This afternoon I visited the recently refurbished museum in Den Bosch HNBM/SMs, in fact they are two museums now united by a huge, glass corridor; it was a bit confusing walking from one to the other and having to check in twice! but enjoyable and the weather was sunny and not too warm and there's a beautiful garden with big birch trees, very nice. The paper masks are by a Dutch artist Marc Mulders; I really like the simplicity of the materials used in these artworks: cutting and tearing paper, I feel like I could do this as well
and here another simple technique in a work by an artist Marina Visic I had never heard of, apparently she made it in one single day.....I love it when you see something totally unexpected in a museum (or wherever for that matter)
p.s. when I say 'simple' I do not mean easy; I love simple stuff.
simple things like grids and rainbows; the roof is finished, what a relief! and yes Grace I would have welcomed your help, that would have been fun! ah the light we now have: de-light-ful
speaking of lights: I made one with the old 'raggels'
how open it still looks, the new roof will be see-through corrugated plastic sheets, so there'll definitely be more light; the sweet chestnut provides shade in summer
gone are the leaky roof sheets
p.s. the talk about 'old' over at Jude's was whirling in my mind whilst toiling away with drill and saw; I feel growing old is very much okay, feeling old, i.e. not being able to do what you want to do is where it hurts....as long as I can do my restoring myself I'm old and at peace with that
where is everybody? on the dancefloor! we had a great party, for those of you who were there: thank you and everybody wishing me well from a far thank you too
sun-man has one blue and one yellow eye
bright spots of colour in the sun-man-scape, with running stitch
three so-called grid pieces, at various stages of completion; at this point they are already telling me different stories, above is a sun-man, although to begin with I thought it was a grey moon, he's a cheerful character; below, I keep seeing a large sailboat, what the button(s)-dye have to do with this ship is a mystery to me at this point in time
I like the wrinkled effect on the grey silk/cotton 'sky' after the invisible baste; I will make 'curtains' with the blue-grey running stitch on left and right (not yet started) the 'curtains' will run from top to bottom framing the ship/scene
the gold paint could be the reflection of the buttons on the ocean
deciding what colours the beads/dots should be on 'embracing what happens' has been made easier thanks to class: rainbow colours, or whatever I claim as my rainbow range, there will be detours from the main road as per usual
me and him before the party got going
ending with an upbeat song, time to get up and jump about to Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out, live at Glastonbury 2009
mr. Foxcat's incredible journey; it started life as a simple juxtaposition of newly acquired bits of fabric, the only fixed shape was fox's head and torso......he travelled to France and spotted a lama, was mistaken for a cat, he mixed and mingled with complete strangers, stayed up all night and watched the stars fade into grey, then blue skies; he marvelled at the outspoken behaviour of some of those he met and overcame his fear of being laughed at, he joined in the merriment and came closer and closer to the truth inside; he discovered within a hidden desire to dressing up, all things bright and sparkly caught his attention, he let the demon loose, who turned out to be his best friend and lo and behold, he was transformed. He finally had the courage to become what he in his heart knew he had always been: a Mr. FoxCat, not like any other fox or cat, he is unique
the sheer delight of showing his true nature to the world has made him happy once more and restored his balance. There is nothing to be ashamed of anymore. There never was. He sees the rainbow in the skies once again, the world is no longer black and white, he walks the streets with his head held high and looks each and every stranger straight in the eye, his step is light and he almost bursts with the desire to sing all day, he is happy, he is gay
a new small cloth with a more delicate take on the 'rainbow'; the horizontal lines are a very pale pink(!) the verticals are golden, they hold the grey moon on the front and shape the sun on the back
I continue to explore the possibilities of the grid....that sounds very important, haha I just have to laugh at myself sometimes....do you know the feeling? I tend to take myself very seriously indeed if I'm not careful, oh and in those moments of pride, omg I don't think I would enjoy meeting that person; so despite the pretentious sounding twattle, I do take the whole business of what I do here seriously, but am not, I hope, overly fussy and full of it!
...and as a reminder of mistakes and faulty cutting of threads: I leave the knots visible, nothing I do is perfect and maybe that's as it should be
