BERGAMOT STATION IN THE WIND
A visit to Santa Monica just about blew me away literally as I visited several art galleries. As a fiber artist, I noticed many art works that used the stitch in some ways. I saw a lot of photography, figurative painting, and cut paper.

Steven Hull has a creative installation at Rosamund Felsen Gallery. I found out that Steven also publishes collaborative books combining art, literature, and design. He works with Tami Demaree, Annie Buckley, and Jon Sueda. I purchased a book of short stories.

A few shows I also enjoyed: “we’re not here to waste time!” nena amstor, miyoshi barosh, and nava lubelski at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. “Year of the Dog” featuring Judy Pfaff at Greenfield Sacks Gallery. “Available Light” with Suki Kuss at tag Gallery. “Plexagraphs” by Michael Eastman at dnj Gallery.

A visit to see several art exhibits offers a good opportunity to notice how the art work is hung both technically and in the space. Seeing art sparks my own creativity. A small notebook gives me a place to capture my own ideas to think about later. For example, in thinking about how to include my own poetry in my art work:
1. As label
2. As border
3. Blended in
I can decide what I like or don’t like.

I always enjoy seeing the ancient glass that looks so new. Today I seemed captivated by fragments. I saw a face painted on the linen that was used for mummy wrappings, a wood fragment with an image, and a fresco.

I wanted to see the contemporary art wing that had been added to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. A journey through the snow brought me to this place of memories. I enjoyed this new contemporary art building. A good collection of paintings and sculpture.

I also wanted to visit the Asian Art rooms. I felt emotional as I approached the displays. This room with a life-size presentation of a temple has stayed in my memory. I lingered here for a while.

The other rooms were changed. I found out that instead of putting all the paintings together, the rooms were arranged by period. This made a beautiful presentation with paintings, ceramics and furniture combined. I was alone in these rooms and enjoyed the quiet. I was young when I took art classes here. The building itself is amazing. I got to hang my paintings on the wall.

I ventured into an exhibit called, “Cultivating Nature: Printmaking for Painting in 17th Century China.” I like how Asian Art expresses so much using a few strokes. In High School I used to copy famous Asian paintings using watercolor and ink. I like how the scrolls often include poetry. I studied the poetry too. All of this is a part of who I am today as an artist.

I led my first visual poetry workshop at First Presbyterian Church in San Bernardino as part of a Worship Renewal grant. The participants ranged from age 3 on up! This was a new experience for most of the people. They did great. It was a rich day of honoring one another.

The first exercise was a collaboration. Using my art quilts as inspiration each person wrote on a 3×5″ card a part of the poem. Each table was a group. The cards were randomly put together and read as a poem. Some were serious and others were humorous.

Now they were to imagine interviewing something from nature using my photographs as inspiration. The day was beautiful so some decided to go outside to write.

Back inside people shared at each table what they wrote.

Time to collage selecting images and text that were meaningful for each person.

After creating a collage, each person wrote a walking poem. They were to pretend they were taking a walk through their images. One person from each table shared their collage and poem!

A wonderful day expressing words of life for a new year!

I began with a “Bohemian Salon” in the studio of Quinton Bemiller in LA Chinatown. The building was an old ice house with the original wood floors. I presented a program called, “Assembled Stories” which included my poetry, art work and music by world music artist Roberto Catalano. Roberto and I selected instruments to go with the tone of the poetry. I enjoyed performing for friends and making new friends. The evening also included Myron Kaufman and Jackie Tchakalian reading Myron’s children’s book, “Jack and Kate.”
Next up was an art reception at Shear Perfections hair salon in Redlands, CA. I was happy to be in a show with my good friends Aeron Brown, Jean Hall and Shannon Heinrich. Here I am in the shampoo bowl room!

Aeron planned to play music outside on the main street downtown. He read about my performing in Chinatown and asked me if I would read some poems at our art reception. I had never read my poetry randomly on the street before. I thought, “Why not?” It turned out to be a wonderful experience. Aeron played guitar as I read. People stopped to listen to my poetry. One young girl was beaming as she listened to the poems. Others began to dance! A great experience for me.

The last event was a poetry reading and art work performance at COLORS 91711 in Claremont, CA. This is a wonderful, creative space for fiber artists. People are welcome to come and work on projects. It was a rich experience to read poetry while people were creating their own art work and while people were shopping. This is a warm and welcoming place.

I shared some of the stories behind the poetry. It was exciting to have people share their stories too as they connected to what I was describing. They enjoyed the art work too.

Diana and Cathy are the owners of COLORS 91711. I have known them for years. They are wonderful friends, supporters of the arts and supporters of the community. Here they are modeling my “Green Leaf Enwrapped” scarves.

Students experimented creating the collage elements using a variety of tools and surfaces including: drawing with a stick or feather, using acrylic inks, Setacolor, Lutrador, dryer sheets, rice paper and silk. It’s fun for me to watch them experiment and make new discoveries.

The created collage elements are combined with other fabrics and fused onto bamboo batting. No sewing machine needed! Each student made the work their own voice. Here’s a few of the voices!

I decided to change mine to a winter landscape after returning to my studio. My starting point of snow and stars did give me inspiration. I used some of my photographs for the water and tree shapes. This art quilt brings back memories of spending some winter vacation time at Big Bear Lake when the kids were little. Also of growing up in the midwest. The title is, “The Trees are Sleeping.” Size, 10×14″.