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HAND EMBROIDERY

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by Hooop There It Is

We interviewed Austin artist Lucy Orich about empowering women, Lizzo and nudes from strangers. Enjoy!

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How would you describe your current work? Have you ever explored other styles/mediums of art?

I would describe my work as cheeky hand embroidery that celebrates and empowers women of all shapes and sizes. As an artist, you're always branching out to learn new crafts and techniques. I've dabbled in wood burning, knitting, calligraphy, etc. but embroidery is what stuck. Even under the umbrella of needlepoint, I've done cross stitch as well as expanding my embroidery skills to try sewing clothing, hats, pins, and patches. It's always about exploring new ways to be an artist and incorporate your art within new mediums.

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I see you take custom orders, who would be your dream client? What would they want?

Oh great question! I think sewing an item of clothing for a music artist I admired would be my dream custom order. I would love to make a denim jacket for Julian Casablancas, Alex Turner, Angel Olson, Jack White, or Beck! I would also love to sew a piece of clothing for someone that represents full figured women and body positivity like Lizzo.

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Who/What inspires your work currently?

I'm always inspired by women who embody confidence, body positivity and self love at any size. Whether that's public figures like Lizzo or Ashley Graham, or someone from a facebook group or instagram that has sent me a photo of themselves feeling confident and beautiful. I've received many nudes from trusting strangers and that trust inspires me to make them feel beautiful and represented.

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Do you feel like the embroidery community is a close-knit group or do you feel like it’s every woman for herself?

I absolutely love the embroidery community, it's incredibly supportive! Embroidery is so different from person to person that you can be fully supportive without feeling like someone else's success is your failure. Some people (it's not just women!) sew dog portraits, others do landscapes, plants, cross stitch, funny sayings; no two people have the same sewing style. There's only one other embroidery artist that has overlapped on a lot of the designs I've also sewn and we actually developed a beautiful (virtual) friendship bonding over our similar aesthetic. And even then, they'll send me photos of designs they think I should do and I'll post about their work via instagram. We also have "Follow Fridays" where embroidery artists will post about fellow artists and show support. When I was starting out I was able to message other artists for advice and now it's come full circle where budding embroidery artists message me with questions and showing me their work. I love getting to pay that support forward and be in a community where everyone wants everyone else to succeed.

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What do you have going on in 2019?

2019 has been a great year for my embroidery! I recently moved from LA to Austin and I've been working on growing my business in this new city. I recently was a vendor at the CraftHer Market put on by Boss Babes, I had an Anthropologie pop up and I'm in the works for a second one, and I was a vendor during SXSW. I'm also leaning a lot towards making more clothing and jackets (I've got to wait for the Texas heat to die down) and building my inventory to prepare for the holiday season!

DIGITAL ART + INTERVIEW

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by Young.Gun.Motion

Toronto artist Joe Pascale talked to us about his floppy animations, old horror movies and Jurassic Park pinball. Click here to see all of the incredible animations on his Instagram.

Enjoy!

How would you describe your current work? Have you ever explored other styles/mediums of art?

Floppy! My current work is experimental in the sense that for me, the learning process has been just as valuable as the final output. I’ve been pushing myself to learn new software (mainly Houdini), which has been extremely challenging. So a lot of the stuff you’ll see on my Instagram is mostly the result of me experimenting with different processes within the software, which usually turns into bloated characters dancing awkwardly in city streets. At the end of the day, if people check out my IG and have a good chuckle, I’d consider that mission accomplished.

I used to draw a ton when I was younger. Mostly images of deformed creepoids, which I guess is where a lot of my 3D work comes from. I really miss it but to be honest, I just don’t have the time to do both (illustration & animation).

If you weren’t an artist, what job do you think you would have?

Professional pinball player. I go to a pinball bar here in Toronto at least once a week and have a machine of my own (Jurassic Park). I find it very relaxing (when I’m not stressing about ball drains). I could play pinball for hours. I’m not that great at it, but I could still play if for hours.

Who/What inspires your work currently?

My favourite artist of the last couple of years has to be Sarah Sitkin. Her sculptures are so incredibly raw and full of flesh. On the 3D animation end of things, I find joy in the work of Erik Ferguson, Redhoot and Smearballs, to name a few. But I’m actually most interested in Illustration. I found a guy named Whoisnemos on Instagram recently and I can’t get enough. There’s just something so sad and beautiful about his characters that I love.

Some honourable mentions would be Nychos, Killian Eng, & Nicolas Rossius.

What are your favorite things to watch or search for on YouTube/Reddit/TV/Movies...?

In all honesty, I only use YT to stream music mixes while I’m working. I’m really into synth wave right now because it’s oddly nostalgic and also keeps me awake when I’m working late. And I have no clue how Reddit (or Twitter) work, so I stay away. If I’m looking for inspiration it will usually come from Instagram or my Vimeo feed. I follow a bunch of motion graphic channels and am constantly blown away by the amazing work that comes out every day.

As for films, I’m a kid of the 80-90’s so I have a soft spot for old horror movies as well as Tim Burton stuff (Beetlejuice, Batman + Batman Returns). I also just really like trash movies like Bodymelt, Society, Street Trash, Re-Animator… basically anything that involves skin melting or bodies being mutilated in a goofy way. It’s funny, as someone who works primarily in animation and VFX, I’m such a sucker for practical effects.

What do you have going on in 2019?

My wife and I just had a baby girl on March 10, so I’m dadding out pretty hard right now. It’s the biggest project of my life thus far and I’m learning new things every day. So that’s a pretty big 2019 thing.

On the animation front, I have some ideas for a series of shorts for Instagram that I’m working on. I’ve also been approached to work on some music videos so we’ll see what sticks. I really want to spend this year working on personal projects and just learning a bunch of new software. So much to do, so little time….

Music Credits: Denzel Curry, BadBadNotGood, Run The Jewels