BERKELEY WHIRLWIND TRIP

Darrell is on the Board of Directors for The Friends of the Thorsen House and travels several times a year to Berkeley California for board meetings.  This time was truly special because we were invited to spend the night at the house.  They do this very rarely, so we were quite excited.

Goodbye Seattle

Good morning, Bay Area

We flew out early Friday morning, grabbed a rental car and headed into San Francisco for some sightseeing before heading to the Thorsen House.

First stop was the DeYoung Museum.  This was our first time there.  What a fantastic place.  But, I have to say the first thing I noticed was the smell...eucalyptus trees...the museum being located in Golden Gate Park.  Wonderful.

We came primarily to see a Greene & Greene chair that Darrell needed pictures of, but we enjoyed the rest of our whirlwind tour of the highlights.  In the picture above, notice the tower.  At the top, on the ninth floor, is an observation room, glass from floor to ceiling, with a 360* view of the city.  

The Blacker House dining room side chair

Very interesting sculpture made from gun parts and artillery shells

Darrell with a FL Wright barrel chair

An Arthur Mathews

Song of the Sea by Arthur Mathews

Stairs next to Fern garden

Fern garden 

Ruth Asawa wire sculptures

Ruth Asawa near tower elevator

Ruth Asawa, sculpture and shadow

Andy Goldsworthy installation - Tectonics

We had lunch at the DeYoung Museum Cafe, sitting outside under this amazing architecture.  Did I mention it was about 70* and an absolutely beautiful day.  Quite a pleasure having just come from Seattle, where the high was 41* and going down to freezing at night.

Then, we made our way to the Legion of Honor Museum, where we have visited several times, the first time on our honeymoon.

Entrance to the Legion of Honor Museum

Rodin's Thinker

Entrance to Legion of Honor, looking back.

Artists sketching in the museum - I love seeing this!

Monet

Cezanne

Seurat

Monet

We saw this great exhibit, Pissarros's People, featuring Pissarro's gathered from all over the world.  We really enjoyed it.

Bernini's Medusa

Next stop, the Palace of Fine Arts, where we were married, one of our favorite places.

I'll spare you the million pictures we took.

Next, it was back to Berkeley.  Being at the mercy of the GPS machine, we ended up going right through downtown San Francisco at commute time.  It was very interesting, if somewhat slow.

We depended on the GPS machine and my smart phone to find a good restaurant for dinner, also.  The first place we went we rejected from the outside, it didn't look too good.  But we ended up in Berkeley at a great  restaurant, La Mediterranee.  Excellent food.

Then, on to our ultimate destination, The Thorsen House!  We joined up with our friends, who were also spending the night.  They had planned cooking their own dinner in the kitchen there, and we joined them for wine and nibbles.

After a virtually sleepless night (what were we thinking, staying on Frat Row on a Friday night) Saturday morning, the students who live here at the fraternity, made breakfast for us all .

Then, they cleared off the breakfast and got down the real reason for us being there - the board meeting.

Our whirlwind trip was almost over as we made our way back to the airport and flew away from the Bay area in the dark.

Thank you Sigma Phi for allowing us to stay in this treasure of a house.  

ON THE JOB INJURY

I finally talked him into going back to the Salvadorean Bakery in White Center for lunch again.  He did not have a pleasant experience there the first time we went.  But I had dinner there since and loved the food and wanted to go back.

He was more impressed this time, and we both enjoyed the meal immensely.

Darrell had recently been fighting a bout of tendinitis in his left arm and has not been working in the shop, but catching up on book work and drawings (slowly but surely using his right hand, he's left-handed).

I really wanted to get a sketch of him in his sling.

ON TO THE MEDIUMS

I finished piecing the light blocks and have moved on to the medium colored blocks on my Connecticut Winter Quilt.

November 27 - 1.5 hours to finish the lights
November 27 - .5 hours cutting and sorting
November 27 - .5 hours starting on the mediums

Total up to date -  41.75 hours

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We went out for dinner on Darrell's birthday to Endolyne Joe's.  

Darrell got a nice phone call from his youngest daughter, Julia, and I caught him on the phone in my sketch.

From where I sat I could see the kitchen, and I noticed one of the chefs had purple hair.  I had to include her in my sketch.  Boy, she was a dynamo, never standing still.  But I think I caught her essence.

Victoria (granddaughter) was pleasant as always, unlike what turned out to be a sour look on her face in my sketch.  I don't know where that came from.

