Glowing Pathways

This past weekend Wayne and I headed up to Philly again. This time we had the pleasure of helping hang the quilt Renee commissioned from Wayne's Mom. The photos show the quilt once it was up. Wayne and Dave used a laser level so we know it it is level but when I was taking some of the pictures I realized that I was holding the camera just off level and it made it look like the quilt wasn't quite hung straight, I liked the idea and so took a photo that was intentionally crooked. Since I was making fun of their hanging job Renee and Wayne thought this was funny.
The quilt was a huge success and everyone really liked it. With the photos it is hard to appreciate how much the quilting adds to the piece and that the buildings have screen printed texture on them. We saw the original photo, the to scale drawings and fabric choices along the way so it was neat being able to see the finished piece. If you would like to see more of Wayne's Mom's quilts check out her website. ( Marti Plager )

Speaking of websites I spent some time and have totally revamped my website. There are still some things I need to do to it but the new and improved version is up and running. I have added my class lists and will be adding to that as I develop new classes and get photos of some of my other classes. All of the classes that I teach at Bead Boutique currently are up with their descriptions.

Another thing we did during our trip to Philly was to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Cezanne and Beyond exhibit. It was very much worth the money and a trip to see.  I really want to go back and spend more time there since of the main exhibits we barely scratched the surface.  I always felt I could take or leave most of Cezanne's work before but seeing his watercolors and some of his landscapes I found a new appreciation for his work. I even saw a Matisse I actually liked (a geranium not a person). It was really fascinating to see how other artists were inspired by Cezanne and yet many of them took that inspiration and made pieces that were very much their own.  I found pieces by quite a few of the 18 other artists that I really liked. I really liked pretty much all of the pieces by Charles Demuth whom I had never seen before. He has some wonderful watercolors. Over all although the show was full of more modern and abstract art which I don't always appreciate as much.  I could have taken quite a few pieces home quite happily. I was tempted to buy the show catalog but was trying to be prudent since it was $50 and unless I used it a fair amount wasn't sure I would get my moneys worth out of it. One of Cezanne's pieces that could probably most readily inspire me was "The Forest". The way it was painted with his distinct brush marks and the feel of the piece I could easily envision something along those lines done with thread embroidery or other fibers. All of the watercolors make me want to take some time to play with watercolor since I haven't done much with watercolors for a while. Very much an inspirational show.