NoNaMee Fibre Artists showing at Kaladdi Brothers July 07

So Ruth Simpson, Z. Denise Gallup, Nancy Dobson and Roxane Stoner are showing once again as the NoNaMee Fibre Artists that they are. Incorporated in the Title Wave Bookstore building is Kaladdi Brothers a good place where UAA students and faculty are having their "fix" while reading peacefully. That is unless the NoNaMee's are hanging their show and have to get them to share their space... It took us about two hours to hang. Denise is having 8 of her framed small pieces. Nancy is showing old and new pieces some are framed too, Ruth has already sold two of her quilts. Bravo Ruth!!! I have 8 quilts which all are new except two (not sure about them though). The show is lasting all month.

7-7-7

I forgot to say that once we arrived in our hotel and turned the tv on Sting was playing with the Police for the Save the Earth concert. I thought it was a very good timing

. This is outside of the Spit Sisters bakery. You can play and make faces with the sea rocks.

I could not pass that plant outside of Blackberry Bog Gallery

Had to capture this green seaweed The sun said hi just one last time in the grey sky

...and then there were birds hunting at the surface of the water. At great speed they were travelling.

Couldn't believe those lovely flowers... I want some....!!!! Anybody knows their names???

Forest Fair and Homer

The weekend after the 4th of July is always fun because it is the Forest Fair in Girdwood. An old fashion Fair in the woods with many favorite vendors (Mistress of Chaos Linda Smith, Brenda Millan, Potters of the area, Great Food booths...) You can also enjoy live music with two different stages. This year Emily, her friend Britt, Gaylene and I went. I ate a really decadent Strawberry Short cake with Birch Syrup drizzled over the whole thing. Just a great spirit booster. My friends Patty and Lorainne had gone the day before and I had missed going with them. It is almost like a tradition now. Anyway it was fantastic and the rain didn't show for few hours.

Emily and Britt got their face painted.

We left the fair and drove about 4 hours to Homer. My favorite place in Alaska. The view is amazing, the people interesting and the shopping intense.... Great artists live in the area especially potters. I could live there easily. Gaylene and I stayed at the Driftwood Inn.

Not an outstanding place but good enough if you select the right room which I didn't for the first night. It was a bit cramped but we managed anyway like good travelers that we are.

The second night we upgraded to a room double the first one's size. Much better it was number 12 if you ever consider going there. Very conviniently located in the same street as Two Sister's Bakery, and Bunnell Gallery http://www.bunnellstreetgallery.org/

(I was nicely surprised there to see a show of Fran Reed's fish skin and gut baskets. She is an amazing woman and artist and I always dream of owning one of her pieces. Some day soon)

I could take Gaia on walks to the beach from the hotel. She experienced for the first time a taste of salty water. It was precious....

beach art...
There is also a pub just across the street.... didn't go there this time not even the Salty Dog on the spit. We had "happy hour" once in the room though.

We feasted at Fat Olives, The Homestead, Fresh Sourdough Express (amazing breakfast) and Cosmic Kitchen. Cafe Cups was closed

We bought some fresh oysters from the bay to take home with us on the way out and stopped at the most unexpected gallery: Norman Lowell's gallery. http://www.frommers.com/destinations/homer/A28074.html

Be prepared to pay $30,000 for an original oil painting though...ahhaha

Actually the artist is greeting you at the door, the classical music is playing in the background and you think that you are in a museum in the middle of nowhere. Sort of a dream state. It is an experience.

It took us double the time to come home because of a bad accident at Cooper Landing but we made it eventually around 9pm.

Back at Home

Marcel Duchamp "Cast Alive" Nice to see that he was not just showing urinals... There was a wonderful book collage of his also. I liked reading his book of Interview. I understood him better after that.
Jean Dubuffet " Landscape of the Written Word" He was the father of Art Brut. I love his stuff. So spontaneous. Let chance be his guide.
Courtyard with upper gallery. Beautiful light casting in that room. The sound of the water dripping echos in a very peaceful way that just orchestrate the light and the space. Makes you want to sit and meditate. Be part of that peace.


I got back about a week ago. The last days of my trip were spent in musing around on my own. It was most relaxing and enjoyable. The weather was so different than what I am use to in Alaska. Very hot, humid and windy, so clouds moving in and out. When the storms are coming you can feel the electricity in the air and it give you a sense of uneasiness. While going around I got to paint few watercolors and take some notes on what I was seeing and reading. I took more pictures. I guess I ended up with some 1200 pictures together. I must say that in museums I took pictures of the artifact then took pictures of the name of the artist so that adds up quite a bit. The Nelson-Atkins Museum is wonderful. I spent hours in there. It is a true collection, which in my opinion has hand picked beautiful pieces of art and has a perfect way of showing them. The lighting in there is exquisite. I think that the Louvre and the Prado have to take notice of their technique. It is a joy to be able to look at something without a overkill glare or under lit room. I particularly liked the architecture of the building and the inside court area with a gallery on the upper floor where they have showned the sculptor Henry Moore's work. Most of the statues are studies of the actual final size but mini versions or models. That gave you the possibility to have a giant view over few years of this man's life in a very small area. On the last floor I even found a Yupik Mask. Can't get away from that... hahaha. I would not want to anyway. They only problem was that the museum was opening a new wing the day after we were leaving and I didn't get to see their African exhibit. This was something that I was looking forward to and will have to wait for another time. Oh well! Can't be too greedy, I know.


