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Scenes from American Life, Beach, Gertrude Goodrich, 1914 (Treasury Dept, From the Cafeteria, Section of Fines Arts Mural!)

 

Our recent trip to Washington DC also included our first visit to The Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture.  It is better known as the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  To tell you the truth, until I got home and read the Wikipedia article, I didn't quite understand where one museum started and one ended.  Apparently, the way it's laid out now, it just flows together seamlessly, which is what I observed ...

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One of the First Rooms of the Paris:1874 exhibit

 Okay, show of hands...who here when you think of art history, think immediately of impressionist paintings?  I wouldn't doubt that out of all art movements, impressionism is by far the most known and beloved.  I know, that's where I started my art history journey. It's still one of my favorites.  I think it's partly due to the fact that it's representational (which also makes it approachable) without being too stuffy.  Plus, the colors and the subjects just capture moments in everyday life that let ...

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First of all - I want to apologize for the technical issues last week's link up had.  There was one on my end  - if the margins are off on the blog for some reason it affects everything.  Then, there was some weird issues going with InLinkz which seems to have been sorted out before the link up concluded.  I've been using InLinkz all these years and its very rare that they have technical issues.  If there are ever any issues or questions concerning linking up your blog post - please reach out - my email is ninamariesayre at g mail yada ...

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Dorothy's Lange

This week finds me traveling to Washington DC to visit the National Gallery.  We love the National

Dorothea Lange, Formerly enslaved woman, Alabama, 1938

Mall since we are kinda museum junkies.  But we haven't been back since 2019 due to the dreaded plague.  I keep an eye on the National Gallery's webpage and discovered that they are running a Dorothea Lange exhibit through March.  So Paul is indulging me with a quick trip down to see it as well as the Mark Rothko exhibit and Masters of American Furniture, the Kaufman Collection (see a little ...

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Women Ironing, 1884–86. Edgar Degas

First I want to say a big thank you for all the kind words I received over the last couple of months.  This has been the first significant break I took from blogging and it was really needed.  I've learned that my creative journey has had its ups and downs over the years, and it's okay.  To quote my friend, Rhonda, just "Don't give up",  So I'm not.  

I'm officially back in my studio!  It's funny to get back into your studio and think, "Okay, where was I ...

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Monday, May 1st was my 30th wedding anniversary.  It seems like a big milestone, right?  Really, though I don't think of it that way.  Every day with my husband has been a blessing and I'm just glad it all turned out the way I thought it was going to back in 1993.  

Every year we try to do something together that is a little different.  This year we made a day trip to go down to Pittsburgh to revisit the Carnegie Museum of Art.  The last time we were there was 2006ish and so much has changed.  The ...

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Houses, Mabel Hewit, 1936

 

This week I went down the rabbit hole they call Pinterest,  only to rediscover my love of woodcut art. Woodcut is a relief printing process in which knives and other tools are used to carve a design into the surface of a wooden block. The raised areas that remain after the block has been cut are inked and printed, while the recessed areas that are cut away do not retain ink, and will remain blank in the final print.  It is a very positive/negative area kind of printing!  I always thought woodcut printing was interesting ...

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Blessed with good weather, my husband and I decided to spend a day in Cleveland to do some of my favorite things. We started with a visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art, went on to dinner at the Siam Cafe, and finished with Peter Mayer's Star's and Promises tour.  (Peter is the lead guitarist for Jimmy Buffet and we've been going to his Christmas performances since 2006).  I had never been to The Flats in Cleveland where he was playing and boy I'll need to go back for some more exploring!

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Genesis 1:3,4 Nina-Marie Sayre Radiating Lines

 

Am I the only one that finds Pinterest the mother of all rabbit holes? Whenever I'm on there, I find something else that captures my interest.  And down the rabbit hole, I go!  That's where this whole obsession with composition types began.  Long ago, I found a graphic from a book, Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Alwin Payne.  Payne (1883-1947).  Payne was an American painter known mainly for his work of Western US landscapes.  This graphic (you can download a copy here) really changed the way I thought about ...

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 So it's that time of year again...time to buy my new Art Page-A-Day Gallery Calendar.  I've had one sitting on my desk for the last 10 years.  In fact, every day when I sit down to work, the first thing do is change the page so I can see what the "Art-of-the-Day" will be.  Throughout the day, I will glance back at the calendar noticing new things each time.  It's fun.  At the end of the year, I always go through picking out the days I want to save for inspiration.  

This year, however, I thought ...

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Woman with Folded Arms, Picasso

 I wanted to say a big thank you for all the lovely comments last week.  I'm still working my way through the hop.  It's so fun to see what everyone is doing! Also, I'm still smarting about the fact that I didn't catch on to the theme "Get on Board with Sewing".  It really isn't a bad idea to set "limits" or
"rules" when you pick a project. I remember when Elizabeth Barton first brought up the idea to me of setting limits within a piece.  LIMITS?!?!  Why would you ...

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Recently, I was cleaning out my fabric room and found my hoard of quilter "hand me downs".  Apparently, when people hear you are a quilter, they automatically will give you leftovers they had inherited.  As a young quilter, I just wanted to treasure them and marvel that in my closet sat work from quilters from the last 100 years.  Thirty years later, it dawns on me that I should either use them or Tessa will be passing them onto the next random young quilter she meets!  With that in mind, I did pull out some for a project for my ...

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North Rim, Michael James, 2022

Wow!  It's been a while since I did a "Facts You didn't know" post.  I love doing these since it gives me a good reason to take a minute and research some of my favorite artists.  This week I choose Michael James.  Now most of us know him, but how well??

Like did you know...

• In 1973, James was months from receiving his Masters of Fine Arts in painting when he stopped cold to take up work in work in fabric.  Can you imagine how THAT went over with his friends
  
  
  and family ...

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 My family is a family of creative makers.  When Paul and I were just dating, we both started new
hobbies.  He bought a woodworking Shopsmith on a whim at a mall demonstration and I got a quilting book by mistake in the mail.  28 years later, we are both consumed by our passion for wood and fabric and our marriage is as strong as ever.  

Five years in, along came Tessa.  Now I diligently exposed her to all sorts of media as she grew up, hoping

to spark her "passion".   She played with them  - explored them - enjoyed them, but nothing ...

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After spending two weeks straight in this old Victorian, it's fair to say that I'm suffering more than a little bit of cabin fever.  For once, Erie has escaped most of the bad weather that has played havoc with the rest of the country.  So I'm thinking that this weekend is a perfect time to get out....welllll.... what is consider "out" during a pandemic.  Unfortunately, my state can't seem to get it's act together and very few people are vaccinated, so most restrictions are still in place.  

Despite that, the museums are open for ...

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 How did I manage to go through 8 years of public school, 4 years of college prep, 4 years of University and STILL not get one iota of art history?  (To be fair, I believe, I may have gotten a smidgen in middle school but honestly that was all a hormonal blur so I can't be sure. )  For that matter, in the

Kids Art Based on Georgia O'Keeffe Cityscapes

ensuing 30 years things have not gotten much better.  With all the emphasis on standardize testing, it seems that art history has taken a back seat....a way back ...

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That's what originally brought me to Faith Ringgold (age 89).  Not only was she a female artist, but she was one that took her subject matter from causes that were important to her...racism, sexism...segregation.  Every woman, especially every African American woman could look at her work and relate.  

Subway Graffiti ...

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