!!!TOMORROW FRIDAY 13 2014 SoapSkeptics WILL BE ON THE RADIO!!!

SOAPSKEPTICS WILL BE ON AIR @

WRSU RUTGERS RADIO 88.7 fm

10:15 PM

STAY TUNED AND HEAR ABOUT OUR ROAD TRIP AND KICKSTARTER!

Peace,

SoapSkeptics

andrea & rosie

Taking A Break From Work Is Good For You

We have been busy busy the past few weeks, getting our Kickstarter Campaign launched, continuing to interview local artists, edit the films, and creating creations to sell at our local art festival, June Bug!

We decided to take this glorious day and spend it at Round Valley Park in New Jersey. 

GO THERE BECAUSE IT IS AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL! The water is crystal clear, the trees are radiating good vibrations, and the air is just too good to not breathe. It's always good to get out of the office/studio/home and just explore somewhere new with good friends, and some sandwiches. 

***

Now, we must continue on our work! 

We have a couple "Artist Perspective" 

videos coming to ya'll this week:

One is with SEEMORIAH, a very passionate multidisciplinary feminist artist from New York City. She gives us interesting opinions about living in New York City as an artist and as a Puerto Rican woman. 

Second, we have Boat Shoes, a one man experimental band who uses cacophony at it's finest. He talks with us about being from a small town in New Jersey with little cultural influences, how hip hop shaped his interest in music, and how/why his interest has evolved over time.

!!! Kickstarter Update !!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1793708100/soapskeptics-traveling-across-usa-to-film-art-and

This whole experience has been mind blowing for us, we appreciate all of the support we have been getting so far! We are forever grateful to these lovely folks who have been pledging to make this project possible:

Also, a SPECIAL THANKS to Jeff Edwards from the Visual and Critical Studies Department at the School of Visual Arts for publishing about our Kickstarter Campaign on the Visual and Critical Studies Blog!!

To read more about the Visual and Critical Studies Department at the School of Visual Arts, which is also where Andrea of SoapSkeptics just graduated from, go to:

http://www.visualandcriticalstudies.com/

Help Us Film A Documentary About Art and Culture in 2014 Across America

Visit this link to watch out promotional video!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1793708100/soapskeptics-traveling-across-usa-to-film-art-and

Watch, Share, Donate :)

~

SoapSkeptics

Shearing of the Sheep At Jenny Jump Farm

Jacob Sheep Frantically Wondering Whats Going To Happen Next

What a beautiful day it was today on April 19, 2014. The SoapSkeptics gang woke up with the vibrant sun and headed up to North West New Jersey to visit Jenny Jump Farm to help out with shearing the sheep!

Tom's Set Up

Friends of the Jenny Jump Farm traveled from all around the tristate area to work together and get this thing going.

We had an expert sheep shearer, Tom, do a quick, swift, and delicate job at giving all 19 jacob sheep and 1 angora goat nice hair cuts for the hot summer to come. He really knew what he was doing to calm these sheep down and get the job done quickly.

Joanie and Liz led the sheep to and from the barn, to shearing area, to outside. 

Workin Workin Workin

Then there was a whole crew of ladies carrying out the fleeces and picking out the vegetation, dirt, poo, and whatever else these jacob sheep had going on in their fleece (which honestly wasn't much to clean because Joanie keeps them in such good shape), then we sorted each fleece by individual sheep where they will then be taken to be professionally washed and eventually turned into amazing wools of gray, brown, black, and white.

Bundles of Fleece Sorted by Individual Sheep

We also discovered that the left over/scrap fleece that will not be used to make wool CAN BE USED for fertilizer in your garden! So none of it goes to waste at all!

Jacob Sheep Soaking Up The Sun With Their Skin

We were so happy to contribute our helping hands to the farm and so grateful to have met new and wonderful folks who love helping out, talking, and fiber arts as much as we do!

Jacob Is In Our Trunk And We Are Excited

 SoapSkeptics also brought home a new friend thanks to Joanie and Bob~
A four harness table loom! 

Our Fiber Studio Lookin So Good Now That We Have Jacob

We named him Jacob, after the Jacob Sheep at Jenny Jump Farm :)





He will help us make wonderful things, we don't know what yet, but whatever it is, it will be wonderful.
So much thanks to Joanie and Bob for another amazing visit to your farm and home!

Don't forget to follow this blog 

& also our instagram: @soapskeptics 

to keep up with our adventures 

and creations (like what we'll make with this table loom)!

Peace,
SoapSkeptics~

Our Visit to Jenny Jump Farm

Story Time!

As we approached the end of winter, we also approached a wonderful farm in North West New Jersey called Jenny Jump Farm.

An awesome friend of ours, Zach, set up a visit with Joanie and Bob who oh-so warmly welcomed us into their home and taught us some interesting lessons on life, self sustainability, fibers, photography, art, animals, and food. 

