Not a usual ART day

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is working on a new installation - Levitated Mass, which involves moving a 340 ton granite boulder across southern California. It started in or near Riverside and will settle in the Wilshire district of LA. It moves at night and in the day time the rock and transporter are on view.

Link to more information:http://lacma.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/levitated-mass-transport-a-gawkers-guide/

Today I decided, spur of the moment, to go track it down. It was in Long Beach yesterday and moved over night, I had the cross streets. In this day of all things electronics I sure could have used my old Thomas Guide, which I had deemed out dated. Me and my cell phone and Tom at his computer at work got me to the location.

Proving that I found it
It is really big. I think I heard the mover/rig had 156 tires. The big rock is covered with white
plastic and can be seem below and above the carrier.
Size of rock vs. size of car
Signs to control the traffic and parking at night.
I wonder how many cars were towed!

I loved my little get away, gas consumption and all.
I fit it in between having new car alarm desensitized (which failed)
and trip to physical therapy. Yesterday was 4 months since my
back surgery, progressing.

Food and Art in L.A.

Just before the new year, my friend Pam and I made a trip into LA near the train station and Alvera Street. First we had lunch at Phillipe the Original/Home of the French Dipped Sandwich
www.philippes.com/ Pam had to have the pickled egg in addition to the sandwich, I love the cole slaw.

Then we hunted down the Charlie James Gallery www.cjamesgallery.com/ to see a solo show by one of our collective favorite artists - Elizabeth Higgins O'Connor. www.elisabethhigginsoconnor.com Years ago my son Brian was a ceramics student at Long Beach State. He called one day and said I had to some see the current senior show. I went and then I called Pam and said, you have to go see the current senior show - that is how we fell in love with Elizabeth. We collected student work and have tried to followed her progress.

Currant show is entitled - Dreadful Sorry Clementine - not sure why, check out gallery website and pdf of show catalog for more info. And I love the name of the show.

I felt my cane and his crutches blended well

Meet Pam. These wonderful creatures are larger than life.

Materials - to my mind they are - 2 x 4 wood, screws from a power drill, found fabric objects (bathroom mats), upholstery fabrics. corrugated cardboard, paint. But it is the way she puts it all together.

Pam and I were in love.

there is no eyeball, but rather the build up of the bone structure eluding to an eye. You could poke your finger into the eye (not that we did) but the eye ball was an illusion. Loved it!


I am including bad photos of Brian's recent work for Crafty Wonderland in Portland - these are extra vases he left here after Christmas. They are about 8 to 10 " tall. I love then.

October Art Fun

I recently made cards for the only art fair I am doing this fall. Artistic License was this last weekend and it was great. Plus you could not have asked for better weather - sandals and short sleeves. And it was a great show.

I intend to use these cards as this years Christmas cards, assuming I accomplish that task - good intentions.

This is a sample, each card is unique. They are like little quilts mounted in the blank greeting cards that have a window or frame.

The process

I started with a photo, manipulated it in Photoshop. then uploaded the image to http://www.spoonflower.com, an online fabric printing site and ordered a quarter yard.

This is the basic image I sent off to be printed.


I took this fabric, using a silk screen, I screenprinted silver paint onto the image, in a ramdom pattern, and then

Then I did the same random printing with a stencil, sponge and red textile paint.

The end result

I quilted the fabric to batting, cut them into rectangles and made cards

Here is another example
The same process on a second pattern I had printed by Spoonflower

My intentions here are to share the process, any questions - please ask.

October - how did that happen??

I spent the weekend in Joshua Tree, Ca, with a friend. We attended 2 - 1 day workshops with Ellen Hill, a water-colorist. On location in Joshua Tree National Park, way out, behind lock gates and awesome. Ellen was great, the other students interesting and sharing and the scenery magnificent. Son Brian learned to rock climb in this park.


With the right frame of mind and incite, the desert is beautiful. The 2 park ranger volunteers were also wonderful.

And apparently no blog would be complete without food.

We went to Ruby's Restaurant at the end of the Huntington Beach Pier. Meet daughter Erin and Michael.
Michael, a 20 yr. vegetarian having a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich - he said he had been thinking about bacon. Pork seems to be something people dream about.

And Tom the wood turner These are segmented wood bracelets. He is busy buying all sorts of wood to cut into really tiny pieces to make bracelets. Ebony wood apparently goes for $98. a board foot. Too bad I like black and white. A Capricorn accountant - appears to be a perfect match for segmented wood.

