1000 Posts - Art Deco Posts are the Most Popular

Here is another luscious Madeleine Vionnet creation.
In celebration of my 1000th post, I am looking back at the most popular posts, the ones that have been viewed the most often.

The most popular post by far was 'Madeleine Vionnet and Art Deco' Here

The 2nd most often viewed post is also related to my Art Deco studies - 'Art Deco Art on the Figure' here.

A Coco Chanel dress from the Art Deco era.

A detail shows the rich velvet with burn-outs on a silk ground.

The 5th most viewed post was also on the subject of Art Deco fashion, 'Art Deco in England' here

It was a bit of a trick post title because it is about my having sent a module of work to England to be assessed, during my long-distant degree studies. The unit of work focused on an analysis of the Art Deco period.

Here is a beautiful, Art Deco period dress by UK-born designer Edward Molyneux. This dress can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum.

Conclusions - Art Deco lovers do lots of internet searches. Or, there is a lot of interest in the Art Deco period.

Colour Studies in the Green Shed Studio

Backyard Project posts have dominated my blog lately and you may be wondering if I am ever in my studio. 

To answer the question - Yes. I am working on a big project that will culminate in at least 2 exhibitions.

'Colour: A Personal Response' is a project I am working on with fibre artist Sarah McLaren.

It involves doing colour studies in paint and fabric.

I am making large paintings of 24 different colours.

Apart from a Jane Davies workshop, see blog post here  I am not trained in painting so I am just feeling my way. My intention with these paintings is very clear and it is keeping me at it for many hours. I am beginning to pick up a feel for moving the paint around. I am also even more conscious of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule.

Backyard Project: Pergola and Arbour Take Shape Pulling the Design Together

More cedar posts are popping up each time I look out of my studio window.

It is like a forest is growing. The design plan was a large number of vertical elements would look and feel like a forest echoing the Douglas-fir forest surrounding the Backyard Project site.

The view from my studio porch.

I like the way the studio porch posts are the same size, material and construction method as the pergola and arbour. It serves to connect the spaces.

Josh had a big question for us this morning. 

How high do we want the cross beams on the arbour and the pergola? Jonathan Aitken, the architect, said to make the arbour cross-beams lower than those on the pergola. 

Josh put up a horizontal piece of wood to help us visualise a height. 

I designed the path to be wide enough for the lawn tractor and trailer to travel along and around the corners of the arbour easily. I settled on a width of  7' 5". I also wanted a square shape to each section of the arbour to repeat the square grid and cubes that make up the design module the house is based on. Therefore the finished top height of the pergola is to be 7' 5".

With the big decision made everyone was able to get back to work.

The cross beams look higher now than they will be when all is finished because there are 3" of gravel to go in along the paths.

Josh as an experienced wood craftsman is making sure the intersections and joints are a neat fit. 

This is a very exciting stage for me. I developed the concept design for the Backyard Project then we got Jonathan Aitken to work his architectural science and arts magic on the space and structures.

But I still felt as though I have been holding my breath or crossing my fingers that the reality will match my imaginings. So it is such a thrill to now be able to walk around and through the space and feel good about it. 

I will write a future post explaining the guidance I took from A Pattern Language when I designed this area.

Backyard Project: 1st Post for Arbour and Pergola Raised

6" x 6" cedar posts have been delivered so construction of the pergola and arbour can begin.

First Kyle measures twice...

...then he cuts.

To get your bearings, Taylor is standing in the arbour and the upside down wheelbarrow is in the middle of the pergola.

Taylor evens out the ground...

...and fills in around the footings. 

A metal 'U' shaped anchor brace has been added to every footing.

Kyle and Josh check their installation of the first post.

Yes, they are happy with their work.

The raising and installing of the posts have begun.

Backyard Project: 19 Footings Poured on a Very Wet Day

A Big Day. 

The pumper truck arrived on site followed by the cement truck.

The cement hose is taken from the pumper truck to the farthest footing. 

