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Orange Lillies by Ruth Dupuit.

Friendship and Flowers

Orange Lillies by Ruth Dupuit.
Orange Lilies and the Lone Yellow. Photo by Ruth Dupuit.

 

My friend Ruth sent me this photo from her garden.  She said it made her think of me(orange) and Stratoz(flowers).  The yellow emerging from the front makes the point that orange contains yellow!  I met Ruth when I was 12.  Our fathers had adjacent offices at University, and Ruth’s father told Ruth to look for me on the first day at my new school.  It’s amazing how one suggestion can turn into a life-long friendship.  Ruth lived close to the school, whereas I took public transit.  She would invite me over to have lunch at her house.  Ruth’s mother makes me think of orange, since she would send me to the fruit drawer in the kitchen, and oranges were the only fruit I liked.

Margaret and Ruth 1983
Margaret and Ruth, 1983. Photo by Fred Clandfield.

 

Ruth’s father was a fine photographer.  I scanned this photo of his, and noticed the soft focus of the doors against our portrait of friendship.  Ruth takes after her father with her fine photography as well.

The Orange Glow of the Red and Gold Banking Room by Hildreth Meière

Hildreth Meière's Red Room at One Wall Street, New York, NY. Hildreth Meière Dunn © 2009
Hildreth Meière’s Red Room at One Wall Street, New York, NY. Hildreth Meière Dunn © 2009

 

The Red and Gold Banking Room(1931) glows orange.   Hilly Meière, granddaughter of Hildreth Meière, and Vice President of the International Hildreth Meière Association, graciously allowed me to use this amazing photo.  As this writer, David W. Dunlap eloquently described it:

The Red Room is a glittering, vaulted grotto whose walls and ceilings are slathered in 8,911 square feet of mosaics that create an ambient color of blood orange, inscribed with a skein of gold highlights.

In a previous post, I wrote about orange speaking to both red and yellow, and in Meière’s room it’s as if the red and gold are creating orange out of their intimate conversation.   One Wall Street in NYC has been sold to a developer, and hopefully this will bode well for the Red and Gold Room.

The Red Room is a glittering, vaulted grotto whose walls and ceilings are slathered in 8,911 square feet of mosaics that create an ambient color of blood orange, inscribed with a skein of gold highlights.

 

Cityscape by Jay Musler

Pilgrimage to Corning: Jay Musler’s Cityscape

Cityscape by Jay Musler
Cityscape, Jay Musler, 1981. Blown, cut, sandblasting, airbrushing. H: 23.2 cm, Diam (max): 45.6 cm. (82.4.8), Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY. Photo by Wayne Stratz, 2014.

 

Stratoz and I made our Summer 2014 Pilgrimage to Corning Museum of Glass, and one of my favorite pieces was on display: Jay Musler’s Cityscape.  The first time we went to Corning in the early 1990s, I was smitten with this big orange bowl with the jagged edges.  The postcard has been with me ever since, and is now in my studio.

I discovered in reading more about this piece that Musler started with a sphere of blown industrial Pyrex glass, which he cut in half, and then sculpted the cityscape, sandblasted the surface and airbrushed with orange paint.  The diffused glow is one of the qualities that drew my eye, both intense and soft.  Photographing glass is a challenge that Stratoz and I know well with our own art.  A straight ahead photo may not capture the beauty of a piece, but there is beauty spilling out into reflections and shadows.  I love the way the Cityscape is reflected in the display case, like a sunset reflected in the sea.

More Corning goodness.

Surprise Surprise: Tim Bavington’s Composition in Color

Surprise, Surprise(2003) by Tim Bavington
Surprise, Surprise(2003) by Tim Bavington. Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Photo by Wayne Stratz.

I wanted to revisit the Albright-Knox Gallery which I thought I saw in 2007, but it didn’t look familiar at all.  Fortunately, it was a place worth visiting for the first time. This painting is Tim Bavington’s translation into color from the structure of the guitar solo in the Rolling Stones’ tune Surprise, Surprise.  The artist creates connection between musical notes and the color wheel.  Stratoz took this photo at an angle to the painting, and the yellow-orange seems to turn to the camera and stare directly into the lense.

