Chicago

 

(Above:  Selfie on the Chicago Architectural Riverboat cruise.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

So ... here I go again ... saying, "It's been a while since I last blogged", but this time, I have a great excuse!  Steve and I cashed in frequent flyer miles and hotel points for a long weekend in Chicago.  It was fabulous!

Many people make detailed plans and purchase advance tickets.  Steve and I aren't among them.  So, the first thing we did was to ask the hotel concierge which riverboat cruise would be best for us.  We told her we loved history, art, and architecture.  She said, "I have just the tour for you!" and she made a quick telephone call, scribbled a number on a piece of paper (which got us a 20% discount through the hotel!), and told us to hurry.  The tour started in under a half hour.  It was PERFECT.  

The guide had a great voice.  She was a volunteer docent from the Chicago Architecture Center.  Within moments, we were in love with Chicago.  The next ninety minutes flew by.  (Toward the end, I whispered a joke in Steve's ear: "We should hide in the bathroom and stay for the next tour!")  The day couldn't have been more beautiful.  I took dozens and dozens of photos.  Some of them are at the end of this blog post.

 

(Above:  Looking up from underneath Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate, aka "The Bean")

After the riverboat cruise, we walked to Millennial Park to see "The Bean".  Even from a distance I knew it had to be by Anish Kapoor. I'd seen a small piece in Nottingham, England.  This one, however, was giant-sized and shaped so that crowds could walk all around and under it. The ultra shiny/mirror-finished/reflective surface was dazzling.  Some people were transfixed with awe. Others were laughing hysterically at the distortions of themselves ... as if in a circus fun house.  Most, like me, had their iPhones out to capture some of the sheer joy of this psychedelic experience.

(Above:  The fountain that greeted visitors to the 1893 Columbia Expedition.)

Walking further south, we came to this incredible fountain.  As antiquarian book and print dealers for the last thirty+ years, this was special.  We knew this location from dozens of photogravures and engravings that were published shortly after the 1893 Columbia Expedition.  Once upon a time, there were pavilions for various countries and industries surrounding this fountain. People who came were stunned by the new technology that was on view ... like light bulbs.  Because many of the illustrations documenting the expo were ones that would never sell, I used some for art ... including a series called The Button as Art.  (Click here for a blog post featuring several!)

 

(Above:  Me touching a sting ray at the Shedd Aquarium.)

From there, we walked along Lake Michigan to the famous Shedd Aquarium and stayed until closing.  It was wonderful!  We saw jellyfish, an octopus, various lobsters and crabs, eels, seahorses, eight Beluga whales, an otter, penguins, coral, and more fish than I could possibly describe.  We stayed for a great dolphin show too.  I also got to pet a stingray.  (Sure ... most of the people in this area had small children with them.  I didn't care that it was just Steve and me!  Stingrays are so very, very soft!  It was amazing.)

That night, we sampled Chicago-styled, deep-dish pizza from one of the famous, local chains, Lou Malnati's.  It was excellent!

 

(Above:  Selfie in front of the Carrara marble staircase at the Chicago Athletic Club Hotel.)

The next day was rainy.  The Art Institute didn't open until 11:00 AM but the concierge suggested that we go to the Chicago Athletic Club Hotel first ... because it was literally across the street from the museum.  (We mentioned the Columbia Expo of 1893 and were told that this building dated to 1890 and that the interior would thrill us ... and it did!)

(Above:  The coffee shop area at the Chicago Athletic Club Hotel.)

We weren't the only people stepping into this historic hotel who weren't booked there. Plenty of people came to visit the coffee shop, the bar, and other amenities open to the public ... or ... like us ... to admire the ornate woodwork, mosaic floors, or ...

... the former swimming pool area (now filled in but with tiles that mimic the former swimming lanes!)

This five-star hotel was originally built as an all male athletic club.  The renovations included work by over one thousand fine craftspeople and other artisans.  

