Miriam Schaer

LIAR'S COUTURE, my new work, will be included in Disillusionment: Perspectives Beyond, organized by Robin Holder and Marina Gutierrez. with Exhibition Coordinator Ronnie Bellini

24 accomplished women artists were invited to create works about Disillusionment, whether personal, cultural, political or global. The artworks they created range from "Me Too" narratives and hurricane reflections to historical texts using media that include welded woven steel, found assemblage, paper collage, sewing and body casting.

Artists in the show: Tomie Arai, Audrey Anastasi, Kabuya Bowens, Annex Burgos, Cybil Charlier, Maria Dominguez, Sandra Fernandez, Janet Goldner, Marina Gutierrez, Valerie Hammond, Janet Henry, Robin Holder, Rodriguez Calero, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Charlotte Ka, Olivia Beens, Lynn Marshal-Linnemeier, Carla Lobmier, Shervone Neckles, Quimetta Perle, Nora Rodriguez-Vallés, Miriam Schaer, Mary Ting, Nitza Tufiño

The show opens Friday, March 9, 2018, with a reception from  6:30-9 PM, and will be on view March 9-31, 2018 at Taller Boricua in the Julia De Burgos Latino Arts Center, 1680 Lexington Ave. (E. 105 St.), New York, NY 10029. Gallery Hours: Wednesdays and Fridays, Noon-6 PM; Thursdays, 1-7 PM; and Saturdays, Noon-6 PM.  

Artist Panel Discussion at Taller Boricua Sunday March 25, 2018 2-4 PM. Open to all, and FREE.

The next part of Liar’s Couture, was to create a long, dramatic, scroll-like tie (ahem: book reference alert!) I collected all of the DT lies from various sources (NYTimes/Wash Post, etc.) and redesigned the typography. It took several attempts to get the scale of the text to work. I soon realized I needed to set the type up on the horizontal in order to get diagonal stripes on the finished tie. I knew that ties need to be cut on the bias (diagonal) in order to hang correctly. 

I printed the fabric at Spoonflower, and was very pleased with the results. Stan (my husband and editor extraordinaire) was super helpful with sorting out issues regarding fabric and the text. We decided on Organic Cotton Sateen, as the type looked the sharpest when printed on that surface. Just as I was getting ready to print-all the news orgs updated and expanded DT’s lies for their end of the year roundups-so I was able to revise my files before printing. If you do work with Spoonflower, definitely get the samples to determine the best fabric to select for your project.

I had never made a necktie, so I did a bunch of googling. Sweetshop Sewing had hands down the best tutorial, and helped me to understand the process. I also knew I clearly would not find a pattern for what turned out to be 16 ft necktie (9 ft when tied!) I would have to alter the pattern-another new experience. I printed the pattern provided on Sweetshop multiple times, and taped them together until I got the correct length. This also took a several tries to get what that length would be.

I re-drew the tie pattern on tracing paper, smoothing out the jaggy edges. Note the arrows marking the grain showing how the pattern will need to set onto the fabric. I realized I would need to sew the tie in four places, rather than two or sometimes 3 sections you see in commercial ties (I looked at a lot of old ties in our closet) in order to get the length I would need.

Pinned on to the fabric, being mindful of the grain.

I had extra DT face fabric-so used that for the lining. Pin and cut, and sew!

I also altered the original tie pattern at the neck-part (skinny part of the tie) so it would be proportional to the toddler size 4 shirt, and widened the tie as it expanded from the mid-section to the bottom point to get a larger readable area.

Because the narrow end was SO narrow, I couldn’t turn the tie inside out when  sewn as directed, so I ripped out the narrow end, and closed that portion sewing by hand. Below is the tie-tossed over the shirt-before I tied it in place--Stan had to show me how to tie a tie as I had never done that before. I have some installation shots I made in my hallway, but will wait to see if I can get a better overall installation and post tomorrow.

I’ve been working on an installation piece since the summer-and the shirt above is one part. The goal was to make a size 4 toddler boy’s shirt, with DT faces, along with a necktie element-which I’ll post tomorrow. (the piece is finished and will be installed this week-more on that to come!) The fabric is from Glitter Hollywood on Zazzle.com. I thought it worked out well-the scale of the faces was perfect! The shirt pattern was from oliver + s.  As I haven’t sewn like this in-well, decades, I allowed myself the luxury of going slowly-being kind to myself when I made mistakes (and I did!) ripping the mistakes out, and re-sewing. Above is the final shirt, below are studio snaps of the work in progress. It’s been fun and challenging. 

I had to learn how to make buttonholes-I had never done that! Below are the tests.

Below: The finished button holes on the shirt. In the end, they were pointless, as I decided on large gold tone dome buttons, are so large, the shirt won’t open-or function like a normal shirt, but now I know how to make them!

After quite a long time, I finally (finally) finished this artist book. (w)hole: A Life in Parts, is a musing on my mother Ida, her passing-as she lived with dementia in her final years,  as well as how we cope with loss and how we care for our aging parents when they are no longer able to care for themselves.  The book is now available here

So, as a number of you know, I will be going to Telavi, in the Republic of Georgia, March 2017 with the Fulbright program. I’ll be working at Telavi’s Iakob Gogebashvili State University, with Nugzari Dzamukashvili. I’ll be teaching Artists Books and doing research into craft: textiles, felt and embroidery in relationship to artist books. In preparation, I have started to study, in earnest, (or try to!) the Georgian language. This may be the most herculean thing I have ever attempted. It’s been about a month-and I’ve learned how to read and write. Writing is pretty fun, actually! However, this is not to say I don’t make tons of mistakes and feel generally inept, with brief (brief) moments of joy. This may be typical of learning any language-although nothing really prepares you for Georgian–––at least as a native English speaker. There are 33 letters-and doubles, consonants with aspirated and non-aspirated sounds: 2 T-s, 2 R-s, 2 K-s, ch’s, kh’s and tst’s.