Bizarre Barbies

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year, but for the last couple of years, we've been traveling too much to really go all out on decorations and parties. We used to have big costume parties at the studio, and to celebrate the creations of our adventurous guests, we gave away Bizarre Barbie Awards. No First, Second, or Thirds -- just as many awards as we had time and supplies from the dollar store to make. It's amazing what you can get to stick together using hot-melt glue.

Happy Halloween!

Four Seasons Bathroom

The whole Viking affair felt like being treated like royalty, but nothing says royalty like a really nice bathroom! The one at the Four Seasons Hotel where we were housed during the IQA festival was really posh -- big, marbled and luxurious. Fancy little soaps, elegant fixtures, and even the toilet paper had little gold seals.

BTW, I never thought about posting my potty pix, but I guess some people like a peek once in a while!

Michael James New Work

Gabrielle brought up some good questions in her comments about my Michael James post about the change in his recent work, but I don't think I'm qualified to answer. I gather Michael James is a design guru. In her lecture in Houston, Libby Lehman said she took his design one class eight years in a row!

I like to look at lots of art that can be very diverse -- I guess I'm an art junkie, always ready for the next fix. But I tend to just look at what I find interesting and probably not the best at analyzing it in depth. Maybe someone could bring it up on the Ragged Cloth Cafe...

Escape from the International Quilt Festival

"Help!! PaMdora and I are being held prisoner by a mysterious force field!"

Just kidding, I think it's some sort of tape barrier that is used to surround all the quilts at the International Quilt Festival going on in Houston right now, I suppose to keep the hoards from getting a little too touchy.

We're home now, and suffering a little art-overload after doing double duty of seeing all of the festival and visiting about eight museums in Houston also. I have loads of photos, so much it will take time to organize.

After one more short trip tomorrow, I hope to get caught up on posting and all the emails I've been ignoring!

Michael James Exhibition

Taking the train to Providence to meet up again with Shane and Stacy was a beautiful ride on a rainy autumn afternoon. Stacy had to pick up art supplies for her students at the RISD bookstore, when she dropped a little bomb. "Oh we could drive up to Fuller Craft Museum to see the Michael James retrospective..." Holy cow, I had no idea we'd be the neighborhood! Do I know who he is? Stacy, let's go!

Michael James is one of the biggies, a formally trained painter who started making art quilts in the 70's or 80's. I found his book of stripey geometric work when I was just getting interested in art quilts. I think this one is on the cover. But to see it in real life!

I hadn't seen much of his recent work since he started working with large digital printers and the very top quilt one of my favorites. It practically glowed. If you're like me and can't imagine from photos how these could be fabric, here's a little detail.

van Gogh at the Met

On Sunday Russ and I met some family to see a special exhibition of drawings by van Gogh at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that are rarely exhibited because they are fragile and sensitive to light. I would have rather gone on a weekday, because it was almost impossible to study or even see the drawings up close because the galleries were mobbed. But as Shane said, it was the opportunity of a lifetime...

I often think about van Gogh's work when I'm sewing lines into my own work, so I was especially intrigued by a series of drawings that van Gogh did of his own completed paintings. Using a reed pen, brush, and ink he creates lines that are not contours or crosshatching to create volume, but as a kind of a color shorthand and a patterning that gives a unique energy to the work. What a genius he was!

Also at the Jewish Museum was a retrospective of Joan Snyder's paintings, large beautifully colored, multi-media canvases with herbs, found objects and even fabric (velvet and others)very effectively mixed with the paint. Most of her work was much more colorful, but I especially like this painting Cherry Fall -- the lucious white sky and red cherries almost made my mouth water.

And finally on the way out of the museum, this painting by self-taught Jewish artist Malcah Zeldis caught my eye.

The Best Bathroom of All

Saturday it was raining, so we didn't go to Storm King as we had originally planned. Instead Russ and I went to Chelsea to the New Museum and then gallery hopping.

I'd never been to these galleries, and we had a great time walking around in the rain, dodging into the ground level galleries along 22nd to 25th street. We had to stand in line to get into Feature Inc. who shows Tom Friedman's work (was inspired by his airplane hitting a building with a new quilt idea), and also enjoyed a show of Jim Shaw called The Inky Depths/The Woman in the Wilderness. (sorry my camera battery went dead, and can't find good links for Jim Shaw, but here's a small borrowed image from the show.)

In between we stopped for NY pizza, at the mother-of-Apple-stores to look at the new video IPods, and at Kid Robot store that had lots of toys by some of my favorite artists.

Finally dinner at Peep, a Thai restaurant in Soho with a ceiling of undulating mirrors, chrome-gothish chandeliers, and fabulous food (spinach and corn peppered dumplings, H20 salad, eggplant and sweet basil in chili paste -- you get the picture) .

