Wandering Wednesday - SF MOMA

 Time for a Wandering Wednesday, this time to SFMOMA. I really enjoyed my visit, going to see art in person, especially when it is so much larger than on one's computer screen or in a book is always a big part of the excitement. 

I've always loved Yayoi Kusama's work, especially her love of pumpkins and polka dots. Getting to see her enormous, exciting, Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart    in person was so great. 

Couldn't get the whole piece in my picture, because it's rather wide and there were a lot of people.

Finally got to experience one of the infinity rooms by Yayoi Kusama.  Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love (2023)  All I can say is wow! And that the pictures truly do not do this justice.

You get let into the cube with a small group, and you have exactly two minutes. It's completely worth the wait in line.

Glad I remembered to "always look up".

The Alexander Calder exhibit with many of his mobiles is always so peaceful. I just love watching the movement of the shadows.

Ended my visit with a late lunch at the museum cafe, including this lovely mocktail with butterfly pea blossom powder.

As Seen on the Street

 Ok, I lied, one last post from my visit to the SJMQT, but this time, outside!  How about this yarn-bombing (as seen in front of my car)?

And then there was this hilarious sign plastered on the light pole also in front of the museum. This was on the day of Trump's visit to San Jose, the streets were being closed in preparation and we all know how that turned out :(
**Warning for politics ahead:  In case you don't get the joke on the sign, John Miller is one of the pseudonyms that Trump would sometimes adopt when calling reporters back in the 80's and 90's. He would talk to reporters about himself as if he was a PR person named John Miller. And he testified to this fact in a court case, but now claims to not remember anything about it... And the 'Who is John Miller?' is a play on the catchphrase of 'Who is John Galt?' from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." So kudos to you, unknown sign-maker.

Happy 4th of July!
Another year down in the history books for the American Experiment. Wonder how many more we'll have?

Vintage Yet Modern

 Okay, one last post about the SJMQT exhibit. Some random shots and closeups of details that I really enjoyed on the vintage quilts. The colors on this one block were great, the mourning purple vs. the red and the patterns of the fabric, so modern, right? But look at that nice binding treatment on the edge, and that teeny tiny crossed appliqué stitch.

 These two borders on the enormous hexagon quilt, so simple but wow do they pack a graphic punch even in those softer vintage prints.

 The graphic-ness of these fabric choices in this star block are really great. Again, very modern look to the block because of the colors.

 I've always loved the kaleidoscope block, never made one, but it's on my "someday" list. I love how all the red centers pull the whole thing together.

Another quilt that could easily be a modern one. For a quilt with so many stripes and red and contrast, I find this one very soothing for some reason. I think it's the rhythm that's achieved with the sizing of the columns..

Finally, here's a quilt made of rectangles of suit-weight wools, and tied with enormous knots. The texture of those knots doesn't come across too well in this photo, but it was very eye-catching. I enjoy the dark colors and imperfect piecing of this utilitarian but still beautiful quilt.

Stripes and Points

 I guess I took a lot of pictures at the vintage quilts at the SJMQT exhibit. But I'm sharing them here so I can remember them myself and why! And also in hopes that you might enjoy seeing them as well.  I have to say that it was really inspiring seeing these gorgeous pieces alongside Kaffe Fasset's wonderful work.

One of the most amazing things in the whole place was this beautiful quilt. First of all, the design is wonderful, the stripes and points and then the restful cream rectangles and squares.

But...can you guess what it's made with? Ribbon. The entire thing is ribbon. I believe it was all silk ribbon.

 All sorts of ribbon seamed together and arranged ever so artfully.

 Such a huge variety of ribbon all in one place.

 The center rectangle from far away just looked like a big piece of cream fabric, but no...it's all ribbon. And maybe there's some staining or dye migration but it makes it even more beautiful to me. I love it that someone had this thought so long ago of putting together all these scraps and making such a unique piece of art. It must have felt amazing to work with, all that silk, yum.

