9 posts tagged “museum”
What a fabulous afternoon!
We went to the museum and I headed straight for the Chihuly exhibit. It was a decent size exhibit, all stuff from the museum's own collection, but most of which I hadn't seen on display before. He really is great with color and form. There were some gorgeous pieces, many of which had me wondering how they were made.
As we were leaving the exhibit, we walked past the hot shop and saw there'd be a demo in fifteen minutes. I've seen a couple demos there before but I still really wanted to see another. :) We went into the cafe to have a quick bit of refreshment, and just before the demo was supposed to start, I noticed the studio was near full. Glass walls, you see. (Pun intended.) We chugged what was left of our orange juice and snuck into a couple of seats in the back row of the studio.
It was a great demo, a one woman show, which is kind of unusual. She did a great job though, managing all of the pipes and punties all by herself while explaining a ton about glass and the blowing process. It ran almost an hour, and in that time she demonstrated some basic techniques as well as optic molds and thermal shocking for that crackled effect. By the end of the demo, she'd made a gorgeous 10" diameter amber, footed glass bowl with a scalloped edge. She'd used a special glass that gets an irredescant finish when it's flame-treated at the end of the process. I have some of that glass, but I haven't yet figured out how to work it in my torch flame to bring the metals to the surface. Craig very patiently waited while I hung around after the demo to ask a few questions, and I got dibs on the bowl she made! Assuming it survives the annealing kiln, it's reserved for me, and they only charge $50-60 for the bowls made during demos! (Procedes to benefit the museum, of course.) That's 1/3 to 1/6 what you'd pay for a similar piece sold by the artist! I can't wait to go pick it up! It'll be ready Tuesday.
After the glass pavillion, we went back to the main building. We took a quick look through the gift shop, which is a fabulous gallery filled with beautiful, original art pieces, lots of which is glass work! Then we attempted to check out the LitGraphic exhibit, but I was too wound up with too much glass on the brain. I couldn't focus on the graphic art at all, so I asked Craig if we could bail and come back to this exhibit another day when I could give it my full attention.
So we were only at the museum for a couple of hours, but it was an absolutely fabulous couple of hours, and it left me totally recharged, wound up, and filled with inspiration.
We did a little shopping while we were out, getting some rain pants to pack for Ireland so we won't get soaked if it starts to rain while we're out tromping through bogs and looking at ruins. :) We each got a few lightweight shirts to pack for the trip too, so we're pretty much ready to go now! ...This is going to be a long week. :D
*And* on top of the awesome time at the museum and the great shopping-fu, we also had a late lunch at Panera. They've brought back their mac&cheese!!! I had a small cup of that sinful yum with one of their fuji apple salads, which are so delicious.
It was a great day out, but it wore me out completely. I'm going to spend the rest of the day just chilling and waiting for bedtime, I think.
*L* I just noticed that the "Chihuly Toledo!" exhibit has been extended through February 3rd since the last time I'd checked the dates. We're still going today though. I have my heart set on a trip to the museum now. :)
The challenges of the past few weeks are now history. Mia has a reservation for boarding, we're ready for our trip to Ireland, work is caught up for the first time since I took that job years ago, our sewer and water main will be replaced while we're away, and my sister and I managed to actually surprise my mom with a 60th birthday party at my house last night. Challenges are behind me, vacation is just ahead, and my house is squeaky clean. Today I finally feel like myself for the first time in many months. I can breathe ...and just sit, without guilt or anxiety or anything hanging over my head.
We're going to go to my house of worship today, the museum! There are four totally awesome exhibits there right now that I've been really wanting to see, but something has always seemed more pressing. By the time we get back from Ireland, the "Chihuly Toledo!" exhibit will have ended. As a glass artist, I -will not- miss this exhibit, so that's really the only thing on my plan for the day so far. We may or may not check out the other exhibits too. They're all free (love our museum!!!), but the other three will also be running for a bit longer, so we'll have time to catch them on future visits.
