Marie Danger Kare creates mixed-media collage using found papers, photographs, and textiles which she hand-embroiders using yarns she hand-spins on supported spindles. She also makes her own recycled paper and does some linocutting/printmaking.
When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person?
I don’t know if I had a single moment of realization. I feel I’ve always pretty much been myself, and that self has always had a powerful urge—almost compulsion—to create, make, and do.
I was kind of a lonely kid, so inventing (stories, games, crafts) was a handy, natural coping strategy, not just to distract from my loneliness but also to connect with others.
Where do you find your inspiration for your designs?
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Oooh. Tough question.
I am sure the media I consume, the friends I have, the moods I’m in, the weather, the world, etc., influence the things I make and do. But, when I think of inspiration, I think of that Chuck Close quote: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”
My day job has been “corporate creative” for decades. I’ve been fortunate to do some really fanciful, whimsical, sometimes big, often ridiculous work, but it’s work, just like anyone else’s work. Demands are high, deadlines are tight, resources are limited. I’ve found very few of us have the luxury of time or inspiration. What we have, instead, is information. Information and externally motivated urgency. That’s enough to get started, which is typically the hardest part. From there, maybe inspiration appears, maybe it doesn’t. It’s more about work ethic than inspiration.
My mindset is exactly the same for my personal creative work. I look at the materials (information) I have at hand, and dive in. I just start putting the pieces together. If inspiration shows up along the way, that’s amazing, but not a necessity.
The nice thing about personal creative work, though, is that I get to set the deadlines (if any), and I don’t have to or want to stop until I like what I’ve made.
What different creative media do you use in your work?
Focusing purely on personal creativity: Lately, I do a lot of mixed-media collage using found papers, photographs, and textiles which I hand-embroider using yarns I hand-spin on supported spindles. I also make my own recycled paper and do some linocutting/printmaking. Oh, and watercolors!
When you have time to create, how do you decide what to work on ?
I think it’s situational. If I’ve had a long day of thinking really hard or feeling anxious or annoyed, I will typically default to something with repetitive motions, like spinning yarn, or poking holes in paper for embroidery—something calming, rhythmic, and tactile.
Putting a collage together requires more thoughtfulness, so I lean towards collage in the early mornings, or at the end of a quiet day when I feel more contemplative. I like to make paper when a new podcast or album comes out, so I can blast my headphones over the sound of the blender.
I’m a moody gal and my moods dictate my behavior in so many ways.. It’s kind of like deciding what’s for dinner. What do you feel like tonight? What haven’t we had in a while? What are we craving? Should we consider healthier options? (No.)
How do you balance your personal life, work and creative endeavors?
Work-life balance is a false dichotomy! Everything is simply life. CMV!
If the question is simply “how do I make time for all the things I want to do?” then I’ll say: I’m working on it. Some days, weeks, months are better than others depending on needs and priorities: personal, professional, or otherwise. I take the moments, moods, and opportunities as they come, and try my best and try not to be hard on myself when I don’t meet my own expectations.
How do you manage your creative time? Do you schedule start and stop times? Or work only when inspired?
“Manage” is such a generous word! I just kind of do things.
I am incredibly fortunate to be in a position where I generally have the flexibility to undertake creative projects when and how they feel good to me.
Like I mentioned earlier, Inspiration is rarely part of the equation. I start when the urge to create hits me. I look around at whatever tools and materials are nearby (and they are EVERYWHERE in my house) and just start putting things together. I stop when I am tired or hungry or my eyes have gone funny or my dog wants out. Being open to interruptions and available to opportunities makes it much easier to pick up and put down projects without any sense of failure or FOMO.
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
Mostly an improviser for my personal work but if I’ve been asked to do a show or commission I will definitely plan. This is where the professional creative work really helps, as there are plenty of workback schedules and project plans involved there on the daily.
Describe your creative space.
My creative space is everywhere. (Sorry, husband.) I work from home.
Right behind my work desk is an old taboret filled with embroidery supplies, a fancy printer, and fancy photo papers for said printer. My office closet is full of varying sizes of easels, more papers, canvases, boxes of photos I’ve set aside for collage, embroidery stands, and fabrics.
