What remains...

What remains is we need hope, action, and time to heal.

Yesterday we had terribly heartbreaking news, again. This time about the shooting in Uvalde, TX where 19 fourth grade children and two teachers were shot and killed by a gunman after he shot his grandmother.

How do we find hope to move forward and heal when time shows that we keep repeating these same heartbreaking events?

When we stoop to pick up the pieces of what remains of the broken bodies of our children we see the truth, we need action. WE NEED ACTION. Only once we have action will we be able to heal. Without action we are just waiting for the next heartbreak to come upon us. Our children, who keep suffering, are waiting for us to take this action to protect them. Sometimes actions are beyond us but this one is very much attainable. We can not wait again for another heartbreak. Now is the time to act. Only then can our children begin to feel safe enough to heal and we all can move forward.

Crocheted fibers sculptures hanging from two thumbtacks on the dirty studio wall in the artist's studio.

Waiting for another to make the words, 2022, reclaimed bias materials, 13x14x7 inches

I made this piece after sitting in my studio reading about the shootings in Uvalde, TX, reflecting on the countless past shootings of our most vulnerable people, and crying for a while. Hope and rage combine into a powerful force. It was therapeutic for me to make, and feels like an important acknowledgment of where we are as a community. We can not sit by and wait for another to make the words for us. We need to make them. Or the shootings will continue. We need hope to be able to make steps forward into action and change. Only then can we find healing.

Call to Action:

Call or write your local representatives and ask them what they are doing to protect our most vulnerable people against gun violence.

Sign this petition to require universal background checks for gun sales.

Announcing my partnership with Prarie Underground, a local clothing manufacturer, which has started supplying me with remnant materials. One of my art practice philosophies is to be zero-waste and use reclaimed materials whenever possible in the creation of my works. With so much excess in our world, and in the US in particular, why would a creative person use new materials to create artworks unless absolutely necessary? As a result I strive to obtain materials by collection from partnerships with organizations and individuals to make my works which occasionally marries into a social practice element in my work. The materials in my above fibers sculpture, Waiting for another to make the words, are remnant bias received from them. A big thanks to Camilla at Prarie Underground for the support and materials donations!

[Image of Megan Prince fibers sculpture, Waiting for another to make the words, hanging from thumbtacks on the artist’s dirty studio wall. Title for artwork taken from Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz.]

I'm stilll here and working!

Hi Friends,

It’s been a while since I have posted on here so I’m taking a minute to let you know that I’m still here.

I have a few ideas I’m hashing out with my artworks and I’m in the process of adding on all my Communities works on paper which all be officially for sale through on June 1!!! Please dm me with inquiries. Remember all my work is for sale unless otherwise marked (eg. Sold, Private Collection, etc.). So if you see something that you love and you’d like to have it to brighten your life don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m also editing this site in the interest of keeping the content current and fluid so come back soon to see what I have added and changed!


I have been posting a few different thoughts and iterations of my Love Paintings on my IG. Here is one with a corresponding poem:

Love’s Limits, 2022, hand-cut vinyl, 8.5 x 11.75 inches (This is a one of a kind, hand-cut vinyl sticker to be placed on any surface.)

Limitations
Life’s limits are held by love’s limits.
I love and accept my limitations if you let me.
I love and accept your limitations if you let me.
Without these limits,
What are the possibilities?
What are the other possibilities?
What are all of the possibilities?
We set the limits.
How much can we love each other?


If you’d like reminders in your inbox when I have updates sign up for my mailing list here!

Much love to you all and thanks for the support!

Megan

What do the Jean Bodies titles mean?

In this video I introduce my exhibition, Great Mysterious Heart, and talk about my Jean Bodies sculpture, Banding together in our humanity (image below).

Banding together in our humanity, 2021, donated and reclaimed cut denim jeans, 11x32x76in.

My soft sculpture series, Jean Bodies, points to a variety of ways that we come together in this life as people. One aspect of these sculptures is how their shapes reference forms found in nature, including the scale of the human body. The titles for these sculptures are culled from a combination of life experiences, and combined with intimate feelings as well as my reading.

The title for this piece, Banding together in our humanity, is inspired an interview by activist and UW runner, Rosalie Fish, who races with a red hand print on her face to raise awareness of violence against indigenous women. Learn more about Fish in this article.

For further information about my exhibition, Great Mysterious Heart, visit the exhibition catalogue; dive deeper into my Jean Bodies sculptures here; or join my Patreon for personal videos and in-depth writings and to support my art practice.

Thank you for the wonderful 6 weeks of Great Mysterious Heart!

