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Archive for July, 2016

Radical Embroidery

Saturday, July 30th, 2016

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I signed up to take Radical Embroidery at Oregon College of Art and Craft. It was a 3 day workshop. It turned out to be not that radical, but I learned a lot about using embroidery as an art form. The instructor was a delightful young woman from the CA bay area, Victoria May. Her website is here. Her work is a bit radical as she has a fondness for the gritty and industrial debris that she finds in her travels. I think that adding delicate embroidery to these found objects serves to confound the viewer.

On the first day, we learned different ways to create line in our work. The piece at the beginning of this post is my sampler. We used Dynaflow paint on canvas to  begin our work. Then I added lines in various ways. We used organza in our work. For this line, I painted organza which I tore into strips and couched down. I really like the effect.

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The next day, we moved on to working with painted organza layered on canvas and we were to capture some things between the layers.

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I had some previously quilted rusted silk which I cut into rectangles. Two pieces are under the organza and the middle one is on top. I am in the process of stitching the quilted silk pieces down. Then, I will add some interesting stitching to the rest of the piece. I am thinking of adding a bit of rust to this in some way.

Then we were introduced to stitching on water color paper. The trick here is to pre-punch your stitching holes with a needle or awl. For my piece, I stained the water color paper with acrylic ink and got some interesting effects by blow drying it. Click on any photo to see it larger.

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I am in the process of stitching with variegated thread, following the design created by the ink.

On the last day, I had an idea that I just had to work on using some of the materials that I brought.

First, I painted the canvas with indigo Dynaflow paint. I forgot to get a photo before I started stitching, but you can get an idea from this photo.

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I had some indigo fabric with clamped circles. I cut out three circles for the composition. I also had a dark blue shibori organza which has black lines in it. And I also had a piece of Rymplecoth that my friend, Maris, gave me. It is more loosely woven than cheesecloth and is used for cleaning and polishing. She uses it in her felting. I dyed it a dark black. It takes the dye really well.

I used strips of the organza as I wanted some of the painted canvas to show to give a better value change. I ripped some holes in the Rymplecloth so that the organza can poke through.

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The top circle is on top of the organza and is couched down and stitched with silver metallic thread.

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The other circles are under organza and stitched with the silver thread. I have started doing some stitching on the organza and canvas and then I will tack the Rymple cloth down.

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Here is the final layout which looks a bit messy, but I think I know where I am going.

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I was feeling a bit overwhelmed earlier this week and wishing my recovery was moving faster. Yesterday, I had Mr C  help me get my sewing machine table back where I use it and pulled the Janome up out of hiding. It made me so happy, I almost danced. I think it is a symbol for the life I want to live and now, I am feeling so much better and have been doing better. I think I turned a corner.

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All I did was shorten some clothes, but it felt good. My knee didn’t like the knee lift, but that will get better.

 

SFMOMA Part 2

Thursday, July 28th, 2016

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I  took a break to attend a 3 day workshop and I did well, but I was exhausted every night. I have always been a people person, but I spent so much of my recovery holed up with Mr C here in the condo, that I am finding spending a lot of time stimulated by the presence of other people is exhausting for me! Who knew that would every happen to me! I will share some stuff from the workshop later, but I wanted to finish my SFMOMA posting.

Our next stop was at the Calder exhibit which was inside and out. I love his mobiles.

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In the outdoor area, there was a beautiful garden wall of ferns and other plants.

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Then we were off to Open Ended: Painting and Sculpture since 1900.  A couple of Matisse portraits caught my eye. The first is The Girl with the Green Eyes.

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This one is Woman With a Hat. This one was done a little earlier than the one above. I thought it was interesting that it had a more impressionistic quality to it. I really like it better, I think.

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I love color and the beauty of juxtaposing colors as Josef Albers does in these 4 pieces.

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Mr C and I both have an affection for Robert Motherwell’s works. His work is so bold and graphic. We own a signed print of his work.

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See how exciting this place is. You walk into a room and on every wall is a piece by one of your favorite artists. This being work by Mark Rothko.

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And what is not to love about this Diebenkorn, Berkeley #7?

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There were several pieces by Clyfford Still. His color use is extraordinary.

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This  is one of Robert Rauschenberg’s gritty pieces.

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I was happy to see this collage by Romare Bearden, one of my favorite artists. I was introduced to his work when I lived in North Carolina and was a docent at an art museum that owned a few of his pieces.

By now, I was beginning to feel as if a truck had run over me but I was determined to find the small works by Klee, another favorite artist.

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I was happy to find this in the gift shop: Art Inc. by my daughter, Lisa.

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There was so much more. I hope to go back again, soon.

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, July 27th, 2016

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SFMOMA- Part 1

Friday, July 22nd, 2016

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One thing I really wanted to do while we were in California was to visit the renovated SFMOMA. It was closed for a long time as they expanded their exhibition space. Mr C used to say the SFMOMA was great architecture and bad art. The main problem was the lack of exhibition space. Well, that has been remedied. It is 5 floors of wondrous art. I had to stop and sit quite often as my stamina was minimal, but I kept going, feeling enriched by the creativity around me. By evening, I could barely get to my hotel room to crash!

We started on the fifth floor with an exhibition of outdoor sculpture. The wire man up there was quite delightful. This work was by an Englishman who created sculptures from natural materials on his solo treks around the world.

 

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Next was this wall covering created by Jongstra, a Dutch fiber artist. She used raw and crafted felt, hand-spun silk, and dried flora. It was huge and in a hallway and difficult to photograph.

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In another gallery, we saw these pieces by Andy Warhol and Chuck Close.

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This was a different version of his Marilyn work – Reverse Marilyns.

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Chuck Close created this portrait using circles in various shades of gray to black. Mesmerizing to look at.

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I loved this piece by Frank Stella, so different from his other work, below.

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So, I could not wait to get into this gallery! These pieces were in one room.

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This very abstracted work always looks so simple, but believe me, it is not easy to do. Wish I had the ability.

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These are two pieces by Ellsworth Kelly that could be art quilts – actually, I think I have seen them made into quilts – don’t you agree.

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I will continue this on another day. I need to get my beauty sleep. I am taking a Radical Embroidery workshop at Oregon College of Art and Craft for the next 3 days. This has been my week to enter back into my Portland life. It has been great, but very tiring. I seem to be better each day. In San Francisco, we stayed at the Sofitel in Redwood City. It was really lovely. This was the view from our room. I enjoyed living in the lap of luxury for a few days.

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On the Road to CA

Thursday, July 14th, 2016

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Here we are in California for the night. We really enjoyed the trip in the new Mercedes, such a difference from the Prius which we did not like for long trips. I made it to the Grants Pass Art Museum and even walked up the stairs which went on forever. I took the elevator down. Photography was not allowed but I snuck in a couple of long shots.

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I had to get a close up of Terry Grants Camas Prairie, which I love. The quilt next to it is by Cynthia St. Charles. It has lots of wonderful surface design.

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I got to see two views of my new knee when I checked in with my Surgeon this morning.

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Ok, it has been a long and busy day for me. Time to crash