1″ of felt in a brass brooch pin base
Gentry Blackburn
Mom makes Art
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1″ of felt in a brass brooch pin base
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Just finished a latch hook rug I started 15 or 20 years ago. I bought the original supplies at Zim’s- and they were out of stock of the little packages of yarn bits I needed to finish it even before they went out of business in 2008. It was a pain to finish because I had to pick out a whole bunch of already hooked yarn to mix it in with ‘sort of matching yarn’ from the now times. It took forever! But now I have this weird blast from the past that really gets me into my old aesthetic and reminds me of Zim’s.
Double strands of wool filled in for all the missing baby poo yellow. Found some turquoise rug yarn on Etsy that was a pretty good match.
Zim’s. If you remember, then I’m sure you are in a flutter of crafty nostalgia and if not- I’m so sorry, you missed out on a uniquely bizarre shopping experience. It was at 150 S State, Salt Lake, in an old building that hinted at a past grandeur that was impossible to know. Something snazzy in the 20’s, who knows!? It was multiple floors of craft supplies, doll house stuff, nutcrackers and most of it was, well, weird. Their heyday was in the 60′-80’s and that vibe was still in the air and actually for sale. They had some fine art supplies and normal craft stuff, but you couldn’t really count on it if you needed something. It was more of a place to find oddities. The version I got to experience was at the end of 64 years in business and it was awesome. You don’t go looking for 4″ curry color fur or plastic frog doll heads- that sort of thing would find you, at Zim’s!
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My painting is in the background! It’s gouache on red paper board from 2002ish and it’s big- about 3’x4′. I think I did it for a show about the “male gaze” and it didn’t get accepted! Too on the nose? Or maybe it was show of female nudes. Anyway, it didn’t get in. At the time I was into photo coping photocopies until they became really degraded and then painting from that freehand-but very specifically. A very precise distortion.
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Been going through stuff, and I found a stash of 35mm slides of old artwork, so I finally put up an Old Art archive. The quality of the images is not great, but I lost the digital copies of things, and this is better than nothing! This one is Jimmy and the Gorilla, Oil on Canvas, 2001
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Another blast from 2008ish. This was another show at Saans Photography, and the delightful Shalee Cooper put them together in perfect poster form:
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This was from a show at Saans Photography in 2008ish. I could have sworn there was a sister painting that went with it but all record of it is long gone, I guess. A burned disk with just this one image on it floated up out of the detritus of life. I traded the 2 paintings for my first gentryblackburn website and then the guy moved and I couldn’t make changes or updates to the website and it was lamesauce. They were big- at least 36″ x 36″, acrylic on wood panel.
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Crusin along on some knee socks. I was in the mood for an intense pattern. The look on her face is so bitchy. I got the pattern from Novita.com. The mustard yellow goes with this kindof silly turban I just crocheted that I’ll probably never wear-
I’m growing into my HAG CORE look. It’s like dressing up as an old lady for Halloween, but it’s just what I look like. Also thinking of starting a Riot Mommm band. Loud screaming, rage, yummy homemade treats, oop gotta go pick up my kids.
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Just finished an acrylic on walnut little painting for my cousin of his little girl. Shh, it’s a surprise!
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Check it out! I knitted some loafers! And finished the cotton triangles blanket. But, it’s going to have to go into the “hope chest” as in, I hope someday to have a clean house where chocolate milk and otter pop spills don’t happen on the hour.
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Thick books and intense knitting projects don’t intimidate me but knitting a blanket with tiny little stitches is a little nutty. This is the Purl Soho Embossed Triangles Blanket. I’m about 2/3 done at this point. I keep putting it down for a week or month before picking it back up, drawing out the whole thing. To makes this worse (or better!) I keep feeling like when it’s done, I might embroider some simple Scandinavian style geometric botanical stuff on there. Or is the simplicity better? My mother-in-law saw what I was knitting, and she said something like “you are making heirlooms that people will actually want.” What a nice compliment!
Gentry Blackburn 