Each Little World

The Great Piece of Turf

After I paired a collection of Mark's pictures of white plants with Whistler's painting, "Symphony in White," Barbara H., a longtime reader of this blog, noted that Arisaema sikokianum reminded her of Munch's painiting, "The Scream." That comment made me wonder how many other plants had some kind of relationship to art works. 

Mark immediately pointed out that the photo he'd just taken of our weedy "meadow" was reminsicent of "The Great Piece of Turf," a watercolor masterpiece by Albrech Durer. Durer's work is a study of a seemingly random group of wild plants, including dandelion and greater plantain. How many other plant/art combinations we can find in the garden remains to be seen.

Rumi O'Brien in Spring Green

Textile artist Rumi O'Brien is exhibiting (and selling) some of her exquisite quilts as well as a large selection of framed and unframed watercolors at the Jura Silverman Gallery in Spring Green. There is an opening reception for Rumi this afternoon (Sunday May 6) from 2 to 5 p.m. The quilts include both abstract geometric designs and Rumi's signature personal story quilts, like the one illustrated below, called "Digging." (This quilt is darker and much more subtle in color than this image suggests). 

The watercolors — which I had never seen before — cover a wide range of subjects treated with both humor and sensitivity. Rumi suffered a stroke in 2010 and this is her first show in many years. While the quilts are older work, the watercolors include recent paintings. For anyone who loves her work and has missed seeing it, it is well worth the drive. My sister-in-law and I went out yesterday to be able to enjoy Rumi's without a crowd getting in the way. And we'll be going back to pick up our own personal Rumi splurges after the reception.

Something sweet for Valentine's Day

Sophie Blackall's "Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found" is a sweet but not sugary small confection. Blackall, an artist, blogger and reader of on-line postings of "missed connections" has turned these sometimes silly, often wistful messages — very short short stories — into a book of arresting images. Each tale is told in a single image illustrated with Blackall's watercolors and calligraphy. Sometimes the words are all part of the picture; sometimes the full text is only readable on the page facing the picture.

The book — at only $14.00 — would make a much longer lasting impression than flowers or candy at a fraction of the cost. In this time of continuing economic worries, nobody wants a gift that strains someone else's budget. If you're looking for a memento of the occasion that is both quirky and tender, Blackall's book is perfect. If you want to splurge, she has an Etsy shop where she sells prints of her charming illustrations. And if the budget is terribly tight, "Missed Connections" is available through the South Central Wisconsin Library System. Or you can read and enjoy her blog posts about her father's adventures.

Illustrations by Sophie Blackall from her Etsy shop.

The babe in the bath

There is nothing that gives me more outright garden fun than giving this little lady seasonal hats. Here's her latest. She's on the bathroom vanity along with a lacy maidenhair fern. Both the Coleus and the Heuchera leaves have rooted, so — with a little luck — she can wear a green hat all winter.

Inspiration: A quartet of my favorite femmes

I am one of those readers of the New York Times newspaper who always turns to the obituaries first. The reason I always look at NYT obits is that they often include many people who I've never met but feel I know. 

Sometimes I feel a personal connection because the person opened up a new world to me via their own passionate interests like Mary Hunt Kahlenberg with Navaho rugs and Indonesian textiles. Or it may be because I've spent a lifetime enthralled by their bohemian style like Loulou de la Falaise. Sometimes I was charmed by their story-telling ability like Florence Parry Heide of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Or, like Phyllis Love, they embodied an imaginary character so totally that they have remained a capricious teenager in a role committed to film 55 years ago.

Suddenly, many of my quirky interests collided in one brief moment as these four women all looked out at me the last few days from their final stories in the Times.

. . .

In the 1970s, when Mary Hunt Kahlenberg was head of the costume and textile department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she organized “The Navajo Blanket” with Anthony Berlant, an artist and textile collector. The exhibit — which I saw at the Elvehjem Museum in Madison when I was a textile student — stunned the art world as she presented American Indian blankets hung on the wall as works of art. Being in the presence of those wonderful creations was one of those rare moments when you know you are seeing something that will forever change how you look at the world. “The Navajo Blanket” was one of the first textile books I ever bought and it still has pride of place on my bookshelf today. For those who love textiles, a number of Kahlenberg's books on the subject are available locally through the South Central Library System.

For decades, Loulou de la Falaise was both St. Laurent's muse and collaborator; and as such, she was a fixture in the fashion pages in the days when I poured over them. Loulou was one in a long line of famous family beauties. But now I realize that what was perhaps most lovely about her is that she at once looked wonderful and her age.

