Paper and Threads

I took Mary Ann Moss' "Remains of the Day" online class many years ago to learn another technique for making books.  She has an online class that is self-paced and you really can make your own book after all of the videos. 

http://rod.dispatchfromla.com/ 

The books have a fabric cover, and random types of paper - including pages from brochures, calendars etc.  I use fabric pieces for the cover (cotton and silk) that I've dyed in surface design workshops, or at home, and usually select one piece of fabric and then build the colors from there. 

This is my 2017 book - closed and open to show the cover.

I decided to use my first book to record NYC art adventures with friends, and I'm shocked that I now have 6 finished volumes.  This year I actually debated whether I wanted to continue this series, and finally decided that I love making the book, and enjoy reliving our many museum exhibits and gallery visits at the end of the year. 

Here are two early pages from the 2017 book.  I have photos of my friends, from the art at exhibits, and even copies of our artwork. 

There are flaps on many of the pages, covering additional photos, and pockets attached to other pages to hold photos and random ephemera.

These are the 6 previous books - all full and now fat! 

Posted by Shirley at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My friend Eunice and I attended a concert by the Juilliard Historical Presentation Students in the 2 year Masters degree program.  It is held several times during the year as part of the Tuesdays at Twelve series at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Central Park West.  At most concerts it is difficult to see the performers and their instruments well enough to draw them.  These are scribbled drawings of several of the performers which were painted at home.

This is the drawing posted previously from the first of these concerts that I attended.   The unusual instrument is a theorbo - from the lute family.  I just realized that I sketched the same bassoonist at the recent concert.

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We had a live model in costume and his 8 year old pug this week in my FIT Watercolor Comps class.  The dog shifted positions lots, but was otherwise a perfect model.  The model was short and round, dressed in a wizard costume - and during breaks he gave his dog plenty of loving!

When I finished the first painting, I practiced "being looser" and just painted the model's head.

We will next begin work on our final project - working each week to a finished illustration of a subject of our choice.  This was a very enjoyable class and I only hope that FIT offers more classes from the Illustration department in their Senior Program. 

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One Last Drawing from our Last Gallery Visits:  Max Ernst at Paul Kasmin

Saturday Subway Riders:  I haven't drawn on the subway for many months, but I forgot to bring a book!

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Last Wednesday (4/12) Pat and I met at Phillips for their Art on Paper auction preview, had lunch for sustenance, and then went to the Whitney Biennial for a tour led by my friend Gail.  During the winter months in 2013 I used every art medium I had in the apartment and spent the months sketching elephants from online videos.  I even learned how to make an Eric Carle collage from one of my paintings (see below).  So I just had to sketch and paint this multiple layer wood sculpture by Karel Appel at Phillips.

At almost 2PM on 4/13, my friend Benedicte sent me this image from the Paris Modern Art Museum, completely unaware that I saw another copy of the same sculpture 24 hours before!.   

She also sent this photo of Appel's Circus, from the exhibition that she visited.  During another trip to Paris she sent me a photo of a beautiful, flower-covered ballet tutu, not knowing that I photographed it when visiting Paris several months before.

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