Viewpoints9 Challenge 1

End of Summer

End of Summer detail

"Music", specifically a clip from Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Summer, was the first challenge for Viewpoints9, an online group of international participants, testing themselves on how one might be inspired using various modalities.  A challenge, indeed.

Viewpoints9

First challenge

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: Summer

Music does not ordinarily translate to visual imagery for me.  So, Martha’s challenge was a big one.  After listening my favorite, Aaron Copland, just to get in the mood, I left my mental pictures of Shakers and cowboys and focused on Vivaldi’s” The Four Seasons: Summer”.  Indeed, I had to revert to the music class directions and write down my impressions:  Tension, Urgency, Strings, Pitch, Dark, Bright flashes, Structure and Rigor.

 And this is Summer?!

What happened to Summer?  Why the urgency?  Why the tension?  Need another layer of fat for the winter?  Not enough nuts and seeds stored away?  Still have that off-spring to fledge?

“End of Summer” is made from kimono silk and cottons.  Machine stitched and hand painted.  I found a hand dyed cotton with dark parts that I thought might connote an end of summer evening.  Just next to it, out of place, was a dark, lightly lined piece of vintage kimono silk that immediately reminded me of strings.  The two were meant to be together. 

The Challenge surprised me.  I was able to connect in unexpected ways.  And, it was fun, also an important element.

Bushwalking in the Grampians

The Grampians mountain ranges include national and state parks, forests, open plains, rugged rock outcroppings and lots of wildlife. We drove to a little community at the south end, Halls Gap, where we visited Brambuk, the Aboriginal Cultural Center. It was a good place to start our visit. Our walks there offered woodland and open space trails where we saw corellas by the hundreds, cheeky hordes of little variegated fairy-wrens, a horde of emu, and several colonies of lounging kangaroo.

We stayed the night in Halls Gap and the next morning, with the map from an Aboriginal guide, we set out on our own on an hour's drive up into the mountains and plains looking for two shallow cave shelters that for centuries were the meeting and ceremonial places for the local language group.

This shelter is called Cave of Ghosts

Flat Rock were the shelter is covered with children's hand prints.

Banksia in bloom.

We were tired at the end of the afternoon but very happy to have made the trip. We then headed back towrd Geelong, making a side trip to our very favorite vineyard, Blakes Estate. It is a very small vineyard started 10 years age by Roger Blake and his wife. He is a retired geologist and, therefore, knows his soils. His pinot noir wines are excellent and we always find room in our luggage to take some home. A weekend with flowers, wildlife, art and wine.....not bad.

 

Trialing blogsy

We visited several Aboriginal Art galleries yesterday, along with the National Gallery, where we saw a really wonderful collection from Wetern Australia....some near where we will be visiting when we go to see the Bungle Bungles.

 

 

Day five in Melbourne

But no photos :-( I don't know how to load photos onto my ipad and into blogger. Okay, next time I bring the laptop Our trip from Boston took 38 hours instead of the usual 24ish. Two thirds of the way over the Pacific, a passenger on oue Quantas airbus a380 (think medium size two story hotel) had a heart attack. The nearest airport that could accomoadate the aircraft was Honolulu, two hours behind us. There we were met by lifesaving crews th at took the man who had been stabilized by fellow passenger medics. Because Honolulu is not a real a380 facility there was not a flight crew available to take over and continue the flight to Melbourne. So Quantas put up the entire 400 passenger list for the 12 hours that is required for the crew to rest prior to continuing the journey. Honolulu was lovely. Abit overcast in the morning but wonderfully warm as we departed at midnight We have done our usual tours of Melboune....galleries, museums, trams.....and the Australiaisn Quilt Conference!! I saw some really wonderful, inspiring work. Brenda gael Smith curated Under the Southern Cross...gave a wonderfully informative talk on the jurying process...an exhibit that was wworth the jouney all by itself! There was a retrospective of The work of Merelyn Pearce, an Australian quiltmaker par excellence. She doesn't look old enough to have such a large body....her husband told me it was only a fraction of what was rolled up at home. Tonight we have dinner with our art quilt buddy Geri Barr Hopefully some kind techie (Alex? Alan? Martha?) will come to my rescue and fill me in on posting pics. We took 800(!) at the quilt show

Another Australian Adventure

Aussie Journey Vessel

We leave TOMORROW!    Packed and ready for the zillion hour flight to Melbourne.  We have been trying to visit Victoria annually...while we are still able.  I almost said "able bodied", but let's just leave it at "able".

