I came across this article in “The Craftsmanship Initiative” magazine and fell in love with Brian Boggs….his creative journey and his creation.
The article is long but I found it fascinating, especially how he designed one thing, created it for a long time, even designed special tools to help him create it.
After many years he made changes to upgrade and finally moved to an entirely different design.
Isn’t that how we, as quilters, work??
I even love his logo which says “Art doesn’t have to hang on the wall”…..isn’t that great!!!
If nothing else, check out the photos of his chairs and have a great look at his workshop!!!
The month of July is a busy one for me!! Clients need 2nd quarter financial statements, payroll reports need to be filed and fiscal-year non-profits need tax returns prepared. Consequently, I wasn’t sure exactly how much creative time I would have.
I shouldn’t have worried!!
As it ended up, I have even found time to get in some “other art” practice!!
A few weeks ago I posted about playing with watercolor and this past week I found time to do a bit more. This new class that I found starts with brush strokes I had fun seeing exactly what I could do with just a few brushes.
We started with a fully loaded brush and looked at what happens when it starts to run out of paint…..
We played with adding paint to wet paper. It was interesting to see what the paint would do….
Next, we played with making lines of various widths all from the same brush…..
Finally, I played with a large brush that wasn’t in great shape…..
It was fun to see what this bristle arrangement could do…..
I loved making ribbons with this large brush……
…..and I really love the shading that “happened” with this ribbon…..
Finally, we had to find an object at hand to paint, and since I was at my cutting table, guess what I used as a model…..
As far as realism goes it isn’t great, but I loved the fact that I painted it without drawing first.
AND, if you get REALLY far away from it, it actually looks good!!!!
I have NO idea whether I will EVER use anything that I am learning, but I am surely enjoying trying different mediums!!!
On Tuesday morning, the plan was to have an “art” day, visiting the large Art Museum called the Kunst Museum. But, since I was in “art” mode when I left the flat, I became very aware of the art around me, such as this mural just down the street…..
….or this electrical box……
When I saw this sign……
…..I immediately wondered if it was a child care facility. My hunch was confirmed when I saw this pram and stroller “Parking garage”……
On the way to the museum, I came across the “Carnival Fountain” by Jean Tinguely….
Here is a video of each of the pieces of the fountain……
The museum itself is huge and is comprised of several buildings with a tunnel leading under the street to connect them. Fortunately, I had purchased the audio guide or I would never have known that there was another building. The signs were less than helpful…..
….but the docent’s were!!! I kept looking for the tunnel, and finally realized that I had walked thru it but it was really just another art gallery.
Two of the special exhibits were closed, which was a shame, but there was still plenty to see. It was a good mixture of art pieces, including Renaissance, Impressionistic and Modern. One of my favorite pieces was this Van Gogh self portrait…..
I appreciate that he used non-traditional colors for his face and hair, and also the “pieced” background. I enjoyed an up close view of the brush work on this portrait, also by Van Gogh……
The colors in this piece by Johannes Moreelse were mesmerizing ….
….as was the extreme detail in this still life by Willen Heda. The most amazing thing is the glass champagne flute that seemingly disappears into the background.
At this point, I had a good laugh at the commentary playing in my ears as they expostulated a complex meaning into every aspect of the piece.
Moving to the more modern art, I liked this piece by Frank Stella, although unfortunately, the photo is blurry…..
His comment about this piece was “what you see is what you see”, and the longer that I looked at it, the more different things that I could see!!
This was an interesting wood sculpture by Ernst Kirchner entitled “The Friends”…..
I appreciated the use of color and light in this piece by Luigi Russolo….
….and was a bit taken aback by this “falling man” located over the staircase!!
There was a fun (and well behaved) group of students in the museum with me and I enjoyed watching them toil over their studies…..
My quilt idea for the day came from this painting…..
It would be really fun to do something with free form letters!!!
I left the museum and realized that I was in need of food so I found a walk-up sandwich shop and deftly pointed to a tomato and mozzarella baguette….or so I thought!! It was actually a ham and tomato but it was MARVELOUS!!! As I sat on a bench and ate it, I looked into the window of a clothing shop and naturally had to check it out!! I walked out with another bag to carry for the day!!!
I wasn’t wanting to be outside too much longer, so decided to check out one more attraction for the day….. the Basel Minster…..
It was originally a Roman Catholic church, then a Reformed Protestant church and now appears to be used for musical performances. The only signs of a current religious use was a small hallway that contained a prayer altar….
…..and this statue tucked away in a corner….
I walked into the crypt and was underwhelmed with it, but then looked up and found some wonderful paintings on the ceiling…..
The nice thing about it not being a functioning church is that you could walk into places that would otherwise be forbidden. It was a treat to be able to get this close to the stained glass windows…..
….and to see the church from the front to the back…..
You can apparently climb the towers to see a birds-eye view of the city, but could only go up in groups of two or more so I will have to come back when Michael can join me!!!
Finally, as I end my day of “ART”, here are a few pieces that I propose…..
“Triangles ala brick” (ie…fun quilt border design)…..
“Art Infinity”…..
“Man In White Cap”…..
“Bathroom in Sea Foam”…..
And, last but not least…..”School’s out”…..
Our day ended with dinner with Walter, at a restaurant very close to the university campus. It was a fun place, reminiscent of a British Pub where the proprietor knew everyone who came in and made it his job to meet those who he didn’t know!!!
Michael and I enjoyed attending the Exit Show for all of the Bachelor in Fine Arts graduating Seniors. The two large galleries were filled with photographs, prints and jewelry that had been crafted by the soon-to-be graduates.
This is one of the pieces created by our friend Olivia……
Her pieces were planned to re-create the days of Flannery O’Connor and the “over the top” Southern lady’s jewelry.
It was fairly crowded, so a bit hard to get photos but I did really appreciate this one…..
These books are all journals that the artist has kept for years and years and we were encouraged to flip thru them and re-live her life.
Made me wish that I had been keeping journals for this long!!!!
While waiting for the show to open, we found this wonderful “room of color”…..
