4Cats Art Cafe

Wayne Thiebaud

2010-01-31T00:25:00.000-08:00

I went to hear Wayne Thiebaud speak in San Francisco a couple of years ago. At the time, I was showing my work at Paul Thiebaud - his son's - gallery. The talk was at the Herbst Auditorium, one in a series of talks organized by Wendy Lesser, editor of the Threepenny Review, who also interviewed Mr. Thiebaud.

The stage was arranged in a cozy living room setting, and Mr. Thiebaud was at ease in the wing-backed chair. With his lean frame you could imagine him popping onto the courts the next day for a game of tennis.

One of the best things he said that night was about the physicality of art. "The art department should be next to the gym!"

He was gracious with questions. Someone asked him if he had any favorite colors of paint. After a small pause he answered, "You can make any color with a warm and a cool version of each of the primaries." It was the most succinct, direct, complete explanation I've heard of the color wheel, and I've based my own teaching of color on it ever since.

He was sharp, generous, illuminating, droll, and humble about his own success. You get the feeling he's far more at home as a teacher than as an art star.

In my opinion, he's one of the greatest living teachers of art, in addition to being a deeply inventive, expressive and in my mind consummate artist - one who is both playful and serious. He has always done what he wants to do.

Here he is interviewed for a television channel. If you watch it all the way through, you'll find some quotable moments yourself.

Hypocrite and Slanderer

2010-01-23T18:40:00.000-08:00

No wonder the Met wanted a Messerschmidt.

When I saw this picture of Austrian artist, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's sculpture, Hypocrite and Slanderer, in the New York Times this morning, I was sure I was seeing the work of a brilliant contemporary artist. It's frank, raw expression conceived in a sleek, pared down way struck me as modern - like a three dimensional Odd Nerdrum - and made me want to know more.

The piece dates, it turns out, to the 1760's and is one of a series of similar works by Messerschmidt.

One of the things that strikes me in the New York Times's story is the artist's unwillingness to sell the series of sculptures - a clear indication that he made them for his own reasons, with no compromise or commission, and didn't care if anyone got them or liked them or not. Which is of course what made the work so deeply affecting and sought after ever since.

The picture shows a bronze of a powerful, bald man with chin on chest and furrowed brow, seen in profile. The man is seemingly observed in a private moment of deep self-reflection.

In the pose and the cool yet sensitive rendering, the sculpture speaks of simultaneous contempt and compassion for the subject on the part of its maker. He holds up the man's failings, yet he does not judge or condemn. It's a quality common to greatly drawn characters throughout the history of art - Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment, Shakespeare's King Lear, Nabokov's Quilty in Lolita come to mind. In choosing the hypocrite and slanderer as a subject, Messerschmidt acknowledges something dark in himself, and dares the viewer to judge - or do the same.

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Image:

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

Hypocrite and Slanderer

Bronze

1760's

Read the New York Times article on the Met's new Messerschmidt sculpture

Mary Heilmann: Tell, don't Ask

2009-10-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

This week the Guggenheim held its Art Awards ceremony, and the Artist of the Year was Mary Heilmann.

I'm enjoying exploring her work. It ranges in approach and concept, but even her most hard-edged, geometric paintings are executed with a painterly vigor.

Instead of asking "Is this okay? Did I do it right?" Heilmann tells us "This is how it is."

She also obviously knows that for a lively, spontaneous-seeming painting to work, it must be rigorously planned.

Here is Mary Heilmann with "Two-Lane Blacktop".

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More links:

Mary Heilmann on Art: 21 blog

Mary Heilmann NYT review

Mary Heilmann at the Secession in Vienna, installation shots

Helen Frankenthaler's woodcuts

2009-10-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Today while sitting in the reading room of the print studio at Pratt after a long day of teaching, I came across a book of Helen Frankenthaler's woodcuts.

Frankenthaler's paintings, famous for their poured oil washes and idiosyncratic marks and layers, seem like unlikely candidates to be turned into woodblock prints.

Yet with the spirit of innovation that can only come from an artist driven by her own vision, Frankenthaler sanded, scrubbed, beat and generally dinged up her woodblocks in a process she dubbed "guzzying" till they rendered the soft washy effects and surprising surfaces she desired.

The image below is just one of many ideas that range in crispness, hard vs. soft edges, washiness and density of marks - and is one in a series of prints that morph as Frankenthaler explores.

You can read about the book I discovered on the Library page of my website.

Helen Frankenthaler

Radius 1993

colour woodcut printed from six woodblocks on hand-coloured paper

71.2 (h) x 71.4 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia

And now, back to me

2009-09-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

Did I mention I have a BRAND NEW WEBSITE?

Do visit.

Vermeer in Vancouver, but not for long!

2009-08-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

There's still time to catch the show of Dutch paintings featuring Vermeer at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Well worth a road trip, ferry ride, or train trek.

Vermeer, Rembrandt, and the Golden Age of Dutch Art

Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum

May 10 - September 13

The Essential Vermeer is an excellent, comprehensive guide to the everything about the painter, with a complete catalog of his work you can browse through and read about. This painting, called The Love Letter, is featured in the Vancouver show.

Here's a coincidence: just this morning I posted about my own painting called Love Letter (To Mondrian) on my website journal. I had no idea Vermeer's image would pop up when I googled the show in British Columbia...

Perhaps love is in the air?

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Image:

Johannes Vermeer

The Love Letter

(De liefdesbrief)

c. 1667-1670

Oil on Canvas

17 3/8 x 15 1/8" (44 x 38.5 cm)

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Ignore Everybody

2009-08-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

Hugh McLeod is a nut. That's what makes him sane. Buy his book.

It's a smart, sharp kick in the pants for all our best starved, stalled, or stifled ideas.

Check in to Hugh's blog for the cartoon of the day.

Ice drawings and hamburgers

2009-08-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day, not windy, not too hot, perfect for Mike and Cathy Casteel's summer art party at their gorgeous home on Vashon Island. The ferry ride brought that sea air smell, and the drive through the winding, hilly roads made me want to ride my bike.

At the party, I met a number of local artists whose names I've heard - Claire Cowie, Lisa Buchanan, Tom deGroot, Mark Bennion, and Hans Nelsen among them. It was a treat to not only have a conversation with an artist about their work, but then get to visit pieces of their work hanging in the house. Cathy and Mike have built a substantial collection. What I love is that their personalities and genuine excitement about collecting art for the pleasure of it come through in every selection they have made.

