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Archive for the ‘Art Dates’ Category

Another Sunny Day

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

It was another sparkling,  yet brisk day in San Francisco. I am still feeling like a slug as I deal with the sinus infection. I felt lousy when I got up this morning and was moving in slow motion. I finally got my rear in gear and felt better by late morning. I went down and helped Jayme with Paige so that she could get ready to go to her first outing with Paige to a neighborhood group for moms and new babies.

Mr C and I went to a new restaurant a block away and had a delicious brunch. He had  baked eggs and I had a quiche with leeks and black trumpet mushrooms. Then, we went back downtown to go to the Contemporary Jewish Museum to see the show Do Not Destroy. Lisa was invited to participate.

You can see her piece, here. It sold the first night.

Here is the plaza as you enter the museum.

And some of the architecture in the area.

I loved the show because it is all about trees. I love trees and tree art. I was especially intrigued by this large work of birches which seemed like a painting from a distance. Up close, you see that is a paper collage. Sheet music, newsprint and other paper prints and photos are collaged for this scene. The faces in the collage give it an eerie sense when you get close.

This is a detail shot that I took before the guards told me no photos. Click on it to see the details.

I loved this old door on the church next door to the museum.

Lisa came over to spend some time with Paige this afternoon. Her dog, Wilfredo, came upstairs to visit Scooter. He was very excited to have company in his current home.

Tonight, we were to pooped to cook, so we ordered pizza. Tomorrow, we start on the next part of our journey. We are going to the Mojave desert to spend time with Steve’s brothers and their wives. We will spend the night in Valencia and then drive out to the desert on Saturday morning. We will stop here next week for another Paige fix!!

We Have a Winner

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Sheila Mahanke Barnes was chosen by the random number generator. Send me your snail mail and I will send this on to you!!

It is a beautiful day in Portland, brisk and sunny with grand views of Mt. Hood. Reva and I took the bus downtown to meet up with some of our STASH group for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and then some art viewing. We went to the Contemporary Craft Museum where my guild has a small show in their showcase. The theme is fire and earth. I have my Scorched Earth piece there.

We had a small gift exchange. I made these bags for each one with their name stamped.

I also repurposed an old quilt that I made in 2007 and created 5 small pieces. This was made from hand-dyed silk, organza and cheese cloth. It was heavily hand stitched with perle cotton.

Here are the newpieces:


I added some beads to some of them and satin stitched the edges. I love making these little pieces.

Mr C and Scooter went out and cut down a tree while I was gone. He said it did not take as long because I was not with him. (Me: Oh, look at that one over there. Wait, I see one down there that looks perfect! Etc.)

So, guess what I will be doing this week-end!!

Mottainai – Essence of Things

Monday, November 21st, 2011


This is a most incredible exhibit! Steph and I took it in this afternoon. We so wanted to touch everything. The exhibit is on through the week-end at the Portland Japanese Garden. The Mottainai exhibition consists of objects hand-made by the wives of farmers, fishermen and lumbermen in rural communities in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The earlier pieces are lovingly patched and stitched over and over for reuse. The later objects are fabric and garments made from natural fibers like hemp, ramie, wisteria, elm, paper and kudzu.

I will just post some photos with comments where I remember something.

The first set of photos are of boro cloth – which is older cloth and garments that are patched and stitched.

Boro Apron.

 


If you click on this sign, you can read about sakiori. Sakiori is derived from the saki, meaning tear and ori for weave. The sakiori cloth uses torn strips of cloth for the weft.

This is a gorgeous garment  woven from ramie.

This piece of fabric covered a seat which was over a brazier for heat. The heat scorched the center of the fabric and it has been patched and mended many times for reuse.

We saw some very utilitarian sashiko. Most of what I have previously seen has been very decorative.

Kudzu fibers!!

Paper undergarment.

Paper garment.

 

Indigo dyed paper garment.

The following pieces are elm or linden tree fibers.

 

This is wisteria!! (I think)

 

Not sure what this is – just some patched and stitched fabric and balls of fibers.

It was just a lovely, lovely and humbling exhibit.

At the gift shop, I bought a pack of linen squares. I am not sure what I will do with them – maybe just fondle them.

I also bought the catalog, which I think is available at the online store, here.

Before heading to the garden, the whole family had lunch at Sushi Land for Miles’ birthday. He loves this place because the food comes around on a conveyer belt and he can grab whatever he wants.

 

Here is a sweet photo of Mia with her Dad.

I must get a good night’s sleep so that I can do all the holiday prep work tomorrow to load in the car for our drive down to Smith River, which is on the coast just south of Oregon. Scooter is going to the groomer to get all pretty for his first vacation with us.

Art in the Pearl 2011

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Mr. C, Scooter and I went downtown to check out the Art in the Pearl. These are necklaces made by iber/metal artist, Trisha Hassler. Click her name to see her larger works. She made these miniature pieces because people had asked for something smaller and more affordable.

As an anniversary gift, Mr C let me pick out something to take home. I came home with on of her necklaces.

Here is a detail. You can see the fiber background with a bit of metal attached to it, similar to her larger work.

We notice that there were a lot fewer jewelry artists this year, but a whole lot more fiber/felted clothing artists. Here are a few glimpses.

It was very crowded so I was limited in the photography area. After a time, it was like seeing the same thing over and over!

Here is a new take on fiber. This woman crochets paper on which she has made marks with a pen or a pencil. She then cuts the roll of paper into long strips.

There was a young woman creating this sculpture from twigs. It was very cool.

Here is some random art that caught my eye.

These are encaustics with embellishments. He adds elements that make the work 3-D.

I love fused glass. These had beautiful colorways.

These glass whirligigs always gather an audience.

Painted metal pieces, that look a lot like quilt art, don’t you think?

This week-end is our 47th wedding anniversary. We were married on Labor Day week-end so we always celebrate all week-end. Our actual anniversary is on Monday. We are going out to dinner tonight. We were supposed to go out on our friends’ boat tomorrow, but the wife is not feeling well so that will happen next week. On Monday, we will have the annual family Labor Day barbecue. We have hot weather, finally. The wind is blowing from the east, bringing us hot air and smoke from the fires.

You can still leave a comment on my August 31 post for a chance to win Masters Art Quilts, Vol. 2. The drawing will be on Tuesday.

MOMA

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

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We spent a good part of today at MOMA. We walked there from our hotel and joined the throngs of people from all of the world to enjoy modern art.

I took tons of photos which I will have up on Flickr soon, but it is difficult to do the upload on the iPad! Some of my favorite photos were taken out the windows.

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Here is one of my favorite paintings.

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I loved this Calder mobile in a stairwell.

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I love taking photos of the urban landscape, too.

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When we came back to the hotel, I discovered that we are just a stone’s throw from Chelsea so on our way to dinner, we stopped by the City Quilter where I made a purchase of Cherrywood cottons.

We had dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Chelsea known for it’s lobster. We are both whooped from our fantastic day in the city.