The party last night was a smashing success. My mom was genuinely surprised. :) My sister made a gorgeous and -delicious- cake. It had Baileys in it, lots of chocolate flowers and tons of buttercream frosting....unf. Everyone had a good time. Craig talked radio with the uncles. The kids were totally enchanted with the bunny, who, surprisingly, didn't seem to mind them too much. Uncle Mats thought our potrack was brilliant (thanks, Deb & Brian!) and since we still had the other one from the set in the garage, we we able to send them home with one. Everyone talked and talked and laughed and laughed. Good times.
The weekend activities started Friday evening and just didn't stop until Sunday night. Now, I'm the kind of person who feels she has a busy weekend if there is even one event planned, so this was crazy chaos for me, but it was 98% fabulous, and that's pretty amazing.
Friday night was the opening of the student art exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art, where Craig and I took our drawing class. Of course it started snowing just as we we're starting our drive into town, but it stayed light and just seemed to add charm to the evening. We met up with my Dad for dinner at Manos and shared a bottle of wine and all sorts of delicious Greek foods, finishing the meal with a lovely sludgy sweet Greek coffee, then we headed to the museum.
There were some absolutely lovely student works on display, especially from the metal-working, glass and advanced classes. Our "Beginner Drawing" section of the exhibit was very ...uh, we'll say "charming" by comparison. :) It was still a hoot to see our stuff hanging on the walls with the professional looking labels next to each piece, ...never mind the staples in lieu of matting and frames. :D Here we each are, posing with three of our lessons, and then my silly garlic drawing that everyone seemed to love, but which I think looks more silly every time I look at it, ...but then it is what it is. :) I'll admit it's really decent for a beginning drawing class, but I'm cheating because I'm not a beginner.
We spent a while walking around the museum with my Dad. There's so much to see there! I absolutely *ADORE* the Toledo Museum of Art. It's rated as one of the top ten museums in the nation, and I'm quite proud of the place, plus I grew up in that neighborhood and spent *MANY* hours there, so it's very much like home to me. There's no admission charge and it was within walking distance of my house, so I just went whenever I wanted. It's totally ruined me for other museums.
Friday we checked out the student exhibit, took my Dad to see the new Glass Pavillion (he hadn't been yet) and finally, checked out the local artists exhibit -which was hella impressive! That's barely a dent in the whole collection and they had all sorts of fun stuff going on for their late Friday evening hours, but we were tired and ready to head home at that point.
Saturday morning I woke up to the alarm clock at 7:30am in order to get ready for the holiday ornament workshop I'd signed up for, and immediately upon sitting up in bed thought, "This was obviously a huge mistake!" I am NOT(!!!) a morning person, but I'd been tempted by the mention of art glitter, and I'm a total sucker for glitter, obviously. So, I grumbled and slipped out of bed, shuffled into the shower, got dressed and drove myself to my Mom's to pick her up. I'd orginally signed up Craig to take the workshop with me, but he had suggested I take my mom, not because he was anti-glitter (don't dare question his commitment to Sparkle Motion!), but because he knows my mom and knew she would absolutely love this workshop. I wish I could take credit for thinking that thought first. :)
The ornament plans looked extremely basic, a couple pieces of balsa fitted and glued together, gessoed, painted with a basecoat, then covered in glue and glitter. It felt a bit like kindergarten at first, but I'd totally be lying if I tried to say it wasn't terrific fun! The two and a half hour workshop blew by and I didn't have time to add all the details I wanted. ...And now I want to glitter EVERYTHING! I'm extremely envious of Tracey's glitter collection and intend to start expanding my own.
It was a very good experience for my mom too. She's always been so very creative, but she's been blocked for ...well, for almost as many years as she's been a mom, so 35 or so years. My drawing instructor (who also held the ornament workshop) is such a wonderful and encouraging person, and she spent some time talking to my mom about creativity and how to get it flowing again. I was so glad Craig suggested I take Mom with me.
