A Miscellaneous Sunday

It's a quiet Sunday morning, and I'm upstairs sipping my coffee and reading blogs while Caroline is still dozing and Roger is downstairs reading the Sunday paper and watching the political shows, as he likes to do. We're having fogging mornings here these days, and I love waking up to a big of chill in the air. I'm ready for fall.

Not much quilting activity going on here, as I'm catching up on work. At least the project on my plate these days is one I particularly like-- scripting questions for depositions of witnesses. I sift through the papers in the case, outlining lines of inquiry and identifying exhibits to ask the witnesses about. It's a bit like playing detective, and putting puzzle pieces together and coming up with questions that will help form them into a complete picture.

Yesterday I did take a break to watch an episode of The Quilt Show, the online show produced by Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson. If you've not seen one, it's worth checking them out. I'm fascinated by their direct approach to reach quilters -- if tv networks aren't going to make it happen, they're going to do it themselves. Admirable! The show I watched yesterday featured Denise Labadie showing her gorgeous quilts of Irish stone structures and demonstrating how to paint fabric to get wonderful rock-like effects. It looked like fun.

And that reminded me that in my Practical Design workshop, we were asked to select "artist mentors" to study. The idea is that we can refer to the artist's work or method or style when we're trying to solve problems in our own work. I chose Andy Goldsworthy, as I love so many things about his work...its basic simplicity, its use of natural elements, its use of very basic forms and shapes to create art of stunning beauty. Denise Labadie's fabric painting method looked like it would be fun to experiment with and then fiddle with constructing some images inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. Ah, another exploration for another day...

We're currently enjoying watching Mad Men on the AMC channel. It's the story of an advertising agency in the early 60's, and it's really enjoyable. Mostly, I just love WATCHING It... the clothes, the decorating, everything is so exactly right for that era. It's my childhood, really. The personal dynamics between the men and women are fascinating too...how the secretaries in the office are treated as sexual objects and decorations, with the men powerful and seemingly invincible. The tone of the show is very evocative.

Okay, back to work for me....