Reclaiming My Gallery-Going Mojo

 

 

Yes, the new blog is here!  My guru, Allison, came over yesterday and put the finishing touches on it.  I'm still working on what you find when you click the tabs, but mostly it's done.  Thanks, Allison, for your patience, humor, and resourcefulness dealing with this techno-peasant old bag!

 

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Catalog

I'd lost my mojo for gallery-going.

I used to keep up with shows all over the Bay Area, consulting the Gallery Guide, plotting where to go when, getting to know gallery back rooms and even some of the artists.  I was something of a resource for art-crazed pals.

And then I lost interest.

Maybe it was too many First Thursdays in San Francisco, pushing through the hordes of art students in the stairwells at 49 and 77 Geary, where there were floors of galleries and gallons of cheap white wine.  Or because most of what I saw seemed derivative, silly, and puzzling (Anne Lamott: "A confused reader is a hostile reader;" substitute "viewer").

I reached the point where I'd stand in the doorway of many galleries, glance at the stuff on the walls, and back out.  I said to hell with it. Museums were a better bet.

But Friday, I went to a gallery in Mill Valley, partly because I knew the work of three artists in a group show and partly because, really, I've been spending too much time in the house, checking e-mail, reading blogs, and monitoring a missing plane and whatever Putin's doing in Crimea.  Time to get see more of the world than what I could catch on a computer screen.

So, my friend Rebecca and I drove over to the Seager Gray Gallery to see the show "Women's Work," the day before it closed.

Hey, I liked it!  If I'd had a big stack of cash, I might have bought something.  Here are my faves:



Cowboy #8, Joe, Lisa Kokin, 2013, vintage textiles, thread

 



 

Detail of  Cowboy # 8, Joe
 

Cowboy #7, La Vie en Rose, Lisa Kokin, 2013, vintage textiles, thread

 

 

Detail of Cowboy #7, La Vie en Rose

 

 

Cirrosa 2, Jessica Drenk, books, wax, glue.  (Yes, those are sliced book pages.)

 

 

Detail of Cirrosa 2

 

 

,

Tactical Encounter, Devorah Jacoby, 2010



 

Captain Marvel and Harlow, Inez Storer, 2013, oil, mixed media on panel

 

 

Detail of Captain Marvel and Harlow

 

 

 

Doll Face Pillow, Lia Cook, 2013, woven cotton, rayon

 

Here's a painting by Inez Storer that hangs in our dining room:



The Composer, Inez Storer, 1989, mixed media, including Japanese textiles



 

After the gallery, we discovered a nearby fabric store, with vintage patterns, sewing classes, this and that (Sewn, 31 Sunnyside, Mill Valley).  Lunch and then a fabric and yarn store in Oakland, A Verb for Keeping Warm, where there's a patio/garden behind the shop,  where they dye yarn. (And raise rabbits--Rebecca, an ardent knitter, speculated that they spin the wool.)  The shop's just over the Berkeley border at 6323 San Pablo, Oakland.

Interior of A Verb for Keeping Warm, Oakland

Dye Garden at A Verb for Keeping Warm

 

More of the Verb Dye Garden (what you can't see: the rabbit cage and big steel vats)

 

Quilting with an Open Heart: Deanna's Show Within a Show

Deanna Davis, out-going president of the East Bay Heritage Quilters, had a show-within-a-show at last weekend's "Voices in Cloth."  She was recently diagnosed with a serious illness, and this look back at her work was a wonderful way for her to see old friends and old friends to celebrate her years of quilting.

Deanna, center

Deanna quilts with the most open heart I know.  There's a personal story behind most of her quilts, a response to experiences (the disastrous Oakland Hills fire of 1991, quitting smoking around the same time), and she doesn't shy away from experimenting with techniques and pushing the envelope in design, format, and media.

I'll stop commenting and let you take a look!  It was hard to get good photos because there was bright sun behind her quilts, but I did my best with my rebellious little Nikon.

Can We All Get Along

 

 

Global Warming

 

 



Release

Song of Friendship

 

 

 

Collections I, a response to the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which came within two miles of Deanna's home.

 



Collections II, "which celebrates the strength and memories used to grow and rise beyond the loss of collections [in the fire]"

New Years 1991, when Deanna resolved to quit smoking after 30 years

Detail of New Years 1991:  The top lifts up to reveal messages about her struggle to quit



Detail of New Years 1991

Detail of New Years 1991



Another detail of New Years 1991

Secrets

Wild Africa Elephants

 

 

Woman Dreaming, a quilt I remember seeing at the Oakland Museum in the late '90's as part of a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, "Women of Taste: A Collaboration Celebrating Quilt Artists and Chefs."  Deanna partnered with chef Frances Wilson, whom she depicts here.

