Changing the Channel

 

Destination: Fulton Beach Road, Lamar, Austwell and Aransas Pass National Wildlife Refuge. Accomplishment: Changing the channel, celebrating my 60th, breathing in and breathing out.

 

I'll post details later when I have more time, but for now, here's a little picture tour of the tour (and a shocking picture of me with red hair.) This little trip to the coast was part biz, part party, mostly just r & r of the best kind -- agenda-proof, timeless wandering, emersion into the natural world from early morning storms to sunsets reflected in the choppy bay waves.

The cabins where we stayed were perfect: The Habitat Bed and Breakfast,  rather rustic, but wonderfully situated about a i/2 mile from the bay and sitting next to a small fresh water lake.

 

 

Playing in Plano

 This art quilt was juried into the DAFA sponsored Federation of Fiber Artists exhibit in Plano -- with about 58 other works, it will be on display through the month at the Plano Art Center. The link will take you to a gallery of all the work in the show.

The title is "Floating Above It," and the work is inspired by the song by Talking Heads song "And She Was"
The lyrics:

“And She Was”

“And she was lying in the grass
And she could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She's making sure she is not dreaming
See the lights of a neighbor's house
Now she's starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes

 “The world was moving and she was right there with it (and she was)
The world was moving she was floating above it (and she was) and she was

“And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth
Moving into the universe
Drifting this way and that
Not touching ground at all
Up above the yard

“She was glad about it... no doubt about it
She isn't sure where she's gone
No time to think about what to tell them
No time to think about what she's done”
 

 

Hard at play with a bunch of Babylocks. Theralyn Hughes, Pat Schulz in front, Jack Brockett and Ruthie Powers can be spotted in the back.  

 

Just like in the quilt, the wind is whirling up the ridge after a couple of wonderfully warm and sunny days.  Alas, I've been stuck deep inside the studio shuffling papers, filing forms, putting my month in order after playdays with the Federation of Fiber Artists (the Texas coalition of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and now, Austin) fiber arts groups. The every-other-year conference, hosted by Dallas Association of Fiber Artists, was in Plano this past weekend. I took a couple of half-day workshops -- 3-d shibori techniques with Carol Lane Saber and needle felting with the Baby Lock embellisher with Sara Moe. What I learned: 1. instant set dyes work great for hotle room dye workshops, given the water, batching limitations and 2. I am not immune to the seductive appeal of the needle-felting embellisher.

But I resisted (for now) given that the winter's equipment budget went for a new laser printer and ink jet printer. I figure the Babylock will still be there when I get around to it. I certainly understand why its the toy of the moment for fiber artists. I had believed myself to be immune because I am not particularly interested in adding a lot of fuzzy texture and random frays and textural tornadoes or 3-dimensionality to my work. I like the flat plane of fabric and I prefer to develop a sense of visual  texture with patterned layers of imagery. BUT, when I found out I could actually create fabric out of little bits of other fabric, and that I could quite subtly add an element of pattern hither and yon, I was a goner. This is too much fun. Three hours barely gave us enough time to see Sara's examples and to put a few needles into action. The only downside I can see is that I will break way too many expensive needles figuring out what and how to use this machine, when I do  spring for one.

(Addendum: Deborah Boschert also posted some great photos and information about the Federation conference here.) 

On another front in Plano, we had the Federation exhibition at the Plano Art Center, a wonderful repurposed space with character, tall ceilings and a nice ambiance. Juror (and keynote speaker for the conference) Joan Schulze chose 6 awards of merit, among them Laura Jeanne Pitts, Leslie Jenison and Leslie Klein of FASA.  (Was there another San Antonian awarded an honor -- I can't remember!) Anyhow, I counted myself among good company.

Below: Leslie Klein, Leslie Klein and Martha Grant, Leslie Jenison, group shots of happy artists Rachel Edward, Yvette Little, Jean Peffers and my  art quilt amid a crowd.

 

MORE at the show: Pat Schulz's piece inspired by her travel in Guatemala, Pat, husband Gerald and Rachel; Laura Jeanne Pitt's stunning art cloth and Lisa Kerpoe's layered art cloth is peeking out behind the talkers.

 

Creativity Coaching?