Actual art-making occurred when someone handed Claire and Leo's two year old daughter, Tabitha, an ice cube to cool off her hot feet on the patio and she immediately started drawing with it. I joined in. If you want one of our creations, you'll have to hire us for a performance. Or make your own...

The hamburger was another highlight, I've been craving one all week. Followed by fresh berry compote on a biscuit, with a brownie on the side. Yum.

Thanks to Cathy and Mike for their generous hosting and for sharing the sublime view and day with all of us. Happy summer.

Rembrandt's Nose

2009-07-29T00:12:00.000-07:00

The 20th-century painter Philip Guston said that "In the end, there is only Rembrandt". In his book, Rembrandt's Nose, Michael Taylor attempts to get at what makes Rembrandt's portraits so vividly, palpably human. He pins his theory on the nose.

My portrait students in particular will appreciate the subject as we prepare to study what makes a nose a nose. I'll have to read the book to find out how Taylor thinks the nose makes the portrait. And since one of the book's admirers is the poet W.S. Merwin, I am that much more interested to find out.

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Image:

Rembrandt

Detail,

Self Portrait With Beret And Turned-Up Collar

1659
84.4 x 66 cm.
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Bauhaus in Berlin: Coming to NY

2009-07-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

A Bauhaus retrospective just opened at the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall in Berlin. The show marks the 90th anniversary of the Bauhaus and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. See a slideshow of some of the work in the exhibit here. The show travels to the Museum of Modern Art in New York in November. How exciting is that?

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Image:

Josef Albers

Homage to the Square: Soft Spoken

Metropolitan Museum

48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm) Gift of the artist, 1972 (1972.40.7)

"Re-": Cardboard sculpture

2009-07-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

I went to pick up my work from Sightline Institute recently where it had hung during June as the inaugural show in Becky Brooks's series of curated exhibits, and from down the hall, before I even entered the glass doors, a blaze of red caught my eye and wouldn't let go.

Up close, Bryan Smith's cardboard constructions are meticulously crafted, bold and intricate at the same time. Abstract compositions reward closer viewing with the complex details of cut shapes, interrupted text, and images printed on what were once ordinary boxes.

On my way out the door I glanced up. Several large, bulbous sculptures of sewn cardboard perching on a dividing shelf almost reached over and tapped me on the head. A simple blanket stitch connects petals of packaging into bulging, organic forms that look as if they are not done morphing yet. As if one might come in one morning to find the room filled with pink, white and green cardboard organisms, still growing...

The show's up through August 27. If you're downtown, stop by the Vance building, take a ride up to the 5th floor, and see what happened to these boxes before they could reach the recycling bin.

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"Re-"

Work by Bryan Smith

Weekdays between 10am and 3pm
Through August 27

Sightline Institute
1402 Third Ave,
Fifth Floor, Suite 500
Seattle, WA
206-447-1880 ext. 100
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After viewing the art, you are invited to respond to the question:

“What thoughts about sustainability are inspired by
Bryan's art (and by art in general)?”

A notebook to share your response is available near the artwork,
or you can add your comment here.

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Images:

1. Bryan Smith

Cardboard Sculpture

Detail. JH iPhone shot

2. Bryan Smith

Cardboard Sculpture

Courtesy Becky Brooks

Sketching in Tokyo, Florence, Sao Paulo, Paris, Seattle...

2009-07-12T18:42:00.001-07:00

Need some inspiration to get out and fill some pages of your sketchbook? How about a global artist community to give you some ideas and camaraderie? Urbansketchers invites us to "See the world one drawing at a time". Through it you can visit the sketch journals of a community of artists around the world who participate in a regular "sketchcrawl" and share the results online.

Inspired yet?

There is a Seattle post for the most recent sketch day, just this past weekend. Looks like the participants had fun at the zoo. Keep an eye out for the next world wide sketching date on the Sketchcrawl site.

A tale of independence

2009-07-04T11:53:00.001-07:00

When I think of fireworks in relation to art, there is one picture that comes to mind - Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, with its smoky sky and cascading dots of light.

The painting is of a fireworks display at the Cremorne Gardens in Britain, a popular fairground that offered dances, balloon rides and entertainment in the mid 1800's.*

Like Sargent's Madame X, Whistler's painting caused an uproar, though for very different reasons.

John Ruskin, the renowned art critic, was apparently affronted by the immediacy of the paint application in Whistler's painting. In a series of pamphlets he derided what he perceived as an unfinished work, calling Whistler a "coxcomb" for "flinging a pot of paint in the face of the public". Whistler, fiesty, witty and famously arrogant, took offense and a stand against what he saw as a dangerous imbalance between the power of the art critic's word and the painter's vision.*

'At the trial, Ruskin's lawyer asked Whistler, "Mr. Whistler, tell me, how long did it take you to paint ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’?” "Half a day," replied Whistler. "So," queried the lawyer, "you are charging two hundred guineas for half a day's work?" "No," wittily replied Whistler, "For the experience of a lifetime."' **

He was awarded a farthing and ordered to pay court costs, which along with other personal debts bankrupted him, but more importantly, he made his point. In doing so he made a bold stand for the freedom of art from art criticism, and by extension, for the freedom of artists as well as the art-viewing public from ill-considered but publicly expressed opinions of art critics.

Whistler dissociated himself from the English academic establishment and asserted his autonomy as a painter, a position he maintained successfully for the rest of his career. To this day, by stipulation in his will, Whistler's paintings are prohibited from permanent display in Britain. The Nocturne is currently on loan to the Tate Museum Britain from Detroit.

Happy independence from Britain, America. And happy independence from the art establishment, Whistler.

Image:

James Abbott McNeil Whistler

Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Falling Rocket

1875
Oil on wood
60.3 x 46.6 cm (23 3/4 x 18 3/8 in.)
Detroit Institute of Arts

** (As quoted by Suzanne Hill in her article, Whistler's Nocturne: Falling Rocket Subject of Libel Suit Against Critic John Ruskin in 1878, to which I am indebted for this post).

Up close - really close - at the Prado

2009-06-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

In January, the Prado Museum in Milan introduced a feature on Google Earth that allows you to click on one of a selection of paintings that have been photographed in super high resolution ("14,000 million pixels, 1,400 times more detailed than the image a 10 megapixel digital camera would take") and view them close up. Not that anything is a substitute for standing in front of the actual painting, but oh my! Seeing the details of Durer's self portrait down to the individual hairs that make up each curl is thrilling. And it is quite fun to get a virtual sense of the museum itself. Gets that travel bug itching.

