American Folk Art Museum
Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands
Through September 12, 2010
There is a welcoming statue of a full figured woman standing atop a ballot box on the third floor exhibit of Folk Art by Female Hands. The theme of this exhibit was inspired by the novel An Old Fashioned Girl by L. M. Alcott. In Chapter 13 of there is a scene where Fanny and Polly visit the studio of Becky and Bess. Becky with clay soaked hands is sculpting a statue of "the coming woman." Fanny describes the statue "it is only a beautiful woman, bigger, lovelier and more imposing than any woman I ever saw." The women discuss "what women should be?" "Give her a ballot box," suggested Kate King, the authoress. Becky agrees, " a needle, pen, palette, broom and a ballot box."
The exhibit introduces us to a portrait of Grandma Moses, who is credited with starting the canon of folk art according to the Senior curator Stacy C. Hollander. Grandma Moses did needlework before painting in oil and tempera.
Finishing the Quilt by Nan Phelps of Hamilton, Ohio, oil on canvas shows three generations of women seated and hand quilting.
Next to this piece hangs a silk quilt from the Museum of Folk Art collection entitled Stars and Pentagons. The patterns in this tautly stretched quilt are similar to Finishing the Quilt.
In the past centuries the homes of women displayed the practical skills of producing domestic textiles. These works combined practicality with ornamental creations. We now appreciate this beauty;' the cult of domesticity.'
Women were educated in the ornamental arts of needlework by stitching a "sampler." A sampler included the stitching of the letters of the alphabet, numbers and figures. These schools such as the Sanders and Beech School; Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut or the Ladies Academy in Dorchester, Massachusetts also taught the classics. Some to the pieces exhibited show needlework plus watercolor paintings on linen. Watercolor Studies by Mary Nettleson from the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
There is a section about how the women used there needlework skills to teach morals and religious mythology to their families. The large hand stitched quilt by Maria Cadman Hubbard in 1848 depicts pious quotes, aphorisms and proverbs. "If you can not be a golden pippin. Do not turn crab apple." The letters are inches tall.
The quilt artist signed her tribute to the Grover Cleveland presidential campaign J.F.R. During the 1880-90's her "stash" included ribbons associated with political
events in the Democratic Party. There are irregular patches of silks and other fabrics outlined with embroidery threads.
A demure crazy quilted robe hangs on a mannequin. It was worn by Emma Rebecca Cummins Blacklock Snively Crosier Pauling. She was not a 'waiting' woman of the Gold Rush Days. She won her third husband in a bar room brawl. She was the first female telegraph operator for the railroad.
Theorem Painting during the period of 1825-1840 used hollow cut stencils to produce still life watercolor paintings on velvet fabric. The math formulas provided the sharp delineation of each object.
Diamond in the Square Quilt by an unknown quilter of Lancaster, Pennsylvania is dated between 1910-1930. The large geometric patterns in single-color fabrics of saturated earth and jewel tones are typical of contemporary Amish quilts. This pattern is related to the tooled leather designs found on covers of the Ausbund, the early Anabaptist hymnal.
The closing of the exhibit features portrait paintings in watercolor, pencil and ink.
American Folk Art Museum is located at 45 West 53rd Street/Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 212.265.1040. The exhibit runs until September 12, 2010.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Homegrown Poetry
It has always been my suspicion that mom and dad had only one thing in common. Poetry. Mom owned one special book from her youth. She showed it to me all torn and tattered, loosing its binding. She had a mirth in her voice as she explained to me that this was her twelveth grade English text book. In 1928-1929 LeMoyne-Owen College was also a high school. When she graduated she immediately was hired teaching in the primary grades. She was eighteen years old. Mom returned to college when I was in my primary grades.
The title of this book is One hundred and one Famous Poems published by R. S. Cook, the Cable Company 1926. The pages are yellow and patched with scotch tape. There are notes scribbled from her studies. And in addition there were names of her classmates written next to the poet's pictures. A joke, she said as she laughed her memories.
Occasionally on Saturday nights I would hear dad reading aloud from his bedroom. He was reading from this book. Stumbling then repeating to practice a line. He read poems as performance at his church.
The best thing I liked about this collection of classic poems is that there was a first line index in the back. Mom had the book rebound as a gift to me in 1991.
The total memory of a poem comes in two parts------
A clear recitation of the first few words:
O Captain. My Captain, our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won.
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree . . .
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler . . .
More first few words:
One road leads to London,
One road leads to Wales,
My road leads me seawards
To the white dipping sails.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary . . .
The smell of the sea in my nostrils,
The sound of the sea in mine ears;
The touch of the spray on my burning face,
Like the mist of reluctant tears.
The owl and Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful Pea green boat
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The second part of the memory of a poem is a recollection of a feeling. The words are right on the tip of your tongue. You know what the poem was about, but all you have is the feeling that your mind traveled. You long to go there again.
