Thursday, April 25, 2013

reHappening at Black Mountain College



Magical... that's what I would call the evening we spent recapturing the essence of what was Black Mountain College at the 2013 reHappening Saturday night, April 6.  This event was created by the Black Mountain College + Art Center at the Lake Eden, site and was a fund-raiser for the organization, but it was SO much more...



We drove up through the mountains that day, checked in to our cozy room at the Red Rocker Inn in Black Mountain, NC and the hurried into downtown Asheville so that we would not miss the John Urbain exhibition that was on exhibit at the BMC +  Art Center.  It was well worth the rush to get there.  I had seen some of his collaged pieces at a show at Galley170 in Damariscotta Mills, Maine in the summer of 2009 and had loved their simple yet powerful compositions back then.  More on John Urbain.







interesting conversation on the deck
Back at Lake Eden we gathered for glasses of wine of the deck overlooking the lake and enjoyed talking with Dot Sulock and her daughter and friend.  Dot is a Math Professor at UNC Asheville.
Anni Albers image from BMC days
Images of BMC on the covered porch of the dining hall at Lake Eden
The idea of the ReHappening was to try to capture some of the feeling of the Happenings that took place at Black Mountain College on Saturday evenings after and during dinner.  The students, faculty and visitors spontaneously shared artistic ideas, poetry, plays, music, songs, etc. during these Happenings.  The ReHappening is more planned (artists had to apply for the few chosen venues), but it captures the spirit.  The performances are meant to be art... they are planned but there is room for improvisations.  There is no boundaries between the artists and the viewers.

The family style dinner was delicious and the conversation was the most interesting and stimulating we had had in a long time.  At our table was the President of the BMC + Art Center Board, Dave Peifer and his wife.  RIght beside my hubby was Ben Mack, a fellow who had been greatly influenced by BMC's own Buckminster Fuller as a child when he was one of Bucky's Kids and spent 5 glorious days soaking up Fuller's philosophy when he was a child. (I ordered the book to read this summer.  He was very enthusiastic and talkative and full on interesting ideas.  He wrote a book called Poker without Cards and I discovered later that his name is really Howard Campbell.  Ben Mack is his seemingly alter ego.  Ben is trying to start a campaign to have everyone stand up at noon on September 21 called Stand Up for Peace and wants everyone around the world to Stand Up at noon in their own timezone and start a WAVE like motion around the earth.  It is modeled on Fuller's philosophies and hopefully funded by his foundation.
Torches lit the way on the paths up through the woods
after dark jumbles of lights denoted where art installations and performances were happening in the wooded cabins
Architectural cave and mellow music

interesting woven table auction piece
the Red Rocker Inn BandB and Restaurant in Black Mt.

more Dawe-some Artwork... this time Miami

Gabriel Dawe left Savannah for Miami where he completed several pieces at the Zadok Gallery.  Our oldest son Erik and his girlfriend Pune were in Miami Beach for a few days from Dubai, so I had the perfect excuse to go down to see not only them... but Plexus 22 and lots of other thread installations by Dawe.


Zadok has an amazing gallery space with 60 foot ceilings and Plexus 22 did a fantastic job filling the space.  The wonderful thing about this gallery is that it has a balcony where the piece could be viewed at a different level.

It was so different from Plexus 21... vertical, only one piece instead of 2 interacting pieces and the colors gradually changed but were symmetrical and reflective.

I met Jennifer who has worked with Gabriel to create several of his installations.  She was excited to find that I was a Dawe "groupie" too!  They have a permanent Plexus that Gabriel installed with her help a couple years ago.  It is tucked into a corner.
















Then there very several smaller installations in a corner and behind the front desk as you enter the gallery.  Upstairs was full of many 8x8 inch Relics of former Plexus pieces as well as drawings.  

small approx. 24" wide by 18" high corner Plexus


Plexus 22 from the Balcony 




Relics








Story Quilted Vest with Daryl Lancaster

Its been a very busy month and I will have to write a couple blog entries to catch up!  I will start with the most recent...

Our Fiber Guild of the Savannahs hosted Daryl Lancaster for a 2 1/2 day workshop (Vested Interest) and morning presentation on Color Inspiration.  I was disappointed when only 12 signed up, but even more frustrated when 4 dropped out at the last minute.  Daryl is a fantastic workshop provider and I had taken this class and one on jacket construction with her through the Hudson Mohawk Handweavers Guild several years ago when we lived in Albany, so I knew she would be great.

As I was hosting her at our place, I picked her up at 11:30 from the airport and we spent the afternoon exploring Savannah.  We shared a wonderful pan seared perch for lunch at the Pink House and then explored the Gabriel Dawe exhibit's last day at Gutstein Gallery and then on to Blick so she could see our guild show there.  We treated ourselves to some Leopold's ice cream before I wound our way back to my condo stopping at ShopSCAD, passing Forsythe Park's fountain and then a quick spin through Bonaventure Cemetery which is minutes from home.
visiting our Show and Sale at Blick  - with a branch of our Oatland Mightly Oak Fiber Art Installation

Daryl started the first day of the workshop (April 19) by fitting each and every one of us individually to "muslin" (actually scrap fabric) vests and showing us how to alter them to fit our body type.  We then traced her pattern for the different types on red dotted fabric paper... "A" for no boobs, and "B" to boobs... with colored dots for each size... making the alterations as needed.  I needed more length at the hem, some give and take on the side seam and some additional at the back neckline.  It was interesting to learn (relearn) that in order to make things join at the center front you have to alter at the side seam.  That seems counterintuitive, but Daryl explained you must always keep your lines parallel and perpendicular to the floor.

Once we had cut out bindable interfacing we were ready to lay our fabric pieces out on the gridded cardboard foundation in designs we liked.  She warned us to use large fabric pieces which would cut down the time of piecing and then adding the bias "bridges" to cover the pieces once them were ironed on and bonded to the interfacing.

We took time out Saturday morning for a very informative Color Inspiration presentation where Daryl explained how she wraps yarns around 3 folded index cards in different proportions.  She often uses photographs and magazine pictures from which to pull colors. She talked of the importance of adding just a little bit of a colors complement (ie yellow, purple) so that it creates energy.  (Funny... my brother Jeff the artist had just made that suggestion to me during a Skype conversation!)

I have been working on adding the finishing touches to my vest - Indigo Memories that is made of piece of indigo based fabrics from my trips to Japan.  Some were from one of my daughter Kristin's host father Mr. Tanaka who had a kimono store and shared samples of fabric with me, some were from my trip with the Japan Fulbright group of teachers and were given to me by the grandmother (Obanson) of the family I stayed with one weekend, and some were from the 100 Yen Store in Tokyo (Dollar Store).  Each one holds a memory... and that's what its all about...  I hope to wear it to our guild's Opening Reception for our annual show and sale tomorrow night at Blick.

My Indigo Memories Vest in progress