You, my community, have given me so much love and support over these past few weeks.

The poetic installation of my solo show Great Mysterious Heart, at the Kirkland Arts Center, was beautiful and meaningful. Our closing reception on Friday, 2/11, was increadibly lovely and I enjoyed speaking with you all about the exhibition.

Thank you to all of you who made the journey to come out and see the show in person, your questions about the work, sending me notes and voiced encouragement from near and far. And thank you to my husband Theo, and kids, for being flexible and understanding as things were a little different than normal these past few weeks.

Thank you J. Gordon for your vision of this exhibition from the start, your long drives to West Seattle for studio visits with the bridge down, as well as your thoughtful curation and installation of Great Mysterious Heart. Ellen McGivern thank you for jumping right in with both feet, just when you started at KAC, sharing your expertise, encouragement, and the lovely artist interview. To the rest of the team at the Kirkland Arts Center, thank you for your support and flexibility in sharing the beautiful space and community that is KAC. This has been an amazing opportunity to share my works with our community here in Seattle and I am grateful to you all.

It’s been an absolute pleasure to share my Jean Bodies and Communities with you all!

Megan Prince, Installation view of Great Mysterious Heart at the Kirkland Arts Center, 2022. Photo by Mark Woods

See the exhibition images, videos here, here, here, and here, and read my artist interview.

Artist talk and closing reception Friday, Februay 11!

Join us in celebrating my solo exhibition Great Mysterious Heart with a closing reception and artist talk! *

Closing Reception: Friday, February 11 from 6-8pm with Artist Talk at 6:30pm

Installation of These Are My People, These Art My Friends in Great Mysterious Heart at the Kirkland Arts Center, 2022.

Photo: Mark Woods

My exhibition will be up through Saturday, February 12. If you haven’t made it yet you have a little more than a week to stop by and see my exhibition, or join us for the reception! Or if you would like to meet up and can’t make the reception drop me a line. In the meantime here are two videos where I share about some of the work in my exhibition. Watch them and bring your questions for me next Friday. Enjoy!

Megan Prince: Great Mysterious Heart
Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA
Jan 7 - Feb 12

*Following CDC guidelines and government mandates, masking and social distancing will be required inside the Kirkland Arts Center.

Megan Prince: Great Mysterious Heart featured in Cliff Notes from Variable West

Variable West Founder Amelia Rina picks the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
Each pick includes a question meant to act as a prompt for thinking about the art, artist, or exhibition.

What Rina says:

Textile arts have a natural affinity with narrative and the idiosyncrasies of relationships. In these sculptural textile works, Megan Prince weaves together conversations about interpersonal relationships, environmental impact, and the generative act of reuse. Made of hand-knit, donated second hand denim jeans, the "Jean Bodies" create literal and figurative connections between the jeans' original owners. Installed in the gallery space, they transform yet again into playful soft sculptures that invite interaction. Reflection: What stories do your clothes hold?

Megan Prince’s Jean Bodies at Alki Beach Park, Seattle, 2021.

Megan Prince: Great Mysterious Heart is featured alongside shows featuring artists Sofía Córdova and Gina M. Contreras.

Great Mysterious Heart: Megan Prince
Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA
January 7 - February 12

Sofía Córdova: dawn_chorusiii: the fruit they don’t have here | 破曉歌聲 iii: 這裏沒有的水果 | coro_del_alba iii: la fruta que no tienen aquí
Chinese Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
December 3, 2021 - January 29, 2022

Modern Folk
Stephanie Chefas Projects, Portland, OR
January 22 - February 19

Great Mysterious Heart: Interview with Megan Prince by Ellen McGivern

With her work grounded in connection and relationships, Megan Prince is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in West Seattle. Beginning her artistic career in New York City, Prince has continued her practice in the Pacific Northwest by approaching no-waste methods of making with her body of work Jean Bodies and with her works on paper entitled Communities. Pivoting from the duties of motherhood and geographic changes, Prince is continuing to build upon her process orientated sculptures that breaches the concepts of global humanity, understanding, and amplifying muted voices. 

This interview was conducted by Exhibitions Coordinator, Ellen McGivern and has been edited for rules of language and brevity. 

Installation View of Great Mysterious Heart at the Kirkland Arts Center.

Ellen McGivern:

 If you could just briefly introduce yourself to the readers of this interview.

Megan Prince

My name is Megan Prince. I am an interdisciplinary visual artist here in Seattle, Washington.  My work is mostly about relationships, relationships between people, personal relationships, but also larger relationships between people in their communities and how that word community can be so many different things. Communities is a collection of works on paper where I illustrate  three levels of communities, and how there's a personal community that we are individually a part of, and then there's the larger community of the earth that we're part of. But then also, one more layer higher, the greater community of the universe that we all belong to.