Through the years I have traveled to and fro with these poems. Others I have added when first I heard the expression "spinning a yarn," from a yachtsman. This sailboat captain had so, so many tales to tell of his pleasure boat sailing career. In order to compete I searched for nautical poems to recite onboard. It was a solution that has continued to our recent cruise out of Rockland, Maine. We anchored in cozy coves and windless ports on up the coast to Belfast, Maine last summer. After dinner we read to each other and laughed.
The title of this book is One hundred and one Famous Poems published by R. S. Cook, the Cable Company 1926. The pages are yellow and patched with scotch tape. There are notes scribbled from her studies. And in addition there were names of her classmates written next to the poet's pictures. A joke, she said as she laughed her memories.
Occasionally on Saturday nights I would hear dad reading aloud from his bedroom. He was reading from this book. Stumbling then repeating to practice a line. He read poems as performance at his church.
The best thing I liked about this collection of classic poems is that there was a first line index in the back. Mom had the book rebound as a gift to me in 1991.
The total memory of a poem comes in two parts------
A clear recitation of the first few words:
O Captain. My Captain, our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won.
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree . . .
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler . . .
More first few words:
One road leads to London,
One road leads to Wales,
My road leads me seawards
To the white dipping sails.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary . . .
The smell of the sea in my nostrils,
The sound of the sea in mine ears;
The touch of the spray on my burning face,
Like the mist of reluctant tears.
The owl and Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful Pea green boat
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The second part of the memory of a poem is a recollection of a feeling. The words are right on the tip of your tongue. You know what the poem was about, but all you have is the feeling that your mind traveled. You long to go there again.
Through the years I have traveled to and fro with these poems. Others I have added when first I heard the expression "spinning a yarn," from a yachtsman. This sailboat captain had so, so many tales to tell of his pleasure boat sailing career. In order to compete I searched for nautical poems to recite onboard. It was a solution that has continued to our recent cruise out of Rockland, Maine. We anchored in cozy coves and windless ports on up the coast to Belfast, Maine last summer. After dinner we read to each other and laughed.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn Show
GONE SEWIN
Visiting a Quilt Show is continuing education for a quilter. It is an opportunity to be creatively motivated, shop for new fabrics and gadgets and visit with old friends as well as receive inspiration from the beautiful quilts. The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn exhibited quilts, we call wall hangings at the Block Institute; 376 Bay 44th Street; Brooklyn, New York on April 17-18, 2010. Fortunately the Access a Ride driver chauffered us quickly from Manhattan to the Bay Parkway Exit from Highway #278 West.
Non quilters may be entertained by the other varied activities. A booklet for each visitor describes the quilts, the vendors and these related activities. A plastic glove was included in the program booklet for scrutiny of the exhibited quilts. In the exhibit space hostesses wearing white gloves also invited scrutiny. There were demonstrations of quilting and sewing techniques such as "sewing on a button." Dr. Myrah Brown Green gave a mini lecture on her recently published book on paper piecing--- Pieced Symbols:Quilt Blocks from the Global Village.
In one room members were actually making quilts! This charity activity demonstrated the generosity of members who contribute small, simple quilts for children in hospitals and Quilts of Valor for injured veterans. Members annonymously contribute completed quilts or contribute one of the three components at different stages. Members will next complete the quilt by adding either the top, the batting and backing. Some quilts are tied, others machine stitched as in the "stitch and turn" method.
The exhibited quilts were hung in the cafeteria where the lighting was not bright enough. The black drapes borrowed from the Empire Quilters Guild provided a somber background that enhanced the colorful hangings.
The Quilts:
*SANKOFA was dedicated to the Inauguration of President and Mrs. Obama.. The portraits in the center were handpainted by Doris Douglas. The surrounding blocks depict the symbols of the underground railroad mythology: crooked path, bow ties, northern star and log cabin. "We must know from whence we've come, in order to know where we are going."
*ROSEBUDS by Irene Lee combined hand applique with machine piecing and quilting. There was an inset border, a flange of orange surrounding each rose.
*MY FIRST TRIP TO A QUILT STORE/RECOVERY Melissa Price created this pattern with a strip pieced block divided into fourths. Completed by machine piecing with a black sashing.
*ALPHABET SOIREE by Micki Segel used graphic objects to describe each letter of the alphabet, each centered on a pink diamond. Hand appliqued and quilted.
*DARK GOLD by Mara Lurie, quilted by Janice Jamison. Firty six shadow box blocks with six inch African fabric squares. The black and gold sashing is part of each pieced block.
At this point a non-artist might ask "How long does it take to make a quilt?" I'll give you a clue. Years. Years to make a quilt, the sewing. ?And years to study how to sew a quilt. Quilters have various design techniques/or proceedures. But butying a kit at the local quilt shop or reading a book entitled "A quilt in a weekend" is not a solution.
*SPRING FLOWERS by Rosenelle Florencechild, a master hand quilter with feather quilting in a center medallion: Amish style circle in a square. Colors of aqua, pale salmon and chocolate browns were points on the sides. The large muslin squares showed off the white and dark thread hand stitched feathers and puffed flowers. It was not over quilted; it seemed to fly.
