Note: I did NOT finish this yesterday in the airport, as may be obvious. I didn’t even finish it when I got home. It’s now Tuesday morning. It also did not process any of the photos, so I’m doing that now too.
Straight up, not sure I will finish this before I leave San Francisco. My flight was rerouted from SF down to San Jose, and it took some effort (and time) to get down here. More stress than I really need, but I got here in time, so all good. (The flight was almost empty, but this screaming 2-year-old girl with inept parents made up for that. That said, we got in mostly on time.)
I had a pretty quiet weekend with the girlchild (lots of World Cup games watched). I got to meet Margaret Fabrizio again (it’s been a while) and see her gallery space.
I might have to wait until I get home to load pictures; airport internet is too busy helping kids watch annoying videos without headphones 😂.
That is my piece above the fireplace; we traded a few years back.
I love that I see the negative space in these and not the clothing parts that make them. This is one of my favorites (I also totally see boobs and a weird stick figure).
I also really like this one.
After that, the girlchild and I went to Oakland/Berkeley. We watched one World Cup game, then shopped for thread for the girlchild’s new embroidery obsession…and fabric for me to make crazy pants. Then another game.
I embroidered through all the games.
Wait, here’s the night before after a drawing on the plane and a little embroidery in my room.
So you can compare.
Lots of bridges…
Actually maybe only one but in two versions.
Sunday was embroidery lessons and more soccer.
We practiced on a tea towel and then she went right into stitching her shirt.
Wait, this was after making a delightful breakfast from leftovers.
Both kids cook better than I do. She finished the shirt and wore it to dinner.
She actually was very fast and a very even stitcher. Good genetics.
I’m sitting her watching and listening to a woodpecker on the tree outside my office. I’ve been watching the birds and squirrels all morning. Very peaceful. I really need some major recovery from the school year. Trying to get there.
I didn’t go to dinner with her the last night (long story), but had a delightful meal in a fun little restaurant where I drew and read my book.
Good music. All the words were from the conversation next to me, which was a bit obnoxious.
This was the view out my AirBnb window.
I found this heart at the grocery store before I left…it said something about finding the heart and keeping it, so I took it to the airport and left it in the banana basket at the Pannikin. Hopefully some kid found it.
Here’s the insanely expensive fabrics I bought to make pants out of.
There’s an owl and a jaguar as well. The one on the right is delightfully chill. One crazy, one chill.
From the book I was reading…
Ideas for quilts.
Not as much art exposure on this trip…definitely more soccer in bars and at the girlchild’s place. But here was one mural on the walk home from dinner.
And a tableau the likes of which are only seen in a big city…
And more quilty ideas…
Plus these yarn paintings in the San Diego Airport, but so hard to photograph due to the lights.
I ran around doing errands yesterday, made it to pilates, then into the studio (sigh, relief).
I almost finished the 1000s. I was trying to remember if this had 1650 pieces or 1450. It’s the latter. If I had time today, I could finish, but I don’t. Haircut and meeting an acupuncturist…trying all the things to solve this foot problem without it taking another 3 years like last time. Not a fan.
This is so true. Watching them sing is a balm to the soul.
But humans are not always the best, are they.
Also, I did not know this…that people didn’t all have this.
Is it just silent in there? Weird.
OK. So I’m busy today. Hoping to get to ceramics in the afternoon; we’ll see how that works. Just added four more things to the to-do list this morning. Could do without that. Trying to explain to non-teachers how we play this game of catchup when we get to breaks, and that it’s INSANE how much stuff we put off because there just isn’t time. And they pile up, and this first week, I really just need to decompress, but I do it while running from one errand/appointment to another, like a crazy person. I need to leave soon because I don’t even know if I’m supposed to pay cash (new hair person) and I have like 7 dollars. Fun times. And it’s Tuesday and I normally post on Monday. Ah well. Welcome to summer.
Well I’m sitting in an airport, which seems to happen every summer. It’s not a bad thing…it’s expensive if you need to eat, the process is annoying (although I think I got fast-tracked through security for looking like a benign old lady), but I get a lot of reading done. Trying to eat has gotten more difficult over the years…so many carbs! I’m currently picking the egg and chicken out of fried rice and wishing there were more veggies. And my flight was just delayed…only a bit. No worries. Just stressful.
Survived promotion, checking out of school, and the end-of-year party with only a bit of sunburn…the one place I missed with the sunscreen. Despite my exhaustion, sleeping in is not an option. Cats, dogs…even partners…I need quiet to sleep. I’ll take 7 AM over 6:30 though. I’ve been ironing, but not more than usual. I had a million things to do yesterday that got in the way.
