Niki in the Garden

July 20, 2007

Occasionally a show comes along that so exciting and full of life, color and joy that it’s difficult to fit it into a simple blog post. This is true of Niki in the Garden at Chicago’s Garfield Park Conservatory. Over 30 larger-than-life sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle are installed in the already wonderful greenhouses and gardens of the park.

Besides designing sculpture parks and theatre sets, she was also an actress and model. In a video of her life, she is shown doing a series of large assemblages with paint enclosed in plaster — she used a shotgun to shoot the plaster so the paint would explode across the surface of the piece. What a crazy lady! (and as always, I use the term ‘crazy’ with affection and admiration!)

Phalle is know for her multi-colored Nanas that boldly dance and sometimes even spout water. An exhibit placard explained Phalle’s inspiration, “Nanas are like goddesses to me, even superwomen of the sort, primitive tribes idolized. Perhaps they’re aggressive — that’s what some men think. They certainly know what they want, but they are warm, not mean.”

In addition to Nanas, there are huge totems, alligators you can climb, cats in which you can cuddle, man-chairs for sitting, and an amazing skull lined with a mosaic-mirrored interior complete with bench and delicious pearly teeth.

Phalle’s work is covered with seductive surfaces that are delight to examine closer because the materials are so well composed and crafted.

(click on any thumbnail for a larger view) After just seeing Cloud Gate at Millenium Park, I was intrigued by the coicidence that Phalle’s “Large Firebird on Arch” had a similar, and yet totally different effect. Like Cloud Gate, Phalle’s mirrored surfaces reflect sky and land, but in a fractured, more complex way. (far left detail above)

A couple of pieces in a quiet corner of a garden caught my eye. These pieces are not volumetric like most of the show, but are almost linear sketches in air, filled with small toys, symbols and objects. As in all her other works, Phalle shows a judicious use of color and detail.

Phalle says, “When my lungs were severely damaged by working with polyester, air came into my life. I had to learn how to breathe again, breathe deeply. The Skinnys reflect that change.”

If you have a chance, run, don’t walk to Garfield Conservatory before this show ends on Oct. 31. Plan on not only seeing wonderful art, but pack a lunch (or buy a hotdog for a buck) and enjoy the whole day.

And I haven’t even posted all my photos of the exotic plants and flowers. I’ll leave that to your imagination….

Filed Under Inspiration, exhibitions, journeys, other artists | 19 Comments

Lurie Garden

July 18, 2007

In the middle of Millennium Park is the Lurie Garden. Wandering through the shoulder-tall flowers, I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite Talking Heads song called (Nothing but) Flowers. “This was a shopping mall, now it’s all covered with flowers…” Now that I re-read the lyrics, could be great topic for a quilt. After all it’s got Adam and Eve in it, one of my favorite themes.

Update for Charlie’s Studio post: Because I didn’t have any photos to post, Charlie sent me a link to his webpage here so you can see his drawings and sculpture. Be sure to scroll down to Assorted Silly Mushroom Dishes. If I had seen those, I would have bought them at his pre-Christmas sale!

Another fun detour: After working out on the hotel treadmill, I was especially impressed with these guys who dance on treadmills in this YouTube video. Wish I could look this good in motion.

Filed Under journeys, other artists | 6 Comments

Millenium Park

July 15, 2007

It was worth the trip to Chicago just to experience Crown Fountain at Millenium Park.

Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, the 50-foot tall glass block towers are lit with the faces of city residents and reflected in a shallow pool of water below.

At times the faces spout fountains of water out of their mouths, which is what feeds the water below.

Further up is the Cloud Gate, a 110-ton stainless steel sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor, although I sometimes hear it called the Magic Bean.

It did seem a bit bean-like, and while there I kept looking around for Jack or the Giant or the Beanstalk it might have fallen from.

It’s the most amazing experience to look into the reflections of city and sky in the sculpture. And when you walk underneath, it’s like entering some kind of space time vortex. Thanks Russ for taking all these great photos!

Filed Under journeys, other artists | 4 Comments

IQA Journal Interview

July 13, 2007

An interview that I did for the summer issue of the IQA Journal has just been released. You can read it on line at the Quilts Inc. website here. I worked on answering these questions last May when I was doing a lot of traveling on airplanes, because that’s a great place to get work done that you’re avoiding — there’s no escape!

Filed Under media | 2 Comments

Charlie’s Studio

July 13, 2007

Somehow I walked out of Charlie Van Gilder’s studio (which used to be a bowling alley- how great is that?) without any really good photos of his finished art. But I love this layout of clay pieces waiting to be fired in the kiln, especially the little dog rolling on his back. Charlie has such a playful imagination that he can work in clay, wood, stone, just about anything, combining the figurative and fantasy.

