July 11, farmer's market

.

Lots of really nice flowers at the market!!!

You know I am not a pink person, but isn't this a nice bouquet? I like that big *green* leaf behind the bee balm, upper right, as well as the lilies and daisies.....

The curbs at the market have been freshly painted yellow, so when you see big yellow areas in these images, that's what it is.

Remember when we were looking at that all pink&white planter a few weeks ago, and I said it needed yellow? Imagine this without the yellow. See how much more namby-pamby it would be, without yellow?





It rained really hard for a while, on the 11th. The market is not enclosed, and is only partially roofed...........

Hibiscus.





Lilies and baby's breath.





Not a bouquet, but a plant to take home. I've never seen a purple datura before. Nor a double one. Isn't it spectacular? All curves and points. And color....... These flowers are huge. Longer than my palm+fingers, and nearly as wide.





Gerberas.

I really like the lighter one in the background, and the other market flowers behind that....





Snapdragons, lined up and waiting to go to new homes.





Lisianthus. More pink -- isn't it nice that it brought along its own yellow (and chartreuse)!





I believe this is a Stargazer lily. Love that hot pink/fuchsia, with the chartreuse center...........





Flowers!



.

July 7

.

Daylily.







Milkweed.





There is a lot going on with these flowers! They smell good, too.





Coneflower.





This one makes a reasonable moo card.





Monarda (bee balm).





The best of many images of a linden tree's seed pod. It was windy............

I like the fuzz, and the bokeh.



.

clean laundry

.

An unposed look at clean laundry waiting to be unloaded and stowed.

The colors caught my eye...........



.

more Art Fair

.

Love these. Especially the moon behind the tree.







OMG! Look at these next two pics! This guy is totally stealing my ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And he has a better camera, and uses a tripod!

Totally not fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ahem. (sorta wishing that woman I talked to yesterday could see this, that she might see how ridiculous she sounded...................)


Aren't these nice? I believe the oak leaf is my fave. (kinda wishing I could jack up the saturation on it, just to see what would happen.......... :-) And some poster-edging, of course.....)

Michael Moats.








Extremely cool textures on ceramics. (I like his cute little price tags, too.)

William Kidd.





I've never seen anything remotely like this green one. Cool.





I don't know that I'd want this, but I'd never seen anything quite like it.





Ok, enough Art Fair for the nonce. I'll go to work now.

This structure is full every week day, not just during Art Fair.

Doesn't it seem like some sort of commentary? ...mumble, mumble, public transportation, mumble, mumble... ??

I really hate parking structures. Driving round and round and round, hunting for a slot.... It makes me feel like an ant. Or something.

So grateful I can walk. Or take the bus. I essentially never have a car downtown on a work day. Less often than once a year.





Looking north on Thompson. The white building is the Institute for Social Research (I work for part of ISR, but not in this building any more). The brick and green building at the bottom is a new privately-owned dorm-ish thing. There are three privately-owned large student-housing things that have come on-line in the last couple of years. I wonder what other housing will be impacted. Will there be fewer student ghetto houses? Or will the poor economy mean that the new buildings are not filled?





Same view, not cropped, with parking structure (same as above), and University administration (brick) and Tower Plaza (green) on the right.

And plenty of camera distortion.





Another commentary on modern American life.

We'll call this one ... Vanishing Perspective.





Hmmmm.

Presuming the tree grew around the wire, and when they cut the tree down......

Somehow it just doesn't seem like this can be good..........






Ok. The work day is now over. Let's walk home.

This is the parking lot next to the library.

I was surprised to see so many enormous RVs. With satellite dishes and who knows what all. This is a major shift from the olden days, when artists built their booths from wood, from scratch, on Tuesday-before-Art-Fair-begins-on-Wednesday night, and camped out in their booths overnight. I remember one booth that had a second story, which was where the artist lived for the four days......

I am sure there are still plenty of starving artists around, but I guess they don't park in this lot.





It is often VERY hot and humid during Art Fair.

This year our excellent summer weather has continued.

It is often VERY crowded. Thursday evening it was more crowded than either Wednesday or Thursday mornings.

It's good, because more people, we hope, will mean more sales for the artists.

It's not good, because they get in *my* way..............

I held the camera at arms' length over my head. Too bad I'm not Kareem; this would have been a better shot taken a few feet higher.

Ah well. We work with what we have.

You can see it goes on and on. And on.

I like these people's shadows. See the light coming right through the hat?

We are presently in front of the post office, looking west on Liberty.





Downtown behind us. An "altered object" spotted on the way home.



.

stenciling, in the wild

.

Spotted on the sidewalks of Ann Arbor, July 14 and 15, 2009.




.

ps --

.

Zingermans, which is one of the most successful food organizations in the world, is just fine with people taking pics in their store.

They know that while others may copy Zingermans, no one else can BE Zingermans.


