Ideas about flowers

Reading the article ‘A Comparison between Asymmetric Japanese Ikebana and Symmetric Western Flower Arrangement.’ by Marie Moriyama & Megumi Moriyama, (in the journal Forma, 1999) made me wonder again about ideas about flowers in western art. That article was linked to by Christopher James, in his piece Teaching Ikebana in Australia.

When I think of flowers in art, I think of still life paintings. Reading the wikipedia page on still lifes led me to Gerard de Lairesse's Groot schilderboek (1712), and specifically the 12th book of that work, the treatise on flowers. I feel very lucky that such things are available on the internet (thank you bibliotheck voor de Nederlandse lettern). However, it is a bit intimidating as a text, and I feel like it will only be a starting point for understanding more about the subject.

Make more love

 It's nice that even when galleries haven't been allowed to open, they are still able to encourage artists.

Just checking out what the CFCCA have been up to led me to Frances Yeung's Finding Feminity in the Archive. I was especially touched by her Love is Chores. It reminded me of a talk I went to at the Whitworth Art Gallery, "Uzbek Suzani embroideries" by Noorah al Gailani, which the internet tells me was back in the summer of 2019. It was very well attended- I arrived late and the staff were putting out extra chairs.

The embroideries concerned are large wall hangings made as dowry pieces. They were shown to display skill, wealth, increase good fortune, and so on. Ms al-Gailani mentioned that these embroideries were an expression of love, the families' love for the daughters that were leaving them to live with their husbands' families. The time, work and expense, to express love. It struck me as the same reason women (and I suppose some men as well) make embroidered samplers to celebrate family events.

Is it internationalism

 Actually, I feel like I am just not clever enough to understand the concept of internationalism as a political principle/doctrine/belief system; but I have been thinking about it.

Stone Flowers put out a new song, Change the World, just recently, and I have also just recently come across the Asymptote site, dedicated to showcasing international literature translated into English. Though created by people very different from me, with very different life experiences than me, both express ideas that I agree with, that I want to share.

 Karen Arthur's Wear Your Happy video for 64 Million Artists' January Challenge reminded me of the lovely sustainable fashion workshop at Stitched Up Co-op that was developed and put on by Mien by Miss E and Wardrobe Wellbeing. (However, I am still wearing my usually scruffy clothes.)

chigiri-e

 I'm interested in ちぎり絵 (chigiri-e), the Japanese form of making pictures (e) from torn (chigiri) paper. Really taken by the made from newspaper stuff that NorikoArt has done.

Not sure if I understand the differences between decoupage, chigiri-e and collage; I'm not one to care about differences.

One Block

The piecing was done at home, and the stitching both on the bus, on lunch breaks, and at home. Years ago, I took an on-line class from Sharon B of Pintangle fame; this is so long ago that she's not even doing the class anymore. It was too much for me back then and I didn't get further than reading the handouts, but as my new year's resolution, I decided to start a crazy quilt this July. I skimmed through those handouts and started sewing.

The good: I like how it looks.

The bad: Lots of anxiety around choosing how to put it together, though none of it was difficult.

The ugly: It's not as fancy as I had in mind; it feels done, but I feel like I kept deciding not to add stuff.

Now, time to start the second block.

Making a rainy day more bear-able

This idea came from the Real Clothes comic by Makimura Satoru. One of the characters had a super cute little ghost tied onto his umbrella; it made me want one so bad! I'm not really an umbrella user, because I fear causing mayhem and injury, but when I realized I could use the wool ball bears I had made back in March 2009, I handed over £6 for the second-finest Superdrug would sell and set to work.

The good: It was raining today, and it was honestly fun to walk around town with the bears dangling and bouncing. Yes, it was silly, but in a good way. Another good point is that they don't interfere with folding down the umbrella. The string is just long enough that they are outside the folded fabric. (That was by chance rather than plan.)

The bad: I think I only hit P once, though I may have splashed a stranger as I was folding it to go into a shop.

The ugly: Not exactly ugly, but the cute little bells rattle more than ring. That said, you'd never hear it over the sound of traffic on the street.

I'll have to watch how well the bears stand up to their new role; it's much more active than gathering dust on the bookshelf, so they will probably need a bit of repair work in the future. Lots of other ideas for dangling rainy day mascots have been popping into my head, so I may give them a vacation when I'm ready for something different.