Art day/Sick day

Darn! B is home sick! She was sick before we went on spring break, and now that she just went back to school, she's sick again! Poor dearie! So we are back to laying low around here. I'm finishing several projects right now, but nothing interesting to post other than this show I just saw that is on at the MET. I must go see it, and it ends Sat. Click on Photo for a link to the page. Some real beauties, and stuff that is right up my alley! Don't you think?

I also have to get to the Met next week to see the Bonnard Interiors paintings...
He's pretty amazing. If anyone lives in the tri state area, and you want to learn a bit about color, go see the show and soak it in. His layouts and design of the canvas excites me as much as Mattise.

If you break it down structurally you get something like this...

Perhaps this explains a bit about how I work... and what I see when I look at paintings, landscapes, buildings, etc. See anything?

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For all those who think they know nothing about Modern Art. Try looking at them in a different way, look for colors that inspire you, design, layout, not just what is or isn't in the picture.

So if you are looking at this:You may see lines, or pattern, or blocks of color, not just a smeary rubbed out vague resemblance of a woman by Dekooning.

Or perhaps you'll see the busy streets of NYC, in the painting Broadway Boogie Woogie by Mondrian...

Like I explain to B when she is trying to draw something and she gets frustrated because it's not PERFECT, I tell her, the way to draw is by LOOKING and drawing what you SEE, and not what you THINK YOU SEE.

Same goes when your looking at art. You may see a picture and think, Oh, God that's awful. But if you sit with it, look at it, and see whats really there, you might surprise yourself and find you like something you wouldn't have given a second thought to before.

So go LOOK. Really look, at something you think you dislike.
Look at it for 10-15 even 20 minutes.

Then think about what you now like about it.



Blah blah blah. That's enough blabbing from me for one day.

Go see some art and get inspired!

Blue on my brain

So. yes, I know I make a lot of turquoise and brown quilts. I am obsessed with any mixture of brown and any color really. That's easy for me to figure out. My house is pretty much, brown, teals, greens, and REDs. I asked my mother a few years ago, about a house we lived in from my age of 0-3years old, Before we moved to our farm, about what colors were in the house. I was to young to recall much about that house. And only a few pictures are around. some in the living room and the kitchen.

In the kitchen, I can tell you from photos, it was ORANGE (my favorite color) and Light yellow. In the living room, it was sort of gold details like the carpet and couch fabric, with sort of a light turquoise on the walls... But the other rooms, no picture existed and I had VERY STRONG Feelings about certain colors so I asked her,if in her room there was anything RED in it.
Yep. Her bed spread and some pillows were RED.

And I also told her I was feeling a royal BLUE & turquoise room, Yep, it was a guest room. I also recalled at our farm, as we went down the stairs to the basement the walls being the seafoam turquoise, YEP. left over paint from the living room walls at that same house...

So I am convinced that, the first colors we were exposed to, were probably engraved in our brains.

So when I said the other day I was feeling Orange. I really do get an overwhelming feeling of COLOR. B asked me to post a picture of her today, as she was head to to BROWN.
I didn't have time to download pics, But trust me, she was!

Today. I am feeling TURQUOISE. And BLUES... and maybe a little red. with a dash of yellow.

See my back splash above my stove?

A picture speaks a thousand words... or Colors. or memories?

I need to make a blue quilt (18 year old boyish) and I am thinking all varied stripes... Stripes, hmm, there is another thing I adore... I'll have think hard on why that one is.... I don' t recall stripes from my childhood.???

DAY AT MOMA

We are ART
Images from our visit to MOMA
Museum of Modern Art, NYC

Sol Lewitt

He has some great drawings up at BEACON, go see!


Marlene Dumas.
Love her stuff... Looks like a quilt, right?

John Baldessari
I will not make any more boring art....


Interloop Architecture.
Exit sign.


Pipilotti Rist installation.

Very Fun. People were actually sleeping on the couch and floor.



I am usually not a fan of Ed Ruscha, but, I really loved this newer panting...


I guess I was very inspired by BLACK & WHITE stuff today. I came home and started to work again on the B&W under construction quilt below. It's growing slowly.


SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF NYC:
Just waiting on a SUBWAY train

Only in NY

So, I'm walking to the Subway to get B from School...And as you can
imagine, there are a lot of colorful, interesting people,
walking around New York.

But only this, in December, can you see someone like this:


from the back it's a nun carrying him around...
on the front it says, POPE FICTION...

We don't ask questions, we laugh and walk away...and perhaps dig out our cameras!

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Kristin asked about my Bumble Beans logo.
I never posted about it.

To make a long-ish story short-ish...

As we were adopting B, I was still working a real job, but I then wanted to be home with her, so I started a custom children's clothing company, where I made clothes, and had sort of Experiences with my small wee clients.
the kids came, picked out the fabrics, and i made them, all very interactive. it was pretty neat. I needed a name, and B was my inspiration.

B = bee = baby = little peanuts = beans, Bee, Beans = Bumble Beans...

Since at the time I was only doing girls clothes under 5, those girls started having boy siblings, and all of a sudden it was All boys clothes.

A LOT of boys clothes... And it got to be TOO much work...
and took away from being a mom,
so that was that, So i dug it out for my blog.

I kept the company for my art stuff, and who knows where it will lead to.

For today I am happily sewing, taking photos, and proudly being a mom.


How did you all come up with a name for your blogs?


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!

an artful day

What does this photo,

These patterns,

And this guy have in common?

They were all part of the great day I spent with my friend Ron, at the Whitney Museum today, enjoying the Alexander Calder exhibition,
Celebrating his 4_ (something) birthday day, a walk down 5th Ave, a quick subway ride to Union square, just taking in all the great sunshine and holiday vibes in the air.

aaaahhhh! A no sewing day!

Well, a little, I have to get someones birthday gift done for the PARTY sunday! (you know who!!)

ART & FABRIC...CHECK IT OUT

If your in the Philly area, A great place to check out!

A little country in NYC

So, we've made it back, animals and all to NYC. Everything needs cleaning. not fun.
But before I left my house, I cleaned out my garden and have several yummy cucumbers left! One more batch of marinated cucumbers coming up! (for my friend S)

Marinated Cucumbers
Ingredients

6 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 medium onion sliced
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar ( I prefer agave)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground mustard

Combine the cucs and onion, and in a small bowl mix all other ingredients mix well, and pour over, stir, cover and refrigerate for a couple hours... but better the next day!



http://www.copiousmagazine.com/08_summer/art+photography/kara_walker.html


All though the show was a while a go, I encourage everyone to to go check her out when she comes around. Well, any art for that matter, even if you THINK you don't know anything about it... TRUSTING YOUR EYE is all that is required. A line taken from my husband, who teaches a class called, Trusting your eye, for that exact reason. People think they need to know something about art to appreciate it. But just GO to a museum or gallery, and find something that moves you. Most if it won't, and that's ok.

Let me know what you find interesting...

My husband works for Acquavella Galleries here in New York. They handle mostly Impressionist and Modern and Contemporary pictures. Meaning people like, Monet, Picasso, Miro, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Calder, to living artists, Lucian Freud, James Rosenquist, and currently a show by a younger artist, Damian Loeb.