Line Collection, 2008

I have a question for all of you: I have been thinking a great deal about my "mission" and my "business." Although making art is very important to me, even more important (in a life mission kind of way) is my commitment to helping others develop and strengthen their own creative and unique "voices." That's why I teach in the ways I do, and why I usually end up doing the other consulting in arts ed fields that I do. 

I make, exhibit and sell art in order to have credibility to my main "audience," which at this time in my life is other artists, often it seems, other women artists who work in fibers. And, because personally, I NEED to make the art I make to feel whole and fulfilled at a spiritual level. But, in honest truth, my driving motivation is not making the cover of Art in America or hanging on the walls of the American Museum of Craft or turning up on the Today Show as some kind of superartist. I don't have that kind of ambition or singlemindedness! I have entered enough juried shows to know that I can sometimes get in and that it has more to do with what show and what juror than it does with the quality of my work. I have a style and a body of work that is evolving fast enough and consistently enough that I don't feel stale or stuck. And I think what I do is a pretty good example of an artist finding her style and voice.

As I sort through the expenses and income of the past year (and I do need to make a living doing this or some other work) I am thrilled to find that the workshops here at El Cielo Studio have been successful both creatively and financially. And, that those workshops that are less technique oriented and more conceptually dealing with artistic and creative growth are the ones that seem to be the most in demand.

I have had the idea of perhaps also offering some kind of "creativity coaching" or maybe even an on-line course that would help emerging and developing artists locate, develop and strengthen their one-of-a-kind visions -- finding a style or "voice" that has at its foundation their unique perceptions and process of work. The point would be to move some of these emerging artists more quickly along the path from being dabblers and workshop junkies and pattern followers to finding their own most powerful areas of creative "production," whether their goal is selling, exhibiting or just for personal enjoyment. My work with children and teachers for the past 35 years has had this kind of approach at its core, based on my early work in the  "Integration of Abilities"course,  the children's theater work, and late Learning about Learning, with my mentors Jearnine Wagner and Paul Baker.

What do you think? How could I make this work? Do you think there is a potential market for this kind of coaching? It would differ from traditional coaching in that much of the work would be hands-on assignments, with the "clients" sending  images of their work (or posting them) for feedback, direction, analysis and critique. I think that some kind of "group setting" for this kind of work will be best, because sometimes the things people need to see and recognize about their personal approach and individual style is best seen in contrast to what others are doing. So some form of on-line group with lists, photos to post etc, seems called for. However, with a recent book study group that I set up on the social networking site  NING, it's been obvious that MANY people (of a certain age anyway) have a resistance to using  more complex internet interfaces, and don't feel comfortable about poking their way around to learn new interactions. Maybe an orientation session would solve that problem?

Anyhow, this is as excited as I have felt in a long time about a possibility for my work. I'm getting those tingly little feelings that either mean it's a good idea, or that whether it is or not, I better try out a version somehow and see how it flies.

 I plan to participate in a new online course/group, the Artist Breakthrough Program,  offered by Alyson Stanfield, ArtBizCoach, with this idea as the core product to plan during a 28-day online format (if I get accepted). That should give me more experience in the nuts and bolts and possibilities of the online group, too.

Anyhow, I'd love your feedback and comments. If you were going to take part in this kind of thing, how would you like to see it work?

 

Texture collection, 2008 

Meanwhile, back from future plans to the world of almost-right-now, I have a new session of Independent Study starting at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. I am planning on opening each session of studio work with a short creativity lesson session and a quickie demo of a new or underused surface design technique. The school's facilities for doing large dye and print work are superb -- each participant will have a full 4 foot by 8 foot print table for her or his work. If you live in the San Antonio area, consider signing up for this 6-week course on Friday mornings, through Feb. 28.  (And there are a few spots left still in the next two El Cielo Workshops -- Feb. and March. )

Sensory Alphabet

 

 One of Nina's line collection photos (at the Aldrich)

 

Another chapter in the Creativity Sagas. Susan, Cindy (both colleagues from our nearly childhoods) and I have been working with the educators at the Aldrich Contemporary Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, giving a 3-day crash course in using the Sensory Alphabet (an equivalent of letters and numbers for everything except letters and numbers) and developing programs that help kids (and their parents) identify individually powerful and authentic creativity. This was a kind of step 2 interaction after the successful program Susan ran at the museum last summer for 5 year olds. Remember this post?