Below is a short video of the making of the images and how the feature looks in Google Earth (for a larger image, watch it here).

To find out how to visit the Prado in Google Earth click here.

Sunday studio

2009-06-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, four painters arrived at my studio to paint what I am dubbing 'the Eastlake Riviera' (float planes and all) from my windows.

Our subject: Interior with Landscape View. As we discovered, that simple and common human experience of looking outside from inside presents challenges and endlessly surprising compositional possibilities - which is probably why it has drawn the attention of artists from Vermeer to Bonnard, Matisse to Diebenkorn.

And now, us.

Our time-frame: five hours, with one of those, importantly, devoted to lunch. This was a deliciously successful potluck involving fresh greens and vegetable stew, corn chips with guacamole (which I made from five avocados hand-smuggled by my parents last weekend from the garden of friends in Carpenteria, California), goat cheeses and bread, and last but not least, chocolate-dipped strawberries and fresh cream sauce.

Post-lunch, a room full of strong drawings developed into painterly paintings that impressively incorporated lessons from some of the artists I mentioned, whose paintings we had looked at earlier. The resulting work was quite beautiful.

Thanks to all who came and especially to Diane for her impromptu suggestion to get together that started it all.

I think we have a new tradition. Look for upcoming sessions with a bit more lead time, open to anyone wishing to draw or paint, on my Julia's Studio blog. There is room for five people per session. Bring your painting bikini.

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Image:

Diane Schebel at work on her painting

Julia iPhone photo

Public art

2009-06-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a joyful antic is in order. This video was made in Antwerp, Belgium's Central Station on March 23, 2009.

At 8:00am, with no warning to the passengers passing through the station, a recording of Julie Andrews singing 'Do, Re, Mi' begins to play on the public address system. As the surprised travelers look on, some 200 dancers begin to appear from the crowd and station entrances. They created the performance with just two rehearsals.

Michael Matisse for Team Seattle

2009-06-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

Michael Matisse is a superb photographer. Currently he is in France supporting Don Kitch's Team Seattle as they venture to Le Mans. Team Seattle's goal is not just to race Ferraris in the most famous car race in Europe, but to raise money for Seattle Children's Hospital.

From their site: "Thanks to corporate sponsors, including Global Diving, Guggenheim Partners, and Microsoft, among others, the team is moving closer to raising $1,000,000 for infant cardiac care at Children's Hospital".

Good people racing beautifully designed cars for an excellent cause, documented by beautiful photography. The excitement that comes through in the posts is infectious. News flash: the team just qualified! Go, Team Seattle!

Image:

Michael Matisse

Don Kitch/Le Mans Day 2*

2009

* I just emailed MM to ask permission to use this shot, and to ask what I should title it. I will honor his response here, somewhat truncated : TEAM SEATTLE IN LE MANS WAITING PEACEFULLY IN THE CHURCH CARETAKER'S BACK YARD BEFORE FOR THE PRE-RACE PARADE THAT WILL BE A [MEDIA STORM] LIKE NOTHING ANYONE IN LE MANS HAS EVEER SEEN BEFORE.

Solo show downtown through June

2009-06-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Urban Perspective: City Views

13 pieces by artist Julia Hensley

Curated by Becky Brooks

Presented by

Sightline Institute

1402 Third Ave

Fifth Floor, Suite 500

Seattle

206-447-1880 ext. 100

Through the month of June

Visit on weekdays between 10am and 3pm

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All 13 pieces are available for purchase. You may Contact me for availability. Affordably priced.

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The work is a collection of my abstract urban landscapes in oil, acrylics, and gouache-on-pater collage. Most of the images are Seattle-area scenes, with a few of Boston, New York, and Las Vegas.

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Sightline Institute, Cascadia's sustainability think tank, is an important organization to the Northwest region and beyond as they research and communicate trends that are crucial to the region's future: health, economy, population, energy, sprawl, wildlife, and pollution. They provide the research and tools needed to make progress on a range of solutions to these issues. The now familiar term 'green-collar jobs' was coined at Sightline.

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After viewing the art, you are invited to respond to the question, “What thoughts about sustainability are inspired by Julia's art - or by art in general?”

A notebook to share your response is available near the artwork, or you can add your comment in the specially created Wordpress blog, Art and Sustainability. We invite you to stop by and just look, or write a few words. All thoughts are appreciated.

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Image:
Julia Hensley

Miller Paint; Oil on Panel; 16" x 20"; 2006

Photo: Michael Matisse

Book review: Art, chess and murder

2009-06-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

A 500-year old murder, that is, with a young art restorer bent on solving the mystery she uncovers while working on a 15th-century Flemish painting. Here's a blog review of The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

I came across the review on Wordpress - the other Blogger - which apparently recommended the book to me since my name is the same as the heroine's. It's a slim recommendation, I realize, but the story sounds exciting. Let me know what you think if you read it. Might be good arty summer reading.

Here is Van Eyck's famously symbol-laden painting of the same era:

Image:

Arnolfini Portrait

Jan van Eyck

1434

Oil on oak panel, 3 vertical boards

32.4 x 23.6 inches

National Gallery, London

Surprises

2009-06-10T21:57:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, Sue Danielson, Joan Cox, Peter and Jillian Hensley and I sat around my long table spread with books and postcards that related, obviously or obliquely, to narrative in art, drinking coffee and munching carrot cake. From the get-go, the ideas just flew.

One of my favorite moments was when Jillian wondered aloud how the all-white painting she once saw in a museum many years ago could possibly contain a story. She found the piece annoying in its blankness, so carefully and evenly painted, and couldn't see how it amounted to anything.

After some discussion she surprised herself by musing that for one thing, perhaps the reason she saw only white was because she had zoomed in so far the subject couldn't be made out, and that if she could only draw back a bit it would begin to reappear...this imagining, she suprised herself further by realizing, created in effect a kind of content, and a story.

The eyes of the artists in the room glistened at the recognition of a potentially mineable idea. You could almost hear the little gray cells expanding, along with our definition of narrative.

