Two Classes this Week

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to take a class on "How to Photograph Quilts" sponsored by SAQA and taught by a nice young man named Luke Mulks who has been a photographer for C&T Publications where he gained a lot of knowledge and experience. This was his first class and he went to great lengths to make it a success. I learned that for $75 to $500 I could equip myself for a home studio that I lack the space to accommodate. I did get some ideas about doing what I have been a little differently. Luke provided a 26 page handout which I will be happy to share, answered my ever present tech questions, and offered to respond to future questions we have. He is a generous and enthusiastic teacher. From what I learned, I would think it would make sense for a group of quilters to share the cost of lighting set ups and either find a place to use and work as a group, photographing several peoples quilts on the same day, or allow people to pass the equipment around, figuring out their own setup. Their would also be the possibility of hiring Luke to photograph several of our quilts on the same day, either locally or at his place in San Ramon.

My other class was a SCVQA class with Sylvia Pippen, in Sashiko and hand applique. Another person generous with her knowledge, she manifests the "Aloha Spirit" of her Hawaiian home, even inviting us to come to the Big Island for workshops she teaches at her house. I'm sure that would be inspiring and a great vacation! My reason for taking the class was to learn her hand applique technique which seemed more precise than the Nancy Brown method I learned in a SCVQA workshop last fall. Sylvia uses a Mylar template material and heavy starch to get the edges of the appliques turned under, then glue bastes them in place. Since her love of floral designs enables her to use pattern pieces multiple times, the Mylar is very practical. Larger applique pieces where only the edges need to be starched might be doable with the Katie P. M. "tracing paper spray glued to poster board" method. The Sashiko is lovely but I think it takes a lot of practice to get the stitches precise and even. The traditional is white on indigo but I was reminded that I have painted the white thread in the past and liked the effect. I did learn the proper way to do it and it is a good portable "lap" project.

New Year, New Approach

My first artistic venture for the year was a trip to San Francisco to the Impressionists exhibit at the De Young Museum. While waiting for our entry to the exhibition we treated ourselves to the paintings which "live there" year round.



My favorites are always the landscapes of the 18th and 19th centuries, those which predate color photography or photography at all. The incredible detail captured by the artists, as well as the way light is always the 'star', move me. Having tried to paint a rose which seemed to be moving to open, I am in awe of those who caught a shadow moving across a plain, or an arching rainbow. Plein Air painting in the discomfort of wind, bugs, and heat or cold is even more challenging. Some painters couched their landscapes with metaphor, symbolism, or mythology, such as one with a man clinging to the side of a cliff. He turned out to be Prometheus awaiting the eagle to pluck out his liver. My companion dubbed him the "sunbather". The painting would have been magnificent without him, though I suppose he did provide a focal point.



Inside the Impressionist traveling exhibit, were works by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Seurat, Gaugan, and a few others. Not all of the paintings were what I would term "impressionistic" but were apparently of that period. I was reminded of my first exposure to these artists in college Art History class. My instructor was showing a still life by Cezanne and pointed out the inconsistencies in perspective of the different objects in the painting. I've never been a fan of the still life, and at 18 was not appreciative of a picture of mundane objects which appeared to be painted by someone who "didn't even know how to do perspective correctly." The professor explained that an artist has to know the rules in order to break them and that what made Cezanne so remarkable was that he had taken those unremarkable items and by breaking the rules of perspective and disturbing the 'eye' of the observer, he had made them almost vibrate with life. His 'still' life was not at all still. It made me look at a lot of art differently. It doesn't mean I always like things which defy convention, but I do try to look at them from different 'Perspectives'