But to top it all off, they had the best bathroom I have ever been in my entire life. Now you must understand that where ever I go in the world, I study bathrooms and even take lots of photos of bathrooms.

At Peep, you are directed by the stripey orange-gray uniformed staff towards a mirrored wall with a handle. Push the handle, go in, lock the door and it suddenly becomes very quiet. You wait for the lights to go on. But they don't. Then you turn around and realize that YOU CAN SEE EVERYONE in the entire restaurant....BUT they CAN'T SEE YOU through the mirrored glass. Amazing.

Then you notice this peaceful buddha sculpture in an mirrored glass alcove that's hovering between the chaos of the restaurant and the calm quiet of your little oasis of darkness. It takes a minute to get the courage to pull your pants down looking at all those people. Oh yeah, and there's a flat screen playing foreign movies with subtitles right over the sink too.

The second time I had to use the restroom, I was all over it. Didn't faze me a bit. How cosmopolitan of me!

Chelsea Art Museums

On Saturday we went to Chelsea, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art had a exhibition of Canadian artist Brian Jungen. He makes pretty amazing skeletons of dinosaurs out of plastic chairs and aboriginal masks from Nike shoes.

Also in the Altoids Curiously Strong Collection, I loved a series of drawings by San Antonio artist Katie Pell called "Mick" (as in Mick Jagger). It was the funniest thing I've seen in such a long time. I've got try to email her when I get home.

In the Chelsea Art Museum is right above the New Museum with an exhibit of Cristobal Gabarron, a Spanish artist who has done lots of work for the UN and the Atlantic Olymics.

His work had so many elements that appeal to me -- vaguely figurature compositions, strong black lines, incredibly yummy textures and patterns on the surfaces of his sculpture and painting -- that I fell in love with his stuff.

Noguchi Museum

On Friday my friend True and I went to Long Island to see the Noguchi museum which had been closed for a long time to remodel. Once there it was worth the long trek.

The museum used to be a factory that Noguchi made his studio when he lived in Manhattan, and the industrial space has been subtly converted into some profound spaces to view his stone sculptures.

There's also a new second floor space for special exhibits, and we saw the Imagery of Chess Revisited, a pretty cool re-creation of a show where Calder, Noguchi, Man Ray, John Cage, and many other avant garde people created special works for the Julian Levy Gallery in 1944.

It was so retro, I loved it. Especially clever was a chess set where the chess pieces were all sorts of different wine and liquour glasses filled with wine, and the two sides were RED versus WHITE.

I came back all fired up with ideas for cleaning up our industrial warehouse and getting it looking better. We've always had the idea of creating a sculpture garden in the vacant lot next to our building (sigh, if we only had a jillion years and unlimited energy to do everything!)

Illustration Friday: Cold

Ever go to a fancy cocktail party and not know who to talk to? Needless to say the atmosphere can feel a little chilly, if not downright COLD. So here's my drawing this week.

I was at such a party last night - a ritzy affair on the ninth floor of the New York City Athletic Club overlooking Central Park. It was an awards banquet to honor the lifetime achievements of sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz, and I was feeling a little shabby wearing boots rather than the very pointy high heels that I saw all the other women wearing.

Standing around, nursing a glass of wine, trying to catch the eye of a couple of people I sort of know who seemed to be ignoring me completely. So I finally I look over to the side of the room, and recognize someone, so I go over and introduce myself...to ROBIN WILLIAMS!

Not that I said anything profound, but he shook my hand and I asked him about a triathlon I heard he was in and tell him that I do humorous art quilts and he said "cool." How amazing the evening felt after that, and I'm still on CLOUD NINE!

20 Things about Me

Holly tagged me, so here goes -- Twenty Things about Me. My favorite subject, of course!

1. In high school I accidently set fire to my junior class homecoming float.

2. One of my earliest memories is making snow angels. That's where you lay on your back in freshly fallen snow and move your arms up and down to make a silhouette of an angel.

3. I was devastated to learn that pamcakes weren't named after me.

4. My favorite food is artichokes.

5. In the fourth grade I heard that to be a good spy, you had to be able to read upside down so that when you were talking to someone at their desk, you could secretly be reading all of their papers. So I practiced reading upside, and the other kids in my class made fun of me.

6. I've been extremely near-sighted as long as I can remember. In the second grade I wore blue cat-eye glasses, and in the fourth, brown cat-eye glasses.

7. The craziest job I ever had was delivering singing telegrams. The crazy thing is, I can't sing.

8. I love to go inside old houses and buildings that need lots of work because then I can image how I would turn them into wonderful artists' studios.

