Sue Stone

I recently came across Sue Stone's work and find this one 'East End Chair' so appealing. I don't know why. Is it all of the textures she has worked up with needle-weaving and hand and machine stitching on recycled fabrics?
Plus, it is funny.

Chinook - the Snow Melter

20 minutes ago a wind hit the house. I heard a dripping sound and looked out the window. All of the snow on the trees was gone. A grand-daddy of a Chinook popped over the Rockies and blew into town. The temperature has just risen 12 degrees in 30 minutes. What an exciting place to live.
Here is a photo snapped in the fall showing the typical arched cloud formation of a warm wind we experience here in Calgary, which brings the rapid rises in temperatures.

Snow Snow Snow

Calgary had its first big dump of snow yesterday.

I took a break from writing my essay to go outside

and enjoy the tranquil beauty in our back yard.
Now back to my essay.

Censoring the Body

While doing research for a term paper I read a great essay by the art critic and historian, Edward Lucie-Smith. He is someone with the ability to look over history and pull out key ideas, trends and shifts in ways of thinking.
He begins his essay with the observation, "from the earliest times, humans have found it difficult to represent their own bodies in a straightforward way" and he continues to bring his observations of censorship of the body up until the present day. He raises lots of provocative ideas.

Peabody Essex Museum

A good friend gave me a delicious book, Painted with Thread: The Art of American Embroidery, published by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. It is volume 136 in a series featuring their museum collections. The museum has more than 25,000 American textile items. The ones shown in this book are from an exhibition that showed items to the public for the first time.
The format of the book is perfect for the study of work when you can't go and see the real thing. Each of the 68 works has a 2 page spread, a full page close up of the work and a page giving details and background on it.
I have put this museum on my 'must see' list.