When I got back Emily was waiting with Gaia at the airport. I couldn't believe how much Gaia had growned in two weeks. Emily was ready for a brake and I was ready to take her back.


Curt left few hours after my return for Seattle and then came back on Wed. to depart again for the Gulkana River until Sunday. The salmons are in... !!!


I have made a major clean up in the studio and will be ready on Monday to finish the last phase of "Halibut Cove". I also started to listen to Labyrinth a novel by Kate Moss. So far I am not into it. I have also started to read Twyla Tharp's book "The Creative Habit" Very interesting. I want to write a curriculum on creativity to potentially expend on the class that I have taught in the past. It has very good exercise and insight. I like the fact that she is a choreographer and it gives me something new to check out.


Today was the highlight of my month.... Massage at Sona Vita by Sarah Jane. She is fantastic. Kneads me like a big lump of dough. The only problem is having to get up after such a relaxing session. I would love to sleep it of for an hour afterwards. Emily and I had lunch at Middle Way then a mandatory tour of Title Wave Bookstore. We good the new Barbara Kingsolver today. She is relating her new way of life. Eating as much as possible from what she can grow of what is available in her area according to season etc. She is also cutting down on her driving and conserves other energies as much as possible. I had gone to see her give a lecture last year at UAA and was looking forward to get read about her new experiences. Emily got a yoga Kripalu Book. I want to go to one of their retreat in Massachusetts one of these days.


It is good to be home. It always takes me a week to get back from a trip. I need to process all I have seen and done.

I can photograph my artwork....

Today I took a class with Jeffrey Bruce an artist photographer from Quincy, Illinois. He also takes pictures of art works for artists, museums, gallery and schools. After listening to his advice I feel that I will be able to successfully take pictures of my stuff from now. We shall see what he thinks of my result since he has asked for his students to send photos after we get home of what we can do. I am looking forward to experiment with that new knowledge.

The day has gone pretty quickly and we are all three pretty exhausted. It is a lot of stimulation in such a short amount of time.

So we are having a glass of wine.... To you health of course.

Yesterday the night ended in an Irish pub where we had live Irish music. So fun. I tried a Whiskey that I actually liked... I usually hate that stuff. It was a Scotch called Macallans.

We also took a long walk along the canal that crosses the Plaza part of Kansas, just down the hill from our hotel. The pictures at the top of the blog were taken there.

Can you see the giant Fireflies dancing in the columns of light?

Tomorrow I am going to do some solo work with colors. I have a book on colors explaining the origin of some interesting pigments (Color by Victoria Finlay). I will read a chapter each day and experiment with that particular color. I have brought my watercolor and gouache. Should be good. The campus has nice little tables and chairs throughout and gorgeous giant trees. I will be claiming one to work. We still have lectures in the evening by the way and the one scheduled for tomorrow is given by a teacher from a Buddhist University. Her name is Sue Hammond West. She is teaching a class called "Art as Quiet". Picking in a class someone said reported that today they were not talking... That is quiet. I am eager to check the results in this class.

Busy Busy Busy!!!!

Between today and yesterday it has been really busy. It is really hard to assimilate all that is seen and learned. I have taken many notes during the lectures and many photos so I can revue all that at my leasure. Still it is fun and different from previous conferences that I have attended.

Yesterday we did the first Friday and I have some pictures to show our experiences. Also we ate at a restaurant called Lidia (Bastianich). She has a show on tv... Are you impressed yet? It was wonderful. I had Gnocchis with bits of roasted duck. Delicious! I had dessert too.... A custard with Rhubarb with a little taste of lemon with it. Just fantastic.

When we were inside the rain started and it was really nasty for a while but just for an hour. The sun came back and stayed until we were at the hotel later. Here are some pictures of the beautiful artwork that we saw. This one is a cloud in the grey sky all lit up by the sun setting. He looks like a profile of a person. Of course!
I love him!

Today we had four lectures!!! One covering "Fashion or antifashion in America". given by Melissa Leventon. Very academic. Nice slides. Very interesting but a bit long... Then it was Carter Smith again with a talk about Dyeing process and slides of his own work and shows that he recently had in Korea and Japan. Then I took a nice long walk for lunch to the Grocery store and then it was back in the auditorium for "Unconventional Materials Another Form of Expression by Chunghie Lee. She has a very strong accent which made me pay attention even more to all the words that she said. She was explaining her classes and the experiences of her students with the assignments that she gives them. So nice and fresh ideas on how to approach new projects. Then it was Poetry of the visual given by Jo Stealy. A very good artist who works with paper and makes tiny vessels that she hides in shrines. She shows many different works of artists that bring poetry in their work and what explained the five elements that in her opinions makes them be successful in representing Poetry. Those are Form, concept, technique, process and material. Again it was a bit long and I had had enough of sitting inside a room and couldn't not stay immobile... So it was so nice to walk to the restaurant Grand Street Cafe. I had a Crab and Avocado Parfait and a Leek and Potatoe soup.

Then it was time to get all dolled up for an evening of fun at the Folly Theater at the Crossroads for a Fashion Show. That was worth the effort of taking a school bus for 20mn in a very hot and windy late afternoon. The set was particularly clever with two images of Chinese shadows. They were doing yoga, martial art, ballet. The models were beautiful of course and some outfits were exquisit. So here we are... Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and then the workshops will start. I have been very impatient to work on something. All that stimulation is making me want to create right now and not in two days but they keep us really busy so no time. Of course there is time to blog...ahhahhaha.