Hey! Check out....

ALLISON WATKINS! 

All Photos Belong to Allison Watkins

On the first friday of every month all the galleries in Oakland stay open late, serve wine and launch their new exhibits. One street (23rd...I think) is closed down and vendors set up all down the street and sell their handmade crafts and other good stuff. Not to mention that the most delicious food carts are conveniently located amongst all the vendors. (How delicious are the food carts you ask? Four words: Deep-Fried Grilled Cheese.) This past first friday, my friend Natalie and I walked down from her house. It was absolutely freezing and jam packed with people  which made it a little difficult to fully take in all the art work at the galleries, but at one gallery in particular, at a show called Domicile Tendencies, I discovered an artist that I am  now crazy obsessed with, Ms. Allison Watkins. I can probably attribute my obsession to the fact that I will soon be a textiles major at SF State (fingers crossed) and am actually an 80 year old woman who needlepoints in bed, reading glasses and all. It was really inspiring to see an artist use embroidery to create these etherial pieces, because it's the medium I'd like to work with myself. It took reading her artist's statement to understand that she took pictures of her clothes hanging in her closet and embroidered the shapes made by the hanging clothes. As a self-proclaimed clothes horse myself, I thought that this was an insanely awesome idea. Anyways, I will stop ranting long enough for you to check her out.

! ! !