This year we have pushed our trip further into the year, primarily so that we could get to the Bungle Bungles.  Last year, because of a long Wet Season, aircraft were not visiting this incredible World Heritage Listed National Park until later in the year.  We are not "able" enough to go the 4WD, camping expedition on our own.  

The other REALLY serendipitous bit is, that by delaying our trip into April, I can attend the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne!!!

I am really excited with this opportunity.  I will, hopefully, get to meet (and re-meet) some of my favorite artists.  We usually plan on making our first week a hotel stay in Melbourne.  There is much to see and do there, without hiring a car and trying to drive on the left whilst battling jet lag.  At the end of the week, refreshed and inspired by galleries, museums, shops, alley-ways, and great food, we get a car and head off to our other haunts.  This year we will fly to the Top End for our adventure on our way home, stopping in Sydney for a few days too.

Hopefully I'll be able to blog along the way.

The Vote is IN...

Lisa Call's Lines #42

100% of the comments from my last post wanted to see the small mounted piece that I purchased from Lisa Call.  It is 3"square and is sewn to a 5" square canvas.  I'm very fond of red...and, this one reminds me of the Japanese torii that mark the entrance to a Shinto shrine, transitioning from the profane to the sacred.

P.S. Full disclosure here:  there was just one comment ;^)

The Weekend Was...wonderful

Diane Hricko

 The joint conference of Studio Art Quilt Associates and Surface Design Association, Identity: Context and Reflection, held during Fiber Philadelphia 2012 (an international biennial and city wide festival) was I N C R E D I B L E!

Emily Richardson

Kate Themal at Wayne Art Center's Art Quilt Elements

Natalya Aikens

Rayna Gillman at Highwire Gallery

X-ray People

Some happy shoppers


 Vivika DeNegre and Barbara Coleman Adams rode to Philly with me, where we rendezvoused with our buddy Martha Wolfe from FL for the three day conference.  Above  L-R:  Barb Adams, Exhibiting artist Lisa Call, me, two great new friends from Canada whose names I have forgotten (and I'd better remember them soon as I promised one that I would email info...any help out there?) and Ali George, the newly minted SAQA/Oceania Rep from Queensland, Australia.  We each purchased a small mounted work of Lisa's.  Everyone was very happy.

Sidewalk Art/Caged Dove of Peace

I have dozens of photos...and as I try to compose this post I keep getting distracted by the memories that are attached to each.  It was truly an wonderful weekend, full of art and, even more memorably, artists.  Generous and friendly artists.  Some of whom I had just met...and many I re-met.  What an event!

Pollen Update

The Jackson Pollens: Guilford Art Center's Bee Team

Whilst I was away having way too much fun representing CT at the SAQA/SDA Conference in Philadelphia this past weekend, the Guilford Art Center's Spelling Bee Team was participating in the Guilford Fund for Education's 6th Annual Spelling Bee fundraiser.  Pictured here are Suzanne Hens-Kaplan, Yvette Howard and David Wright.

Apparently they acquitted themselves well by winning their "swarm".  Even though they lost in the final championship round, our resident little person congratulated David with a hug, a pat on the back and a "Good job, Papa, you did the best you could".  I think that comment, while true and well meant, might have stung his competitive nature.  I'm thinking he'll be back next year...hoping for a better outcome.

There is SO much to report about the amazing conference.  I have to get organized...get my head together before I can report on that.  There's always tomorrow.