A Trip to OMSI and Embellished Papers

Dexter does a logic puzzle while waiting for his PBJ at a local cafe
before we head to OMSI

Saturday my partner and I took grandson Dexter to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at OMSI. He thought it was pretty cool, though the Turbine Hall always takes precedence for him. I was fascinated by the da Vinci traveling exhibit, especially (of course) the section on his painting. The replicas of his machine designs were wonderful as well.

The replicas of some of Leonardo's codices were so perfect, it took us while to be sure they weren't the real thing.

I'd seen pictures of Leonardo's tank design before, but here it was, almost the real thing.

Here's how the Mona Lisa looks today.

I saw her in 1970 in her home at the Louvre in Paris. My companion and I weren't sure where to find her, and we didn't want to come off as typical tourists (which we were) by asking a guard. Suddenly we heard a nasal American voice yell, "First gallery to the left, Margaret!" We followed Margaret and company, and of course, there La Gioconda was, so much smaller than I had imagined, and so much more beautiful.

Here is how the Mona Lisa probably looked just after she was painted.

The OMSI exhibit has tons of information on the one person who was allowed to examine the painting out of the frame, and the conclusions he came to. You can find out more by clicking here.

I had just two complaints: The exhibit showed a model of Leonardo's supposed design for a bicycle, which has been proven to be a hoax, and the paintings done by a current artist after Leonardo's work were slick and awful--not done in the Old Master way at all! Other than that, the exhibit was well worth seeing--I may go back when unaccompanied by a minor to take my time over everything!

I've been playing with embellishing various kinds of papers--here's what I've done so far. (These are sections of the larger sheets of paper.)

Klimt Paper

Lady Paper
(The woman's face is made with a stamp my daughter hand-carved.)

Chrysanthamum Paper

Spring Paper

Wabi Sabi Paper




Lacsaux Paper



Medieval Paper

Pictures from a walk with Dexter

Chair on front porch--Dexter's first choice for a photo

My 9 year old grandson, Dexter, and his mother are staying with us for a few months. Dexter and I went for a walk yesterday to take pictures of interesting things we could find around the immediate neighborhood. My goals were for us both to get a little exercise and for both of us to get to practice seeing our surroundings more clearly.

As I am fond of looking for things Wabi-sabi, I explained this concept to Dexter as best I could. He seemed to catch on pretty well. During our walk he evaluated what he saw. Sometimes he'd stop and look at something and inform me, "that doesn't quite meet your requirements." Other times he'd say something did seem to have a Wabi-sabi quality. We decided that we could take pictures of things we liked, whether they were quite Wabi-sabi or not.

I noticed that both of us looked at and saw more than we usually would on a walk. I plan to have us repeat the experiment as often as we can.

Here are some of the things we found:

Neighbor's birdhouse

More birdhouses

Passionfruit vine in winter

Winter hydrangeas

Neighbor's rock mosaic

In a neighbor's yard

Vines and sky

Sidewalk near our house

This is a great way to exercise the body and vision--try it in your neighborhood!

Small changes with big impacts, prompt actions, and GASP report

A small change, a big difference

I showed this assemblage in my last post, explaining that I had made it from a Random Art Prompt. I was pretty happy with it, though I felt it lacked a certain oomph.

Tonight at the Art of Life group, it was again brought home to me how much it helps to have other perspectives. Cindy suggested that I drape the fabric a bit differently to bring the two pieces of the assemblage together. I ended up cutting a longer piece of fabric and draping it as you can see above. As Cindy noted, "Now it's a story."

Uniting the two pieces visually through draping the cloth between them did what I wanted it to--it tells the story of the relationship between the two figures.

Closeup with new drapery--it adds dimension and depth

Another closeup-- now we know more what this man is dreaming about

Cindy worked with another prompt tonight. Hers was:

"Using tertiary colors, evoke a sense of thankfulness and place the subject in a tropical vacation. Try a Byzantine style."

Not exactly an easy one...