*ONE DROP RULE 81" x 73" Hand quilted by Kate Haller was a copy of a found scrapy quilt. It was just 'a little crazy' with several recognizable log cabin blocks.
*BEN'S GRADUATION QUILT Handquilted by Micki Segel had brightly colored striped fabrics in eight inch blocks that looked like strip piecing. The binding was black and white stripes.
*Author Anita G. Solomon, Rotary Cutting Revolution exhibited LIBERTY ARROWHEAD. This is a redesigned historic pattern from 1941. The machine quilting by Janice Petre was in parallel wavy lines undulating horizontally across.
*THE POOCH 37"X37" by Debbie Brekenridge. A seated dog sixteen inches tall with perked ears of brown and white triangles and squares.
*ORIENTAL MAGIC was the name of the pattern executed by Josina Dunkel. The Asian fabrics used a four patch with folded borders including a black flange.
The earth tones had a glow of goldeness.
There were three quilts from the winter Show at Lefferts House and the Audubon Center in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY. Jennifer Horan's HENRY HUDSON'S FANTASY;Donna Rae's 400 HALVE MAEN (half moons);Ruby Horansky's HALF MOON. All designed for the 400 year anniversary of the Henry Hudson Voyage.
The 2010 Block Challenge required a 20% marbled chartreuse color block measuring 12½ by 12½. The theme "Think Green" had to include recognizable fabrics with fruits and vegetables. More than forty members participated. Visitors received a card for voting for your favorite.
The 2010 Museum Challenge required participants to submit a quilt accompanied by the quilter's written statement about a piece of artwork that served as their inspiration. A photograph of the art or scene in nature was placed next to the quilt. The thirteen quilts demonstrated a variety of techniques as well as a variety of inspirations.
A most unusual exhibit in the Quilt Show was Photographers Among Us coordinated by Michele Kucker. Quilters are photographers who use "frozen moments in time" as inspiration and as fabric imagery.
GoneSewin.com Shop in Hicksville, NY
Reporter
Myrna Williams
Visiting a Quilt Show is continuing education for a quilter. It is an opportunity to be creatively motivated, shop for new fabrics and gadgets and visit with old friends as well as receive inspiration from the beautiful quilts. The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn exhibited quilts, we call wall hangings at the Block Institute; 376 Bay 44th Street; Brooklyn, New York on April 17-18, 2010. Fortunately the Access a Ride driver chauffered us quickly from Manhattan to the Bay Parkway Exit from Highway #278 West.
Non quilters may be entertained by the other varied activities. A booklet for each visitor describes the quilts, the vendors and these related activities. A plastic glove was included in the program booklet for scrutiny of the exhibited quilts. In the exhibit space hostesses wearing white gloves also invited scrutiny. There were demonstrations of quilting and sewing techniques such as "sewing on a button." Dr. Myrah Brown Green gave a mini lecture on her recently published book on paper piecing--- Pieced Symbols:Quilt Blocks from the Global Village.
In one room members were actually making quilts! This charity activity demonstrated the generosity of members who contribute small, simple quilts for children in hospitals and Quilts of Valor for injured veterans. Members annonymously contribute completed quilts or contribute one of the three components at different stages. Members will next complete the quilt by adding either the top, the batting and backing. Some quilts are tied, others machine stitched as in the "stitch and turn" method.
The exhibited quilts were hung in the cafeteria where the lighting was not bright enough. The black drapes borrowed from the Empire Quilters Guild provided a somber background that enhanced the colorful hangings.
The Quilts:
*SANKOFA was dedicated to the Inauguration of President and Mrs. Obama.. The portraits in the center were handpainted by Doris Douglas. The surrounding blocks depict the symbols of the underground railroad mythology: crooked path, bow ties, northern star and log cabin. "We must know from whence we've come, in order to know where we are going."
*ROSEBUDS by Irene Lee combined hand applique with machine piecing and quilting. There was an inset border, a flange of orange surrounding each rose.
*MY FIRST TRIP TO A QUILT STORE/RECOVERY Melissa Price created this pattern with a strip pieced block divided into fourths. Completed by machine piecing with a black sashing.
*ALPHABET SOIREE by Micki Segel used graphic objects to describe each letter of the alphabet, each centered on a pink diamond. Hand appliqued and quilted.
*DARK GOLD by Mara Lurie, quilted by Janice Jamison. Firty six shadow box blocks with six inch African fabric squares. The black and gold sashing is part of each pieced block.
At this point a non-artist might ask "How long does it take to make a quilt?" I'll give you a clue. Years. Years to make a quilt, the sewing. ?And years to study how to sew a quilt. Quilters have various design techniques/or proceedures. But butying a kit at the local quilt shop or reading a book entitled "A quilt in a weekend" is not a solution.