It also struck me as kind of funny that my silly drawing lessons were hanging up in the hallway, and without even trying to, I'd taken both of my parents to see them. "MOM! DAD! LOOK AT WHAT I CAN DO!!!" :D
Ok. That's just under half of my super-fun, SUPER-busy weekend, but I have so much stuff to do today. I'll be back to write up the rest of it later. ...I know, you're all on the edges of your seats. *L*
I've been very stuck in my head for days now. I blame the insomnia I get when my hormones go whack once a month. Anyhow, it hasn't been terribly unpleasant in my head here, so that's good. There was a touch of acedia trying to take over, but I now know the cure for that is to ignore it and do something, anything. So, I chased that off pretty quickly, and now it's just me, sitting here alone in the middle of my head, listening to the dust settle. It's not very exciting, but I'm ok with that. Sometimes you need a little nothing and a breather. Well, I certainly do, at least.
I've been wanting to blog for days, but when you're stuck in your head... well, it's sometimes hard getting a message out. I just spent twenty minutes pulling the most beautiful arils out of a large pomegranate though, and I felt the need to mention that beauty somewhere, so here I am, finally able to put down some words. ...They really are one of the most gorgeous things produced by nature, IMO, pomegranate arils. They're succulent, sparkling garnets. I found myself pondering possible ways to preserve that beauty but, like some of the other most beautiful things in nature, the impermanence of their beauty is part of the allure. Still, I am going to have to try to make glass beads that shape and color some day, though garnets already are pretty darn close.
We had our last "Beginning Drawing" class last night. I'm going to miss it. We will be taking the next class offered in January though, where we'll be exploring various media like pastels and colored pencils and such. I'm super-psyched about that because as much as I love to draw, playing with color is definitely the icing on the cake!
I'd forgotten how much I love to draw. ...How is it that I keep forgetting all of the most important things? Life sure is tricky that way. I'd forgotten that I'm good at it too. I was confident in my skills in high school, when I was taking classes and working those skills on a regular basis. Then college came with the rigors of engineering, then jobs and all the responsibilities of being an adult. The last time I remember really losing myself in a drawing was on a blackboard in the ME (mechanical engineering) study lounge, when I was supposed to be studying something like thermodynamics or something almost as unpleasant. My classmates thought I was a flake, I'm pretty sure, and I can completely understand why. My interest in engineering was in knowing how things work, not in a career. I enjoyed the lectures and really got into some of the classes, but my heart was never in an engineering career, and I only ever worked in my studies enough to satisfy my own curiosities. While everyone else was eating and breathing equations, I was taking a ton of lit. electives and drawing pretty pictures and wanting to take walks around campus or play euchre in the student union. I knew I didn't belong there even back then when I was constantly trying to convince myself a career in engineering would be the profitable way to go.
But I digress. Drawing class. I missed last week's class due to being sick, but Craig went and was able to clue me in on what I missed. My advantage in doing the lesson at home was that I wasn't constrained by the two and a half hour class. I spent four hours plus a little more drawing a head of garlic. It came out looking pretty good, mostly because I spent so much time on it. But I am good at this, I always have been - I just forgot for a few decades. I was excited to show my drawing to my teacher, because I knew it was good. And she gushed over it. She told me I nailed it and there was nothing else she could say about it. I was glowing.
Then, a while later while she was helping another student, she asked me to hold it up so she could point something out to him, ...and I about died from embarrassment. The whole class was complimenting me, telling me how good it was ...and rolling their eyes in mock (I hope) disgust, and I wanted to crawl under the table. I did actually drop my head behind my very large sketchbook and hide. I honestly believe that *anyone* who puts the time into it can draw well, and I was just really embarrassed and felt undeserving of all the attention. While everyone was complimenting and groaning over my drawing, I divulged the fact that I'd studied art in high school and was just taking this class as a refresher, hoping that would take some of the pressure off. Then I felt like a total jackass when the woman who sits next to me said, "Yeah, so did most of us."
Anyhow, it's obvious that I need to keep drawing, now that I've remembered how much I enjoy it, and also obvious that I need to work on accepting compliments ...and to some extent, work on not fearing being good at something. I know that sounds really arrogant and ridiculous, but I also know there's a part of me (probably the introverted part) that hates being singled out in any way, even with praise. I want to be excellent at a thing or two in my life by the time I check out, and yet at the same time, I don't want to be better than anyone else. Yes, I know. I'm not making sense.
