DC, Charlotte, Martha's Mural, Flounder and First Friday

 Well, as many of you know, Martha and I have returned from our trip to DC, Virginia and North Carolina. While in DC we were able to get to a couple of art museums. We really enjoyed the Hirshhorn Modern Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery and of course who couldn’t appreciate the Rodin Sculpture Garden on the national Mall.  

At the Renwick, I was really impressed with the work of ‘furniture’ maker Matthias Pliessing, who uses boat building techniques to create curvaceous forms some of which are unbelievably complex (with up to 5,000 points of contact without the use of hardware of any kind) yet seemingly simple in form.  Sadly his work was on the floor that did not allow photos, so I can’t show his work to you. Martha and I were both equally impressed with the glass sculpture of Karen LaMont, who ‘uses clothing as a metaphor for human presence’. Her piece titled “Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery” was truly amazing.

As DC was only a stop on the way to the more important purpose of this trip… to see our new grandson in Charlotte, NC, we only stayed a day and a half before heading on to NC.  On the way to Charlotte by car, we stopped at Monticello in Virginia to see the impressive home designed by Thomas Jefferson himself. I was surprised to learn how many technological advances he had designed into the building with an eye toward energy conservation, convenience and practicality.  

Once in Charlotte it was all about the baby, my daughter and her husband. What a great visit. Their high rise eleventh floor apartment had a perfect view of downtown Charlotte. Besides having an impressive modern high rise skyline, a number of the downtown Charlotte office buildings give a nightly lightshow that was surprising at first and entertaining each night. The early morning view and daytime view were each enjoyable in their own ways.

We were so fortunate to be there on the day in which my daughter and her husband had planned for a local professional photographer to come and take three month photos of the baby and the new parents. What a treat that was.

On the way back to DC we stopped at the Washington Mansion in Alexandria Virginia … an enjoyable stop that was educational as well as having a lovely view of the Potomac from the grounds.

Since returning from our little trip it has been work, work and more work. But, there has been important progress on art activities none-the-less. Martha and her volunteers painted most of the mural on one of our local Public Utility Boxes in Wenatchee. Today she will return to Triangle Park to finish putting the final details on the images there-in.

At my end my friend James and I got the kiln rebuild project completed and I have begun using the kiln to fire some practice pieces. As I write the first batch of glazed ceramics are cooling in the kiln after firing all night.

Thursday, I worked on a glass project over at Terry Johnson’s studio. Cutting the lines into rubber on glass for later sand blasting is way more time consuming than I ever imagined going into it. But, after four hours or so, the design of the flounder was cut and ready to send to the sand blaster. We’ll see how it turns out.

Last night I was at the First Friday art opening at two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee.  The work of Larry Gay, the featured artist, is pretty impressive.  While there I met Anna James Miller who is the managing director of the Icicle arts Gallery in Leavenworth and her husband who teaches 3D art at Wenatchee Valley College. After speaking with them I’m thinking of taking a sculpting class at the WVC and will likely hook up with Anna at the gallery perhaps as soon as this Sunday, after taking a bike ride around the Leavenworth Valley.

After visiting with the artists and enjoying the art at Two Rivers I headed on over to Amanda’s Book store, the only other venue I got to as part of last night’s Wenatchee First Fridays event. It was fun to bump into some of the other folks making the art walk around town there and get caught up with old friends.

Well, enough for now as it is time to watch the opening day of the Tour de France… bievenue.

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