Museum Meandering

Drawn by an exhibit of Tiffany glass, my husband and I visited the Cleveland art museum recently. We admired the stained glass, but found many other works we didn’t recall seeing on earlier visits.

Detail of Hinds house stained glass Tiffany window. Some of the glass is an inch higher than the rest.

First, an exhibit of mid 20th century Swedish printed textiles made me recall the influence Swedish design had on U.S. decorative taste. More details are on the museum’s holdings website. The examples below are printed on linen.

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I had to include the Orrefors bowl for the shadows cast by the lighting, and who doesn’t love cobalt blue.

Random meanderings turned up a few works that would make great quilts.

“Merging Emerging” Skuodas I’m thinking paper piecing here.

“Blue Bloc” Mieszkowski

In the local artists room I was struck by “The Pie Wagon,” which vividly conveys Cleveland’s industrial past. On the drive up we passed factories that look just like the one in the picture.

“The Pie Wagon” by Carl Gaertner

Finally, I came across a portrait of Nathaniel Olds which, for sheer goofiness, won me over. I can see a steampunk addict crushing on those glasses and the hair.

Explanation of the glasses

I’ve linked to Off The Wall Friday.

Down The Home Stretch of 2019

With only thirteen days left in 2019 it’s clear which of my unfinished pieces are going to be first in line for 2020. However, I do have four finished works to end this year.

First, because it’s so different from the others, is “Oops!” I did the splash outline with 12 weight cotton thread.

“Oops!”

The remaining three finishes are winter appropriate as December 21, the winter solstice, is a few days away. I made “Winter Blues” from leftovers of previous work and old curtains, plus the last of some McKenna Ryan fabric. I thought it would be a doddle to make, but I was so wrong. The binding is a metallic infused cotton/linen.

“Winter Blues” 24 by 33 inches

The remaining two finishes are for a January 2020 art quilt group challenge. Both are small and use scraps from the theater costume shop floor mixed with bits from my stash.

“Winter’s Closing In” makes liberal use of painted cheesecloth and hand stitching. “Deep and Dark December” is all machine stitched, and is mounted to a prestretched canvas. Yet more hand dyed damask tablecloth found its way into the middle ground, and sparkly netting gives shading to the bottom.

“Winter’s Closing In” 14 by 17 inches

“Deep and Dark December” 14 by 14 inches

I don’t promise that’s the end of my 2019 work, but I think it may be.

Catching Up With Artistic Endeavors

Although I no longer highlight specific artists and art/cultural shows as a regular feature, I still collect websites that especially appeal to my artistic sensibilities. Here’s a collection of some of them. May you find one or two intriguing or entertaining.

Matthew Wong Sadly, this artist who I just discovered died at age 35. I can’t explain why the work below draws me, but it does.

“Blue Rain” Matthew Wong

American women artist podcasts The Getty Institute has released podcasts about six women artists in the 1960s and 70s – Lee Krasner, Yoko Ono, Alice Neel, Bettye Saar, Helen Frankenthaler, and Eva Hesse. Each lasts about 30-35 minutes. The era can be summed up by Alice Neel’s narration of her mother’s response to her artistic ambitions – “well I don’t know what you expect to do, you’re only a girl.”

Alice Neel in front of her portrait of Andy Warhol

Sarah Amos Who would have thought of combining printing on felt and thread? I want to run my hands over Amos’ work.

“The Narrows” Sarah Amos

Eleanor Ray Ray’s very small works (usually no larger than 10 by 10 inches) are usually of a landscape viewed out a window. The work below captures how winter light looks at the end of the day.

“Museum Windows” Eleanor Ray

Kyoto Costume Institute Warning, you could easily lose hours at this site if you have a fashion jones.

I love the dress by Hanae Mori featured above.

Art Trip: Columbus, Indiana This video is part of a series that spends about 15 minutes each on the art found in several U.S. cities. I chose to link to the episode about Columbus, Indiana, rather than San Francisco or Chicago because it’s not your typical art mecca, though there are many other episodes in larger cities. I love all the textiles in the Miller House’s conversation pit’s pillows. The house was designed by Eero Saarinan, and that conversation pit was groundbreaking at the time.

Conversation pit, Miller House, Columbus, Indiana

I’ve bookmarked many more sites but I’ll save them for another post. After all, you need to save time to eat cookies.

Department of Self Promotion

I’m happy to report that my quilt “If The Shoe Fits” is now at the Vision Gallery in Chandler, Arizona, as part of the Art Quilts XXIV show. Unfortunately, I’m not there as well, but if you’re in the Phoenix area before January 3, 2020, stop by the gallery to see the exhibit.

My other news is that a local free weekly paper called “The Devil Strip” has done an article about me, and “Hazy Shade of Winter” is on the cover. You can read it here. I was amused to read that I do “circus” design with fabric – the perils of relying on a recording in an interview. Otherwise, the article pretty much captures my voice. (Note: I think that oopsie has been fixed.) My work will be featured on the bottom of bird cages and litter boxes around Akron.

The upshot is Christmas came early for me this year.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.