McGivern:

One of my questions I wanted to ask was, why do you think your work focuses so greatly on communities or with our relationship with others? Can you elaborate on your interest?


Prince:

I've been interested in relationships for a very long time. You know, it probably started out as a baby concept, more like aesthetics, and relationships in aesthetics between dichotomies of large and small things. Ugly and beautiful things, finding buried separate ideas and trying to find where they meet. As I've gotten older, I've been really interested in more personal connection in communities and within my family. I am married and have three kids  and every time I've added someone to my life that has deepened my relationship with the world, and my understanding of how the world works. In the last two years, people have been waking up. Relationships are political. Many people are not included or heard. I am really interested in finding and including everyone that wants to be included. I strongly believe that whether or not someone is in our daily life, once you know someone,they have an impact on you, and you have an impact on them, even if it's not someone that you had a good interaction with.


McGivern:

I know that you've also talked about social practice as a part of your work. And can you speak a little bit about how, like your interest in relationships kind of naturally progressed into being interested in more of a social practice?

Prince:

I'm really interested in social practice and art, because it's just one more way that we can include, and be connected to, others. It's one more way to form deeper community bonds between people. I think that's part of who I am, I'm really interested in sharing. I like to share, I don't really want to hold on to something to myself. I don't want to make it something that is precious. I don't want to hold it apart, I don't want my art to be separated from life, I want it to be part of life. And in life we don’t have that kind of control over what happens. The more I can include others in my work the more it will more fully represent relationships as they truly are in life. I think social practice is a very natural progression for my sculptures, in that they start with a donation from the person who first had them, wore them, and spent their time in the jeans. The wear marks and discoloration, rips, frays, mending and stains are all part of the sculptures. Taking something like a jean that has lived a full life and has evidence beat into it and then deciding to give it a new life honoring where it’s been. (There's a total Zero Waste aspect that I love also.) The personal invitation for donors to be part of my art and also creating something with materials usually put in a landfill.  Each person/donation that is added to it, creates a deeper history and intertwines us. Another way social practice is evident in my fiber sculptures is through the installation process. These fiber sculptures are very malleable and will change shape with each installation. I am inviting each curator that works with me to show this series of my work to have full creative control over the installation of them, so long as it doesn’t affect the structure of the works. Curators are a voice we don’t usually hear too much of upfront in an exhibition. However, when you walk through Great Mysterious Heart you can see the curator, J.Gordon’s, thoughtful hand in the installation. Right when we started working on this show he was excited about the work, and when I told him he and his team would get to install the work they were really looking forward to it. 

Detail Image of Jean Bodies sculpture, Because no one is listens to them they are not speaking the truth.

McGivern:

​​Could you kind of describe the process of the construction and overall shape of the Jean Bodies? Is it a weaving technique or knitting knots?



Prince:

My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was around 9 years old, about the same time I participated in 4H and learned about patterns and making clothes. I have always enjoyed working with textiles. When I first started processing jeans to use in my art it was clear I needed tools to help process material faster. Using an electric rotary cutter, I slice the donated jeans in my pattern and  then tie the pairs together. I hand crochet the strip of jeans intuitively from there, dropping and adding stitches to create my vision for each piece. As I’ve been moving through creating these sculptures, I have begun sketching and planning out their shapes and forms they hold. I’ve always been really interested in biomorphic shapes, so the forms have a micro macro kind of relationship between them, almost like little cell amoebas that have been blown up, way out of proportion. You could think about them like a seashell that you find on the beach that's been washed by the waves.




McGivern: When we were in your studio we talked about inspiration and process. Do you sketch these forms before you create them or is it more intuitive or meditative?

Prince: I do a little bit of both, actually, it really depends. The first couple were probably more just intuitive or meditative. It was more forming them and developing them and  creating this art object. But as I've been moving through them, I have  done some development sketches that I've been working off of to create a specific shape.


McGivern: The no-waste aspect of your work really excites me. Do you use the hardware on denim?

Prince: That is something that I am actually exploring right now. Right now, the pattern that I'm going off of was not using the hardware. I actually cut it off  at the hip, right where the waistband hits.  I cut the zipper out and the tops of the pockets which usually have little metal pieces on them. The sculpture, Children Live Up to What We Believe in Them,  I use the entirety of the jeans which was fun because children's clothes have a lot of elastic in them especially in pants. I think going forward, in  the next piece I make, I probably will utilize all the hardware as I have been just recycling the top part of the jeans as waste. I don’t want there to be any waste though and I keep circling back to how not to have any waste. Recently, I’ve been thinking about making 2D sculptures with it. I don’t have an issue coming up with new ideas. 


