Might As Well Have Strapped a Drool Cup to My Chin!

For 25 years I have wanted to attend the Annual Smithsonian Craft Show at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C.  This year, the show’s 33rd, I fulfilled that wish!  And a drool fest it was-they should have handed out cups at the door.

And I must say, as someone who attempts to live a creative life, the show is quite humbling.  In fact, if you want to feel like a 2 bit player in the world of craft –attend the show next year!!!  And don’t attend sans your drool cup!

This year’s show represented the works of 121 artisans from around the country.  They are considered to be the best in their fields and being part of this show is a distinguished honor.  The show, an amazing event in itself, is actually an all volunteer run event with the proceeds going to provide money for grants and endowments of the Smithsonian.

Now, if money were no object I would have walked out of the show with many items under my arm.  Here are a few of my favorite pieces and their makers.

I know it is hard to tell, but the above image is a PAPER CUT!!!!!   I KNOW!!!!!!

I was floored by Lucrezia Bieler’s work.  This piece is about 2 x 2 1/2 feet and it took her six months to cut from one sheet of paper with teeny tiny scissors (and George says I am OCD!).  I want it – but its $30,000 –and worth every penny!

John Iversen is an iconic figure in the word of ornamentation.  Last year an image of this bracelet graced the cover of Ornament Magazine.  I usually devour the journal from cover to cover, but I was particularly amazed by this creation-the entire bracelet is hinged on the back!!!

While he did not have this piece out in his display case, after we got to talking he graciously offered to show it to me.  Out of a very secure little chest filled with precious boxes, he brought out this masterpiece and I got to see it first hand.  Of course, I wanted to see the back most of all!

I was also quite honored to meet another artist whose work I have long admired.  Carolyn Morris Bach’s jewelry is instantly recognizable by her unique imagery and use of materials.  This pendant with the little owl-like figure is delightful.  Her work is so impeccably made, it really was an honor to linger over her work.

While I was naturally drawn to the jewelry work, there were several artists working in other mediums that were incredibly fresh and new.

This sewn “quilt” was made by Leah Evans.  Her work is inspired by aerial photography, maps, satellite imagery and the microbial world.  Often her works explore the impact of humans on our landscapes.  Her work was so intriguing to me that after returning home from the show I regretted that I did not purchase one of her pieces.  So I went back and bought one the last day of the show (thanks for giving me the incentive to return Maria!!!)  Mine is very small (= affordable) and I can’t wait to add it to my gallery at home!

Little “things” intrigue me, so you can imagine how excited I was to see the work of Janel Jacobson.  This little kitty is a mere 2 inches long!  And it is just so fabulous!!!!  Janel is inspired by nature and her pieces truly celebrate the small gems in our world.  There was not a piece of hers that I would not be honored to own!

Now, this work is a marvel of craftsmanship.  Yes it is a beautiful image, and yes it is a good composition but…it is a FLIPPING EMBROIDERY!!  It is roughly 5 inches by 5 inches!!!!  Oh to have eyes that can see so well.  For obvious reasons, this photo does not even begin to do justice to Mical Aloni’s work.  Thankfully she had magnifying glasses beside each piece for all to admire her great skill.

An unconventional use of materials drew me to the work of this artist.  Tara Locklear repurposes old skateboards to create her collection of unique jewelry pieces.  The way she cuts and sands them to reveal interior layers makes the wood feel gem-like.  The asymmetry of material use in many of her pieces is refreshing and fun.  She has a great eye and a unique artistic vision.

All in all, as stated above, the show was humbling.  However, it was also invigorating.  I did not want to leave the show because it was so wonderful to be surrounded by beautiful objects made with purpose, vision and great intention that were completely removed from the mass produced items that so often visually (and literally) pollute our world!!!

If you are interested in viewing more work by the artists listed above, here are their website addresses:

http://www.bieler-beerli.com

http://www.johniversen.com

carolynmorrisbach.com

http://www.leahevanstextiles

http://www.janeljacobson.com

micalaloni.com

taralocklear.com

Picasso and So Much More.

