Tuesday, March 15, 2011

I have a blog with no posts.

I've used this blog for comments and following some fine folks, but I just realized I've never posted here. And I have such a great blog title, too. ;D

I have actually said it: "This thread is behaving badly." Tangles, slubs, refusal to go where I want it, breaking, knotting, not going in the needle's eye. I sew for dolls, I sew dolls!, I make bears, I embroider, virtually all of it by hand.

Yes, I have a sewing machine, and I do know how to use it. Sometimes I actually do use it. But I don't enjoy it. Sewing machines make me grind my jaw and swear. Hand sewing makes me happy and calm.

I have a deep love of hand work, really good craftsmanship, artisanal one-of-a-kind hand-of-the-maker raw beautiful artistic workmanship. "Sunday on the Isle of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat is one of the most amazing pieces of art in the world, not least because, waaaaay close up (I'm one of the reasons there's glass over these things; I'm a tactile observer and I have to hold my hands behind my back to keep from touching things), the real work that went into that enormous picture is awe-inspiring.(Yes, I've seen Ferris Bueller, shut up.)("American Gothic," on the other hand, is weirdly anti-climactic.) (Also, a very very long time ago, on my first-ever art museum visit, I saw a Rubens I'd only seen in a b&w book plate, just hanging on a wall at my eye level. No glass, no guard. Yes, I did. One of the biggest thrills of my life.)

2 comments:

  1. OMG, the NEED to touch paintings in museums. It BURNS us, precious, it does!

    The Rembrandt I almost literally walked into in Fort Worth's Amon Carter museum about blew my mind--no glass, no guard, either. But the picture I could not stop staring at was a Mary Cassatt--and a Monet I've never seen anywhere again. As for Mr. Seurat, I've seen that painting. It's amazing, and sometimes I have a hard time believing a hoo-man painted it.

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  2. I once had to leave a small gallery with Rembrandt sketches because I knew if I stayed there I was gonna leave fingerprints.

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