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Archive for the ‘Art Dates’ Category

Friday Fun

Friday, October 16th, 2009

matthewmarklukejohn

These are quilted images of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, created by Mary Catherine Lamb. She was an incredible fiber artist and recently passed away from a recurrence of ovarian cancer. Some of her work is on view at the Nine Gallery in Portland.

I met Terry Grant there for a long overdue art date. We started at the Contemporary Craft Museum. Saw some interesting stuff. I was very enamored with the pojagi pieces done by Jiseon Lee Isbara, associate professor and head of fibers department, Oregon College of Art and Craft. She will be speaking to my guild at our June quarterly meeting.

Our main purpose was to see Mary Lamb’s work. She used all manner of fabrics from old table cloths and curtains to more contemporary quilting fabrics to create her complex pieces. Each one is made up of squares. Each square is like a completed little quilt. If you click on this, you can see the squares.

lambcloseup

These pieces were my favorites:

archangelmichael

Above is the Archangel, Michael and below is the Angel at the Tomb – my absolute favorite.

angelatthetomb

Anyone who has been in my home, knows that I love religious art. Mary collected it, also. Here is the Virgin Mary with cooties. I want this collection!!

marycooties

Terry took me to Park Kitchen for a belated birthday lunch. We shared two incredible desserts after eating healthy soup and salad. One was a lovely lime concoction with lime curd and topped with house made crackerjacks. The other was a plum/tomato crisp with basil ice cream. They were both delectable and not sugary sweet.

OK, now let’s talk about my work ethic. I only post when I have done something. You all don’t know about those days when I am languishing on the sofa playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook.

Over on 12 X 12, we are taking turns handing out awards to each other. Today, Diane did Most Likely to be Pulled Over by the Quilt Police. It is so funny. You have to go read it.

I did manage to read the first chapter in Expressive Drawing. I think it will be a fun book. I love this quote from the first chapter.

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college—that my job was to teach people how to draw, she stared back at me, incredulous, and said, “You mean they forget?”

Good Things

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Well, Scooter is definitely a good thing. He has made our life a little more interesting and gotten us off our duff to get him outside several times a day. It is the key to housebreaking — training the owners!!

Here are some more photos. I promise this is not turning into a dog blog. We gave him a bath and now his hair is a little curlier.

scooteronlawn

scootersitting

He is such a funny boy. This is how he drinks his water.

scooterdrinks

You looking at me?

scooterulookingatme

I received the other two collages that I purchased from the Collage Mania auction to support the American Cancer Society.

This one is by my friend, Carol Larson in Petaluma. It is very textural and is called Nightfall. I love her work and am so happy to have a piece in my collection.

collageclarson

The other is by my friend Carol Suto from the East Bay area of California. I met her through Liz Berg. I have always been a fan of her work.

collagecsuto

It is also a good thing that I am making progress on all of the stuff  I need to get done before I get on a plane Friday morning and head for Kansas City. I have been filling in my wardrobe with some new summer clothes and footwear. I just love these Merrill’s that I picked up over the week-end.

newmerrills

Another good thing is that tomorrow, I am dropping all of my duties and having a fun day with Sue Reno who is visiting from Pennsylvania. I will bring her by to see my messy studio and then Terry is picking us up and we are driving to Philomath (near Corvallis) to see Karen Miller’s big show and a High Fiber Diet meeting. We will take a leisurely drive through the wine country and stop for lunch.

Girl’s Night Out

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

miaandhermom

Tonight, Mia, Steph and I had a girl’s night out. The guys went out for wings and then off to see a model train exhibit. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant in the Pearl and then off to the Contemporary Craft Museum to see the North West premiere of Handmade Nation, a film produced by Lisa’s good friend, Faythe Levine. Faythe was there for a Q and A after the film. Many of the crafters who were in the film were present at the screening. The film was loads of fun as it was done with a great sense of humor. I recommend the film, if you get a chance to view it. Mia realised that she was the only kid there, but she said she thought most kids her age would not enjoy it as much as she did. A bonus was a swag bag containing all kinds of goodies, including postcards with work by Lisa Congdon.

Speaking of Lisa, she and Wilfredo are now gracing the cover of a book.

lisabookcover

This Japanese book company has published books of photos of kitchens all across the world. The latest is San Francisco. Lisa’s is featured and she and Wilfredo were chosen for the cover.

Not to be outdone, Stephanie and Maria are being interviewed about their book, A Year of Mornings, by the BBC at 3:30 am Pacific Time. I don’t know when it is actually airing. Apparently, a couple of London newspapers have featured the book and so they are getting some good press over there.

And, I have not been idle. I am well into the spring cleaning of my studio. I finished the kitchen/dye room this morning. We assembled my new stainless steel table. It is just the right size for my little room.

newdyetable

I reorganized and cleaned up about one third of the main studio room. I also received about 25 registrations in the mail and by phone yesterday, so you know I will be back at the computer. But, what a beautiful day it was and we are promised more this week-end. Love the sunshine.

Super-Duper Week-end

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

The highlight of the week-end was attending a lecture by Faith Ringgold for Black History Month at Reed College. Faith is somewhat legendary among art quilters She does story quilts painted on canvas that have minimal quilting. As a black woman who started her art career 50 years ago in Harlem, she has an amazing story to tell. She was funny, charming, witty, pithy and brilliant. She is still producing work, in her late 70s and a so was a great inspiration to me. She started her art career copying the masters and painting landscapes. One time a gallery owner told her that she couldn’t do that and it changed her life. She says that a black person knows how to take a negative and make it a positive. She started doing her quilts that tell the stories of her people and the rest is history. (For more about Faith, Click Here)

While we waited for the lecture to start, I got some silly photos with June, Terry and Reva. The first is June, Terry and I.

juneterrygerrie.jpg

Then, Reva showed up so I had to get a photo of us.

gerriereva.jpg

After the lecture, Mr C and I went to Steph’s for a delicious dinner of lentil stew with lamb sausage, home made bread, salad and a decadent molten chocolate dessert. Steph and Miles watched Nigella Lawson make them on u-tube so Miles asked to help make them for dinner. So good! We did some Oscar watching. My grandchildren do not watch much TV at all. They rarely go t the movies. Yet, Mia had a great deal of knowledge about the movies and the actors. I asked her how she knows some much. She told me that she reads the NY Times Arts and Entertainment section every day. I could so related to this. Of course, I had no TV in my childhood and I read every thing I could get my hands on.

I spent most of the last few days getting homework done for my class with Liz. I will show some of my work and the tweaking I did after her critiques. (Note: except for the last piece, these are done on 4 X 6 cards. They are exercises, not finished work.)

The assignment was to create a small harmonious composition using 3-4 analogous colors.
172harmonious.jpg

exercise172revised2.jpg

This assignment was to create contrast with color.

ex213colorcontrast.jpg

exercise213revised.jpg

Here, the assignment was to create contrast using size.

ex212sizecontrast.jpg

exercise212revised.jpg

For this piece, we were to make a small piece showing contrast with harmony and balance.

221.jpg

exercise22revised.jpg

OK, now it is up to you to see what I did to make a better composition!!

I will post more tomorrow.