Wednesday, May 27, 2015

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 149

 

Three day weekends always seem to mess me up. Monday was Memorial Day and I spent today thinking it was Tuesday. Silly me. The closest doll I have to a soldier.

 

He's untidy! Look at that string and did he roll around in the cat hair?

I'm happy you all enjoyed the art museum. The next exhibit is sometime in June/July. If I'm here, I'll have to take another field trip.



Saturday, May 23, 2015

NOW, WHERE WAS I?

Right the Harn Museum of Art. Last post featured some of the special exhibits. The permanent collection is pretty impressive, too. 


Like this Miro. 


 Or this one by a  guy named Picasso. Not too shabby.


 This piece is made by an African artist. And because I'm me, I didn't write his name down.

 Here's a close-up. It's made from cut up pieces of can and bottle caps. 

 Andy Warhol's in the house. The museum has 6-8 Warhols, but the batteries in my camera were running low and I wanted to take more pictures. There was a wall of his photo, too.


 A small Georgia O'Keeffe.  The framing seems an odd choice to me, it kind of cramps the flower.

 A Russian/American woman artist who's name I also forgot to write down.

 Found object lamp
 A huge  piece of Kinte cloth.


 Another one of the special exhibits was Molas from Panama. I have 7 for these hanging around my house and it was a nice surprise exhibit.


 Across from the Kinte cloth was this African version of St. George and the Dragon.

Hope you all enjoyed my field trip the the Harn Museum of Art. I had no idea that it was full of so many amazing pieces. If the batteries hadn't died, there would have been more pictures: pieces by Frank Stella, Monet, Magritte. Go check out your local art museum, you won't be disappointed.



Friday, May 22, 2015

FIELD TRIP!!!!!!

 

Best thing about being retired/not working? Going on field trips in the middle of the week. On Wednesday we went to the Harn Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainsville.  Awesome place and it's FREE!!!!!!!! And photo are allowed without flash. We saw so much, the art will be in the next post, this post will be clothes and jewelry.


 The sign says it all. Kabas are a traditional form of dress in Ghana. They have been updated to awesome.  The dress in the left is from Chez Julie made in the late 1960's. The dress on the right is also Chez Julie and from the late 1960's. The fabric is called wax print.


 Christie Brown evening gown from 2010. Satin and wax print.

 Pistis dress, 2012. Lace, patchwork, wax print.


 Red carpet worthy evening gown by Pistis. 2011


 Brigitte Merki Kente-oke dress, 2011.


 Love this jacket. Brigitte Merki Kente-oke dress and jacket, 2011

 Traditional man's top.........................

 .....updated into a cute cocktail dress by Christie Brown, 2009

 My favorite. Ajepomaa Design Gallery cocktail dress, 2014. Woven  fabric from Burkina Fasso and wax print.

 Beautiful evening gown. Ajepomaa Design Gallery, 2011. Leather, wax print and studs.

 I don't have information on this one.


 Necklaces made from wax print fabric and feathers.

How could I not take pictures of jewelry? Here's a quiz: who do you see wearing these pieces? You get one guess and there isn't a prize.

 A beautiful necklace from Somalia. Sorry about the shadow.

 Hair combs and a crazy pair of earrings. Also from Somalia.


 Gold and jade necklace from Panama.

 Gold nose ring from Panama. 

There was also a local woman who makes kabas, but she wasn't there the day we went. This is a display of her fabric. Can you see President Obama on the bottom row?

I've said this before, but if you live near a major university and want culture, go to the web site and check out the art, music and theatre offerings. The shows are usually a lot cheaper (or free) than professional ones. You do have to take into account that some of the offerings will be student work. This art museum is not a student gallery, as you will see in the next post. 




Wednesday, May 20, 2015

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 148

 

 A family from Guatemala. 

I wonder if the fabric is regular size, or if a special weave is used to make the dolls clothes. The dolls aren't very big and a regular weave/print seems like it would over power them.


Sunday, May 17, 2015

PEACHY 

More peach ice cream? Yes, please. 

 

 We checked out this place last Friday. It's in a town called Barney.



 Order at that window on the left. They have peach, blueberry and strawberry churned ice cream, not soft serve.

 Yummy, enjoying 2 scoops in a waffle cone. Yes, those a chunks of peach in the ice cream.

 These vintage trucks and car were just sitting there.

 Can I have this one?

 I some how managed to make the place look empty, there were other people around enjoying the ice cream goodness. I bought some peaches to make cobbler.



 Oops! Forgot to turn the photo. Southern Living is a regional magazine about all things Southern. This cookbook is from the 1970's.

 I used this recipe, 8 fresh chopped up peaches  plus 1 teaspoon of nutmeg. The town of Fort Valley is the center of Georgia's peach growing area. Flowery Branch sound pretty, never been there.


 Yummy! Breakfast yesterday morning warmed with plain no fat Greek yogurt.

And I was the winner of Hollie Ramsey's giveaway! She has a blog called Modern Colors (check her out)

 The shoulder bag is made from a cement bag!


More jewelry? At $2.50 a piece, how could I pass them up? 

 

By the way, my new hair color is called "Red Velvet". Like the cake?

 

 



Friday, May 15, 2015

THE LAST ONE

 

Last Friday was the last graduation I'll probably ever go to. The class of 2015 was the last group of students I know really well. I didn't get photos of them all (there were 20 graduating!)


 The very tall Blake Fountain, who won best supporting actor for The Wiz....he was the wicked witch.


 The top of his mortar board says "Everything's Coming Up Roses"


 The amazingly talented Ethan Parker. If he doesn't become famous, the world's not fair.


 Best Actor went to Kelsey South!  Good luck!

 Chela North (did the theatre program just lose their direction?)  Another wonderfully talent actor/singer.


 Tyrell Ruffin, who was wonderful as the Scarecrow in the Wiz. He's working at PSST this summer. Good luck! It gets crowded and crazy after the event and I couldn't find the rest of the class. Good Luck to all of them.

Now I was going to add the trip for peach ice cream we took today, but that will have to wait for another day. On the way home we stopped to read this landmark. Some of the unknown history of the area I live in. This happened in May of 1918, less than a hundred years ago.

Now go back and look at the smiling faces of Chela and Tyrell. They're the same ages as the Turners who were murdered near this landmark. Reading it is upsetting enough, when we got home I googled "Mary Turner".  mary turner.org was the first site to pop up. If you have a strong stomach, you can read the horrifying details of what happened to this poor woman. Every once in a while we come across this landmarks, most of them are marking  a civil war battle, important building or some such thing. This is the first one that really pissed me off. 

 

Ok, we've got to stop the hate and love and accept each other.   Treat other with respect and kindness. Sorry about going off, but sometimes events are upsetting.

 

That ice cream trip will happen soon. 

Peace out.