Bird's Eye View of Mt. Hood

You may remember that I wrote that the next show theme for High Fiber Diet is "Bird's Eye View". I started my first piece for this show this week, using my photo of Mt. Hood from an airplane window as inspiration.

I am struggling a little bit and still not sure if I am going to like my finished piece, but, you know, that is usually how I feel at this stage of invention.

I did not want to create a straightforward representational landscape, nor did I want to work totally abstractly. I like that area somewhere between the two. My thinking was to work with the color in a more abstract way. I also decided to do some stamping on plain fabrics to create texture and dimension. With that in mind I made a large drawing to work from and started cutting pieces from solid colored fabrics.

As I cut I was laying my pieces out on a piece of rusty red fabric, thinking I might depart from my usual base fabric choice which ranges from gray to brown to black. This is the fabric that will create the lines.

The red was not speaking to me. I decided, instead, on a taupe fabric for the base. Before I started fusing the pieces, I used two little stamps I carved to stamp a pattern of Xs and circles on the fabrics. Then I used pastel pencils and paints to add more color and dimension to the fabrics. The taupe base proved to be dull—too close in value to the other colors, so I used a permanent marker to darken some of the lines.

Here is where I am with it today. I am liking it better and better, but there is still a lot to add—the land behind the mountain and the sky. It will be quite a wide, narrow piece when finished. The closeup below gives you a better idea of the stamped design and added color.

I'm beginning to think about how the stitching will work with everything else and getting excited about getting to that part. I'll continue to post the progress even if it self destructs at some point!

The annual "Autumn color" edition

It's been done. It's a cliche and everyone's doing it, but I can't help myself! When the leaves start turning I always think it's the best I've ever seen and I am compelled to take a bunch of pictures. Then I post them here.

Seen out on the walking path:

Watch where you step. The slugs are out in full force.

(Geez, it seems I took almost this exact same picture and posted it 2 years ago!)

The other day Ray said, "I wonder why the leaves turn such brilliant colors in the fall. You would think they might just turn brown and then drop off the trees. Nature must have a reason for the bright color." My only explanation is just to make us happy before winter arrives.

I hope you are seeing beauty like this where you live.

Open Studios, second weekend

This weekend was the second and last of the Portland Open Studios. We visited several today. I didn't take very many pictures this time. For the most part the studios weren't as interesting as those we saw last week. The studio below is that of painter, Theresa Andreas-O'Leary. It had been a small apartment attached to her home, with a separate entrance. Great lighting and a nice little kitchenette, which would be nice to have. Her paintings were very nice, as well.

My favorite studio visit today was ceramacist, Gene Phillips. He makes wildly patterned and textured pottery. I especially liked this kimono-shaped vessel.

He has a variety of items that he uses to impress patterns into the clay, including carved blocks and Indonesian tjaps. He also said he uses shoes and has become quite aware of shoe sole patterns. He had a piece of clay ready to receive impressions from visitors' shoes. This is the design my Clarks made.

Ray enjoyed talking with him about studio construction and learned that he had the huge kiln delivered and set in place, then built the room around it.

I hadn't planned to buy anything, but decided I needed this small plate, which will hold a candle or serve as a soapdish.

Then I noticed this heavily patterned platter and decided it had to come home as well.

Mary Catherine Lamb

Friday I met Gerrie downtown to celebrate her birthday and to see Mary Catherine Lamb's quilts that are showing at the Nine Gallery in NW Portland.

Mary Catherine Lamb died in August from complications from breast cancer. I never met her, though she lived here in Portland, but knew her quilts quite well. They are so clever with their imagery of saints and apostles, using a vast array of vintage fabrics and doodads, with their very Byzantine faces and poses. I really connected the first time I saw them. I always hoped I would meet her one day and felt such sadness to read of her death.

This one is titled The Archangel Michael bids you Aloha. You can't see it in my photo, but the coral colored background fabric is a souvenir tablecloth printed with Hawaiian flowers and the word "Aloha".

Here's a detail.

I love the look of Byzantine art, which was obviously an inspiration to her. Here is a Byzantine image of Michael the Archangel from the 12th century. This may very well have been her inspiration.

And details of two more of Mary Catherine's quilts.

Very sad to know that there will be no more of this wonderfulness.

Something so beautiful and something for June

One of the main joys of a visit to Washington D.C. is the National Gallery of Art, near the Capitol Building, on the National Mall. Though I have been there several times, it is always thrilling, and there is never time, nor stamina to see it all.

I love looking at art almost more than anything I can think of. And I love all kinds of art. I feel privileged to have studied art in college, especially art history. Seeing the paintings that I studied, actually hanging before me is, for me, always a revalation. It is not the same to see a painting in a book or a projected image or on the computer monitor.

