More Colour for Julia Caprara

...from India

Last week I ordered Julia's new 'Exploring Colour' book from D4daisy,http://www.d4daisy.com/. I have read so many positive reviews of it. Each time the doorbell goes I think it must be the postman with my book . I must be patient.
But, when it arrives I am going to stop everything, make a cup of tea and sit down for a long read.

Julia Caprara & Symbols

Julia was interested in symbols left behind by ancient peoples. So here are some Canadian petroglyphs and pictographs for Julia.


Canadian Rockies, Alberta

Saint Victor, Saskatchewan

Nanaimo, Vancouver Island

Julia Caprara: Julia By the Sea

Julia's idea of the perfect place to be while working in her sketchbooks was to be warm while sitting beside water. So here are some perfect spots for Julia.

Cuba

Torbay, New Zealand

Vancouver Island, Canada

Just before Julia got sick, she and Alex planned to travel across Canada giving workshops then finshing with a few days beside the sea on Vancouver Island. Julia was working on her colour book and was looking forward to exploring the colours of the Pacific Coast.
If you have ever seen Julia's sketchbooks you would have seen evidence of her special ablity to capture the feeling of a place with colour. She then translated this feeling to her embroideries.

Julia Caprara

I am filling my blog space with colour today to remember Julia Caprara who passed away on Friday. Julia was one of the doyennes of the art world. People all around the planet will be feeling a sense of loss. Many will be wondering how they will cope without her. But no one more than Alex, her husband who has been beside her through her long illness.

Performance Art

During one of my earlier Opus BA modules I was exploring wrapping the environment. I wrapped a fabric covered cotton cord around a tree stump and left it. Periodically, I have been photographing it to see how it has changed while out in the elements.
Yesterday I looked out of the window and saw the cord being used in a performance.

An ecstatic/frantic squirrel was pulling the cord up to his nest. When the cord suddenly tightened the squirrel was jerked to a stop with a back flip.

He dropped the end and had to retrieve it from the ground. Then he started pulling the end apart -and filling his cheeks with cotton before returning to his nest.

That is how my environmental art turned into performance art. I am waiting to catch the encore.

Try again

Opps, I think I uploaded just one still. Hopefully this second attempt is the whole video.

Nope, it doesn't work. I'll have to play around some more.

In the meantime, I must get back to my Opus work. I am reading about whether there is a way of seeing the world that is inherently male or female. A big question. I know there are differences so I am looking into recent scientific research on the topic of differences between the male and the female brain. If I can't find anything convincing then maybe the differences are cultural.

African art and Picasso

Kwele initiation mask, Congo

With my Opus BA studies I have been looking at how African art...

...inspired Picasso. This is a detail from Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), a painting so daring it even shocked the other avant-garde artists hanging out in Paris at the time.

Gunther von Hagen's Bodyworlds Exibition, Edmonton, Alberta

We drove up to Edmonton for Thanksgiving with family. While there we took in Gunther von Hagen's Bodyworlds exhibition, http://www.bodyworlds.com/ . Over the last weekend the Science Centre was open 24/7 to cope with the crowd of people wanting to see it. Along with the many other procrastinators we lined up and filed in at 10:45 p.m and emerged nearly 3 hours later in a state of awe.

The atmosphere created by the gentle, murmuring, moving, packed in spectators was an experience in itself. The only other time I have experienced such a hushed reverence combined with a vibrating static in the air was when I filed past Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party.Having spent the summer wrestling with drawing the human body, I was totally absorbed and fascinated by what I saw. I came away with an even greater admiration for artists who can capture the complexity of the human form in a drawing.
The above image is of a rabbit but only its blood vessels. Red plastic was pumped through its entire blood system. Once this plastic hardened, all its organs, tissues, bones etc were removed, leaving the blood system in tact.
If I am ever again anywhere near a Bodyworlds exhibition I will certainly visit it again.

Middle Class Regency Women

Today I got together a power point presentation in preparation for a talk I am giving to the Calgary Guild of Needle and Fibre Arts, my local embroidery guild. I am going to share with them the research I did for an Opus module where I looked into the interests and activities of middle class women during the English Regency period (1800-1830).

I found it to be a fascinating time for women. For example, it was one of the few times in history women wore clothing that didn't distort or contort their bodies into unnatural shapes. They had a freedom of movement which allowed them to lead active lives and to follow their interests.

Earth From Above

In a past life I studied landforms, Geomorphology, then taught Geography. Even though I have done many more things since those days the shapes of the earth still fascinate me. I love to travel so I can observe humans interacting with their environments. When I can't travel I go to movies to look at the scenery, I go to photographic exhibitions and I examine glossy photographs in coffee-table books. One of my favourite photographers, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is bringing his large scale work to North America. Take a peek at this website to see some samples of his work.


Earth From Above comes to NYC - The Big Picture - Boston.com

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Eroticism and the Body in Art

Today, for my Opus studies, I compared these 2 works of art in my answer to the question...

Is the body in art always eroticised, if so why? To answer the question I have done lots of reading on the history of psychoanalysis, gender issues and 'the gaze'. All very interesting stuff.

Flowers & Snow

When I was in the Rockies at Lake Louise a couple of weeks ago I was attracted to the faded colours of this late summer border planting.

We went into the Louise Railway Station restaurant for lunch. When we came out the flowers were covered in snow. I was too busy running to the car park to stop & get a picture of them in their changed state. We are always warned about the changeable weather in the mountains but I didn't expect the seasons to change from summer to fall while having lunch.

The Odalisque & Bathing

I have been studying images of nude women all week for my new Opus module. It is very interesting to read different people's opinions as to why nude women were featured so often in art.

Two of the most interesting views are in the book 'Women and Art contested Territory' by Judy Chicago & Edward Lucie-Smith. As one would expect, Judy hates these 'masterpieces'.