art – Page 3 – No Idle hands here

Luke Haynes part I

Here I go again, too much information for one post. So I’m splitting it up.

On Sunday I went to the exhibit The Log Cabins of Donald Judd. Wow! Luke mentions that people will be overwhelmed, I was in a good way. The quilts are amazing, the way he hung and displayed them is new and unique. He likens the experience to walking through a Richard Serra Sculpture, he is right, but this is better, it’s fabric, not iron. Luke Haynes, the Log Cabins of Donald Judd Aside from the works themselves, Luke is a delightful young man. He was more than happy to talk about the quilts, he also has great fashion sense – note those shoes!!! Only to be found in DTLA, perfect for the ensemble.Let’s start with a traditional basic log cabin quilt. This layout is called Courthouse steps. If you look in the lower left corner, you will see the standard log cabin block. Starting with a red square – signifying the center hearth of the home, strips of fabric of equal width are built around it, two sides light, two sides dark. Then you play with the layout of these blocks and here is one version. Luke Haynes, the Log Cabins of Donald Judd Side by side, on the left another very traditional layout of the log cabin block. I probably did this myself on my first log cabin quilt. On the right, Op Art! Those four large blocks are built the same way, but the width and layout of the colors has changed, and so has the effect of the quilt. P1130789 Here he has taken that idea to one large block. This is a close up, because the strips get so long and wonky, the quilt won’t lie flat – that is the nature of this one. A word about the fabric, Luke buys old clothes and sheets by the pound at Goodwill and uses as much as he can. I love how the pocket remains from this shirt. This isn’t an original idea, but it’s fun to see whenever a quilt maker veers away from traditional quilting cottons. Also, as the strips get longer, each one is composed of many fabrics pieced together. Luke Haynes, the Log Cabins of Donald Judd Here we have the Richard Serra affect, creating a spiral of hanging quilts to walk through. First you see the fronts, then go around again looking at the backs. The hearth is centered, the strips are of equal width, but he has played with the placement of darks and lights. Luke Haynes, the Log Cabins of Donald Judd I know this block well – Log Condo, this is what he taught us at Quiltcon. We used these dimensions, in a later post I’ll share that block. I love how the red is playing a more dominant part in these quilts.Instead of the block being a square, how about changing it to a rectangle? P1130807 There is a lot of play where the light and dark strips are very different proportions. As well as using the Courthouse steps layout or simply stacking the blocks. Luke Haynes, the Log Cabins of Donald Judd The other other Leah is studying a quilt. A nice thing about this show, Luke had no problem with us touching them – which is something every quilter wants to do! The fabrics have already been through a lot – it’s not like we’ll destroy them. Although these are displayed as art, they are quilts that Luke sleeps under. I get frustrated when the art world treats ephemeral art like an Old Master. Sorry, some things need to be preserved and others, not so much. Luke Haynes, the Log Cabins of Donald Judd
Luke is bridging art and craft so well here. These quilts live very comfortably in both worlds. So here is our Log Condo block again, look closely, the block itself is a square, by alternating colors and placement we no longer see the square. The batting is wool, which is much lighter in weight than cotton. One of these days, I will use wool batting as well. Luke Haynes, the Log Cabins of Donald Judd Log Condo again, this time the darks and lights do not switch places. The block with the narrow light and wide dark was used in the previous quilt – to a very different affect. Luke is also an architect – it certainly shows!That’s it for the first installment. Another post tomorrow.