I have never believed that art must be beautiful. It can be exciting in many ways, that are not what one would call traditionally beautiful. But there is art that is so beautiful that it tightens my throat and makes sudden tears burn behind my eyes. The painting above does that for me. It is by Vermeer, the 17th century Dutch artist—Lady With a Balance. Vermeer is lauded for his delicately lighted interior scenes and luxurious color. My photo does not, of course, do any of this justice. But, I ask you, isn't there something in that soft and luminous face, that speaks? Is that not a real woman from more than three hundred years ago whose essential humanity and quiet beauty live in the paint? Isn't that a miracle of some kind?

The painting, below, by living artist, Cy Twombly, may be at the opposite end of some spectrum from the Vermeer, but was also one of my favorites. I took the photo especially for my friend, June, who has a particular affinity for Twombly. At first glance the work looks, for all the world like a page of graffiti or scribbles, like one might doodle during a boring meeting, but there is intention and symbolism, as well as a tumbling kind of rhythm and energy to the images. I am also intrigued by the smudgy background that serves to create the structure and form of the composition. What looks random is actually a pretty classic compositional form—the S curve.

There, now you've had your art lesson for the day!

We did not make it out to see any more art studios on Sunday. Sofia came to visit, instead, which was much more fun. I do hope to go see more this coming weekend. I will be sure to take pictures.

Open Studios

Yesterday morning Ray and I made a spontaneous decision to buy a ticket for the Portland Open Studios event, which takes place this weekend and next. Artists all over the Portland area open their studios for tours. We were interested in seeing studios, as well as artists' work. I always love seeing where other artists work, and we still hope to build a studio here at our house for me to work in. We were looking for ideas. Ray is good at asking good questions, "what would you do differently?" for example and the artists we met were very generous with their ideas and seemed to love talking about their studios. Below are just a few that we saw yesterday.

Jan von Bergen
Jan is a printmaker and ceramacist. Click on her name above to see her beautiful work on her web site. I loved her prints. She works in a small room in a daylight basement. I have done printmaking, both on paper and fabric, and I envied her press. Jan seemed like such a nice person—very generous and interesting to talk to.

Sylvia Emard
Sylvia (in the blue shirt), a weaver and dyer, works in her small basement with one little window, but look how much light there is! She has solved the dim basement problem with daylight flourescent fixtures, plus the very smart addition of large mirrors, that literally double the light in the room, as well as making it feel much more spacious than it is. Isn't that a great idea?

Pam Greene
Oh. My. This one blew my mind. Pam Greene is a painter of wonderful, large landscapes. Her home, from the street looks like a very typical, not-very-memorable, suburban split level in a suburban neighborhood. Stepping through the front door is like falling down the rabbit hole into "artland". The entire house is a gallery of paintings, collections, memorabilia, light and texture.

When we got to this room, in her basement, we learned that Pam is a senior designer for Nike. This is a series of paintings she did of Nike footwear.

But wait, as they say in the infomercials—there's more! Behind Pam's amazing house, she had a studio built, where she paints most of the year. The mostly glass studio nestles between the house and a lushly landscaped hillside. I can't even find the words to tell you how divine this studio is, so I will just let you enjoy the pictures.

More about Pam here and here.

We are off to visit a few more this afternoon, but I'm not sure we can top yesterday's experiences.

Bird's Eye View

When we flew out of Portland to go East a couple weeks ago, I was sitting by the window and looked down as the plane flew over Sauvie Island. Below me was the corn maze, it's pattern perfectly clear. I scrambled for my camera, but were well past the shot by the time I had it wrestled out of my backpack. But now that my camera was out I was prepared as we flew past Mt. Hood.

I am always fascinated with the views out of airplane windows. So often you are above clouds so all you see is white, but on this clear day, we could see the ground for much of the flight.

The theme for the next High Fiber Diet show is Bird's Eye View so I am thinking there may be some inspiration in some of the photos I took.

The squares and circles created by irrigation systems on farms is such a natural for abstract design. The clouds and their shadows on the ground add another element.

This is the Mississippi River.

The natural colors are subtle and interesting, but I begin to see even more possibility when I change the colors.

And the winner is . . .

Me. I am the real winner! I had nearly 50 comments in response to my post about my 800th post. I followed every link and looked at all the blogs. Wonderful stuff! I now have some new "must-reads." One of the most mind-blowing comments came from Lyn who wrote: "Imagine my surprise to also rediscover how connected this world is when I read about your friends Bill & Carla...you see, I've been familiar with their names through my friends Dave & Robin for years." I don't know where Lyn lives, but I am in Oregon, Carla and Bill in Delaware and I believe Dave and Robin are now in Maine. I met Dave and Robin many, many years ago when they all lived in Crescent City, California. Some days I really believe the degrees of separation between any two people are even fewer than the six cited!

