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Archive for April, 2014

Window Seat at PDX

Monday, April 28th, 2014

 

windowseatsign

Today, I got to go behind the scenes at the Portland airport to see the exhibit that my Prairie Fields is in. It consists of 13 or 14 glass cases with and essay by Jim Earl, a literature professor at U of O. In the essay, Earl uses images taken from Google Earth to educate people about the land below them as they fly. I didn’t realize that the complete title contained the phrase – The Art of the Circle Field. In addition to our 3 quilts, there are several Google Earth photos used to illustrate the story. In it, Earl ponders the artistry of the prairie circles – are they intended to be so artistic or is it by chance. Here are some of the photos he selected:

googleearthcircles2

googleearthcircles

Here are Shirley and Elizabeth with their quilts.

elizabethcircles

shirleycircles

And me:

gerriecircles

And the three of us together.

Ladies3

We met the curator in her office and she took us through to the secure area through a back door. We looked at some of the other art exhibits. I have always enjoyed seeing art in airports and so it is quite fun to be part of an exhibit, now.

IKEA is out by the airport so I had lunch and spent some time there picking up some things for the condo. Then, Mr C and I went to the lighting store and picked out a chandelier. We are tired at looking at hanging wires.

 

My Happy Place

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

 

artnouveauprint

I went down to my studio for the first time since I dumped the last load of stuff before we moved into the condo. It is the end of the month and I needed to get a print done for the Printed Fabric Bee.  The theme is art nouveau.

This is what my studio looked like when I walked in.

messylovejoystudio

Nothing has been put away. I grabbed the stuff off my work table and put my print board up and went to work. First, I found my Bose radio and turned to my favorite rock music station!

I had cut a couple of freezer paper stencils. I wanted to do an art nouveau stylized flower. I decided to do some wavy lines of dots first. Here is my stencil.

browndotstencil

browndotpaintstencil

browndots

I used the skinny end of a chopstick to add yellow dots to the brown dots.

yellowdots

Here is my stylized flower stencil.

flowerstencil

This is the 6 inch piece that is going to the winner of the printed fabric pack. The piece for Jackie is up at the top.

68nchartnouveau

I went to my studio in a great deal of pain. My lower back has been killing me again. All the shuffling and packing and unpacking has taken a toll.

The thing is, I was so happy and stress free working in my studio after all this time that I suddenly realized I was not in pain. And, I was so happy. So happy that I started to cry. I am really looking forward to getting my studio organized and getting back some creative time.

 

 

Checking in from Condo Life

Thursday, April 24th, 2014

auditionbirchpainting

 

I have been too tired most days to blog. This move has been exhilarating and exhausting. The painters finally finished yesterday. It took 4 full days, but not consecutively so we have been in limbo until that was done. The photo above shows the accent color I chose where there used to be hot pink and black. The color is allspice. I am auditioning Lisa’s birch tree painting for that wall. Here is the long view of the hall.

longviewofhall

This was all black, even the ceiling and it was like walking through a tunnel! I used a pale, warm yellow, called complexion on the walls.

bedroomlamp

The bedroom has a really nice soft blue green. We found these glass lamps at Pottery Barn. The new bed has 3 big storage drawers on each side, – found at Crate and Barrel. Today we found a Mid Century walnut dresser for this room.

tablemess

The dining table is still piled with things to put on shelves and the mantle post painting.

bigpainting

We are starting to hang artwork Here is Mr C putting up our biggest painting. It looks really good in the room. The walls in here were painted a warm white. Except for the fireplace wall and kitchen. We kept the black but changed it to a bluish black called Midnight Magic.

fireplacearea

Mr C has his computer set up in the mini office on one side of the fireplace. The doors close when you want to hide it. The tv is on the other sicde and those doors close, too. I think the Robert Motherwell looks fantastic right there.

multipurpose room

Here is the problem room. The multi-purpose room as I call it. We got a new sofa sleeper that looks great with the pale topaz walls. This used to be purple, ceiling and walls. My Horn cabinet to house the Janome is in the back right corner. There is a closet with shelves waiting to be filled.

storagecloset

 

Scooter is settling in quite well. He gets lots of attention from people on NW 23rd when we go for walks. I found a new groomer for him and he looks very handsome after his doodle cut.

eaasterscooter

 

We have great views from out bay window. Sometimes it is cloudy and stormy.

cloudyview

And sometimes it is sunny and clear enough to see Mt. St Helens and Mt Adams. That is the Fremont Bridge.

sunnyview

We are really enjoying our walks and discoveries in our new neighborhood. We can cross the main street and get to Washington Park. There is all kinds of shopping on NW 23rd and gorgeous neighborhoods. We are in the hills so we are either walking up hill when we leave or walking up hill when we come back home. We have met most of our immediate neighbors. All are very nice and many are retired, like us.

I am itching to get to my studio and get it set up and start doing some creative stuff. I am so excited to be signed up for Judy Robertson’s Innovative Dye Techniques class at the Eugene Textile Center May 1-4. It will be a great way to jump back into doing what I love.

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014

ww 4-23

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

WW 4-16