On Monday night I had the opportunity to see the new exhibit Mural: Jackson Pollock & Katharina Grosse at the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) in Boston. Grosse was commissioned to create an artwork... ...in response to Pollock's painting (his largest ever at 2o feet long): It's an interesting pairing. In many ways they are vastly different pieces. The Pollock piece is full of brush strokes, where the Grosse piece has the hard lines of the stencils she uses. Both pieces have tons of color and movement, but Pollock use of black and white makes the colors feel more subdued.... Read more →

A few months ago I was asked to be the exhibition juror for the members exhibit at the Mosesian Arts Center. It's a non-juried show. All members are invited to submit up to 3 pieces of work for the show. From the submissions, I was to choose 1 Best in Show Winner and 3 Honorable Mentions. Once the show was hung, I was invited to come by the Mosesian Arts Center and see the work. I was determined to have a system for making my choices. Before I walked in, I made a list of criteria for myself. Work under... Read more →

This past weekend I visited Yayoi Kusama's "Love is Calling" infinity room at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) here in Boston. In case you're not familiar, Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who has been creating mirrored infinity rooms since the 1960s. The experience of being in an infinity room is definitely reminiscent of a fun house mirror room -- but with lots of extra visual stimulation. In "Love is Calling" the extra stimulation comes from polka-dotted plastic stalagmites and stalactites. In the room, there is a recording of Yayoi Kusama reciting a poem in Japanese. This is a... Read more →

On Friday night, I got an idea -- one of those ideas that's like a gnat that won't stop buzzing in your ear. Buzz buzz buzz! I just *had* to drop everything and chase that idea! I started cutting up fabric and piecing it back together in strips and blocks of all kinds. Saturday morning I got out of bed and asked myself, "Should I do the work that I ought to do or should I continue last night's experiments?" Well, as you can guess, that was a short conversation with myself. Of course, I wanted to continue cutting and... Read more →

I recently stopped by Highfield Hall in Falmouth, MA. It's an historic home, which unfortunately was denuded many years ago when it went up for sale and the contents of the home were auctioned off. That bad fortune has been somewhat reversed as it has been turned into a museum and event venue. Outside on the lawn was a Patrick Dougherty Stickwork Sculpture and it was magnificent! Inside the house was a series of fiber exhibits. Including this seriously spectacular "quilt." There were also some photorealistic drawings (under glass and so they didn't photograph well) and a small collection of... Read more →

I love old houses. It's no wonder, therefore, that I bought an old house. I've always been delighted by their quirky charm. Touring old houses is actually a passion that Steve and I happily share. So you can imagine our delight at stumbling upon the Truro Historical Society's Highland House. The first floor is set up as a museum with cases full of historical artifacts and a brief history of the local shipping/fishing industry. But I was most drawn to the stone fireplace and the gorgeous molded tin ceiling. The second floor is a rabbit warren of themed bedrooms. I... Read more →

There is currently a great Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) here in Boston. When they first announced the exhibit, I wasn't that excited about it. I had seen a wonderful Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) in NYC in 2014 and I thought there was no way this one could top it. I was wrong. This exhibit is an entirely different beast. The official title of the exhibit is "Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris." I would say about half of the exhibit is artwork by Toulouse-Lautrec's contemporaries. This exhibit, therefore, tells a... Read more →

Today I'm sharing more photos from my visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Lots of lovely paintings to see today. I tried to take a lot of close ups so that you could really see the hand of the artist. Enjoy! I am mildly obsessed with this George Bellows painting of two men boxing. Personally, I have a lot of trouble watching boxing in real life. Two people hitting each other in the face isn't my idea of a good time. Nonetheless, this painting is done with such mastery that I must have stood and stared at it for... Read more →

While I was in Cleveland, I stopped by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This was my second visit to the museum and I got to see a bit more of the museum this time around. In fact, I saw enough of the museum that I've divided my pics into two posts for you. Today is part one -- lots to see and enjoy and be inspired by! These next few images are from an exhibit on Scandinavian Textiles (swoon): I find fabric design absolutely fascinating. I can spend hours scrolling through Spoonflower and thinking about how clever and talented other... Read more →

For today's Art in Bloom post, I want to talk about the "so what" factor. What is the "so what" factor? In essentials, it's the question: Why does this matter? Every time I write a blog post I hope that it does one (or more) of the following things: inspires educates brings joy One of the reasons I love Art in Bloom is because it does all 3 of those things for me. Inspires I am inspired by the notion of creating a new form of art based on a piece of art. It's not a literal translation, but an... Read more →