 

Surprise, Surprise by Tim Bavington at the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, NY.

 

Tennis Ball Yellow by Eric Minh Swenson, a short film about Bavington’s process, with cool views of his studio.

 

The Group of Seven’s J.E.H. MacDonald: His Mosaic Connection

DTD_0924r 1922 J E H MacDonald Mountain Ash (Rowanberries)
J.E.H. MacDonald Mountain Ash (Rowanberries), 1922, via Chris Robart on Flickr.

The Group of Seven was a revelation to me as a girl in grade one, in Canada, with an art teacher who showed us the brushstrokes, the colors and shapes distinguishing each of the painters in the group.  The Group of Seven wanted to paint their own country rather than looking to England.  I recognized the Mountain Ash in this painting by J.E.H. Macdonald, because there were several on my street in Edmonton.  I admired the red-orange berries, and the narrow finger-like groups of leaves.  The berries weren’t for humans to eat, but the Cedar Waxwings would come in the winter, ravenously hungry and swarm the Mountain Ash until the berries were gone.

Toronto Art Deco
Mosaic by J.E.H. MacDonald. Toronto Art Deco at the Concourse Building(1928), Toronto, via Sandra Cohen-Rose on Flickr.

As a mosaic artist, I had a bit of excitement in discovering that J.E.H. MacDonald designed a mosaic mural for the Concourse Building in Toronto.  The building is being demolished by new owners, but the mosaics are being preserved.  I am partial to mosaic rainbows, and loved seeing one in MacDonald’s mural.

Pinwheel Quilt Block Mosaic by Margaret Almon

Pinwheels: Of Quilts and Motion to Turn Your Life Around

Pinwheel Quilt Block Mosaic by Margaret Almon
Pinwheel Quilt Block Mosaic by Margaret Almon. Glass on wood, 8 inches.

 

The pinwheel quilt block has a sense of motion, as I construct each cell of triangles spinning around.  I discovered that the pinwheel is a symbol of “turning ones luck around” and is used in Chinese New Year celebrations.    Veronica talks about the symbolism of the pinwheel in Pinwheel Girls.   What  are the pinwheels in your life?

Another Pinwheel mosaic.

Spiral Mosaic Mandala by Margaret Almon

M is for Mauve: A to Z Challenge 2014

Spiral Mosaic Mandala by Margaret Almon
Spiral Mosaic Mandala by Margaret Almon. Mother of pearl, dichroic, stained glass, gold smalti, on slate, 7 inches.

 

When I saw Simon Garfield’s book on the color mauve, I checked it out of the library immediately.  I wasn’t a mauve enthusiast, but the idea of a whole book about one color was intriguing. William Perkin(1838-1907) was experimenting with coal tar, in hopes of finding a cure for malaria, but instead noticed an intense purple color in his beaker. Perkin pursued the manufacture of mauve, a world awash in shifting purple pinks.

Methyl Orange
Methyl Orange via Rubashkyn.

Because it is also Orange Tuesday, I will mention another coal tar dye called Methyl Orange.  It changes color, from red in acid, to yellow in base.

Stratoz doodling to Benny Green with gray and green Prismacolors.

G is for Gray Tones: A to Z Challenge 2014

atoz [2014] - BANNER - 910

Stratoz doodling to Benny Green with gray and green Prismacolors.
Stratoz doodling to Benny Green with gray and green Prismacolors.

When I met Stratoz, he said his favorite color was gray.  He still digs it.  He’s also doing an A to Z challenge, doodling his way through the alphabet with jazz on the stereo.  Since it’s Orange Tuesday, I also include this photo of a gray pendant I created with a dash of orange.

Gray Pendant with a Flash of Orange by Margaret Almon.
Gray Pendant with a Flash of Orange by Margaret Almon.

Pendant Joy at Nutmeg Designs Etsy Shop