The sensory alphabet (which might sound at first blush like design terms or an art vocabulary) is line, color, shape, space, rhythm, movement, texture, light, sound. And yes, the arts (visual, performing and edges and overlaps thereof) are where this "alphabet" can be used easily with children, but the idea is broader and deeper than that. ie: Creative people in many disciplines and fields of study and invention are most likely working from their strenghts corresponding to their perceptial strengths. Show me a good mathematician,  I will probably see a person strongly interested in rhythm, space and line.

All this is the subject of our book-in-progress, but the work this week has been to help this staff apply some of the key concepts we've all been interested in to their program development. The most important and critical reason we are interested in putting this work out in new forms and with new audiences is that since our work in the '70s and 80s, the world of primary (and secondary) education has gotten smaller, tighter, less interested or responsive to individual talents and interests and more test driven than ever. The results -- here EVEN  in this quite affluent area of the U.S.: parents hungry to find programs that actually help their kids find successful and creative paths into the future, something more than just skill aquisition, something that touches and awakes a fire for learning, achieving, applying information, using deep wisdom.

Here's the an example of the COLLECTION exercise we started with. Try it! (I've got eight others, if it's of interest, email me and I will send you the complete list of 9.) 

Collecting Ideas with the Sensory Alphabet

The next 2.5 – 3 hours will take us through the Sensory Alphabet with a series of collection techniques – these are just a few of the ways the SA can be used to generate personal content  -- as well as to explore a theme, a period of art history or a work of art.

We will spend about 15 minutes with each of the 9 alphabet concepts: Line, Shape, Color, Movement, Rhythm, Space, Texture, Light, Sound. As you work with these Sensory Alphabet “screens,” you might also want to consider these “modifiers”:
Tension
Balance
Contrast
Progression
Direction
Size/Scale
Volume/Mass
Weight
Emphasis
Repetition/Diversity

General Instructions:
During the next 2.5-3 hours,  (that's for the entire 9 categories) use as  many different spaces and materials and media available as possible. If you usually sketch to collect ideas, spend at least part of each session doing something completely different: writing, moving, making sounds, taking photos, tearing paper, etc. Use both the familiar and the unfamiliar.

Work quickly without judgment. This is art-making; this is not product. This is not good or bad. This is collecting, stretching, playing, finding new and old ways to interact with the environment around you. Play as a child would play, but record as you go, finding different ways to record what you notice, engage with and find interesting.

Don’t pay attention to what anyone else is doing. You can’t be better or worse, by definition.

Pick and choose between the following assignments for each sensory alphabet element as you wish. You may do several of the assignments or  only one in the time allotted. BUT the emphasis is on fluency to some degree. It is more appropriate in these exercises to work with flow from one idea to the next, collecting as much information and as many ideas as you can during the assignments.

LINE

• Collect 15 different physical lines.
• Draw at least 20 different lines on LARGE pieces of paper.
• Walk the patterns of  at least 5 lines you see in the natural world or in art works around you.
• Write the story of a line you like.
• Pick a natural object that appeals to you and find all the lines in the object. Sketch them over and over.
• Translate some of the lines you have found into a collage using string, yarn, sticks, thread, wire or other linear materials.
• Draw lines with a variety of different media. Go for diversity in scale, speed, color, fluidity or lack of, weight, thickness, etc.
• Fill a sack with lines.
• Make contour drawings of something you see. Draw very slowly following the lines in the object without looking at the paper. Use the pen as though you were following the lines by tracing them with your finger.
• Fill different sizes of paper with as many lines as you can. Or with one very long line.
• Imagine a new written script or language and write it out.

Ritual for the Returning Light

 

On one of the lists that I subscribe to, one correspondent posted this ritual for the New Year. As we turn the sunlight into the next season, remembering that the days will lengthen, the dark will receed, the fields that are fallow will soon turn green with new growth...

I want to record this in order to make it part of our morning ritual during the Journal workshop in  January -- still dark enough to benefit, even though the Solistice is past. I hope she doesn't mind the quote.....