*SPRING FLOWERS by Rosenelle Florencechild, a master hand quilter with feather quilting in a center medallion: Amish style circle in a square. Colors of aqua, pale salmon and chocolate browns were points on the sides. The large muslin squares showed off the white and dark thread hand stitched feathers and puffed flowers. It was not over quilted; it seemed to fly.
*ONE DROP RULE 81" x 73" Hand quilted by Kate Haller was a copy of a found scrapy quilt. It was just 'a little crazy' with several recognizable log cabin blocks.
*BEN'S GRADUATION QUILT Handquilted by Micki Segel had brightly colored striped fabrics in eight inch blocks that looked like strip piecing. The binding was black and white stripes.
*Author Anita G. Solomon, Rotary Cutting Revolution exhibited LIBERTY ARROWHEAD. This is a redesigned historic pattern from 1941. The machine quilting by Janice Petre was in parallel wavy lines undulating horizontally across.
*THE POOCH 37"X37" by Debbie Brekenridge. A seated dog sixteen inches tall with perked ears of brown and white triangles and squares.
*ORIENTAL MAGIC was the name of the pattern executed by Josina Dunkel. The Asian fabrics used a four patch with folded borders including a black flange.
The earth tones had a glow of goldeness.
There were three quilts from the winter Show at Lefferts House and the Audubon Center in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY. Jennifer Horan's HENRY HUDSON'S FANTASY;Donna Rae's 400 HALVE MAEN (half moons);Ruby Horansky's HALF MOON. All designed for the 400 year anniversary of the Henry Hudson Voyage.
The 2010 Block Challenge required a 20% marbled chartreuse color block measuring 12½ by 12½. The theme "Think Green" had to include recognizable fabrics with fruits and vegetables. More than forty members participated. Visitors received a card for voting for your favorite.
The 2010 Museum Challenge required participants to submit a quilt accompanied by the quilter's written statement about a piece of artwork that served as their inspiration. A photograph of the art or scene in nature was placed next to the quilt. The thirteen quilts demonstrated a variety of techniques as well as a variety of inspirations.
A most unusual exhibit in the Quilt Show was Photographers Among Us coordinated by Michele Kucker. Quilters are photographers who use "frozen moments in time" as inspiration and as fabric imagery.
GoneSewin.com Shop in Hicksville, NY
Reporter
Myrna Williams
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Bridge
Bridge is more than a card game.
When my first thought came to learn to play Bridge, I thought it was a card game. Perhaps you think so. This is my third semester at JASA. My teacher Mark Hyman hold the Manhattan Bridge Club Championship for 2006. He gives a lecture on a segment of the guidelines called rules. Then he passes out a set of already dealt cards. Based on the mornings lecture he watches us play. The "dealer" is marked as we pick up our thirteen cards. WE bid. Bidding is a prediction, a gamble.
That was my first clue that Bridge is not a card game. It is much more than four people sitting at a card table with fifty two cards between them. This bidding is called an auction. Each partnership, each two of the four players bids in the auction for the contract. The contract determines the score the partnership will make. This essay is not a detailed discussion of how to play Bridge. It is certainly not about how to score because I have not learned how to score.
This sounds strange to have a card game not yet about scoring. $180 later; Bridge is not just one game. It is several games in one.
First: the bidding
The play of the cards to win tricks
The scoring
The etiquette, the social aspect
A trick is stacking four cards on your side of the table. This bidding is about winning tricks. There are five ways to win tricks:
Ø highest card
Ø length in a suit
Ø finessing
Ø promotion
Ø trumping
To bid the two partners converse in a convoluted though mathematical syntax. If they predict the number of winning tricks they win points. This intriguing conversation is spoken in a hierarchy of suits: no trump, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, with a number. You describe your prediction to your partner with a number and a strain (a suit) This is calculated by counting the points in your hand primarily. Counting and recounting. This conversation is encrypted with bravado as one partner queries and the other partner responds. Then suddenly the other twosome partnership jumps into the auction.
If your partnership wins the contract one of you will play the cards form both hands. You may playa no trump game or a trump game. In no trump the highest card wins in all suits. In a trump game only the contracted suit wins. In order to win your contract you must plan. Planning means
Ø Deciding when to draw trumps
Ø When to play the higher cards
Ø When to ruff
Ø When to finesse
Ø When to promote
And most important
Ø when and how to lead from your hand.
The other two players, the defense do the same planning. This is all very unpredictable because every hand you are dealt is different. There are one quintillion possible hands to be dealt. That is 10 to the18th power Six sets of three zeros.
The social and emotional aspects of Bridge are immediately essential. You need four people, a quiet space a card table and four chairs. Bridge was played at JASA for many semesters with a board laid between four chairs.
The four players may not always be you friends, but you will need etiquette to control your conduct during the game. Emotional comments and chitchat are limited. This cordiality implies nice clothes and especially jewelry. The money spent can be on paying to play socially or tournaments, lessons, supervised play, books and unique playing cards.
What is called Bridge is a social activity that is many faceted.
Ø Memory: what to bid, what to respond?
Ø Mathematics: counting points in your hand and imagining the opponents' points
Ø Mindful strategy: when to play which card?
