April 30th, Chapter 10

Only two chapters left. I know this can be an overwhelming amount of information. I still find myself in overload after reading the book 5 times.

Remember to post any late responses in this weeks' post, just label it for the chapter you are writing on/for.

It is important that you answer the "extra" questions. They are designed so I can get a slight insight into how you meander through the information and how you might relate the facts into your daily art making/teaching.

Hope the art work is going well. I am excited to see your adventures with crafts.

So this week there are two extra questions:
1. Which is more important the message or the image/product?
2. How do you feel about the "business" of art making? Is it important to you?

Enjoy.

April 23, Chapter NIne

Well, we only have three chapters left. Always bittersweet for me because I love how this book opens up history and celebrates forgotten artists. I hope your art project are going well...if you are having trouble or have had some roadblocks write me at my TTU email and just let me know what is going on or what you want to change. Remember you will  need to write a short essay on your work...telling us the why and the how. And Pictures!

As we get closer to our own time there is more information available and more opinions. Everything seems to explode. Limits are pushed and concepts are developed.

A bit of correction. In the "Dinner Party" over 1000 different volunteers worked on various aspect of the piece. Not just 300 on the clay part. With that in mind for your extra question describe YOUR place setting using any artist we have studied including the chair.

Enjoy.

April 16th, Chapter 8

If you have been waiting for textiles you will have to wait no more....and glass grows into its own layered field. A decade of massive change in our society...assassinations, movements, and new organizations. This was a time of finding voices and making changes to our society. So for the extra question this week...of all the idealistic movements which speaks to you and your life?

If any of you love having "important" books around try to find a copy of "Objects USA". For many classes it became a bible of information.

April 9th, chapter 7

This chapter documents the tsunami that hit crafts in the 1950's...hold on and enjoy.

Hope all your projects are going well and that you are having fun being able to try something new or returning to something you left behind. Remember I am more interested in your attempt/the process and what you have to say about your journey than I am about the end product.

My extra question is this: image yourself in class with Voulkos, Asawa, Nakashima or any of the artists in this chapter how would you have reacted.

Embellished Towels

I have been asked to share these wonderful works of art created by my mom, Maria Luisa Alvarado.  She is a veteran crocheter, and all my life she has always been working on something.  She typically would follow patterns from vintage booklets.  Sometimes she would work on stuff I thought, faddish, like the cutting of printed patterns on fabric and iron transfer onto t-shirts.  So 80's lol.  Although I did like the dress she made for me adding fabric to the bottom of pocket t-shirts, hard core 80's.  Anyway, when I visited with her this past Spring Break she showed me her latest projects, and I was so amazed.  I realized that she has been getting more creative and free-style since my dad has passed, 9 years ago.  She works diligently on her art to keep her mind occupied and to cope.  Some of them are patterns like the colonial woman in a dress, but she comes up with the rest on her own such as the trees and plants.  She also embellishes with crocheted lace and adds beads.  The floral bouquets are all completely her own design.  Absolutely beautiful.  I am just blown away.  Her choice of medium to work on is bath towels, or hand towels.
P.S. I also had very little control over where the images went, so sorry that they are scattered.  I don't even know how I managed to get my text in the middle.