BOUQUETS TO ART

I took in the De Young's annual Bouquets to Art event again, checking out how local florists chose to complement their chosen museum art. I lifted the above photo from their website (click on the "Bouquets to Art" title for more info) and, just so you know, it'll be the best photo on this post. Unfortunately, my skills do the exhibit no justice whatsoever, but I thought I'd at least give a feeble try.

Here's one of my favorite pieces in the museum. It's a South American tribal chief's robe (kind of like a poncho -- you can see where he'd slip his head through). It's A THOUSAND YEARS OLD, and it's made entirely of exotic bird feathers, some found only in the remotest parts of the jungle.

Below, the artist replicated the effect with tulips.

Next, here's the famous gumball painting by Thiebaud,
called "Three Machines," complemented by paper
origami flowers in this arrangement.

Hmmm.... don't know what this one below
is called, but it was stunning.

Okay, I'll include this simply
because it triggered my sweet tooth.

And so, without meaning to sound too nerdy, let me just say this exhibit is so cool because it always inspires new ways to look at an actual museum piece -- by offering the new lens of a floral interpretation.

De Young with Pals

We brought Vincent and Amelie with us to Art Class at the De Young this morning.

The docents took the kids through the African art exhibit, focusing on patterns, colors and shapes. Then the kids got to identify shapes ("bowties," concentric diamonds, stripes, triangles) on their own pattern sheets in the art room, using a permanent marker to create a pattern of their own onto broadcloth. They ground up brown clay for brown paint and some orange pastel for orange paint (adding drops of water).





Mick tagged along to study in the museum cafe, and afterwards we went out for crepes in the Haight. Celine's taking the picture, so too bad she's not in it.

SATURDAY AT THE MUSEUM

Two Saturdays ago, we took the kids to the DeYoung's 10:30 AM children's art class. Mick studied in the cafeteria and I sat in on the docent tour/lecture and art project.

The topic was textures and patterns and symmetry. The first item we looked at was a thousand year old South American king's tunic made entirely of jungle bird feathers. You could barely tell they were feathers -- the texture was very flat -- and it was brilliant. The main color was yellow, with patterns created at the outer edge from blue, red, white and black "wave," triangle, line or square repetitions.

The kids' project was to cut colorful felt shapes and glue them onto a rectangular sheet of white cotton material in the symmetric pattern of their choice. Dane was done pretty quickly and not terribly engaged (I think he likes drawing or sculpting best); Aubrey took quite a while and cut out very tiny hearts and circles and triangles, and then accented with little pearl beads. All symmetrically, of course.

Afterward, we grabbed Mick and went outside to find the Sky room (not sure of its real name) where the accoustics allow for you to to hear sound purely -- where a whisper can envelop you if you stand in the center. (see photo above, taken when Maureen and Jackie visited)

With our packed lunches we headed across the street to the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park. We ate on benches next to the turtle pond, took a walk, played some frisbee, and finally headed home in the late afternoon.

NIGHT AT THE DE YOUNG
April 20, 2007

Maureen, Jackie and I visited the DeYoung on one of the museum's special Friday nights. We took in live music, a glass of wine, and the Vivienne Westwood exhibit. (Her fashion sense didn't fully speak to any of us though, which might not be any big surprise.)

Earlier that day, Aubrey and I had picked Maureen and Jackie up at the SF airport and taken them to Tennessee Valley Cove for a bike ride and hike up the cliffs. I hadn't considered how astounded they'd be by the landscape here; I forgot just how breathtaking that place can be to new eyes.

More to post later on their visit from Bellingham...