Ø Musical chairs: as you travel to play around town.
There are challenges to last a lifetime. One quintillion challenges!
When my first thought came to learn to play Bridge, I thought it was a card game. Perhaps you think so. This is my third semester at JASA. My teacher Mark Hyman hold the Manhattan Bridge Club Championship for 2006. He gives a lecture on a segment of the guidelines called rules. Then he passes out a set of already dealt cards. Based on the mornings lecture he watches us play. The "dealer" is marked as we pick up our thirteen cards. WE bid. Bidding is a prediction, a gamble.
That was my first clue that Bridge is not a card game. It is much more than four people sitting at a card table with fifty two cards between them. This bidding is called an auction. Each partnership, each two of the four players bids in the auction for the contract. The contract determines the score the partnership will make. This essay is not a detailed discussion of how to play Bridge. It is certainly not about how to score because I have not learned how to score.
This sounds strange to have a card game not yet about scoring. $180 later; Bridge is not just one game. It is several games in one.
First: the bidding
The play of the cards to win tricks
The scoring
The etiquette, the social aspect
A trick is stacking four cards on your side of the table. This bidding is about winning tricks. There are five ways to win tricks:
Ø highest card
Ø length in a suit
Ø finessing
Ø promotion
Ø trumping
To bid the two partners converse in a convoluted though mathematical syntax. If they predict the number of winning tricks they win points. This intriguing conversation is spoken in a hierarchy of suits: no trump, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, with a number. You describe your prediction to your partner with a number and a strain (a suit) This is calculated by counting the points in your hand primarily. Counting and recounting. This conversation is encrypted with bravado as one partner queries and the other partner responds. Then suddenly the other twosome partnership jumps into the auction.
If your partnership wins the contract one of you will play the cards form both hands. You may playa no trump game or a trump game. In no trump the highest card wins in all suits. In a trump game only the contracted suit wins. In order to win your contract you must plan. Planning means
Ø Deciding when to draw trumps
Ø When to play the higher cards
Ø When to ruff
Ø When to finesse
Ø When to promote
And most important
Ø when and how to lead from your hand.
The other two players, the defense do the same planning. This is all very unpredictable because every hand you are dealt is different. There are one quintillion possible hands to be dealt. That is 10 to the18th power Six sets of three zeros.
The social and emotional aspects of Bridge are immediately essential. You need four people, a quiet space a card table and four chairs. Bridge was played at JASA for many semesters with a board laid between four chairs.
The four players may not always be you friends, but you will need etiquette to control your conduct during the game. Emotional comments and chitchat are limited. This cordiality implies nice clothes and especially jewelry. The money spent can be on paying to play socially or tournaments, lessons, supervised play, books and unique playing cards.
What is called Bridge is a social activity that is many faceted.
Ø Memory: what to bid, what to respond?
Ø Mathematics: counting points in your hand and imagining the opponents' points
Ø Mindful strategy: when to play which card?
Ø Musical chairs: as you travel to play around town.
There are challenges to last a lifetime. One quintillion challenges!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
50's Fad:Telephone Booth Cramming
The year was 1959. Fidel Castro marched into Havana, Cuba. There was a race riot in Collins Park,Delaware: a “negro” George Rayfield bought a house and moved into an all white neighborhood. Police had to use dogs to disperse an unruly crowd. Sidney Poitier, Pat Boone and Jack Paar were heroes. Ruby Dee, Maria Callas and Marilyn Monroe were heroines. Firestone tires, Tang and canned fruit were advertised in Life magazine. It was the April 6th issue that carried a photo by Joe Munroe of telephone booth cramming in California. This issue contained the series ‘How the West was won.’
Durban, South Africa is a thriving port city of 3.5 million on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, a popular tourist site. Fifty-one years ago in Durban, 25 college students crammed into a telephone booth. They were looking to set a Guiness Book Record in a non-existent event; they did. Entering this competition 19 students at London University stuffed themselves in a wider telephone booth. In Britian this fad was called “telephone box squash.” 34 in Modesto, California. In Canada 40 fraternity students stuffed themselves in a wider telephone booth on its side. Then the fad went underwater. Female and male co-eds stuffed themselves in a telephone booth underwater in a pool at a Fresno, California motel.
With no rules nor guidelines this event was unable to sanction itself. So came rules:
· The telephone booth crammers must either receive or place a telephone call
· The door can remain open
· ½ half a person must be within the telephone booth
· The booth must be upright
Now the competion moved into the technique and organization stage. Various planned packing styles emerged. The two more popular were the sandwich style and the crosshatch technique invented at MIT.
Out west at St. Mary's College, Moraga, California the preliminary telephone booth stuffing was in the booth in the Aquinas Hall dormitory. Perhaps posters were put up. "Come participate in a Big Event! Guiness Book of Records. Individuals and Teams compete."
Was this a fraternity competition or a new college sport? What did they call it? Off with the shoes. Off with the shirts. Who will be on the bottom? This must have been hilarious!
