So I've Been Told

We put so much energy into documenting our friends, we take pictures of them, we follow what they do, and their stories are more interesting than any banal afternoon television show. People are more interesting than they give themselves credit for. In So I've Been Told Hardy narrates their stories, drawing their asides, their inside jokes, cautionary tales, secrets, lies, and recipes. Through ink drawings, screen-printing, paintings, and embroidery she creates imagery from her imagination and immediate surroundings. Her practice is influenced by nature books, children's stories, her friends, ornamental art, prairie churches, Quaker Art, Pennsylvania Dutch Hex signs, and the art of the order of Ursuline Nuns of Quebec. At one point Hardy takes a visual inventory of the events taking place on any given night. She uses her own personal mythos of nighttime as her guidelines; the park you should not walk through alone and the northern lights you should never whistle at... and what happens when you do. This book collects a number of her recent book projects, including Jerry Springer Characters, So I've Been Told, At Night, and The Very Very Very Very Last Day. Mythical lake creatures, games, bullies, house fires and drownings all become part of her always evolving personal folklore.