This month the Kennedy Center is hosting a festival entitled:  Iberian Suite-Global Arts Remix that celebrates the music, art, literature and food of the Iberian Peninsula.  I spent the day there yesterday exploring some of the exhibitions and attending a forum entitled:  Picasso, The Challenge of Ceramics.  I learned so much about his process as well as how his ceramic work informed his other work and vice versa.  And luckily, I was able to get a ticket to view the exhibit right after the forum-what fun!!!

And what fun it was!!!  His sense of humor and delight in creating is so very evident in his ceramic work.  To create his pieces (all of which have a human or animal form as the subject matter or dictator of the form) Picasso manipulated parts of wheel thrown vases, plates, bowls, etc…  His flat pieces play with perspective, using the shape to dictate the imagery, and the reconfigured pieces suggest animal and human forms often with an additional image on the form that creates a double meaning (See the human on a horse vase below).  I walked through the exhibit chuckling at his wit and genius.

After viewing the exhibit I walked through an installation illustrating the history of the Iberian Peninsula from the time of the arrival of the first humans 1 million years ago to the present.  I must admit-it was just a little too much history for my mind to digest!  Ancient maps of the area were displayed on the large screen and I rested my brain while looking at them.

It was dark too–I may have closed my eyes for a few minutes!

In the upper lobby, 4 larger than life portraits of Spanish and Portuguese literary masters created by Scott Gunderson are on display for the festival.  He used over 40,000 corks (cork is from Iberia) to create the portraits.  Here is my favorite.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is actually one of my favorite authors and his most iconic novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, is one of the best ever written!!! They had a quick time video of the creation of this portrait-very cool to watch!

On my way out of the center I meandered through the last visual feast of the day.  The main floor lobby has an installation of dresses created by designers around the world with their inspiration coming from blue and white Chinese porcelain initially brought to Europe by…you guessed it…Portuguese trading ships.  The dresses are incredible works of art.

And I am so very glad that I did not have tickets for today because….yep…we got more snow…

and the Kennedy Center was closed today!

My Inner Racoon Was Deeply Satisfied…

…as I gazed upon the very sparkly and remarkable collection of Cartier jewelry pieces created for Marjorie Merriweather Post.  On Saturday we toured her home:   Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens.  Marjorie was the daughter of Charles William Post  -yes, of the Post Cereal Company.  At 27 years of age, being the sole heir of her father, she was one of the wealthiest women in America.  Her wealth would continue to grow as the Post Cereal Company morphed into the General Foods Corporation.

She bought her beautiful estate in 1955 and then proceeded to remodel it so it would not only serve as her home, but as a museum for her extensive art collections.  The estate, while pretty much in the heart of D.C. feels like it is out in the country because it overlooks Rock Creek Park (which I believe is one of the largest parks within city limits).  The home and grounds are stunning.

Currently, in one of the out buildings, a special exhibit of her collection of Cartier jewelry is on display through December 31st.  Not only are the pieces spectacular, but the way in which they are displayed creates a real feeling of the style and grace of Marjorie.  Many of the pieces are paired with a portrait that shows her wearing the actual jewelry pieces.  Several of the dresses worn in the portraits are on display with the jewels.  Photographs were not allowed so I included photos from the brochure below.  The dress from this portrait was also on display.

After viewing the jewelry display, we toured the mansion.  Over her life she gathered an impressive collection of French and Russian imperial art.  She collected priceless objects like most people collect cheap souvenirs!!!  Thankfully she was a generous philanthropist, and her final act of philanthropy was leaving her estate to the public.

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A Black Squirrel Afternoon.

We had a bit of role reversal this weekend with ME taking George to places I have been and he hasn’t — well many of the places.  We walked to the zoo on Saturday and had a leisurely walk the park.  While George has been here, he had not been through the whole zoo.  I showed him the exhibits that i am particularly fond of.  The black squirrels that roam the zoo, while not an official exhibit, are equally interesting with a little history behind their habitation of the zoo.  Near the beginning of the 20th century, during Pres. Theodore Roosevelt’s administration 18 Canadian black squirrels were released at the zoo.  The zoo is packed with the little cuties, but they spread much farther than just their zoo location, with some areas of D.C. being swamped with them.