Steve and I had heard that there were two ballrooms on the eighth floor.  We pretended that we "belonged" and boarded the elevator with guests who used their key card to activate the buttons.  I said, "Floor eight, please".  The grandeur was worth the deception!  It was fun to think about Victorian high society dancing under these then "modern" chandeliers!

At a little before 11:00, we left the hotel and walked with quite a crowd into the Art Institute of Chicago as the doors opened.  Six hours later, we were ushered out at closing time.  We never sat down.  We also missed entire sections because this museum is BIG.  There are so very, very many fabulous pieces ... from ancient times to this decade.  Several of the most famous paintings were constantly surrounded by admirers ... like this one, a self-portrait by Van Gogh.

This was the first time I saw one of El Anatsui's wall hangings.  Made of recycled tin, it shimmers.  The construction shows the hours of handwork.

I admired the giant size and the fact that it doesn't hang perfectly flat.  Nor is it perfectly square. There's a quality of life in the organic ripples.  

(Above:  Eustache Le Sueur's painting Meekness, 1650.)

 Like the architectural tour, I took pictures until my batteries died. Yet, I tried to NOT take too many photos.  I challenged myself to just LOOK, to try absorbing the beauty, to avoid spending more time reading labels than just staring at the surface. After all, the Art Institute of Chicago has an amazing website with thousands of images, each with detail information.  This was my opportunity to just SEE the work.  Still, I took hundreds of pictures! LOL!  Some of them are further below.

Of course, Steve and I took the tourist souvenir picture at the start of route 66.  In the background is the Art Institute.  We were happy after such a full day but our feet hurt.  Dinner came from Whole Foods and was enjoyed in our hotel room!

 

(Above:  Chicago skyline from Navy Pier.)

Although we had to sadly leave Chicago midday on Monday, we had time in the morning to walk to Navy Pier and to visit the American Writers Museum (where reading everything really is the key to enjoying the place!)  Perhaps we will return to Chicago ... because we had a great time and there were so many more things we could have done!  Now ... below ... more photos!

The Altar Boy

(Above:  The Altar Boy. Found vintage photo altered with a metallic and gold painted 2-ply paper halo, beads, and buttons.  Hand-stitched.  Framed:  23" x 20".  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I knew exactly what I was going to do when I first saw this photo at the Pickens County flea market.  There was no doubt.  It was going home with me, and for two dollars it was mine.

(Above:  The stash of found objects and other items purchased last Wednesday at the Pickens County flea market.) 

I got all sorts of other items that morning ... including an amazing quantity of toy car wheels, two folding rulers, and four unique Swingline photo discs (whatever they are! LOL!)  I scored two large jars in which I'll store buttons. We even bought a set of crystal stems still in their original box.  Still ... it was the photo of the altar boy that captured my heart.

Later that afternoon, I cut a piece of 2-ply gold metallic mat board for the halo, but it was too shiny and new looking.  Gold metallic paint was mottled onto the shiny surface.  Same color but no reflection.  A nice texture.  Then, in my dry mount, I fused the photo onto a piece of deep brown linen.  A piece of black recycled felt was stapled to a stretcher bar and then the brown linen with the photo was stapled on top of the felt.  Slowly, I beaded the perimeter and the halo.

 

(Above:  Altar Boy in progress.)

For some unknown reason, I remembered a frame we had.  For years, this frame held a mirror and was available at Mouse House on Park Street, our frame shop.  We had well over one hundred framed mirrors (no exaggeration!)  Before moving, we had a big sale.  Many sold.  Dozens were then moved to our new home/church and I hung the upstairs bathroom entirely with mirrors.  Still, there were about seventeen left.  Steve and I took them to a local consignment shop.  More sold, but when our allotted time on consignment ended, we took the rest back to the church.  (The owner did offer to buy them, but at ten dollars each, we passed.  I'm glad we did.)   I lay the piece under the frame ... perfect ... as if the frame had been built for the picture.  I almost stopped here.