Gather together family and friends and give everyone a stick or twig, 5 or 6 inches long. At one end of the twig tie a red ribbon and at the other end, a green ribbon. You'll need a fire of some kind: this could be done in your fireplace or an outdoor firepit or just the grill on your deck. Toast to the sun or say a few words about the returning of the light, then everyone breaks their stick in two. As you toss the red-ribboned stick in the fire, think about the bad events and negative habits you're eager to lose in the flames. Save the green end as a souvenir, a token of hope, and think about new beginnings.
  
   
 

Nuevo Laredo, Nuevo Laredo

For many U.S. and Western Europe residents (as well as the popular media), Christmas means snow and snowmen, vistas of white and, perhaps even a little elfing magic. But for those of us in the Borderlands, the weather may be chill, or like today, peasoup and heading toward the 80s. When I want holiday spirit, I can't count on the weather to cooperate, but I can ALWAYS count on Nuevo Laredo. Tuesday's visit was a kick.

 

 

 

Catch Up

Say no more. See pictures. End of year acceleration is in effect. All these are gratitudes of the past week.

Drumming at Guadalupe State Park -- Do you wonder why we love this time of year?

 

Ray was one of the other drummers by the river. 

 

A magical fiber art exhibit at the Southwest School of Art and Craft: This piece by Piper Shepard

November 15th 2007 - January 13th 2008

Over, Under, Around, and Through

Linda Hutchins (Oregon), Tracy Krumm (North Carolina) and Piper Shepard (Maryland)

A piece of art cloth, finished up during the final Independent Study afternoon lab at the Southwest School. This is a soy wax batik, that also includes some printing with a soy wax screen.

Below, Tina faces the blank page at the Art Quilt Journey workshop at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center last Friday. 

 

 

 Highway 16 between Bandera and Kerrville.  And you think Texas doesn't have fall color?

I'm sure something pithy and thoughtful will come soon to this cyberspace. But pictures seemed to say it all on a crisp day with a design table urging me on. Here's one of two small art quilt altars I completed today -- the other one is under wraps until it's owner sees it tomorrow. Then I'll post it, if she agrees. This is Christmas Virgin, 2007. 16" by 12" by 3.5". Just in time for Guadalupe's day, December 12.

 

Letter from Tuscany

 

This art quilt is destined to hang at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center -- an example of the kind of art quilt journey that my end-of-November workshop will inspire. It was fun to take my own course today, taking memories, journal pages, the color palette of the countryside and the architecture and turning it into this piece. Making it today let me relive a day spent in and near Lucca -- Lucca has a Medieval wall that surrounds the old city. It has been preserved as a park that features a 2 mile path perfect for bikes and hikes around the circumference. We rode bikes one morning, and this old villa was one of the sights. It seemed abandoned but grand, and I can just imagine what kind of meals and parties and family dramas must have once filled those windows.

Here's one of the original photos; followed by a detail of the art quilt.

 

 

AND, this is the town closest to where I 'll be teaching a workshop in March. The Italian Adventure continues with the course, co-taught with writer and creativity workshop leader Carol Ikard. I am still waiting for the "official" brochure to be completed, but here's what I know so far:

 DATES: MARCH 15- 22 --- This is spring break weekend here in San Antonio, and is the weekend before Easter, so one might want to add a week on to the excursion and spend Easter in Florence or Rome.

LOCATION:  Selva, a compound of restored farmhouses and gardens near Lucca, located on a 1000-acre estate owned by a Baronessa. Working vineyards, orchards and olive groves are part of the estate, as well as the rustic mountainous area where Silva is located.

Cost, all inclusive, except for transportation to either Pisa or Florence: €2150 double occupancy

 Here's the four fiber art classes, just part of the full schedule of activities (morning writing workshops, cooking classes, field trips almost every day, activities for spouses or non-fiber friends who want to come along for all of the fun,

Monday -- Field Guide to Tuscan Color" --
Color is the one of the first design elements we associate with Tuscany - the warm rustic hues  of old walls and stacked stone, the rich botanicals and jewel tones from the grapes, flowers and foliage, the natural siena and ochres that come from the very earth. Using modern low-toxicity dyes, and some simple natural dyes (onion skins, beets and rust), participants will create organic and textural patterns on silk scarves and quarter-yard lengths of rayon, silk and cotton textiles to use in the week's subsequent sessions.

