Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen is one of my favorite artists of all time. Two years ago, while living in southern Vermont, a friend took me on a day trip to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). (It's strangely situated in the middle of Nowhere, Massachusetts but it is worth every minute of the long journey.) I saw this stunning creature there.


I have been obsessed ever since. The graceful, skeletal forms, monochromatic palette, simple and melodious engineering - they take my breath away.

Because there is so much out there on Jansen and his work, I'm going to link to a fellow blogger who compiled a pretty concise and comprehensive list of images and videos.

I want a strandbeest for a pet.

Tomorrow, another of my favorite artists . . .

Returned and Reconciling . . .

I've actually been back in my sweet Falls Church home for a few days but was so exhausted (from trekking all over Atlanta to see old friends) that I have had to spend these few days recovering. Now I'm ready to start back to creating. My muse and I are not exactly reconciled - I suspect she's just repressing - but no matter, that's her problem. We are speaking and co-habitating again . . . the rest will come. It helped immensely that our last customer was overwhelmingly delighted with her little felt dragon. My muse is a praise-monger - to a fault.

One thing we are agreed on is that calling her "my muse" is getting tiresome. I hope to include my wee list of followers in the naming process shortly so be watching for an upcoming post on this. It will include a special treat.

In other news, inspiring me today:

Laberinto en la Guitarra by Ensamble Continuo



My mother's Ecuadorian folk harp - I am missing my family today. (OK, I think it's actually a Paraguayan folk harp. But she bought it and learned to play on it while we lived in Ecuador so it is erroneously burned in my brain as "Ecuadorian.") She rarely touches it now, being busy with her piano studio.



I am also missing my Andes Mountains today. Specifically Pichincha - though not the most beautiful of Ecuador's stunning volcanoes, it was Pichincha's craggy, gloomy slopes to which I awoke every morning for many years as a child. I remember vividly - down to temperature and smell - trooping through the wind, clouds,and/or intense sunlight that crowned its head.

Medieval Meandering

My sister-in-law is on her way to Paris later this week and I'm so excited for her. I have yet to visit France but I have my list of "must-sees" ready for when the opportunity presents itself. On this list is the Musée de Cluny or Musée National du Moyen Age. The above well, located outside the museum, has been an inspiration in several of my artistic endeavors. Look here to see one of these.

If you'd like more information Sacred Destinations has wonderful images and clearly presented, concise, useful information.

Speaking of inspirations . . .


And here's another fairytale-ish element that's becoming a go-to inspiration. Look for it in up-coming posts.

Louise Bourgeois at the Hirshhorn

On Saturday, we took a warm excursion to Union Station, the Hirshhorn, and the movies: Union Station was grand and graceful (and worth the trip despite the retail stores and the atrocious breakfast we had at a restaurant there), the movie was underwhelming . . . but the Hirshhorn, ahhh . . . the Hirshhorn is now in my top five "favorite places in DC" list.

Louise Bourgeois is being exhibited at present.

I was overwhelmed by the emotional power of her installations - there is simply no way to do them justice in writing or pictures. If her work comes to a museum near you, you simply must go and commune with her work in person.

Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine - Look for it on youtube.com. Embedding not permitted.

"The Wind-Up Bird" Embossing

I recently finished a wondrous read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It was loaned to me by a friend and I made this little "thank you" note to send back with the book.

Pleat-Love

An out-of-the-blue illustration opportunity arose last week which is taking me away from my personal projects for now. It's a more "fashionista" job, referred to me by some fashion illustration clients from a few years ago - so I'm in a fashion-y mood. And when I'm in a fashion-y mood a few clothing elements dominate my favorites list. First of these is pleats. I love pleats. They must be handled with such skill and trained with utmost care and when they are treated with respect, perform amazing visual and tactile stunts.

Inside my disorder

I have been fighting a losing battle with my ancient camera. Thanks to House of Trouble's modest revenues, however, I now have a shiny, new, tiny, awesome, RED camera on the way. I will soon begin posting progress on personal projects.

In the meantime, I've been wanting to post some original work; my last few posts have been just visual meanderings around the web. I needed something that would scan decently and thought my personal art journal might work nicely.

So here's a sampling of where my creative process starts. I was rather surprised, myself, at how much writing I do. I have to be careful about sketching ideas - I unwittingly end up doing the best version the first time I put it down and then can't recreate it satisfactorily in better materials. Too many of my favorite sketches are on the backs of bulletins and work memos. So I describe my ideas to myself in my journal.

I tried to cover up the most personal stuff, for my own sake. If you're afraid of TMI, may I suggest not zooming in.

Have a bizarre day!
Catherine

Already behind on posting . . . . I do have a legitimate excuse, though. Bit o' cold brought on by too many late nights with an old friend over the weekend. Some Etsy orders have been coming in this week - this a relief since I thought my shop had been entirely forgotten in cyberspace! Here's a few things I've been musing on this week; have been on a bit of a carnival-kick lately. Hope to post some updates on my work soon.

From top to bottom:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/photogalleries/sea-animals/photo5.html
http://www.madphotoworld.com/2008/04/circus-arena-at-night.html
http://www.anthropologie.com/ - gladiator bird, raven
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfduggan/62199231/

Adventures in Daydreaming

Alexander McQueen from 2006, some lovely hand-tooled book covers, and a wonderfully mono-chromatic medieval illumination. These are the elements inspiring me this week.