 

(Above:  Stitching buttons while watching football.)

The piece could have been finished at this point.  If it had been a framing order, it would have been done.  After all, it sure looked great.  It would have made an ideal presentation of a beloved family ancestor on an elaborate wall of sentimental photos.  The over-the-top frame and beading would certainly have indicated an important relative ... and I could verbally make a case for it as "art" ... but not a case I'd fully believe myself.  

 

(Above:  Detail of The Altar Boy.)

In my heart, I would know that it was really just a creative framing order.  After all, is a fancy French mat "art" or just a skill for beautification, a way to embellish something and make a transition from an interior room into the world of the image?  I've been adding French matting, fancy fillet, marbleized strips of paper, painted bevels, and all sorts of other "tricks of the framing trade" for decades.  Other people say that this is "an art".  Maybe it is.  Maybe it isn't  For me, there's a difference ... especially since my vision back at the flea market was to surround the photo with a field of buttons.  I looked at the piece from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday's first college football kickoff.  Then, I went with my gut.  I'm glad I did!

Carl Sandburg National Historic Home

(Above and below:  Randomly uploaded images from the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.  Click on any to enlarge.)

For years and years, I've wanted to visit the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site outside Flat Rock, North Carolina.  Every time I've taken artwork to the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, I've pass the sign on the appropriate I-26 exit and thought, "One day I'm going there!"  Well last Thursday was that day.  

This is the final home and sheep farm where Carl Sandburg and his family lived until his death in 1967.  Everything in the home museum is original to the family.  The grounds are beautiful.  The tour was leisurely paced and extremely informative.  (Advanced tickets are needed but really affordable ... as in $6.00 each with our National Park Service senior lifetime pass!)  I'm so glad we went, and it will not be the last time!

There's an ulterior reason I've wanted to go.  It might not happen but it is worth a shot.  I have a Grave Rubbing Art Quilt that I'd like to donate.  Donating artwork to a museum isn't as easy as many people think.  There's almost always a a lengthy process and a mountain of paperwork.  (Well ... that's not always true!  If one is selected as an artist-in-residence at one of the national parks offering this program, donating a piece is required and the process and paperwork is simple. I have artwork in the collections of Guadalupe Mountains NP, Great Basin NP, Hot Springs NP, Catoctin Mountain NP, Homestead National Monument, and the Department of Interior Museum in Washington, DC ... but unsolicited donations are far different!)

My Grave Rubbing Art Quilt series was an obsession for several years.  Each one was made using a crayon-on-fabric grave rubbing with hand and free-motion stitching.  One was once accepted into Quilt National 2013.  Another was included in Art Quilt Elements.  These quilts became the wall hangings for my installation Last Words. Almost every piece is without a personal name ... except for one:  Carl Sandburg.

In the summer of 2012, I had an art residency with the arts council in Galesburg, Illinois ... which happens to be Carl Sandburg's birthplace and the location of Remembrance Rock, a large boulder under which Carl Sandburg and his wife's ashes were buried.  Of course I visited this museum!  I was given permission to make the grave rubbing and I finished the piece the following May.  It is blogged HERE.

I have no future use for this quilt.  I'm no longer submitting proposals for Last Words.  As an artist, I have moved on to new ideas and new approaches to stitching and expressing myself.  So ... I'm about to write a letter to the Carl Sandburg Home Historic Site's superintendent.  Maybe the process for an acquisition will start in the future.  One way or the other, please scroll down for some of the images I snapped in the rooms where Carl Sandburg lived and wrote one third of the published words he penned in his life!

 

Several new pieces

(Above:  Mandala CCI.  Custom framed:  22" x 22".  Found objects hand-stitched to a section of a vintage quilt.  Objects include:  A brioche mold inside a yellow lid on a ViewMaster reel; green casino chips; goldware soup spoons; blue syringe plungers; yellow discs from a cookie press; oblong brioche molds; wooden, bird-shaped ornaments; furniture handles; shower curtain hooks; assorted beads and buttons. $450.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Often times, several mandalas are finished/framed on the same day.  This was the case a day or so ago.  Thus, this blog post will include four pieces!  I'm really pleased with the one depicted immediately above and below because the blue syringe plungers create a really lovely star shape.

