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Archive for the ‘Art Dates’ Category

In California

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

The sun was setting as we drove across the Bay Bridge late yesterday. We had an uneventful drive and found 91° temps and bright sunshine in California. I have a love of the late summer/fall landscape.

This is a view of the Crocker Bridge. I love to photograph bridges as I drive across.

My son made a delicious birthday meal and bought me a cake. We were exhausted from the long drive so did not celebrate too much.

This is the view from the flat where Mark and Jayme live.

Today, we went to the De Young to see two exhibits: To Dye For: A World of Saturated Color and Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, and Beyond: Post Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musee d’Orsay. Both exhibits were fabulous – The Impressionist show required special tickets for a specific time and it was quite crowded.

The To Dye for show was right up my alley – saw old and new textiles that had different methods of resist dyeing.

We saw Van Gogh’s Starry Night; it was underwhelming to me. I really loved his Painting of his Arles Bedroom. It was painted just before he committed suicide. I think the sunny yellows and sky blues give it a happy feel.

I loved the work of Emile Bernard and Maurice Denis – two artists that were new to me.

We drove over the hills of San Francisco to Lisa’s studio for a visit. It was such a clear and sparkly day.

I found a quilt that I made a few years ago and gave to Lisa. Her chihuahua, Wilfredo, uses it. That makes me happy. It was a trial for me to do this precision piecing. I am glad some warm body curls up in it.

Here is a shot of Lisa’s studio – always inspiring.

Tonight we went out to dinner with M & J and some of Jayme’s relatives who were in town. We had yummy Mexican food. I had chicken in a mole poblano sauce – very good.

Tomorrow, I am off to PIQF.

Indian Summer Glorious Day

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Today, four members of STASH, drove out through the Columbia Gorge and across the river to the Washington side to visit the Maryhill Museum of Art. It sits up on a bluff above the river with nothing else around. This was my second visit. It has an eclectic collection of things ranging from incredible chess sets to French Fashion Dolls an every thing inbetween.

The drive was gorgeous – not a cloud in the sky – everything was sparkling.

After passing through the verdant gorge, on the eastern side, you are suddenly in the high desert landscape dotted with windmills. I love the juxtaposition of the windmills and the natural sculpture of the hills.

We are usually greeted by the peacocks in the parking lot, but we didn’t see one until we sat down to have lunch.

I will show you a bit from each of my favorite exhibits. They have an extensive collection of Native American crafts and utilitarian objects. These are storage cases made from painted rawhide.

There are lots of gorgeous baskets.

There are several vignettes of 1/4 size fashion dolls dressed in outfits designed by french fashion designers.

I think my favorite place is the sculpture garden:

I have a ton more photos which I will upload to Flickr some time when I have a moment.

Here is my thrown together fiber sketch made from scraps from the discharged crows. I finished the crow which I need to adhere to the canvas. I want to paint it black, first. I couldn’t decide how to made a berry for his mouth. I ended up felting one.

For now, I am a tired old lady and am off to bed.

Another Opening, Another Show

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

Come with me to Vancouver, WA for the opening of the High Fiber Diet Show at the White Sturgeon Gallery in the Water Resources Education Center. This is the I-5 bridge across the Columbia River. It was a beautiful clear day, and we could see Mt Hood from the bridge.

We parked the car and I saw this beautiful meadow-like area with daises -so pretty.

The show was on the second floor of the center.

I was thrilled to see my two quilts sharing a space. The curator told me she thought the colors played nicely. I could see that the more colorful Prairie Fields brought out the colors of the Meander piece.

There was a hands on art area on the first floor where kids were having a good time.

I loved this mobile which consisted of salmon created by children.

Hanging from the ceiling were this blue heron and white Sturgeon.

There was a potter with work on display. I had a great time chatting with him. He lives on a 65 acre working farm in Washington – his childhood home. His name is Richard Roth and his business is Grand Prairie Designs. Click to visit his website.

To see more photos of the show, please visit the High Fiber Diet Blog.

This and That

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Yesterday, I went over to Washington State to the Camas library to see the Bird’s Eye View Show that is hanging there for the month of May in  The Upstairs Gallery. That is my Prairie Fields which you see as you get off the elevator.

It is a nice space with nice natural light. Camas is a quaint town with a paper mill smell. The library is very nice and state of the art.

This is a view down into the library from the gallery.

My other quilt is hanging on the back wall.

If you click on this you can get a better look. That is Meander in the center on the back wall.