I wrote out the words to the Happy Birthday song, showed them to Darrell and told him that was the only singing he'd get from me.  I wouldn't even attempt to carry a tune in a bucket (unless I'm in the shower).

PIECING THE LIGHT BLOCKS

It's been a while since I worked on my Connecticut Winter Quilt.

I'm piecing the light colored blocks.

November 13 - 2 hours

BAMBOO GARDEN

While out and about for the day, Darrell and I stopped for lunch at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant near Seattle Center, Bamboo Garden.  Wonderful food, very pleasant hosts, I highly recommend it.

My fortune cookie read, "Your next business venture will be very profitable."

That implies I'm going to start a new business venture....

I'll have to think about that.

QUILT FOR AUCTION

The employees where I work are having a Silent Auction of donated items to benefit NW Harvest.  I rummaged through a box of quilts and came up with this for the cause.  

It's a quilt I made in 1998 from a mystery quilt pattern.  That's where you receive instructions on what to cut, what to sew together, piece by piece, not knowing what the final pattern will be until you are finished.

I really loved this batik fabric covered with zebras, the colorway is called Chili Pepper.  I named the quilt "Chili Pepper Surprise.   It is about 56-1/2" by 84".  Nice for a lap quilt or to throw over a twin bed.

Chili Pepper Surprise detail

Update:  It sold for $125. I'm glad to see it being put to good use, and benefiting NW Harvest, rather than gathering moths in a box somewhere. 

100 TINY LITTLE PRINTS

"Lucy's Morning"

I've mentioned before I follow an online group about Japanese Woodblock Printing, Barenforum.org and that they have organized exchanges.  Well, in honor of the 50th Exchange they decided to do a very small format.  And it was finally decided to do them  in the size of Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) 2.5" x 3.5".  There was a lot of excitement about the project and we got settled on 100 participants.  The usual has been around 35.  

It has turned out to be a lot of fun.  The hardest for me is picking an image.  I settled on an image of Lucy sitting in the sun.  It's from a photo I snapped one early morning, and I've always liked it.  It has the advantage of having a lot of contrast, which makes it easier to convert into a black and white image.

I wanted to do more than one block, though, more than just black and white.  So, I went with grey, black and white, two blocks.  Almost as simple as you can get.  Registration has always been my nemesis, but it turned out to be a non-issue with such a small print.  

Carving the blocks

I carved the blocks from boards of Basswood that Darrell made ready for me.  

A pencil rubbing of the first block

I used Nori paste and  Daniel Smith Watercolors, Lamp Black and Iridescent Blue Silver (which is Mica and Titanium White), it has little flecks of mica in it and is very interesting.  

Daniel Smith Watercolor 'Iridescent Blue Silver'

Adding the pigment to the first block

Paper and baren on the first block

The first block printed.

Beginning the second block with black

Printing the second block with black

I cut out 160 little 2-1/2" by 3-1/2" pieces of paper, 20 of which were Japanese type paper, and the rest were thicker white American style paper (I never write the names down, so I never know what it is).  I rejected 50 of them, and am keeping 110.  So, I'm calling it an edition of 110.  I'll be sending 101 to the Exchange Coordinator.  I might send one to my sister Sue, she loves animals.

All printed!

Back of cards

All of them, the pile on the left are going to the Exchange, the smaller pile on the right  are the Rejects, those in the back  are some of the test prints and the ones I'm keeping.

Ready to go!

SKETCHES FROM CALIFORNIA

After Darrell went to his booth Saturday morning, I went for a walk.  I ended up in Pasadena's Central Park, where I sat at a picnic table next to a man practicing his flute (Christmas songs!) and painted this little watercolor of Castle Green.  I don't have enough practice with palm trees.  I got frustrated and quit.

Below are a couple of semi-blind contour drawings I sketched quickly before we were served our food.

A couple having lunch at Islands Restaurant

Dinner with Kyle and Gail at El Cholo Cafe.  Excellent food and good company.

6th & ROYAL WIP

I must have been extremely bored today.  I actually got out an old painting and started working on it.

No, I don't think it was boredom, as much as wanting to pick up the paintbrush and paint something...anything. And this painting seemed to be the handiest and easiest.

It was already laid out and started.  I remember being very tired of painting freeways at the time I set it aside.  But, I must say, I really enjoyed myself today.  I think I took it in a different direction from where it was originally headed.  And I don't think its done yet.  But I had a great day.

How it looked before I started.

At the end of the day.