Iviva Olenick at Old Stone House in Brooklyn...

A few years ago, my friend and fellow artist, Iviva Olenick was working on a project called the Brooklyn Love Exchange.  If you're not familiar with her artwork, she uses embroidery to create a lot of her bittersweet and poignant pieces.  Using fibers and thread, she captures the essence of modern dating and the complications of relationships.  The concept of the 2011 show was that she was creating a map of her embroideries, featuring love stories from around the borough.  She put a call out for stories and created many from the stories she collected.  I think she even had a live event where people would tell her stories and she'd stitch in real time.  I sent her a few.

Recently, she was asked by a curator to show some of the works from that project, but she didn't have enough that were still available.  So she revisited those emails and texts and created a few more!  Here's one of new pieces she made based on one of those stories I sent.  Isn't it delightful?

This piece (along with several others by her) at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn now through June 20th as part of the Partners, Parents, Pets: Contemporary Portraiture exhibit.  The show was curated by Katherine Gressel and features work by Sophia Dawson, Jamie Diamond, Natalie Gruppuso, Meghan Keane, Bayeté Ross Smith, Mónika Sziládi, and of course, Iviva Olenick.  If you're in Brooklyn, check it out!