Searching for Roy G Biv II - update #2

Did you know that Roy G Biv visited Boston? Seems he did AND he left blue. Lots of blues, in fact. I've photographed several of them to share, but the internet connection in the hotel is spotty so the real sharing will happen once we return home.

One of the first blues...other than the brilliant sky and dazzling water...that caught my eye was the rental bikes outside our hotel door.

The real treat of this trip has been spending Saturday afternoon with Jeanne Williamson. More on that later as well. I must say that Jeanne is rather brave - she joined the family for dinner at the Barking Crab. Dining with my little urchins is always an adventure given how much they usually eat.

My apologies to Ersi and Carol for the late link to their blue posts. Please stroll over to be amazed. Time to visit the Children's Museum. Enjoy!

Searching for Roy G Biv II - Blue updated

I have something to tell you...I've fallen in love with blue. This affair began last fall when I went to Cleveland for an India Flint workshop. With Friday free, I visited the Cleveland Museum of Art and experienced Work No. 965: Half the air in any given space by Martin Creed.

A room of 3 glass walls filled halfway with air...in the form of balloons. I looked at this room from so many angles. Listened to the laughter of those within. Watched many braver than I squeeze through the doors. Oh! How badly I wanted to experience this.

You see, I'm a bit claustrophobic so just the idea of being covered - even in balloons - had me wanting to run and find a safe spot from which to observe. But observing wasn't at all what I desired.

Finally, one thought occurred to me. I'd just had an MRI a week or so before going to Cleveland. I stood outside the balloon filled room and thought that if I could survive an MRI, I could walk through a room of balloons. The video is mine. Yes. I did it and it was the experience of a lifetime...and the beginning of my love affair with blue.

wall paper detail at Topaz, Washington, DC

vases in the ladies room at the Society of Conptempory Craft, Pittsburgh, PA

flower pots in Pittsburgh

Washington, DC door

 construction wall in the DC Metro, Dupont Circle stop

 bowl at The Phillips Collection gift shop

 lamp at Table Top, Washington, DC

dragon at the annual Frog Frolic in May

canoes outside LL Bean

My Saturday mornings have been spent watching the girls take swimming lessons. 

Well...yes, I did watch them, but I also took photos of the water.

Yearning for more blue? You're in luck then. Stroll on over to these blogs for more...

Julie has bi-coastal blues.
Fiona has a thought provoking blue.
Kim has powerful and life changing blues.
Liz has captured twilight.
Monica has blue that tells a story.
Deb has playful blues.
Charlton has Scottish blues.

Do you have blue?

Maya has an eclectic selection of blues...including a rather fishy one.
Cindi has some glassy blues.
Lisa has heavenly blues.

As always, if you know of blues that have been posted yet have escaped Julie's or my notice, please let us know and we'll be happy to link to the post. The more, the merrier applies in the search for Roy G Biv!

Searching for Roy G Biv II - a reminder

Just a quick reminder that our search for the ever elusive Mr. Roy G Biv continues on Thursday with...can you guess? Yes! We're up to the B = blue.

If you'd like to join in the fun, but aren't sure just what I'm talking about, click here for the guidelines. See you Thursday!

In the studio

Been playing with tea bags this week.

What have you been doing?

Rain = rust

Last week's rainy spell left me feeling a bit rusty around the edges 

 so out came the watercolor paper,

 rusty bits

and green tea bags.

 They must have been feeling 

 a bit rusty too.

 

 Or...

 they are hinting

 of stories and marks

 to come.

What do you think?

What if #459

Or there abouts. Haven't actually numbered my what ifs. 459 just seemed like a good number this cool, wet and still misty Saturday morning.

Returning back to my own studio after being at Pam's for a week and working alongside her in her glorious studio always includes a bit of adjustment time on my part...as my absence no doubt does in hers. Once the boxes had been unpacked and my studio semi-organized, I slowly got back to work.

One of Pam's what ifs kept nudging at me to try it too.

She'd experimented by sewing a few tucks into her mono printed fabric.

I loved the results, especially for the sculptural possibilities it offers. 

This is definitely one of my favorite shots from the week...the light, Pam's hands, the work.

On Thursday, I sat down at the sewing machine and started stitching

various sized tucks in a long piece of green tea rusted cotton.

Something a juror once said of how I approached my weavings has stayed with me through the years and it was this thought that kept whispering to me.

Foon Sham, artist and professor at the University of Maryland, was one of 3 jurors for The Art League's call for entry for solo exhibitions the year I decided to be brave enough to apply. To be honest, getting my work in front of Foon Sham was the reason I applied.

In his notes about my work, he commented that I liked to create a pattern and then break it. And he was right. I did it intuitively as a point of interest, yet had never recognized it as such.
 

This week, I did it on purpose.