An Artists Date and a Great Exhibit

My artists date this week was in a place most of you probably don’t know exists, and if you have heard of it you would not expect to see the gem that I saw there, unless you were from there.  I took in the current exhibit at the Flint Institute of Arts.  Hands down, the FIA is the best small art institute I have ever visited.  It’s definitely worth a trip if you are interested in art.  The current exhibit will be there until September 8.

I know I’m suppose to start with the who, what, when and where and all I gave you was the where.  But it’s been a long time since I’ve been to the FIA, I had almost forgotten what a gem it is. Had to give a shout out about it.

              Back to the exhibit…. Isabelle De Borchgrave, Fashioning Art From Paper.  She builds sculptures, out of paper she has painted, life size sculptures, replicas of the fashions of the Renaissance, the styles of the 1920’s and modernist costumes from the Russian Ballet.

And not just the cloths, the accessories too.  Some of the jewelry and all of the shoes are paper.

 Even the lace....

   

 Some jewels are trompe l’oeil, 

and some gowns have a combination of both

 And then there were the 1920's evening dresses 

 and every day dresses from an in between period

 and the costumes

It's a fascinating exhibit, worth a look.  I may have to go back for another look.

"Stay In Your Lane"

I was listening to a podcast today... Robin-Marie and Sandi Keene, "Creatives Get Real!"  One takeaway I got from it was "Stay In Your Lane."  I am going to make a sign to hang in my studio.  Like Robin-Marie, I am always trying whatever it is I see that looks interesting and fun.  Yes, I have accepted that I am a master of being a Jack of All Trades but even with that, there is a limit.

Right now I'm focused on the art journal and even though I'm not liking some of what I'm doing, I'm learning and that's okay.  I know that I need to change direction in my work but still not sure what direction … so staying in my lane to me means stick with trying the two things you think you want to master, collage and abstraction.  Here are a couple more done this week.

And I have decided I really dislike the spiral binding so this journal is going on the shelf, a new one is getting started.  Here is the last entry in the spiral bound journal.

The spiral bound is still okay for working with my Tuesday Painter group because I paint and journal.  But that's all I'll be using them for.

"And The Beat Goes On"

Why did that song pop into my head?  Possibly a combination of the weeks events..."Rocketman", certainly not Sonny and Cher but music and continuing to work on my 100 Day Project.

If you haven't seen "Rocketman," go.  It's one I probably would have missed had a friend not asked me to take her.  The music was pure Elton John, the filming was colorful, the story was sad but worth seeing and a good ending.

And my dailies.... some good, some not so much.  Today's is one of those not so much but it was a learning experience so that much is good.  I tried some different things working on layers.

Take time and rethink are words that I had cut out some time ago and they were in my morning devotional book.  Seemed appropriate for this one.  I may go back in and do some more, then again, maybe just move on.  

Here are a few more.... and as usual, some I'm very happy with and some not so much..

 The circle in this one is from a pen and ink that I did from an image over on wetcanvas, a the weekend drawing event.  Here is the pen and ink... 

 Those fish just appeared, certainly wasn't planning fish when I put down the black and white but there they are and since I'm a Pisces it seems to fit.

Something I constantly need to remind myself to do.... Listen to the Whispers

 What can I say... it does win.

The kid in the boat is only using one oar which would mean he will be going in circles.  The drawing is mine and sometimes I feel like I'm going in circles.  That is especially true when clearing the clutter in my studio, I clear a space, go to another area to clear, come across something I had forgotten, start working on it again, in the space I had cleared and "the beat goes on."