Plastic

We stopped at MACRO in Rome to see a particular art piece.

Me viewing Plastic Bags, (2001-2011)
by Cameroon artist Pascal Marthine Tayou

It is a giant vase-shaped installation made with plastic bags measuring almost 10 metres in height.

The thing that surprised me was that the bags seemed new and not repurposed.

If "plastic bags are forbidden by law and should no longer pollute or constitute a danger to the world's ecosystem" says the artist, then why did he choose to use new bags?

Circles and Shadows

Morning Coffee in Rome

view from the bathroom window,
Sulmona, Italy

Exhibit in Valmalenco

I had a very busy year concentrating on curating "Tradition in Transition" and was only able to produced three art pieces.

One of them was for an exhibit by invitation from the association, Quilt Italia.

The inspiration for the works was Le Città Invisibili, a novel by well known italian writer, Italo Calvino. The idea to create a body of work inspired by this book was that of past vice president of the association, Gabriella Manara.

Each piece was to measure 1 metre x 2 metres.

I posted during the year about the work in progress but never posted an image of the entire piece.

Cyber City, detail, 2012

Now that it has been exhibited in Valmalenco, Italy, for the first time, I feel I can post it.

Click here to view another blog post by an italian about this exhibit. If you scroll down her post you'll see a booklet you can click on to view all the works in the exhibit.  You can see mine on page 15.

Patchwork Sidewalks

Spent a morning in Maratea, the town nestled into a mountainside just south of where we stay.

Maratea with view of the port below

Maratea, Basilicata, Italy

The sidewalks surprised me.

They are patchworks made of ceramic tiles.

Everyone knows I love scrap quilts!

There are some good ideas for quilt making in these examples.

I got back to our town late but still had a good swim before the sun set.

Metal Tapestries

One of El Anatsui's work is part of the permanent collection at the Centre Pompidou. He gained international recognition in 1990 when he represented Africa in the Venice Biennale.

About two years ago, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, hosted a 40-year retrospective of his work.

Sasa, 2004

This monumental work can be displayed in different configurations which the artist leaves to the curator to decide.

Its size is very powerful.

His metal tapestries recall the golden shimmer of Klimt paintings, evokes weaving and cloth and even sculpture.

He used flattened liquor-bottle tops and "sews" them together with copper wire. His medium, introduced by Europeans, hints at the relationship between Africa and the Western world.

Dutch Lace

Galvanized steel wire chain-link fence woven to resemble traditional Dutch lace, Centre Pompidou, in Paris.

The Demakersvan partnership has teamed up with an Indian company to marry industrial production to manual skill.

I will be posting more about what I saw at Centre Pompidou. Their collection is really spectacular.

Cotton and Pastels

You may remember from an earlier post that I look for interesting reliefs where ever I go.

I found a few in Paris...

My children said I gathered quite a crowd as I made my rubbings!

I plan to make a journal with these pieces of cotton fabric. It will be a sample for the class I am teaching next July in Sulmona, Italy.

Past

A few weeks ago I was in Lucito, population 745.

Lucito from the roof tops, photo credit: A. Pizzuto

It's a small town in the mountains in the province of Molise in southern Italy.

Lucito in the background.
My cousin on the far left, me the far right and two of my children in the centre.

I stopped by the comune (city hall) to do some research about my roots.

My grandfather was born in 1912 and his father is 1883.

This might inspire a new artwork.

To see a past work about my grandmother's immigration to Canada click here. The art work is entitled Pages of my Life.

Sunday Breakfast

Breakfast at Villa Cheta in southern Italy. For August, we rent a
 house close by and
we always make a point of walking up to the villa at least once
for a special treat. 

Lovely white linens.
I have seen the italian ladies make this kind of thread design.
They pull out the weft threads of the weave and
tie the remaining warp threads together to make the designs

Moroccan Tea

Cooling down with some Moroccan tea just around the corner from the Paris Mosque.

steps

The Los Angeles Times (july 2007) says since Ladurée supplied the pastries for the period Hollywood movie Marie Antoinette, tea has become a near obsession for Parisians!

Afternoon at the Musée D'Orsay

We weren't able to take photographs of the art work so I have none to show you. It was astonishing to see the amount of visitors who did not respect the museum's request!

The museum building was originally used as a railway station in 1900. It opened as an art gallery in 1986 and houses works mainly from 1848 to 1914. We spent most of our time in the Impressionist and Post-impressionist galleries. The center hall on the main floor has been dedicated to sculpture. It is lovely walking through there with the natural light that enters through the arched glass roof.

Stopping for tea on the 2nd floor in the most beautiful room made you feel like royalty! (pictures allowed there)

These curves could be adapted to a quilt design!
photo credit, Sophia Reford

Moving Art

The dance begins.

The end.

(recently acquired video by Centre Pompidou. Anonymous. Danse Serpentine, d'apres la choreographie de Loïe Fuller)