Circles - a few circles to alter something

 I've had this postcard of a Picasso sculpture for awhile. Finally, couldn't resist altering it. What was at hand on my studio table, circles, of course.

A merit badge~

Merit Badge

Wow, I got a merit badge from Lea Redmond. Read about her here.  I remember my girl scout days fondly and often wonder what happened to all the merit badges I earned. I loved earning them.  I wrote to Lea about this badge but never expected to earn one as I'm not a big collector of things. However, I do collect something and make things out of it. I collect the wire bindings from old calendars, paper sample books, etc. And I make what I call action figure sketches. For that, Lea awarded me this badge. I'm going to make mine into a pin so I can wear it on different hats, coats, or bags. How fun is this? Thanks Lea!

Some New York pix

A tree in Chelsea Market made of CDs

 We had a really nice time in NYC. We strolled through Chelsea Market, which is a great place to get out of bad weather. This tree made of CDs catches the tiny lights, twinkles a lot. Good re-use, right?

Keith's exhibit at OK Harris Gallery in SoHo

 We walked lots and until Sunday, the weather was relatively mild. We were so happily surprised.    This shop in SoHo has 800 old sewing machines on display in the window and inside the shop.

A clothing shop & lots of old sewing machines.

Waverly Diner

Sunday the weather was awful. It rained really heavily. We met up with our daughter and had breakfast at the Waverly Diner in the west village where I managed to leave a book that I'd registered on BookCrossing. I hope someone found it. 

MoMA -  Barnett Newman

We went up to the Museum of Modern Art to see the Abstract Expressionist show. Here's my honey and our daughter in front of a BIG red painting.  We also saw an amazing Anselm Keifer show at Gagosian Gallery, twice, we liked it so much.

MoMA

 People in the museum were looking down watching a performance piece. It's was pretty strange. A man playing Ode to Joy, backwards and upside down. Why? Because he was inside of a piano, a hole cut into it, he was popped up in the middle, leaning over playing. Very strange!

Monday night, it was very cold. We met up with our daughter and had dinner at Pala (yummy pizza) and afterwards went to a small cafe/coffee shop for dessert. A wonderful vegan chocolate layer cake! The window lights reflected on the table top looked so festive to me.

Coffee shop window.

Our train ride back to Virginia was very relaxing. We got to see things so differently than when we'd drive. This bridge was in New Jersey, just after we'd left New York City.  It looked so peaceful, and unused.

By the time we reached home, it was dark and time for dinner.  .  

An assortment of things.

I received this in the mail yesterday from one of the participants in my lunchtime talk last week. What a nice surprise! It was a Good Mail (Art) day.

I sold my really nice vintage tea towel Pocket from my Etsy shop today, popped it into the mail, to the afore mentioned Pam of the badly broken arm, and decided to finish another Pocket from vintage fabric. I put this into the shop just now. The fabric is so soft.

I met a couple of friends for lunch today at the VMFA. The large clay pieces by Yun Kuneko have been installed. Here's his big blue head. It looks like it wants to join the crowd of people.  The other sculptures are called Dangoes (dumplings.) When it's not so very very hot, I'll stay out longer and get some close up photos of these.

I really like four-o-clocks and have grown bushes of them along the side of my house. Some years, some are solid deep fuschia, some years they are white, this year there are buses with a mixture. I also have one bush with yellow blossoms on it. I really like the yellow ones and they seem so rare to me. Do you grow these? Do you like them? Do they remind you of your childhood?

Sculptures with light

Our friend in Grenoble makes amazing sculptures using items from the brocante, hardware, musical instruments, sheet music, and adds light to them. I think you might get some idea of what they look like and their size from my photos, but to see them in person is the best. He'll be showing some in a gallery in Paris this summer. Go here to see more.

Art time

I'm able to post again before we head back home. Yay! On Friday we went to MOMA and saw the Martin Puryear show. It was terrific. Lots of pieces, and only a couple that we've seen before. We also saw the Seurat drawing show, works from the Latin American Art collection and abstract works from the permanent collection. After that, we went to see a show of embroidered art, called Pricked, at the American Craft Museum. Pretty amazing work. On Saturday, we went to Chelsea to galleries. This Patrick Mimran sign caught my attention. what do you think? Is he right?

On our walks...

The totem commemorates something important but I didn't write down the inscription so I can't look up the words in my dictionary. It was very tall, made of ceramics, and very intriguing. After a cool down at the hotel, we went for a walk along the water side of the old city wall. These spikey sculptures were quite striking by the old wall. We walked along Paseo de la Princesa, where there were stalls with crafts and snacks. The nightly wine and cheese reception is lovely. We spoke with some of the other guests, a couple on honeymoon from Israel, leaving for their cruise this morning,; a family who sailed away from England and ended up in Antigua, which is their home now. They're here with their 2 year old son and 6 week old daughter. Chuck spoke with a man and his daughter; he's from Minnesota and Costa Rica. I wonder who we'll meet tonight! Off to the roof top jacuzzi and then, excitement, we are meeting up with Carlos C's parents!