A lot of years with this team…
I did manage some ironing each night after a million errands. Here’s Wednesday night, proving I make art no matter what…long day though.
And last night, after all the crazy stuff I did. Two Zooms, two medical appointments, three stores, gas, whoops, another store last minute.
Not sure the piles look that different. I made it to the mid 900s. I wanted to iron this morning, but I needed to pack, water, enter a show last minute, pay bills, and sew on a missing piece of a squirrel’s tail. Like you do. So there are about 500 pieces left to iron. So slow. My goal? Ironed down Wednesday, start trimming Thursday. I can trim faster than ironing, which is good, because I’m 17 hours into the ironing and less than 2/3s of the way through…so another 9 hours? Yikes.
Ironing is a type of rest luckily.
There’s Scribble helping me rest.
Not so my crazy country.
But yes to the hawk….
Ok. I now have an hour, a full cup of tea, air conditioning, two books, a sketchbook, and some stitching. I might need to walk in a bit to counteract the rice, but right now, I can’t read for a bit. May your Juneteenth be a radically left one…and may the colonized win their soccer games over the colonizers.
I was supposed to write Monday, but I went to five museums instead and then out to an amazing dinner, care of the girlchild. So I didn’t have the mental or physical energy to write anything. If you follow me on Insta, you saw some of the art photos I posted, because I saw a lot of art, and there are still a million photos and they’re mostly for me and y’all may never see them.
Then I thought I’d write Tuesday, because I had decided to head to the airport early; it’s over an hour to get there and with TSA lines being what they have been, plus I was exhausted and didn’t want to try to negotiate the extra $55 my hotel wanted to charge just to hold onto my luggage for another hour, so you’d think I would have had time to write, but I got a teacher bug up my butt and graded the second academic assignment instead. I didn’t think I would finish (it was hefty), but about 90 minutes out of San Diego, I said fuck it, and finished the damn thing so I don’t have to think about it for the next 5 days. It’s OK…there’s 7 million other things on my to-do list that are quite honestly stressing me out right now.
I guess I didn’t post any of the weekend either…except on Insta. So we had an artists’ demo day that was cool; not a lot of people showed up because the weather was awful, but it was OK anyway. That shit happens. There were artists’ talks on Saturday, which was awesome. Again, not a ton of people, if you’re used to Visions or Quilt National, but it was cool to hear Lena and Holly Cole talk about their work. Saturday night was very chill, use up all the food in the fridge. Sunday, we had a late start and headed somewhere that I might remember…wait, the Shenandoah Valley Museum? Of something? Damn. There was a fiber show…I should post about that later…and lots of gardens that weren’t blooming yet and a very weird bamboo maze that was not a maze at all. Nice though. We got dropped at the airport and I took a long train to DC and figured out how to find my hotel and navigate the Metro. Not super hard, but different (of course) from all the others.
Monday, I got up and fed and caffeinated, which was harder than it should have been, and then spent 6 hours going to the Renwick, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, the Hirshhorn, and the National Gallery of Art. It was a lot. I was kamikazing through the last one…just went to modern and contemporary and skipped all the historical stuff.
I walked over 22,000 steps and my knees eventually complained about the stairs at the last one. It was awesome though. Absolutely worth it and amazing. I love art. You might be able to tell.
This Laurie Anderson room in the (holy shit, I don’t remember where it was…SAAM?) was amazing.
I stayed there a very long time. Nowhere to sit. Probably on purpose.
Grandma Moses and I don’t have a lot in common…which is OK. I still like her stuff.
The girlchild gifted me a reservation at a cool Indian restaurant that supplied Monday dinner AND Tuesday breakfast. Amazing even cold.
All in all, a great trip, although the to-do list right now could bury me. My piece opened at Art Quilt Elements in PA, and no, I didn’t see it. It’s in a corner, so I appreciate Susan Brubaker Knapp’s tenacity in taking a photo of it.
So. More art photos later. I need to leave in 30 minutes with a filled-out grocery list, my meds in my body. Then get through the to-do list.
I’m hoping to do some of this today…but who knows. It will probably be more about weeds, but that is still a flower and maybe the dandelions. But right now, I don’t know what I’ll be able to get done. We’ll see.
So I’m in Virginia, currently sitting in the kitchen of the Virginia Quilt Museum. We have demonstrations happening this afternoon, and my co-conspirator in fabric is interviewing the director of the museum.
