Paper and Threads

The Whitney Museum was open around the clock for 3 days as their Biennial Exhibit draws to a close.  It is usually very conceptual and not very interesting, but my friend Istar convinced me that this year there was art that would inspire both of us.  So we went early yesterday morning and I really enjoyed seeing some of the work and I brought home a few ideas about things I'd like to try.  This is the journal page on which I took some notes.

There was one large room filled with only large ink paintings by Charles Ray.  Each one was of flowers - that were very similar - but with variations on the compositions from painting to painting.  There were many, many flowers in each painting- arranged beautifully.  The colors were brilliant - and the flowers with the long petals, each a different bright color, flip-floping back and forth over each other, were my favorites.  My journal flower sketches were each done in less than a minute - just enough for me to remember a few of the variations in his flowers.  

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I used an image that I did several weeks ago at the Conservatory Garden in Central Park to make this design for a card. 

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Hand Drawing Practice:

I try to regularly draw hands because I'm so bad at them.  Last September I decided to also draw the American Sign Language alphabet from photos on an ASL website.  I use a watercolor pencil to sketch and then add water to get shading.  This is something that I do when I have nothing else to record visually from my life that day - so I'm only half way through the alphabet.  It isn't obvious to me that I'm getting any better with faced with hands during live figure drawing.  Maybe I need to sketch 10,000 to achieve competency.

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I was just about to start my daily journal page last night when I found a 4-part video on Teesha Moore's blog about making quilted books.  In Part 1 she showed many quilted covers, some of which contained paper, and two of them started me thinking about another project.  These two books had a cover that opened in the center and either two faces - one on each front half - or one face - in the center back.  I don't know how the faces were made - transfers from photos or painted - probably the former.

She makes little "quilt pillows" and then stitches them together to make her covers.  I would adapt my regular quilt-making techniques and  just borrow the ideas about a center front opening and faces.  I'd like to put hats or paint hair on the heads and add arms, instead of wings.  If I made these books for family, I would make the face theirs.

So, in order not to forget the idea, my sketchbook page became drawings and notes for the project.  The colors and way of coloring the book are mine.

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Our cousin (see last post) also has a wonderful sculpture collection, and while having my morning coffee, I chose this mother-and-child piece by Ruth Bloch to draw.  There were other mother and child sculptures, by different artists in his collection, but I remember being with him one time at Art Expo in New York City when he bought a piece from Ruth Bloch - so I felt a tiny connection with her.  The legs of this sculpted chair are as long as the mother - so it is a beautiful freestanding piece of art.

I guess I'm not done yet with my current focus on motherhood.

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