But before we got much further down that road, Peter began to express his experience of abstract art - a Mondrian grid painting, for example - as "arresting" his eye and further, his thoughts, because it presents no imagery that can be immediately interpreted. Thus for him, a purely abstract painting effectively interrupts the mind's search for a narrative. Aha. A view, then, in support of abstract art as non-narrative? Joni for one found this idea particularly compelling as a sort of Buddhist approach that enabled her to see the contrast between story and, at least initially, no story.

More expansion. More coffee.

We continued, engrossed, nibbling spanokopita and mushroom turnovers. I held up Mondrian and Velazquez, Asterix and Jacob Lawrence, and we followed our thoughts out loud, ultimately deciding, after three hours, that we had barely scratched the surface. A most satisfying Cafe. Thanks to all who were there.

Wish you had been? Look for Part Two of this topic, I have a feeling it will be back. Comments, thoughts? Post here or Email me.

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Image:

Suprematist Composition: White on White

Kazimir Malevich (Russian, born Ukraine. 1878-1935)

1918 Oil on Canvas, 31 1'4 x 31 1/4"

Art Cafe: This Sunday, June 7

2009-05-31T23:48:00.000-07:00

Tell Me a Story: Narrative in Art

Sunday, June 7

11am -1pm

$15

At my home studio in Eastlake

Email me to reserve your spot

The desire to hear and to tell stories is fundamentally human, which perhaps accounts for the persistence of narrative art despite periods when it has been unfashionable. What does 'narrative' mean in a visual context? Are 'narrative' and 'abstract' mutually exclusive? Let's look at a range of work from Greek sculpture to tapestries, cartoons to color field, history paintings to contemporary art - and see if we can stretch and redefine what it means to tell a story in a visual medium. I suspect surprises await us.

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Join me for this informal discussion in my studio with a view. Refreshments provided. You don't need to know a thing about the topic, or about art - just be interested in listening, trying ideas, and eating tasty snacks. Your friends are welcome, too.

Please bring any books, postcards, objects that you feel might relate to our topic. All ideas and contributions are appreciated.

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Image:

A Bigger Splash

David Hockney

1967

Acrylic on canvas

242.5 x 243.9 cm (95 1/2 x 96 in)

Beckmann

2009-05-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Max Beckmann's Germanic view of a Mediterranean landscape is a stage between acts. If we wait a moment longer, gazing toward the sea, will one of his society ladies stalk pensively into the frame from the right?

If she did she'd disrupt a composition so finely balanced, so cleverly assymetrical, it takes a second to register that the path we are peering down is exactly center. Is it a landscape for composition's sake? Or the uneasy paradise of a worldly skeptic? Those spiky palms, those gigantic buds in the foreground...do I dare sit in that chair and turn my back on those shadows?

I often show my somewhat battered postcard of this picture in my drawing and painting classes. I probably got it on my last visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but I didn't remember the painting being there. And so on my visit last weekend, when I came around the corner and there it was, I jumped and had to look elsewhere before I could compose myself enough to return to it.

When I finally turned my full attention to the picture, how marvelous! Up close, the unworried brushstrokes; the sensuous yellow on yellow, canvas showing through, on the path through the trees; the black that simultaneously defines flat shapes and imparts dimension - all the rewards of seeing the real thing, live and in person - of feeling, come to think of it, like the woman about to walk into the picture.

Julia Hensley

iPhone photo

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Painting:

Max Beckmann

Landschaft, Cannes (Landscape, Cannes)

1934

oil on canvas

Rauschenberg

2009-05-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

My SFMoMA journal, continued...

Julia Hensley
iPhone photos
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Painting:
Robert Rauschenberg
Collection (formerly Untitled)
1954
Painting | oil, paper, fabric, wood, and metal on canvas

Diebenkorn

2009-05-13T21:20:00.001-07:00

Julia Hensley

iPhone photos

Diebenkorn DETAILS

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Painting:

Richard Diebenkorn

Berkeley #57

1955

Painting | oil on canvas

Guston

2009-05-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

Julia Hensley

iPhone photos

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Painting:

Philip Guston

For M.

1955

oil on canvas

76 3/8 in. x 72 1/4 in.

Guston and Giacometti

2009-05-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Julia Hensley

iPhone photo

Giacometti & Guston

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Sculpture:

Alberto Giacometti

Tête (Trois quarts et profil) (Buste de Diego)

(Head [Three-Quarters Profile] [Bust of Diego])
1957

bronze

23 7/8 in. x 9 3/4 in. x 6 3/8 in.

Painting:

Philip Guston

For M.

1955

oil on canvas

76 3/8 in. x 72 1/4 in.

Stella

2009-05-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last weekend. Here is Frank Stella, reflected in the polished granite stripes in the stairwell of Mario Botta's 1995 building.

Julia Hensley

iPhone photo

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Painting:

Frank Stella

Khurasan Gate(Variation ) I

1969

polymer and fluorescent polymer on canvas

96 1/4 in. x 285 1/2 in. x 3 1/8 in

Speaking of flowers...

2009-05-07T22:53:00.001-07:00

Drawing Flowers in Color class starts June. Join me for this exploration of aquarelle pencils and crayons and add a new dimension to your enjoyment of flowers and plants.

Flowers flowers flowers

2009-05-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

Announcing Buds and Blooms , a garden celebration in Federal Way this weekend.

Student Lillian Yeh helps to organize it.

According to the brochure, there are lush spring gardens in Federal Way, a Farmer's Market, and an urban wetland and wildlife refuge. The event features a grand tour of these, with presentations by gardening celebrities, workshops, live music, art exhibits, food booths and activities for kids.

Bring Mom. Bring the kids. Happy Mother's Day!

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Image:

Pierre August Renoir

Spring Flowers, 1864

Oil on canvas

51 1/8 x 38 5/8 inches

Robert Yoder

2009-05-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight I attended the guest speaker portion of the third in fellow instructor, Doug Parry's excellent Fine Art Symposium series at Pratt. The subject of the Symposium is Narrative in Contemporary Art, and the speaker was Robert Yoder. Yoder made a name for himself with his rigorous abstract road-sign constructions; his recent collages exhibit a simultaneous freedom and precision, with a playful quality that draws you in.

While Yoder's images aren't necessarily directly narrative, it's fun to construct a story based on the title and the picture. We talked about how the subject is influenced in large measure by what the viewer brings to it.

I think Narrative in a broader sense is a splendid idea for our next Art Cafe topic, don't you?

Stay tuned!