9. I hate it when I pull on a t-shirt or turtle neck and find out that I've put it on backwards and the tags are poking me in the throat.

10. I was once bit on the little toe by a chimpanzee.

11. My maiden name means "golden river" in Japanese.

12. I obsessively buy luggage, carry-on bags, tote bags, and anything I think will help me get organized. However this is not my fault, I think it is genetic.

13. I once had a dog who was video-taped by a Japanese television station.

14. My husband and I were married on a cliff overlooking a lake. The wedding party was below on pontoon boats, and the Celtic band was on a hand-made raft. After the ceremony, I took off my wedding dress and jumped into the lake with my new husband. (I had a swim suit on under the wedding dress.)

15. I've noticed in videos of myself that I walk like a duck.

16. I love Halloween, it's my favorite holiday. One year I dressed as the tooth fairy, another year as a picnic.

17. Someday I'd like to build a treehouse.

18. I always think I can learn to do anything if I can just find a book on about it. One time at the library I found a book called, How to Cut Your Own Hair, so I did.

19. I have a theory called the First and Third. The first impression you have of someone is your gut reaction. The second impression comes over time, with socialization and interaction. Then one day something happens and the third impression reconfirms your first gut instinct.

20. One of the first poems I ever wrote was called "I am a Pickle."

Okay, now here's who I tagged:
Sonji Says
Melody at Fibermania
Myra at My Little Mochi
Gerrie at Crazy for Fiber
Gabrielle at Handmaiden

Time for a Re-work

In my studio there's a small bookcase where I keep my cd player, and this clock hangs above it. Today as I was changing a cd, I noticed the reflection of my design wall. Sometimes I take photos of my work in progress to make decisions. Some people use a reducing glass. Now I have the new technique -- "the clock reflection method."

I think making art is more like a dance than a race. It's not usually a direct, fast route between two points, it's more like a walz, around and around. And I've dancing around with this piece:

Reconstructed the tub (from the backside, that'll mess with your head if you're fusing - screwed the fusible side up several times). Looked at submarine photos, and the sub kept growing in size and complexity. Then looked at the most famous sub of all and went back to my very first sub drawing. Changed the color of the water, which changed the color of the sub. Went shopping for more pinks, and remade PaMdora in a lighter pink. And not necessarily in that order.

Illustration Friday: Lost

Anyone remember the song Lost in the Supermarket by the Clash? "I'm all lost in the supermarket, I can no longer shop happily...:

I've been wanting to do a supermarket drawing for a while because I hate grocery shopping so much, so this came to mind when I saw the Illustration Friday theme this week. You can click here for a bigger version. If I make this into a quilt, it would be the biggest ever. I just keep wanting to add stuff, like more funky produce and the meat cutter man. Hhmm, I may have to figure out a different layout to fit more in!

Rub a Dub Dub

Yay, started another quilt. Ever notice how PaMdora is kind of like a mood ring, she changes colors all the time?

I've changed my schedule and trying to work in the studio every afternoon. I used to think I should only work when I felt fresh. But even after a bad and harried morning, I'm looking forward the studio and always feel better. Having some constructions dilemas with the tub and water, but if it were always easy -- then it wouldn't be very interesting.

Awful Plastic Surgery

A current patient in need of plastic surgery. Unfortunately his head won't fit under the sewing machine foot, so we'll have to resort to hand stitching.

Well, it doesn't look so good, but at least his stuffing has quit leaking out. It's ugly, but I'm not sure it really warrants a post on this creepy web site.

Another patient, but you can barely see that his nostrils have been amputated. The more serious problem here is the "torn banana syndrome." I'm not sure that's covered by his health plan.

Well, I was going to call this tough little survivor "Lucky Leopard," but that may be premature...The jaws of death strike again!

Thanks Sonji!

I forgot to thank Sonji in yesterday's post for her most excellent suggestion that my Fresh! quilt needed a plastic grocery bag. Also thanks to Russ for advising me on the shape of the contents.

Practice Poops

Oh heck, I look like crap. Guess I've been getting up too early these days to let the dog out before I go to yoga class. (Actually just saw this show on the Animal Planet that makes me think that I should do yoga with my dog rather than leaving her at home.)

Just kidding, this is actually part of the quilt I just finished. Sorry the photo isn't too good. The greens are off. I haven't been taking WIP photos because it would slow me down, and I'm on a new schedule here. Tried something fun and new with the fuzzy slippers, hand embroidery! However I just saw an ad for casual fridays, and the guy was wearing blue fuzzy slippers. After seeing that, I think I need even more embroidery for the fluffy feel, what do you think?

