Filling the Well

Yesterday I was fortunate to have a good reason to wander around one of my favorite museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I haven't been in a few years, but my daughter has a summer art assignment, so we spent the afternoon among all the awe-inspiring works.  I saw some things I don't remember seeing before, and visited some of my old favorites.

Among these were the European sculptures and paintings.  When you head to that wing, you walk through the hallway with all the Rodin sculptures.  This one, depicting Adam after the fall, is so powerful in it's tormented strength, agony, and despair.  

After being amazed by the emotions expressed by Rodin in bronze, I headed into the Impressionist rooms and absorbed the grace and peacefulness of the Monets, relaxing into the soft reflections and soothing pastels.

Then I was uplifted by the playfulness and beauty of the Renoirs and Degas.

 Finally, I stood rapt in front of the van Goghs.  The intensity and passion behind those thousands of flickering brushstrokes make his paintings almost shimmer.  It's hard to tell in these photos, but the skies and backgrounds are filled with dashed swirling brushstrokes that make the paintings come alive.  I'm more astounded every time I see them.  His subject matter is often so ordinary - a cypress tree, two browned and drying sunflower heads, a pair of old, worn shoes.  But they're treated with such love and care that they become extraordinary through the filter of his brush and paint.

This one below was my favorite this time.  Again, such simple subject matter - an ordinary family, a farmer at work in the garden in spring, a child taking her first steps.  The passion and emotion expressed in the father's open arms, the child's delight in this great accomplishment, the beauty of the light shimmering on the trees and making their cottage glow.  All of this conveyed without facial expressions but with simple gestures and postures and the soft dreamlike colors.  Just breathtaking.

After being sufficiently awed by van Gogh, I headed down to see some American art.  I was particularly interested in seeing the collection of Tiffany glass after having just read Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.  This historical fiction novel is the story of Clara Driscoll and her female coworkers who worked in a division of Tiffany studios, designing and creating many of the extraordinary windows and lamps but never given much credit.

The windows are displayed beautifully, lighted from behind, and it was great to get close up to see all the different types of glass used.  Tiffany had a glass factory in Queens, NY, where large sheets of glass were made in different colors and special effects were achieved by mixing and swirling colors, make some with striations, swirls, blotches, and other textures to resemble tree bark, water, rocks, and mountains.  Sometimes pieces of glass were layered to get just the right effect.

According to the book, Clara Driscoll came up for the idea to make lampshades out of stained glass.  Nature was a huge source of inspiration for her and she made lamps with dragonflies, butterflies, and a variety of flowers.  This is her water lily lamp, with the stems cascading down into a froth of blossoms that seems to float at the bottom.  Having an irregular edge like that was very time consuming to create.  And the bases were sculptures in themselves to coordinate with the theme of the shade - this one depicts lily pads.  Brilliant!

Here's another window, with iris and flowering dogwoods.  Spectacular!

Tiffany also had men who created fantastic vases and goblets by blowing colored glass.  This one is called the Peacock vase because of the feather motif on the fan-like top of the vase (it's difficult to see in this photo, because it was lit from behind and you're not allowed to use a flash).  It's amazing to think that the artist started with a lump of hot colored glass and was able to achieve those very fine feathery lines to resemble a peacock feather and work it into such a graceful, delicate shape.  And it's all attributed to Louis Comfort Tiffany, although he wasn't really the one doing the work!

One part of the museum that I visited for the first time was the furnishings of the American wing.  I wandered through rooms and rooms decorated in various styles depicting different time periods, from early colonial up through the civil war and into the 20th century.  Much of it was very ornate and heavy, with velvet and lace draperies, dark, heavy carved furniture upholstered in dark velvets.  It seemed very stuffy and uncomfortable to me.  Then I came upon the Frank Lloyd Wright room.

I never really understood the appeal of all those straight lines and spare furnishings until I saw it in comparison to the clutter of the previous rooms.  It literally seemed like a breath of fresh air, with the clear light coming through the many windows, the use of natural stone and warm (but not dark) wood.  Now I get it!

