Visit from Jaja

Jaja came to visit this weekend and we had a blast!  We went to an incredible workshop at the Center for Art in Wood, in Old City where we created a "cabinet of curiosities" out of a cigar box and with great instruction and inspiration from the staff at the center.  We created a portrait for the front, and of course I chose to draw my cats.  Yes, I'm a cat lady.  I really like how it turned out:

 

They had great supplies for us to use, and the boxes already had elaborately patterned paper around the edges that we could use as a jump off for inspiration.  Apparently cigar stores just smash these boxes and throw them in the trash, so it's easy to get them if you're there at the right time.  Which I will obviously be doing now that I know how beautiful these boxes are without any decoration at all.

 

We also went to a work day at Farm 51, which is run by my friends Andrew and Neal.  We destroyed some raised beds and harvested broccoli, then had a bonfire and ate delicious home made coffee cake and cookies.  Their house next door is gorgeous and another constant source of inspiration:

 

 

 

An amazing and inspirational weekend and a great way to start the new year!

Little Details

I now have a small collection of decorations for the wedding that I commissioned from artists on Etsy. I had a great time working with the artists so I thought I'd share so you can check out their shops too!



I got these adorable little butterflies from The Gilded Bee: I've been eye-ing her stuff for a while now and finally messaged her to make a huge custom order of butterflies in approximately the colors of the wedding (the color choices were a bit brighter than I'm going for, but they are perfect in every other way).



When I ordered them I had a specific purpose in mind, but things have changed a bit since then so now I just have them for extra decoration. I'm not sure how I will use them, but it will be guaranteed to be cute. Seriously cute.



I also ordered these incredible stamps from SugarSkull7's Handcrafted Stamps & Fine Art. She has a fabulous collection of adorable stamps that I chose from, in addition to commissioning this one:



I also got these Ball jar and hive stamps:





The hive reminds me of the illustrations in Winnie the Pooh books! I got three colors of ink so I plan to mix and match all over the place. These are going on the back of the table assignments, which will just be hanging from a line by the guest book. Kind of like this.

Just over two months to go!

Smells Like Spring!

The past few days have been the most soft, sunny, breezy, wonderful days ever! Yesterday I walked all the way home from my babysitting job in Center City (over 35 long blocks), just to get my fill of the weather. And today I've already spent some nice quality time on the porch with my beloved, just soaking in the sun.



I also took a few minutes on the porch to read an issue of Alimentum: The Literature of Food that my friend Nicole sent me (she was asked to contribute illustrations to this issue and they are adorable), along with one of the collagraphs that she's been working on! I'm so excited, this literary journal focuses on mixing fiction, non-fiction and poetry with food. Sounds perfect for a gardener who's antsy to get outside already. And the collagraph Nicole sent was absolutely perfect for today. It's called "Beam." :)



I also found out that the journal Poetry that I subscribe to (that Jaja subscribed me to as a gift) is giving away a limited number of free copies of their April 2011 issue to reading groups that request them. It's their way of helping everyone celebrate National Poetry Month (April)! So contact them by February 20th in order to get your copies: poetryfoundation.org/npm.

Night Parade

Earlier this month I stumbled across the most wonderful bit of community art I have ever seen. I was walking with M in South Philly and we stopped to look into a store window that was full of white paper mache lanterns. It turned out that it was actually a studio space in the Fleisher Art Memorial, and the lanterns were in the final stages of preparation for a "night parade" that was going to happen that weekend!





George Ferrandi, the artist-in-residence at the Fleisher, had been working with the community for months making lanterns and developing a storyline for this parade. The entire project is called "Wherever There is Water." There were weekly workshops for volunteers to come and make lanterns for the parade (M and I went to the very last one, lucky!) and a choir had been practicing for months. I was so ecstatic that I found out about it right before it happened!





The Saturday night parade was incredible; there were almost 300 people processing down the streets of South Philly holding illuminated lanterns, many in the shape of animals. People came out of their houses to watch, many joined the parade, and there was just a wonderful sense of community and joy. I saw many of my own friends from different parts of the city, and I made new ones along the way.







I didn't get many photos of the parade, partly because I was in it, and partly because I knew I wouldn't be able to capture it properly on camera. But these are pictures of the workshop I went to with M, and the studio space pre-parade. Here's the Flickr group, with lots and lots of pictures. And here's a lovely video on Youtube (I'm there at 3:17, wearing bright green!):

Honoring Art

This past year I have received some amazing art from my friends, and over the winter I decided to honor them by having them framed (by my new favorite people at Taws Can Do in Philadelphia).

