Tag: Inspiration

Wayne Thiebaud on City Arts and Lectures

No, I didn’t abandon the blog. Life got in the way. School started, which means PTO meetings, Cub Scouts, etc. I also had to go deal with a family pseudo-emergency (nobody died) in SoCal one weekend which kept me away from home two weekends in a row. Anyway, I am back, though no sewing under my belt.

City Arts and Lectures is one of my favorite radio shows. I listened to Wayne Thiebaud last week on my way back from the Qi Gong retreat. Thiebaud is one of my favorite artists. I love the simple complexity of his work. One of his assistants worked as an adjunct professor at Berkeley and I was fortunate enough to have him as a teacher in an art class. I still have the works that I did in the class. I never get tired of looking at them. Colored pencil is still one of my favorite media (after fabric, of course!).

Anyway, one of the great things that Thiebaud said is that he isn’t an artist, he is a painter and that history will have to decide whether he is an artist. I love that and plan to adopt it as my mantra. I have been thinking about it a lot and what it means. I think it means that I can just do my work.

Being an artist is so much responsibility. I don’t know if I am artist or if I am making art and I don’t want to decide. I just want to do what I do and let someone else deal with the labels.

I really wish that City Arts and Lectures would put their lectures on Audible.com, so I could listen to Thiebaud’s comments again.

Views

I contemplate this view a lot. I am not always sure if I am thinking or just pretending to think so nobody will bother me. It is hard to know when I am writing about it and not doing it now. This is the Real View.

I took the Real View because of the fog… and in spite of the fog. It is a kind of defiance, I think. Summer is such a foggy time for this area. I feel I have to see the beauty in the fog. I don’t really see beauty in this photo itself, but there is a kind of beauty in the calmness of it.

After I took the photo, I couldn’t stop thinking that someone would be able to find my window by looking at my neighbor’s house and that I should conceal my view further.

All I could think of was a view I call the Pencil View.

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I did it with Paint Shop Pro. I didn’t draw it as I possibly would have at another time. I am not very confident with Paint Shop Pro, but I am pleased with how this turned out. Not completely pleased, though. I wanted less details and more lines and contrast. I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the pencil view to just leave the lines and eliminate the dots. No, I didn’t read the help file.

I tried another of the “Artist’s Effects” in PSP and came up with the Blue View.

This view has the clarity I want. This reminds me vaguely of a quilt I saw at New Pieces a long time ago. The quilt was made by Angie Woolman for a series of classes she taught there called Color Me Orange. Color Me Orange was very blocky and orange. Somehow this picture is just an impression in my mind of that quilt.

Inspiration

As I was walking around Toronto a few days ago, I saw this sculpture in the Galerie Christin on Yonge Street.

and the horse

The horse really has a great movement (or shape, maybe??). I love the curve that the artist has captured. I think the horse looks like it will walk away.

I was fascinated by the detail of these sculptures

The pieces look like they are made from found objects. I think that there are some sculptures made from found pieces that are really well done. The face of the mannequin looks a little eerie becuase of the size of the eyes, but there is so much more to look at that you can forget about the eyes.

Sunset

I was sitting at my computer working when I looked up and saw the sunset out my window. The digital couldn’t deal with the screens on the window so this photo is taken from my front porch.

Sunset
Sunset

You get a great view of my neighbor’s house!

I love the colors. They make me want to sew. I am not sure what to sew, but I want to sew. I have been thinking about making two ATCs as thank you gifts, but can’t quite seem to get started. I thought of using some hand-dyed rickrack that I have that I used on the quilt What Comes Next. We’ll see. I am not sure what else I would do or how to start, so I guess it requires more thinking.

I had hoped to receive Aja’s bullseyes for Feelin’ Blue today, but they didn’t arrive. Perhaps tomorrow.