As weavers, we are often interested in color books from a different perspective than theory. I like to look at decorating books which present “color schemes” for decorating rooms. Sometimes a practical idea will actually be found in those books, sometimes not. Colour Me Happy is a blog written by a Canadian decorator named Maria Killam who loves color. When you see her picture, she looks happy. Maria has compiled a list of color books that she considers the best. You can access her list here. Even though I like to look at these books, I don’t do any decorating. I think about doing some decorating, but the time and disruption involved always stops me, to say nothing of the money.

Marion Stegeman Hodgson, 88, of Wichita Falls attends a congressional gold medal ceremony to honor the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II in Washington, D.C

Female aviators of WWII honored with Congressional Gold Medal I don’t usually get too worked up about things like this, but I read the article in my local paper this morning, and thought it was worth reading more. The slideshow pictures here are really great. The pictures here come from the local newspaper, the Star-Telegram.

Wearing her WASP uniform from World War II, Eleanor Brown of Victoria, Texas, attends a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 10, 2010, to honor the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.

Below is a quote from the article. The red text is my addition. Even if the WASP documents were sealed, they have been in the general history knowledge-base of our country, so how the Air Force could say they were the first women to fly military aircraft is beyond me.

When the women were dismissed from service in 1944, their records were classified and sealed — denying them recognition for their accomplishments — in what many thought was an effort to obliterate them from history. It wasn’t until the 1970s that their story re-emerged, when the Air Force announced in 1976 that the women who were graduating from the first co-ed class at the U.S. Air Force Academy would be the first American women to fly military aircraft.

Okay, that’s my rant for the day. It’s another beautiful day in the neighborhood here. It’s amazing how energizing the sunshine is to me. After getting up at 4:30 am yesterday, I worked on taxes instead of succumbing to a nap. The plan today is to do some weaving and maybe a little garden work. I have some lantanas and Russian sage (both of those plants seem to take over their areas) that are going to get transplanted into the “hotter than hell” portion of what I euphemistically call my yard. Then I will also plant some gourds and watermelon there. It will definitely be the survival of the fittest!

Laurette in a Green Robe (Black Background), 1916
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
Oil on canvas

28 3/4 x 21 3/8 in. (73 x 54.3 cm)
Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998 (1999.363.43)
© 2010 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

I was looking through a book about Matisse, when a page with the above painting caught my attention. I think it’s the colors…more inspiration.

Eye Candy-I no longer remember where I got this little snippet of information, but take a look at the photography of Carol Lyon here. I love the bird abstracts! More inspiration and possibly a have-to-have-it art purchase. The website says they can be printed on metallic paper or canvas—will have to send a query, since I don’t understand the metallic part. But those bird abstracts are wonderful!

And another Matisse—Cutting out paper as part of the design process is something that I occasionally do. However, I have never painted the papers first, which seems to me to be a good idea. You’d have exactly the colors you want! Color-aid papers are good, but they are soooo expensive.

The Snail
1953; Goauche on cut-paper, 9′ 4 3/4″ x 9′ 5″ Tate Gallery, London

This composition of rectangular and squarish patches form a snail-like shape, this has no precedent in Matisse’s career. “The Snail” is one of Matisse’s final works. It points to the fact that his career could go on indefinitely, and to directions that later art would take beyond his own lifetime. The various works of Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella are instances of how Matisse’s insights would later be fulfilled.

For several years I have looked at the museum workshops with interest, but have done nothing more. While going through a creative dry spell, I signed up for each workshop offered at the Kimbell. Yesterday’s workshop was to look at some selected paintings in the current exhibit (mentioned in my blog here) with a focus on the horizon line and the amount of sky visible in the painting. After discussing each chosen painting, the assignment was to use acrylics to make our own painting. I sat and stared at the canvas for what seemed like hours, while my table-mates busied themselves with mixing colors. I finally decided to do a version of the Yellow Mounds at the Badlands, something I’ve been fascinated with since I saw them a couple of years ago. The picture you see above is the photograph, something I could have used during the workshop! I still want to do something with that photograph. The idea of layers has been percolating for a couple of years now, and will probably show itself as a fully formed idea someday. And, notice that there is no picture of my painting. It was tempting to drop it in the trash as I walked out of the building.