Cindy's Prompt Painting

Cindy did this delicious painting in just over an hour. Wow! She took it with her, saying she'll make some alterations at home. She is thinking she'll turn the coconut pieces into a fish . I'll show you the revised version next week! I find it so interesting to see works in progress and how they develop.

Jodi did this playful piece tonight

Jodi decided not to use a prompt but just to play and let her piece evolve. Her last addition was the 3-D clay figure someone had left behind. The background is a rich transparent red iron oxide which is set of beautifully by the blue and turquoise accents.

Closeup of Jodi's collage. I love how she added the head of the woman in curlers to the man's body. It adds interest to the couple and keeps the viewer a bit off balance!

Tonight I decided to try another piece based on a Random Prompt. I was in an assemblage mood still, so this is what I came up with. Jodi thought of adding the clay head. On top I added some painted wooden "keys" that come with canvases to help keep them stretched. My prompt was:

"Capture a sense of urgency with indigo colors. Theme: my hopes are with the dead."

I plan to make some more changes to this piece after I've let it sit awhile. I'll show you the finished product when the time comes!

"My Hopes are with the Dead"

Closeup. I included my new favorite element: used teabags. The little girl holds a puzzle piece.

Closeup of one side--I'm hoping this old engraving of a woman running away and looking back will meet the "urgency" requirement of the prompt

Today's GASP Report

Julia and I took all the wood from the garage loft to the dump. You can see that the wood extended to the front seats. We hauled the wood to the car in the brief snow shower we had this afternoon.

We had to stay on our own side!

This is me, bemused in the cold and snowy air. Couldn't find my hat, so I sported a most flattering babushka.

The back of the car. I never want to see another stray piece of old wood.

A couple of notes--some of you read my last post but didn't see that it has videos on it. It does! Also, I love comments, hint.

Reunion of the late, great Women's Theater Company and "Assemble Yourself" Workshop

The Women's Theater Company Reunion

Thanks to my student, Jae, from my Women's Studies classes at PSU, former members of the unique Women's Theater Company reunited to talk about adventures we had in the old days.

The group was active from the early 80's through the early 90's and played to packed houses the whole time!




Jae and Deborah listen as members
describe Lesbian/ Feminist life in the
70's and 80's.

Jae is doing an extensive project on Social Change theater in Portland. I had mentioned to her when she interviewed me for this project, that I had been a member of the WTC in the mid-80's, as had my partner. My daughter appeared in one production in about 1990. Jae was very excited to hear about this company, as she hadn't heard anything about it having existed. Through talking to Jae and meeting last night with the old group, I came to realize how unusual and significant this theatrical group had been, how fortunate I am to have been part of it!

My partner and I were living in Salem when we first heard of this outrageous group in Portland. They were putting on new plays with all women casts that featured Lesbian relationships and promoted feminist ideals. When we moved to Portland in 1983, we found this group as soon as we could. I was in my first production in 1985, where I played a homophobic sorority girl, secretly in love with the main character.

The name of this play was "Alumnae News: The Doris Day Years", written by East Coast playwright Sarah Dreher. Sarah also wrote Lesbian themed novels and was an outspoken advocate of women's and gay rights. A highlight of the run of the play was when Sarah came to Portland to see the show.

In these days of so much acceptance of equality for women and gays, (yes, I know, we're still struggling) it is hard to remember how brave it was for this band of young women to mount feminist and gay positive plays. We did it on a shoestring, too. No grants for this group; just a lot of finagling and determination. I missed the early years of the group where they moved from theater to theater, scraping up rent and having to take the set down every night after performances. I enjoyed hearing more about this time last night. Several of the group remembered how they took movement, dance, and improvisation classes. When Jae asked why they did all this work, one of the group replied, "We were in love. We were in love with our art and our community."