We did all have to submit three of our lessons for the student art exhibit by the end of class. As much as I was dreading that, I am tickled to death to be able to say that my work will be on display at the Toledo Museum of Art, one of the finest museums in the country. :D
The class has done exactly what I'd hoped it would do for me, and then some. Not only is that huge mental block gone and I'm not afraid of my sketchbook any more, but the brain is flooded with creativity, almost too much. I really like our teacher too, and I hope we can build a friendship there. We (Craig and her and I) have a lot of common interests and she's just an awesome human being. She's holding an ornament making workshop that I really want to get into, because she says she doesn't know what we'll be making yet, but it will involve art glitter ...at which point I looked up with eyes as big as hers, and we both declared, "I LOVE GLITTER!" :D
Oh yeah! I also have to mention that Craig gave our teacher one of the pencil extenders he'd turned, and she was so thrilled she almost cried. She thanked us profusely and wanted hugs. She's such a sweetie! :)
Well, I'd wanted to share something, and I've babbled on for way too long now - opened the floodgates, it seems. With that pressure vented, it's back to the quiet of my head now and some work.
The "Clashing Combines" derby Wednesday night was a hoot! It was exactly what the name promised, a demolition derby for combines (large farming vehicles, for you city folk *wink*). It was awesome, and yet slow. Those leviathans of the field... well they don't exactly have a lot of pick-up. It was like watching a tortoise fight, but when something did break, it broke spectacularly! It was a good time and I hope we can go again next year.
The demolition derby last night was even more awesome after watching the slower heats from the night before. I'm such a bad hippie when it comes to these events, 'cause I do love me some mayhem, Mayhem, MAYHEM! I love the noise and the spraying mud, the crunching metal and the warm glow of all the "CHECK ENGINE" lights. We even got rained on last night, and I still had a blast!
And might I just mention once again that I have the best husband in the world! I was really super out of it yesterday, fighting some major fatigue, well, not really fighting so much as getting my ass kicked by it. He came home from work and went to the store to pick up some stuff we needed, something I should've done earlier in the day, He also brought back some yummy stuff for my lunch today, and a huge energy drink that we split. Then we went out to grab some dinner, had some great conversation and then on to the derby. I felt like cold crap for most of yesterday, but from the time he came home the day took a major turn for the better. *love*
My most exciting news at the moment is that yesterday I signed Craig and I up for drawing classes at the museum!!! YAY, CLASSES!!! We both havehad decent skills once upon a time, but they've near expired from lack of use. Over the past few years we've both tried to revive our drawing talents, we've both picked up several books on technique, several sketch pads, a few types of pencils, and yet we just haven't been able to get back into it. Not only do I think it's going to be awesome to take a class together, and an art class at that(!), but I think our artistic talents definitely need the help of an instructor right now, and some homework assignments wouldn't hurt either. Even if we only get those two hours of practice once a week for the next ten weeks, that's still far more practice than we've been getting. I'm so very excited about this class!!!
So yesterday was the derby and class registration and fatigue and ... oh yeah, the glass incident. See, I was feeling crappy, like really crappy, and I thought a little fun activity might boost my energy, so I put in Wii Sports and I boxed a few rounds and then started one of the fitness routines. The boxing went well, hitting tennis balls was fun, hitting baseballs, no problem, and then it was bowling time. I had a tight hold on the Wii remote, I had the strap tightened around my wrist, what I didn't realize, until I threw my first ball, was that I also had my water glass on the coffee table right in front of me. Yeah. I didn't just knock it over, I hit it so hard the the whole top of the glass disappeared and water went everywhere and yet the glass remained upright. I spent 45 minutes cleaning that up. I found tiny, shiny shards of glass *everywhere*. I even had to shake some out of my keyboard. I got a towel to wipe up the water, and the towel was filled with tiny, shiny shards of glass. I got a few minor cuts cleaning it up, even got one little shard stuck in my finger. Good times. Yeah.. So when you're playing Wii and clicking past the same safety warnings you've seen a hundred times, remember those warnings are there for a reason. *sigh*
To sum up: I love the derbies, I love my husband, I LOVE that I'll be taking an art class with my husband (BFF), and watch out for water glasses when playing Wii Bowling (seriously!).
