CO exhibit shows transformation of sewing notions into art

RHINEBECK - On Aug. 27, 2015, the day her grandfather would have turned 92, Shea Lord-Farmer of Saugerties committed to making one piece of art each day for a year in honor of her grandparents, Joan and William Galey Lord. A selection of her work is now on display at CO through Friday, Feb. 28.

Lord-Farmer said her art project grew out of her closeness with her mother’s parents and her grief at losing them.

“I spent my summers growing up on the Cape with them. They had both passed away at that point, and I had this box of my grandmother’s sewing notions. She was an avid handcrafter, and I had them all sitting on a shelf after we had packed up my grandparents’ home. I had heard an artist talking about constraints to set your work around,” Lord-Farmer said. “That gave me the idea for ‘The Year of Ephemera’ -- thinking about the ephemera of memory and thinking about these pieces that I had around that weren’t meant to be kept, but that I found hard to get rid of.”

Getting rid of her grandmother’s buttons was impossible because of all the memories they evoked.

“I couldn’t get rid of those buttons because she never threw anything away. My grandparents were both babies of the Depression. She was very much into nature and ecology and very aware of our impact,” Lord-Farmer said, adding this mindset was something her grandparents shared. “There was always an awareness of what resources you were using, out of respect for the planet, not out of what it would cost in a financial sense,” she said.

Reusing the sewing notions by turning them into art thus also reflected her grandparents’ respect for conservation.

“The idea was that I would start with one of the button cards or something else from the sewing notions as the base for my collage each day and work from there. I was probably at about 250 pieces when I realized I wasn’t going to get all the way through the year, so I raided my mother’s sewing stuff; friends ended up giving me things they had from their grandmothers’ sewing baskets. They’re all mixed media collages. So I added paint and words and stitching. It was really a meditation, and so the pieces are evidence of that meditative process.”

The exhibit at CO is a reconfiguration of an earlier one in 2017.

“The work at CO is a selection of the original full collection I had shown soon after finishing the year, and I sold about 150 pieces at that show.” She said when she was asked if she would show them again at CO, “It was a process of reimagining how to show them. I ended up grouping them aesthetically or thematically -- what I was thinking when I created them. The titles of the pieces are pretty long, and they are definitely central to what I was thinking about when I made the pieces.”

She said determining how to show the work again was a creative experience.

“I was really grateful for that opportunity to show it right after they were finished and then have a break from them. It kind of felt like an art project in itself to figure out how to show them at CO. I was very happy with how it ended up,” Lord-Farmer said.

Those who would like to see Lord-Farmer’s work are welcome to come check it out anytime at CO from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through Friday, Feb. 28. The final day of the exhibit will also be a free coworking day for those who would like to try out the CO community.

About CO

Located on Route 9 in Rhinebeck across from the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, CO is a premium coworking center that serves an engaged community of individuals, startups, entrepreneurs and local businesses. It offers work spaces, meeting rooms and an event venue, all housed in a bright, modern building designed for productivity and inspiration. CO believes in collaboration: It is cooperatively owned and managed so its business model mirrors its mission to create a shared resource for our community and to support positive change. CO is located on Route 9 in Rhinebeck across from the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. To learn more, visit the website or follow CO on Facebook and Instagram.