I’ve been thinking about inspiration a lot lately, so it was with interest that I read Daryl Lancaster’s March 2 post on her blog. She mentions being in a kind of “plateau in her work and creativity” (her words). She then goes on to relate how she has been visiting more museums and exhibits, and since she teaches sewing handwoven cloth in clothing, even going shopping as a means of getting the creative juices flowing (my words). It seems that is exactly what I’ve been doing lately with my various excursions to local spots.

I recently went to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden Butterflies in the Garden. Unfortunately, I didn’t take my camera with me, so had to rely on the phone. If you’ve never been to one of these kinds of exhibits, it’s very warm and humid. However, I think I’m going to return, dragging along the camera this time. Sorry, but these pictures are the best of the lot.

1000 Patterns: Design Through the Centuries (Paperback) Drusilla Cole (Author)

It’s amazing to me how I can look at something one day and be totally uninspired. Case in point: I checked this book out of the library and marked bunches of pages with sticky notes because something on the page called to me. Some attracted me because of color, some because of a snippet of the overall pattern. I know I’ve seen this book in Borders, glanced through it, and decided against it. Must’ve been my mood at the time. Maybe I just wasn’t being receptive to the inspiration gods, whatever. Currently, it must not be in print any longer; when I checked, there was a copy selling for $800! Can that be right? Must be the hardback version.

And speaking of pattern, inspiration, etc, have you seen these from Dharma Trading Company? When I looked Tuesday morning, none were marked with a sold sign. These are copper batik stencils. Some are just amazing! I picked out some of the simpler designs to show here.

Late Breaking News: We have sunshine! It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do for the energy level. Even though I’m sure it’s too wet after rain all day yesterday, I may be forced to get outside and play in the dirt in the sunshine.

Again we’ve broken records for below normal temperatures and dreary days. And, since we’re into March, I’m adding some March color here. No flowers yet, just leftover colors from February. 

I love looking at the birds out my studio window, and the goldfinches are very pretty this time of year. I had to take this picture through the window—it was too cold and blustery outside for me to wait on them to come back to the feeder. Nature photography will not be a second career! These little guys are eating me out of house and home right now.Here are the nandinas that are growing along the back fence. They’re volunteers from my neighbor’s yard. At least they provide a little color, right?    

If you take a closer look at Venus, she’s a little worse for wear—leaves where they shouldn’t be, etc.

I love the juxtaposition of the signs here. The West Side Cafe is a place where we have breakfast fairly frequently. It’s an old-fashioned, small-town restaurant in the city. I know the owner must be doing a good job because there is little turnover of employees. But, they do not have tattoos available at this restaurant!

 Handwoven triptych, Squares, 25 x 75 inches  If you look closely, you can see little squiggles in the middle and right pieces-just a little break from the square image!

The above set of almost-squares was commissioned. It was great fun to find colors to use for this project and to put in the little squiggles in the lower right of the green piece and the upper right of the magenta piece.

Josef Albers
Homage to the Square: Edition Keller Ia, 1970
screenprint
Image size: 13 13/16 x 13 13/16 inches
(35 x 35 cm)
Paper size: 21 11/16 x 21 11/16 inches
(55.1 x 55.1 cm)
Edition of 125
#19760

I can’t find a picture, but the Amon Carter Museum has Study for Homage to the Square: Remote, 1960 by Josef Albers. It’s on masonite, and looks very different from the images we usually see in books of Albers’s Squares. The original piece is much richer, not so flat as the ones we’re used to seeing. Above is one of the square series that I found online.

The above picture came from here. I made up my own image of the one I saw in Photoshop. It looks maybe/kinda like this one: