Thank you!

Dear Friends:

This blog will be record of the Lottery Project's beginnings, but I will now be blogging elsewhere about this project. Please go to http://siemering.blogspot.com for all of my updates, and the web site rebeccasiemering.com to investigate further. Too many blogs, too little time! Thank you!


Rebecca Siemering

PS-If anyone would like to contribute to the project, please send scratch tickets or other ephemera to:

Rebecca Siemering
545 Pawtucket Avenue
Box 206
Pawtucket, RI 02860

19 ON PAPER: MULTIPLICITY

Flags on view at Cotuit Center for the Arts with my group, 19 on Paper

19 ON PAPER: MULTIPLICITY
On View September 12 - October 3
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Gallery Hours 10am-4pm Monday-Friday; 10am-2pm Saturday

4404 Falmouth Road, Rte. 28 | Cotuit, MA 02635-2042

Look at the fantastic review we all got!

http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19046&Itemid=34

New Work at AS220

Ready for the Show, 2009
Scratch tickets, dental floss, canvas, sequins

American Made By Ralph Lauren?

As I was tooling around the web the other day to see if any of my recent projects had comments or press, I came across this comment by a "Ralph Lauren" in on a Providence Journal blog,"Looks like one of Claiborne Pells old suits that I made for him." Is this THE Ralph Lauren or a Mr. Lauren in Rhode Island, or a prankster? I have always heard the recently deceased Claiborne Pell was a very frugal man, especially with his clothes. I even met the man when I first moved to Rhode Island. To whomever made this comment, I am honored, as this is a souped up frugal suit!

Super7Hot! mentioned in The Boston Globe

In an interview with curator Wendy Tarlow Kaplan, she mentions all of the unusual materials artist's used for "The Perfect Fit:Shoes Tell Stories," including "...an artist who collected lottery cards and made boots out of them..." Read the full article here.

Super7Hot! at Fuller Craft Museum

My darling boots, "Super7Hot!" will be in The Perfect Fit: Shoes Tell Stories at the Fuller Craft Museum, from June 6, 2009- January 3, 2010. Reception is June 14, 2-5 p.m.

This video was made in my studio this April, and I was assisted by Meg Powers. A LOT of hours in the making, but a LOT of fun to produce!

American Made in Fidelity Investments Show

A new suit, "American Made," was in the Fidelity Investment's Green Works Show and it got a great review in The Providence Journal.

American Way: Scratch Ticket Art up through April 1

Three pieces from "The Lottery" series are featured at the Bank RI Gallery in Wickford, RI, until April 1. American Way #1 (above), a smaller My Flag , and Mine, all mine.. fill the gallery with scratch ticket art. Go to Bank RI's Gallery Page for more information.

Gallery Location:
1140 Ten Rod Road, North Kingstown.

Gallery Hours:
Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

A Fine Suit installed at new Fidelity building

I just went up to the new Fidelity Investments building in Smithfield, RI to see "A Fine Suit" installed. Many thanks to installers Dan and Richard for making it an excellent time! I think my suit looks very handsome in his new alcove.

New Work in "Transformation and Time " Show

I have two new pieces, and am re-exhibiting American Way #1 in Transformation and Time: 19 on Paper., at the Krause Gallery in the Moses Brown School in Providence, RI, until August 29th. 19 on Paper is a new group I have joined which had had a revolving group of artist who work on paper sine the early eighties.
Go to 19 on Paper to find out more.

Reception Thursday, August 21st 5-9pm. Please join us!

So long, farewell, until we meet again...

I just sent off another suit creation for the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum at Georgia Tech. It is very hard to let go of your art! I had a mini panic attack today as I was packing it up; I will not see it again until 2011. The guy at UPS admired my well-crafted box. The credit for that goes to Teri Guynn, master shipper at my place of work. Even though I am a thrifty artist, I know my limitations, and find the best person to help me execute the job. Bye little suit! Have a safe flight!

Thank you Fidelity Investments!

Diana Gaston, curator for the Fidelity Investments art collection, purchased "A Fine Suit" for the collection. Thank you for such a wonderful and professional experience!

New Work

I am pleased to announce that I have been asked to create another suit for "The Paper Runway," a touring exhibition coordinated by the American Museum of Papermaking at Georgia Tech. I was one of 38 international artists selected, and the tour will begin in Santiago, Chile and end in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Seen in this post is a new piece I am calling, "American Way 1", which is created from blue, red and turned over scratch tickets.

Just in a day

I take a walk though my neighborhood in Pawtucket every evening. I live near a Rite Aid pharmacy and a convenience store that sell scratch tickets and various other lotteries. This is where I get the majority of my scratch tickets. Not by buying, but finding them on the street. I am just posting what a typical find can be. Friday night is always a big night and holiday weekends usually are,too.

When someone seems to win from these scratch tickets, they go right out and spend again on many more. In last weekend's find, in one pile on the sidewalk and street, along with a Dunkin Donuts unfinished coffee: 5 diferent kinds of $1 tickets; 3 varieties of $2 tickets; 2 $5 tickets; 1 $10 ticket. This totaled to 45 separate tickets totaling $70 in gambling losses. Whoever bought this pile of tickets probably won some money and recouped some losses. The whole area looked very frenzied! I mostly find them here and there, as if someone is walking and scratching at the same time.

I'm off for a walk now to see what I missed last night....

How the project began

I am an artist who creates sculpture and textile art from everyday remnants. If I had not gone to art school, my other dream job would have been an anthropologist or archeologist,though it seems I have become one of Suburbia and City Life with my collections. My husband Erik Gould is the same way and finds inspiration in trash, abandoned shopping carts and couches which he photographs, along with abandoned buildings. On my walks in the last two years I started to see lottery scratch cards everywhere.

Scratch cards have a very colorful, primal palette and I started to pick them up and put them in envelopes, waiting for a project to hit me. I also started to wonder what the people were like who just threw them out of the window. Did they not want a partner to see that they had blown money away literally? Were they mad at themselves and did not want to see the evidence? I often found five at at time, some of them $10.00 apiece. A quick fix gone awry, or was it the fix of gambling itself that mattered?

I created a man's suit from over 1,000 scratch tickets thrown from car windows, found on sidewalks and in yards and bushes, some given to me by friends. It is made up of over $3,500 in gambling losses and was featured in the "Providence Art Windows" on Westminster Street in Providence in the Fall of 2007. It was also featured at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in "Recycled Runway."

I have a larger project where I need your help. I am creating a large, sculptural map of the United States and I need cards from each state where lottery cards are sold. I will list everyone who donates the cards in a future booklet on the project. If you are interested in helping me in my endeavor, please e-mail me at sugarlady@mac.com and I will send you a self-addressed stamped envelope to fill with found scratch cards.

Thank you in advance for your support! I look forward to seeing where the cards come from!

Rebecca Siemering