I had a hard time picking out the right fabric for the dog poops, so ended up with several sets. This was good though, to do practice poop samples. I draw and then do little practice quilts to test out new stitching patterns that I call "expressive stitching." This grass pattern is a new one and was a lot of fun.

Mochi - The Movie

Okay all you Mochi fans out there, here's Mochi's new slide. Actually the new slide has an even longer and more difficult path to the slide at the end.

You can watch Mochi go down the slide in this little movie of Mochi that Russ made. It's about 1.2 MB and takes about a minute to download if you have DSL. I think it's pretty funny!

This is the first time I've tried to post a movie, so let me know if it works.

European Quilters

My friend Emmie sent me the link to this group of European art quilters. What is it about European art quilters? Do you think their work looks that different from American artists? I have this book of Euopean art quilts that I got when I was just getting interested in art quilting, and I swear I looked at it every night for weeks.

I accidently left it outside one evening, and it rained. It was very upsetting to find a soggy mess on patio the next morning, but I carefully dried it out and can still look through all the pages although it is very warped.

Gabrielle asked why work in fibers? I've worked in lots of different art media, but finally I've settled here for a while, for several reasons.

1. I like to work big and to be able to lift my work by myself.

2. I like lots of bright color and can cover a lot of territory fast with fabric.

3. It's fun.

4. It's great to be able to roll your work up and ship off to a show overnight.

5. I love scrappy quilts. There's something oh so funky about putting weird patterns together, maybe it gets the old synapses in the brain fired up.

6. See number 3.

Illustration Friday: Float

Here's my drawing for Illustration Friday's theme Float. I call it "Meeting Captain Nemo."

Judy Onofrio Exhibition

As I walked through the AAC to see the show "Come One Come All", it was one of those times when I thought, "oh, I wish I had done that!" and then, "but I can't because she did it so well."

This is the kind of art I really enjoy, stunning from a distance and rich with details up close. Here's some more examples of her work and a short bio. Judyland -- a kind of outsider art that's been cleaned up for galleries and museums.

The wall pieces average about four feet tall, and the sculptures over twelve feet high. My favorite was a fantastic gypsy in a fortune-telling booth complete with a nickle-slot machine apparatus. How does she get the big ones to stand up? I wondered with all their intricate doo-dads hanging out all over, and Russ with his usual sculptor matter-of-factness said "Rebar. That's how I'd do it."

Interesting side effect of the art interacting with the art deco-ish white vaulted ceilings of the AAC -- Dots of light bounced from the mosiac surfaces of Onofrio's sculpture up to the ceiling, accentuating the beautiful architecture of the museum. One sculpture even had a small revolving mirrored ball that created a spinning disco-ball-effect, but more like walking into a fantastic jewelry box. Only thing missing was little tinkley music.

Onofrio uses found objects, but unlike a lot of assemblage art that seems kind of muddy, she maintains a clarity of color and form that makes her work vivid and energetic.

The director of the AAC museum school said that Onofrio has rooms filled with objects from tag sales and flea markets, but he added that she probably depleted her stock-piles for this exhibition. He said after she taught her workshop, she got up early the next day and hit all the flea markets around Little Rock. Knowing what just I spent to ship fabric home, I'd hate to see her shipping bill!

Arkansas Arts Center

After a four-hour drive through Buffalo River landscape which was beautiful on an clear autumn afternoon, the AAC was kind of a surprise. I didn't expect it to be so big or so nice, and the staff was very friendly. After many additions, the architecture of the building is modern on the outside, reminiscent of history inside. In fact one gallery preserved the art deco-ish facade from the 1930's to a nice effect.

We went to hear a presentation by the executive director of the American Craft Council and the director of development was also there. The lecture was mainly about the marketing plans for the ACC (who publishes American Craft Magazine) and the focus of the organization for the future. Several interesting tidbits, luckily I brought my handy new digital recorder if I ever remember to play it back!

Our friend Robert who is a collector and a Trustee of the ACC was there to speak also, spiffy in his orange-stripey shirt and inspiring about art and artists as he always is. (In fact, he's the one who told us about the event, thanks Robert!) The audience was small, and afterwards a few of us went to dinner. I was thinking, how often am I going to be sitting around a table with the likes of a museum curator of contemporary craft and staff of the American Craft Council, but my conversation was less than stellar. (Note to self: don't drink wine at these events anymore, not even one small glass of pinot noir.)

Finally Robert invited me to pass around a couple of small quilts I had brought, just in case, and everyone was dully underwhelmed. (Another note to self: don't show small work to people who haven't seen big work. Don't think it's my best side).

All in all, it was a great trip and my favorite time to year to go on driving trips. The next day we saw another interesting landmark in Little Rock...more on that later.