McGivern: Brainstorming is always a joy, completing those tasks always seem to be the tricky part. On that note, my final question is what is next for you? Where do you see your work progressing?

Prince: I've moved on to a 2D project called Love paintings,1000 paintings of Love, it is a concept my son and I came up with. I draw these fluid squares that mimic the jean body sculptures and they're kind of whimsical, but also kind of rigid, and they're fun. I'm working on lots of small ones. I'm planning to do 1,000 small ones and beginning to start doing some larger ones on paper. I really love working with color. I've started working on the next iteration of what the sculptures might look like with color. 

Intallation View of Great Mysterious Heart at the Kirkland Arts Center.

Great Mysterious Heart is on view from January 7th through February 12th at Kirkland Arts Center. The gallery is open Wednesdays-Fridays, 12 - 6 PM and Saturdays 12 - 4 PM.. 


Artist Gallery Hours: 12-1pm Saturday, 1/15 and 1/29.

Artist Talk and Closing Reception: 6-8pm Friday, 2/11 (tentative)


Megan Prince: Great Mysterious Heart

My exhibition, Great Mysterious Heart, featuring my Jean Bodies and Communities is open!

Great Mysterious Heart (installation picture), 2022

Great Mysterious Heart (installation picture), 2022

Megan Prince: Great Mysterious Heart, January 7 through February 12, 2022.

Artist Gallery Hours: From 12-2pm, Saturday, January 8 and Saturday, January 15. Stop by and say hi!

At the Kirkland Arts Center, Gallery hours are Wednesdays-Fridays 12pm to 6pm and Saturdays 12pm - 4pm

Artist Talk and Closing Reception: Friday, February 11, 2022 (tentative)

Collector's Pic - Untitled (yellow-green)

Oh how I adore working in large format!! It makes my heart sing. I still remember painting this piece in the basement corner of my friend’s rental house. I was looking for a studio space after undergrad and she offer a spot in their basement saying they only used their basement for laundry. It was a dream. She gave me a key to the house and let me come and go as I pleased for four years!!! What a gift she (and her roommates) gave to the young aspiring artist I was. In this corner I worked tirelessly anytime I could, slinking in and out the back door, trying not to be noticed or bother them. It was there that I developed a body of work that got me in to graduate school at CUNY Brooklyn College. This painting will always carry these memories for me. Memories of beginnings and working hard and generosity.

Untitled 1 (yellow-green), 60” x 72”, oil on canvas, 2005 (private collection)

Great Mysterious Heart opens in one month!

Friends,

I’m so excited about my upcoming solo exhibition, Great Mysterious Heart, at the Kirkland Arts Center!

This exhibition will feature a selection of both my Jean Bodies sculptures and Communities works on paper. Below is my artist statement for the show:

Great Mysterious Heart

Relationships compel interdisciplinary abstract artist Megan Prince to create; relationships between people, to belongings, and to the earth. We are all tied together by relationship. Her work points to the similarities we all share and the intrinsic desire we have of being together.

Prince’s floor sculptures, Jean Bodies, are constructed from donated worn jeans, cut up and hand knit together. Jeans are the vehicle used to look at similarities and differences in communities. The process of donation creates the relational element, inviting and empowering people to participate in the conversation to examine their relationships to their community and belongings, as well as consider the environmental impact.

With the works on paper, Communities, Prince explores aloneness, solidarity and togetherness. In Communities, the artist plots soft graphite stars on the mixed media works behind organic black forms in oil pastel, signifying our immediate people groups, and semi-circles of blue gouache, representing our earth. Each element points to levels of togetherness; we are not only in community with each other, but connected across our world and in the larger universe too.

Community #18, 20” x 26.5”, oil pastel, gouache and graphite on Rives cotton paper, 2021

You’ve Been on My Mind, 10x38x100, donated and reclaimed cut denim jeans, 2021

(This image is from a recent field trip I took my Jean Bodies sculptures on to Alki Beach Park in West Seattle.)

My show opens one month from today, January 7th, 2022 and will be open through February 12. As I mentioned before we won’t be able to announce the closing reception until closer to the date so keep your eyes peeled for that, plus I’ll be announcing artist gallery hours soon.

Gallery Hours are Thursday & Friday 12 pm – 6 pm, Saturday 12 pm – 4 pm

Kirkland Arts Center is located at 620 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033.