When Life magazine photographer, Joe Munroe and wife Virginia were assigned to cover this event a glass telephone booth from across town was hauled to the campus. This photograph of 22 students appeared in Life magazine on April 6, 1959. The only recognizable face was Ray Motta.
At the recent Fiftieth Anniversary celebration March 30, 2009 the students performed a reenactment at St. Mary’s College. Ray Motta was there. Ron and Don Dorito reported that they were on the bottom in 1959. Ted Tsukahara was at the Anniversary celebration as an observer retelling this story of how the West won.
1.8 million telephone booths have been disconnected in the recent five years. Now we know who cares.
Durban, South Africa is a thriving port city of 3.5 million on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, a popular tourist site. Fifty-one years ago in Durban, 25 college students crammed into a telephone booth. They were looking to set a Guiness Book Record in a non-existent event; they did. Entering this competition 19 students at London University stuffed themselves in a wider telephone booth. In Britian this fad was called “telephone box squash.” 34 in Modesto, California. In Canada 40 fraternity students stuffed themselves in a wider telephone booth on its side. Then the fad went underwater. Female and male co-eds stuffed themselves in a telephone booth underwater in a pool at a Fresno, California motel.
With no rules nor guidelines this event was unable to sanction itself. So came rules:
· The telephone booth crammers must either receive or place a telephone call
· The door can remain open
· ½ half a person must be within the telephone booth
· The booth must be upright
Now the competion moved into the technique and organization stage. Various planned packing styles emerged. The two more popular were the sandwich style and the crosshatch technique invented at MIT.
Out west at St. Mary's College, Moraga, California the preliminary telephone booth stuffing was in the booth in the Aquinas Hall dormitory. Perhaps posters were put up. "Come participate in a Big Event! Guiness Book of Records. Individuals and Teams compete."
Was this a fraternity competition or a new college sport? What did they call it? Off with the shoes. Off with the shirts. Who will be on the bottom? This must have been hilarious!
When Life magazine photographer, Joe Munroe and wife Virginia were assigned to cover this event a glass telephone booth from across town was hauled to the campus. This photograph of 22 students appeared in Life magazine on April 6, 1959. The only recognizable face was Ray Motta.
At the recent Fiftieth Anniversary celebration March 30, 2009 the students performed a reenactment at St. Mary’s College. Ray Motta was there. Ron and Don Dorito reported that they were on the bottom in 1959. Ted Tsukahara was at the Anniversary celebration as an observer retelling this story of how the West won.
1.8 million telephone booths have been disconnected in the recent five years. Now we know who cares.
Quilt Show Review
Harlem Sewn Up II
Quilted Reflections of a Community
A Review
Harlem Sewn Up began at the Dwyer Cultural Center with curator and quilt artist Laura R. Gadson. This exhibit’s iteration is now on view at The Interchurch Center;475 Riverside Drive;Manhattan; February 22-March 26,2010. The Treasure Room Gallery is curated by Frank DeGregorio. At the Opening on March 3, 2010 it was a pleasant surprise to see seventeen large and small hangings showing a variety of quilting techniques.
Thanks to the Michael K. Unthank and V. Olivia Smashurn collection two large complex hangings by Michael Cummings can be studied by budding art quilters.
Storyteller and Kitty Fireflies in the Bush both tell a story. It is a narrative of irregular, satin stitched, unpredictable shapes with vibrant, contrasting patterns and colors.
Ife Felix is a nontraditional graphic artist whose five works display a freedom of thought and design. Dance Class at the Harlem Y is a scene in a room full of small figures in mid dance step. Sometimes Ife Felix mounts multiple completed pieced blocks on golden poles forming an angled geometric shape.
Wisdom Seeker, Sun Song I and II by Adriene Cruz speak to the sun in warm glowing quasi rectangular shapes awash in a family of reds.
One visitor to the Opening remarked that Myrah Brown Green’s work is her favorite because “it is quiet, elegant and alluring.” Snake Dance is constructed with vertical panels of varied widths, 46 X 42. One panel has a gaggle of appliquéd snakelike shapes with bright eyes. The other panels show neat quilting stitches of spirals and undulations. Ogun was Here and Mother Spirit demonstrate strip-pieced blocks as a central statement surrounded by a complementary border. The circular quilting is outstanding.
Another visitor explained to me that “the painted, crumpled face and those eyes were immediately recognizable as Charlie Parker.” The 60 X 44 wall hanging by Dindga McCannon is entitled Charlie Parker Played Harlem. Out of his saxophone pours an abstract shape of texture and color: his music.
Anna Alvarez continues the music theme with Azucar . This is a figurative display of musical instruments: a giant guitar, a bongo and a saxophone dominate. A glittering script of names such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz surround.
Pat Mabry’s African Square -125 shows more traditional pieced blocks varied by color.
The massive SPEAK OUT 100 X 90 is a group effort from Harlem Girls Quilting Circle. It is perfect for this exhibit as it depicts the people, places, health, high times and history of community.