So now that I've filled my creative well, I've made some good progress on my own simple art.  I've selected all the book parts, decided on their placement, and glued or fused them all down.  I've even done a bit of hand stitching.   I like that the piece is made up of squares and rectangles, which references a quilt, although I've used paper.  It looks very architectural, and as I was working on it, I felt like I was building it, using the rectangular spines as columns and text pages as blocks.  I've stitched some lines to indicate windowpanes and the door is the hard cover of an old Reader's Digest Anthology titled "Getting the Most Out of Life."  The steps leading up to the door are titled "Making a Habit of Success" and "Improving Your IQ."

I made a point of selecting titles, words, and a few images that depict the importance and value of the written word, storytelling, libraries, and their importance in a democratic society.  Here are a couple of close-up shots of the stitching and some of the textual details.

I think I'll need to pick up some more pearl cotton in bright colors to hold all the pieces firmly in place and highlight certain things.  I figure I'll keep stitching until I think it's done or until September 8th, whichever comes first!

Happy New Year!

I thought I'd start off the year on a positive note and write an entry for my poor, neglected blog!  This fall, I was feeling like I needed to put fewer demands on myself and do less rather than more, hence the two-month hiatus.  Of course, things got busy here between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas, and now that all the baking, shopping, decorating, hosting, eating, and celebrating are done, it's a good time to take a few moments to catch up.

Above is the piece I was working on in the fall, which I finished sometime in November.  I decided the woven painted pieces had a watery feel to them, what with all the ripples and circles, so I appliqued some solid waterlily shapes on top.  They look like they're floating, so I think that's what I'll call it.   I enjoyed this technique of slicing up painted, stamped or dyed fabrics and weaving them together.  It makes for a very unique background.  I'd like to try using it more.   Here's a close up:

 

And now on to the next project!  The FANE has been planning ahead for our group exhibit at the NSQG's annual show in May.  We wanted to do another 3-D kind of display and after much discussion, came up with the idea of stringing together some small shapes to make an 8-foot-long piece.  Each member is to make three of these, made up of basic shapes between 3 and 5" square (but they can also be circles or diamonds) connected by a short (2" or less) piece of yarn or ribbon.  We chose the name "FiberFall" for the exhibit.  I like the sound of that!

This is the ideal project to be done as a daily exercise, or at least, in small blocks of time.  I decided to get a head start on it the other day and made my first shape, below.  I still had a bunch of blue fabrics out from my "Summer Blues" WIP so I grabbed some of them and came up with this:

As usual, it took longer than you would think, mostly because the metallic thread I used kept breaking and I had to try several things (change the needle, adjust the tension, rethread the machine, rethread the bobbin) before everything went smoothly.  Then I hand stitched on the wire spiral in the center.  These pieces have to be seen from both sides, so the back looks just like the front.  It's a start!  I'm thinking I may create pieces to fit into the themes of Earth, Air, and Water (I always like to have a theme!).  And since I'm starting off the new year with ambition and gusto (cough, cough) I made another one this morning!  I think I'll hang these on the diagonal for greater movement and interest.

Even though I haven't done much blogging, I have been reading.   As a matter of fact, I am the new facilitator of one of the adult fiction book clubs at the library, so now it's my job to read!  This past fall we read The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland, North River by Pete Hamill, and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (one of my favorites).  This month we will be discussing The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (I read this last summer and loved it).  I also picked up Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love).  We can all use a little creative inspiration for the new year, and this book has gotten very good reviews.  But it's already overdue on my library card so I'd better get cracking!

How have you started off your new year?

Last Day of January

 January is probably my least favorite month of the year and it always seemed soooo loooong.  Between the end of the holiday festivities and the beginning of the frigid winter weather, January always seemed so bleak and unending.  But the days, weeks and months seem to be passing more quickly than ever, and here it is, January 31st already!  Where did the month go?