We both arrived Wednesday and were ensconced in an old guesthouse filled with antiques. Definitely a cat theme.
Cats…
Thursday we toured the museum and saw all the exhibits…looking forward to meeting Holly Cole tomorrow. Her animals are amazing.
Such a creative use of materials…
Three-dimensional designs fascinate me; I can’t get my head around them. I’m impressed by those who can.
Here’s Lena Meszaros, the other artist in the Fantastic Stories exhibit here.
Her work is very different than mine, but definitely works with them. She’s more of a collage quilter and works with a wide range of materials.
I’ll get some closeups today. I’m here all day.
Here’s a video of my six pieces in the show.
We also visited one of the top 10 quilt stores in the US, Patchwork Plus. Lots of fabric, patterns, notions, and Jamie. No explanation for that.
We went for a random walk in the afternoon, no sidewalks, out in farmland mostly.
This building was fascinating…
I don’t know how it wasn’t falling down. Lots of Virginia smells like cow so far (limited to where we’ve been so far).
I talk to the animals.
I’ve drawn a bit, read a lot, probably not slept enough (when do I ever?).
Ok. So today, I demonstrate fusing bugs, probably start a new book, maybe draw or stitch a little. Tomorrow is an artists’ talk…so we’ll be here all day again, I think. Oh, and I forgot that thing in my room…
Well the news is slightly exaggerating the TSA lines in San Diego…they are not for the faint of heart, but they aren’t four hours long. Honestly I think people panicking made it worse. It took 52 minutes and the last ten were because I got stuck behind a dysfunctional family of five.
So I have about 30 minutes to find some food to eat later for lunch. It took that long to find someone who had tea that wasn’t sugar or Earl Grey (not a fan).
I made some last-minute luggage changes… hope I don’t regret it…but this was what I was looking at.
That’s a bigger range than I normally have to plan for. I put my demo kits together for Friday the other night when I had a strange burst of energy. I tried to mostly rest yesterday to try to kick this cold. Definitely better today.
Not sure what I’m going to do with these bugs…probably put them in something else. Maybe design a female figure with the bugs as part of the landscape. Thoughts for another time.
We have squirrels. This one yelled a lot at Simba, who chased him off the deck.
Yesterday included pulling a super long root out of the toilet that’s been blocked for a few months. Good times.
Crossed that off my to-do list.
I was in bed before 10 pm last night, so I missed the snoring. That said, my blood sugar sensor wasn’t connecting to my phone around midnight, so the alarm kept going off… I was totally stressed out and convinced I had another dud sensor and I’d have to survive a week just poking my finger 17 times a day…but this morning, it was fine, so wtf. Be thankful technology eventually figured shit out?
Word. Dog snoring, even cat snoring…adorable.
I have one of those loaded up for the plane ride. I also have grading if I feel like it. Right now, I think I just want a nap. So I fly for 5 hours, get picked up, fed, dropped in a strange place with a woman I barely know 😜. It’ll be fine. She’ll be on French time; I’ll be on California time. Our pickup time tomorrow is problematic for my body, but I’ll go to bed early again. And then explore Virginia…was last there for my brother’s wedding…the girlchild was almost two and now is 28…so that long ago. And DC? I think middle school? Long time. Adventures await…
Well. Here we are. It’s Monday again. I’m not sure how I feel about the last weekend. I did some things. I didn’t do all the things (I never do). I don’t feel like I did enough of the things (I rarely do). Sometimes though, it really feels like a dearth of productivity or enjoyment. So I sit here on Monday morning and remember that I did plan my summer trip finally; I actually have stuff booked. I should have done it two months ago, but I didn’t…but it’s good that I didn’t wait any longer. I had the mental space for that because the dog was up at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning and I just started and then I was done. I also started my taxes (see, this is why it doesn’t feel like a good time). My country started a war. You know, standard Saturday morning. What did you do today? Bombed a girls’ school. How about you? I accidentally shot my coworkers out of the sky. No biggie, right?
So let’s start with the art…I didn’t get much done. No ceramics on Friday because the dog needed to be let out. Adjustment in schedules for all of us when the boychild goes back to work. Honestly, we dissected eyeballs on Friday and I was pretty exhausted anyway.
Couldn’t go on Saturday because they were doing a class there. So it’ll be today. I quilted Friday night…
I’m adding a speech bubble. Gotta keep it clean for this venue. Then embroidery and binding.
Saturday night, I quilted the next one…
Definitely something needs to happen with the hair. Not sure what else.