Leah

A different look at The Broad

I was downtown giving an Historic Downtown tour to kids from North Hollywood High. They were a great group of kids and the tour went very well. Since I was there on a weekday, I tried my luck and went and stood in line for standby tickets. Met some lovely people from Seattle who had come for the Disney half marathon. Of course I recommended quite a few of our downtown gems.I’ll say it right now, I don’t like the art in the Broad, what interests me is the architecture. I want to see how the shapes and forms react both inside and out.Iconic image, going up the escalator. As someone who studied design, I like the focal point right above the woman’s head. How the lines just lead there.Ok, I found one piece of artwork I like. LACMA has a much more colorful version. African art, taking many pieces of tin, from cans and other objects and creating a large carpet. A wonderful example of crafting with what you have. As for the rest of the art, I’m familiar with his collection of 1980s art, it leaves me cold. What leaves me angry is the newer art – if it doesn’t have an angry message, or an anti Western civilization message – it isn’t part of the collection. There wasn’t anything positive, it was all about racism, or anti war, or sexual deprivation. I get it, we are eating ourselves and won’t stand and defend what the West stands for. All we can do is malign and tear down. I did shock one of the guards when I knew who one of the artists is. Doesn’t make me like her, but I’ve seen her angry anti White America art before. She should be lecturing on all college campii right now.

What this tells me is that many of the visitors don’t know art and coming here they are being ‘educated and enlightened’. Oh for one single European Madonna and Child.Jeff Koons, his highly reflective stainless steel, reflecting itself and the roof beautifully. A win for building making this piece so much more interesting then when it was in other locations.So I aimed my camera at the walls, seeing the play of light and shadow on the structure itself.And found my comfort there.I had of course seen the window from outside.It took a while to find it inside, in a lecture hall.Once again on the outside, tilting my camera so the roof line is vertical.And of course peering through the windows to the street bellow. Combining the soft edges of the window with the geometric lattice of guard rails.And the view of both Disney Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Pavillon, with a shadow of the San Gabriel mountains beyond.And then this image, made my heart sing! The Ped Xing sign, right over the skylights of the Contemporary Art Museum to the Tower of the Title Guarantee building. This is what I love, standing in one contemporary building, looking over another to a wonderful example of Art Deco. I love that architecture develops and changes, I wish that Art would do the same without being ugly and angry. Today positive creativity is happening in the craft world, not in the art world. Here’s hoping they find their way back. At least Architecture isn’t wallowing in the negative.And finally, away from the Broad, looking at the upper station of Angels Flight. This is a funicular that needs an angel. We need it to run again!

Leah

Public art

“MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark….” The weird quirky song is how most people know MacArthur’s Park – well if you are of a certain age. Then for the longest time it was simply a very sketchy area of Los Angeles that you avoided. It was full of drug dealers. Like many parts of the city – it’s not so scary anymore. Especially now that it is part of a public art project.Do not know who is responsible, school children painted these large balls and volunteers are putting them in place.If you approach from the northern part of the park, this is what greets you under the Wilshire Blvd. tunnel.Or like this couple, you can stand on Wilshire and look down.I went a few days before all the balls were installed, so I saw the work in progressU-hauls full of uninflated balls, some shade and a very large pump.A lot of volunteers.Attaching rope.Moving them into position.The lake is segmented so the balls don’t just float helter-skelter.congregated around the aerating fountain.Colorful, fun and bringing in people.

The park is no longer as derelict as it used to be. Not only because of the spheres, the area is on the rebound. Otherwise how to you explain this kind of ‘art’. A cute poodle who is matches her owner. I wonder if the owner wears blue as long as the dog has blue and if she changes the colors often?

There is a lot more to see in the area, but this post is all about the art.

Leah

More Tiffany

The Tiffany tour continues, this time in the Original Marshal Fields building, now Macy’s.

