Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Magical Mystery (well, ok, Art) Tour

I'm all aquiver with excitement this morning because by this time tomorrow I think I'm going to be able to post about something to do with the Q-word!! (Quilts, for the uninitiated.) Since the only blog ring I belong to is the Artful Quilters, I sometimes feel a twinge of guilt that I tend to go long stretches without accomplishing anything in that area or posting anything about them. If someone is surfing through the ring and comes on my site during one of those Quilt Drought periods, they probably think they've taken a wrong turn somewhere as they scroll down through movie reviews, book chats, photos of my dogs, or various rusty objects, or shoes, and who knows what else, without even a hint of fabric or thread to be seen. But you know, I was ME before I was a quilter and I will be ME even if I ever give it up, and all those things I mentioned above are important to me. And since RSR is a sort of public microcosm of DebWorld, I'm not likely to change how I do things around here. But this week, yes This Week, at long last, I'm going to do my part to uphold the quilt content on ye olde blogge ringe. Stop by tomorrow and see! Depending on what I get accomplished today, there may even be a wee contest involved. Yeah, baby! Today, though, since I'm not QUITE ready for the unveiling, we're going on an art tour of my house. Several days ago, Cate took us on an art tour in her house and I thought "oooh, cool idea, I should stea...er...um, BORROW that idea sometime". Then a couple of days after that, acumamakiki took us on an art tour of her house. And I had the same thought. So today I'm doing it too, mainly to get the thought out of my brain. Heh. Lots of photos below, but not a lot of words after this all-too-wordy introduction. So here we go! To start with, this first photo isn't in my house unless you count the fact that it's lurking on my 'puter's hard drive. But this first one is my Daily Art Thang. It's a photo I took about a month ago of one of the Rusty Things I love so much, only this time I coaxed J to put himself in the picture. "A Glimpse of Johnny" And now for the tour: As you walk in my front entrance, into the great room, the first thing you're likely to see is this wall: The quilt on the left is one I made shortly after my one and only snorkeling experience in the Bahamas (well, ok, snorWALKeling, because I don't swim), while the one on the right was made by my friend Nancy. She made it to donate to Project Linus, but I loved it so much that I told her if she'd give it to me instead I'd make two quilts to donate to PL in its place. She did, so I did. These are all on my fireplace mantle: a bundle study by Sonji Hunt framed fiber postcards by Lauren Fureymore and Liz Berg And over in the dining area is this painting I did in college. Yes, it's on the floor leaning against the wall in the opening of another antique mantle that we use almost like a sideboard in the dining room. I like it there. The painting, I mean. Well, and the mantle too. (Historical note: My college roommate HATED this painting and said it gave her nightmares, so we only had it in our place for one semester before it went to hang on my parents' dining room wall for years.) If we wander into my bedroom, you'll see this print by Frances Caple: and this small watercolor that I bought from an artist doing paintings on the square in Cozumel, Mexico In the guest room is this painting, which is also one I did in college: and this framed page from The Delineator magazine. It was a fashion magazine of sorts back at the turn of the last century. This page is from an issue printed in 1905. If we pop into the guest bathroom, you'll see this quilted print on fabric, which is also by Frances: And then we wander into the studio/puter room/ library. LOTS of stuff in here, since it's where I spend most of my time. The stuff below isn't everything on the walls, but it shows you some of my favorites. Just inside the door is this grouping: The top one is by Karen Cote. The bottom two are by me. (The bottom one is a self-portrait I did a few years ago.) This grouping is near my sewing machine: The pink-framed print is another page from an old fashion magazine, this one from 1924. Moving clockwise from there is a couple of Laurel Burch plates, a mermaid tile I bought at a little gift shop on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a Laurel Burch poster I got as a gift manyMANY years ago when I did display design for a department store in Cincinnati, a little beaded piece I made from a scrap of my favorite-ever t-shirt when it was finally too disreputable to wear in public, a quilted painting by marion barnett, and a peacock feather mask I made 20 years ago. Above the 'puter desk: in the lower left we have the doll mermaid that my friend Martha gave me for my birthday last year. Moving clockwise from there is three small pieces I did at various times, "Octopus Garden" by Laume, and "Blue Goddess #6" by Virginia Spiegel. (An aside: We have some plans to update the house this summer and one of the things on my list is that I am SO going to put an interesting color on the walls in here and tear down that HORRID wallpaper border that I don't know why I ever wanted!!!) And last, the smallest thing I have to show, but I love these - a pair of TINY paintings that hang on the other wall next to the 'puter desk: This whole grouping - both pieces with frames - is only about 10" tall. The top one is a tiny painting (not print, but I'm not sure if it's acrylics or oils) that I found lurking in an antique shop in Georgetown, KY. I know absolutely nothing about it except that I loved it. The bottom one is something else I bought on the square in Cozumel. It's a painting done on a bird feather. The feather is 1 1/4" tall, counting stem. Pretty amazing, yes? And that's the highlights of the things you'd find on my walls! Hope you enjoyed the tour. What's on your walls?