Sherri Woodard Coffey

I took myself on an art date this morning. The Richard Diebenkorn exhibition is to end in a couple of weeks, and since the Stock Show begins soon, I though that now was the best time to get to the museum. Parking is always at a premium when the Stock Show starts. It’s a pretty big event in these parts!

I’m not very familiar with Diebenkorn’s work, but after seeing these paintings and other works on paper, I plan to do a little research. I am especially interested in how he worked. Sometimes the paintings looked like he changed his mind mid-painting and that the original markings were left in place. There were also a series of works based on spades and clubs from playing cards. Isn’t it wonderful to be allowed these small glimpses into the creative brain?

While at the museum, I had to go into the gift shop, and since I seem to be a sucker for these, here is what I bought. The cover covered with Pantone “color chips.”The inside pages are interesting. Two thirds of each page is graph paper, with the bottom 1/3 blank for other kinds of writing. If you go to Pantone, take another look at the color of the year. What do you think? I like it and consider it a big improvement over the 2011 color, Honeysuckle. But then, Honeysuckle just looks like pink to me, and I really don’t like pink! The graphic for Tangerine Tango is pretty cool, too!

How might this apply to weaving? I am fascinated with shadows, which may end up in a weaving someday. I’ve already used the wildfires as a piece. Not sure about the dry, cracked earth, but …. And I just love the Texas Longhorns—the animal, not the team—and this particular longhorn really has a good set of horns.

Last year was a year of weather extremes all over the country. Here are just a few of ours. We also had 108 degree days, many at a time. There are no pictures of that, but spring will show all the trees lost to the heat and drought. Actually, the heat probably caused more damage than the drought. We’ve had droughts before, but most of the time in conjunction with normal temperatures.Tree limb shadows in the snow of my backyard

This is what many of the lakes look like.

Longhorn after fires near Possum Kingdom Lake

Wildfires near Bastrop

Blume Hat by Connie Chang Chinchio

I am NOT a knitter. But every couple of years I decide that I am going to become one. If it involves yarn, well, it’s gotta be good, right? Recently, I fell in love with this hat. It’s an e-pattern from Interweave Press. I also love all the cute, hand knit socks. Actually, I can knit and purl, making simple rectangles or squares. Hmmm…I even remember making a couple of triangles, but actually making something. Hah! I lose track, forget what I’ve done and where I’ve been. But, this is maybe that every couple of years that I want to knit something beyond rectangles. Not as a New Year’s resolution, but just as something to do for the cold winter months. Maybe…

All Squared Up

Wool tapestry

34 inches by 34.5 inches

The fresh calendar is out, dates are marked, everything is fresh and new. Unfortunately, the to-do list is not fresh, many items have been carried over to the new year. But at least there IS a list and I know where it is! Further good news (for me) is that there is a plan in place. Before I was floating with no destination in mind. Implementation, of course, is another critter all together.

Floating in a Deep, Dark Sea

Weft-faced ikat

34.5 inches by 56 inches

The bowl from Monday’s post reminded me of the pencil sculptures that I’d seen. The first time I saw pictures of her pieces was after hearing of my grandson’s effort to try and sharpen his pencil to have the shortest one. I immediately realized that he was destined to be a great artist like Maestre! You can see Jennifer Maestre’s work here. More information about her process is here.

As I was trying to find Jennifer’s website (sorry, couldn’t remember her name), I found this:

A larger picture can be seen here. This is a sculpture by Dalton Ghetti. There is a post, complete with pictures, about how he makes these sculptures here.

My go-to hand beater from Weaving Southwest

Weavers use a lot of tools. I once had someone tell me, after seeing my studio, that “You have a lot of cool tools!” We all use them in different ways, some of us use tools that others don’t and vice versa. This brings me to a very interesting idea:

Mark Lindquist, Dowel Bowl, 2011

The Tool at Hand brings together artworks resulting from an unusual and slightly eccentric experiment. Last spring the Chipstone Foundation invited fourteen contemporary artists to break from their usual practice and make a work of art with one tool alone. This exhibition presents these works, and the tools used to craft them, together with short, explanatory videos produced by each artist. This exhibit is at the Milwaukee Art Museum. And again, I wish there were more images of the works.

May all your weaving days—and others—be shiny and bright.

That’s the title of the page from where this information came. I absolutely love these tapestries! What do these pieces remind you of? Go here to read more about how this Australian exhibit came to be. If you click on these pictures to enlarge, you will see that there is a designer (or two) and a weaver. Somehow, that kind of disappoints me, as I’d like the designer and weaver to be one and the same, but it does nothing to detract from these wonderful pieces. And you really need to see the beautiful flowers here.

Then, moving back to North America, there is the Woven Bridges exhibit at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte, Ontario. I think the pictures included with the description is a montage of various pieces, but I’m not sure. There are no other pictures to see, but it does look interesting.

In my own small part of the world, progress continues on the current weaving, although it may turn out to be an oval instead of a circle by the time I finish. I’ve been considering bubbles—champagne, anyone?

Do you see the wheels moving? You can read more here. This is from a National Geographic interview with a brain researcher. I am somewhat fascinated with some optical illusions and often thought of weaving one—only the simplest, though.

I did not weave my unintended design—sorry, Donna. But I am thinking more and more about breaking out those spiro tools and try one more time. I spent yesterday weaving in the morning and working with the organizer in the afternoon. After about two hours of organizing, I’ve had enough! Progress is being made, though!

It wasn’t until the afternoon session, though, that I realized that I had not woven anything for a hem on this piece. More needle weaving in store for me. Bah! Humbug! In my head, at least, I have decided that anything that is of the wrong size to go on the floor as a rug, will have a hem. Like I said—in my head…

Does anyone remember this toy? It’s the Spirograph. I played with one about a kazillion years ago. I would always about halfway finish my design, then something would slip and the design would be ruined. Several years ago, I bought this book from Klutz at one of the art museums, thinking that surely I could do this better now. Wrong! I would still get so far in the design and something would slip. Must be that I can’t do the contortions necessary for completing the design. And why am I mentioning this at all? I mention this because my warp looks like a spirograph. After marking the design on the warp, I realized that it was upside down. So I turned the cartoon to the correct direction and marked again with a different color. Then I decided a correction needed to be made and went back to the cartoon-drawing table. Then there was a third color. My warp is actually very attractive. Maybe I should weave the unintended design.

By the way, Klutz has lots of really interesting and fun books, and even though they are supposedly for kids, there are others that I’m tempted to buy. I’ve been thinking for years about the knot book. They can also provide extra supplies in case you run out of the original included supplies.