Then last night, I started quilting this one…
It’s more complicated; requires more color changes. One of the colors was not happy about being sewn, so there was that. This one needs a lot of embroidery in the hair, I think. There’s one more after this to quilt, and then I can start the other stuff. I might put bindings and sleeves on first? Can’t decide…depends on if the sleeves will get in the way of embroidery. So maybe wait, since I don’t really know what I’m doing with that yet.
Four at a time? Unlike me. But it’s what I’m doing right now.
I hiked Saturday. By myself still. Which is fine. My brain wanders (not always good). So do my feet.
It was warm…over 90 degrees during midday, down to 80 or so when I hiked at 4:30 PM.
Lots of flowers out. Weird cloud formations.
Flowers were out at home too. I took a break from grading and planning and taxes at some point and watered things and moved a few plants.
Noticed some weird flowers.
Interacted with Simba.
Stressed about war.
And children.
And that’s kind of where I’m at today…not happy with my government…still…again. But I’m still going to work and doing the things. Although one of those stressed me out all weekend. Sigh. Parents using Chatgpt to make excuses for their kids. Fun times.
I’m glad I’m not a history teacher right now. Although we still get asked questions, stupid ones: “what do you think about the Epstein files miss?” WHAT THE FUCK do you think I think? Seriously. And I can’t really answer except to say, the man was in jail for a reason. In my head? More people should be in jail. Lots more. One big dumb one in particular.
So that was the weekend. Taxes are never a good way to spend time off, but it needed to get started. It’s fine. These things have to happen. Today, I give a test on the eyeball and kids turn packets in. Grades are due in a week. I’m behind in grading…still…again. Hopefully I get to go to ceramics after work and work on that piece that will soon need to go on a drying shelf, which means there needs to be ROOM on a drying shelf (there hasn’t been). Then home to read my book for book club (Wednesday, not done yet) and then more quilting. More fabric decisions, thread thoughts. Those are things I can look forward to today. I will have to grade before I get to that, but OK, I can do that. Keep it short, but get it done. Right now? I need to go take my meds and then drive the ex’s dog to doggy daycare so I can go to work. Deep breaths. Holding onto anxiety with this parent…didn’t read the last email. Didn’t want to lose more sleep over the enabling. Not worth it.
It’s Friday. Pro. Con? We’re dissecting eyeballs today, which is cool, but I’ll have no voice by the end of the day and I’ll feel like I need a shower after touching all the gooey things. With gloves, sure, but it still gets old after all day. Also, the weekend sounds great, but I’m still buried in school stuff. It’s not fun. Trying to manage all the assignments for kids who were absent, make sure they have everything they need, make sure the kids who are in the classroom are caught up? The end of the trimester AND the end of a unit…make me want to scream, honestly. Sigh. Ah well. I will survive it, as I always do. It’s a frustrating job and becomes more frustrating when you have very little support. And as much as I appreciate days off (I worked during both though), it’s hard coming back. It’s like the work doubled while you were gone. Today will be nuts. I’m hoping to get to ceramics in the afternoon, but it’s entirely dependent on my exhaustion level.
Wednesday, I got borders on the littlest of the dye paintings I’m working on now…
Then pinbasted it…
And stared at it…and decided it needed some body parts in there to make it make sense. So I drew them out on paper…although, on the right, you can see my edit with my fingernail in the fabric below.
Then last night, I cut those out (edited) in freezer paper and appliqued by hand…
Better. Tonight, I’ll start quilting all of them. Mostly outlines and then the backgrounds and borders. Then hand embroidery after that. I might bind before the hand embroidery. Kinda backwards from what I normally do.
I also remembered that Stitchpunk (the SAQA exhibit) will be in Grants Pass, Oregon, this summer, and I originally had a plan to go see it. This is the closest it gets to me, at least so far. Fierce Planets goes to New Mexico in 2027. Also a plan (Winter Break road trip?). I’m planning my drive up to my artist residency, which is in Eastern Oregon this summer. We had planned on Lassen National Park and Crater Lake; and I think we can pull off Grants Pass too (just don’t tell my partner yet? He’s gonna be stressed about the driving I think). Bend is where I put him on a plane home before I drive southeast to the residency.
Busy trip. Gotta get up to Lassen too, which is no small feat. Gonna work on that trip this weekend, plus hopefully start my taxes…fun times. Plus grade shit and work on the burgeoning greenery of my yard in spring.
Today though…today is eyeballs and chaos and clay and fabric and maybe reading my book a little bit. I need to finish one by Wednesday, so I should get on that, but it’s an old actual physical book and the font is tiny and crowded and annoys me. Ah well. I’ll get through it, all of it, enjoy the sunshine, playing with fabric, petting a cat or two and maybe a few dogs and then realize there’s only three weeks until Spring Break and I might actually survive that. Maybe.
Heyo. It’s Monday. And a week of school and art and whatever else I can fit in begins. I had a great weekend camping up in the mountains, although it was definitely chillier than I thought it would be the first night, thanks to a wind advisory. 50-mph gusts took it down to the low 40s, with a real feel in the 30s. Definitely colder than I had planned, although I brought all the long underwear, thank goodness. The second night had no wind and was quite nice…still chilly, which is a nice change, but not so cold you can’t feel your hands and feet. We were lucky to be in a part of the campground with no small children, mostly quiet dogs, and no partiers, for once. It was delightfully quiet.
It was a nice campsite, plenty of shade; in fact, on Saturday, after our hike, it was a little chilly in the shade. I kept moving my chair so I could doze in the sun, which is unlike me.
We did a 4-mile hike north on the PCT from the campground.
At some point, you get a hazy view of the desert below.
It was actually kind of warm, except under the trees. Four miles seemed about the right amount. I’ve been hiking 3 miles every weekend, but the Man hasn’t, so this was more than my normal and way more than his.
It’s a beautiful place to hike though…lots of trees and blue skies and fresh air…a few people, but not a lot. So peaceful.
That golfball thing on the Man’s head (well, it looks like it anyway) is the Air Force Radar Station. I looked it up. No, we didn’t visit. Probably not allowed. I wonder why it’s white, though. It could blend in more and be less obnoxious.
I drew both nights by the campfire…it’s kind of a tradition of mine. Staring into the flames, headlamp on, seems to help me just draw these days.
So many days at home, I’m only drawing for a specific piece or purpose, instead of just drawing for the sake of it. I used to have time for that, even with the day job. Now, it just doesn’t happen.
This will turn into something else. It was a solid start.
Still working in the bathtub range.
Less political. Which I suspect the new quilt will not be…less political, I mean. I have three bathtub quilts I’ve made over the years, and they’ve been more personal than political. I find it hard to make anything these days that isn’t political. The number of insane acts and policies and pronouncements makes it impossible. The loss of freedom for so many people can’t be ignored. I don’t have solutions that don’t involve coups or alien invasions unfortunately, and since Antifa doesn’t actually exist, I have to draw what I want for the world and make it into art. Draw what is and what should be. So these were prep for the next piece. The bathtub quilts will be in Virginia at the Virginia Quilt Museum starting the end of January. I’ll be there in March for the closing ceremonies.
The first night was already cold, so we were already starting the fire at like 5:30 PM. It was still daylight, so I was stitching on this little tree. It is a tree. Can’t remember what kind…obviously Sue Spargo and very stylized.
Here it is the second day…
The Man was napping…I did a little of that and some reading too. I appreciate the time to just sit and be with the things I want to do. I did bring grading with me; I don’t usually, but I’m in panic mode. I graded one week’s worth of homework in the car on the way up and finished it Saturday afternoon. I then came home Sunday and did a ton more. And no, I’m not done. I’m buried. Sigh.
This was the cold cloudy windy night…
The moon was very bright both nights, which was nice.
This was the beginning of the book I was reading.
Too true. I did all those things this weekend. Except commit felony homicide and move a body. And here’s a quote from the book itself.
I wish I really loved the book (I don’t…it’s OK, but not really my thing). I did love some of the phraseology and ideas. I have another book by the same author…this was a book club book. I’ll read the other one and decide if she’s just too cozy for me. I don’t mind SOME cozy stuff, but this was a bit too much. I’m not even done with it and I’m really done with it.
Here’s my level of cozy at the moment. Gotta love some Richard Scarry.
And Ruben Bolling did it well.
OK. We’re still in roller coaster design today. Hopefully the next three days won’t be hellacious. Thursday was a bit much, but I have hopes that once they start actually taping stuff together and testing it, it will be very focused and I can get some grading done. We’ll see how that goes. Then a 2-hour staff meeting that could possibly be an email. And ceramics? Hopefully. I’m delivering my quilt to the photographer tomorrow and when it comes back, shipping it off to the new owner. Which is good, because I have bills to pay. Sigh. Money stuff is stressful. What’s new, right? And then hopefully, I’ll start drawing the new piece. It’s going to be big, but it has to be finished in December, so it can’t be huge. Keep that in mind, Kathryn.