One of the great blogs I discovered through these comments is "Quilts and Other Stuff from Frances". When I went to her blog I found that she was also having a giveaway to celebrate her first 101 posts. She informed me this morning that I was the winner! Wouldn't it have been perfect if she had won mine? But she didn't. In the interest of fairness I used this random number generator to choose the winner, after assigning each commenter a number. Since I had so many great comments, and I am feeling lucky myself, I generated four more random numbers, whose corresponding humans will receive one of my glass coasters. They each have a picture of one of my quilts and are great to keep beside your computer or sewing machine for your tea or coffee. Nice and heavy, so they don't stick to the bottom of a damp cup.

The winner of the little stitched "garden shadows" piece is Dotti, of Peaceful Musings. You should click over to her blog to see her October 2 post of an amazing video. I really loved it.

Winners of the coasters are:

• Leigh, who barely has a blog! If she's the Leigh I think, she is right here in Portland.

• Barbara, my new blogging friend from the Washington D.C. area

• Brenda, my fellow "Twelve" who lives in Australia. BTW, so many of the comments mentioned how much they enjoy our Twelve by Twelve Quilt Project.

• Connie, in Kentucky, of Life Scraps and Patches. I loved reading her blog. Connie looks like someone I would love to know!

Thanks, so much, to everyone who left a comment. You really made my day!

Washington—the city, the monument

Last Monday was our last day in Washington D.C. We were tired and we had seen a lot, but we wanted to take advantage of our limited time. Seeing art is always my first choice and having "done" the National Gallery and the Museum of African Art earlier in the week, I was interested in the Phillips and the Corcoran Museums. Alas, both were closed on Mondays. Why do I always forget that art museums are nearly all closed on Mondays? I have stumbled into that predicament before, and I probably will again, slow learner that I am. We knew that the Smithsonian museums are open on Mondays, so we headed toward the Holocaust Museum, which we had been told was a "must-see." It was closed. It was Yom Kippur, one of the few days in the year that it is closed.

So we stood on the sidewalk and wondered what to do next with this beautiful fall day. I stopped to take a picture of the Washington Monument and Ray said, "Let's see if there are any tickets left to go inside."

We tried, on a previous trip, to do this and were unsuccessful. This time we were able to obtain the free, but timed tickets. We waited our turn near the entrance and were amazed by the strength of the wind on the slight rise on which the monument sits. After I took this picture I told Ray I thought some of his hair had blown clean off his head!

The views from the observation level were wonderful. You really see the layout of this incredible city. The National Mall lies between the monument and the Capitol Building, with most of the Smithsonian Museums lining its sides. They were in the process of taking the down the tents from the National Book Festival held on the weekend.

Looking out the other direction you see the Potomac River and beyond. That's the Jefferson Memorial right about dead center.

We walked toward the Lincoln Memorial, which is always one of my favorite spots. It always makes me think as much of Martin Luther King as it does Lincoln and I can picture the crowds listening to that amazing speech, as I stand on the steps, looking down the reflecting pool. But on this day the crowds were nowhere to be seen and a butterfly landed at my feet on the pathway.

We sat at a table near the Lincoln Memorial, with a soft drink and a beautiful polka-dotted bird landed near us.

I looked him up when we got home and I learned that he is a starling, a breed of bird with a bad reputation. But I still think he is quite handsome and very striking in his spotted fall suit of feathers. While I love the images of birds in general, I'm not very knowledgeable about breeds and names. I don't think we have starlings in this part of the country. They are a non-native bird that was introduced to Central Park in the 1890's and have spread to other parts of the country. They can be taught to talk and mimic music—pretty clever bird, I'd say.

During our time in Washington D.C. we experienced rain, as well as stifling, humid heat, but on that last day it was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Today's numbers are 12 and 800

12

Today we reveal the twelfth set of twelve quilts made by the Twelve by Twelve quilt project. The theme, chosen by me, is "Twelve". All twelve are now posted on the 12 x 12 blog and I urge you to go look at all of them. I have to say I am feeling really quite joyful. We have been at this for two years now, have completed, in all, 144 12"x12" pieces of fiber art and become friends in a way I never thought possible, scattered around the earth as we are. Go here!

This challenge completes our project and could have been the end, but you will be hearing more about the 12 x 12s and it is pretty exciting! Stay tuned.

800
This is my 800th entry to this blog. I just celebrated my 4 year blog anniversary, so that averages approximately 200 entries per year, approximately 4 per week. This number really stuns me. I know many bloggers post every day, some multiple times a day, but for me this is an accomplishment—and a joy. I have always done this for myself and for anyone else who cares to read, but it has been such a surprise to find that people do read, and comment and become friends in time. It is a community for me. I have been so lucky to find all this. And I have been lucky in receiving such generous gifts from other bloggers that I decided to send a little of that generosity back out into the blog world. Leave me a comment in the next few days and Monday morning I will do a random drawing. One of the things I will send is the small piece you see below. There may be some other things too! Tell me something funny or interesting. Tell me about your own blog and where to see it. Tell me what you like, or not, about my blog. It's all good!

"Garden Shadows" 8.5" x 11"