LOULOU DE LA FALAISE

I discovered the books of Florence Parry Heide when I was an elementary school art teacher on the East Coast. It was a job that gave me access to new generations of children's books published long after I had stopped reading such things. My contact with young people — along with a wise school librarian — and brilliantly inventive book's like Heide's "The Shrinking of Treehorn," showed me that I would never be too old to enjoy kid lit! 

I've known and loved Martha True Birdwell since I first watched "Friendly Persuasion" with my mother when I was ten years old! Actress Phyllis Love played many more well-known and well-regarded roles during her career, but for me she will always be the young daughter — Mattie — in this story of a Quaker family on their Indiana farm during the Civil War. The cast has a pair of perfect parents: a rueful Gary Cooper matched with a feisty Dorothy McGuire. Anthony Perkins played the older son in a breakthrough role. The parents were a long-married couple who put up with each other's foibles out of both love and respect. And they watched with amusement and concern as their children struggled toward adulthood with a war and an outside world moving ever closer to tempt them from their Quaker — and pacifist — beliefs. In many ways it is a throwback 1950s movie, but one with such sweetness and charm that I never grow tired of watching it. Or watching Mattie/Phyllis fall in love with the soldier pictured below.

The Birdwell family with a soldier neighbor in the Civil War movie "Friendly Persuasion." Phyllis Love is on the far right.

Basho's radish

When the winter chrysanthemums go,

there's nothing to write about 

    but radishes.

— Matsuo Basho, translated by Robert Haas

 

SHE SAID: Yes, this is a radish! According to "Wikipedia: Black Spanish or Black Spanish Round occur in both round and elongated forms, and are sometimes simply called the black radish or known by the French name Gros Noir d'Hiver. It dates in Europe to 1548, and was a common garden variety in England and France during the early 19th century." This one's about the size of a clementine. Mark bought it specifically to photograph it rather than eat it. 

Which side are you on?

Friends who support the efforts to recall our nefarious governor recently asked me where I got my yard sign. I had seen these around town and finally stopped and walked up to one in someone else's yard so I could read the small print. You can order the signs on-line in two sizes via United Wisconsin. The smaller one (18" x 24") leaves out the word "Scott." But we live on a busy street and I wanted the message to be easily visible, so I got the big one (24" x 36"). They are delivered with a metal H-frame; one end slides up into the poster and the other goes into the ground. Mine arrived in under a week. 

The web site "Political Loud Mouth" offers an amazing array of flyers and posters downloadable for free. They also sell related items like t-shirts and bags. The two images below are some of my favorites because the old-fashioned illustration style — kind of WWI — appeals to me. But there are plenty of more contemporary images and a number of different political movements are covered, including gay marriage, Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin and assorted state protests. Even though one of the strenghts of the Wisconsin movement has been its homemade posters, these are pretty cool! You can check out their site here. 

Shopping in Spring Green

Last Saturday we went to the 18th Annual Fall Art Tour that snakes through the open studios of artists in Southwestern Wisconsin. It was a gorgeous day; I'm sure exactly what the organizers hope for each year. In addition to looking at (and buying) art, we made a point of stopping at the new independent bookseller in Spring Green: Arcadia Books. It's located on the ground floor of a beautifully restored 1872 post office building. And it has everything you want in a good bookstore: a wide array of subjects and titles, pleasant staff, framed New Yorker posters about books and reading, high ceilings and uneven old wood floors, food, coffee, and wine and beer. I could practically live there! 

While the food is geared to carryout customers, there were two soups and fabulous mini quiches (Caprese and Lorraine the day we were there). You can also pick an entree from the cooler, they heat it up for you and everything is served warm and toasty. I had curried carrot soup with the Caprese quiche and Mark had chicken fried rice. Everything was delicious. Also on the menu are sandwiches, wraps, salads, and desserts. Then we grabbed lattes to drink while we browsed.

I found the new Jane Hirshfield poetry book, "Come, Thief," which I had read about in the New York Times but did not have much hope of finding in Madison. Mark got a book on philosophy and another on science. As someone with lots of books on cooking, gardening and interior design I thought the selections in those categories were excellen; they included titles both familiar and new. Even though the garden and design sections were not large, they should appeal to a varied audience.  

Former Cap Times reporter Joe Schoenmann will be reading from his new book, "Vegas Rag Doll" — a true life account of the spouse of a Vegas hitman — at 7 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 21. Too bad I can't make it as I could trade stories about the wife of a NJ mobster that I once knew.