Short weekend? Long drive on Saturday, totally worth it, but wish the driving parts were less heinous. I can never go to LA without it taking 9 hours. It’s like the ER…it’s always 4 hours (except when it’s not). So yeah…the quilting is also going oh so slowly. The thread keeps breaking, even after I did all the things.
It wasn’t breaking Friday night, actually. A little. Then Saturday and Sunday night, it was nonstop.
I was near the end of a spool, so I figured it was that. The thread gets in a weird position. I changed the needle, adjusted tension, cleaned everything out, rethreaded it a million times.
Finally finished the old spool and put the new one on. It breaks again. Aargh. Slowpoking it through the last bit of this. At this rate, not sure when I will finish. I did buy binding fabric Saturday morning…it’s why I didn’t get an earlier start to LA, although I was on the road north at 9:30 AM. Didn’t matter. It was 3+ hours up, an hour up there, then an accident on the way back. Got home at 6:30 PM. Ugh. Blood sugar was a mess the whole time. Fun times.
That said, the Bisa Butler show up there was amazing. Totally worth it, even though I’m exhausted and grades aren’t done.
Just staring at all the glittery things in these pieces…
The tulle, the lace, the fur, and the velvet.
And the vinyl…or whatever it is. Oh my.
These are some seriously touchable quilts.
Her arm had lace and tulle…gorgeous.
Also be impressed by my ability to NOT take a straight photo. I had been in a car for over 3 hours.
This piece glowed in the gallery.
But not so much in the photo.
The feet are in the water…the vinyl water…
I’m sure there was a list of pieces and names somewhere, but I never found it. Probably would have had to talk to the people in the bookstore. Ugh.
Texture.
Her machine probably doesn’t break threads like mine.
Mine does need to go in to be cleaned…oh my, look at the fabrics in that piece.
I need to be a thousand times more ballsy with my fabric choices.
I walked to Jeffrey Deitch’s other gallery, which was a feminist art show.
It drives me a little crazy that they’re not labeled. So IDK who did what.
The show is It Smells Like Girl.
Not sure how I feel about that either.
But there were a few pieces I really liked.
I was raised in LA…
And it feels familiar but not.
So many freeways I don’t recognize.
Anyway, it was a good trip that took too long. I should spend more time next time, or stay overnight, or leave earlier. I don’t know. It’s frustrating, for sure. There’s plenty of art up there I’d like to see. And now my grades aren’t done, which is stressful. So am I making the wrong choices or does my day job just suck up too much time? Speaking of the day job, my co-teacher and I dressed up for Mismatch Day.
I’m back after 4+ very busy days in San Francisco with the girlchild, who is really very patient and fun to be around, even though we are now both sick. I’m not sure how. Maybe someone at SFMOMA? Someone at the show on Friday? Hard to know. Still an awesome trip…so much art.
Here’s all of it chronologically. Mostly. Before I left, I did some more ironing on the quilt in progress that won’t be done before school starts (which is fine).
And I washed out the last two dye paintings I did. The dye seems to be holding particularly well, being 8 days old at this point.
The one book that made any claims for how long the dyes last said 5 days; the other one said, yo, document your shit! So yeah, some of the dye is washing out, but I still like it.
NOW, today, the dyes are hmmm…15 days old. I haven’t tossed them. I was hoping to do some this week. This is before I got sick. We’ll see how it goes.
OK, so Thursday, I flew to San Francisco kind of early so we could do the one day SFMOMA is open late…just for Ruth Asawa’s show. And wow. Not only are her iconic pieces truly beautiful in person…
And the shadows!
But there is a lot of background info and other artwork of hers as she branched out (sometimes literally) that adds to the exhibit.
Also, holy crap, but she had 6 kids and was able to create consistently. I appreciate that. We did joke that almost every piece was called “Untitled”. She did some things with pens and patterns, plus ink…the repetitive quality of her work is very satisfying to experience.
And her later, more branching work, is also beautiful.
I really enjoyed her work.
We watched another segment of the Ragnar Kjartansson The Visitors exhibit. I’d seen about 20 minutes of it last July, and saw another 20, the last 20. Truly beautiful.
And we went through Yayoi Kusama’s Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love again.
Last time, there was a huge line, but late-night Thursdays seem to be the best time to go. Also, the show has been open for a year and is closing soon.
We had a late dinner and went to bed.