Gallery hours
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Quilted Reflections of a Community
A Review
Harlem Sewn Up began at the Dwyer Cultural Center with curator and quilt artist Laura R. Gadson. This exhibit’s iteration is now on view at The Interchurch Center;475 Riverside Drive;Manhattan; February 22-March 26,2010. The Treasure Room Gallery is curated by Frank DeGregorio. At the Opening on March 3, 2010 it was a pleasant surprise to see seventeen large and small hangings showing a variety of quilting techniques.
Thanks to the Michael K. Unthank and V. Olivia Smashurn collection two large complex hangings by Michael Cummings can be studied by budding art quilters.
Storyteller and Kitty Fireflies in the Bush both tell a story. It is a narrative of irregular, satin stitched, unpredictable shapes with vibrant, contrasting patterns and colors.
Ife Felix is a nontraditional graphic artist whose five works display a freedom of thought and design. Dance Class at the Harlem Y is a scene in a room full of small figures in mid dance step. Sometimes Ife Felix mounts multiple completed pieced blocks on golden poles forming an angled geometric shape.
Wisdom Seeker, Sun Song I and II by Adriene Cruz speak to the sun in warm glowing quasi rectangular shapes awash in a family of reds.
One visitor to the Opening remarked that Myrah Brown Green’s work is her favorite because “it is quiet, elegant and alluring.” Snake Dance is constructed with vertical panels of varied widths, 46 X 42. One panel has a gaggle of appliquéd snakelike shapes with bright eyes. The other panels show neat quilting stitches of spirals and undulations. Ogun was Here and Mother Spirit demonstrate strip-pieced blocks as a central statement surrounded by a complementary border. The circular quilting is outstanding.
Another visitor explained to me that “the painted, crumpled face and those eyes were immediately recognizable as Charlie Parker.” The 60 X 44 wall hanging by Dindga McCannon is entitled Charlie Parker Played Harlem. Out of his saxophone pours an abstract shape of texture and color: his music.
Anna Alvarez continues the music theme with Azucar . This is a figurative display of musical instruments: a giant guitar, a bongo and a saxophone dominate. A glittering script of names such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz surround.
Pat Mabry’s African Square -125 shows more traditional pieced blocks varied by color.
The massive SPEAK OUT 100 X 90 is a group effort from Harlem Girls Quilting Circle. It is perfect for this exhibit as it depicts the people, places, health, high times and history of community.
Gallery hours
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Author:Jim Crace in New York City
Jim Crace at the Artists Club, Gramercy Park South, New York City.
The Carleton Book Club was hosted by Karen Kukowski and David Diamond (members of the Artists Club) for a talk by Jim Crace on Thursday May 29, 2008.
Jim Crace had arrived in this Time Zone just hours before from a Great Britain that consumes large quantities of American culture: magazines, movies, music, electoral politics. Even in remote villages of Cambodia, where he traveled recently there were posters for Nike and photos of a pop music star. American culture has a global persona. This village lacked basic amenities including education. This love hate relationship with the US is the foundation for the book he reads from tonight Pesthole.
He began writing as a journalist. Quickly he learned that an editors’ response to ‘writers block’ was not 'submit it whenever you can.' More likely this response was "You are sacked." He described disciplined work habits that might include sitting in his garden all day. He said that he has always completed his novels on time.
The title of his most recent novel Pesthole is chiseled on a building on the Isle of Sicily. The Isle of Sicily is located thirty miles from the main land; for immigrants of the past a destination for a new life. The events on this island have the mood of dashed hope:"the fodder of great fiction." A family vacation spot is near, the Isle of Marettimo. He told us the history of the island where immigrants were quarantined and ignored for a mere rosaceous complexion presumed to be a contagious disease.
He told us so many things; perhaps we didn't expect to hear:
About the three languages: King's English; Oxford; BBC
Why he wrote the book Being Dead.
What were the funeral arrangements for his father.
His opinion of the America political candidates
What he thought of On The Road, McCarthy
He creatively presented the Gestalt of his persona as a writer and as a citizen. He is a citizen of the world concerned about how our awareness of nature has waned as we manufacture goods for our consumer driven culture. What will the "medival future" think of the many objects of modern technology? He touched the lecturn's lamp and the microphone. He holds up a shiny six inch bolt with a washer that smoothly spins on its’ threads. Then in his left hand a similar bolt found in his garden demonstrating years of rust, useless. From Pesthole he read of the shaven female character, Margaret who cherished a nickel and a penny. Did she really have the "flux?"
Jim Crace suggests that readers make an erroneous coupling of author with book. He came to America to tell us that he is really a nice, likeable guy who just happens to scribe novels such as Quarantine and Being Dead. (Both of which have been recently read by the Carleton College Book Club) He gardens, plays tennis and spends time with family and friends. He writes about death but he is quite an optimistic chap. He is quoted describing Pesthole as "an unambiguously optimistic book." http://www.jim-crace.com/ He doesn’t consider these subjects morbid but simply a depiction of the natural world that all the other millions of species clearly comprehend. What a surprise if our species is the conscious one; why do we not acknowledge that the natural world is what is controlling our lives. The perspective that the subject is morbid perhaps comes from the readers' pessimism; it is not the author's. Any scholar or observer of natural history reminds us that death is all around us; the very compost of the earth. His writing combines the informative with the hideous.