OH! And Jasmine is sounding a little better finally. She's still congested, but not so completely. And she's not fight taking her meds as much. Major YAY! on both counts!!!
Ok. I'm feeling much better.
We went to the farmer's market and stocked up on fresh, locally grown produce at fabulous prices, then we went to the museum. It's in the same part of town as the farmer's market, plus today was their "Glassfest" and I just kind of wanted to stop in and poke around. I'd read up on the Glassfest and knew it was mostly a bunch of kids' activities, but they were supposed to have a few drop-in classes too. Originally I'd wanted to go first thing in the morning and reserve a space in a class, but my stomach has been giving me issues since yesterday, so I'd sort of let go of my ambitious morning plans and was just willing to stop in real quick and see what was going on.
As it happens, not only was there room in the 2pm class (the last of the day), but Craig and I were the ONLY people in that session! It was *perfect*. I was blissed.
The guy giving the class was a really cool guy from the area who'd gone to school there (so I got to briefly grill him on the art school I occasionally daydream about attending), he spent six months in Murano, Italy studying with a glass artist there, *AND* is in the process of setting up a studio in his house (something we have in common, and another thing I could pick his brain over).
It was so awesome having that hour class to ourselves, and having such a knowledgeable and laid back instructor. I really got my money's worth out of that! :) The class was $15 per person (because we're members, $20 otherwise) and really my sole motivation for taking it was to experience flamework on a professional torch. I just wanted to see how much easier it was to melt glass with really good equipment (and it was SOOOO MUCH EASIER!), but I really lucked out on having the instructor all to myself to throw all my accumulated questions at for an hour, for only $15! ...Well, $30, because I dragged Craig in there with me. :) It was extremely educational and a complete blast! I loved being able to talk glass with someone! ...I'm still giddy.
As for the torch, it was a total dream! They had Bethlehem torches, which use a dual gas set-up and burn huge and HOT! Oh, I WANT! Aimen (the instructor - I hope I spelled his name right) told me they work well on natural gas too (we were using propane there) which is good to know because that's the fuel I've been leaning towards. It was really quick work though, because in that flame the glass flowed like honey in just a matter of seconds. Gods, that was nice! Exquisite! ... I had planned on setting my torch up and working this evening, but I might wait until tomorrow now. I think I'd just be frustrated trying to work with my smaller, cooler torch after just having worked with such fantastic equipment.
As for the kilns, they had Chili Peppers, which I was familiar with from my own research but have never actually seen in person. I wasn't crazy about the fiber insulation, but it was still quite nice to get to use a piece of equipment I'd read so much about, to be able to see it, feel the air around it for heat, open it up and put some mandrels in it. It's not a bad little kiln at all, but I'm all the more excited about the AIM CR413 I ordered now (near the bottom of the page), which is lined with brick rather than fiber. Aimen was impressed with my choice of kiln too, and that was nice, to get some reassurance that I made a good purchase from someone far more experienced than I am.
I also got to see how they stored their rods in the flamework lab, in stacked PVC pipe, which is an idea I've been toying with myself. I really need to build a rack for my rods which are kind of a storage nightmare right now, albeit a lovely, colorful nightmare!
It was fun working with someone else's glass too. There was a lot less thought about exploding glass, lots of quick in -n-out of the flame... and of course glass flying everywhere as a result! I didn't feel too bad about it. Aimen was telling me the guy he studied under taught him not to waste much time in the flame, and it was kind of fun not being so careful with the slow pre-heat. Most of the time it worked out ok, ...but there *was* quite a bit of glass flying. heh.
OMG! GLASS-TORCH-GLASS-KILN-GLASS-GLASS-STUDIO-GLASS-GLASS-GLASS!!! *BOUNCE!* That was a total blast, and just what I needed. I think I am going to get my work space ready now, though I may still opt to wait til tomorrow to sit down and work. I'm still too stoked about those swank Bethlehem torches to screw around with my wee HotHead right now. What an awesome way to spend an afternoon! Yep. Just what I needed.
