Friday, May 29, 2009

Potpourri



It's Friday so it must be Potpourri Time.
I'm starting off with another journal page that I've done
following the process in the Visual Journalism 101 class I'm taking.
I do love the gesso resist.




I've added collage elements to both sides of the page.
Next step is to doodle and journal --
the two hardest parts for me.
I like what I've done so far.



For some reason I haven't been in the paint mood.
I'd rather be knitting or doing cross-stitch.
I've also noticed that my fingers are itching to work with fabric.
Maybe I should listen to my fingers???


I did get some reading done this last week.


I bought Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber at Sam's Club and took it with me to my dental appointment the same day. I read while waiting to have my teeth cleaned. When I got home, I read until I finished the book. This is the latest in Macomber's Blossom Street series. Quoting from the book flap, " Knitting is a lot like life ... dropped stitches and all!"
"Knitting and life. They're both about beginnings - and endings. That's why it makes sense for Lydia Goetz, owner of A Good Yarn on Seattle's Blossom Street, to offer a class called Knit to Quit. It's for people who want to quit something -- or someone! -- and start a new phase of their lives."

I enjoy the setting of a yarn store, although Macomber really doesn't spend much time there. These are nice, cozy romances. The good guys and gals come out winners and the bad guys and gals fade off into the sunset. Some nice, quiet brain candy. And, did I mention, Macomber always includes a knitting pattern?!



The Art Thief by Noah Charney is a book that Mr. Dragon found, read, and then passed it on to me saying "I think you'd enjoy this one. I did." Can't beat a recommendation like that! In The Art Thief, three thefts are simultaneously investigated in three cities, but these apparently isolated crimes have much more in common than anyone imagines. A dizzying array of forgeries, overpaintings, and double-crosses unfolds as the story races through auction houses, museums, and private galleries. My favorite character is a minor one in the novel, Professor Barrow. I’d love to take an art history course from him. I'm going to "borrow" some of his comments on my next tour!

Some people say a really good author writes about what they know. Charney certainly knows all about art and art theft. He is the founding director of the Association of Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA), the first international think tank on art crime. He holds degrees in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and Cambridge University, and he divides his time between New Haven, Connecticut; Cambridge, England; and Rome, Italy. The Art Thief is his first novel.

7 comments:

Maria-Thérèse ~ www.afiori.com said...

I'll have to look into The Art Thief!
I admire the depth you create in those journal pages and how they're just full of hidden things! Writing on the surface will be another interesting layer.

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

Oh yes, do follow your fingers/heart. I have a question about your gesso resist - how thick is your gesso. I'm asking because when I have tried this in the past, it doesn't seem to work but I might have not been using enough. Happy weekend!

Alicia @ boylerpf said...

I love the work you are doing on your journal...if only I had an inch of that creativity! I am definitely going to check into The Art Thief...sounds great!

Janet said...

I like the journal pages. But what is gesso resist?

I've read the other knitting novels by Macomber but not this one. Will have to look for it. And also The Art Thief sounds good. You always give good recommendations.

Kim Mailhot said...

I picked up the art thief book at the bookstore yesterday - I think it looks very intriguing ! I have too many books I loved the sound of to buy them all - but thanks for the recommendation - maybe next book buying trip !

Oh, and by the way, always follow your itchy fingers ! That is your artist heart speaking to you - you just gotta listen ! ;)
Happy Saturday !

Pretty Things said...

Those colors are divine!

I read a ton of books last weekend/this week -- "Her Last Death" (memoir), "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" (essays/memoir), "The Bible Salesman" (blech), "The Condition" (good) and am now reading "The Alchemist" (the jury is still out on this one.)

Cynthia said...

I like the gesso resist as well, nice colors.