Quilts that are not quilts

Doesn't this have a quilty look?  This wooden structure wraps half way around the tree and has a bench on the inside.  It's an ideal place for a person to sit and meditate/contemplate, or for two or a few people to have a quiet conversation.  This is a fairly new addition at Heritage Plantation in Sandwish, Massachusetts. As you can tell from the green leaves in back the photo was taken before autumn came. Heritage is a large botanical garden, very beautiful all year long but spectacular in the spring.  It has a wonderful little museum with changing exhibits, a collectible car museum, a couple of very old buildings, and various sections, some almost hidden. A wonderful place to explore.

Big Birds on Main Street

Walking on Main Street, which I haven't done for some weeks, maybe months, I stopped to enjoy these two birds which are on either end of a bit of a plaza in front of some stores. The pedestals are a couple of feet high. The birds themselves are about 3 feet from tip of beak to tip of tail. They are a collage of shiny metal, maybe aluminum. They have that sort of familiar, slightly scruffy feeling I see in the gulls that hang out on the beach I walk on often. So, in a very different medium from flesh and blood and feathers, these birds, nevertheleass, have an authenticity that I really enjoy.

'Who knew?

A couple of days ago, I went with daughter and son-in-law, a glass artisan, to Falmouth here on Cape Cod to see an exhibit of work my many mosaic artists. The show was a revelation to me because mosaic conjures floors as in St. Marks in Venice or in Roman ruins or else walls with pictorial subject. There were references and modern takes on both but mostly the pieces were wall hanging pieces, nothing larger than 3x4 feet, if that. Thus surprise and lesson #1: modern mosaic artists use their craft to express the same kind of artistic impulses as painters and textile artists.

Many pieces were not just pieces of ceramic tiles. Lots of other materials were incorporated from strips of bronze to semi-precious gem stones, to river rocks to glass and ceramic beads and even including broken tea cups and vases. As to be expected sometimes it worked better than other times. Lesson #2: mosaics can incorporate a wide variety of materials.
I only took a few photos and am sorry I did not take more [I'll include a couple more tomorrow] Also I only jotted down a few names of the pieces and none of the artists' names which I'm sorry I omitted. The final piece had a name I liked a lot, "What the Leaf Peepers Don't See" - I had been drawn to it because of it's autumnal brilliance and because it is entirely squares used as fabric might be used in a quilt. Of course the ceramic surface gave the piece a sheen not even silk can give in textile work. A bit more tomorrow or the next day. Lesson #3, more photography is needed and a notebook in which to jot names.

Fuller Craft Museum

As the atmosphere around this wonderful duck sculpture and the lake beyond appear in the photo, Saturday was a gray and drizzly day for our drive to Brockton, Mass, to visit the Fuller Craft Museum to see the Nancy Crow exhibit discussed yesterday. We both fell in love with the museum and very much so with this duck. The same artist had a wildly collaged statue of a seated woman on display in the gift shop -- we didn't ask it's price.
The museum is a little architectural gem set in a beautifully landscaped area, the lake behind the duck borders one side. The rest of the area is wooded except for the necessary parking lot. Sculptures of many sorts are happily arranged around the museum and in the atrium in the above picture. [I'm sorry there is a reflection,the photo was taken through a window.]

A reader of my blogs commented some days ago that she felt she needs to make occasions to enjoy the culture available to her where she lives. It does require thought an effort which comes easily to me because I am not tied to a 9-5 job. Also Rachel enjoyed many of the things I enjoy. Besides our Saturday trip to the Fuller, on Sunday we went to a nearby cultural center to hear a free cello and piano concert. She actually knew the cellist; it was a beautiful concert and well attended.

Either of us could have said, "Oh, one event is enough," but both were appealing so we went and enjoyed both very much. The picture below is a quote painted on a wall in the Fuller museum. In case it is difficult to read on your computer screen it says, "Actions speak louder than words so shut up and get back to work." Advice not only for craftspeople.