Lunar New Year

It's the New Year of the Iron Hare, or Metal Rabbit, if you like. Last night VECTOR opened, including a special screening of The Painter's Education. Marvelous companion to the opening–footage of the VECTOR artists at work in the studio class. Especially nice to have the producer, Theresa Hartmann, present. My gratitude to Theresa, Alli Gerrish, and film maker, Michel Fraser.

Columns

It must have been the Temple of Hera and the massive columns enclosing her domain that inspired these last pieces for VECTOR to be installed tomorrow…
A banner of silk organza falling loosely around a column of watercolor paper 50 in. tall. To be hung on the wall with tiny binder clip.

Another larger paper column draped with silk. This one still has some loose ends in the design sphere–how will the silk be draped, how will it be attached to the column? And, will the column stand on the floor? Here is a closeup of the layered pattern, dragon-y:

Temple of Hera

Might sound silly to say that I find what comes through this photo of the ruins of the Temple of Hera to be awesome–and I mean the terrifying aspect of awesome. Is it the massive stone binding the space? Indra Kagis McEwen: "The emphasis was on the unbound, the animated state: the chains that bound the cult statue [xoana] harnessed a fearful, excessive, super-natural life only in order to better disclose its presence." Shivers.
[Socrates' Ancestor: An Essay on Architectural Beginnings, pp. 5-6; photo Serge Moulinier in Tzonis & Giannisi's Classical Greek Architecture: the Construction of the Modern, p. 187]

Polyphony

This from Robert Bringhurst: "Polyphony, in short, is singing more than one song, playing more than one tune, telling more than one story, at once. It is music that insists on multiplicity – instead of uniformity on the one side or chaos on the other." [Everywhere Being Is Dancing]
With this as an introduction, we tried polyphonic vector practice today–each of us singing our own tune, together. Here are two:

This one, above, done by three of us on a modest size piece of ragged silk chiffon .
This one, below, done by five of us, on a tiny square of muslin.

More silk

Invitation

Deadline approaches

Another layered piece, silk organza over paper, under consideration for the VECTOR show–deadline coming up fast. The show gets hung on the 26th, installation style. Still stitching rolled hems for these long banners. Could play with silk for a long time. Order more? Not sure just yet. Will lay out everything on Tuesday & see where I am.