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Image:

Robert Yoder

Breaker, 2006

Collage - vinyl, collage on paper

8 x 8 inches

Froelick Gallery

Collages by Becky Brooks

2009-05-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

Part of 4Cats Art Cafe is sharing the work of my students and friends. While Becky studies drawing and painting with me, she also has enjoyed many collage classes with Ricky Wolfe. Here is one of Becky's recent pieces that caught my eye.

See more here.

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Image:
Scarlet Honeymoon
9.5 x 9.5"

Championing art and craft in Issaquah

2009-05-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from Becky Brooks's Flying House Art and Craft Sale. By all accounts it was a warm and wonderful event, with wave after wave of people coming in the door and every corner of Becky and husband Jeff's charming 50's modern house ("with the butterfly roof") stuffed with art and crafts of all kinds. Three cheers to Becky for her enterprising drive to grow and support the arts community in Issaquah. Her event provided an intimate venue for sixteen artists and craftspeople to show their work this year.

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Image:

Jeff Youngstrom

Anna Thormahlen Jenkins performing for art sale patrons.

Kissing (George) in the park

2009-04-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

Now playing in Seattle at the 5th Avenue Theater: Sunday in the Park with George (music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine), the musical inspired by George Seurat's great painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte".

Sunday in the Park with George
April 21-June 10
5th Avenue Theatre
Seattle

Student and friend, Diane Schebel, passed the word:
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"Mike heard about an upcoming musical called Sunday in the Park with George as a colleague has a small role. He says it is the best production he's ever been involved with.

The show will be at the 5th Ave Theater beginning April 21st for about 3 weeks. If anyone puts the word Facebook in the discount code section when checking out, you'll get $25.00 off each ticket! We managed to get great seats for the first night and the discount code made it very reasonable.

Here is the link...
---------------------------

Back from her night at the 5th Avenue, Diane raved about the show, particularly the visuals involving computer graphics.

---------------------------
(Leonard Bernstein called his friend Sondheim's show "brilliant, deeply conceived, canny, magisterial, and by far the most personal statement I've heard from you thus far. Bravo.").*

Photo:
Hugh Panera as Georges Seurat with Billie Wildrick as Dot

"unless your picture goes wrong, it will be no good" - Picasso

2009-04-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

Going to New York in the next month or so? Catch Picasso's late Mosqueteros series at Gagosian Gallery - it sounds like a great, museum-caliber show with less fanfare. Here's the New York Times review.

PABLO PICASSO

MOSQUETEROS

MARCH 26 - JUNE 6, 2009

Gagosian Gallery
522 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011
Tel 212.741.1717

Fax 212.741.0006

Mon-Sat 10-6

Installation View

Gagosian Gallery

4th Annual Flying House Art & Craft Sale

2009-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

This flower ring by Gillian Theis is one of many lovely pieces to be found at the sale of art and crafts that Becky Brooks hosts next weekend.

In addition to Gillian and Becky (mixed-media collage), friends, students and artists, Kathy Brazeau (felted bowls), Sue Danielson (paintings and prints), and Terry Peart (paintings) will all be displaying work. Sounds like a great place to enjoy an afternoon, spend a few dollars and come away with something unique and wonderful.

-----------------

4th Annual

Flying House Art & Craft Sale
270 NE Birch Street, Issaquah, WA

Saturday, April 25, 11am to 5pm
Sunday, April 26, 11am to 5pm

Featuring over 12 talented local artists
with original artwork:

Mixed media -- Textiles -- Jewelry

Paper-cuttings -- Handmade soaps and lotions
Cards -- Pottery -- Felted wares -- And more!
-----------
Come to the sale you’ve been hearing about and experience a feast for your senses! The nooks and crannies of Flying House will be filled with another extraordinary assortment of quality items. Find unique gifts for the special people in your life or for yourself. We hope to see you! - Becky

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Sally Shintaffer has a show

2009-04-13T09:02:00.000-07:00

Faith Hanna sent this review of classmate Sally's show of photographs in West Seattle. The show sounds well worth a trip across the way, and Sally's Mixed Greens blog is inspiring and well-written.

Sally's small show is delightful. Sally and her colleague Poppy have arranged their very nice photos around the walls of a comfy coffee house. The arrangements are done with intention similar to Julia throwing down her postcards. I enjoyed picking out themes of color, line, and light.

For opening night, the food was great, proving that these artistic foodies can really cook. For those of you interested in further info, here's the description from their blog:
-------------
What Feeds Us

In our show, we have single images and collage-like groupings exploring the sensual character of food and offering perspective beyond the plate. While there’s an emphasis on whole foods in season, through this collaboration we’re taking a more personal look at what sustains us.

Our photos are printed on environmentally-friendly art paper made with mulberry fiber and printed with archival inks.
--------------

The show will be up for the month of April at:

C & P Coffee Company

5612 California Ave SW

in West Seattle

They’re open

M-F 6:30AM - 8:00PM

Sat & Sun 7AM - 8PM

more birthday fun

2009-04-13T08:53:00.001-07:00

And, since it's still my birthday, I am posting my painting inspired by the Matisse. Henri's painting is a view from his studio on the Quai Saint Michel. Mine is a view up Lake City Way.

Image:

Julia Hensley

Consolidated Carpet

Oil on Canvas; 30" x 48"

2003

Collection of Michael, Gretchen, and Simon Matisse

Happy birthday to me...

2009-04-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

Since it's my birthday and this is my blog, I get to post one of my favorite paintings. It makes my heart sing. Enjoy.

For a high-resolution image (showing entirely different color than the one above), and a full catalog of Matisse's work, visit the Henri Matisse official website.

----------

Image:
View of Notre Dame

Henri Matisse

Paris, quai Saint-Michel, spring 1914

Oil on canvas, 58 x 37 1/8" (147.3 x 94.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art, NYC

Music sketch

2009-03-31T18:50:00.001-07:00

A playful drawing from Vermeer's time by Leonart Bramer.

(That must be a cat on the lower left, but it does look a bit like a seal).

Musicians in an Interior (detail)
Leonaert Bramer
c. 1660, 37.2 x 46.3 cm., Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

From this website, which has some wonderful samples to listen to of music played on instruments of the same era.

Juan Gris

2009-03-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

Image:

Juan Gris
The Violin
1916
Oil on three-ply panel, 116.5 x 73 cm (45 3/4 x 28 3/4 in)
Kunstmuseum, Basel

Intermission

2009-03-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

"A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?"
--------------------------------------

The above text is from an email I received from my Mom. The writer of this summary is anonymous. I have excluded the final words posing a possible interpretation of the experiment.