The home is decorated wall to wall with art, books, and photographs. Bob told us stories about his friends who are artists and showed us some of their work while we drank hot chocolate by the fireplace. We were taught how to make vegetarian egg-drop soup. All of the drinks and soup were served in ceramic bowls and mugs made by Bob himself!


Joan gave us a tour of the farm, where we met the Jacob Sheep, the donkey and the horse! In the backyard there is a kiln and ceramic studio filled with beautiful and inspiring creations. Joanie was kind enough to show us her spinning wheels, wools, and looms. She gave us a little demo on how to do everything and also let us try spinning our own yarn with her wool. She showed us a collection of blankets, scarves, and weavings she has made in the past with her natural fibers along with hand spun yarn. 

It was such an awesome opportunity to meet such a wonderful, humble, and caring couple so willing to teach us a thing or two and spread good vibes the whole way.


Bob is a wonderful nature photographer, and he took some portraits of us while we were practicing the spinning wheel, to see more of his photography click here.


This experience was a spark that ignited a desire to continue to learn from others and also teach others. It's such a beautiful thing- to meet people with shared interest who are so willing and open to just talk and exist with others! Being human with other humans... 


If you are interested in sheering sheep, Joanie and Bob are having a demonstration in April. More details can be found here.

Thank you to Bob and Joanie!!
And thank you to Zach for inviting us along the ride!!



Peace and Love~

Rosie and Andrea
SoapSkeptics

Hello, New and Old Friends! We are SoapSkeptics....

SoapSkeptics

What's goin' on, folks! Rosie McNeill and Andrea Garcia, here! We are starting this blog as the very beginning stages of what will become an adventure of a life time.

A little about us:

Andrea Garcia is graduating in May 2014 from the School of Visual Arts with a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree in Visual and Critical Studies. That is basically a fancy title for art history, critical theory, and art practices. Andrea focuses mostly on sculpture and fiber arts. Andrea is inspired to make fine art objects by using conventional craft techniques to create both functional and dysfunctional works using fibers, wood, clay, wire, and other materials. Andrea just recently moved back to New Jersey after living in New York City for two years. Although her experience in the big apple was well worth the dollars and chaos, she feels there is something for her elsewhere... now the answer is to be sought, where?!

Rosie McNeill spent the last two years in California and Colorado, working, living, learning, and experiencing life. She has returned to the homeland of New Jersey and is ready to continue on a new adventure. Rosie aspires to be a tattoo artist, but in the meantime focuses her energy into weaving, crochet, and other handy crafts. A little opposite from Andrea's ideas of creating, Rosie is geared towards things with function and meaning such as dream catchers, handbags, and jewelry. She is really good at teacher!




Both artists have reached a fork in the road of life. Where shall we go next?! Should we just be what's expected of us and apply for big girl jobs?! What do we want to be!?

It seems serendipitous that we both moved back to our hometown at the same time after being away for years with nothing but a passion to create and explore the unknown future. We are going to take a risk. We are taking our blank pages and we're going to fill them with experiences and opportunity to grow, educate, and learn. 

SoapSkeptics is just beginning and it is so exciting!
Our short term goal is to travel around North America to create a social documentary. This documentary will be about the diversity in culture and art throughout America. We live in a country with so many ideas of living, what is art, what is culture, what are traditions, how do people follow these ideas, and what are their perspectives on other areas as well as their own. We hope to expand the knowledge of how life is lived. We want to spread life experience to those who have never left their hometowns, we want to share the knowledge of those who have traveled the world. We want to show what art is, how it's made, how it is used, or not used in everyday life. We will take a month out of this summer to execute this project, blog about it, and also create cite specific weavings made out of natural recourses we find in the different towns/cities/villages we pass by. In the end, we will have a DVD and a printed book of the weavings we made across America. 

After this adventure, we have a long term goal to make SoapSkeptics a center for studio and gallery space, and educational classes on craft and DIY's for people who are interested. Of course, we are understanding that life will throw us curve balls and obstacles to climb... this is why this long term goal is not so much as important as our summer adventure to create a Documentary about Culture and Art. SoapSkeptics also has the opportunity to travel to Lijiang, China to participate in a residency to film a similar documentary comparing and contrasting culture between New York City and Lijiang, China. If all goes well, and we receive the loving support we hope to achieve, we would love to take this opportunity for the Spring of 2015. But, we digress.

This blog will be utilized to spread the word of our adventures, along with the things we make! Please keep an eye out for updates on our KickStarter, news, and creative executions. :)

"To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. 

To reach out for another is to risk involvement. 

To expose feelings is to risk rejection. 

To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule. 

To love is to risk not being loved in return. 

To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure. 

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. 

The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. 

He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.

Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave. He has forfeited his freedom. Only a person who takes risks is free."

-anonymous

Peace and Love,

SoapSkeptics 
Andrea & Rosie.

Follow us on Instagram @soapskeptics