Note how carefully the men have placed the hose around the Gravel Bed garden. That would be Josh's doing. Early on in the job, I explained to him I didn't want anyone to walk on or across the Gravel Bed garden. I don't want the plants to be walked on and I want to keep the specially chosen, washed, white and grey rocks to stay clean. Josh has been vigilant ever since to keep everyone out of the bed, which I really appreciate.

Josh is setting up the Shop-Vac to pump out the water accumulating in the footing areas. It is such wet day some of the holes are filling up with water. The hole needs to be kept fairly dry for the concrete to completely fill the spaces and set hard.

Concrete pours out of the tube and is directed in and around the formwork.

It takes 3 strong people to control the heavy, wriggling tube.

The guy with the camo jacket has a remote controller in his right hand that is remotely connected to the pumper truck. He is controlling the flow of the cement.

The whole site is muddy, slippery and uneven and the rain is pouring down; all making for challenging work conditions. However, the pour is accomplished relatively quickly because everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing.

Now to wait for the concrete to set and cure.

Backyard Project: 19 Footings for a Pergola and an Arbour

A pergola and an arbour are 2 of the 5 structures that make up Phase 3 of the Backyard Project.

It took a lot of hard physical labour by Josh and Taylor to dig into the compacted rocky ground to make holes for 19 footings. Each hole is then fitted with a wooden box to contain the concrete and reinforcing steel to make the concrete strong. It is called the formwork.

It is hard to see but the Resident-engineer is working with the construction Lead Carpenter to make all of those decisions about exactly where the footings need to be located.

All in place: Surveyed string guidelines and offset pegs, formwork with a section of sono-tube fitted inside, plastic bags to keep the rain out of the formwork.

The square on the right is the pergola site. The L-shaped boxes define the arbour which goes around the Gravel Bed garden.

Now to wait for the cement truck.

Backyard Project: 8 Foot High Deer Fence Essential for Productive Garden

Deer skulls found while walking through the forest.

The unchecked deer population on southern Vancouver Island is exploding. We, humans, have chased away their natural predators.

We live at the foot of Bear Hill but our long-time resident neighbour says she hasn't seen a bear in her yard for 12 years.

The first section of the cedar deer fence is in place.

The Backyard Project is all about outside living amongst different multi-functional garden beds. If we want to harvest food we need to keep the deer away. But the deer population numbers have reached the level where if we want even the plants to survive we need to keep the deer out. There is such a demand for food from the large number of groups tracking across the land that they are often hungry and will eat the whole plant and not just nibble from a number of plants as they used to when their numbers were smaller and there was plenty of food to go around.

As a result, the Backyard Project plan includes the construction of a deer fence. Most of the fence is wire mesh with steel posts but the area which is the entrance to the back yard is a cedar fence.

Josh and Taylor have set up a work bench near where the fence is being constructed.

For the type of deer in this forest the fence needs to be 8 feet high. The deer are small but they can jump high. In the Oak Bay area, the deer are larger and stronger so the fences need to be strong to be effective. However, they don't seem to be able to jump as high because I see a lot of 6 foot high fences in that suburb.

More sections of the deer fence in place with the top beam still to go on.

The deer may be jumpers but they are also small. It is amazing how small a gap they can squeeze through, especially the bambis, hence the ladders lying horizontally against the bottom of the fence to fill the gaps.

The gap between the temporary wire fence and the new cedar fence is filled with a ladder.

We all have to be vigilant about keeping the gate in the temporary fence closed at all times. I have had dreams of a deer getting inside and I spend days trying to shoo it out through one of the 4 gates while more deer stream in through the other open gates. A nightmare!

This gap is for the permanent gate.

The new cedar deer fence connects the house with the studio. I will write a post about how this design fits the Pattern Language, check out wikipedia description. 

The temporary deer fence will remain in place until all of the gaps have been filled and it is completley deer proof. Then the only remaining problem will be human error - failing to close a gate.

