A trip downtown LA and lunch

It wasn't a field trip but rather a number of destinations. First, the pottery place you could see off the freeway - sort of at the corner of the 110 (Harbor Freeway) and the 91 (Artesia Freeway). You can see it but couldn't get there from here. I have this friend who never says never. ZoeAnn found it.

You can see by the "end " of the road sign that it is not an easy place to find.

Colorful


Artistically inspiring. Then we hit the freeway and headed downtown.

We went to shop for fabric. One never has enough fabric. This is Michael Levines, a downtown LA institution. We went to the "by the pound " loft space - bargains you don't need but buy.

And then there are the streets in the fashiob/garment/fabric district
You often wonder just what country you are actually in - but that is another story.

Then we went for lunch - food is always part of the adventure.
Is this not the most fabulous name for a restaurant?

We had a great lunch, sitting outside, on an island between 2 busy streets. We watched the tour bus arrive at the Orpheum Theater - who knows who was actlually arriving and getting ready to perform on friday evening. This photo is of the back side - the colors and form.


And, we saw this food vendor on the way to our car - we could have eaten here, but didn't

Check out the sign



On retreiveing the car at our roof top parking garage, these where the vistas.

and There are many parts to these adventures. The participants, the itinerary, the food -( lunch is always a part) and the intention. Whatever the intention for this day, we had a great time. As my mother in law used to say - a good time was had by all.

A beautiful day for a Goodwill experience

For the forth time I found myself at a Goodwill Market place. This is visit #2 for the Marketplace in Santa Ana, Ca. What an operation. Today I was a picker picking for someone else - sort of like a Pro Picker. Pam is/was looking for a particular type of sweater material for her latest collection. She will deconstruct, construct and over dye. She is putting together a collection for a spring fashion show.

We found sweaters for her a a couple of things for me. But the true adventure was learning about the process. Orange County/Santa Ana operation is way way bigger than the one in Long Beach. There are trucks and bins and boxes everywhere. The live auction was in full swing. Auctions are in Spanish unless someone needs it in English, so we grasped only parts of the operation.

A person wins a "lot". That merchandise is gone through and either - packed up to take somewhere, sorted and boxed and stacked or bagged. It all goes away, every day.


Apparently the merchandise is either headed for Mexico, a swap meet or a container.
The guy I talked to indicated that these white bags, full of stuff, were headed to a container and would be going over seas. Seems sales of used US merchandise is big in other places.

Amazing!!!

And I cannot believe I like going to the picker lot and just finding stuff. It limits your pallet, you find what you find. Somehow liberating - who knew?

In my real world I have just finished a quilt - "Life happens in the space between". I am entering this quilt into a juried competition so am not showing the completed quilt, today. The fabrics for this quilt all came from Goodwill.
Blues/greens/ male fabrics from Goodwill Store in Huntington Beach
Red/pinks/ mom type fabrics from Goodwill Marketplace in Santa Ana

I contend I have rescued these fabrics. Who knows their fate. Today there was a sweater from "Free People". It was a small petite so I had no reason to buy, but I do wonder what adventure this sweater will have.

And then, Pam and I went for lunch. Probably the best fish tacos I have ever had.
This is the view of our table but sadly does not include the man across the isle who had catfish in garlic sauce. It was a live catfish when he ordered it and he said it was fabulous.
Great day and thanks for listening,

a creative couple of days

I have to share the window displays of Anthropology at Fashion Island, Newport Beach. Rumor has it that design school students are the creative minds behind displays. These dresses are created using paper covered wire hangers, like you get from the dry cleaners. I took these photos to share with my dry cleaner.

AND - I participate in a small study/design group that meets every tuesday. We start the day with a word, this week the word was BLOOMING. First we do 5 min. pencil sketch, then a 15 minute something. This is paper collage. I had a page of EYES. If the eyes were flowers they could be blooming

Then we select an image from an art magazinse or high end auction house catalogue. This is my inspiration image, artist unknown,
We do 3 15-20 min. interpretations of the inspiration image.


This week I like what I saw and did. Not every week or trip to the mall is so inspiring. What are you working on?

