This is a blog where people can look at my art work and can see what I am currently doing in the world of art.

New Web Site

So I now have an official website, I hope that all of you will check it out. For some reason you can't find it when you google my name, that will be fixed soon. http://www.annieaube.com

Artist Statement

Art for me is a very tactile experience. It should engage the viewer in a very physical way. Either a physical sensation created by layers of visual texture within the piece or literal texture i.e. rough felt, soft silk, etc. My ideal show would be one where everything was open and allowed to be touched. I like my work to be ambiguous; I want my viewers to come to their own conclusions about what I’m trying to say. I thrive on the chance that is involved in making a piece; the happy-accident is something that I live for. I also use Irony in my work, all of my “blankets” are completely useless, I love that idea that something which has all these perceived connotations is turned completely around thus shedding light on the object and on the perceptions that our culture takes for granted. For me art is a window into those things which go unseen every day (the mundane), or which our culture does not want to see (the taboo).

Resume

  • EDUCATION
  • Bachelors of Arts in Art 2006
  • SHOWS
  • Members Exhibition, IGCA, Jan 1st- 31st 2007
  • 100 x 100 Exhibition, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Oct. 28th-Nov. 26th 2006
  • No Big Heads, University of Alaska, Nov. 1st– 23rd 2006
  • Stitched Together (solo senior show), Mat-Su College, Oct 10th-18th 2006
  • Palmer Arts Council Pavilion, August 24th-September 4th. 2006
  • Fiber Arts Student Showcase, Mat-Su College, November 2005
  • ORGANIZATIONS
  • Valley Fiber Arts Guild, 2006-2007
  • Palmer Arts Council, 2006-2007
  • International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 2006-2007

Why Fiber Arts?

Some of you might be wondering why I chose something as obscure as Fiber arts, instead of painting or sculpture. One of the things that I like about fiber arts which you cannot get with any other medium, a physical closeness. We as human beings have a close relationship with cloth, so close that we don't even perceive it most of the time. Cloth has been what has allowed us to live in cold climates (like Alaska), and to keep warm at night in the dessert. Every morning we drap ourselves in cloth, and when we go to bed at night. I like the idea of using something so taken for granted. Some of my art work is perceived as being somewhat creepy, this could be because of the closeness people instictually feel towards cloth and the way that I have used it to make them feel some what uncomfortable.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Criedne cuts off her breasts


So this embroidery is based on a Celtic ledgend. Criedne was a young girl, she had been raped three times by her father and every time she ended up getting pregnant and having a baby. When it came out that she had been raped by her father the druids blamed her for suducing her father. The ironic part is that the thing which Criedne was the most angry about was that her father Connel Black Foot would not acknowledge her children as legitimate heirs. She was so angry that she gathered an army of men and pretty much destroyed Connel BlackFoots kingdom. After this happens Connel Black Foot makes the attempt to rape Criedne again. "Conall Blackfoot dragged me to him. I pulled the sharp knife from my belt. I ripped open my bodice. Cut off both my breasts. Blood spilled on the late summer grass. I flung my breasts at my father. 'Since you have such a taste for my body, eat these.'" She then becomes part of the sun and him the moon.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Chinnamasta Embroidery



So this image probably seems pretty intense and it is. If you read the excert below you will understand the imagery more throughly. I read about this particular Hindu goddess and thought she was so cool that I needed to do something which incorporated her in my art work. I also found this picture done during the victorian era of this young girl. I thought that it would be interesting if she had cut off her head like the goddess and was holding it in her hand. The reason that I chose embroidery for the exacution of this piece is because first of all it was a predominate art form in the victorian era, same as the girl. The other is the seeming opposition between the subject matter and the medium of embroidery.



The image of Chinnamasta is a composite one, conveying reality as an amalgamation of sex, death, creation, destruction and regeneration. It is stunning representation of the fact that life, sex, and death are an intrinsic part of the grand unified scheme that makes up the manifested universe. The stark contrasts in this iconographic scenario-the gruesome decapitation, the copulating couple, the drinking of fresh blood, all arranged in a delicate, harmonious pattern - jolt the viewer into an awareness of the truths that life feeds on death, is nourished by death, and necessitates death and that the ultimate destiny of sex is to perpetuate more life, which in turn will decay and die in order to feed more life. As arranged in most renditions of the icon, the lotus and the pairing couple appear to channel a powerful life force into the goddess. The couple enjoying sex convey an insistent, vital urge to the goddess; they seem to pump her with energy. And at the top, like an overflowing fountain, her blood spurts from her severed neck, the life force leaving her, but streaming into the mouths of her devotees (and into her own mouth as well) to nourish and sustain them. The cycle is starkly portrayed: life (the couple making love), death (the decapitated goddess), and nourishment (the flanking yoginis drinking her blood).

Hindu Goddesses:Visine of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Reigious Tradition (ISBN 81-208-0379-5) by David Kinsley








This is a authentic picture of the goddess Chinnamasta

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Exposed




So this was one of the pieces that I was working on before I got sick. It is Appliqued cotton on to this plastic styrafoam sheet. I think it looks especailly cool when in the window. This is one more pice in the series of vulva pieces that I've been working on. They almost remind me of jelly fish too. The plastic was really hard to work with but I think the effect was well worth it.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Security Blankets


These are a set of pieces that I actually did back in November. They are composed of layers of fabric the top layer being a yellow mesh. Through this top layer one can see the stones which are trapped between it an the lower layers. The stones are set into place by the stitching that is around them. The reason I call these security blankets has nothing to really do with the conception of them. Kimberlee (a friend of mine) and I had been joking about how heavy of a piece it was and that you could actually use it to hurt people. It keeps the owner of the blanket secure, thus the name Security Blankets, even though they are to small to be any sort of blanket for anyone but maybe a baby. The real context for this blanket came from a conversation I had with Keren (my professor) about cancer and its implications.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Yea, more Devotional Cloth

This is the first Devoltional cloth that I created. I wrote the Our Father nine times out on this long piece of cloth. Then I layered it together with batting and a piece of naturally dyed indigo cotten. I quilted underneath each of the lines of the Our Father. At the bottom of the piece there are three granny squares. These I got in some of the boxes of fabric from Dave's Grandma, I can only assume that she is the one who had made them. I thought they added a nice touch and fit the feel of the piece that I was going for.


I got the idea for the devotional cloths from these wonderful vests from Africa. The maker had written prayers from the Koran on the vests in order to provide protection for the wearer. I thought that was such a good idea that I thought it would be cool to see how it looked if I translated it into my own more western context. Since then I have been playing with this form and it has become so much more. I has become a way for me to knock down the barrior that we have created in our western culture between nature and religion.





















Thursday, February 1, 2007

Vulva Cloth

Hail Mary Detail
Hail Mary


This was a project which happened to combine to ideas that I had been working on. The First idea was that of the Devotional cloths. One of the things that I like about these devotional cloths is that it is taking a western religious idea and mixing it in with a more primitive (I hate this word but use it for lack of a better one)nature based religious structure. I think that many times we use religion as a way of separating us from nature and our own more instinctive natures. These devotional cloths try to break down these arbitrary walls. The other idea that I was working on in this piece was that of cave paintings. I have always been fascinated by cave paintings and the simplicity of the shape. The shape of the vulva's on these pieces of cloth were inspired by those that I have seen in cave paintings.






Rough Sex


Rough Sex Detail

All of the vulva shapes were appliqued onto the layers of fabric.