Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met and Manager of My Modern Met Store. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned her BFA in Illustration and MFA in Illustration Practice. Sara is also an embroidery illustrator and writer living in Seattle, Washington. She runs Bear&Bean, a studio where she stitches pet portraits and other beloved creatures. She chronicles the creativity of others through her website Brown Paper Bag and newsletter, Orts. Her latest book is Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread, published in 2014. Sara’s work has been recognized in Be Creative With Workbox, Embroidery Magazine, American Illustration, on Iron and Wine’s album Beast Epic, among others. When she’s not stitching or writing, Sara enjoys planning things that bring together the craft community. She is the co-founder of Camp Craftaway, a day camp for crafty adults with hands-on workshops in the Seattle area.
May 13, 2022

Popular App Will Transform Your Selfie Into an Artsy Avatar, But It Comes With a Warning

Sometimes, there's an app that is so captivating it takes the world by storm. NewProfilePic is that app of the moment, and it’s giving anyone who uses it an artsy avatar for their social media accounts. Using artificial intelligence, the technology transforms photos into stylized portraits that look like they’ve been digitally painted. The pictures even have a splashy background to suggest a hand-painted touch; it's incredible that these drawings are generated by a computer.

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May 11, 2022

Monumental Yarn Art Installations Add a Radiant Spectrum of Color Indoors and Outdoors

Artist Eric Rieger, aka HOTTEA, gathers loose threads to make monumental installations. Using seemingly countless strings, the pieces hang from ceilings and envelop the spaces they’re in with fields of vibrant hues—all of which seemingly have a mind of their own. Each thread is untethered and able to freely move with a passing breeze. The installations are a site-specific endeavor and are often informed by HOTTEA’s own experiences, memories, or associations with a place.

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