Ran away for the long weekend

Tom

This post is about Tom. He fell in love with wood turning this fall. This long holiday weekend we drove north to Sebastopol, Ca. He and his buddy Gary took a 2 day class from a master.

Gary

Tom and the teacher Jerry Kermode and the very thin bowl Tom made.

The leaves are still turning in Sebastopol. This was before sunset with the sun behind me but the moon is very real.

The old Apple Drying buildings across the street from the teachers studio.

Another view of the apple drying building - liberties taken with photo playing.

This was Tom's weekend. I too had a great time seeing Sebastopol, Petaluma, a great yarn store and having tine with a long time friend and lunch with good friends.

The hardest part was driving back down to LA. I hate the drive across LA to Orange County. I consider it driving through the "belly of the beast". Flying in and out is much easier.

As my mother in law used to say - a good time was had by all.

New Year and New Projects

The Sketchbook Project - I ordered their small sketchbook and let them pick my theme, title.

"If you lived here"

I am just about ready to mail my entry into the Sketchbook Project - through the Brooklyn Art Library. These are some of my favorite pages. Check out the project at http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/

If you lived here, you might be swimming upstream

If you lived here, you would be wearing large boots

If you lived here, you would be up a tree

If you lived here you would be invited to a party

The project and my work is not great art but parts of it were great fun. If I were to do it again, I would replace the pages with paper that could be glued and painted and stitched. It was a challenge in the end.

the night before thanksgiving

Sunday I asked that we cancel turkey day. I just was not up to it, truly. I wanted to bring in from the grocery store or the local restaurant. But the promises to help, do it all - prevailed. Tom is great with a turkey and we shall see what time others arrive, and what they bring. I love turkey, my mom's stuffing and totally politically incorrect beans. In the end it will be great, I just don't want to "do dinner". As they say, we shall see what we shall see. I promise to do better with Christmas. It was a great day. Thank you Michael for taking the lead in the kitchen, Tom for doing the turkey, Jack for his enthusiasm, Larry and Barbara for flying from Kentucky and spending the day with us, Spence for being you and Erin - you made the day perfect.

I participate in a weekly design group or gathering. We always begin our morning with a word or saying - drawn from a basket. The words/sayings have been submitted by members previously. LATE LAST NIGHT was the recent saying. Do a 5 minute drawing followed by a 15 + min. interpretation. I usually use paper collage and a glue stick. This is my "late last night", as the sky might have looked with the moon above the rolling hills or furrows of crops. I live no where near either of these visions but I can take poetic license.


The sharing of this exercise has been prompted by Rose Hughes. She does weekly Tuesday Teasers. She can be found at

http://ravenspeakquilts.blogspot.com/2010/11/design-groups-tuesday-teaser.html

And I am currently working on a quilt for Noble Seasons - FALL. I like working with old photos of woman doing something. This gal, a friends grandmother, is chopping wood or preparing a chicken for dinner. As you can see, I am not quite done but I will be. I am also using silk screens of winter trees and a screen of an old house. The house is my son's in Portland and was build in early 1900's so it qualifies for the time. I am curious how this will all turn out.

And getting ready for OPEN STUDIO at my studio the first weekend in Dec. See the notice to the right or left?
Happy Thanksgiving.

Men's Ties - start to finish

Early last spring I decided to make make men's ties for my fall art fair shows. It took months to get my head wrapped around switching gears - from sewing and "doing lunch" to dying yardage.

I participate in a small design group - we meet weekly at my home. There was interest in trying soy wax batik. Soy is supposed to be far friendlier to the environment, less hazardous and easier to remove than traditional paraffin and bees wax formulas. I found it a pain to remove totally and lines far less crisp. It could have been operator error and others seem to have better results. But I glop wax on, moderation a fleeting thing.

I dyed one yard pieces of silk. Dye on, wax on, dye on, wax on. This is the scene on my patio table - for weeks, it seemed.

Samples of the fabrics in process. I used a square wooden chop on this piece. Layering the dye and the wax, attempting to vary the dye color with each application and the placement of the chop.

I used a sumi brush for this piece -

These are the 4 final fabrics that headed off to the tie maker downtown L.A.

The ties will premier this weekend at Artistic License Art Fair . Hoping for a great show and a nice weekend -