I had an epiphany after my little show a couple of weeks ago and after looking at this show. I need to work larger. The work I do needs to be BIG!! I am quite happy with the Aspen quilt. I think it will make a nice impact.

That being said, the piece I am working on now will not be so big. I am constrained by the size of the shibori piece I am using. (See! That is a problem. I use my art cloth. I need to make it bigger!!)

Anyway, I am doing an abstract of an old growth forest using this felted roving and a shibori background.

Here is my beginning attempt at felting trees with moss.

I broke the needles on my embellishment attachment so I have done more work on it with the hand needle punch. I like how it looks. I made a stupid beginner’s error – nuff said!!

Instead of buying new needles, I may buy a dedicated embellisher tomorrow morning.  I really like the possibilities of using felted roving in some of my work.

Last month I blogged about sharing our favorite books at the HFD meeting. I finally got the list of books.

Chris:     Fine Art Quilts ’97

Helene:  a book on Chinese art

Folk Tales of the Amur (primarily for the illustrations)

Designing from Nature by Dendel, 1978

Caroline:  Textile Translations by Maggie Grey

Deanna:  Quilt of Belonging by Bryan, 2006

Catherine:  Hundertwasser by Rand

Georgia:  Inspired to Stitch by Springall, 2005

Zee:       The Artist’s Way by Cameron

12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women

Heart Steps by Cameron

Patsy:   Frontier by L’Amour ’84

Gerrie:   Abstraction in Art and Nature by Hale, 1972

The Meaning of Trees by Hageneder

Oregon:  Images of the Landscape by Terrill

Teresa:   Design: a Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists and Craftspeople by Aimone

Diane:    Nature’s Studio by Colvin, 2005

Bonnie Halfpenny:  The Map as Art, by Harmon

Vickie:   When Wanderers Cease to Roam by Swift

Ila:        Quilt National 2003

Amy:    Bird by Bird by LaMott

Art and Fear by Bayles and Orland

Stitch Magic by Beaney & Littlejohn

Maarja:  The Creative Habit by Tharp

The Creative Artist by Leland

Shirley:  The Uncommon Quilter by Williamson 2007

Mary Goodson:  Surface Design for Fabric by Proctor & Lew

Laura Jaszkowski:  Art and Fear by Bayles and Orland

Organizing for the Creative Person by Lamping & Lehmkuhl, ’93

Mary Arnold:  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Edwards

Bonnie:   Nancy Crow:  Quilts and Influences

The Art of Richard Diebenkorn

I was intrigued by the book, Designing from Nature.  was able to find it on Amazon for about $4. It is a nice little source book for using forms from nature in art.

I guess you can tell that I did not make it to Eugene to take the workshop with Jason Pollen. Mr C really needed me to be around this week-end and since I am going on retreat with the STASH friends next week, I felt it was a good thing to have peaceful week-end at home.

I leave you with a photo of the beautiful eggs that I purchased at the Farmer’s Market –

In Plane View

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

High Fiber Diet is doing a show titled Bird’s Eye View. I looked through my photos taken from planes. I cropped out a section that looked interesting and printed it in black and white. I took it to CopyMax and had it enlarged to the max. You can see by my shoes how large this is. I will start with this size, but I think I want to make one larger. I will have to slice the photo and enlarge each section and then tape them together.

I am so excited about the possibilities of this layout. I can’t wait to get started. I want to do some hand stitching when I am on a trip later this month so I need to get at least one put together. Woo hoo!

Yesterday, Mr C and I went on an art date to the Portland Art Musem to see the China Design Now show. It explores the explosion of modern design in many areas  including architecture, print and clothing. The architecture is amazing. My favorite items in the show were these large birds beautifully adorned with organza rectangles that had been stitched like pojagi with French seams. So gorgeous. The fabric was laid over a metal frame like feathers.

We had a lovely dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants where we sat at the bar and had a good time chatting with the young bartenders, who doubled as our waiters. I had lamb spiedino with sauteed spinach and pickled red pepper. The lamb melted in my mouth. We shared a grilled Jerusalem artichoke, red onion and arugula salad.

We stopped for gas on the way home, and the Lexus would not start. We got a shove into a parking spot. I used the AAA app on my iPhone. It took about a half hour to get help. But after a battery charge, we were on our way home. This morning, Mr C took it for a new battery. We were wondering why the automatic key entry was not working very well. Every thing is working perfectly again. We have had the car for 7 years. It had the original battery. Pretty good.