Stitches: MJ Puccio & Story Strom
It's a Monday. I am leaving work to interview another pair of artists - one of them being a very close friend of mine. I let myself into Jamee + MJ's house and find everyone in the backyard. Story and MJ are on their hands and knees in the grass, fiddling with what appears to be a giant pile of branches.
"Hello, friends!" I am greeted with warm smiles and hugs and the air feels like home. Jamee and MJ have a 2 year old, Wren, who is completely naked and ecstatic to be a part of this scene. "It's Caitlin!" Wren screams. To know this family is to love this family, and to love them is to be loved by them right back.
MJ and Story stand up and with them comes the pile of branches, now one giant branch sparsely wrapped in silver wire with a handful of needles and two juniper berries left on one the upper branches. There is an opening in the middle of this bramble. Story tells me it is a 'portal'. As we talk, I am holding the base of the branch while MJ and Story wrap thin silver wire around each stick. I ask how they imagine this portal will be interacted with.
"I kind of think of it as a meeting place," MJ says "But for meeting someone on the other side of the hedge. Someone completely new, ideally."
"So preferably not with someone they came to the exhibit with?" I ask.
"No. Ideally, two people that came together would find two other people that came together." She pauses. "And they would swing - no, I'm just kidding." We laugh.
"No, they would meet a different person." She continues.
"And then ask them to do an art project. And then ask them to do an art project." Story adds.
"It's actually just a pyramid scheme." MJ says. We all laugh some more.
These two had met at one of the Invisible Thread house shows just a few weeks ago and they already felt like lifelong friends. I ask them what their favorite part about this experience has been.
"Probably getting to know my collaborator." MJ replies, still wrapping wire on the branches. There is a collective "Aww" from Story and I.
"Yeah, honestly that was the first thought that came to my head as well. I've just been really enjoying dropping into such a creative and open space with MJ." Story chimes in. "I feel like with the manner of this project we just opened up really quickly. I'm getting to know a piece of art and getting to know a human and getting to know a family as well."
"A really special family." I say.
"Yeah, it's magical." Story smiles and we can hear Wren screaming from the house. I go inside and ask Jamee if she needs any help with dinner. As per usual, she has made a delicious meal while parenting her soft and wild animal of a child. We all eat outside together on a picnic blanket, laughing and talking while Wren tries to sneak potatoes from everyone's plates. I head home with a full stomach and heart. Thinking back on MJ and Story's perspective of this experience so far, I recall again how Entangle has encouraged new friendships to blossom. Story and MJ's paths would have crossed with or without this event. That's just how this invisible thread works. But, it's nice to be able to offer a meeting place.