Maker's Hand

In the current SJMQT exhibit of vintage quilts along with Kaffe Fasett's companion pieces, there was this wonderful appliqué quilt. 

It was so quirky compared to all the other perfect appliqué quilts you usually see displayed. I don't always respond to those all that well, not being a big appliqué' fan myself. Nothing wrong with them, just not usually my thing. But I loved all the imperfect animal shapes like this carrot (or yam maybe?) beastie. Never did decide what animal it was actually "supposed" to be.

 Isn't this almost-a-Dresden plate flower great? I love the overlapping curvy shapes that makes the flower look more dimensional. This picture shows the fine edge embroidery stitch too.

The framing fabrics were really beautiful and complex East Indian prints that set off the simple appliqué shapes very well. I called this one "The Most Amazing Cow" block. The hovering diamonds just remind me of exclamation points somehow.a

Once I started thinking about it, seeing an imperfectly executed vintage quilt on display in the museum was rather extraordinary. I think we have gotten so used to the technical perfection and excellence, even of the vintage works that are normally chosen for exhibition. You could see "the maker's hand" in this exuberant quilt which is something that I feel is missing a lot of the time.

Quilt Horizon

Here's one of my favorite vintage quilts from the current SJMQT exhibit that I was lucky enough to see recently with friend Jaye. It was displayed horizontally so please pardon the strange photography angles. This quilt was jaw-dropping. All the silks and velvets and fancy fabrics, the jewel colors, the sharp edges of the shapes, the use of dark and light. So beautiful. The label said the servants of the estate made this quilt and I could easily imagine that each fabric might have come from the lady of the house's fancy dresses. Perhaps scraps from the ones that her servants made for her? Who knows, but the variety contained in this one quilt is astounding.

 It was interesting to see the way this was put together, in three columns of three different blocks. Almost as if they were three separate projects done at different times and then joined together.

Detail of the corded edges between each shape. Every single one was outlined in this fine small gold/cream silk cording. So elegant and it makes the whole quilt shimmer.

This quilt is also pictured in Kaffe Fasset's book, "Heritage Quilts."  (affiliate link to amazon)

Seeing the inspiration quilt displayed right next to the quilt Kaffe created made a whole lot more sense to me in person. I didn't really get the connections from reading and seeing the pictures in the book until I got this opportunity to see the quilts side-by-side.

Museum Visiting and Participating

For Mother's Day we went with my parents to the San Jose MOMA. There was a great Wayne Thiebaud exhibit that I really enjoyed and it was a free Community Day.

This is a picture of a vase that was in the gift shop. It is covered in small slices of rolled paper tubes. What a cool effect!
It really stood out from all the rest of the things for sale in the shop.

I think the vase itself may be made from paper also. Unfortunately I didn't look to see who made it, so I can't post a link. The museum had a great set up right in the middle of the Thiebaud exhibit where you could sit down and draw a dessert from really realistic models. That's my dad in the blue shirt, he did an awesome cake slice with lots of details.

Britex and 1000 Journals

Some photos from a recent trip to San Francisco with friend Jaye, specifically to go see the 1000 Journals exhibit at the SFMOMA, but first we had to stop in at Britex Fabrics.

I love going there, even if I'm not looking for anything, it fun to just be in a big city building devoted to fabric. Four floors of it. We were searching for a red flannel, but they didn't have much that wasn't girly or flowery or non-Christmassy. Oh well. But it was fun to look at the rack and rows of colors and sparkly embellished silks that cost more than my mortgage payment.

The 1000 Journals Project was started a few years ago by someguy, he sent out 1000 moleskine journals into the world, some requested, some at random. A website was set up where their location could in theory be tracked. Most of them have never been returned. But there were many on display at the museum. It was great fun to read through them all. Unfortunately there was a lot of stuff basically defaced by cretins and clods, I'm talking to you Mr. Orange Highlighter.

The way the exhibit was set up there was a reading desk attached to the wall, where the journal was also attached by a cable. Here is a photo of a page by one of my fave journalists Tracy Moore of zettiology fame.