Tuesday -- "Beyond the Terrace" -- The beauty of Selva's landscape and its grasses, leaves and trees will inspire designs for printing on our fabrics.  Using the natural world as inspiration for design on fabric and paper participants will try their hands at solar printing, direct leaf printing, and develop designs for stencils and stamps.

Wednesday -- "Etruscan to Tuscan -- Historical Imagery to Inspire" -- We'll design and create printing blocks and stamps using historical imagery, photos taken on the week's field trips, images from Etruscan and Roman antiquity, as well as our own sketches and collections from the Tuscan landscape. Printing on fabric (if I can solve the technical and shipping issues)

Friday -- "Layers of Tuscany" -- Using all of the materials and tools from the art sessions, participants will layer their imagery to make one-of-a-kind art cloth, then cut, fuse and hand-stitch a small wall hanging. Simple embroidery stitches, beading embellishments and the use of fusable webbing to create original designs will be included in this final session

The schedule for participants is tentatively designed to include the following.                                                        
Sat        Arrival in afternoon; welcome with sparkling wine & refreshments; Susie & Carol introduce the program; begin limoncello making process; dinner under the pergola  
Sun    08.00    Early morning visit to the shepherdess to see the magic of pecorino cheese and ricotta.    
    09.30    Brunch   
    11.00    Creativity Expanded: unpacking creatively; feeling art and responding; thinking art   
    12.00    Walk around the property to search out natural materials for later fiber arts sessions, photography  
    13.00    Lucca Antique Market (opportunity for more materials)   
    17.00    Fiber arts workshop: Field Guide to Tuscan Colors   
    20.00    Dinner prepared by Emanuela   
Mon    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: The Committee and Drawing left-handed   
    10.00    Beyond the Terrace  Fiber Arts Workshop
    13.00    Lunch at Selva and break   
    15.30    Lucca:  fabric shops, weaving museum, private collections of antique fabrics, button shop, da Vinci exhibit, etc.   
    20.00    Dinner prepared by Emanuela   
Tue    07.30    Breakfast   
    08.00    Van to Florence: museum of silks, Renaissance archive   
    13.00    Lunch in Fiesole; Etruscan museum and Roman amphitheater  
    17.00    Leave for Selva   
    20.00    Dinner at Selva prepared by Emanuela   
Wed    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: seeing designs and symbols 
    10.00    Fiber Arts Workshop: Layers of Tuscany   
    13.00    Lunch at Selva and break
    15.30    Return to Lucca to explore more fabrics and shops   
    19.00    Puccini concert   
    20.30    Dinner at Puccini Restaurant at Piazza Puccini   
Thu    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: Enlarging art and enjoying mistakes, writing about ideas and art  
    10.00    Etruscan to Tuscan Fiber Arts Workshop
    1.00    Lunch at Selva and break   
    3.30    Tour of baroque villa with antique fabrics and tapestries plus fantastic garden   
    5.30    Begin cooking lesson with Emanuela   
    8.00    Dinner   
Fri    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: 
    10.00    Fiber Arts:  (Felt, beads, embroidery)
    1.00    Lunch at Selva and break   
    3.30    Tour of vineyard, wine and olive oil tasting   
    7.00    Pizza with Eduardo   
Sat        Departure   

 Let me know if you're interested. The trip is limited to


 

More Arizona Inspiration

 

While the Artcloth Network conference was a feast of inspiration, support, laughter, hard work and all those concommitant issues that come with organization, the Arizona landscape was a delicious appetizer of dark and light, spine and sticker, beautiful harshness and harsh beauty. More than any other landscape, the bones are so there - the physicality of shape and form in each plant, in each vista. And the presence of such an extreme climate always calls up wonder at our human adaptability -- for good or for ill. To live here comfortably takes all the technology available. To live here and keep the desert healthy is an enormous challenge. This is where we other Americans get our copper, our tin, our mercury -- where we want to stow our radioactive wastes. And, yet, look at this landscape. It is far from bare, far from unpopulated. I wonder at its fullness, its abundance, its other kind of lush.

 

Most of these were taken at the Sonoran Desert Museum, where Susan and I spent 3 hours walking and shooting pictures after I arrived. It was a day of dramatic thunderstorms, and the most amazing sunset tinted rainbow  -- wish I had
been able to capture that photo!

