Three on display

Three quilts in two exhibitions.

Golden Sol

Golden Sol will be at PIQF, October 17-20, 2013, as part of the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit presented by the Northern California Quilt Council. My third consecutive year of participation.

Orange Rhyme

Spin in Brown

And on the opposite coast, Orange Rhyme and Spin in Brown have longer engagements at the Schweinfurth Art Center: Quilts = Art = Quilts runs from October 27, 2013 until January 5, 2014.

Good things comes in threes.

A simple life

I came back from Italy only to be consumed for six weeks by two intensive projects for the job I didn't retired from. By the half year mark, my studio routine was non-existent and creative accomplishments sorely lacking.

I resolved to fix that with judicious pruning. I limited my gardening activities, limited my already limited housekeeping (furthering its decaying state), limited my social life, limited my internet usage and stole away to work in the studio. I've now re-established my nightly studio routine and made good headway on an(other) intensive project, so I can ease up on my monastic life.

You want to see what I've been working on? I'm not ready to show you the whole thing. You'll have to be at the Crow Timber Barn in Ohio to see it. I'll be there from October 7th to 11th for Nancy Crow's Potpourri II workshop. This top will be there too.

Yet I can't have a post without a photo. So here's a teaser:

corner of four modules

A continuation of circles with straight lines.

I previously teased you with this. Well, I wasn't happy with this which was a very symmetrical four-square, about 40x40. I took it apart and made six more modules. Still wasn't satisfied and made another six. After 60 hours just piecing, I'm happy with this bigger (100x60) better relative.

Oh, life should be so simple!

Not to be missed: Richard Diebenkorn

A drive into San Francisco from Oakland can be a big deal with traffic. I try to take public transit when I can. But since I had a business appointment in the far reaches of the city, I piggybacked a trip to the de Young Museum to see Richard Diebenkorn, the Berkeley Years, 1953-1966.

I love Diebenkorn's Bay Area Figurative and Ocean Park series. I even feel a special affinity since he was an alumni of both my high school and college. Ah, if only I can paint as well as he did!

This exhibition highlights the breath of his work from abstract (often landscape-like) to figurative and back to abstract for those 13 years he lived in Berkeley. It showcases 130 works - oil paintings and many smaller mixed media pieces on paper, most rarely shown before. Most just wonderfully luminescent! Terrific brushwork and underlying textures hinting of changes. Diebenkorn worked improvisationally. He often sat for hours looking at his painting before re-doing areas his canvases.

Due to copyright issues no photography was allowed (nor can I but you can browse through the museum's website for more information including a fewYouTube clips. His daughter's reminiscing is an especially illuminating view of his life and character.

Going home, I got stuck on the freeway for about an hour because the bridge was closed for removal of a suspicious package. That probably won't happen to you, so if you're in the area, don't miss this! Exhibition closes September 29, 2013.

Wire diversions

I've long admired Mari Andrews' sculptures ever since visiting her studio a number of years ago. Now am looking forward to her exhibition Over, Under and Inside Out at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. 

Mari Andrews' Hold Mari Andrews' Propensitus Gravitas

Two years ago she offered a one-day workshop called Paperless Drawing - Wire Sculpture at the Richmond Art Center. But the timing didn't work. This year I had another chance so I broke with my nose-to-the-grindstone routine.

After learning about wire - types, gauges, tools, knots - I played, adding other paraphernalia to wire, to create these two small sculptures:

I'm still having fun toying with their orientation.

It was a terrific diversion from the rigors of piecing. Maybe I'll make one every day week month. Oh, heck, just make another one . . .  whenever . . . then another . . .

Italian vacation recipe

During my vacation in Italy, when I wasn't walking, eating, sleeping or napping, I was either reading or keeping my hands busy. 

Ingredients:

• one 6" embroidery hoop
• 21 pieces of cloth, each marked with 4" square
• needles 
• pearl cotton
• thread snippers
• thimble
• stitch notes

Directions:

Stretch a cloth in hoop. Thread needle with pearl cotton. Select a stitch. Stitch as desired. Rethread needle as needed. Rethread with another color as desired.

Use only one stitch per cloth. Stitch improvisationally without marking. Explore stitches: change stitch length, change stitch density, change direction,  overlap stitches.

blanket or buttonhole stitch

detached chain stitch or lazy daisy

chevron stitch

coral stitch

feather stitch

needle weaving

snail trail, unfinished

Conclusions:

• Some stitches lend themselves to variations.
• Some stitches cover more ground. 
• Not a large selection of dark value pearl cottons for the lighter cloths.
• Harder for no. 12 pearl cotton to be effective against no. 5. Weight makes a difference.
• Colors were chosen on a whim. Some combinations more effective. 
• Build a bigger pearl cotton stash!
• Preparing 21 pieces of cloth was overkill. 
• Will use recipe again.

How do you handle weeks away from the studio?

Bella vistas - Venezia

moored gondolas

April 25th - Liberation Day - was not a good day to arrive in Venice. It was a holiday so there wasn't anyone to guide us to the apartment.We picked up keys at the bus terminal and had an adventure finding our own way.

Though the agency's directions seemed clear enough, their map was unreadable. I had two city maps and found on the internet a good map for a nearby hotel with multiple routes marked. But maps are no guarantee. Even the best ones do not show or mark every single street. It took all three maps plus the cell phone's GPS to locate the apartment. Maybe we didn't traverse the most direct route, but at least we'd avoided sleeping on the streets of Venice.

the canal behind the apartment

Wayfinding in Venice is like being on that old television game show, Concentration, or playing one of those AARP brain fitness memory game. Deja vu again and again! I'd stop in squares to get re-oriented and often stopped in the same square again and again. Either pull the map out or take chances with a wrong turn. Often both. We were perpetually lost. And apparently not the only ones. We spent the days wandering around and window shopping.

typical canal

Because the holiday fell on a Thursday, it felt like half of Italy was in Venice for a long weekend. After squeezing over the Rialto Bridge and through St. Mark's Square, we tried to keep far from the maddening crowds. We found boat yards,

gondola boatyard

workshops where oars and oarlocks are made,

oar and oarlock totems outside workshop

and even a shop specializing in Venetian boat history and authentic model ships. Unfortunately, the latter was closed for the holiday but has a website worth perusing.

We took the vaporetto to the outer islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.

 Murano canal

Burano color

Though the photos make the island look deserted, they weren't. Most everybody else were shopping.

Venice was the most crowded leg, but the last leg, of our trip. We had a great three weeks in Italy but were ready to go home. Ciao!