Just saying.

.

"stealing my ideas"............

.....a small rant.

Today a collage artist told me she didn't want pictures taken, because people are "stealing" her ideas.

Hmmm.

Which ideas, I wondered. The idea to cut largish birds and fish from paper and glue them to a canvas? The idea to use some sort of substance for texture and press leaves into it, so you have the texture of a leaf? The idea to sell multiple separate pieces that combine nicely into a larger and more impactful whole? Or?????

I liked her work, but I have seen each of the techniques she used in use by others, and I've seen leaves and fish and birds ... *everywhere*.

I have thought about this issue. I am sure that making one's living by selling the results of one's creativity will have a serious impact on one's position on this issue. I haven't been selling my work, so that's which side of that I am on.

People will ALWAYS collect ideas as they move through life, and apply those ideas to their own projects.

It's one of the things that make us human!!!!!!!!!!

I also wonder -- who's to say that I, who may think I have a totally original idea, didn't see something like it, somewhere, some time............

In any case -- if you are going to publish finished work, you have to know that people who like that work are likely to make some aspects of it part of their own repertoires. And some will do their best to make flat-out copies, and maybe even pass it all off as their own.

That's reality.

So getting bent out of shape over it is like getting bent out of shape because of rain.

It's easy for me to say, because I don't make my living putting my work out there for people to buy. Or copy.

But I think it's a plain hard fact that people will try to make their work more like work they admire.

Each person's work is a bit different from that of everyone else. Even in a class setting where everyone has the same instructions and the same materials, each piece is different.

We all put something of ourselves into the things we do. Something that distinguishes our work as our own. Color choices, composition choices, materials choices......... Our decisions make our work ours.

If our work isn't particularly unique, it will be easy to copy. If it is unique, even use of the same materials and techniques will not result in copies which will be identical to the originals..................

.

Art Fair

.

On central campus. One of the enormous planters between the League and the Bell Tower. This used to be a street, but this block of what used to be Ingalls Street has been pedestrianized. No more cars.









Want to see some Art Fair? I thought you did.

Stenciling!

Mark Traughber.





Some of these are multi-layer stencils. See how the women in the corners have a medium value as well as the black? But the 60s high school boy doesn't.





These are small pieces of plywood. Small. Like 4"x5" or something in that range. They have a groove cut out of their backs, which fits over the metal rods to hang them.





Are you curious? Here's the answer.



I wondered if he'd have more complex stencils inside the booth (this was the outside wall), but no. Paintings inside. I didn't see any stencils inside. Ah well.



I was a student at the Potters' Guild for several years in the late 70s, and still have a very soft spot in my heart for ceramics.

Love that chubby turquoise teapot!

Delores Fortuna.





Almost all of the fiber seemed to be garmentage. Lots of discharge....

Betsy Giberson.





There are actually four separate fairs, though everyone tends to simplify and just call it "Art Fair."

The original fair used to be on South University. After some years of contention with the South U. merchants over who owed whom what for the privilege of associating with each other, the original fair moved to campus, and now is directly north of the diag, immediately south of Rackham, between the League and the bell tower.

A seriously censored view of the bell tower.





Here's what you get if you just swing the camera up and snap off an image..... Art Fair tents, and a crane which is working on the fancy new dorm thing where the Frieze Building used to be.






Ok. More art.

I have loved Susan Hill's work for a long time. The color, of course. Also the shapes, composition, texture............ Very nice.





Here is someone else whose work I have admired for a long time. Marcia Derse.

We looked at this last year. I want the lot of them. Wouldn't it be fun to arrange and rearrange these? They are all individually hung...........





Most of this artist's work was much larger. Actual garments affixed to canvas, and painted, etc.

I liked this small piece, with the stitching and buttons.....

Kathrine Allen-Coleman.





I don't know if there *is* more work that is available as multiple components, or if I'm just seeing it.

I don't know that all these wordy cubes were available individually or not. I'm not sure I like this cubical multi-form as much as flatter components which allow their neighbors to be more easily seen...........

I didn't notice if this booth is shared by a couple. It happens, and often results in a juxtaposition of fairly disparate work. The black and white cubes, with the curves of colorful glass lead me to wonder.......





Want to make a guess as to medium? I was puzzled by the matte finish. I wondered if it might be polymer clay, but some of these pieces are quite large......





Did you guess blown glass? The sizes and shapes of the pieces make perfect sense as blown glass, but I've never seen it in a matte finish before (and am not sure I've seen color used in quite this way, either).

Frederick Warren.



Here falleth apart my documentation of who made what.....

More garmentage. In addition to lots of discharged dye, there was lots and lots of felt.

I've seen criss-crossed fiber, felted, as scarves, but these were little jackety wraps.





