Mary Smull, Lute Player, Found unfinished needlepoint completed by the artist using only white yarn, 20" x 21", 2011

Several pieces from the Finished Works series are featured at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft as part of the current exhibition Beyond Useful & Beautiful: Rethinking Domestic Craft, on display from October 1 – January 8, 2012.  Now our founder brings the SPUN mission to the HCCC audience  in person!

Friday, December 2, 2011

6:00 – 7:00 PM

Group Therapy – Finish Fetish

In the Large Gallery at HCCC

Do you find yourself filled with anxiety and guilt about incomplete projects around the house? Pulling your hair out about that knitted scarf you started last winter for your sister? If so, HCCC invites you to join visiting needlepoint artist, Mary Smull, for a group therapy session on society’s fetish with finishing projects. Bring your unfinished projects to work on or stories about plans never realized to share in our large gallery on Friday night. Attendees will leave with a lightened conscience about their unfinished works and a deeper understanding of the impetus behind Smull’s Unfinished Needlepoint series.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

1:00 – 4:30 PM

Join SPUN in Getting it Done!

A Community Needlepoint Project

In the Large Gallery at HCCC

Do you begin needlepoint projects only to abandon them before finishing? You are not alone.  Join Mary Smull in completing a collection of unfinished needlepoint as part of the Society for the Prevention of Unfinished Needlework (SPUN). The Society was founded by Smull in 2009 to “eliminate the worldwide phenomenon of unfinished needlepoint” and has been rescuing incomplete works through performances across the country. Visitors are invited to participate by completing stitches in unfinished needlepoint projects. Needlepointers of all abilities are welcome! Once complete, these works will be archived as part of SPUN’s collection.

For more information, please visit the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft website:

http://www.crafthouston.org/default.asp?id=101

Public Fiction Gallery, 749 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA; The California Hotel exhibition

The Society for the Prevention of Unfinished Needlepoint kiosk will be featured this weekend at Los Angeles’ Public Fiction gallery as part of The California Hotel exhibition!  Join us for the show’s Black Sunday event, Sunday November 27th, from 12PM – 4PM.  Come out to advance the mission to complete unfinished needlepoint – and view other work by representatives of Philadelphia-based art collective Grizzly Grizzly.

For more information, visit Public Fiction’s website:

http://www.publicfiction.org/

Members teaching the public to needlepoint at the SPUN Kiosk, Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA

On Saturday May 7th, the SPUN kiosk debuted at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA!  New members joined the Society and the public pitched in, stitching white yarn on a few of the many unfinished needlepoint projects SPUN has in its archive.  Much of our help at the kiosk came from people learning how to needlepoint for the first time, instructed by our founder and SPUN member volunteers.

See Cindy Stockton-Moore’s article about the SPUN kiosk, featured in the Summer 2011 issue of Ducts.org:

http://www.ducts.org/content/saving-stitches-the-society-for-the-prevention-of-unfinished-needlepoint/

Visit the SPUN kiosk on Saturday May 7th, 11AM – 4PM at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA as part of the  Interlace:  Weaving Community event, curated by Kelly Cobb.

Meet our founder in person and contribute to the mission!  At the SPUN Kiosk, you’ll have an opportunity to finish unfinished needlepoint and become a member of the Society for the Prevention for Unfinished Needlepoint on the spot.  For more information, check out this link to the ICA website:

http://www.icaphila.org/events/?id=472