Shadow Art

This piece is almost impossible to photograph—installed in a dark hallway and normally illuminated by candles. I've skirted the problem by using a flashlight. The complete installation includes six little candle-lit figures and a central piece of framed embroidered metal-on-metal screen. Three of the figures are currently on loan to the Oakland Museum. Here are the remainder.

The little figures are thin copper, fashioned after images from photographs of me dancing on the roof of a three-story Julia Morgan house in Berkeley.

Found: Shadows

Shadows — the most elusive art form. Here are a few found in situ in the Yucatan. In the next post I'll share a work using shadows if I can figure out how to photograph it.

Felt Buttons

An experiment in the course of trying to stay warm during the winter in Northern California.

Adapted pattern

The starting point: a blouse pattern converted into a jacket of polar fleece and adapted in a number of ways. Pattern pieces were simply cut out and then blanket-stitched together; no need to hem with polar fleece. The collar has been adapted into an oversized teardrop shape. Pockets have been added.

New teardrop collar

For the buttons, I tried an experiment, cutting abstract shapes out of felt, layering a piece or two, and using the felt as buttons.

Felt button

To use the felt button, you just fold or squish it together, pull it through the button hole, and flatten it out again. To my surprise, it works perfectly, particularly in combo with the polar fleece.

Pull button through button hole

And there you have it — felt buttons.

Found: Floating Ephemera

Back from the Yucatan. Below we not only have some stuff you can't have, but stuff you can't even make. This art was created by north winds tossing seaweed about in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Celestun. After standing thigh-deep in the water for a while, watching these shifting marine assemblages float by, I grabbed my camera and started to photograph the fleeting show.