children's books illustrators

last weekend i saw this exhibit of the swiss illustrator hans fischer at the itami city art museum. i loved his books when i was little, the story of pitchi the curious kitten, and the birthday cake surprise planned by the animals. i don't know if most people have read these books, or if we just had them because of our swiss family friends.

recently i've seen some very cute pitchi stationary products here in japan, and this exhibit had all the books, including original drawings.

another all time favorite, the very hungry caterpillar has been made into a fabric print! just in time for the new japanese school year that starts in april. there are actually 2 variations of the print, this one with the dots and large images is my favorite, and it's available on a light yellow or blue background. it's sold out in my shop right now, but i will be restocking it later this week.
it's also available in the wonderful quilted fabric, which is used to make a whole slew of products required for japanese kindergartens.
i used it to make a laptop sleeve, which has has the intended effect of making me more happy to schlep around my laptop and crave a new ipad less. well, a little less maybe!

william kentridge in kyoto

yesterday, i found myself near the kyoto museum of modern art, really by chance.

their current exhibit is william kentridge, one of my most favorite artists.

i had been planning to go see this show, but yesterday felt like i had discovered it by accident, and it was just the perfect thing at the end of a somewhat frantic week.

and this show William Kentridge—What We See & What We Know is amazing! in my experience japanese museums, especially the larger/well known ones, put together excellent exhibits, and this one is no exception. it's a comprehensive retrospective of his work from 1979 to 2008, including 19 films and film installations, 36 drawings, and 63 prints.

i'm going to go back and spend a whole day there, i think. the exhibition will in at the museum of modern art tokyo (momat) in jan-feb 2010, and the hiroshima museum of contemporary art (hiroshima moca) in mar-may 2010. if you have a chance, go see it!

recycle LACMA

recycle LACMA is a very cool project by robert fontenot, reinventing new uses for textiles that were decommissions by LACMA. this pink garment bag is made from the dress below:

here's the description of the project from the recycle LACMA site:

On January 14th, 2009 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it was deaccessioning more than 100 items from its costumes and textiles collection. Once carefully collected, catalogued, and cared for, these items have now been cast back out in to the world. What will happen to them? Like any other useless item, they will need to be recycled or disposed of.

Recycle LACMA is a project of Los Angeles-based artist Robert Fontenot. At three separate auctions he purchased over 50 items deaccessioned by LACMA and is now trying to find new uses for these otherwise unwanted items.

where there are more projects, like this sailboat made from guatemalen pants (below).via design sponge

portland recap part 2: craft museum!

i got to see this exhibit that i missed last time. unfortunately the handmade nation screening was completely sold out before we could get tickets, but the crochet-a-thon with mandy was awesome!

mandy greer's new project is called mater matrix mother and medium. it will be installed in seattle's urban forest and will also include a performance by zoe scofield.
here's a photo from the project website. it's all about water, and so the work will incorporate shades of blue fabric and yarn. for the crochet-a-thon, everyone joined in to create some blue crocheted elements that will be incorporated into the final piece. it's a wonderful art creation process, that involves people coming together to create, and maybe to learn a new craft. beginning crochet lends itself especially well to this kind of free form art, as there are no 'mistakes.' i am a complete beginner at crochet, but now i am really curious to try more.

fashioning felt; an exhibit in nyc

the cooper hewitt design museum currently has an exhibit entitled 'fashioning felt' that is all about felt! the image above is from the exhibit website, and features the work of andrea zittel, one of my all-time favorite felt artists (white felt dress, center top) and also the lovely felt/lacquer work of jorie johnson (lower left) as well as other stunning felt creations.

it's so great to see felt getting showcased like this. from their website:

This exhibition will explore the varied new uses of felt—an ancient material, believed to be one of the earliest techniques for making textiles. Made by matting together wool fibers with humidity and friction, felting requires little technological expertise and is an extremely versatile material. The exhibition will begin with historic examples of felts, showcase innovations in handmade felts, and feature contemporary uses of industrial felt in a range of fields, including product design, fashion, architecture, and home furnishings. The exhibition is being organized by Susan Brown, assistant curator, Textiles.

