What’s Your Hobby?
The Fireplace Project
East hampton, New York
August 11 - August 29, 2007

Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody

We were living in a basement apartment in Williamsburg when Beth Rudin DeWoody called to invite us into a summer group show in Springs, East Hampton, at The Fireplace Project. The show was titled What’s Your Hobby?, and it explored artists’ obsessions, pastimes, and personal rituals. It felt like a perfect fit.

At the time, we were building our Volcano series—towers of hand-sewn red boxes, each containing intricately beaded accessories. The boxes were sculptural and expressive, but also deeply tied to our studio rituals. Inside were pieces like a beaded ball necklace (where each bead was itself wrapped and embellished), a hand-beaded necktie, and antique-style beaded cuffs. Each object was made with precision, purpose, and care.

Among the works included were two glass-beaded bags we called the Forgiveness Bags. They were more than accessories—they were vessels for clarity and healing. During that time, we William and I had begun writing forgiveness lists in our hand-bound journals: itemizing every regret and every transgression we needed to let go of. As we crossed each one off, we started using those journal pages behind the loom, embedding their memory into the very weave of the bag's exterior.

Group Exhibitions

Those accessories, the beaded bags, the little book, the photos—they were all part of a cycle of intention, body, and self-forgiveness. What began as a hobby became a practice of healing.

Each bag was accompanied by a small, hand-bound book designed by Chris Finley, filled with expressive volcanic motifs printed on moan paper. Meanwhile, photographer Andrew Zuckerman captured portrait-style muscle poses of us mid-transformation, reflecting a period when we were physically rebuilding ourselves through strength and routine.