 

(Above:  Detail of Mandala CCI.)

 

The drawer handles are likely the last things to be prepared using my cheap, little grinder.  I was given a much bigger and far better grinder by a friend whose wife bought it years ago.  Unfortunately, she died.  She was a big supporter of my artwork, and I think she'd be really pleased to know that her grinder will be used for art!

 

(Above:  Mandala CCI at an angle.)

 

I'm trying to take photos of these mandalas at an angle.  Such pictures really do convey the texture and dimensions much better than a straight-on image.

 

(Above:  Mandala CCII.  Custom framed: 21 1/2" x 21 1/2".  Found objects hand-stitched to a section of a vintage quilt.  Objects include: A set of Planter's Peanuts aluminum dishes; copper-colored coffee K-pods; gold and copper Mardi Gras doubloons; tan and brown, plastic game pieces/toys in the shape of elephants with warriors riding them; off-white hors d'oeuvre forks; Tinker toy connectors; small medical scissors; dice; Blonde Ale bottle caps; and assorted beads and buttons. $450.)

 

 Some of my found objects have quite a bit of relief ... like the Planter's Peanut dish in the center of this mandala.  Finding balance ... height-wise ... is one of the challenges I face.  For this piece, the copper-colored K-pods were used to smooth out the elevation change.  Their curved forms were the gentle transition from the rim of the dish to the flat quilt surface.  The Tinker toy connects did the same thing for the smaller dishes.

 

 
 

The "side view" really illustrates the different heights of the objects.

 

(Above:  Mandala CCIII.  Custom framed: 25 3/4" x 25 3/4". Found objects hand-stitched to a section of a vintage quilt. Objects include: A decorate "lighthouse" plate; wooden blocks; a round knitting loom; dominoes; Teamster buttons; glass prisms; coffee K-pods; squirt guns; pre-school plastic fish for some sort of math game; and assorted buttons. $600.)

 

Mandala CCIII was a challenge in elevation too!  I've had the round knitting ring for weeks but couldn't seem to find a way to use it because it was too tall for everything else in my stash ... until I got the squirt guns and the wooden block.  Yet ... the blocks were problematic.  They were just too tall and bulky looking with the other objects!
 

(Above:  The blocks ... all cut in half!)

 

I've used wooden blocks before.  So I knew how to solve the problem:  cut them in half.  Yet, this was risky!  No matter how firmly I braced each block under the blade of my miter saw, one side flew up and was damaged.  Plus ... doing this on a miter saw was DANGEROUS.  I don't own a table saw ... so I never would have figured out how to quickly, effectively, and SAFELY get them cut.  Thank goodness for the Internet!  I found a woodworker hobbyist living less than three miles away.  I contacted him via a private Facebook message.  He responded inside of a half-hour and later that afternoon cut all the blocks in half for no charge!  Now how lucky was that!

 

(Above:  Mandala CCIII at an angle.)

 

I'm also pleased with the colorful buttons around the edge ... so happy that I entered this piece in a local juried show.  I hope it gets in!

 

(Above:  Mandala CCIV.  Custom framed:  21" x 21".  Found objects hand-stitched to a block of a vintage quilt.  Objects include:  A stone heart on a ViewMaster reel; cardboard CocaCola slammer caps; shower curtain rings; salt and pepper shaker lids; pointed ellipse and diamond shaped beads; other beads and assorted buttons. $400.)

 

Mandala CCIV was a different sort of challenge.  There was once a square, beveled mirror in this rather fancy frame.  My task was to create a mandala that could fit the frame but not be overpowered by it.  I think I did pretty well!