Personally, I am musing over the word "intermission" in relation to the story.

To read the full, original Washington Post article, click here.

(You will eventually scroll past the cosmetic surgery ad, hang in there, it's worth it).

See and hear the performance here.

Binky's clouds

2009-03-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Binky Walker is in a group show at Catherine Person Gallery. Come see her skillful and delicate drawings of clouds changing subtly from moment to moment.

Opening this Thursday.

--------------------------------------

Catherine Person Gallery
319 Third Ave South
Seattle, WA 98104
www.catherineperson.com
206.763.5565

--------------------------------------
HIGH LINE
A Drawing Survey April 2 - May 16, 2009

Join us for the Opening on First Thursday, April 2nd, 6-8 pm

Catherine Person Gallery is pleased to announce High Line, an exhibition of contemporary drawings by Seattle artists Pam Keeley, Barry Maxwell, Julie Alexander, Colleen Hayward, Joseph Pentheroudakis, Binky Walker.

--------------------------------------

For artists in every career stage - from emerging to the most mature - drawing offers viewers the most direct record of an artist’s thoughts and mark of the hand. High Line surveys various drawing methods and materials within the styles of figurative and abstraction, ranging in scale from a miniature one inch to a muscular sixty inches. Each of the artists’ drawings reflects patience in art practice, devotion to detail and enormous skill. Drawings have long been sought after and collected for being a personal reflection of the artist and accessibility.
--------------------------------------

Image:
Binky Walker. From the Series Measure of Difference, Triptych no. 5 (detail), graphite on paper,7” x 7” on 15" x 15" paper (each image) 2008

To preview additional work, please go www.catherineperson.com and click on Exhibitions.

Why 4Cats?

2009-03-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to share the origin of "4Cats Art Cafe".

It's named for Els Quatre Gats, the cafe in Barcelona where Picasso and friends used to hang out when he was a young man. The cafe was founded in 1897 and is still there, with its black and white tiles, marble tables, and piano and violin music.

The cafe's owners, primarily artist Ramon Casas i Carbó, promoted art, artists, and art events. He and his partners even ran an art paper for a while called Pel & Ploma, and another called Forma.

The cafe became a hub of Modernism, with Picasso's friends, the sculptor Julio Gonzalez and the painters Miguel Utrillo and Santiago Rusiñol i Prats, frequent visitors.

I love the idea of a place where ideas about art were batted around and printed words and images flowed along with the wine and tapas.

Hence, my version of Els Quatre Gats: 4Cats Art Cafe.

I see that the restaurant is now using the same incarnation of the name, along with a charming flash animation introduction. Times, change, eh, Pablo? But a drawing is still a drawing, even digital. Viva ink, pen, and pixels.

Image source

Fun was had by all

2009-03-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

All four of us at the last 4Cats Art Cafe, that is.

We were the 4 Cats.

Which brings me to my next post.

But before that, I'd like to say how good it was to be sharing thoughts and observations and questions and ideas about Indian art together at my cozy home studio, after a morning of ridiculously huge snow puffs falling out of the sky followed by glorious sun on the lake.

We discovered that, while none of us could claim much knowledge of Indian iconography, we shared a mutual delight in the quirky, sophisticated and playful visual language of the paintings. I for one look forward to learning more about this rich cultural realm not covered so much in college art history classes.

Two days till spring.

Caption Contest

2009-03-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

Lest we get too serious about art...

One of the things we enjoyed noticing at our 4Cats Art Cafe on Sunday was the playfulness and outright joy in so many Indian paintings. It's good to be reminded that, no matter how serious we are about our subject, art is above all, play.

So it is with no disrespect to Mr. Raj, painter of this beautifully painted picture, or to the Hindu gods depicted in it, that I propose a caption contest for the orange and green fellows at the lower left.

If you have an idea what Vishnu might be thinking as he reclines on his giant white polyp, or what all of those many heads might be saying on the right, please send those in, too.

Next: Caption contest for a Medieval Christian panel.

Fun with art is an equal-opportunity event. Or ought to be.

-------------------

Image

Shesha-shayi Vishnu, Madhu-Kaitabha and Adishakti
Miniature Painting On Paper
Artist Kailash Raj
10.5" X 7.5"

4Cats goes to India

2009-03-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Announcing the next 4Cats Art Cafe event:

Indian Art - Story and Perspective

---------------------------------------

Sunday, March 15
11:00am-1:00pm

Contact me for location information

$15

RSVP

Coffee, tea, champagne, orange juice and pastries are provided. Additions to the menu are welcome.

Space at my studio is limited. Let me know asap if you would like a spot. Know someone who might like to join our art discussions? They are welcome, too.

-----------------------------------------------

Topic:

Indian Art - Story and Perspective

One of the most elemental forms of expression is telling a story, an art to which every culture and period in history has contributed its own flavor and style. If we include painting as a kind of storytelling, the various viewpoints become delightfully visible. How does the art of India evoke the world differently than a conventional western perspective? What are some of the features of Indian painting and what comparisons can we make to work of other periods and locations in order to highlight the Indian visual viewpoint?

---------------------------------------------

Consider bringing:

Books, postcards, reproductions of Indian art, work of other artists to compare them with, or any related images - photographs, posters, fabric, postcards, and other inspirations - that you think just might add to our discussion.

(Tapestries, cartoons, cubism, Italian biblical frescoes, Japanese story-drawings and Egyptian murals, color field painting and graffiti are just a handful of the ideas that pop to mind).

-----------------------------------------------

Images

Above

"Ravana poses as an elderly hermit to trick Sita. When she does not leave with him willingly, he abducts her and carries her away in his chariot."

Below
Watercolor painting, “Jallandharnath and Princess Padmini Fly over King Padam’s Palace,” by Amardas Bhatti, 1830. Currently on display at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

"But it's only paint!"

2009-02-26T22:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a little more about that 'scandalous' painting. Sargent's Madame Paul Gautreau (or Madame X) caused a furor in its day because of the dress and the way it was worn in the picture by Parisian "it" girl, Amelie Virginie Gautreau.

In the original version shown in the Paris Salon in 1884, Sargent painted the right strap falling off her shoulder, lending the painting a sexually charged air that had Paris in an uproar. The sitter's family wanted to destroy the work but Sargent whisked it away as soon as the show closed, painted the strap back in place on the shoulder, and the painting hangs in the Metropolitan Museum today.