It seemed only appropriate that on our walk home we should stop at a pub and restaurant in Adams Morgan  –The Black Squirrel — and have a beer!  They have a nice selection of beers and the ambiance is cozy and welcoming.

That evening we tried a restaurant that is about 50 feet to the left of our apartment building.  Lauriol Plaza, is an unassuming restaurant from the outside.  When we walked in we were astonished–it has three stories of tables and is packed with people.  It was loud, but the service was excellent and the staff is very friendly.  It is a mexican restaurant and I must say, I was very surprised at how reasonable the prices are.  I had salmon and crab enchiladas and George had the grill plate–very yummy!

Sunday I curated my own art tour for George, showing him my favorite exhibits at the Hirshhorn, African Art Museum and the Freer/Sackler.  He works right across the street from these museums and had never gone to any of the exhibits!!!!  Well..we took care of that!

Going through withdrawal….

I had not been to a museum for several days and I was starting to get the itch …. so on what turned out to be a much colder day than I expected, I hopped on a bike for a long bike ride to the National Mall with the National Museum of the American Indian as my final destination.  I could not feel my hands by the time I got there, but I am so happy I chose this day to go.

The Muscogee Creek Festival was happening in the large gathering place on the bottom floor.  The afternoon was filled with native songs and dancing.  This added another enriching layer to my visit.  As I looked at the exhibits on the 4th floor (it is recommended that one start at the top and work down the floors) the halls echoed with chants, songs and beautiful music.  It was fantastic.

The two exhibits on the top floor were full visual and mental information.  I could not have tackled more than one floor if I had wanted to — visual overload came quickly here.  One exhibit entitled — Nation to Nation:  Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations — is like walking through an encyclopedia.  The history of the many treaties we have made ( and broken) with Native Americans is rife with sadness.

The other exhibit — Our Universe:  Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World — focuses on indigenous beliefs about the creation and order of the universe while being organized around the solar year.  It is beautifully displayed with 8 cultures featured in “podlike” galleries that “spoke” off of a central area that is darkened with a sky of stars above.  As I entered each pod I felt as if I was experiencing a little part of their world.

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“I Know You…

…I know I know you, but how do I know you?”  These were the thoughts echoing through my head as I gazed at this gigantic portrait (approx. 6 by 10 feet) by Lisa Bigelow in a group exhibition entitled:  “Face Value:  Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction” at the National Portrait Gallery.  I felt such a strong sense of familiarity with this woman – a haunting complicity.  And truly, I was stopped dead in my tracks when I turned the corner to face this dear old friend of mine.  Because, you see, after reading the identification I realized that I had spent a good four years of my life with this stunning woman!  She is part of the permanent collection at the Indiana University Art Museum on the Bloomington, Indiana campus.  Indeed, she and I greeted one another each day during the four years I attended IU and worked at the museum.  I must say, this was not how I expected to see a familiar face in D.C.!  I sat and looked at her for a long time.  It was nice to finally “know” someone in town.  On a side note, pictures were not permitted in this exhibit, or any of my top three exhibits that I will mention in this post.  However, the experience was so wonderfully unexpected, I wanted to include a picture in this post.  So…. 🙂 when I was in the gift shop, I snapped a picture from the exhibit catalogue-please forgive me Lisa Bigelow!!!

Overall, this exhibit was outstanding-beautifully curated and thoughtfully engaging.  To see some of the works and read more about it you can visit the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website at:  http://www.npg.si.edu/event/currentevents.html.

I also recommend a virtual visit to the other two exhibits that completely knocked my socks off!!!  The first entitled:

was so completely enthralling that when I completed the exhibit I couldn’t cope with any of the other exhibits in the museum and I had to leave.  I had immersed myself so deeply into looking at and analyzing Estes’ dazzling paintings that my brain was unable to make the switch to something else.  This is in part, why I was not able to finish looking at all the exhibits until yesterday afternoon.

