I’ve written before about the incredible things people add to that strip between the road and the sidewalk (I always have to look up what it’s called and this time Google’s AI informed me that in Chicago it’s called the parkway) but still I was shocked when I was on my way to the dentist and saw that someone had built a house on the strip!
I stopped by the Breakfast House restaurant near the Sheridan Red Line stop other day and was impressed with the chicken collection on display.
This is just a portion of them and I see I captured one of the few cows as well. Perfect breakfast restaurant decor!
The “Side by Side” exhibit I wrote about in the last post had a subtitle: “Color and Texture” and a focus on the “grid” in cross stitch embroidery, weaving, and patchwork. In addition to all the cross stitch pieces by Anna Kuczma, the exhibit included two samplers by Charlie Kolodziej to illustrate that counted thread embroidery “relies on the woven ground and its perpendicular interlace of warp and weft.”
And Lilia Kuchma “weaves the grid that forms her tapestries. Each pass of the weft over or under the warp constitutes a colorful square, part of a field, plane, or line within the composition.”
Two examples by Liz Barr show how patchwork quilts also “rely on the grid as their organizing structure”. One of her examples hangs above the hands-on component of the exhibit – a table of parquetry squares which is one of the Froebel gifts that “represent the complex geometry innate in the natural world.” To be honest, I had no idea that parquetry squares were one of the Froebel gifts – number 7 to be exact.
The exhibit was curated by Dr. Erica Watson and her University of Chicago students. (I did a little research on Dr. Watson and it turns out that she curated the excellent Bisa Butler exhibit at the Art Institute!) This exhibit was not in a museum but in the hallways of the Cochrane-Woods Art Center which mostly consisted of classrooms. I had to take a picture of this unusual tribute to another professor as well.
The Smart Museum of Art was across the way so we visited that next and found an excellent exhibit there as well.
It also had a hands-on component that invited us to: “Sit, listen, and imagine the world through Alma Thomas’s eyes. Using the magnetic tiles on the table create your own – or add to someone else’s – colorful composition.”
I love that I’m seeing more and more examples of hands on components as part of exhibits!
My first exposure to Ukranian motanka dolls was at my Birmingham niece’s house. She had purchased some from Ukranian artists to support them in the wake of the Russian attack on Ukraine. I was intrigued by the dolls but didn’t know much about them so I was excited when I saw that Natalia Olefirenko (of Embroidery Art by Nat), a Ukranian living in Canada, was teaching a Motanka Doll workshop as part of the Making Zen Online Retreat.
Nat shared some of the history of the dolls explaining that the name motanka comes from the Ukranian word “motaty” which means to wrap or wind and that the dolls are assembled without using a needle or glue. They are created by wrapping the fabric and tying it with thread. She also explained that the symbolic dolls don’t have a face and are either left plain white or wrapped with a cross that represents the sun and the harmony of the universe, connecting the four directions of the world. Many of the dolls are made with traditional Ukranian embroidery patterns including the Trre of Life which represents growth, connection between generations, and the continuity of life.
I had immersed myself in thoughts of wrapping when we were creating the wrapping curriculum in the art studio so the idea of creating a wrapped doll appealed to me. And it seemed fitting to use the embroidery thread I had purchased at the Ukranian National Museum.
Nat showed us how she made her doll and shared a list of You Tube videos made by Ukrainian women demonstrating different ways to make the dolls. At first I just intended to wrap the face and design and embroider a tree of life apron with the Ukranian thread but then I saw the beautiful embroidered blouses some of the YouTubers and their dolls were wearing, I decided my doll needed an embroidered blouse too. And then after I tried few different things with the yarn hair, I decided she needed a bun, not a braid, and an embroidered scarf to cover it. This screenshot from one of the YouTube videos shows a bit of the artist’s embroidered blouse as well as two of the dolls that most inspired mine.
It turned out to be pretty challenging to assemble a doll by wrapping and tying thread around the pieces. I used an empty thread cone for the body and secured the head (made with a rolled up thin strip of fabric inside a square piece of fabric) to the top of it. Then (and this kept happening) after I attached the arms, I tried to adjust them and pushed the head right off!
Eventually I got the hang of it and finally finishing it seemed like something worth celebrating.
I had read about the exhibit “Side by Side” in the Chicago Reader a few weeks earlier. I knew that it was closing soon and going to it seemed like the perfect way to celebrate. The exhibit primarily included photos of Ukranians living in Chicago by Lilia Kuchma, needlework by her mother Anna Kuzhma, and several of Lilia’s woven pieces.
The examples of Ukranian embroidery in the photos were amazing. And so were the embroidery pieces. I couldn’t stop taking photos!
One of the most exciting parts for me was the glass display case which included embroidery thread with a very familiar box!
During our last visit to the Art Institute we had lunch at the café and admired the mermaids in the courtyard that we could see through the window. I went out to get a closer look and a better view of their tails.
Looks like they are actually mermen since the bronze sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Miles is called the Triton Fountain.
