Recent Trip to Plymouth, UK....with side trips too!

(Above: Jacqui Frost's embroidery from "Good Grief", an exhibition we saw in Exeter Cathedral. Click on any image in this post to enlarge.)

Last week Steve and I went to England. It was a fantastic trip filled with sight-seeing, artistic inspirations, and ballet! I leaked tears while nervously holding my breath while Mathias, our elder son, danced the role of Mercutio in Birmingham Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet. His emoting death scene took a full two and a half minutes. It was glorious. His girlfriend sparkled as one of Juliet's friends. The triple bill (which was earlier in the week) was also dazzling with fun (Balanchine's Slaughter on Tenth Avenue) and elegant (Concerto....with Mathias dancing one the lead for the first pas) and exhausting (Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room to the Philip Glass commissioned score). Of course, there are no photos....it's against the rules and copyright laws....but boy do I wish I had some!

(Above: Embroidery by Jacqui Frost. Click on image to enlarge.)

I do, however, have hundreds of "vacation" picture. I've posted them on "My Family Blog" because this blog is really an artistic journal. Travel is inspiration....but....let's get "real"! If you'd like to look though:

Click HERE to see my post about Cardiff, Wales, including the gorgeous, Neo-Gothic castle interior

Click HERE to see my post about Plymouth, including my quest to find "The Plymouth Rock" (above)
Click HERE to see my post about Exeter
Click HERE to see my post about Buckland Abbey and Lydford

(Above: Another embroidery by Jacqui Frost. Click on image to enlarge.)

So.....I also have photos for use in further work. These are shots of cemetery angels, church angels, great epitaphs, and other images relating to my "Last Words" installation. But, I also have photos about some of the embroidery I found....and LOVED!


(Above: Click on sign to read about Jacqui Frost's exhibition.)

First is the incredible work of Jacqui Frost whose exhibition "Good Grief" appeared in Exeter Cathedral. It touched me; it touched others.


Everything was displayed on nice folding panels.


The delicately stitched handkerchiefs were laced onto narrow metal frames. These contemporary works carried a timeless message. Her website is also great.


(Above: Click on image to read more about Jacqui Frost's exhibition.)


(Above and below: More artwork by Jacqui Frost. Click on any image to enlarge.)


The other location in which I found great artwork was at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport. Concourse E is AWESOME....even though there are no title signs or information about the artists. (I even asked at the airport information desk located in this concourse. The person "helping" me looked stunned by the question....as if he was unaware that the building even had art. He said...."You could look it up on-line".) Any time in this airport would be best spent here....and, yes, the Internet has the information.

I, however, recognized the work of Amalia Amaki at once. Her solo show at the National Women in the Arts Museum in Washington, DC was accompanied by a small exhibit curated by the museum staff. This small exhibit featured female Blues singers and was the catalyst for my Blues Chapel. I loved Amaki's work from the moment I saw it. How could I not love it! The buttons, the ornamentation, the scene of nostalgia mixed with injustices.

Above and below: Work by Amalia Amaki at the Atlanta Airport. Click on any image to enlarge.

Above and below: Work by Amalia Amaki at the Atlanta Airport. Click on any image to enlarge.


I found a new artist to admire in Lillian Blade's Quilted Passages.


This giant Plexi-Glas box enclosed artwork is just outside the elevator on Concourse E at the Atlanta Airport.

(Above and below: Lillian Blade's Quilted Passages.

Above and below: Lillian Blade's Quilted Passages. Click on images to enlarge.


Of course, I've also been working on my own fibers....both during the trip and since returning home. New Grave Rubbing Art Quilts are almost ready for their "photo shots" and I'm also installing "Keys for the City" in the display window of the former Tapp's Department store on Main Street....unveiling next Thursday during the monthly "art crawl".