The next day, the girlchild needed to work and I had a couple of shows I wanted to see, so I headed out at a reasonable hour. I was staying in the Mission District, and the murals blow my mind every time I’m there. This is Boneyard Luv by Raiz y Gonzalez con Safos.
I didn’t get the mushroom artist.
And then I took BART over to Berkeley (easy to get there once I figured out where the station was) to BAMPFA to see Routed West.
I do love some old quilts, especially when they’re wonky. This is by Willia Ette Graham, started before 1944, completed in the 1950s, repaired in 1985. I love the addition of each set of new bits. Started with a crumb quilt and moved on.
This is a shadow star by Rebecca Smith and Bettie Chaffold (mother and daughter). I like the color of the squares with the stars.
This is Alice Neal’s Mary Bright Commemorative Quilt from the 1950s, in honor of her mother.
The center is very contemporary art quilt, with the hat and embroidery.
This is Quinciana Tatmon’s fan quilt. I love that she didn’t make it the way most fans are usually designed, and they she randomly appliqued them on top of the background. This is from the 1950s-60s.
And I always love clothes being put whole into a quilt. This is a britches quilt by Arbie Williams, pieced in 1993, and quilted by Irene Bankhead.
There are a lot of repeat names in these quilts…many were just tops and were finished later. I have a few of those from my grandmother lying around.
This was pieced by Cora Lee Hall Brown in 1981 and then quilted by Willia Ette Graham. there is one block but its repeat is so random and yet repetitive in a beautifully random way.
This was pieced by Louisa Fite in the 1950s-60s. It’s a log cabin with the blue and white feathers at the center of the log cabins. It was quilted in 1970 by Joan Thompson, her daughter.
More fun colors here…Johnnie Wade made this piece in 1996. Very graphic.
But check out the star and how it’s attached to the background. I love this. Because it’s not straight and it’s all buttonhole stitched down by hand.
Whatever works y’all. Great show…again at BAMPFA through November 30. From there, I walked through one corner of UC Berkeley, where I saw this sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro. This is Rotante Dal Foro Centrale in 1971.
I went to Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics, bought a few half yards, but also felt like I should be making my own pants. In my spare time. It’s an option, I guess.
I have buttons in jars too, but nothing like this guy. I knew about the clothing, but my favorite piece in the show was this bathtub covered in buttons with the hint of a female figure (in white). This is darkmuskoilegyptiancrystals&floridawater/redpotionno.1 from a poem by Ntozake Shange. It’s about suicide and self love.
I was also fascinated by how he used buttons sculpturally.
And turned denim clothing into things they weren’t…this is the yoke and sleeves, but I also like how the pockets hang down.
Also he does some stitching between the buttons.
Here’s some more stacks…on this sleeve, kind of protective.
Another yoke, this is no sleeves.
I wasn’t great about documenting titles in this show. This is Button Apron: Black Target.
These are Button Shorts: Chillin’ Chaps.
And my favorite speedos…Button Speedo: Black Ice.
Nobody is coming near you with those on.
The show offered a chance to make your own button necklace or bracelet, so I did.
There was also a small exhibit there called A Roadmap to Stardust with this little ceramic sculptures of what look like astronauts. The exhibit was created by artists Neil Forrest and John Roloff (collaboratively known as OortCloudX).
It’s supposed to be an archaeological dig.
They’re fun.
Definitely an interesting little exhibit.
Oh here’s the 5 fabrics I did buy. I wanted to buy linen type stuff for pants, but I didn’t.
After all that, I made it back to the Mission and headed out for dinner with the girlchild and two of her friends…more murals. This is by Nychos, who I’ve followed on Instagram for years…nice to see one in person.
We had a great Burmese dinner, then walked a million miles uphill to an art collective to watch a friend of theirs sing in a band in the basement…it was mostly 70s and 80s with some more current stuff. Fun times.
The next day, I had persuaded the girlchild to take me to the International Fiber Arts XII exhibit in Sebastopol at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. And there’s the bridge.
Me in front of my piece War Zone.
This was an interesting and varied show…not just quilts, but all types of fiber arts, which is nice. This is Oh Know by Mark Sullivan.
Here is Does the Caged Bird Sing by Jóh Ricci. A really intriguing texture.
I realize this is a fungus, but it also looks like a dress to me (it’s highly likely it’s supposed to look like a dress). This is Mango Tango by George-Ann Bowers.
This interesting piece is Fairyfellers by Leonard Greco.
Intriguing characters…
This is two different pieces that work very well together. The top piece is Chimera by Erica Dincalci and the bottom is All in a Band by Mercy Hawkins.