This photograph was taken by Jaja, who exhibited it and then sold it at a gallery! But this one is all mine. I decided to make it all girly with a gold frame and pink mat. I think the framing reflects the romanticism in the photo quite well.





This piece I purchased from Nicole (her etsy shop is called blue bicicletta). Fall is my favorite season and I love the imagery in this poem. I wanted to give it the muted colors of autumn leaves and birds, so I chose semi-subtle mats of orange and teal. I probably should have gone with a patterned mat instead.





And this one is my favorite! It's from Nicole's natural patterns alphabet series (I also have beehive). I love how the speckled frame looks like an egg and the patterned mat just emphasizes the intricate detail of the nest (nido means nest in Italian). Click on the image to see more detail.



I'm lucky to have such talented and generous friends!

La Plaza Cultural

Early in November, M and I went to visit some of my oldest and dearest friends in NYC. While we were out looking for a good brunch place, we passed by this amazing community garden in the Lower East Side - La Plaza Cultural. My friends all humored me and let me roam around for a while in this gorgeous garden.



You may have already seen this garden. It's famous in the garden world because of the decorations on the outer fence - crazy "flowers" made out of recycled cans, bottles and other containers.





Inside the garden there are community plots, theater space, a sand/play area and park space. It's also dotted with huge weeping willow trees that lend shade and character to the space.



I'm always enthralled and excited when I see these older urban gardens (this one was founded in 1976); I love the way the paths and sections of the garden flow in an organic, maze-like fashion, I love seeing the different uses the space can have, and I especially love the old plants that have been so lovingly tended and stand like gatekeepers of the green sanctuary under them. It gets my mind racing back to my little gardens in Philly and Camden and their newness and clean squares and lines. I hope those new little gardens have the chance to age as gracefully as this one has.

The best $3 you can spend in Philly

The Fabric Workshop and Museum is one of my favorite places to take visiting friends in Philly. It's a workshop and gallery space with a small museum shop attached and it costs $3 to get in.



It's the best $3 you can spend in Philadelphia, in my opinion. The exhibits are consistently fascinating, engaging, sometimes beautiful, always eclectic, and leave you inspired. The artists often work within a rich cultural context, like the Alaskan native artist Tommy Joseph who is part of the current exhibit.

A few months ago I went with my friend Andra and one of the galleries was filled with a life-sized sperm whale made entirely out of hand-embroidered felt and inflated with a pump, by the artist Tristin Lowe. Amazing.



What makes it even better is that there are four galleries to explore and apparently they don't have security cameras because you have to be chaperoned by a museum staff member when you enter. So you basically get a personal tour guide the whole time you are in the museum and the people who have taken me around have been incredibly nice and knowledgeable. They are usually artists themselves and some of them have studio space in the workshop.

It's small and relatively unknown, but the price and quality of experience you get at FWM makes it one of the best deals in Philly.

ACGA conference: Dale Chihuly and James Turrell

The Franklin Park Conservatory has a very large collection of Dale Chihuly art in their glasshouse. In 2003/2004 they hosted a huge exhibition of his art which the Friends of the Franklin Park Conservatory then bought for approximately $7 million to be on permanent display in the greenhouse.





These huge glass sculptures are hung in the hallways, from the ceiling, and placed amongst the plants in the conservatory. They also have a huge interpretation center with information about Chihuly, videos showing his art-making process, and a gallery space for more art.





In addition, they currently have a light installation in the palm house that was done by James Turrell. He took LED lights and lined the windows of the palm house with color. They turn on at dusk and off at dawn, slowly changing color from blue to magenta to green to white during the night.



During the conference we had access to the conservatory whenever it was open. One night, while everyone was in a conference room watching a movie, I decided to roam around the conservatory. Apparently no one else had this idea because I had the glasshouses completely to myself. I wandered the rooms for two hours through the oxygen-filled humidity, quietly listening to the waterfalls and the fans turning on and off. I also sat in the palm house watching Turrell's light installation change colors from the inside, so slowly I hardly noticed. Magic.

into a truly
curving form
enters my
soul

feels all small
facts dissolved
by the lewd guess
of fabulous immensity

the sky screamed
the sun died)
the ship lifts
on seas of iron

breathing height eating
steepness the
ship climbs
murmuring silver mountains

which
disappear(and
only
was night

and through only this night a
mightily form moves
whose passenger and whose
pilot my spirit is

-e.e. cummings, 1935, No Thanks 36