Ubaguito.us

The kimono arrived–promptly, as I have come to expect of Ichiroya. It is all that I could have wished for; it is so beautiful. From the full kimono picture, it is difficult to see all the wonderful shibori and subtly-dyed detail, but it is a joy to look at, to examine, and to discover new nuances of pattern and design. The color is more vibrant than the image from which I ordered the kimono, but I was already certain, from experience, that it would be the case. The close-up is only a small segmentof the design but it is possible to see the variety of ways in which the shibori has been used. I have always been fascinated with shibori; in case I haven’t already explained, shibori is shaped-resist dying that has been used for many centuries in many countries, Japan being perhaps the foremost.

Because they knew of my interest, Andrew and Linda, my son and daughter-in-law gave me this wonderful volume on shibori that I have had sitting in a prominent place and have probably perused and oohed and aahed over only once or twice since I received it. Last night, having hung the kimono in its place of honor, I brought out the book again and I was blown away. The part of the shibori story that I have been planning to tell is my discovery in the Museum of Kyoto of contemporary uses of this ancient artform, in other words, Shibori Now, which just happens to be the subtitle of the book. I bought these beautiful scarves in Kyoto as gifts and Brent bought the single one for me.

The latest show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York–MoMa–is called Color Chart, Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today. It is based on the idea of the color wheel, a staple of school art rooms and art schools for ever, it seems, and centers on the experiments of artists with color, many in the 1960s and 1970s when I was going to graduate school and teaching these new ideas about the use of color. To call it a reinvention, however, is simply wrong.

It is always interesting to me to see by what criteria works/artists are chosen to be in the exhibition and how well the curators fulfill their mission. Their purported “theme” encompasses artists who used “color as a mass-produced and standardized commercial product…the lush beauty that results when contemporary artists assign color decisions to chance, readymade source, or arbitrary system.” This, then, included, notably, several variations of works consisting of color swatches tacked to the wall, with and without color names; and Andy Warhol‘s silk-screened Marilyns in several color combinations and variations on that particular theme including a room of Dan Flavin‘s Neon light sculptures and On Karawa‘s Dates in various colors. OK so far, but could the newly acquired Rauschenberg fit the criteria, or the several large bi-color canvasses (I wasn’t reading all the wall text), the combinations of which appeared to be anything but arbitrary or readymade?

It did get me thinking about color particularly because I have been working so closely with the refined Japanese sense of color. In my deconstructing post, I promised a larger version of the deconstruction of the wonderful purple kimono with its brilliant vermilion lining. I was lucky enough to have in my reserved for later purchase file, this fantastic vermilion fabric (luckier still that nobody had bought it) and the results are here. As with the Mark Rothko (not included in the MoMa Show) pictured next to the scarf, the colors are electric, and never arbitrary.

Pig-in-a-poke is an idiom that refers to a confidence trick originating in the Late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce but apparently rats and cats were not.

The scheme entailed the sale of a “suckling pig” in a “poke” (bag). The wriggling bag actually contained a cat—not particularly prized as a source of meat—that was sold unopened to the victim.

A common colloquial expression in the English language, to “buy a pig in a poke,” is to make a risky purchase without inspecting the item beforehand. The phrase can also be applied to accepting an idea or plan without a full understanding of its basis. Similar expressions exist in other languages, most of them meaning to buy a cat in a bag.

*From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Often I think that buying certain items on the web, in spite of some sellers’ (often mammoth) efforts, is much like buying a pig in a poke. I have been buying fabric for some time now, and although I consider myself to be a discerning consumer, I am often disappointed, sometimes even dismayed, by the difference between the image that the seller chooses to show and the reality of the actual fabric. And, of course, obversely, I am sometimes delighted. Maybe a pig in a poke isn’t a completely accurate analogy. One can certainly tell whether what is pictured is a pig or a cat; what can’t be known is what kind of pig or cat it is. A better analogy would be the blind man and the elephant. The (blind) buyer who sees the leg will imagine an entirely different product from the buyer who sees the trunk or the buyer who sees the ear. (more…)

Where to begin? What led to my current obsession with fabrics and with my “bags”? Blame it on Joan. My daughter, Joan, is (let me get this right) Associate Dean and Director of the undergraduate program in the College of Business & Economics at Lehigh University. She is probably the first multi-tasker I ever knew. Whatever she may be doing–whether she is watching television or riding in the car, whatever–she always needs to be doing something with her hands. One of the things she has been doing for several years is quilting. She has made some wonderful quilts including one for her step-father that, after nearly twenty years, exists prominently beside his own work and which he considers to be her very best (and he is one fussy customer). She was really anxious to make a quilt for me to rival BW’s. I suggested that I select the fabrics. Ha! And that’s where it all began. Anyone who has ever been to a fabric store or who has searched on line for a particular piece of fabric or a pattern or motif will understand the wealth of choices and the myriad ways in which it is possible to get caught up in all the splendor–kid in a candy store kind of stuff. (more…)

It is always interesting to sit back, step out of myself and observe. This morning at about 1:00 a.m., I returned to the coffee table where I had laid out fabric combinations for four new bags–in quiltspeak, it is called “auditioning.” (more…)