Edition Announcement #138 - Megan Whitmarsh

Sunny Tuesday greetings, my collector friends! I'm feeling awfully bright and bouncy today — well-rested and well-fed after a weekend that involved naps (highly unusual considering my shot-from-a-cannon hyper ways) and delicious meals with people whom I admire and adore. Today's editions are a nice fit for my mood and will hopefully provide a shot of dayglo-hued optimism for those of you that might be suffering some back-to-the-grind ennui on this Tuesday that feels like a Monday.

Color Work Station and Trash Mountain are by the Los Angeles-based artist Megan Whitmarsh. I sent Megan an email entitled "fan mail" on February 10th of last year after she placed an order for one of Ky Anderson's lovely prints. Rather than being alarmed by my order-inbox stalking (bless her heart), Megan sent a warm and speedy reply indicating that, yes, she would indeed love to work with us.

It took a bit longer to get from fan mail to edition than I thought it would, but exactly now is probably the best time to be introducing her work. Her solo show, The Fucking Crap of Life, opens at New Image Art in West Hollywood on Saturday. Being a similarly reared in the seventies, pop-culture obsessed woman who happens to curse like a sailor, rolling out editions in support of Megan's efforts is a no-brainer. Aside from that, Megan's approach and aesthetic dovetails nicely with recent company kept.

Last week's New York City premiere of Handmade Nation, artist Faythe Levine's directorial debut, brought the fabulous Kate Bingaman-Burt to town for an all-too-brief visit. (She hand-drew the lettering for the documentary's awesome title sequence.) She saved me a seat at the screening, which was held at Museum of Arts & Design, and we like, totally hung out at the mall after AND she arranged for Faythe herself to join us for a lovely, arty, crafty, power lunch at Freeman's the next day. After lunch they came upstairs for a preview of upcoming editions and we talked a lot about Megan's work.

Faythe, Kate and Megan have more in common than the fact that they're all totally badass, awesome, inspiring and intelligent women. They're also all involved in expanding the definition of what art is by employing and/or championing styles, subjects and techniques that we're more accustomed to seeing anywhere but a museum. Megan's amazing embroideries and fabric sculptures would be right at home amongst the creations of many of the artists featured in the movie. She also shares KBB's well-documented obsession with consumption, along with a sensibility that's informed and influenced by graphic design. An affinity for what Megan describes as "art that is generous in spirit and amateurish, art that inspires rather than intimidates" is well evidenced in everything that each of them do.

It would have been awfully great if Megan could've joined us for lunch, now that I think about it. Lunch with these three, a visit to Megan's show and an LA-screening of Handmade Nation - I'd book a ticket for that in a hot second. Whaddya say, ladies?

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