wall art
* i am reposting this story i wrote about sarah kinn’s amazing paintings several years ago. her work has continued to evolve creatively and i am so excited for you all to see what she is bringing to california! come see it live at our pop-up on octover 17th! x0x
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(this quilt has been hanging in my bedroom for over twenty years… i LOVE it! x0x0)
one of the BEST things about moving back to california is being near my parents. it is so easy to pop over to their house and see what they are up to. most of the time, my mother is in her studio working on a quilt or three. i love to watch her process and i also love having her work hanging throughout my house. her quilts are more like fabric paintings in her use of color and the way she upends traditional patterns and reconfigures them or creates original blocks. her quilts add warmth, texture, color and dimension to my house and now you could have one in your home as well! i will be featuring a different quilt each month. contact me if you are interested in more information: jennifer@jenniferrhode.com the full collection is on view here.
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i first saw sarah kinn’s work when it was on display at max (boulder’s esteemed women’s clothing shop) sponsored by the boulder creative collective. the paintings hung throughout the store were done primarily in deep pinks with hits of black and grey and other startling, vibrant hues. they almost looked like textiles. the canvases were boldly feminine and so very uplifting. i immediately wanted one, and i wanted to meet sarah kinn.
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around the time that my younger brother started kindergarten, my mother decided she needed a creative outlet of her own, beyond meatloaf and bedtime stories. i remember coming home to find the downstairs bathtub filled with long, skinny sticks soaking in water to soften them so my mother could make baskets. there was also the collage period when the dining room table was covered in colored bits of paper from my mother’s art class. eventually, she volunteered to help make a raffle quilt to raise money for our elementary school. and that, i think, sealed the deal.
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many of us have frustrating memories of trying to hang a photo or a piece of art and making a big, dusty hole in the wall that isn’t even in the right place. it’s stressful trying to figure out how far below the top of the frame the wire hanger is and how to get your piece centered correctly. generally, i don’t like drilling holes in my walls because it feels like such a big commitment. and for those of us who aren’t that adept with power tools, there is a strong possibility of disaster. i’m sure this process has caused a lot of strife and swearing in homes across america.
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my grandmother crocheted doilies that she laid on various surfaces: armrests, table tops, dressers, vanities… there were lots of doilies! recently, my mother was cleaning out her linen closet and passed along several large needlework pieces, some cloth napkins with crocheted edging, and a couple of dolly dresses. we are not sure who created what, but these handwork selections certainly remind me of my grandmother and her doilied house. i decided to take one of the circular doilies and sew it onto a big, inexpensive canvas from michaels with some hot pink ribbon i had leftover from my daughter’s birth announcements. it only took a couple of hours (i know this because i was watching elizabeth taylor in cleopatra as i did it. wow - was she gorgeous, while marc antony was such a disappointing whiner.) the doily creates lovely shadows and is more interesting to me as a wall piece, than on a table top. i think the handmade crochet work adds warmth and coziness to my modern house. i framed the dolly dresses in simple IKEA shadow box frames and put them on the shelves in the kids’ playroom. i love having small pieces of my grandmother (or auntie or someone) scattered around my house, adding depth and history.
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i love when you make a wonderful discovery about a friend. shayna larsen and i had boys in the same soccer league for several years. we sat on the sidelines of games chatting about mom things on many saturday mornings. until a few months ago, i had no idea that she is a gifted watercolorist. i happened upon her paintings on facebook and was completely smitten. shayna primarily paints animal portraits and has begun focusing on spirit animals. i call them portraits because she somehow makes their eyes so compelling and powerful that you feel like you are looking right into their souls. often she paints her subjects in profile so you only see one eye, or when animals are depicted face on, the second eye is not shown. there is so much warmth and compassion in her work that you feel the expanse of her understanding and respect for the animal.
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i created my first photo wall when i became a mother. we were living abroad and we did not have any family near. i wanted my baby son to recognize and be familiar with both his living family members and those who came before him. we called it “the family museum.” we would stand in front of the different photos and tell stories about the people represented. he couldn’t believe that a picture of his father and grandfather standing together was not actually a photo of him and his own daddy (despite the red velvet overall shorts and knee highs his father was wearing.) he found it hilarious that i was ever a baby or that his grandma could have been a little girl. we traced his green eyes back to his oma and later, my daughter’s one dimple to her paternal great grandmother. we laughed about big midwestern bonnets from the 30’s and grandpa’s pants from the 70’s. the photo wall was a treasured prompt and reference for family stories and has been recreated and updated in each of our homes.
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