Sunday, February 27, 2011

Weekly Art Walk Download

Just a few photos from my weekly inspiration walks:





What is an art/inspiration walk? Well, it's just me, and sometimes my dog, taking long walks and intently looking around, noticing, paying attention, staying present with what's happening around me. Noticing what I might not normally notice. Appreciating what I might not normally appreciate (trash for example) by finding the beauty in it (maybe it's making a cool composition or degrading in a beautiful color). Taking photos, video, or just experiencing. Walking to the beat of music, and looking around to see what else is in rhythm with me ... the way the wind is blowing a tree, someone's ponytail swinging back and forth to the beat of the music ...

Sometimes when I feel like I have no time, I intentionally take one of these walks to slow me down, and remind me that there's a whole world out there ... that there is so much beauty to be seen in everything. So much beauty that doesn't need to be viewed in a gallery or a museum ... but art that's free, limitless and available all the time. I just gotta make the time, open my eyes, and grant myself the openmindeness and the willingness to see it all. What it is a gift to wake up everyday and to see ... to really see!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Donut Machine Drawing


This is so adorable. From Ten Mile River Scout Museum website.

22 Year Old Genuis

I've been following Pogo for a couple of years now. He's only 22, and he's such a musical/video genius. And the best news of the week is that he'll be performing in San Francisco on March 11. And the better news is that I'm actually going to leave my house on a Friday night to see him.

Here's some of my favorites - and yes, he's cutting sounds from Disney movies to create music.





This video he made for his mom, using her voice and the sounds of her garden.


Such an angelic quality to his work. So excited to see him live.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Thakoon Fall 2011 RTW

I really like these pieces from Thakoon's Fall 2011 RTW collection:




But I really didn't pay attention to NY Fashion Week at all ...

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

RIP Papa


a great man.

Marie Gardeski: Imaginary Animal

I've seen these adorable 'handsoaps' at Perch in San Francisco:


(buy them here)


And finally looked up the designer, Marie Gardeski, who is also a painter, blogger, knitter, crocheter, re-designer, and just an overall artist of all things ...





I love her work! Here's her site:
http://www.mariegardeski.com/

What makes me love her even more, is that her blog had photos of Louis Wain prints hanging in her home.

Read her blog!
http://imaginaryanimal.com/

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Mary Pettis-Sarley: Magic


Mary Petiss-Sarley. I visited her farm in Napa on Weds, February 16th for a class I'm taking this semester. I have not stopped talking about her, yet I don't know quite what to say. The experience was so brilliant, so wonderful, so unique, so magical, that I've been having difficulty finding the appropriate words. Maybe there are none. Maybe the experience was so rich, that it can only be experienced, not justly written about.

Let me just say this: she speaks my language. So when she said things like "we are all equals" and "we have no more power than a droplet of water," she touched my heart. I've only just started practicing these kinds of ideas, whereas she's enveloped them for years. She is truly living her passion, she is living to give and be of service to the animals, to her land, to us. I can see the result of living like this for a long time. It is beautiful and perfect and so magical. And she is deeply and passionately, happy.





Noodle!!:







Her yarn:



natural:

naturally dyed using plants on her land:

Here's the article I wrote for our class blog

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Minnie Mouse Annie


This outfit is a perfect opportunity for photoshopped Minnie Mouse ears.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Divine Intervention

Presented today in my Conceptual Design class. Dress is made with absolutely no pattern waste. Material is machine felted wool pencil roving from Mimi Luebbermann's farm in Petaluma, CA. Fabric is 100% Italian Wool knit. See below for process description.


Detail:






Process description:
How often have you forced yourself into doing something that you don’t really want to do? How often have you forced someone else into doing something they don’t want to do? How often have you tried to manipulate something – a person, place or thing? The outcome is never pleasing.


I spent hours trying to force my material – wool pencil roving - to do something it didn’t want to do. Working with machine felting, I tried to braid it when it didn’t want to be braided. Trying to add wire, add string. Bind it, wind it. It rejected it all.


But then I just decided to let it be what it was supposed to be. I put it in the washing machine, and just let it go. And the result was way more beautiful then anything I could have forced or manipulated it to be.


Using this technique – or I should say, ‘lack’ of technique – I let my hands find the true purpose of the material too. I let my hands fumble around on the fabric, folding it, pleating it, draping it. I let the fabric tell me what it wanted to do, and not vice versa. I noticed what was special about this piece of material, such as the beautiful selvage, and tried to make it stand out, instead of cutting it off and not using it.


For this project, I had to set my expectations of the material aside, and let it show me what it wanted to do. I had to let the material show me what its true purpose was.