And

Sky Art Peoria

​When Your Art Goes BIG

Early in 2020, I visited the St. Louis Art Museum and I left knowing that I wanted to try to push my work into an even bigger scale. 
I began working with the idea of LARGE CANVAS, Extra Large Murals and even creating more LARGE embroidery. 
​little did I know...

"Abstract Embroidery" - Sky Art Finalist 2020

A few months later, amidst a Global Pandemic I submitted 3 pieces to a local call for art.
Sky Art Peoria, hosted by Arts Partners of Central Illinois, a juried competition style art event here in Peoria that was previously known as Art Pop.  
I had applied in the past and never won. 
This year I decided to apply again and to my utter delight and excitement... I was selected!!!!
From 150 entries only 5 pieces are chosen!  
When I received the call, I was so excited I almost forgot to find out which one of the pieces I submitted had won!
Check out the other Sky Art winners of 2020 here. 

These are the other two entries I submitted.  2 paintings, 1 embroidery piece.... all of them are cropped sections of larger pieces. All of them slightly different techniques and materials, yet each one mine. 

Why crop the artwork? Why not show the whole piece? Well, this is a unique circumstance because the artwork has to be able to fit specific dimensions (to become a billboard). So I chose to zoom into the pieces. What you might see if you stepped towards it in a gallery as you take in small sections before stepping back.

You might be surprised to realize that the embroidery piece is actually a small section within a small 9" hoop.  That's what makes Sky Art Peoria so cool to me. It takes artwork, made by local artists and scales it to a massive size. 
LARGE!
I did it. I went really large!!!!! 48 feet large! HA!

I still plan to paint large and make larger embroidery works, but seeing my work on a billboard has got to be one of the coolest experiences! 

I am so humbled and honored and thrilled! 
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I began work on this Abstract Embroidery  early in January. This photo was taken 1/5/20
The same week Barbie and I led our Olli "Students" in creating the piece that would later be hung in the library. 

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On January 22 I took this photo... the piece was nearly finished and when I did finish, I actually took it off the hoop to use that one for another piece. I had to purchase a few more hoops to finally "finish" this one. 

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It just goes to show... you never know what the year will hold. 
I had no idea in January, that we would spend weeks in quarantine... months in isolation. That my first social gathering I would attend after months... would be to march in the streets for Justice. That we would be in the middle of a Civil Rights Movement. 
Friends, 
It's been a particularly intense year for our collective human experience.
We have had a lot of suffering and pain.    

yet, also there is joy. BOTH.
On an individual level, a community level, a country level, a global level.... we are in the thick of it. 
Living in the AND     
trying to navigate 

to find a way to hold them both. To move through them both.                Forward. 

That has always been the core of my art process, the roots that I found in art. Using my creativity to climb out of the pain and exist within both the truths. That the world can be falling apart around me and I can still find my way.

 
My friends... THAT is why my business is not just "art by Jaci Musec" 
it is in fact   "Captured & Reclaimed"        
because we exist in the AND
the AND is it
lean in.... 
because life is going to be a beautiful mess of all the things  AND more.