 

Colorado Dreaming/Movies on Demand

 

It's 8,000 feet more or less uphill  and a thousand miles west and north from El Cielo Studio to the real thing --  heaven on earth has to be the mountains of central Colorado, where my sister Rosamonde lives and works. We took a girl's road trip  - Linda, cousin Alana, sister-in-law Toogie and me -- stopping at Tucumcari each way, spending 4 skylit days in and around the mountain valley town of Salida.  

 The trip gave me the opportunity to play around with my new Flip camcorder, a tiny video digital movie camera that fits in a pocket, plugs into the side of your computer, and is easy to use with my iMovie software, also, until this last week an untried bit of techno-wizardry.

After playing around with the camera and learning the rudiments of editing with iMovie, I am embracing my "inner filmmaker." What a kick! Flip is just little enough and simple enough to be nonthreatening; complex and good enough sound and image enough to hook me, and the software is fun and intuitive. Six hours passed like six minutes (then I crashed the computer and realized that I hadn't saved anything). Oh well. Second time around and I still have some tweaks to make to "The Hike," a project of absolutely no value or interest except to the participants. BUT, I can't wait to use this camera and editing software to do some mini-movies about the next El Cielo Workshop. Then I guess I'll have to learn to post to uTube and link to the movie from this blog. Technology never stops demanding my attention. And trying to keep the reality going in the studio has been a challenge. More about that tomorrow.

 

Creating in Connecticut

 

Since Wednesday, I've been adventuring in the Northeast. My longtime colleague Susan has been directing a kid's program at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, near her home up here in the land of tall trees. She flew me up to help wrap up the second of two weeks, and to help shape the final "show and tell" for parents, and add a bit of help for a teacher's presentation next week. (I've got a hitch in the downloading photo process -- forgot the cable AND the cardreader, so more art later).

This program, NEW WORLD KIDS,  has been a pilot/continuation/experiment taking work we did years ago with Learning About Learning Educational Foundation and updating it for today's parents, and, in this case, a primary audience of 5-to-6 year olds. Throughout the week they've  been working with Susan, the museum's education staff, and a slew of tecnical supporters-- one aim has been to get pictures and good video for taking the program to the next stage, bigger and broader, we both hope (stay tuned for more). Exploring what we call "the Sensory Alphabet, " (formerly "the elements of form" for any of you in the audience who may be Paul Baker theater people), these little kids have been building fluency, learning about their inherent  preferences and working through the open-ended creative process of taking ideas into form.

Here's more from Susan's essay describing the program and process:

"The Sensory Alphabet is what we call the building blocks of creative literacy. Just as basic as the traditional alphabet used to teach the literacies of reading and writing, it is the basis of our sensory connection to the world around us – line, color, texture, movement, sound, rhythm, space, light, and shape. (It is tempting, first off, to think of it as an arts or design vocabulary...but it is more than this...it is just as fundamental to an ability to “read” physics, basketball or DNA.)
This elemental vocabulary is the pattern language of everything that is “out there.” Because it describes, but doesn’t define, it enlarges the capacity for seeing patterns. It lets us see both lemons and windows as shapes...both ballet and algebra as lines. It also enlarges our capacity for perceiving patterns between disparate objects, fields and cultures...and this ability is one of the hallmarks of creative, innovative thinking.

"Consider The Sensory Alphabet as another very basic symbol system we want our children to acquire, just as basic as the traditional alphabet and numbers parents and teachers have long taught their children. The Sensory Alphabet multiplies children’s early repertoire of ways to symbolize, understand and communicate their ideas. Equally as importantly, it builds the foundation for a more informed interaction with the digital media that demands fluency in this symbol system, conveying ideas through images, videos, icons and sounds. As is obvious, these new media have largely abandoned written language ––and even the spoken word -- as the means of communicating meaning, information and story.

"Practicing Creativity

Along the way we consciously engage the creative process in small and large ways. Each interactive (or open-ended) activity includes:

1. looking/ gathering /collecting ideas
2. playing/experimenting with various media
3. selecting/editing/creating
4. reflecting on the work. "

                                                                       Susan Marcus,     
                                                                       educator and consultant

 

This pretty much describes my approach to both teaching and making art -- filling up, playing around, selecting and shaping, and reflecting on the process. Using a basic set of ways to think about and investigate ideas non-verbally. The reflection part of the process is often what this blog helps me with. By trying to succinctly explain, capture and summarize either product or process, I seem to find ways to make it clearer for myself, to see my stengths, to take the next bold step.  