check out their blog about the exhibit to see a comprehensive felt video that serves as the introduction to the show.




and also these fabulous sketches by feltmaker janice arnold who has created a mongolian style felt yurt for the exhibition! yes, that's right, a yurt. awesome.

this shows looks like it is truly amazing. it will be at cooper hewitt through september, and i think that it may travel after that.

mandy greer 'dare alla luce' at the museum of contemporary craft

i've been a huge fan of mandy greer ever since i saw and was blown away by the silvering path last year. which by the way is on the cover of the new issue of fiber arts.
one of the things i was most excited about seeing in portland was mandy greer's installation at the museum of contemporary craft. entitled 'dare alla luce,' it was originally commissioned for the bellevue art museum last year, but i missed it then, and have been waiting to see the portland installation. i was also really looking forward to my first visit to the museum of contemporary craft, which is an amazing addition to the pacific northwest art and craft scene.

unfortunately, on sunday when i tried to go with a few crafty pals, we found out too late that they have seasonal hours (=closed on sunday as well as monday through may!) boo.

perhaps this is an excuse to make another trip to portland in april, when the museum will be holding a screening of faythe levine's new documentary 'handmade nation' , a panel discussion, and also a crochet-a-long with mandy. yup. that sounds awesome.

william kentridge: part 2

the show last night was great! and today i visited the exhibit at the henry (runs until may 3), which i highly recommend. there are prints, drawings, stereoscopes (very cool!) and multiple video installations.

his work is also on display at the greg kucera gallery until march 28th (image from the gallery website).
and what looks to be the most amazing, kentridge is also directing 'the return of ulysses', the first opera for the brand new pacific operaworks company, which includes life size puppetry by the south african handspring puppet company. wow. the first show is tomorrow night (march 11) at the moore theater in seattle, and there are also shows on march 13, 14, 20, and 21st.

william kentridge in seattle

william kentridge is one of my absolute most favorite artists of all times. from south africa, many of his artworks deal with issues of apartheid and capitalism.

he works in a variety of media, but what i find most striking is his video art, which he makes by drawing large charcoal sketches and altertering them by smudging out, erasing, redrawing, and layering. he then creates animation by photographing these drawing as he alters them. the results are stunning. he also make lovely shadow puppets.

the image above is from the henry art gallery, where an exhibit of his work is on display until may 3rd, 2009.

tonight i am going to see his performance, "I am not me, the horse is not mine:"

This performance, first presented by exhibiting artist William Kentridge at the Sydney Biennale in 2008, combines live performance, animation, narration, and a vocal and instrumental soundtrack. The work continues Kentridge’s investigation of the roots and trajectory of modernism, drawing on instances of censorship and brutal artistic repression from the Stalinist era of Russian history.

from the henry

i'm pretty sure it's going to be awesome!!

the miho museum and some natural dye

one the last places i managed to visit before i left japan back in march was the miho museum.
it was an interesting building in an amazing natural setting.

and they had some natural dyes (as well as a few other traditional crafts) displayed in the gift shop.
'dry indigo': the japanese says 'kansou aiba' which means, dried leaves of the 'ai' or japanese indigo (polygonum) plant.
'indigotin' (which i believe is actually what is found in all varieties of indigo): the japanese says 'sukumo,' which is actually the specific name for the 'ai' leaves that are fermented as part of the traditional japanese indigo dye process. more info here.

the top left is 'miscanthus tinctorius' or 'kari yasu' in japanese (a reed that produces a yellow dye). the top right is 'philodendron' or 'kihada' (the bark produces a yellow dye). the small cones in forefront are labled 'yasha' in japanese only...my best guess is that these are the alder cones used for brown dyes described here ...although there seems to be some discrepancy with the kanji used and the meanings of these characters.

a lot of this is my best (non-native-speaker) guessing. if you know more or better, please feel to share. mostly, i was impressed and delighted to find this sort of display, that included the dyestuff itself, the japanese name for it in both kanji and phonetic kana, and english!!