I've managed to continue with my art journaling and have the next entry here.  In this exercise, I painted with watercolor paints and then lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the wet paint, welcoming crinkles and wrinkles.  When the paint dried and I peeled off the wrap, I added a little tree in the resulting lines.  Then I added the words "bloom where you are planted," and embellished with some stenciling and shading.  The left side is blank so I can write a little critique of this process/piece.

The watercolor/plastic wrap is very easy and produces an interesting effect.  I enjoyed the process and wonder how (or even if) it would work on fabric.  I like the happy accidents that occur (I didn't intend to draw a tree - it just looked like a tree, and the quote fit right in there among the rocks and roots).  I'd like to do exercises like this more often.

The last two exercises sparked the urge to get out some fabrics with high contrasts and start a new piece!  Here is a little sneak peek, below.   I'm trying to make this a quick exercise, not a long drawn-out, laborious creation, so I hope I can put a little more time into it in the next week or two.  Maybe a good approach would be to use the journaling as a warm up, then do a little stitching on this piece.

I recently read about a new book titled The Little Spark: 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity by Carrie Bloomston, and was lucky enough to find it on the New shelf at the library.  I've only read the first 3 or 4 ways, and so far some of it is a repeat of many of these books on creativity, with suggestions like set aside time, set aside a place, be generous with your materials, take a class, that kind of thing.  But I could probably use a little pep talk, and the author is very encouraging and positive and the book is full of great inspirational quotes.  So why not?

Play Day

Last January, I began going through Pam Carriker's book, above, for a quick 30-day journaling experience.  In reality, I did the first few exercises, which included making my own little journal (which was more complicated than you might think and ended up being smaller than I would have liked) and a few experiments with design basics.  Honestly, the first few exercises were not very inspiring for me but since I had resolved to try this, I pushed myself to do it by the book.  But of course, I lost interest, got involved in other projects and things I was more interested in, and never got through the 30 days! 

So after all the Christmas wrapping paper, bows and New Year's eve party paraphernalia were stashed away and that worktable downstairs (which had become the wrapping station and party snack center) was all clean again, I dug the book out and started anew for the new year.

I recently saw a very cool tutorial on using resists with stamps and watercolor effects, so that was in the back of my mind when I started the next exercise, which was analogous colors, something I enjoy working with.  I tried not to overthink anything, but quickly drew some designs and words across the page with white crayon, then took some water-soluble crayons and drew some wavy lines across them, then blended them with water.  Here's the resulting journal page:

I was itching to do a few on fabric, so I pulled a couple of small pieces of washed white cotton fabric from my stash and got out my stamps and bottle of Batik-Ez.  For my first attempt, I tried a somewhat small, detailed stamp, painting the Batik-Ez on with a foam brush.  After it dried, I used the Caran D'Ache neo-color crayons to add blues and greens.  I blended these with water, let it dry, and heat-set it with an iron.

While that was drying, I started a second fabric piece below.  This time, I decided to put down a wash of yellow Setacolor paints before using the resist, so that the resisted areas would be yellow instead of white.  I also used a larger stamp, which I dipped directly into the resist.

After the resist dried, I sponged on blue paint.

Here's what the fabric looked like after all the paint was applied and dry.  I was going for more of a blue and yellow contrast look, but the Setacolor paints I used are transparent, so the yellow showed through and created shades of green.

After I washed out the resist, more of the yellow showed through to look like this:

The smaller, first piece looked like this:

I have some new fabrics with interesting textures now, but the results were not completely what I hoped.  The smaller, more detailed stamp did not leave a clear resisted impression on the fabric of the first piece, and the Caran D'Ache crayons are not as permanent as the paints, so a lot washed out, even after heat setting.  The results are a very subtle design.

With the larger stamp, the results were a little better, but the stamp still blurred in places (maybe because the resist was smudged by the sponge when I added the paint?) and the transparent colors blended, which was not really the look I was going for.