Island of Glass/Island of Color

 

The last of our travel destinations -- two of the islands of Venice - Murano, famous for glass, and Burano, known for its lace and its riotous islandscape of color. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but, of all the delights of Venice, I think that Burano was my favorite of all. The tradition of painting the houses bright colors reputably originated with the women of the island village, who painted their cottages with one bright color after another, so to make them visible to their fishermen husbands and sons as they made their way home in the mists.

Don't you think any of these photos could inspire a quilt? 

 

 

 

And Then Venice

 

People have told me that they were disappointed withVenice. True, the vaporettas packed us in like sardines. The high tide seeped up through Saint Mark's famous expanse one morning. The day tours poured in and poured out, annoyingly touristic. A scoop of gelato that cost 2 Euro anywhere else in Italy cost 4 near the Academia bridge.

 

But then there was moonlight. Music with couples twirling. Lights flight over moving water. A lonely sax note floating above the bell tower. The muscled gorgeous boat men and the hauntingly romantic gondolas, so familiar from photos and movies, but so much better, real, humanly historic in person. Crumbling foundations and salt-scarred monuments, wrapped in the lap, lap, lap of seatide. And the famously famous Venice light.

 

I'd return in a moment. 

 

The Travelogue Continues: Como

Trying to wrap up this trip report, even if its only a few photo memories. These are three from our 2-day, 3-night stay at beautiful, misty, mystical Lake Como (and no, we did not see George, though we understand he was at the villa Clooney after Cannes.) Our second day was stormy, with wave after wave of rain rolling in off the lake, and we spent the day reading and looking out the window of Paul and Nicole's bed-and-breakfast in Argegna, certainly the best of all possible places for budget conscious Como travelers.

 

5 Terre

 

Cinque Terre (chinck-way terr-eh, more or less) is a one of those magical places on earth that can hardly be believed. Five villages connected by footpaths, ferries (except for Corniglia), a winding road and a railroad make up the official region, which has been designated an international heritage site by the UNESCO. The terraces that surround the villages were built as many as a thousand years ago, the villages until World War II had no access except by foot or boat. Now, with eco-tourism filling the towns  and train and trams (providing ecologically sound transport) with visitors, they manage to retain their magic and Medieval qualities. We stayed in Corniglia, the smallest and least developed of the five town, due mostly to the fact that unlike the other four, the town clings to the cliffs 370 or so steps above the train station.

Our "beach,"  (unlike the one above in Rio Maggiore, I think)  was a stony cove,  another set of 400 steps down, but its quiet, near-deserted aquamarine peace, was well worth the climb.

What else? Fried anchovies, the best pesto I've ever eaten, crunchy hot farinata (a kind of chick-pea pancake or pizza crust), a fizzy light wine kind of like Portugal's Vinho Verdi, and lemon "slushy," a granita made with fresh giany Myers lemons, sugar syrup and crushed ice. Five days in Cinque Terre was our reward for museum-eyes (that state of not being able to take in one more painting) and what the German's term reisenfieber -- that experience of standing in a train or bus station and being unable to understand anything whatsoever with a total panic that one has missed the last train to one's destination of the next 24 hours.

 

We hiked, kayaked, sat and drank coffee, wine, sat and ate and ate, walked around eating, carried a picnic down the cliff, swam at the "free" beach (ie clothing free) that was reached via a rabbit warren of cliffside paths straight down the rabbit hole (and fortunately exited via a post swim discovery of a access-by-fee abandoned train tunnel back to Corniglia -- 10 euros was never better spent), took a ferry, climbed and climbed those stairs and slept under the bell tower of a church, between peals, at least. This place, dispite its protections, has a fragile path  to tread between economic stability  --even prosperity  -- for its population, so historically poor and a disneyfied version of itself, with just a few too many polishings of its rouch edges. I wish them all prosperity AND sustainability.