Most people never look up!! Even when 7 floors above you is this amazing incredible vaulted mosaic ceiling. Temples of commerce are just as ornate as any Church.You can take the elevator up to the 7th floor and get a much closer view of this incredible work. Not only the mosaics, there are also a number of globe Tiffany lamps.I can see why, with all the modern cold white lighting, one misses these warm iridescent globes.These are just a few of the images I took of the actual mosaic.Ok, so most people don’t go up to Furniture and Design, but it is so worth it just to stare up at this ceiling.Next stop the old Public Library, today it is The Chicago Cultural Center. Luckily when the new library was built, this building was just too massive and well reinforced, it was just to complicated to destroy. I know, people love to say – oh my city tears every old building down, but other cities are so much better at preservation. Guess what, all cities tear down old buildings, some more than others. We can’t keep everything, and those that remain become more important because there are fewer of them.On the marble bannister, two things happened, they had to cut out the shape in the marble, then painstakingly create the mosaic to fit perfectly.For all the wonderful mosaics here, and there are more, the dome is the real treasure here. This is the largest Tiffany dome anywhere, 38 feet in diameter, over 30,000 pieces of glass, there is a larger dome on the other side of the building, not designed by Tiffany, Unfortunately I couldn’t get to see it. From images online, it looks like I missed something specialThe zodiac, fish scale glass. The dome was cleaned in 2008 and they were amazed by how much more light comes into the room. All of these pieces of art demand a lot of TLC in order to maintain their beauty.Hanging from the dome is this light fixture that mimics the fish tail scales. Yup, my mind is going to a quilt pattern, although it probably is way too much work.A few more mosaics, this one in an archway celebrates American authors. Built in 1897, Chicago was determined to prove that they are a world class city, I think they succeeded.Although we couldn’t enter the hall because they were setting up for a private event, I spied this mosaic off to the side. Hebrew will always catch my eye and in many libraries – you will always find Hebrew. Makes sense since Hebrew is one of the earliest written languages. The alphabet has changed through the years. Of course, Alphabet is a contraction of the two first letters in Hebrew – Aleph -Bet.

The translation is: The Author who did not know, gave the book and said, please read this.

Leah

Louis Comfort Tiffany glass in Chicago, part l

Before I left for Chicago I did a lot of research online about what kind of architectural tours to take. On the Chicago Architecture Foundation tours there was a tour of Tiffany Treasures, why not, I love glass, this should be interesting.

What can I say but WOW! Of course I knew that Louis Comfort Tiffany created incredible stained glass – most notably lamps and large installations of large windows, but I knew nothing of the mosaics. Unfortunately, most of the research online doesn’t make much mention of the mosaics, but doesn’t highlight them.

So a visit to the Marquette Building was a real eye opener.The lobby is incredible, marble, bronze and Tiffany Mosaics. They tell the story of Joliet and Marquette, early French Canadian explorer in the area. Here they are leaving on their journey – receiving blessings as they head out.A number of things about these mosaics. They were designed by J.A. Holtzer, the mosaic designer for the Tiffany Glass company. What is really incredible is the glass itself. Louis experimented and created his own glass, this one – an opalescent, iridescent called Favrile. Once his factory shut down, the recipe for making this was lost.The glass glows! I am a lover of mosaics and have never seen such luminescent images.He created textured glass, like the grey example to the left of the hand, as well as glass that resembles volcanic glass. Ancient mosaics used small pieces of glass, Holtzer introduced the idea of cutting larger pieces – something I’m sure he learned from the stained glass.This gentleman is a perfect example of using larger segments of glass, makes him really stand out against the traditional mosaic. The MB is the initials of the Marquette building.Meeting the native tribes. The light bulbs are reproduction Edison bulbs. Although there is much more light now in the lobby, these are the type of bulbs that were installed originally. The death and burial of Marquette.Interesting how the grey jacket arm is one piece of glass while the face is done in the traditional method. I guess there is something to be said about shading small details that is better done with tiny pieces of glass.The bronze was incredible as well, so I have to include part of the revolving door.

At the Art Institute I did see an example of the lamps – that is what I was most familiar with, I’m hoping that anyone visiting Chicago also see the mosaics. The Marquette building is open to the public, so even if you can’t go on a docent led tour, you can see these. I visited on my first day, not realizing I’d be back. Since the MacArthur foundation owns the building, they hand out a very nice brochure as well. Also, in the back lobby there is a very interesting photo exhibit about the development of sky scrappers – but that is for another post.