I find it interesting to compare compositionally what the altered line of the strap does to the painting. Whereas everything seems to flower open from the decollatage up to the lovely head in the original, in the final version there is a closing of the lines. The new angle of the right strap would seem to lead us to her head, but don't you think the lush expanse of bare chest in the original is far more effective at leading us toward her face? If anything is compromised here it is the purity of the line of Amelie's shoulder, not to mention the artist's original vision. Apparently Mme. Gautreau's relatives disagreed.

In the comments below, Sargent begins his painting. From a letter to his friend, Vernon Lee, as quoted in John Sargent, by Hon Evan Charteris, first published by Benjamin Blom, Inc. NY, in 1927:

"'In a few days I shall be back in Paris, tackling my other 'envoi,' the Portrait of a Great Beauty. Do you object to people who are 'fardeés'* to the extent of being uniform lavender or blotting-paper colour all over? If so you would not care for my sitter; but she has the most beautiful lines, and if the lavender or chlorate of potash-lozenge colour be pretty in itself I should be more than pleased.'"

* meaning 'disguised'

Images

Above:
John Singer Sargent, Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1884, oil on canvas, 234.95 x 109.86 cm, Manhattan: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Below:
I am unable to find source or attribution information for this photograph, taken just before or during the Paris Salon in 1884.

Secret muse?

2009-02-26T21:56:00.000-08:00

In class on Thursday, Joan Cox told me how she was admiring the stunning black Elie Saab gown Angelina Jolie wore to the Oscars when she had a flash of visual memory.

That neckline! And that pose!

Sure enough, she found a sketch for John Singer Sargent's Mme. Paul Gautreau (also known as Madame X)...and there it was, minus the green teardrop earrings and Brad Pitt, but so close as to convince you that the designer must surely have had the famous dress in mind.

Here is Sargent's watercolor sketch - one of many studies he made for the oil portrait - in Joan's book, along with a picture she saw in the Seattle PI of Angelina in a pose so strikingly reminiscent of Sargent's final piece, it's as if Angelina was channeling the painting:

Here is the photo of Angelina side by side with the Sargent oil painting:

Left

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Oscars 2009, CROP of photo from Getty Images

Right

John Singer Sargent, Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1884, oil on canvas, 234.95 x 109.86 cm, Manhattan: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Charcoal animation

2009-02-26T21:50:00.000-08:00

The scene in Acrylic Painting class today as we worked on our charcoal still life drawings.

I propose the still life be renamed the full-of-life.

William Kentridge

2009-02-26T00:50:00.000-08:00

South-African born artist William Kentridge is at the Henry Art Gallery . I've read a lot about him and I'm looking forward to seeing the show.

I'm posting this especially for my students who were recently introduced to charcoal as a medium! Here is one of his animated, charcoal-drawn videos, called Overpass.

Mr. Kentridge creates animation with his charcoal drawings. He is also a sculptor, set designer and director, with two theater pieces opening soon.

One is a one-night performance, I Am Not Me, The Horse Is Not Mine, March 9 at Kane Hall at 7:30. The other show is at Pacific Operaworks, Seattle’s new chamber opera company, which will premiere Kentridge’s staging of the Monteverdi opera, The Return of Ulysses for the West Coast.

Here's a review of the Kentridge show at the Henry by Jen Graves.

You can also see Mr. Kentridge's prints at Greg Kucera Gallery through the end of February.

Van patchwork

2009-02-26T00:46:00.001-08:00

Eastlake walk

2009-02-25T00:34:00.001-08:00

2009-02-22T22:56:00.000-08:00

Denyse Schmidt

Drunk Love in a Log Cabin

Couture Quilt

Here is one of Denyse Schmidt's beautifully crafted, Gee's Bend-influenced quilts. It's interesting to compare what effect high craftsmanship has on design. Looking at her handmade "couture" line, are they more, or less, interesting than the Gee's Bend handmade quilts? just as interesting? more beautiful? more impressive? are they art? does it matter? are they something different, with a different intent? Can we separate the kind (not necessarily 'level') of craft from the work? I think it's fascinating to consider the questions that arise from the issue of craft in relation to art. I don't have it all sorted out in my mind yet, but I'm enjoying musing.

Quilters at Greg Kucera Saturday

2009-02-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

Well as you can see I got quite excited about the book I've been reading on African-American quilters, and it has sent me back to my books on the Gee's Bend quilts. I hope you enjoy the quotes below as much as I do. There are so many more that speak to the organic creative process of artists open to the suggestion of accident and surprise, as well as to the characters of the quilters.

The history of the African-American approach to quilt design is deep, with sensibilities rooted in cultural traditions and art forms such as the pygmy bark-cloth paintings in the book Heather brought to share with us. The Africans who came to America as slaves brought their joy in breaking a pattern and embracing happenstance, along with the designs and geometries familiar to them, and these mingled with Euro-American quilt traditions and probably (according to Eli Leon) influenced significantly the quilts American women made - perhaps more so than their quilts influenced those of the slaves.

The visual flights in so many of the Gee's Bend quilts are easily the equal of the most sophisticated color-field painting, with a power that comes not from training but from simply knowing. The designs stand alone. Still, the artists' lives and histories infuse the quilts with something extra, a sure and fiery human grace that cannot be separated from their making.

Which brings me to a reminder: Some of the quilts and their makers will be together at Greg Kucera this weekend. Go if you have the chance.

Artist talk: Saturday, February 21 at noon

with Lousiana Bendolph, Revil Mosely, and Loretta Bennett

Loretta Bennett
Crazy Quilt, 2003
Quilted fabric
84 x 79 inches

At Greg Kucera Gallery

Whackin' on it

2009-02-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

"If you're cutting out straight pieces, you just figure out how wide you want it an' how long you want it, you just go whackin' on it...you just cut it out."

- Gussie Wells, quilter

as quoted by Eli Leon

Loretta Pettway, born 1942

Medallion, ca. 1960

Synthetic knit and cotton sacking material

87 x 70 inches

Eyeing things

2009-02-17T09:38:00.001-08:00

"I really don't like to sit down and do all that measurin'. It just takes the heart outa things."

"I just kinda eye things. Just see how I want it to go together and then put it together."

