Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., painting, Photography, Sewing | Tags: art, Christmas, Fashion, John Singer Sargent, Peabody Essex Museum, Watercolor painting
Okay, just kidding. Sort of. I seem to be the only member of the family who is interested in making a wide variety of Christmas cookies and eating them. Meanwhile, my son is still sloooowly making his way through his Halloween candy. I kid you not. He gets to have 2 pieces per day. Is that bad? Probably. Anyway…his memory for what candy is in his plastic pumpkin is like a steel trap…I don’t dare throw out the candy or eat some, lest I be willing to bear the tsunami of vitriol that I’ll receive from him. He’s definitely my kid.
What are those, you may ask? Well, I’m the over-achiever mommy who had to lovingly hand craft with a glue-gun these delightful gifts for my son’s kindergarten class. Not only am I up to my eyeballs in Christmas nonsense…my son’s birthday is Christmas day, so I’m also managing birthday nonsense. BTW…craft fur is pure evil…I may have a sort of mild case of “craft fur mesothelioma”, as a result.
In the true holiday spirit of giving, I bought myself this book recently:
LOVE IT! Not only are the Gee’s Bend quilts amazing…but the architectural photos and references are beautiful enough to satisfy this lapsed architect. These quilts seriously put to shame all of the boring, traditional quilts and fabrics that are today’s norm. I bask in their artistic and crafty glory.
So, I did manage to shovel my way out of the house to see some gorgeous art & fashion. (No, I wasn’t looking at what’s stuck on our kitchen refrigerator or at my son’s mismatched/backwards outfits.) I went to the MFA and the Peabody Essex Museum!!!
First…the Sargent show at the MFA:
John S. Sargent, Alice Runnells James, 1921, watercolor
Oh. My. God. Sargent’s watercolors are STUNNING. Look at her hand! Look at her face! Look at the smushed pillow! INCREDIBLE. (Please remember that this photo looks like complete garbage in comparison to the actual painting.) His watercolors are phenomenal. Watercolor painting, for those of you who have never attempted to tame that wild beast, is VERY difficult. It’s difficult because you’re trying to control pigmented water over the surface of paper…the pigment can settle in weird ways (if you’re incompetent, like me)…the colors are translucent, and thus every mark is indelible. There is so much that is so amazing about these works. With the most minimal of marks, he creates images that are luminous and, at a distance, appear nearly photographic. In a way, his painting are simultaneously abstract and realistic.
John S. Sargent, Venice: I Gesuati, 1909, watercolor
Can’t you just get a sense of the cloudy day in Venice? Look at that doorway!
John S. Sargent, Magnolias, 1908, watercolor
The shadows and dappled light on the water are gorgeous. You can practically see this bough, weighed down with its enormous blooms, bobbing in the breeze. MUST SEE.
Be warned…it might be crowded. It was when I went. I feel that when you are at a crowded exhibit, you need to be hyper-vigilant about your gallery etiquette. For example…please don’t stand directly in front of a painting chit chatting with your friend about what so-and-so said the other day. Go stand in the middle of the room and do that. Better yet, go get a coffee. Please don’t stand in front of a painting for more than, literally, sixty seconds. Come back to it if you need more time…there are thirty other people who’d also like to see it before the museum closes. Need I say more?
There was also an amazing photography exhibit: She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World. These images were gorgeous, albeit often disturbing.
Rula Halawani, Untitled I from Negative Incusions Series, 2002, pigment print
This negative image is so frightening and intense. These is something so eerie about the tone reversal…it does make it look like an electrified night scene. I also can’t imagine how Halawani felt standing right there to take the picture.
Rula Halawani, Untitled XIII from Negative Incusions Series, 2002, pigment print
Again…look how horrendous the subject matter is. She looks in danger of being crushed by a falling chunk of concrete. Was this her home? Did she know the people who lived there? So unbelievably sad.
SIGH. And now…to lighten the mood…besides making myself a cup of tea and eating my 27th holiday cookie of the day, I’ll show you the exhibit: Future Beauty: Avant-Garde Japanese Fashion at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Issey Miake, Dress & Coat from Spring/Summer 1995
As a complete addict to Project Runway, I was GIDDY at the sight of all of this STUNNING couture. I have also dabbled in sewing (i.e. struggling to sew a straight line), so my jaw dropped with so many of these fashions.
Junya Wantanabe, Comme des Garcons, Autumn/Winter 2000
For some reason, I wish that they had chosen mannequins that were more “abstracted.” Maybe that’s too “Sears” of me? Who knows. Look at that collar!!! Even the skirt, so plain in comparison, is gorgeous.
Tao Kurihara, Comme des Garcons, Spring/Summer 2010
Luckily, they did have some videos showing runway shows. This was good, as you miss how the clothing moves if you only see it on a mannequin. This dress would probably be pretty fantastic worn by some moody model stomping along. It becomes less so when I imagine myself in it (especially after my 27th holiday cookie for the day…) DRAMATIC SIGH.
Happy holidays to everyone! I hope to make it to 2014 with my sanity intact…albeit in a larger clothing size…
Oh well.
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slightly wonky 
Ha ha ha! I have been baking Giada’s biscotti at lightning speed. Talk about delicious! I also LOVED the Sargent exhibit. I’m probably guilty of lingering over & above the 60 second rule. Did you see the impressionist exhibit at The Peabody?
Comment by mehrlich125 December 22, 2013 @ 7:40 pmI did see the impressionist exhibit! That was also great. I’m only grumpy about the 60 second rule when it’s VERY CROWDED. Otherwise, I’ve wanted to basically set up a lawn chair in front of some art so that I can bask in its brilliance for an entire afternoon. 🙂
Comment by slightlywonky December 22, 2013 @ 7:57 pmThe only thing better for viewing than a lawn chair is a rocker-glider.
Comment by mehrlich125 December 22, 2013 @ 8:08 pm