The Diner, 1971. I did not photograph this painting-it is from the information card I picked up at the museum.

The artist, Richard Estes’, I am sure is no stranger to many of you.  He is considered to be the “foremost practitioner” of photorealists.  I have always admired him, and often shared examples of his work with my students when we would study photorealism.  Seeing his work in person puts his work on a whole different level for me.  A technical master-most assuredly- I never doubted this.  A master of abstraction, layered concepts, ideas, and psychological complexities?- not so much.  But they scream at you as you engage with these compelling “portraits” of urban and natural settings.  This exhibit will be THE exhibit that I “make” my daughter and son visit when they are here for Thanksgiving!

So after a difficult weekend of moving to our second, and final apartment for our time here, I pulled up by boot straps and headed to the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum once again with the purpose of finally seeing all the exhibits.  But truth be told, I was so anxious to the see the exhibit entitled,  The Singing and the Silence:  Birds in Contemporary Art, that I did not view all the exhibits on the first floor of the Portrait Gallery-my mind just wasn’t there-so maybe on another day.

I was not disappointed.  The exhibit features 12 artist’s interpretations of mankind’s interactions with the natural world, and in particular – birds.  (My dear friend Lori would love this exhibit-wished she was with me!)  Again, I couldn’t take pictures, but many of the pieces can be viewed online at:  http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/.

Laurel Roth Hope’s peacocks made from barrettes, fake fingernails and costume jewelry were a delight to view and the layered collage/drawings/paintings of Fred Tomaselli were a joy to investigate.

Now that I have “completed” these museums, I must decide what I will move on to…hmm…what will it be?

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When art intersects life..intersects art…

 

I know I promised I wouldn’t mention my encounters at the National Portrait Gallery until I had gone through the entire museum but some things make me so happy that I must share them.  I have written about my OCD in regards to my reading selections (“you down with OCD, yah you know me”), so I won’t go into that again (see my post on Trains, planes…if you really want to know).  I tore through Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close extremely fast and it was incredibly gripping.  The connection to the previous book What is the What was multi-faceted with the major connecting factor being a young boy forced to grow up quickly due to adverse and uncontrollable life situations.  Therefore, loss of control and how to regain control was another connecting theme.  Another link was 911.  As I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close more connections emerged not only to the previous book, but to occurences in my daily experiences.  Most notably, my visits to the Capital and physically experiencing all the security measures that have been added since then.

I finished the book and my next selection was The Power of One.  The connections here were no-brainer’s!  Again, a story of a young boy facing life’s adversities- dealing with war, displacement, as well as the physical and psychological tolls of these experiences.  In this book we also return to Africa- so much to my delight this book has strong connections to my past two reads.

Okay, so finally I get to my point.  The main character, a young boy named Peekay decides that being a boxer will solve many of his problems.  Eventually, he manages to be in a situation in which he begins to train and box.  This happens in South Africa during WWII (you know-Hitler; tensions between the Boers (Afrikaners), British and displaced tribal members; these racial tensions essentially the beginnings of apartheid).  I am only half-way through the book so this is a very short synopsis up to this point.  So art (the book) is part of my life experience (reading the book and visiting the portrait gallery)  and connects to art again–this stunning portrait of Joe Louis.  The write-up next to his portrait further explains the art-life-art connection I experienced.

When one is learning about something, one becomes more aware and sensitive to encounters that relate to those learning experiences.  The paintings below probably would not have interested me so much if I were not currently living vicariously in the boxing world.

Recalculating…

After learning of the renovation to the East Building of the National Gallery I had to devise a new plan of action for visiting ALL the museums in D.C. (yes that is my ultimate goal!)  I decided it was time to make my way over to The National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum.  These museums are considered to be some of the best in D.C. by the local’s. Silly me, I truly underestimated the power and depth of the permanent collection as well as the temporary exhibits of these special museums.  As far as the popularity and even the publicity that these museums get –they really are sleeper museums.  This fact, makes it much more enjoyable to visit them-they are not crowded or noisy!!!

