Third Illumination

I h ave begun a third illumination. The second one is about birds. Here it is.


I am not sure what the narrative will be for the third. The text for the first and second come from Genesis - King James version. I have begun with the borders for the third. Below you can see one days work. I essentially put in the structure of the patterns. It is a good thing I am not an architect, because despite planning and measuring things still did not come out even. If I were an architect, there would be a lot of wonky buildings around.

This last image is the sheet that I cut out the pattern for the ovals. These leftover pieces are surely going to be used in another piece. I love them.

Otto Dix at the Neue Gallerie

On Monday, I went to the Neue Gallerie to see the Otto Dix exhibition. It is well worth seeing. There is a set of prints on the horrors of war that rival Goya. And, the painting in watercolor and guaoche were new to me. I will surely go back. It is up until August 30th.

Ode to Mrs. Delany #2

I picked some weeds on the way to the studio from a gallery closing reception. They had clusters of small white flowers. I have identified them as Shepherds Purse: Capsella Bursa-pastoris - from a website. These are details. I cut off the black space around the flowers. They are really small flowers. I tried to make them life size.

Ode to Mrs. Delany

I finished this first ode to Mrs. Delany flower. It is a violet. The common blue violet. It is considered a weed. But, it is a beautiful little flower. I got this specimen from my friend Joy's backyard. It was a lot of fun to make - felt like magic.

lucky find and daily work

Look at the book I found in the laundry room yesterday! Can you believe it? I couldn't.


I have been thinking of doing some work in homage to Mrs. Delany. My friend Joy, gave me some violets today. Here they are in a little milk pitcher and a leaf collage that I began ala Mrs. Delany.



Also, I worked on a new illumination. Little Betty Jane is facing a big eagle. This is the beginning of the inset.

Illumination

I think this is pretty much complete. You can see Little Betty Jane is battling a serpent which is under her bed. She has a lance. This is not a very good image. I just scanned it. (I have since uploaded a better image. )

I added a passage from the King James Bible's version from Genesis. This passage is talking about the snake that approaches and eventually tricks Eve into eating the forbidden fruit.

There are currently two separate exhibitions with Books of Hours taken apart - for restoration. Each page is on view. At the Morgan Library they have Catherine of Cleve's Book of Hours and at the Met, they have Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry.

These are both wonderful shows and well worth an afternoon or two of looking. I would recommend bringing a magnifying glass if you can. They have them for use at the Met, but they are often all taken.

First Session of the Her in Hero project

This is me showing the powerpoint presentation.

I have been working for months along with Leslie Madigan on a project called "The HER in HERo." It's a celebration of women role models. It's based around my change of costume cards. I made a Hero set - mostly contemporary women who I personally look up to. These are women in the public sphere. I have a webpage that shows the cards.

We had our first class yesterday - Friday, March 5th. It went very well. I will need to refine a few things to make it better, but the girls seemed to enjoy it. They made great "Me" cards and really enjoyed playing with the set of cards I made (I gave them reproductions to play with - the originals are too delicate and they are my 'work.')

I have some photos. Here you see their "Me" cards.

Here is Leslie working with the girls at circle time. This is when the girls played with the cards. Leslie has them in her hands.