NTAQ Meeting for August

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

     Last Monday, my friends/artists of NTAQ met at my condo for our August meeting.  This time I had put forth the challenge of "Art Nouveau".  Many, including myself, found this to be a bit of a tough challenge to depict!  I had given a list of Art Nouveau artists to choose from (or they could go out on their own).  I chose for my artist Mary Fraser Tytler Watts, a woman who, with her artist husband, worked in various styles...Art Nouveau, Celtic art, architecture, but what interested me about Mary was her activity as an early suffragette in England. I kind of strayed from the Art Nouveau theme and picked up on her Celtic designs instead.  She was the architect and artist for her husband's family mortuary.  I chose one of the columns which I found appealing.

The Columns I chose and some of the fabric I used to create my challenge.

The portion of the column I emphasized

I actually graphed out my design instead of just stitching improvisationally.

It ended up larger than I usually do 30" x 42"

To create the look of the vines, I am doing a lot of chain stitch by hand.
(Not finished yet)

At our meeting we all shared our challenges.

Wendy took her design from a stained glass window.

Kay liked the trees on a book cover and was also influenced by the color of a particular type of Aspen.

Heather was inspired by a rose in a stained glass window.

Bethany said hers was a bit generic, not influenced by anything in particular.

Andrea's was taken from the curlycue pattern seen in many Art Nouveau works.

A fun meeting as usual...after sharing all our stuff, we went to a new restarurant in the Shops of Clearfork which is very near me...so many new places to eat!!!  We chose "Fix", a very nice lunch had by all.  (And I want to apologize for my dreadful form on this blog.  I am having trouble with making paragraphing and captions with pictures to work so bear with me! I also do not know why some of my lines are highlighted!! I need a good tutorial!!!)

An Abundance of Art

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” 
― Thomas Merton,

    This past month has been very full of doing some of the things I love best...making art, seeing art, and seeing art with friends!  Last month our SAQA Circle met at the Dallas Museum of Art to see an exhibit by Laura Owens.  She is a prolific artist whose work you can check out through the link by clicking on her name. Although I did like some of her pieces, I felt she is still searching for her identity as her work is all over the place.

Laura Owens did a whole series of art on the alphabet

    While there, we also visited a couple other exhibits.  The "Hopi Visions" was really interesting as I am particularly interested in their culture.

A panoramic shot of three walls

Another exhibit we enjoyed was the Asante Kingdom of Gold. A rich depiction of gold from an African Kingdom....especially interesting was the Kente fabrics which were woven with gold strands and worn by the royalty.

A description of the show

A beautiful Kente cloth made of gold

And, of course, we ended the visit with lunch at the DMA cafe....always a highlight!

     The Modern of Fort Worth has been hosting an exhibit of the works of Takashi Murakami. I have been to see this exhibit three times now....the first was just a quick run through after having lunch with a friend at the Cafe there.  The second time was with one of my daughters and my granddaughter. The first time I went I didn't realize there was a film showing the artist at work and his process of creating these huge, detailed works.  When I went the second time we discovered the film and I highly advise seeing it before you see the rest of the exhibit.

Viewing one of Murakami's huge, colorful works.

The third time I went was last Saturday with my SAQA group.  I was surprised at all I did not see the other times.  It's not that I love his work, but more that I am amazed by it!

                                         

This is one of his early works...all that were on display were dark and rather dismal. But somewhere along the way he discovered color!

                                                     

This is a wall just outside the elevator leading into a doorway of another wall of art...see the profusion of color!! And my picture really does not do the colors justice.

                                                        

He also works in three dimension...here is one of his statues...a monk which is a bit of a self portrait! Yes, the face is spilt and you do see two faces...I am sure there is some deep meaning behind that! This is a miniature...if you are familiar with the Modern, he would go nicely with the little lady sitting on her suitcase!

                            

                 Unlike these two guys who are temple guards totally demonic....and Huge!!!!

                                                 

And another shot of the hallway straight out from the elevator in the stairway area. Down at the end is an interesting sculpture made of polyurethane. The making of it is shown on the film down stairs. 

When my kids and I visited the Modern, we also went across the street to see what the Kimbell has on display...

From the Lands of Asia

This is a fabulous collections of art, pottery jewelry, kimonos, tools, weapons collected by Sam and Myrna Meyers. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the beautiful kimonos, but you can click on the link which will take you see more.

                                                         

I did get a picture of this vest which is made up of squares of jade!  Can you imagine wearing something like that in a Texas summer?

     I have also been taking in several of the films at the theater Magnolia at the Modern.  The last two I have seen with friends are "Rodin" and " Gauguin", both French films with subtitles; I have thoroughly enjoyed both of them..a bit of insight on two of my favorite artists...I especially liked the Rodin film as I didn't know that much about his background.  Here is a link to the upcoming movie schedule for anyone interested.  https://www.themodern.org/films 

    My own NTAQ art gals met here yesterday, but I think I will save that for another blog!