A Smattering

This week will be a full blogging week. The Art Spark Group has scheduled a Spring Fling of tutorials, so please check back here starting on Tuesday.

I am so happy to be writing a book about journaling, even if for the mere fact that it is a healthy and creative distraction from my health concerns. It helps me to get out of bed, to focus on deadlines (I love a good deadline). I honestly love to journal and for me it is an exploration of my world. This week my focus will be on drawing buds. I would like a page of buds, I was even thinking I might walk around my own block, drawing as I go. It is this type of challenge, a challenge of self, that makes me feel I am exploring my world. I also like to explore the imagery I create in other ways, for instance, I will check David Sibley's, The Sibley Guide to Trees, just to see if I can identify and learn more about what I have drawn.

My Man and I went to the Red and White Quilt exhibit at the Armory today. It is really called, 'Infinite Variety', but by local parlance, it is the Red and White show.

I walked in, and stopped in my tracks. I was amazed. The quilts glowed, they were displayed fantastically. Now let's consider that word for a moment:

fantastic |fanˈtastik|

adjective

1 imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality : novels are capable of mixing fantastic and realistic elements.

• of extraordinary size or degree : the prices were fantastic, far higher than elsewhere.

• (of a shape or design) bizarre or exotic; seeming more appropriate to a fairy tale than to reality or practical use : visions of a fantastic, mazelike building.

2 informal extraordinarily good or attractive : your support has been fantastic.

I mean, I think we use this word reflexively and I would love it if you would reread that initial sentence.

I walked in and stopped in my tracks. The show was so cohesive and brilliantly displayed, the quilts were so well lit they glowed. Each and every one of them, 650 quilts in all, collected by Joanna Semel Rose. The showing was organized as an eightieth birthday gift by her husband. Now that is some kind of love (Don't you love stories like this?).

What really got me? The display was so well executed and presented, I felt honored as a quilter and an artist. I took it personally. It was very similar to seeing the Gee's Bend Quilt show at the Whitney. I felt proud and happy that so many quilts were put on display, I hear a book is in the works.

Thinc Design designed the display and there are links to articles about the show on their news page.

And you know what else? This is my I friggin' love living in New York City! I have it good.