But eventually we figured out that there were drawers underneath filled with glue sticks, markers and colored pencils. After a brief break looking through our purses to see if there was any interesting emphera to put in a journal entry, I found enough and started in on an existing blank page. It was hard working standing up, and with museum goers watching over my shoulder. But I perservered and came up with this (click pic for slightly larger).

I happened to spot another page done by Tracy Moore, this one was about lomography which is a funny coincidence as my son, Zach has recently purchased a Holga camera and is off on the adventure of lomography. Very fun results in his pictures so far. I'm trying to talk him into setting up a blog to put them on, more on that later I hope.

In and Under the Rainforest

Post number two about our recent trip to the California Academy of Sciences.

One of the major exhibit spaces is a four story, globe shaped rainforest. It was an amazing space, really well thought out, and rainforest warm and steamy inside.

Here's what it looks like from the outside:

I just loved all the curves and shapes and intersections of the various rooflines.

This is from the first floor looking up. The curving spiral walkway was apparently very hard to engineer as far as how much concrete to plan for. My dad was explaining the complex math calculations they had to make, good thing they have a bunch of scientists around to ask such things. Also in this picture is a vine reaching from some leafy plants down to a giant ant nest. The leafcutter ants were walking up and down the vine with their leaf pieces, and there was a acrylic window into the ant nest, wow, cool! I admire ants, don't you?

A wall of rainforest plants, all the shapes and sizes of pitcher plants are so intriguing, they look like they could various human body parts.

I almost put my hand down on this moth (or is a butterfly?). There were at least 10 different types flying around in the dome along with rainforest birds too. Zooming over your head, landing on peoples' shoulders and trying unsuccesfully to cling to the smooth railing. We wondered if the birds eat the butterflies like they do in the real rainforest?

My parents enjoy a sit down in the fish tunnel which takes you under the rainforest water feature. Some people just walked through without barely a look up! We sat for at least ten minutes, spellbound by the view. My folks recently went on a trip to the Amazon and said they were glad that this water wasn't as muddy as the real deal, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten to see all the fish.

Here's a great picture of Zach checking out all the action in the fish tunnel.

I just love this picture of my mom sitting in the fish tunnel.
It was fun to sit and look up to the sunlight coming through that living roof I wrote about the other day. The circular lights are the portholes on the domes up above. The contrast of this large dark shapes circulating overhead was kind of threatening, must be an ingrained human response. I believe this big guy was an armored catfish.

The red tailed catfish kept bumping into the armored catfish (or was it a gar as my dad said?). It was herding it like a sheepdog, very funny.

An albino gecko. It was fun to look through the glass case and get to see close up the structure of the paws that allow them to climb up walls. Pretty freaky eyes though!

Outside the rainforest now, here is the always unreal looking albino alligator. You can see the source of that interesting shadow over his tail in the next photo.

I'm so glad they re-used the original seahorse railing around the alligator/snapping turtle pit.
Isn't it just so classic? I have always loved the shape of seahorses, and am fascinated with how they move through the water. It is kind of strange in this futuristic, very modern design space to have this vintage brass railing. But I think it ties the history of this institution together really effectively.
The other dome/sphere in the building is a planetarium, which had a really great presentation, Fragile Planet narrated by Sigourney Weaver. It really put Earth into perspective on a universal scale, kind of mind blowing really. I have to say that I truly missed the old style star projector planetarium show, this just seemed like an Imax film. This is Zach and my Dad in the dimness.

And finally, I'll close this extravaganza out with a picture taken in the bathroom. Every stall has a quote about water. Which is a great thing to think about as you flush away another 8 gallons of perfectly drinkable water...

I wish I had taken some pictures of the Hall of Africa and the penguins (penguin cam!).

I think I was too shaken up by the man who came up behind us and yelled "It's A LIE!", as the boys and I were animatedly discussing the human origins exhibit. We three turned around and just rolled our eyes at him. Wonder if he asked for his money back??