National Museum of Women in the Arts - No Man's Land

Magdalena Abakanowicz, '4 Seated Figures,' 2002. Burlap, resin and iron rods.

'No Man's Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection' (here for the online exhibition.) was recently shown at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.

'4 Seated Figures' may have been inspired by Magdalena's memory of witnessing her mother being shot in the hands as soldiers stormed their home in Poland during WWII. What she says about these genderless, race-neutral figures is 'they are naked, exposed, and vulnerable, just as we all are.'

Faith Ringgold, 'Jo Baker's Bananas,' 1997

One of Faith's story quilts commentating on racism and discrimination.

In Faith's signature technique of acrylic painted canvas with a pieced fabric border.

Outside the museum, a sign warned there were nuts in the building. I thought it strange and only on seeing this box of walnuts realised the sign was an allergy alert.

Jennifer Rubell 'Lysa III' 2014

Jennifer was inspired by finding a Hilary Clinton nutcracker for sale online.

She worked with the concept of harnessing female power making, as she says, 'a scary act of female power.' 

Museum visitors were encouraged, with supervision, to operate the nutcracker. The artist cleverly invites the viewer to contemplate female power in a playful way.

The Hilary Clinton nutcrackers were on sale in the museum shop at the same time Hilary was campaigning to become a president.

Visiting Washington DC Museums - Textile Museum, Renwick, National Museum of Women in the Arts

After attending the Textile Society of America Symposium in Savannah Ingrid and I flew up to Washington DC with the intention of checking out the newly relocated Textile Museum now on the George Washington University campus. Unfortunately, our timing was not great. We could only enjoy the shop because the gallery was closed while a new exhibition was being installed.

We visited the Renwick Gallery. I didn't take my camera because I wanted to focus on looking at the work and thinking about it. Sometimes while I am taking pictures/photographs I feel as though I am missing out on the full experience. 

We also visited the outstanding National Museum of Women in the Arts and spent many hours working our way up through the floors of the gleaming marble building.

On the top gallery floor, we thoroughly enjoyed the current contemporary exhibition "No Man's Land - Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection" where the work was often provocative, cheeky and humorous, as its title suggests.

I particularly enjoyed artists whose use of particular materials was intriguingly icky and so full humour.

Karin Upson's 'Kiss 8' is part of her " The Larry Project." There is bit of a weird story about Larry which led her to paint a portrait of Larry and at the same time a self-portrait. While both portraits were still wet she pressed the 2 together creating 'a pair of unsettling hybrid faces.'

The paint was so thick and textured one had to step back quite a distance before the faces emerged.

Analia Saban's 'Acrylic in Canvas' was so tongue-in-cheek. The paint wasn't on the canvas as is 'normal' with fine art, instead, she filled a canvas bag with paint so it was in the canvas. It was kind of icky while at the same time humourous.

Solange Pessoa's 'Hammock' looked from the entrance to the room like the suspended intestines of a huge beast. But it was not what it seemed. On closer inspection, the materials were familiar: fabric earth and sponges. Up close the mass and scale were somehow comforting which was a huge shift my first impression.

Dianna Molzan's 'Untiled' is work toying with the definition of fine art as paint on a stretched canvas mounted to look as though it is floating against a wall. Dianne took each of those elements and played with them. She removed the vertical threads from the canvas while leaving the horizontal threads mounted conventionally to the stretcher bars. Then she applied paint to the remaining draped threads. I enjoyed the way she had cleverly brought together the fine art expectations with the materiality of craft and women's detailed repetitious work.

Rosemarie Trockel's 'Colony' is another play on the definition of what is fine art. From a distance, her work looks to be worked in the Colour Field style where large blocks of flat colour cover the stretched canvas.

Closer inspection reveals it is not what it seems and so questions the definition of fine art.

Rosemarie is quoted as saying, "I tried to take wool, which was viewed as a woman's material, out of that context and to rework it in a neutral process of production."

Lots of food for thought.