Leannderthal

Yesterday, mom, Jane and I went to Stratford, Ontario, to see Dangerous Liaisons.   It was a hugely fun day, we saw a great and exciting play, beautifully acted.  I couldn’t take pictures, you’ll have to trust me.  But, before we went to the play, Jane arranged for us to go on the Costume and Prop Warehouse Tour.  There, you can take all the pictures you want.  You can’t imagine all the costumes!  It an assault to the eyes, all the vivid color and beautiful designs.  Everyone leaves there thinking how dull we all dress, and how can we spiff up our wardrobes?

There are racks upon racks of costumes, beautiful to look at, but we’re not allowed to touch!

Just a few of the capes and cloaks.

Most costumes are hanging on racks, but many are displayed to get a closer look.

They do rent some of the costumes for small productions.  I’m wondering if they would rent them for everyday use.

I’m thinking perhaps this Samuri outfit for a job interview.

The detail is much more than I expected.  Many of the costumes are very heavy. 

They also have tons of props, I liked this corpse.

The best part is at the end of the tour, where they have several racks of costumes you can not only touch, but try on!

A couple of the women getting ready for that big date.

Jane, resplendent in purple, showing off the beautiful lining.  You wouldn’t believe how heavy these things are!  How can the actors act, with all this hanging on them?

I chose a beautiful white robe, to offset the blue hair.

A good hat for a bad hair day.

If you ever get a chance to catch a play at the Stratford Festival, do it.  It’s a great time.

One of our challenges in the fabric art group Running With Scissors was to do a small self portrait quilt.  This is my offering.  I started by taking a photo of myself, upping the contrast, then I transferred the image to a silk screen.  I printed many little me images and cut them apart, then rearranged them with felt behind them until I was satisfied.  Add a little floss, a few buttons, and this is what you get.

The finished piece is 12″x18″, here are a few close-ups:

Our fiber group has a challenge to make a 12″x12″ quilt about “been there, done that” taken from a photo of someplace you’ve been.  I decided to do something that I did and don’t need to do again.  It’s one of those things you tick off your list, you did it before you died, enjoyed it, but don’t need to do it again.  I love New York, but I only really need to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge once.  So this is from a photo that a friend took of Mark and I on the bridge. 

This is the original photo:

I’m not entirely sure the quilt is finished, but I think it is.

I made a little voodoo kit for a friend.

It included a little mojo necklace,

an elixir to mix,

a voodoo doll and a meditation candle.  Guaranteed to solve all your problems!

Last night was the Two Twelve Art Center opening for the “Earth” show, a wonderful show where artists took images from a book and reinterpreted them.

To say it was well attended is an understatement.  For a while you couldn’t move or see the work.   Lovely to have a violinist, along with sangria and munchies.

It did clear out enough that I got a great shot of Lynn, with Sidney and Stephanie behind her.

My two pieces were in the show, I’m proud to be hanging with such amazing artwork.  It was wonderful to see how each artist translated each image.   Kat did an amazing job putting this show together.

Afterwords I grabbed my peeps and we went to Creekside in Ann Arbor to get some dinner and listen to Danny James (aka Danny Cash) play some Country.

I met up with my buddy Greg, who was there with Mark.

Mark also got a few cool pics of Danny preforming.  What a fun night!

I did a couple of pieces for an upcoming show at the 212 Art Center in Saline.  The requirement was to use a picture from the book “Earth, A New Perspective” by Nicholas Cheetham for inspiration.  This is the picture I chose, I liked the straight grid lines imposed on the natural landscape, and I thought for once I’d do something pretty.

Well, I read about the picture in the book, then Sixty Minutes did a story on this.  The lovely straight lines are the canals Saddam Hussein had dug to turn the wetlands of the Tigris and the Euphrates into desert, causing death and ecological destruction.  My lovely picture is of a murderous deed.

So I did a little rethinking.  I made a block print inspired by the lines of the image and printed it on black satin.  I then mounted it to a board painted then stamped with the work “water” over and over.

This is the first piece, “Water One”  I added beads and waxed linen.

This is a detail of the print part of the piece.

This is “Water Two”.  I took two prints of the same block, one done in a greenish gold and one in a greyish silver, and wove them, much like the way the natives of the wetland wove reeds to make their houses.

This is a third piece, a small 5×7 made from the scraps, for the gallery to sell for charity.

The show will be in January at the Two Twelve Art Center in Saline.  It will be a great show, some amazing artists have been working hard on it.

In Little Monsters, where my friend Sidney was having an art show.

Lynn was kind enough to invite me along for the ride.  I had a great time.

This is the artist of the day, Sidney.

We got to meet the store cat.

We looked at Sid’s work, one of the most talented people I know, and now a great art fair organizer.

Then we went to Northville to check out the windows.  Our art group was allowed to hang our stuff in a vacant storefront for the season.

It’s a lovely display.

This is Cynthia’s joyful Day of the Dead piece, celebrating life.

This is Deb’s piece.  I absolutely love this piece!  Deb made a wonderful post while she struggled with this piece, and I’m so glad she kept going.  It is truly perfect!

I’ve added some mini workshop button books to my ETSY site.

Because it’s today!  Stop by the Berkly Knights of Columbus at 2299 12 mile, from 10 to 4!

I also want to thank Missy for the wonderful post about me!

freshly made,

and ready to go to the show Saturday!