Thank you for your support and love this past week!

What a week that was! My week long 15% off virtual art sale is over.

I raised more than $700.00 for Choose 180 and made the donation yesterday. Thank you for choosing to invest in change! As a result of your generosity young people throughout our community will have the chance to make their 180. Thank you all for helping me put our money where it matters most, in the hands of important ground-breaking organizations like Choose 180. Especially when they are lead by our black and brown family. They know best where the money can be used and how to get there.

Love Painting No. 46, gouache and ink on cotton paper, 6x8 inches, $100.

We all have a place and role to play in life. Each person is different. Each of us matters. Each of us is needed. My Love Paintings point to how each and every one of us needs and deserves love in our daily life, and we are needed by others. You are not alone. You are seen and loved just as you are.

Thank you for all of your emotional, physical, and financial support of my art practice! Lots of people will have new beautiful art in their homes soon to add beauty and so much more to their daily lives.

All the hopes and dreams,

Megan

Looking ahead and looking back at installation!

I can’t express how excited I am right now to be thinking about installation again as part of my studio practice. Recently I have put together two separate installation proposals and am working on another this week. It is invigorating to be letting my heart and mind think through these details and also revisit past work as I develop these concepts. So much fun! And I can’t begin to share how grateful I am that all three of my kids have finally healed from their colds and are back in class today learning. To share my excitement here is a look back at my installation Spinning Lines.

Here is a picture from 2010 of a very pregnant me with curator Kia Kim. We took this picture just after finishing installing my temporary site-specific installation Spinning Lines for the exhibition If You See Nothing, Say Something at Invisible Dog in Brooklyn, NY.

I had an amazing crew of friends who installed this artwork with me over the course of one weekend and photographer, Adam Able, whom documented the process. The two-day installation has been condensed down to under a minute. Take a moment and check it out to see us all walking in circles and running up and down the tall ladders.

Visit my installation page to see more pictures from this artwork and see the interactive dance performance I directed and co-choreographed during the exhibition.

Great Mysterious Heart

I am excited to share the dates for my upcoming solo exhibition at the Kirkland Arts Center this January 2022:

The exhibition dates are January 7 through February 12, 2022.

THESE ARE MY PEOPLE, THESE ARE MY FRIENDS (exhibition view from Interdependence at KAC), 2020, donated and reclaimed cut denim jeans, 8x156x60

I look forward to seeing you there! - Megan

Life on Venus Magazine featuring my Jean Bodies sculptures is available for purchase.


This issue of UK Magazine, Life on Venus, is a conversation exploring the topic of sustainable fashion. We explore work from over 30 illustrators, photographers, poets, journalists and designers.

We look at 'Slow Fashion from the Other Side of Europe', we ask 'Is Fast Fashion a Feminist Issue' and explore if sustainability is a mental construct. It doesn't end there so join the conversation today with your own copy.

Pick up your copy here!

lifeonvenusmag.png

Wire Lace Relationship in HxWxD for the month of June 2021

My wall sculpture Wire Lace Relationship was selected to participate in SFVACC/SCORE’s juried exhibit: H x W x D – Celebrating 3D Art!

I created this piece as part of my Remnant Bodies, an ongoing series of small to medium sized hand-woven soft sculptures. Frequently made from leftover pieces of cast-off or remnant materials, the works range from lap to palm sized and are made from a variety of pliable materials such as cotton, plastic, vintage lace, and suede. The size of each piece is directly related to the quantity of material available.

The remnant material for this sculpture is from my great aunt, Ruth Janecke, an artist in her own right. When she passed away she left many many many materials for art and craft making. She not only painted with a variety of media on canvas and paper, but she made china dolls, their clothes and accessories. Her basement was her home studio and she used it well leaving it full of many amazing works of art and crafts when she passed away 30 years ago. My first oil paints and brushes came from her basement at the beginning of my own art journey.

Wire Lace Relationship, 2009, antique trim, 8x14x5

Wire Lace Relationship, 2009, antique trim, 8x14x5

Visit www.sfvacc.org any time between Tuesday June 1, 2021 and Wednesday, June 30, 2021 to view the exhibit. This will be exclusively an online exhibit.

AND Mark your calendar to join us for a Zoom Reception Saturday, June 5, 2021, 5:00-7:00 pm PST.
Reception Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89283105571

I look forward to seeing you there! Thank you for supporting my work and the arts.

The work on my website is for sale unless noted. I love working to figure out the right piece for you, whether its a sculpture, painting, installation or a personal commission. Drop me a note of inquiry or just say hi. I love hearing from you!