Happy Columbus Day, apparently no mail delivery

Mid September

Tom and I were in Portland, Ore - for a long weekend. This is a photo of some of my favorite men. Brian, who was celebrating a birthday and his dad, my first husband. Brian treated us to several great restaurants, even one that had and needed no sign out front. We attended several of the TBA = time based arts performances. Getting your mind around performance art is an art. I explains it thus - i stand on the corner jumping up and down for an hour - that is performance art. This is not to make trivial of the real art and we saw several memorable performances.

Said son got a sewing machine for his birthday. He found a fur jacket at Red/white/black thrift store and wanted to know if the machine would handle the fur. Sometimes you got to wonder.

Tom has gone back to wood turning school and this semester is working on bracelets. I think he has gone over the hill - 48 or so of these little things makes a bracelet. Now how much would that cost in the free market?
Went to lunch with a friend in Anaheim. There on her table were a couple of ceramic pieces of Brian"s, what fun.
She uses the old dresser scarves on her table and tops the scarves with art.

Last Saturday we went to the wedding of a child we have known since she was 2. Her parents are dear dear friends and our companions are dear dear friends.

Nice to get dressed up and celebrate. We all need to celebrate MORE, what are we waiting for.

30

august became september

August seemed so long and yet went so fast.

The American Sewing Guild held their National Convention downtown L A at the Bonaventure Hotel. As a member and a Bernina Designer, I was invited to show one of my garments. Tick Tac Toe is the second from the right, gold and orange. It was fun to see the garment on a mannequin and out of the closet. The blue garment, on the right belongs to Judith Bear and it is wonderful. She won viewers choice at the Bernina Fashion Show in Houston.

Judith and I went to the convention together, visited the vendors and stayed for member fashion show. Dinner is an important part of these events. We each had a Caesar Salad - not the usual presentation but pretty great, sardine and all.


A Friday - it started with an estate sale in Leisure World in Seal Beach. This is a gated senior community and the sales vary but somehow still seem pretty much the same. We do not often "score" at these sales but we have fun.

My companions are Madelyn and Jeanne - friends and my former neighbors going back to 1987. These are gals who know where the bodies are buried, if you know what I mean. We went from Leisure World to a couple of Garage Sales, to my world famous Mexican restaurant in Santa Ana for Fish Tacos.

Then the Goodwill Market Place, with the pickers and the auctions. Bins , 6x6x6, of hardback books were going at auction for $30. No one would tell me what they were planning on doing with these books that had been donated to Goodwill and never made it to the store or didn't sell in the stores.

There are stories to tell with displayed merchandise - I think this one is especially provocative.
Do you sun first and then shower or vice versa.

Then we went to a real honest to goodness Goodwill store and scored.

I left the house at 7:15 for Pilates and returned home about 4. What a great day. Thanks Madd and Jeanne Marie

The month of August, so far

It is with great honor, I have participated in the Quilts of Valor program. http://www.qovf.org/index.html. I made a quilt top, provided the backing and binding and was paired with a Long Arm Quilter. Colleen quilted and finished our quilt.


I love the picture of our quilt on her long arm machine, it shows process and I love knowing the how and the why of how stuff is made.
This long arm machine is in her living room, as many of these magic machines are. More about Colleens quilting can be found at: www.colleenscreations.com

Colleen was honored to be able to present this quilt to a wounded member of the Armed Services. May it help in their recovery. I have the fabric for my next quilt.

Moving on with the month

THE SPACE BETWEEN, a special exhibit at the Long Beach International Quilt show. My quilt, Life Happens In the Space Between is shown with me standing in front. International Quilt Association presents a great show and I was priviliged to have a piece in this special exhibit. More about the quilt can be seen on my website - http://joanell.com/


And lastly, so far. Tom and I flew to Wyoming to attend the 8th sort of semi-annual Burgert Cousins Family Reunion - it was great. I am submitting just a few of my favorite photos.
The road, the fences, the land and the sky - what is not to like.

The view from my favorite spot on my brothers back patio - storm coming.

Before the storm, my cousin Marilyn and I ran the par course, just imagine our sense of fulfillment after these chin ups.

And I always ask to see a friends favorite photo from a trip, this might be mine (or the chin ups)/ I think it is the worlds biggest dandelion. My sister wouldn't let me keep it and put it into her car and take it home - she had enough of them already. But I love the detail and will try to make a screen or something or not.


And the month is not over - yet.