Leah

Chicago the overview

I was very fortunate to spend 4 days in Chicago – the place of my birth. I wonder if nostalgia gets more intense as we age. I left when I was 8 years old, sure there were visits since, although I think the last one was 15 years ago. But there was something so familiar the city – with all the new buildings, it still felt ‘right’.I have over 300 photos, best place to start is in the Signature lounge of the John Hancock building, romantic and what a view! I have fear of heights, but sitting in this room, next to what felt like 10″ glass – I wasn’t scared at all – and this was before the alcohol arrived!Down on Michigan Ave, the famous water tower, one of the few commercial buildings to survive the great Chicago Fire of 1971. It is now so hemmed in by tall sky scrappers, I chose a close up of the Gothic inspired limestone building. Most of Chicago was built out of wood, a very plentiful material in the area. At the time this building and the pump station were right on the lake, so although limestone can be heavily damaged by fire, these two weren’t. One thing that felt so right was the lake itself. As a child we lived just a few blocks from the lake in Evanston, so this kind of scene is embedded in my consciousness.We stayed at the historic Drake hotel, right at the start of the Magnificent mile.A Drake is a type of duck, it is also a type of dragon, which is a much better symbol for the hotel.The Chicago shoreline as seen from Navy Pier.And at night, with a clear view of the John Hancock building.Chicago is full of Art Deco Buildings, here a close up of a hart on a building on Michigan Ave. (don’t remember which one!) I don’t know if the VS initials have to do with the builder or the building. Of course I only noticed this when I looked at the photo.There is a lot of juxtaposition of old and new. This finial is on the Michicgan Ave Bridge which is officially called the DeSable Bridge. Completed in 1928, this is one of the classic finials, with a modern sky scrapper behind it.I highly recommend the Big Bus tour with the open deck, it was fun to see an El train go by almost at eye level.Another way to get around town is these bikes. This is a little unusual to see the rack full by Millennium Park in the middle of a summers day. Of course it did start start raining heavily shortly after I took this picture.This is half of a large sculpture, every 10 minutes it shoots out this blast of water. The kids love this of course.The lions in front of the Art Institute of Chicago. I learned that this building was built for the Columbia World Exposition (go read Devil in the White City). Although the Fair itself was seven miles south, this was a lecture hall. It was slated to become the Art museum afterwards – to hold items from the Exposition as well as acquire new pieces of art. It succeeded well beyond their dreams. The bronze lions hadn’t been cast when the fair started, so the plaster models were installed, only latter were they cast in bronze, which of course Patina’ed with time.
Of course the Sears tower, used to be the tallest in the world, is still the tallest in Chicago. I know, it had a name change a few years ago, but to me it will always be the Sears. I visited the observation deck almost 40 years ago when the building was new – before they added those sky boxes (look closely on the top, you can see them there). Since I visited the top of the Hancock for the first time, I felt no need to go to another observation deck.Looking towards Navy pier at dusk.Best view south is from the Ladies room at the Signature lounge.Craning my neck to see the traffic below. Fun to see the top of the building that houses the Bloomingdales and mall.

Many more pictures to follow, Chicago is a very fun city to visit, especially for architect buffs like me.

Leah

Crochet Lady

Years ago there was a wonderful mural alongside the Hollywood Freeway This is what she looked like, until she was painted over in 1986.

Ken Twitchell has been able to repaint this tribute to his grandmother over on a wall at LA Valley College.Of course I love this for so many reasons. First of all, a granny square shawl – what’s not to love! I took this pictures a few weeks ago, I need to go back and see if the mural is complete.I’m also noticing that the two are not exactly alike, not just because of the configuration of the wall space, the shawl is completely different, but that’s ok, artist prerogative.I have no idea how murals like this are painted, it looks so photographic.Either way, I’m thrilled that she is back. A tribute to the artists grandmother. I am also thrilled that a whole new generation of women has discovered the wonders of fiber arts – be it crocheting, sewing, knitting or anything else that one creates with ones own hands.

Leah

Paper Flowers

This week a movie is coming out called Paper Towns, based on a Young Adult novel about towns that may exist on the map – but don’t exist in the real world. Last week a friend mentioned something called a Paper Road, a road that exists on paper in the city planning department but never came to fruition. This friend is dealing such a road that actually runs right through her house. The hope is to remove that road from city plans – so it never does become a reality.

Paper Flowers on the other hand are real things and I had the pleasure of taking a class with Robert Mahar on how to make some of these beauties.The first flower is very large and made from simple templates that we cut out ourselves.Staples and hot glue and the flower takes shape.The next stage was to make the stamens, which is basically a glorified Turkey frill, the instructions in this link are exactly how we made this much larger version.Here it the final flower, which of course can be made in many sizes.As you can see, this one is quite large.

Then we went on and made some smaller flowers, Robert used the Sillhouette Cameo to cut the template pieces. What a wonderful tool, but I’m not going full time into paper crafts; so it’s not something I will be buying anytime soon. For the occasional flower I’d like to make, I’ll cut it with scissors.The flowers are adorable, I learned a lot in this class. Simple things like using the eraser side of a pencil while using the hot-glue gun. Any tip that helps avoid glue gun burns is a good thing! Yes there are silicone finger caps that are more effective, but once again, I don’t use my glue gun all that much.A little more size comparison. When I got home I felt the flowers were missing something. I dove into my vast button collection and solved that problem. Of course I sent Robert my adaptation, he may use this idea in another class.

At home it was time to see what I could make on my own.The purple template is what Robert cut out on the Silhouette, I made the other templates by hand.Using a colorful $1 book I bought at the The Last Bookstore I set about cutting out the flower.No, it’s not as clean and perfect like the die cut flower, also, a lesson learned from quilting – a busy print will look very different from a solid color.For a first attempt I’m very happy, of course it takes practice to get better at this flower making craft. Side by side, paper flowers can be very fun.

Leah

The big clown in the Valley

One of the icons of North Hollywood is Circus liquor, or to be more exact, this:The 32 foot tall neon clown.

The liquor store has been at the corner of Burbank Blvd and Vineland Ave. for 50 years.The scary clown is both on the sides of the building as well as front and center in the parking lot.If it weren’t for the massive programatic ‘billboard’, this would simply be another corner liquor store.This being part of Los Angeles, you have to go big and outrageous.As in, double sided 32 foot neon clown – perfect to turn anyone into a coulropohbic – someone who has fear of clowns. I need to drive by at night to get an image of him all lit up. This used to be a very sketchy neighborhood, but things are changing, nearby on a side street there are a number of small businesses, most of them related to the film industry. But I did notice Brite-Lite Neon Corp is right around the corner, a neon company that has been in business since the mid 1950s. They have some pretty impressive clients now, they also have a picture of this clown, but no where can I find any information about who actually built this.Just for size comparison, notice the keg.The back side of the store, that faces an alley has a very interesting mural. I was a few months late, any earlier I would have seen the artist Kiptoe painting this. At least he has video showing him at work – fascinating.

Explore your neighborhoods! Some people feel that have to travel far and wide to see interesting things, not so, so much is happening right in your own backyard. It may be very different from what is happening in mine, but is worth paying attention to.

Leah

But is it Art?

Yeah, I had my rant about contemporary art. I should probably explain what bothers me so much about it. Bates Motel on Sunset in Silverlake, everything whitewashed, even the trees.

Once upon a time, art was a well respected profession. People would apprentice in an artist studio, learn the tricks of the trade from a master. As their skills increased many would move on, open their own studios and try and get clients of their own. The patron would have to be someone with a lot of money – like the Church, or wealthy businessmen, at some point government got in on the gig – especially when they saw how well art works as a propaganda tool.This old derelict motel is the Sunset Pacific, but being on the corner of Bates street and being very creepy looking, it became known as the Bates Motel – once it was no longer accepting paying guests. (Vagrants used it of course)

By the late 19th c. the hierarchy of studios and approved art institutions started breaking down. Think Impressionism or Van Gough, the outsiders wanted in! Government became even more powerful, think Nazi Germany and their art propaganda. Their classification of unsanctioned art as Degenerate Art did more for expat German artists than any positive publicity ever could.Keeping everyone out of the property meant a chain link fence and some pretty vicious looking razor wire.

Suddenly the art world was blown wide open, and the term art was applied to anything, if you called what you created, Art, this is was wrong and judgmental to deny your claim. Of course there still have to be powerful forces making a lot of money out of all this vast creative output. Enter Art schools – where learning technique is meaningless, but learning jargon, pseudo-phylosophies and making sure that what you create has a message – preferably an angry anti society one – became a must in this new industry. All this must be supported by snooty galleries, curators and museums who are horrified by the notion that art could edify or even just be pretty. Not all beauty is art, sometimes interesting shapes and textures are just that, something that make it worth your while to stop and look, just because.

We’ve seen a glut of lawyers desperately trying to ways to make a living in a very crowded field. The same has happened with artists, although more so. The art schools are churning out more ‘artists’ every year, only a few can come back to make money off teaching the next years crop of students. So many go out, find a cheap place to ‘create’ and within a few years disappear, since bills must be paid. Others are successful, they get exhibitions, they sell their commissions to cities and businesses who want to appear hip and in the know. And of course there is are all those people who have disposable income and the best way to show their success is to create an art collection. Preferably one that doesn’t cost too much money, so supporting some young unknown does two things. Makes you more than just a philistine, you are now part of the literati elite, and you are supporting ART!.Everything gets covered by this lime wash, even the palm trees. We are told that this will do them no harm and it will gradually wear off. Who told us? The artist, not an arborist who actually knows about trees.

So 20 years this site has been sitting empty, now it is owned by a developer who will tear it down and build a large apartment complex on the site. Silverlake is one of the hippest and now expensive neighborhoods in LA.And if in the process of creating ‘art’ your work spills over and obscures a city owned street sign, oh well, maybe the city should be ‘proud’ to be included.Can I just say that it warms my heart to see that stubborn weeds managed to avoid the lime wash.Spraying everything white has a way of highlighting the shapes and textures. Not to mention that against a bright blue LA sky, it all looks marvelous.

Of course the neighbors are upset, they don’t want a big apartment complex. Really what they should be asking for is a new modern hotel. One thing Silverlake doesn’t have is any hotels. Sure that is a great boon to the AirBnB industry, but they could survive very well even with a large hotel on Sunset Blvd. Look at downtown, every week a new project is starting for either more apartments or hotels.

I’m probably giving the impression that I don’t like what was done here. Wrong! I actually love it, I think it’s a great use of the space until it gets torn down. What I don’t like is calling this art. Come up with a new term. We are all conditioned to think that if it’s art then it is elevated and important. There is a lot of creativity and beauty in the world that just is, because we as humans have the need to be creative.I have a love hate relationship with graffiti, I’m really torn. I happen to really like this – and since it is anonymous I guess we can’t call it art. It is ‘defacing’ public property, but I admit, I like it. This lamp pole is right next to the big white installation, and both is their way are pleasing to me.

As to the artist, go google him yourself, next weekend he will be at the site and there will be a grand opening of this project.

And so now you know in a nutshell, why I won’t call myself an artist. I’m simply not one. I’m a very creative crafter, I love making beautiful things to share with people in my life.

I’m not expecting the literati to ever consider crafts worthy of their attention unless the word art is attached. That is fine by me, in my world I get a lot of accolades for the work I do and thats’ the way I like it.

Leah