Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei Exhibition

For our wedding anniversary I decided that I would love to go and see the Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei exhibition that is currently on at the National Gallery of Victoria International (NGV).

As we entered the the gallery we were confronted with a huge sculpture by Ai Weiwei that looked like radiating light.

The photo doesn't do it justice but you can tell from the following photo that it was actually made up of hundreds of silver bikes.

The exhibition was very big and actually took up two exhibition spaces. On entering the second area we saw a beautiful display of bronze statues by Ai Weiwei that were replicas of the Chinese zodiac animal heads that used to be displayed in Beijing. They looked very impressive against the black wall.

I had never really been an Andy Warhol fan but I learnt during the exhibition that his work was not about being high art but it was all about social commentary. Suddenly his work made a lot more sense to me. Ai Wei Wei is a current artist and so his work has taken the social commentary aspect even further.

Here is an icon image of Andy Warhol's soup can screen print.

Andy Warhol self portrait 1986

Here is a design by Ai Weiwei that looked like a pretty pattern in gold but if you look more closely it is actually images of security cameras and hand cuffs.

After viewing the exhibition we walked alongside the Yarra River to find a place to eat lunch. The streets were decorated for the Chinese New Year and had lovely lanterns of the Chinese zodiac signs.

We went into the entrance of Crown Casino because they always have lovely displays in there. This time it was also decorated for the Chinese New Year and at the top of the staircase was a monkey because it is the year of the Monkey.

My husband and I are both Monkeys! I hope that means we are going to have a good year.

They had all the other zodiac animals as well. Here is some of them.

After lunch we went across to the NGV Australian Gallery at Federation Square. There was no particular exhibition on at the moment so we wandered about the gallery looking at some of the paintings in their collection.

We are so lucky to have so many wonderful paintings on display and I get so much more enjoyment seeing the paintings of the artists we have studied in the Waverley Art Quilters.

There were quite a few Fred Williams paintings. Here is Upwey Landscape

Upwey Landscape by Fred Williams

There were a couple of paintings by Jeffrey Smart. Here is Cahill Expressway.

Cahill Expressway by Jeffrey Smart

I saw a couple of paintings that I haven't noticed before but they looked very quilt like to me.

Arrested Development from a Trio by Roy de Maistre

Painting no 14 by Ralph Balson

It was a full day of art and eating. Sounds like a perfect wedding anniversary day out to me. Luckily my husband is happy to go along with my plans!

Bye for now,

Linda

Thread Challenge

The Waverley Art Quilters met again for the first time this year. It was good to see everyone back after the holidays. Everyone looked refreshed and eager to start the year.
When we last met we were given two reels of very fine metallic thread in various colours. Mine were pink and gold.

They sat around my sewing room over the holidays while I was busy making my Life on the Reef quilt.

When it was time to start the challenge, a week before it was due, I decided to keep to my underwater theme and would try and make a Jellyfish quilt.

I was going to use a blue fabric for the background but when I put the threads on it they didn't show up enough.

So I used a black fabric to help the fine threads show up.

I drew up a little Jellyfish and then enlarged it so it would take up the entire A3 size of the quilt.
I used mostly gold organza to give that transparent floaty look.

I tried using the thread in my sewing machine but it was so fine that it was getting tangled even when I was trying to thread the machine.

I ended up sewing a chain stitch by hand and then wrapping thread around the chain stitch to make the line thicker.

I was so busy making the quilt that I forgot to take any progress photos.

Here is the finished quilt.

In the top part I added some tiny pink and gold seed beads to add some texture.

Bye for now,
Linda

Applique

I am back working on my Seasons quilt, I had hoped to have the applique corners finished by now but I dropped everything to create my Life on the Reef quilt. I really have to get a move on with this quilt because I am determined to finish it this year.

I have sewn some Poinsettia in the winter corner.

In the Autumn corner I have made some Pomegranate flowers.

In the summer corner I have put some red roses.

 Down in the Spring corner I made some Granny Bonnet flowers.

The Granny Bonnets looked a bit pale to me and when I looked at photos of them I realised that they needed more colour so I added some with a Fabrico marker.

I was much happier with them after that.
I still have a bit more applique, actually a lot more applique on the summer corner and then I will add some hand embroidery; that should give them all a lift.

I sometimes forget how slow hand applique can be!

Bye for now,
Linda

Blog 2 Print

At the beginning of every year I make all the blog posts that I have done for the previous year into a book. Well, I don't make the book, I use a company called Blog 2 Print. They make it so easy, you just write in your blog address and give them the start and end dates, choose a cover and order. A couple of weeks later a book arrives.

Here is my blog book for 2015.

It is a beautiful hard cover book containing all my blog posts and photos in date order, with an index in the front.

The quality is very nice; Here is one of the pages open.

They are almost like a diary that documents my life and although I don't post day to day personal information on my blog, I have posted major events like weddings and births. My sewing and those major events are the most important things that happen in my life so it is a bit like a diary.

I have actually looked up these books to check on information sometimes. I use the Blogspot platform and you never know, it might close one day or something might happen and all that information that I write could be lost forever. One day my children or grandchildren might like to look at them and get a bit of an idea of how I lived my life.

Here is a photo of all my blog books.

It's hard to believe that I have been writing blog posts for 5 years now! How quickly the years fly by. All the more reason to get the blog posts printed I guess.

Bye for now,
Linda