The 3D work was fascinating. Here is Il Sogno della Bambina by Penelope Lenaerts.
More buttons and texture in Still Kickin by Marie Bergstedt.
These black clouds were very cool. This is Cloud Bursts by Kathy Pallie.
And this little cutie by Eileen Morabito, Make Love. Fuck War.
It was a very visually entertaining show that closes this week, I think.
We drove out on Florence Street, where we started to see the work of Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent. Almost every house had a sculpture in the front yard, and then we saw them all over town.
Patrick builds them out of junkyard remains and Brigitte paints them.
I love all of them. I want one in MY yard.
We headed out for the winery experience to a tiny but lovely place, the Horse & Plow Tasting Room. They do wine and cider and have a lovely outdoor space.
You can see we kinda needed this.
We shared one because this place is 90 minutes away from the girlchild’s home, so it was nice that she drove all that way for me.
When we got back, we rested a bit and headed out for bao and dumplings, which was fun. We happened to walk through an art exhibit on the way back and saw two art quilters’ work I knew…Joe Cunningham’sShelter dominating the exhibit.
The exhibit was for locals about the area and had a lot of fun work in it.
We walked back through the Mission…
The next morning was a late start for us, in that the girlchild wanted to watch a soccer game and I decided to wander around, feed myself, head over to Balmy Alley to photograph more murals, yadda yadda. I like how they all have their fists up in this mural by Martin Travers.
This is Victorion: El Defensor de la Mision, by Sirron Norris.
I kind of like the chairs here, but it blocks the painting a bit. This is Cosmogonia by Chilovia, Raiz-Peskador. I see two Instagram accounts on the painting: Pancho Pescador and Pablito Something.
I love the detailed storytelling murals. This is Mission Makeover by Lucia Ippolito & Tirso Araiza, her father.
Two details I found really interesting…this with Adam and Eve being pushed out by riot police is way too close to the ICE kidnappings happening recently.
And this bit with the monkeys and the guy that looks like he’s in court robes by plugged in with his mouth zipped shut.
Great imagery. This piece too…Women of the Resistance by Lucia Gonzalez Ippolito (the same artist from the last one) and more (the names are very hard to read, even in real life).
The upper portion with all the puppeteers of evil is amazing. There are strings coming down from their hands to try to control everything.
Absolutely on topic.
That gas tank dispenser…
Here is an older one; the part with the name is deteriorated…bottom left corner.
I like the tree with the body below in this one…by Laura Campos.
This sign was in one of the windows in the alley…I heartily agree.
I passed this trailer parked on 25th Street enough times to agree with it.
This is Leyend Azteca, which was directed by Leia Maahs and Jaime Wynn, painted by a bunch of people, possibly originally painted by Gustavo in 1978. Long story here…bottom right corner.
The girlchild eventually picked me up and we headed south to Filoli, which is this huge mansion in the middle of nowhere.
But it had (17,000 people AND) 6 of Thomas Dambo’s trolls, made from recycled materials. I saw one of these in Seattle and have kept an eye on them since.
It’s an expensive trip, unless you’re a member, but I found between the trolls, the gardens, and the house…plus there happened to be an art fair while we were there…it was worth it. We spent about 3 1/2 hours wandering around (in the heat, to be fair).
It was harder to get photos without people in them…
Hence no picture of this one’s face…
Except here, where I cropped out the entire family in the lower half.
And this one never had no kids on it.
But this is nice. And yes, they all have names and stories and are very kid friendly.
But awfully adult friendly too.
Super loved this place.
The gardens are pretty and have some interesting stuff in them.
And the house…well the ballroom is amazing and so are all the kitchen rooms (multiple rooms).
Yeah, I didn’t have time to figure out what these were.
I tried to get a picture of the squirrel I saw this morning running along the wires in front of my second-story window, but that didn’t happen. I flew back this morning…which is kind of when the girlchild and I realized we were both sick. This flight was delayed as well, which might just be a summer thing. And then I spent most of the afternoon lying on the couch or the bed and sleeping. I’m feeling a bit better now, but suspect tomorrow will still be ugh. I was just thinking I hadn’t been sick in ages…well, since my trip to Ohio, when I actually got sick when I got home. Fun times. It was a great trip…lots of good food and time with kid, plus art up the yinyang, whatever that means. Totally a cool time. I’ll be resting up for a couple of days and trying to figure out how to be ready for school next week. Too soon, y’all…too soon.
Kathy Nida 