Sherri Woodard Coffey

Oh, no! Recently I posted a picture of Big Tex, well, just because. He recently celebrated his 60th birthday. But today, he is no more. Now, how this could have happened to Big Tex, who knows? A congressional investigation? Actually, I am writing this with tongue in cheek, but I do think it’s sad that something that has been preserved for so many years is gone. Every year there is a news piece about Big Tex going up at State Fair time. By the way, the above picture came from our local NBC affiliate.

Is balance highly overrated?

Not that I make them, but when I think about New Year’s Resolutions, I think of balance because it seems that it’s always been a problem for me. Maybe that’s just not in the cards for me. Last year when I had a deadline coming up, there were several pieces that still needed the finish work done. In my head and on my calendar, I planned to weave part of the day and do finish work part of the day. Didn’t happen! And I accepted that that kind of schedule just wasn’t for me and did all the finish work all day all the time. I still fight that all or nothing mentality, though. Maybe it’s time to stop fighting and just accept. Maybe fighting it is just exhausting to the spirit.

Enough reflecting! The warp is tied on, ready to weave. Time to go out and gather my weft yarns.

Taken with my phone, this is the large wall “mural” before going into the galleries. The actual painting, Red Sun by Arthur G. Dove, is only 20.25 x 28 inches, but I love the large mural size. It really makes a statement.

Early Thursday morning, I got to do one of every woman’s favorite things—get the annual mammogram. Afterwards I treated myself to a museum visit to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Although there are many galleries of great American art to see, I went to see the special exhibit, To See as Artists See: American Art from the Phillips Collection. I took lots of notes of pieces that I wanted to look up later. Amazingly, everything is on the Phillips Collection website! Don’t we live in an amazing world!

Having seen the Diebenkorn Ocean Park Series exhibit a year ago, it was very interesting to me to see the earlier work on the right RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922–1993) Girl with Plant, 1960) along with the painting on the left (RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922–1993) Ocean Park No. 38, 1971). The Ocean Park painting was done about 11 years after the girl, but you can see the forms taking shape in the earlier painting. Short bio of Diebenkorn here and the Google images page here.

There’s much more, but I need some time to absorb and do a little research. What a treat this was! Why don’t I get out more often and visit exhibits? I feel inspired!

I am so fortunate to live near a city with great art museums. The Kimbell is celebrating 40 years right now, and the Amon Carter has a new exhibit up that looks good. It’s called To See as Artists See: American Art from The Phillips Collection. Artists represented range from Rothko to Pollack to Diebenkorn and many more. I saw the Diebenkorn exhibit The Ocean Park Series at the Modern Art Museum last fall. The Diebenkorn at the Amon Carter is different and alike paintings in the Ocean Park Series. It was painted in 1960, and he began the Ocean Park Series in 1967 and continued for 25 years. If the figure of the girl was not in the above painting, you might be looking at one of the Ocean Park Series paintings. The picture below came from here.

One of the things I am going to do for myself this week—go to the museum!

A leather corset that belonged to late Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is displayed at the Frida Kahlo museum in Mexico City, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. A full collection from Kahlo’s wardrobe will go on public display Nov. 22 in Mexico City after being locked for nearly 50 years in her armoires and dressers: jewelry, shoes and clothes that still carry the scent of the late artist’s perfume and cigarette smoke or stains from painting. Her loose blouses covered the stiff corsets she wore for back pain. AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills.

Honestly, when I first read the above, I wondered about Frida, but then I read about back pain, and could only imagine how she must have suffered with her pain while painting for long periods. Here’s a little more and another picture of her clothing from ArtDaily. Which brings to mind another question: Would you want your clothing in a museum exhibit?

For the last several days, I have been sitting, not at my loom, but at my design table, otherwise known as my dining room table. Sometimes I use my sketchbook to get the basic design, but it always goes to my graph paper next. Even though I don’t weave at 10 epi, I use that size graph paper, well it’s habit. And everything is drawn to scale and it works for me. Before getting a scanner, I used to color in that scale drawing with my Faber-Castell pencils, and then have to start all over again if I didn’t like the result. Now I scan my design and put several copies on one sheet. I love and hate my pencils. I love the colors and how smooth they go on. But I hate how the leads break so easily. A freshly sharpened pencil lead will break before it even sees the paper! But I still haven’t found another pencil I like better. Which brings up the point of this post. What a surprise! An article about Faber-Castell was in the Wall Street Journal last week. Below is a picture of Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell from that article. Another surprise! A count no less.

I have long thought that some sort of tessellation might be a good weaving image. Well, guess what? There is a tessellation tracer template. Jennifer Moore used on in her workshop, Mathemagical, so I went on the hunt yesterday. And of course, Amazon has everything, so, Voila! Unfortunately, they’re out of stock.

I also went to Dover to see what kinds of geometric coloring books they have. There’s some pretty nifty stuff out there.

Can you believe it’s October already? When I was in Colorado, the aspens were already really pretty. The problem is that there is no place to pull off and take pictures!

Source

This just amused me. It’s the head and hand of Big Tex, the huge statue always visible at the State Fair. According to Wikipedia, he’s 52 feet tall. Now I’m wondering, since I have been taking Jennifer Moore’s Mathemagical workshop, is he proportioned correctly You know, golden ratio and all? My head is full of all kinds of design possibilities. Recommended! While doing all the driving to and from the workshop, I listened to audio books. Because Janet Austin recommended the Maisie Dobbs series, that’s what I listened to first. I found it really very interesting and looked forward to finishing it on the return trip. I love audio books! Radio stations are so undependable when on a road trip. Plus, I need something besides music to keep my mind engaged—and awake!

I am straining my brain right now with an online class by Lisa Call called Working in a Series. Yesterday, while waiting for the oil change in my car to be done, I made a list of possible series themes. Some of these have been in my head for years, but I haven’t thought of a way to really do them yet. All would be done in an abstract way, not pictorial. I think I accidentally did a very small series seen in the pictures above.

• clouds
• earth from above-this one really talks to me
• light (sunsets, etc)
• city skylines
• waves
• spirals
• wind maps
• weather radar

I’ve been obsessed with clouds for a couple of years, but can’t yet see how to tackle that subject. Maybe this should be the time????

I could challenge myself even further and only make designs that can be completed in weft-faced ikat.

I saw a reference to this exhibit of aboriginal Australian art. It’s at the Hood Museum of Art. What gets your attention when you see several thumbnails? For me, it’s color first and then the graphic qualities of the image.