". 112 sales from my shop in a year...not too bad, right?

reminder.

Featured on "Heart Handmade"

Have you ever wondered how Michelle Moode holds a pencil when she's drawing? That's just one of the many shocking secrets revealed in my Heart Handmade interview, which can be found HERE.

I hope it's good for a few laughs...

Print Matter(s).

I forgot to write a post about the "Print Matter(s)" exhibition at Studio Channel Islands Art Center! It's a beautiful exhibition of California Printmakers, curated by my friend Jennifer D. Anderson. The exhibition will be up 'til August 9, and if you're around California, you should check it out!

My work for this show consisted of many many layered book-ish things, expertly arranged by Jennifer whilst I was frolicking on the Atlantic Seashore.

The pieces incorporate etching, lithography, monotype, drawing, typing, and a lot of sewing. They are attached to the walls with T-pins.