But I had a fun morning playing with my art supplies, I have some unique fabrics to use in new projects, and I have some additional experience to draw on when doing surface design resists in the future.

Winter Solstice

I just finished this cozy read by Rosamunde Pilcher - Winter Solstice.  If you're looking for something to warm your heart this time of year, I highly recommend it.  It begins in London but the characters all end up on the grounds of an Estate-turned-hotel on the Scottish coast (a bit of a plus if you've been reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and are now interested in Scotland).  It's a bit predictable, but sweet and relaxing and heartwarming as well.  Enjoy!

Besides reading, I've been keeping busy with a bit of this and that to get ready for Christmas.  Yesterday I finished up some more felt birds from the patterns I printed at the Down East Thunder Farms website.  It's nice to simply print a pattern, cut and stitch it without having to invent something or figure it out.  Plus it's relaxing to do a little hand stitching, and the results are pretty cute!  Here are are some of the ornament gifts I made:

The eastern bluebird,

the snowy owl,

the ruby-throated hummingbied (with a toothpick beak)

the common crow,

and the chickadee!

 The chickadee is now adorning the rustic card holder I wrote about in the previous post, but most of the others have already gone to their new owners.


I've done a little baking as well.  One thing I decided to try is this recipe for homemade dog treats, one of the first things I ever pinned on Pinterest.  There are only 4 ingredients and the dough mixes up and rolls out very easily.  The neighbors on both sides of us are multiple-dog households, so I thought I'd share them.  I can't testify to how they taste, but they've got a nice cup of peanut butter in them and Cassie just loves them!

I also made a pan of this 5-ingredient Graham cracker toffee:

I topped it with chopped almonds and coconut and they are rich and scrumptious!  If you like toffee and need an easy-to-make party contribution or gift, they are perfect.  Try not to eat them all yourself!

 I only did a little real baking this year because I've finally gotten out of the mindless eating habit and I don't want to get back into it over the next two weeks.  But I had to bake at least a few cookies and I chose these:

They are the classic Jewel brooch cookies, gingerbread (from a box mix), white chocolate-dipped pretzels, and coconut macaroons.  We have enough to pick on ourselves and some to give away, so I think that'll be it for me as far as holiday baking goes (except for maybe a cheesecake for dessert Christmas day). 

Most of the shopping and even wrapping are done, so now all I have to do is the Christmas cards.  They're going out a little late this year, but better late than never!

Sneaky Art

I recently came across the book Sneaky Art: Crafty Surprises to Hide in Plain Sight by Marthe Jocelyn. It has some great ideas for creating things to hide around your house or in public places in sort of a pay-it-forward way, just to give a family member or even complete strangers a little lift.  It features ideas like leaving a lucky penny, below

creating a tag to tie on someone's locker or backpack,

or even this cute little cup dangler as a surprise on someone's morning coffee!

I plan on using these ideas for a teen craft class at the library in late July.  But meanwhile, I had coincidentally found these little gift tags on the discount rack at Michaels and started adding my own touches to them with stamps, gel pens, and watercolor paints.  They fit right in to the "Sneaky Art" theme, so I left some for the girls to find in the bathroom the other morning.

I had even left a few of these cup danglers around, some at the circulation desk and this one here at Youth Services.  I made mine with paper and glue-on plastic jewels instead of Swedish fish.

When I got into work Monday morning, I found this at my computer:

What a great pick-me-up from my partner-in-crime, Gail!  Just what I needed on a groggy Monday morning!  Then I went out to open the YS desk and I found this:

And another one on the opening checklist clipboard:

 Even in the supply drawer!  That Gail is too much!

It made me want to make a bunch more tags and notes to leave around the library, the house, even the grocery store!  It just goes to show you how easy it is to spread a little joy around. All she used was a printer and a pair of scissors and she made everyone who sat at the desk this week smile!  So go out and buy (or borrow) Sneaky Art and leave some love notes and little arty gifts for your family, coworkers, anybody!