Spring into Summer

     Summer hopefully means time to try new things. One thing startled me, however, and makes all time more precious. My new museum badge is good through 2020 and guess how old I will be. OLD! How to spend such precious moments!

     I’m working on a few new paintings. After rereading the Town Musicians of Bremen, a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm about animals past their prime, as well as thinking of a trip back to Texas, I thought I would quickly paint Home on the Range with a longhorn, pig, coyote and roadrunner, buffalo in the fields beyond. I totally forgot the horse! I need to work on the painting a lot more, but I am tempted to do another, bigger. I also have an edgy family portrait to do, based on masks from another culture. I have the sketch, but will save for the moment. I also have continued to attend life drawing classes. But those are nudes and probably not appreciated online.

     We have just returned from NYC and visiting the museums. I came back with a desire to make some prints and layers, inspired by Degas at MOMA. I also saw two necklaces at a museum I was crazy over, so I got Joe to walk 6th Avenue and the bead stores with me. The bead stores run between the NYC Public Library and Macy’s. I had to get out my tools and a beginner stringing necklace book to remind how, but it went fast and I am wearing tonight. I LOVE my Senior Metro Card, I may paint it as I did the dollar bill when we lived in Dallas.

Museum Weekend in NYC: Met and MoMA

       Some people go to Florida, but we drive to NYC. I wanted to see the Matisse: In Search of True Painting at the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has  Selected Highlights, videos and much more up at its site. Matisse painted the same subject, people and scenes, over and over in search of the best painting, the best expression of his emotion, not precise realism, but simplification. You will enjoy viewing the highlights. I want to try those series myself.

      After also visiting the City Quilter for fabric and the Neue Gallery for their apple strudel and coffee. we hobbled home to recover for a visit from the grandchildren the next day. Beth had suggested we go to MoMA for their interactive opportunities. Immediately on admittance to the Museum of Modern Art, the three children donned free audio guides and blissfully sought out numbers on paintings to learn more. They LOVED the modern art., even the conceptual. After lunch we went to the interactive education area where they made their own art.

       Later, I picked up my English art magazine at the Hudson stand, took the kids to buy a book at Postman's and got two art books What is Art? and The Visual Language of Drawing: Lessons on the Art of Seeing. With this lovely snow blizzard I should be able to get in some reading when not on my Wii :-)  I had no idea how out of shape I was after walking the streets of NYC.

Note: Artist friend Kathy Borkowski-Byrne arrived in NYC just as we were leaving and mailed me the Met photo at the top of the page!

Click on the photos to enlarge.

P.S. How could I forget! (EASY)   We stopped off in New Haven to see the recently fabulously renovated Yale art galleries and the museum of British art. What a gift shop at the latter.

In the Beginning...a Journal quilt

     When the Journal Quilt Connection met, they decided to let each member choose a theme for a month of the year for members to quilt. We decided to start in July, and members pointed at me to choose a theme. I said, "That is my birthday month." "We'll do 'birthdays' then...birthdays apply to lots of things: people, nations." Later I suggested "beginnings" to avoid cliche.

       Although the "Beginnings" theme starts in July, this is my third in June. I seem to compulsively enjoy making one a week. This too will pass, I feel certain.

In the Beginning...

        Joe and I went to New York City this weekend where I always get so many ideas, I hardly know where to start. We get our Metro Card and hop on and off the buses and trains at museums, book and crafting areas. This weekend we hit the Morgan, the Folk Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Met and MOMA, and Montclair Art Museum on the way home. I also got to The City Quilter 3 times and the beading area on 6th Avenue near the New York Public Library. The Strand and the book store in Grand Central were not missed either. Plus, I discovered near Rein's Deli, on the drive down, another fabulous quilting store where I got the pencils. It is Quilting by the Yard on the Hartford Turnpike, in Vernon CT.
        I think this pinwheel journal quilt with no area to rest the eye shows the exhaustion, chaos and excitement of searching out new ideas from books, places and art before I finally get to work in many new directions! In the beginning is chaos, stitched in the ditch, bordered and backed by the wrapped yellow brick road. The dots are my brain and the subway lines you see as well if you click to enlarge.

     

New York Decision: a journal quilt

   Backtracking on my journal quilts, of one a week, I am posting about our recent trip to New York City. It is such a treat to stay in first son's beautiful home to visit art galleries and museums while he is on vacation. This time it was a joy to visit the other son's new work place, the Chrysler Building near Grand Central. We were so excited for Bill to make this move but the decision making was harrowing to observe!

     We ate well and visited museums and libraries and, of course, The City Quilter where I got this fabric. The fireworks are from another piece of material, machine embroidered. I machine quilted quickly around the basic structures but some bead embellishment would add.

"The Chrysler Building

This quintessential art deco skyscraper is an icon of the extravagance and dynamism of New York in the Roaring 20s. The tower architect William Van Alen designed for auto tycoon Walter Chrysler features stylized hood ornaments, wheels and hubcaps. Its height was altered several times in a well-publicized race with the Bank of Manhattan Trust building. The needle-like spire was concealed until the last stage of construction to put it over the top to become the world's tallest building in 1930."   I found this information on a postcard at MOMA in a collection of postcard models...with tips on construction www.buildyourownnewyork.com for the crafty. Build Your Own New York Postcard Models  Scale: 1:3000 Wurlington Brothers Press

click to enlarge

Wreck Miss: a journal quilt

Last Friday we drove to New York City; and highways were packed with cars, probably returnees from a long July 4th holiday. A car in front of us in the fast lane went out of control, moved across the other crowded lanes as all dodged it, into a guard rail, spun around and went a forceful head-first into the ditch. Debris was thrown onto my windshield. We phoned 911 and articulated the exact location. In the city I became more conscious of the zooming cars and less fearful of flying.

In the New York we swooned dining at La Bonne Soupe near MOMA; saw the Otto Dix show and ate Austrian goodies at the Neue Gallery close to the Metropolitan Museum; and viewed the Charles Burchfield watercolors at the Whitney. Of course, I did not miss The City Quilter on 24th. A drive back through New York State and western Massachusetts was much prettier and calmer.

Magical paper books

Yesterday, the Louis Bourgeois DVD was due at the library, but one of the “extras” showed a recent fabric book (2005, in the MOMA collection), almost soft as a pillow, that was made from the fabrics of her life: napkins w monograms, clothes, her handwork.

I love the idea of creating books and sometimes it is good to add some magic to the making for your grandchildren. Always there are newspapers at hand, but you can experiment with any sheet of paper, 8.5” x 10.5” . With a newspaper you can make the books bigger. Cut out some paper dolls at the same time for the grandchildren to dress w colors or scrap fabrics. I have enclosed some rough instructions.

Also, I would like to hand the grands a little fabric book for them to stitch on, or better still, make my own.