In what was supposed to be our game room/library is yet another big easel; another taboret filled with watercolor supplies; shelves of those awesome Toyo tool boxes broken out by activity: linocutting, embroidery, sewing, collage; a dressmaker’s form, a lino press, a sewing machine, a drum carder, crates of wool and other natural fibers for spinning, over a dozen different hand spindles, and still more fabrics.
I keep my papermaking supplies under the kitchen counters. I keep scrap papers, scrap fabrics, as-yet-unculled old books, and magazines stacked up in the garage. There’s almost always a spindle and some wool on the living room coffee table. I keep a watercolor kit by the tub so I can paint during a hot bath.
Maybe this is why I feel like my creative endeavors are so integrated into my everyday life. There’s always something close at hand that I can pick up and play and make with.
Working across many different media, how do you organize all of your creative supplies?
Buying organizers and storage is a hobby unto itself. I sure do love stuff. Though my materials are spread throughout the house, I generally try to restrict each type of activity to a specific area just so all the materials are handy. Papermaking is always in the kitchen. Linocutting is always in the game room. I do a lot of color-coding: the toolboxes based on activity as mentioned before, little surgical instrument boxes kitted out for different types of embroidery (fabric vs. paper), sewing baskets for different types of sewing (hand vs. machine).
What I can’t seem to organize effectively are papers I’ve culled and cut for collage. I’ve got them in folders, photo albums, boxes, trays. I could really use some help with a system if anyone has a good one!
Have you found something intended for one media that works well for something else?
I don’t know whether this counts, but I love using my yarn and thread scraps in papermaking.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
I start a new project probably every few days. I use the term “project” loosely, though. I spend a lot of time making elements (e.g., yarn, paper, stamps) of what will later be incorporated into a larger, fully realized project. So, I’d say I’m kind of always working on something.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
Sure. One of the pieces I created for Freehand Gallery’s Material World show is an embroidered collage of a young me standing on a beach with the hands of friends, family, statues, and Barbie reaching up and out behind me to form a giant wave.
That piece is probably the first truly personal one I’ve ever made. I’d say it started with a simple desire to see more people who look like me (Asian-American) in artwork. I usually work with found photos and imagery: bits of junk mail, catalogs I don’t remember requesting, old books from thrift stores.
Most of the people in these media don’t look much like me or, if they do, they are often exotified (especially in the older books). It hit me that the easiest, quickest, safest route to finding pics of people who look like me would be to actually use images of me. (Protip: searching for photos of Asian women on ebay is some dicey business I do not recommend! Unless you’re into that. No judgment.) I asked my parents to send some old photos and this particular image really struck me: a young me, standing alone on a beach, staring down at the water. I knew I wanted to do something with it, but just set it aside for later and didn’t touch it.
Then, Perimenopause hit me like a ton of bricks. It was and still is a significant daily struggle. It made me reflect on my youth a lot: all the choices I’d made and things I’d done, all the stuff I didn’t know then and still don’t know now, all the people who, for better or worse, shaped me into the person I am now. That’s when I thought of the hands. All these hands from my personal life, professional life, cultural institutions, etc., pushing and pulling and ready to overwhelm that young me on the beach.
Once I had the basic composition of the collage, I began to blend and spin various fibers into yarn. I used an undyed corriedale wool for one color, blended that wool into a seafoam green merino (to match my blouse) for another, then spun a separate neon yellow/green merino to be this sort of toxic venomous undercurrent. I sketched out some lines, freehanded some others, poked holes through the paper, and embroidered.
And that was that.
As for how new works come about… sort of randomly. Sometimes I’ll just be leafing through a catalog and see a nice sunset or forest in the background and think how nicely that would go with a some colored paper I received as packing material from a random online order. Then I get to work.
What triggered the evolution to new media/kinds of work/ways of working?
The single biggest trigger for my current approach to making was receiving an embroidery kit from my Secret Santa in 2019. It was only a matter of months before I went from doing kits to making my own patterns and then mixing embroidery into watercolor and collage.
Where can people see your work?
Several pieces, including handmade (collage, lino, embroidery) greeting cards are available at Freehand Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. Otherwise, you can see a pretty robust gallery of work on my website at Mariekare.com/making, or my instagram, @mariemadeathing.
Interview posted December 2024
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