For the second installment of her ongoing story series for Future Shipwreck, deftly skilled painter and fabric artist Megan Whitmarsh shares some thoughts on embroidery, Jim Henson and selling out. Don’t miss Megan’s solo show Radiant Artifacts at Rosenthal Gallery in San Francisco, which is on display through December 4th. Texans, you can check out Whitmarsh’s work at the Marty Walker Gallery in Dallas, where she’s participating in the sculptural group show Small Works: Art + Object.

In grad school in New Orleans. I was bored with my own abilities in painting. I guess I felt like everything cool had been done and way better then I was going to do it. In retrospect I think embroidery is a natural medium for me partly because I grew up around it (my mom sewed and embroidered) and because I am drawn to limited, simple technologies. I don’t even like to use a sewing machine. I think there is something optimistic about using very simple mediums—it gives the viewer a sense that they too can create.

I saw the pilot of The Muppet Show in NY at the Museum of Television and Radio and you could see the puppeteers in the background wearing black leotards and moving around. The sets and everything were so simple you felt like you could go home and make your own Muppet show with some felt and some stuffing. I love that. My favorite muppet when I was a kid was probably Animal although I did own a Miss Piggy doll that had purple silk gloves. I secretly thought Kermit was boring. As an adult re-watching the Muppets I had this “aha!” moment that Kermit represented Jim Henson and was the artist orchestrating the whole thing. He made meta-jokes which as a kid I could not access, but now recognize. Kermit added a layer of sophisticated awareness and pointed out the edges of the frame so to speak. A kind of wink to the audience but in a way that held no irony or distance. I think Henson is really a genius artist whose work was generous and incredibly layered.

It is also interesting to me that he started out making commercials- particularly in the 60’s which you would think of as a virulently anti-commercial time for artists and hippie type people. He seems evolved in that he could operate in the commercial world with ease and be subversive in a quiet yet determined way, but always with gentleness. I think it is cool that he managed to make real, radical and lasting art while finding funding from some pretty non-creative industries. It seems especially pertinent now as artists are constantly crossing the line between “fine art” and the commercial world—and there is always a little anxiety about this naturally. I heard that No Age played a corporate gig and they changed their name for the event so that No Age did not “sell out”. But this seems silly. It’s only selling out if you make something you don’t want to make for money. If you are making what you want to make how is that selling out? It’s just redistribution of money. Better to go in the hands of the artist then stay in the pockets of a corporation, right?

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[ Ed. Note: Please welcome stellar curator Katie Vonderheide of Synchronicity Space to Future Shipwreck! - Graham ]

I met artist Megan Whitmarsh through an e-mail I sent her before moving to Los Angeles three years ago. At the time, she was pregnant with twins and we talked art, L.A., and me helping to assist her once she had her girls. She is one of my favorite people to talk to, because she speaks in a thoughtful, genuine, and intelligent manner that is topped off with a great sense of humor. It’s the same approach she takes towards her work.

Rather than conducting an ordinary interview, I wanted Megan to share a true story from her past. Sometimes it’s inspiring to be reminded that artists lead fantastic lives full of amazing experiences that influence and harmonize with the work they make. I’m excited to say, at Graham’s eager request, that Megan will be sharing a scintillating story once a month here on Future Shipwreck!

I lived and went to grad school in New Orleans in the mid 90′s. We used to go to this dingy restaurant in a cheap hotel called “The Hummingbird” for breakfast and they had signs all over the place that said things like “all hamburgers are cooked medium” and “No talking to yourself”. I had two friends that had jobs where they made little or actually negative money. My friend Theresa Columbus worked at this place called Tina’s as a morning waitress. She only got paid in tips. The most she ever made was $2.50 but she still worked there for almost a month because she felt sorry for Tina. My friend Ken Como got a job selling Manuel’s Hot Tamales out of a van on a street corner. He said Manuel told him “I usually hire cripples and vets but you can have the job if you want it.” He was to be paid $1 for every 6 dollars worth of tamales he sold. At the end of his first day he owed Manuel $3 because he had eaten one dozen tamales (they were small) and only sold 3 dozen. Also everyone in New Orleans had crazy names like Strawberry and Pigeon and Biscuit and Chicken and Squishy and Otter.

We lived in a warehouse we called “Monster Island” and had shows to make money. We had a circus once on my birthday– me and Panacea Pussycat and another girl dressed up as tigers and leopards and jumped through a flaming hoop. We had an alligator man who was a friend of mine with magic marker scales drawn all over him that remained for many days. In retrospect it seems kind of “burning man”. We used to buy beverages at this place called Suda Salvage that sold things that were discontinued or maybe had fallen off a truck somewhere. They had a lot of food items like raisin pie filling and we got really toxic cheap wine and beer and one time this schnapps called “Shooterita” that was tomato juice flavored. It was so disgusting that we would give a free drink to anyone who drank a shot of it. During termite season the warehouse would be infested and one time we swept up all the termites that had just died naturally over the course of a few days and made a heart-shaped pile that was about 10 feet in diameter and inches tall. The warehouse was so big we could drive all our cars in it and sometimes we had a drive-in night and showed movies on a sheet. There were no windows no kitchen. We used the bathtub to wash our dishes.

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