The store is named for owner James Bohnen’s favorite play, “Arcadia,” by Tom Stoppard, and I noticed a copy prominently on display. Bohnen recently stepped down as founding artistic director of Chicago's Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. This past summer, he directed Shakespeare's "The Tempest" for nearby American Players Theatre. You can find out more about Arcadia Books, including ordering books, at their aptly named web site: read in utopia. 

We ran into a friend on the Art Tour who told us about Convivio, otherwise we might have missed it — even though it is visible from Arcadia Books. While they had some lovely art for the Tour weekend, it was their wonderful array of kitchen and tabletop items that make it worth driving from Madison to visit this shop. Dishes, linens, glassware, baskets, jewelry, wines, and elegant comestibles fill the space. As they note on their web site: "From rowdy conversation with friends to relaxed family interludes, the best times in life happen around your table." You know it's true; that's the allure of this kind of business!

Madison has lost a host of similar stores in the last few years — Fleurishes, Spirals, Gatherings to name a few favorites. Convivio has that same sense of personal style and attitude that characterizes the best shops. I have lots of reasons to return: French and Scandinavian linens, colorful pressed glassware, giftwrap with large scale patterns, stunning woven ribbon by the yard. Add two terrific newer destinations to stalwarts like the Jura Silverman Gallery, Nina's Department and Variety Store, nearby Global View and Taliesin, and it's clear that a quick return to Spring Green is a must! 

Arcadia Books: 102 E. Jefferson St. 608-588-7638

Convivio: 122 N. Lexington St. 608-588-2351

China summer

Post Conservation Mural, Ink and colors on paper, © Palace Museum, Beijing.

Last week four of us took a break from the heat and spent the day immersed in Chinese art and culture at the Milwaukee Art Museum's (MAM) blockbuster exhibit "CHINA: 3,000 years of Chinese Art / Five Exhibitions / One Summer." It's all part of a year-long celebration honoring the ten-year anniversary of the Museum’s Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion. If by chance you haven't been to the museum to experience the wings of the Burke Brise Soleil, that alone is worth a trip — as you can see from this little video.

 

The centerpiece of the exhibitions is "The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City," an assortment of 90 works ranging from cloisonne and clocks to carved furniture, screens and scrolls and huge architectural and garden elements. This is being shown in only three cities and Milwaukee is one of the stops. All the items are from the Qianlong Garden, a two-acre complex within the Forbidden City that was built as a retirement home for the Qianlong Emperor and included 4 courtyards, 5 rockeries, and 27 buildings and pavilions. All the structures and gardens were named, and I was so taken with them that I had to write them all down:

• The Gate of Spreading Auspiciousness
• Pavilion of Properity
• Pavilion of Picking Fragrance (a reference to cut flowers perhaps?)
• Studio of Self-Restraint
• Pavilion of Soaring Beauty
• Three Friends Bower (the three friends are bamboo, pine and plum trees)
• Building for Enjoying Lush Scenery
• Belvedere of Viewing Achievements 
• Pavilion of the Purification Ceremony
• Pavilion of Brilliant Dawn
• Bower of Ancient Catalpa 
• Terrace for Collecting Morning Dew 
• Hall of Fulfilling Original Wishes
• Building of Extending Delight
• Supreme Chamber for Cultivating Harmony
• Building of Luminous Clouds
• Bower of Purest Jade
• Lodge of Bamboo Fragrance
• Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service 

Hanging panel with niches, © Palace Museum, Beijing.

The Qianlong Emperor was a calligrapher, poet and art collector with a taste that embraced Western as well as Eastern objects and imagery. Mark's favorite quote by the Emperor:

"I want to be called a person with nothing to do."

Mark believes that he himself has reached this stage of life but I have not! He's probably right given that I am sitting here blogging at 7 a.m.

A new water feature

Recently Mark stopped in at one of our favorite shops on Regent St., HIgher Fire. It is a wonderful gallery/workshop/resource for those of us who love ceramics. Turns out that owner Linda Leighton is moving and won't have a garden in her new home, so she was "de-accesssioning" a wonderful piece by Dan Toberer of Omaha.

Mark had first seen this dramatic upturned platter, with its slashes of white glaze in the interior, at the Cambridge Pottery Festival a number of years ago. That's actually where and when Leighton acquired it. He loved the piece way back then, but it was beyond our budget. This time the price was right, so home it came with him. Then it went instantly out into our garden to serve as a new water feature at the edge of the deck. 

We spent a lovely evening with Toberer and his wife, Susan, last month when they were here for the annual Cambridge Pottery Festival. Toberer makes the kind of huge pots we love but have less and less room for indoors or out. This platter, however, looks like it was made for our garden and is also a practical and pretty way to remember Dan and Susan!