J. Paul Getty Museum, Have You Been?

 I love going to museums and seeing what other artists have created over the course of time.  Often for me, the grounds of a museum are as much an art as the pieces themselves.  We went on a beautiful Fall day. The weather was great and the skies over Los Angeles were clear of the usual smog.  The grounds offer several spots for a picnic lunch where you can view the tremendous gardens full of rich colors and textures.
I found patterns all around.  Don't forget to look up. You might miss something spectacular like designs created by the wired tree sculptures full of Bougainvillea.

 






There is art all around, inside and out.  
Actually, there are over 3,200 pieces with changing exhibitions as well as a permanent collection. There are paintings from the Impressionists and Expressionists like Van Gogh's, Irises, 1889.  My favorite periods, I love the action.
I like this painting by Sorolla y Bastida, Wounded Foot, 1909. I like how the artist captures the light and movement of the water.  

I thought this giant metal urn was great.  The photo doesn't show all of the detail on it, like the spiders and bugs for example.

  












 While you wait for the tram to take you to the top, you can view sculptures in the garden.

So, hurry and go check it out.  It's a great experience that you won't want to miss.   We loved it.



You can go onto their website and check for hours etc. They even have educational classes.
 www.getty.edu 

Hope  you enjoy it! 

Batik, what is it?

My project lately is creating batik scarves. I've had several people ask me, "What is Batik?"  Tik-Indonesian word meaning marked with dots.... or a patterned cloth.
-A process that dates back nearly 2000 years, originally from Java, later Indonesia, and China as early as 500AD.  It wasn't until the17th century when the Dutch began trading with Colonized Java that batik fabrics started showing up in Europe and much much later America.  It started as a means of decorating fabrics worn as sarongs for religious purposes.  The Chinese worked mainly on silk and the Indonesians worked with cotton. 
It wasn't until the 1960's and 70's that it became more popular as an art form besides only creating decorative fabrics.  It was a traditional textile method,  eventually over taken by silk screening because designs could be produced and reproduced  much faster.

In Batik layers of wax and dye are used to create the designs.  Some ways that the heated wax can be applied are by tjanting tools, brushes, or stamps.  The design usually starts on a blank 'canvas', some type of white fabric. Natural fabrics take the dyes much better.  The layers start from light to dark, each time adding more wax and more dye. Where ever the wax is applied, that color remains.  In the end the whole object is coated in wax.  The wax is then removed by ironing, boiling in some cases, even dry cleaning.

Here is an example of a work in progress, working light to dark.  It is really fun seeing how the colors react and change throughout the whole project.  One of may favorite aspects. I love it!  It is a time consuming process, but with great results.  I first learned batik at Texas Tech from Betty Street. There are also several books available on batik and dyeing...Try it.  It's a lot of fun.

Good Morning all!
I'm excited to recently have been a part of an exhibit, my first one.  Yay! One of the things I encountered upon entering, was selecting names for my pieces.  Very tricky business.  I think sometimes a name is obvious for a piece, and other times, it's a stretch.  When I go to a museum or show, I try not to  look at the name at first.  I find that sometimes it can take away from my initial interpretation.  However, other times the name can bring clarity to what the artist was possibly thinking. Occasionally, I don't understand the connection between the two which makes me wonder if the name was just a random thought. Does anyone have any opinion about this?  I would love to hear it.