For many in the audience who had read Being Dead the recollection of the couple lying of the beach, bodies disintegrating lacked lightness. Yet listening to Jim Crace it was easy to recall the other parts of the story: the earlier carefree life of the couple studying the elusive stickler moth; the daughter going on as she incorporated the tragedy into her life. In China the published title was "Love on the Beach."
His mother and father did not yell at each other; his childhood does not make for marketable fiction.
Jim Crace comes from generations of atheists. His father gave very strict instructions for the family on his internment. The family complied: no hymns, no words and no spreading of his ashes. The last is the only task Jim Crace regrets ignoring. As a citizen of the world he understands the frivolity and function of religion. If there was a reason for writing Being Dead he suggests this was his attempt to compose a narrative to comfort the atheists in the style that religion wraps a compelling story around the exigencies of life and death. A member in the audience asked if he thought most readers would appreciate this intent? He sighed, "no.”
The Carleton Book Club was hosted by Karen Kukowski and David Diamond (members of the Artists Club) for a talk by Jim Crace on Thursday May 29, 2008.
Jim Crace had arrived in this Time Zone just hours before from a Great Britain that consumes large quantities of American culture: magazines, movies, music, electoral politics. Even in remote villages of Cambodia, where he traveled recently there were posters for Nike and photos of a pop music star. American culture has a global persona. This village lacked basic amenities including education. This love hate relationship with the US is the foundation for the book he reads from tonight Pesthole.
He began writing as a journalist. Quickly he learned that an editors’ response to ‘writers block’ was not 'submit it whenever you can.' More likely this response was "You are sacked." He described disciplined work habits that might include sitting in his garden all day. He said that he has always completed his novels on time.
The title of his most recent novel Pesthole is chiseled on a building on the Isle of Sicily. The Isle of Sicily is located thirty miles from the main land; for immigrants of the past a destination for a new life. The events on this island have the mood of dashed hope:"the fodder of great fiction." A family vacation spot is near, the Isle of Marettimo. He told us the history of the island where immigrants were quarantined and ignored for a mere rosaceous complexion presumed to be a contagious disease.
He told us so many things; perhaps we didn't expect to hear:
About the three languages: King's English; Oxford; BBC
Why he wrote the book Being Dead.
What were the funeral arrangements for his father.
His opinion of the America political candidates
What he thought of On The Road, McCarthy
He creatively presented the Gestalt of his persona as a writer and as a citizen. He is a citizen of the world concerned about how our awareness of nature has waned as we manufacture goods for our consumer driven culture. What will the "medival future" think of the many objects of modern technology? He touched the lecturn's lamp and the microphone. He holds up a shiny six inch bolt with a washer that smoothly spins on its’ threads. Then in his left hand a similar bolt found in his garden demonstrating years of rust, useless. From Pesthole he read of the shaven female character, Margaret who cherished a nickel and a penny. Did she really have the "flux?"
Jim Crace suggests that readers make an erroneous coupling of author with book. He came to America to tell us that he is really a nice, likeable guy who just happens to scribe novels such as Quarantine and Being Dead. (Both of which have been recently read by the Carleton College Book Club) He gardens, plays tennis and spends time with family and friends. He writes about death but he is quite an optimistic chap. He is quoted describing Pesthole as "an unambiguously optimistic book." http://www.jim-crace.com/ He doesn’t consider these subjects morbid but simply a depiction of the natural world that all the other millions of species clearly comprehend. What a surprise if our species is the conscious one; why do we not acknowledge that the natural world is what is controlling our lives. The perspective that the subject is morbid perhaps comes from the readers' pessimism; it is not the author's. Any scholar or observer of natural history reminds us that death is all around us; the very compost of the earth. His writing combines the informative with the hideous.
For many in the audience who had read Being Dead the recollection of the couple lying of the beach, bodies disintegrating lacked lightness. Yet listening to Jim Crace it was easy to recall the other parts of the story: the earlier carefree life of the couple studying the elusive stickler moth; the daughter going on as she incorporated the tragedy into her life. In China the published title was "Love on the Beach."
His mother and father did not yell at each other; his childhood does not make for marketable fiction.
Jim Crace comes from generations of atheists. His father gave very strict instructions for the family on his internment. The family complied: no hymns, no words and no spreading of his ashes. The last is the only task Jim Crace regrets ignoring. As a citizen of the world he understands the frivolity and function of religion. If there was a reason for writing Being Dead he suggests this was his attempt to compose a narrative to comfort the atheists in the style that religion wraps a compelling story around the exigencies of life and death. A member in the audience asked if he thought most readers would appreciate this intent? He sighed, "no.”
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