I plan to spend pretty much this whole week there.  I spent 2 1/2 hours on the 3rd floor alone on Friday and did not view all the galleries on that level.  I won’t bore you on a daily basis with my discoveries-so I will post a few things today and maybe at the end of the week.

These were two of my favorite portraits in the 20th Century Americans sections.  On the left is a portrait of Juliet Gordon Low – the “Mother” of the Girl Scouts.  On the right is a portrait of LL Cool J, one of the “Father’s” of rap music.  It was painted by Kehinde Wiley who happens to be one of my favorite contemporary portrait painters.  He takes poses and settings from paintings of the past and places present day people in those settings.  This painting’s setting is from a portrait of J.D. Rockefeller by John Singer Sargent (another favorite portrait painter of mine).  Walking through this gallery is a true history lesson.  It is told through the portraits of individuals who have shaped our nation’s culture.

The American Art Museum is also a history lesson-one that tells the stories of America through the visual arts.  I have long been a fan of Jenny Holzer and her piece For SAAM, was a happy surprise for me.  She is mainly known for her large scale public art incorporating text.  This work on the left is a good example.  The text moves on thin lines of light emitting diodes over this 28 foot tall sculpture.  Some of her best-known statements swirl and travel down the column.  The text sucks you in and mesmerizes – I think I stood there for 20 minutes reading her messages!!!!  On the right, is Nam June Paik’s Electric Superhighway; it is an iconic piece.  He is considered the “Father” of video art and this spectacular display does not disappoint the viewer.  Each state contains multiple screens displaying images that are connected to that state for Nam.  For the District of Columbia he has a live feed screen and as you view the piece you see yourself playing your part in the  “Electric Superhighway”!

Halloween came early this year!!!!

Last night we went to the Kennedy Center to listen to music composed by Danny Elfman for 15 of Tim Burton film’s.  It was performed by the National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by the world renowned director, John Mauceri!!

I cannot begin to explain just how fantastic this performance was!

As they performed a compilation of music from each film, Tim’s drawings, sketches and clips from the films were projected on a giant screen behind the stage.  This was truly a feast for the senses.

For those of you who know me, especially my esteemed teaching colleague Shelly (yes, they played music from Frankenweenie!), I am a HUGE fan of Tim Burton.  And I knew I was a fan of Danny Elfman (I know the entire The Nightmare Before Christmas sound track by heart) but now I am an even bigger fan.  Many of you will know him from his film score fame:  Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Men in Black, Silver Linings Playbook, and yes, the Simpson’s theme song…and many, many more.  But did you know he helped found the band Oingo Boingo and was the lead singer in that group for two decades?!  I for one, did not make that connection.  I also learned that he had no formal training and did not even become interested in music until he was 18.

All in all it was an oogie-boogie evening!

Sad, then happy, but maybe a little sad again….

SAD…not one to procrastinate, upon “completing” my tour of the West Building the next day I ventured onward to explore the collection in the East Building of the National Gallery.  Must to my chagrin I discovered that the exhibition spaces are undergoing renovation and will be closed for the next three (bleepity-bleep) years!!!

HAPPY…However, I arrived just in time to join a guided tour of the contemporary sculpture on display in the atrium areas.  The docent was so informative and the other members of the tour and I joined in for an hour of great dialogue and discussion.  It was like participating in an art critique –  loved it!!!  More happiness – the building was designed by I.M. Pei and is truly stunning.  Incidentally, I felt a bit of nostalgia when walking through the space.  When I was an undergraduate at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana I had the great fortune of acquiring a job at the art museum on campus.  That building was also designed by I.M. Pei.  The lines, ledges and soaring ceilings of the East Building were familiar to me and conjured memories of working in the Registrar’s office;  a job that allowed me to handle incredible works of art as they came to and left the museum.

A little sad again …  the contemporary painting collection is still unavailable for viewing while I am living here 😦 .

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