My poor sweetie stayed home from work today with a nasty cold. He's been sniffling and hacking up his lungs all day, but at least he's been home with me. I made him a nice breakfast, made him tea a few times. Wish there was more I could do to get him healthy again.
I heard news regarding my glass order. It's not completely lost in the mail. Jamey was able to call the post office and track it down at least. It's not on it's way to me for some as of yet unknown reason, but at least someone knows where it is. I must continue to pretend to be patient. ;)
I had planned on finishing up a particular manual this afternoon, but before I'd even really dug in, I find out they need whatever I have immediately. Bleh. I do.not. perform well under pressure. That little unexpected rush order had my brain thoroughly scrambled for a while, like pacing and trying to remember how to use words scrambled. Frustrating because if this had been a foreseeable need, I could've worked extra yesterday and had the darn thing finished and compiled. Frak. Well, no sense stressing about it now. I hate handing in incomplete work though, even when they know that's what they're asking for. On the bright side, this definitely motivates me to put a few hours in this weekend, something I wanted to do to get a little ahead anyhow, in prep for our vacation. The next time they need something, I want to already be done with it.
I splurged and got us a membership to the Toledo Museum of Art yesterday. I'd been looking through the spring classes, and seeing so many I'd like to take, I was thinking the member discount on tuition would be helpful. I've always wanted to support the museum a little anyhow since it was such an important place to me growing up, and because it's just awesome. I'm VERY MUCH looking forward to the chance to take some classes though. Spring classes started in mid April, so I'm stuck waiting for a summer or fall session. I'd like to take everything(!), but most appealing were the glass blowing, metal sculpting, jewelry making, and metal casting classes.
Craig came home sick this afternoon. :( Poor guy. I could probably count the sick days he's taken in the almost 15 years we've been together on one hand, so I know he feels pretty crappy to have already been at work and decided to come home. I fed him some chicken soup and a PB&J, and he totally crashed on the sofa. I hope he feels better when he wakes up.
We had a nice long weekend. Craig took Friday off since we knew The Lion King would make for a late night, which turned out to be an excellent move given the snow and the hour it took us to get home. Friday was a lazy day of surfing and DVDs and the traditional Friday pizza. Saturday evening we met up with a bunch of friends to grab a bite and catch a play (The Odd Couple) one of our gang (Dave) happened to be in. That was a fabulous time! Good play full of laughs, great time with great friends, also *full* of laughs!
I was supposed to attend a drop-in session at the museum on Sunday. They were going to be demonstrating sand-casting with glass. I had planned to go months ago, when the only other outing I had planned for the weekend was The Lion King on Thursday. I kind of knew once we had plans for Saturday too, that the likelihood of me going anywhere on Sunday dropped to a near impossibility. So yeah, I skipped that. I kind of regret missing it, but it just wasn't going to happen. I was beat and slightly cranky from being out the night before and in no mood for people or for dashing off to the museum first thing to get a space in the session ...or for handling dangerously hot things either really. I'll keep my eye on classes offered and pick some up sometime soon. A real class will be a much better experience than a drop-in session anyhow, ...albeit a lot more expensive.
It was a nice day at home though. Despite a general crankiness, I woke up wanting to write love poems for my wonderful husband, and then he made me waffles(!) for breakfast and I felt I ought to make a grander effort myself and maybe build him a castle or something. I got some reading in, we enjoyed some NAPCAR in the afternoon, and then we decided to run out a grab some Mediterranean foods at The Grape Leaf for dinner. We sat near the salt water aquarium and watched the fish and chatted about all sorts of stuff while we gorged and had a lovely time. We had enough leftovers to bring another complete meal for two home, which will be dinner tonight. Mmm.
We hit up the grocery on the way home and managed to buy enough food for the whole week, really healthy stuff (beans, chicken, arm-loads of produce, ...) and the bill was under $90. I realize how lame it is to blog about your grocery bill, but to get out of there with over a week's worth of good food for so little cash... well it really does seem worth noting these days. :)
The long weekend ended with a little bit of Champions of Norrath.
Really, what more could a girl want out of a weekend? Nothing, I say. Not a thing. I'm already looking forward to our next weekend!