When they first began, the group called themselves "A Real Professional Women's Theater Company." One of the early productions was a feminist Nancy Drew mystery. I was delighted to find that one of us has been a dedicated archivist, and that she had brought copies of all the posters. The posters are quite cool, especially if you consider they were made before computers were part of our lives. Company members designed, printed, and distributed them. They also made their costumes, sets, handled lighting, props, the ticket sales, etc. All in their spare time, because everyone had a day job or two.

By the time my partner and I joined, the Company had a permanent home in the Hollywood District. It was a ramshackle building, and we lived in fear of the Fire Marshal. Members with carpentry talents not only built the sets, but also made alterations to the building to improve it as a theatre and to keep said Fire Marshal happy.

Sometimes there was friction in the group, and the company had a hiatus for a while before I joined. Community won out, and after most members had started therapy, they came together again to mount more productions.





Members of the company were happy
to reunite and rejoice in what we
had accomplished.


Before my time, the group took tap dancing lessons so they could put on "The Lydia Pinkham Menstrual Show." This might seem a silly title today, but remember than even mentioning menstruation in public was a radical act. The group often made its points through humor, such as using the name of an old patent medicine in the title of this show.




Poster for the Menstrual Show














Poster for Last Summer at Bluefish Cove--I was in this one!

















A longtime member of the company reviews a scrapbook






I'm so grateful to Jae and to all the members of the old Women's Theater Company--thanks for the old memories and the new perspective on this amazing experience!



The next day I led a workshop at The Art of Your Life Studio, called "Assemble Yourself." The participants and I met at the SCRAP store at its new location. Each person could spend 10.00 or under to purchase treasures for the collage they would create back at the studio. I gave myself a dispensation regarding the amount, as I was buying for other classes as well as for myself. Still, my bulging basket only amounted to 8.25 worth of valuable supplies!

Nicole chooses art postcards

Jennifer and Karen browse for bargains

A view of the new SCRAP digs


Back at the studio Jennifer and Jean dive in


Nicole and Karen begin



Nicole decided her theme would be goddesses



Nicole carefully cuts out an image. She has been to several of my workshops and has learned to loosen up and be less perfectionistic. Still, her ability to be precise comes in handy when cutting out tiny images.


Nicole plans to add this Venus to her goddess assemblage.







Karen's assemblage is a gift for her grandson's other grandmother who was born on Valentine's Day and is named Candy. We all agreed that for a delightfully girly piece like this one, "more is more!"


The inside lid of Karen's piece








The inside of Jennifer's "I Want to Travel" box



Closeup of Jennifer's assemblage. She's used photos, transfers, feathers, rubber stamps and text in French. France will be her first stop when her long-awaited trip takes place.






Here's a closeup of Jean's assemblage in process She was proud of this unique cigarette butt that has symbolic reference to her. The material at the bottom of this view is shredded dollar bills, found at SCRAP of course.


Here's Jean's (almost) finished assemblage. She says the work encompasses both her past and future, as well as sibling and money themes. I love the figure of the dancing woman on the right side of the assemblage. She is made from a twig Jean found outside the studio and dressed in an old dress pattern and ribbon sash. The five bold young women on the left may represent Jean and her four stalwart sisters.

Thanks to the workshop participants for the chance to see you create!

I made this assemblage last week from the following prompt: "It includes a stiletto and a fan used as a weapon. Use a limited color palette." (You can find this great prompt site here.) I decided to interpret the word stiletto as referring to a shoe style, rather than a weapon.

St. Julia of the Garage Loft

Several of you have kindly asked for an update on the GASP (Garage Art Studio Project.) This last week Julia and I hauled a great big bunch o' wood away. Julia bravely ascended the old built-in ladder to the garage loft, a nasty, dirty place where many squirrels and bugs like to live. She handed down to me every d**n piece of wood that was ever taken out of this house during its many remodelings and remuddlings. (I am not making this up--all the past owners saved everything!)

She also handed down a variety of old doors and a couple of old windows, as well as some beautiful old etched glass light fixtures. (Pictures next time!.) This week I also met with the architect, Dan, and spoke to Steve, the future contractor, who promises to "get [us] through it."