- Sherry Byrd, quilter

as quoted by Eli Leon

Measuring up

2009-02-17T00:41:00.000-08:00

Sally Schintafer was at our Cafe on Sunday. Her words and photos are shared here with her permission.

"The making and discussion of art is a long-awaited experience for me. I didn't know I was waiting, but I was.

One of the death knells in my creative life is the question 'is it good enough?' 'Is it exactly right'? I'm growing away from that gradually and yesterday's discussion illuminated a little more the futility, the loss of trying to measure up.

And to reflect upon the ladies of Gee, their individual and collaborative process; their receptivity to spontaneity and innovation; how they just do it, no matter, and are guided, perhaps partly by genetic memory, to piece in this particular way. Thank you, Julia."

What mistakes?

2009-02-16T23:47:00.000-08:00

' "Mistakes" may be acceptable, or not seen as mistakes at all but welcomed as an integral component of craftsmanship. Odessa Doby's daughter, Wanda Jones (Berkely, California), says that when she was learning to quilt and would make a mistake, her mother would say:

It's nothin about makin' it a little different. It's still the same pattern. You just added somethin' of your own to it.'

- From Eli Leon's Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African -American Quiltmaking (San Francisco Craft & Folk Museum, 1987)

Mary Elizabeth Kennedy, 1911-1991

"Housetop"-- "Logcabin" variation, ca. 1935

Cotton, rayon, 84 x 79 inches

Points of view

2009-02-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

Nancy Pettway
Bricklayer Variation, 2003
Quilted fabric, 71 x 71 inches

Thanks to all who showed up for today's Art Cafe and made it so much fun!

There were so many ideas that resonated. Receptivity to making changes, or improvising, during the act of creating is to me a very important one.

I noticed that many of our comments pointed to qualities we seemed ready to entertain as culturally especially African. The comparison was made to music and to jazz in particular, partly, I think, because of the elements of improvising and making variations on a theme common both to jazz and the Gee's Bend quilts.

According to Eli Leon in the book that Faith brought to share with us (Who'd a Thought: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking, San Francisco Art & Craft Museum, 1987), the comparison to music is apt and real to such an extent that terms used in African music are carried over to the visual in quilting. For example, "whooping" in the Congo and Angola means a kind of yodeling, breaking from high to low, from a chest to a head voice. To "whoop that down" in quilting means to pull together two contrasting colors.

That's just the beginning. According to Leon, in African culture generally, improvisation on an existing form is actively encouraged from a young age. There are in fact classical forms for dance masks, sculptures, robes, and stools, for instance, but within each form there is enormous scope for individual expression.

"While every society finds its appropriate counterpoise between traditional and individual expression, black African cultures are exceptional in the degree to which they favor individuality."

So our sense of the Africanness of the freedom to mess with a pattern, to allow an accident of placement to remain, or as I like to say, to collaborate with one's materials, turns out to be a culturally reinforced predilection.

The direct quotes from the quilters say it best. Here's quilter Willia Ette Graham:

"When I get it together, well I'm surprised at the quilt that I have made. It's so much different to what it's supposed to have been. It's a new pattern."

And Sherry Byrd: " I don't like to use patterns. I think moreso they're a waste of my time because it's other people's ideas and not that I don't use other people's ideas, but you know , I don't like to do the same things over and over, and so I just kind of build my own quilts as I sit at the machine."

Eastlake industrial

2009-02-11T22:58:00.001-08:00

iPhone shot by JH.

Quilts and prints in Seattle

2009-02-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

GREG KUCERA GALLERY

QUILTERS OF GEE'S BEND
Quilts and Etchings
February 19 - March 28

10 Gee's Bend quilts as well as some of the quilters' new prints will be on view. If you haven't seen the quilts in person, this is a great opportunity. In addition, we are lucky to have some of the artists in town. There is a reception with some of the women on Saturday, February 21 at noon.

Gee's Bend: the play

2009-02-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

TAPROOT THEATER
GEE'S BEND

Written by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder
and Directed by Karen Lund
January 30 - February 28

This is a new play based on the women's lives. Mary Lee Bendolph (picture below), whose life is the primary inspiration for the main character, Sadie, will be present with some of the other quilters for post-play discussions on several dates.

(Informative blog article about the play)

Announcing

2009-02-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

The first 4Cats Art Cafe event at my studio in Seattle.
---------------------------------------
Sunday, February 15
11:00am-1:00pm

Contact me for location information

$15

RSVP

Coffee, tea, orange juice and pastries are provided.

Additions to the menu are welcome.

Space at my studio is limited, so let me know asap if you would like a spot.

This is the first of many Cafes, so please tell your friends!

---------------------------------------
Topic: The Quilts of Gee's Bend

The once obscure quilts of Gee's Bend and the women who make them have made a deep impression on countless artists, the art world, and the vast audience of people who are now familiar with their work. What makes these quilts worthy of attention as works of art? What relationship can we find between their work and the work of other artists?

Consider bringing:
Books, postcards, reproductions of the quilts, work of other artists to compare them with, or any related images - conventional quilts, photographs, graphics, or other inspirations - that you think just might add to our discussion.

Leaps of imagination are encouraged.

Loretta Bennett

Blocks and Strips, 2003-4
Quilted fabric
68.5 x 61.75 inches

Richard Diebenkorn

Ocean Park #83 , 1975

Oil on canvas
100 x 81 in.
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

How to participate in 4Cats Art Cafe

2009-02-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

Come across an article about cave paintings in Siberia? Rembrandt's mistress? How art expands the neurons in our brains?

Do you want to share a photograph you think has a stunning composition?

Or let us know about a great show coming up in a gallery or museum?

Respond to posts here and email me your links, pictures, or ideas about an art-related subject. A note about what interests you about the subject is helpful. I will curate and post them to share with everyone.

Welcome to the conversation.

Rembrandt van Rijn
Self-Portrait in a Cap, Open-Mouthed
Etching
1630
5,1 x 4,6 cm
Rijksmuseum

Welcome to 4Cats Art Cafe

2009-02-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

4Cats Art Cafe is a place for students, artists, collectors, art lovers, and anyone who is interested to share in the ongoing conversation about art.

This blog is an online extension of real-life, Sunday Art Cafe brunches at my home studio in Seattle. Kind of like a book club for art, with a different topic each time. I host and facilitate the discussion and everyone contributes. If that sounds like fun and you live in the Seattle area, send me an email and join us!

Lights on the lake

2008-12-31T22:57:00.000-08:00