 

 

 

Figure Study #2

Scenic Byways #2

Michael's Hat

Figure Study #3

Adrenalin  (with Deanna's daughter Kathryn in the corner--sorry, Kathryn!)

Deanna's family was at the show on Saturday: 

 

Deanna with her son, John, and her daughter, Kathryn

 



...and with her other daughter, Donna

(I ran into Deanna's husband, Bob, a few times but never had the presence of mind to get out my camera, alas.)

For years, Deanna has run the guild's Children's Quilt Project, which supplies quilts to needy and sick children through various nonprofit agencies and hospitals.   Guild members donate fabric, piece quilts, sew on bindings--everything needed to produce 1200 quilts annually.  Deanna's designed a zillion quilt kits that guild members pick up and sew together, and she's coordinated every aspect of distribution.  Nobody has a bigger heart!

A Missing Jet, the Kardashians, & the Coen Brothers

There are about a million things these days that I just don't understand. 

I find myself getting impatient and cranky and have to back away from the Cliff of Judging Other People, because I could fall into the Ocean of Unkindness, Intolerance, and Intellectual Laziness (the Sea of Republicanism?).

I am currently bewildered/confused by:

1.  The relatives of the people on the missing airliner.  They are very angry at Malaysian government officials because they don't feel they've gotten the entire story, and maybe they haven't.  But where I'm confused is that no one, not even the USofA with all its overpriced Pentagon gear, can find the jet.  The radar/satellites/weather situation is complicated.  I want to say, "I'm so sorry for what's happened to you, but I don't see how throwing plastic water bottles helps."

Rushed back to Netflix

2.  "Inside Llewyn Davis."  We watched the Coen brothers' movie last night, and I was exasperated within ten minutes.  The newspaper review says it's "bleak but funny, and funny is its own justification."  We hated the main character, who had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  Also, it's not funny.  I dated people like that in college (narcissistic-poet types), and it was never funny. Shudder.

3.   Why Khloe and Kim Kardashian are described as having toned bodies, well-suited to skinny jeans.  The media would call the rest of us "fat." 

4.  Why Michael Chabon's novel, "Telegraph Avenue," is called "a masterpiece."  I'm on page 43 and probably will get no further, even though I'm really trying.

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Updates:

1.  My friend Marian, 90 years old and hospitalized for six weeks, is no better.  I took another bouquet of flowers on Monday and spoke to her briefly on the phone.  I'm going again today with some macaroons to tempt her appetite.

2.  The quilt show, "Voices in Cloth" is at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond this weekend. (A spectacular building, right on the Bay,  originally a Ford plant, converted to producing Jeeps, etc., in WWII).  Be there or be square.  Wear comfortable shoes.

3.  Jerry woke up out of a dream the other night, said, "Damn it!  I spilled a Coke!" While he went to get a towel,  I leaned over his side of the bed and looked, even though I was pretty sure there wasn't any.   "No Coke, no Coke!" I yelled. He tossed the towel aside and went right back to sleep;  I did not.  Attack of the Phantom Coke.

4.  Spring has arrived.  We didn't earn it, but it's here.  I painted my toenails and created a big mess in the front yard, pruning (man's job to clean up?).

A Vast In-Gathering

Everywhere you looked, there were quilts:  250+ of them.

All day yesterday, members of the East Bay Heritage Quilters brought quilts to this living room to be stacked and bundled and ultimately taken to the site of  next weekend's big guild show, "Voices in Cloth."

Yes, I got out of my recliner chair, thanked God that my reaction to the measles vaccination seems pretty much over,  and drove to Deanna's house to help out.

 

Each quilt has a label with an assigned number, and each stack has a tag with a number range:

 

 

 

 

 

Some quilts have beads, buttons, and other embellishments that require:

 

 

 

 

The "Special Handling" pile to the right of the grand piano:

 

 

Many of the special handling quilts were rolled around foam noodles, like the ones kids (and old ladies) use in pools.   

 

Two years ago, my assigned volunteer stint was helping to set up the show.  That will happen next Friday, with another crew of volunteers.  Putting on the show is a huge job, and planning for the 2016 show will begin sooner than anyone wants to believe.

 

In the meantime, I am so glad my quilt is finished and in one of those stacks (#127).   Done.

 

 

"Voices in Cloth: Extraordinary Quilts by the Bay,"  Craneway Pavilion, 1414 Harbour Way South on the Richmond Waterfront, March 22-23. Two-day admission: $12 at the door.