But whenever I see Charlie’s drawings they inspire me to do more travel sketches. He told me how to get to Pearl Art Supply and it was like being in the biggest candy store ever! Lots of goodies to explore, so I had to keep going outside to feed the voracious Chicago parking meter.

Update: Charlie sent me a link to his webpage, so you can see his work here.

Filed Under other artists | 4 Comments

Wood Street Gallery

July 10, 2007

While in Chicago, we had some time to visit our friends Mary and Charlie at the Wood Street Gallery. It’s a beautiful old house that once had three bars and a bowling alley in it, until Mary enlightened its interiors and garden with her unique artistic expression.

The gallery is now open only for private events, and houses mainly Mary and Charlie’s art and studios. Most interesting I found was the letter-press studio that they’ve created, combining an antique letter press with modern technology.

Mary O’Shannessy combines her printing, words and paper into sculpture, which right now is taking form in a series of figurative sculptures that deal with themes of self-image and the element of chance in one’s life.

Both Mary and Charlie are collectors and productive artists who are currently exhibiting work in many venues, so there’s art in every nook and cranny of their space. Even the printer-ink-swatch-test board is a work of art. Hmmm, looks a bit like a quilt?

Filed Under journeys, other artists | 2 Comments

Feng Shui for Artists

July 7, 2007

Although I don’t know that much about feng shui, I have learned this — face my desk towards a wall and I don’t get anything done. Why? Probably because I don’t even want to sit at it. It always seems to make sense to put a desk up against a wall to efficiently use space, but when my sewing desk faced a wall, I never made anything. When I turned it outwards towards the room, I started getting a lot of quilts done.

Today I decided to to reorganize the back room of my studio. This is the room where I usually dye fabric, make messes, and hide stuff that no one including me wants to see. My painting table here faced the wall, and all I ever did was pile stuff on it.

Now the table is in the middle of the room. Granted looks towards some ugly shelves, but it’s not facing a wall. Although it may looks cluttered, really it’s organized now. Before I had all my paints together, but was always trying to figure out which were water-based, which were for fabric, etc. Now my watercolors and acrylics are on one cart, pastels on another, oil paints and dyes on separate shelves. According to this article on Feng Shui for Artists, it’s not necessary to create a serene zen-like room, but to create a vibrant energy to support your flow of creativity.

This whole organization frenzy to make room for painting was inspired by last night’s First Friday Art Walk where I saw paintings by artist Michi Susan. But how unsatisfying to spend a Saturday cleaning? So about five I sat down with a bowl of M&M’s to enjoy my new oasis of organization and play with my paints.

Maybe I should hang some pretty fabric to cover the ugly shelves. They maybe ugly, but very handy — they hold up the wall that I use to photograph my art on the other side.

Filed Under studio | 11 Comments

Fear not Creativity

July 3, 2007

Christine commented on my last post, “I am currently avoiding creativity for fear of failure,” and I felt I had to respond. I believe creativity is like the old saying, One percent inspiration and Ninty-Nine percent perspiration. And I can say this with authority because I’ve been doing a lot of perspiring in the studio today, wrestling with bundles of fabrics and hot irons

Now this may not be comforting, but there’s hundreds or thousands of good ideas out there. A dozen hit my driveway every morning in the newspaper. I have a bunch of ideas with my morning cereal, then drive over a bunch more when I’m trying to back out of the driveway without running over my neighbor’s flowerbeds. Some of these ideas are re-occurring of course, and the ones that really pester me, I might actually start working on.

But that’s the key. Because they’re really nothing unless I work on them. Creativity is struggling with some half-cocked idea and trying to make something out of it. My history (as probably most people’s) is strewn with half-realized ideas, things I sort-of worked on, but abandoned somewhere at some unsuccessful and ugly stage of development.

So here’s some ugly in-process photos for you — I like to throw fabric on the floor when I’m trying to figure out a color palette. It’s fast, it gets messy, and I get frustrated because each time I add a new fabric to the mix, it seems to throw off everything else.

It’s hard to remember that the shapes and proportions are only rough estimates. Then something starts gnawing at my stomach — I think it’s called indecision and doubt. So then I think, maybe it’s time to quit fooling around, pick something and go with it. Or stop and have a snack. Or both.

But back to Christine’s comment. I don’t think you can fail at creativity because it’s a process. The only way to really fail is not to try. But I know her and that she is hard-working, intelligent, and has an eye for the beautiful and unique. So I’m not worried, as she said in her comment, this is just a phase, and she is probably about ready to jump back into the creativity thing.

Filed Under process | 17 Comments

Niki in the Garden

Lurie Garden

Millenium Park

IQA Journal Interview

Charlie’s Studio

Wood Street Gallery

Feng Shui for Artists

Fear not Creativity

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