 

Other Color

Sweet. Siena is famous for its Palio della Contrade, a no-hold-barred horserace held twice yearly in Il Campo, with horses competing from the different areas of the city. Each district has a flag, and those are prominently featured in all the touristy market stalls. But the colors and patterns that I can see coming onto my fabric and quilts are those from the region's equally famous majolica.

 
 

    

 

Siena-hued Siena

  

A new box of crayons still calls to me. Its where I learned that colors wore specific nametags: aquamarine, jade, umber, siena. And now I know that Siena is siena. Technically, siena is a natural earth pigment, one of the oldest kinds of pigments that have been used by all civilizations. According to Colour, Making and Using Dyes and Pigments, published by Thames and Hudson, siena results from yellow iron oxide, geothite, with a small amount of manganese oxide mixed in. But, looking out over the roof tops in this Tuscan town, it is quite clear what place ended up the namesake.

 

Green Space

 

In this city of grey stone, narrow streets and a certain grim Medieval formality, green spaces are magnets for sunloving travelers and residents of Florence. Most famous of all are the enormous formal gardens behind and above the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens. This park gives credence to the  idea of architecture and landscape design as being the cinema of the Renaissance. But what a slow cinematography it is -- here you see vistas and grand scale living landscapes that were imagined beginning in 1550-- what visionaries those artists were, planting the trees and laying out the pathways for visual treats that are still evolving 4 and half centuries later. (Look quite carefully at the photo above -- those are people at the far end of the path, and this gives a pretty good idea of what the scale of the gardens encompass.) For a visual tour, see this website, too. We barely walked a few paths before succumbing to the rustle of leaves, the splash of Neptune's fountain and the shade of a tree perfectly proportioned to appear in a child's garden drawing

 

 

Even the little pockets of green behind tall walls of  villas, and city parks in areas beyond the historic center were particularly welcome to this country dweller. Window boxes added notes of nature that softened the edges and gave one's eyes a rest. Urns that a gardener friend informs me cost thousands of dollars here in the U.S. were strewn here and there in unexpected places. We toured a private garden one day -- and I was always on the lookout for florists shops and window planters.

 

      

  

Street Theater

 

During the month of May, Florence celebrates with the Maggio Musicale festival of the arts. We didn't make it to any of the performing arts events although we did see some of the special exhibitions -- "Cezanne in Florence," an exhibit of Cezanne works collected by two Florentine artlovers (one an artist), and the influence of  Cezanne on Florentine painters of the time -- as well as a fascinating exhibit of costumes from opera and dance performances from previous years of the festival. These were displayed in historic room exhibits at the Pitti Palace -- quite enchanting and creative, inspiration for any artist who creates wearable art.

 

Florence streets were theater enough. If I learned anything about myself in this incredibly rich cultural environment, it was that being was enough without too much doing. I saw fewer museums, fewer churches, fewer of the frescos I meant to see. I literally couldn't get past the street.

 

First, the architecture and the rhythm of spaces: from narrow Medieval outstretched-arms width corridors into open, empty (but for the people) grand piazzas, from arcades of arches to bridges choked with people, bikes, cars, walkers, runners, strollers, from the formal gardens of the Pitti Palace to the clock towers that studded the skyline, popping up in unexpected courtyards.

Then: there was the theater of people. I know I read somewhere how many thousands of tourists flood into the historic center of Florence daily during the high season of summer - cityloads full- and we were at its starting gate. Between 11 and 2 the streets could be overwhelmingly crowded, but then everyone sat down for lunch sooner or later, then to a siesta. By evening, most of the daytrippers -- people on bus tours or short trips into the city -- were gone, and those of us left in the center attended the evening performances, both formal and informal, with a bit more breathing room. Nightly between the Duomo and the Medici palace and Uffizzi, street performers held forth: clowns, musicians, orchestras in cafes, bands and instrumentalists, too. Pure magic against the stageset of these old stone walls and cobbled streets.

All in all, this reminds me to take time to watch people whereever I am. We often blind ourselves to the interesting dramas of our own streets, given their familiarity and our own task-directed days. I vow a little more people watching, a few more admission tickets to the street theater going on around me this summer here in San Antonio. 

Pattern Frenzy in Firenze

Suffice it to say, Florence sightseeing was an egg hunt of major proportion. I expect to see some of these patterns and rhythms in some work to come.