More felt. This was felted on a light-weight woven fabric (silk organza is one fabric that can be used for this technique). The woven fabric gives a lot of strength to the felt, allowing for a much lighter-weight, drapier fabric than could be achieved if made of felt alone.

I like the curveldy doodads on the lapel of this vest.





Still more felt. Here you can readily see that the felt was made on another fabric.





Yet more felt. Sort of the polar opposite of the light-weight and drapey shawl -- I wonder if this is actually 4+" of solid felt? I am positive the balls are felt, and the black part surely looks like felt.........

These individuals did not give me a clear view of this piece (so rude, what about MY needs???)..........





One sees a wide array of garments in Ann Arbor on a plain old ordinary day. During Art Fair, even more so.

Why not let the things you can't wear to your job at the bank come out and get some air, at Art Fair time.



.

they're baaaaaack

.

Ann Arbor's Street Art Fair is one of the oldest outdoor art fairs in the country. It celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

One artist, JT Abernathy, has exhibited and sold work all 50 years of the fair.

Here is what Main Street looks like on Tuesday, before Art Fair starts on Wednesday.





I'm always glad to see the artists, but the hordes of people who come from out of town for the occasion...... I'm not so fond of them.

.

July 5

.

Wilbur and I went for a walk.

I hadn't noticed this paint job before. I like it.

Note that someone is keeping a verrrrrry close eye on Wibbs.







Nice flowers here, as well as nice house.





Another nice house.





Closeup of garden. Nice hostas and astilbes.





Asiatic lilies.









Daylilies.









Craftsman-looking house. Without flowers.





Cosmos.



.

June 30, almost home

.

We have reached the south entrance to West Park. We've walked by, we've seen the stone pillars which mark the entrance, but we've never walked in. I believe this is the first time I have ever walked into the park from this side.





There's not very much park on this side. Just a relative sliver between two apartment buildings.

In past walks we have been down on the green lawns you can see. In the upper right, the band shell is visible.

There are stairs going down from here to the rest of the park. I took a pic, but the elderly and overgrown earth+wood steps aren't very interesting, so I'm not going to show them.





This is near the entrance to the park. I think this is the biggest daylily I've ever seen. It is wider than my palm+fingers.





Back on Huron; headed west.

Not sure if this is a daisy, or a black-eyed Susan, or.....





Yucca.





Do you remember this from last year?





Mulberries.





They are sweet, seedy, and don't have much flavor. They are full-sized trees, and from the sidewalk image above, you can tell how much fruit they bear.

I can't figure out why no one has worked on making these tasty. The trees are vigorous to the point of being rooted out as weeds. They make millions of berries. Seems like a tasty variety would be worth a lot of money.





Rose, before.





Rose, after.







Here's that big house going in right next to one of the western entrances to West Park. Looks like they will have a garage after all -- see it, way in the back of the lot? I don't think I want to drive from that garage, down in the back corner, up to the street if there is snow, or ice..... And there will be snow and ice.....





Here is the entrance to West Park, just to the left of the in-process house.

Can you see where the lawn curves around behind the trees in the upper right? That's where the steps come down from the south entrance.





Linden.





We looked at one of these last year. I've convinced myself it's a cherry.







Spirea.

I've had a terrible time getting any images of these that I'm happy with. Last year I got a bunch, but this year a lot of them seem sort of ratty, and it's been windy, too, since they've been blooming.







Gotta love a town that curves the sidewalks to avoid the trees.



.

stenciling

.

A random still life on my work surface.





Stencil with islands and bridges, and a piece with actual words.





Another stencil with islands and bridges. My photo, turned into silhouette-with-shadow.

(noting it is not that easy to get a dog to give you a perfect profile!)







I'm liking working on these pages-ripped-out-of-books.



Update, 8:45 pm

This is a stencil I've been meaning to cut, but I kept forgetting.....

Adding to what I did that first day.





The stencil, with my kraft-paper work surface showing.





Results.



.

For reasons that escape us...

...tv commentators lose the L in "golf." They call it "goff". Wanting to be with the program, and taking it all one step farther, we have taken to referring to "goff cubbs" and "goff goves."

Goff gove.





Make that "EX goff gove".............



As you can see, this is way too big for me.

I am told that it was "fine" yesterday, "just one little hole, but then it disintegrated."

A trip out for a new one was necessary before today's round.

Good-bye, goff gove. You performed your work well, disintegrating so the hand inside didn't. Thanks.

.

June 30, not home yet

.

We have progressed to the Massage Station (legitimate massage!), kitty corner from the nicely-planted parking lot.

More hollyhocks.







Nice color!

Hollyhocks remind me of my grandmother. She had a lot of them when I was a kid. She made hollyhock dolls for us........







Look at the rays in the center....





Monarda, or bee balm.











Black-eyed Susan.





Coral bells. My grandmother liked these, too.





Daisies.





.