We returned home to find a surprise package from my Birmingham niece who is always on the outlook for mermaids for me. I opened the box to find a mermaid card from her latest (last?) trip to the Eric Carle Museum that announced an enclosed souvenir from a flea market that she bought on her recent trip to France.
Even though it depicts mermaids it obviously belongs with our china cabinet collection!
This year instead of fiberglass cows, lighthouses, butterflies, dogs, or stars by many different artists, the Magnificent Mile is hosting a sculpture series by Carole Feuerman titled “Moments of Stillness”. The figures of swimmers are created in painted bronze, resin, and stainless steel and range from life-size to twelve feet tall.
And it seems as though the Intercontinental Hotel knew that swimmers were coming to Michigan Avenue and has provided them with a beachy background.
Actually, I believe that the Little Free Library Association calls the people who install and maintain little free libraries stewards which makes sense because the maintenance of them can be important. I think a little free library in my neighborhood might have a new steward because it just got quite a glow up.
I don’t think I even took a picture of it before because,to be honest, it looked like a library without a steward. It’s looking really inviting now.
Even if a little library doesn’t have a steward they still attract books but that doesn’t seem to be the case with other little spaces which seem to need curators to be successful. The Little Seed Library in my neighborhood never had seeds in it and when, due to construction, it was moved near a little free library it also started to aquire books. At one point a sign complete with seed packet insisted that it was a Little Seed Library to no avail. In fact, it often has more books in it than the little free library a few feet away from it.
Now that the construction is over, someone has installed a Little Free Art Exchange where the seed library used to be.
Unfortunately, as has been the case with the one in Andersonville, it was empty on the day I photographed it.
There are some well curated art gallery exhange ones that I follow on Instagram but I’ve yet to see one in the wild.
Speaking of art focused ones, I don’t think I ever posted the picture I took that illustrates the challenge of an art material exchange. Last summer in Columbia I was excited to open the box outside the Artlandish gallery.
Unfortunately, it was a very hot day and the crayons that someone had generously shared were melting and sticking to the box!
There might be a reason that Little Free Book libraries are more successful than Little Free Anything Elses!
Whenever I go to the Art Institute I like to drop by the Ryan Learning Center to see the current project. Last year I took pictures of the Elizabeth Catlett protest poster prompt but never posted them.
At my last visit to see the Matisse Jazz exhibit I expected cut paper art but the project was inspired by the Korean National Treasures exhibit I haven’t seen yet. Guests are invited to make drawings in the style of chaekgado – a type of still life featuring collected objects. Sounds like something I should definitely do when I return to see the exhibit.
I was impressed by the background inspired by the exhibit that they had mounted behind the display area.
Even more impressive was a new space that has replaced the room that used to be dedicated to an interactive exhibit about museum preservation.
There were lots of different areas for drawing.
And lots of things to draw with!
Also some drawing inspiration, a display about drawing, and a selection of books.
Maybe the next time I go I can see the room in action!
While the signage is a bit difficult to see the Cleo Wilson Center for Learning and Engagement Opportunities at the Intuit Art Museum is certainly meeting its mission. I recently submitted a piece in response to Henry Darger’s art and then went to the event to celebrate his birthday.
In addition to seeing my embroidery piece (that owes a debt to Darger’s method of using coloring book images) looking very large during the show, we got to see how Pooja Pittie’s collaborative piece “What We Build to Belong” had grown as guests had added a “piece of themselves” by writing or drawing a hope, word, phrase, or symbol that feels like home or adding a piece of string to reflect a feeling, desire, or tension.
And we got to think a bit more about Darger’s methods:
When we returned to the museum this weekend there was a project inspired by the new exhibit Monumental: sculpture by Dr. Charles Smith.
I’m looking forward to my next visit already!
At the end of last summer we went to Scooters on an end of the summer ice cream trip and when I went to the back I was surprised by this large lighthouse. It turned out to be from the 2018 Lighthouses of the Magnificent Mile public art display “celebrating access and inclusion for people with disabilities.” This one is “Lighting My Path” by Jim Carroll and it depicts Patricia and her guide dog Carson.
It made me wonder if I could find any other large pieces like it from other public art displays. While peering at Halloween decorations through the windows of Harry Caray’s at Navy Pier, I spied one of the original cows from the 1999 Cows on Parade.
Apparently there were several Harry Caray cows in the parade and they rotate among the seven restaurant locations. The next remnant I found was a German shepherd in front of Hotel EMC2.
He is from the 2017 Chicago K9 for Cops public art installation sponsored by PAWS Chicago and the Chicago Police Memorial to memorialize officers killed in the line of duty and support the families of those officers and officers catastrophically injured while serving.
If he’s been outside the hotel since 2017 he is in remarkably good shape! I’ve been keeping my eye out for other examples but haven’t found any others since last Fall so I decided to go ahead and write this post now. Although there is a horse on Clarke I’ve got to stop and check out one day…
Collections and Other Stuff I Like 