Cedar Grove Cemetery

Cedar Grove Cemetery at Notre Dame University

I grew up used to taking strolls  or walking through old cemetery's in England, my favourite being at Heworth church at  St.Mary's with Haddon's Tomb. So when I went to visit Notre Dame I just had to take a walk around the old cemetery. Not sure how to explain why I enjoy walking around old cemeteries, the best I can say is that I enjoy the quiet contemplation, the statuary and sometimes reading the headstones.

Did the same thing when visiting old San Juan in Perto Rico. The Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery was amazing. Here is a link to a wee blog entry and video about it.

Links

16 Headstones That Make You Go Hmmmm...

Here lies the body of our Anna

Done to death by a banana

It wasn't the fruit that laid her low

But the skin of the thing that made her go

From Funny Grave Epitaphs

Amazing Cemeteries

Cimitero Monumentale di Milano

Père Lachaise Cemetery

The Merry Cemetery Rumania
 I love how each  Gravestone marker is painted and tells a little story/poem/epitach of the person and how they died.

Photo by Adam Jones adamjones.freeservers.com 

Scanned Flowers, Gobble Head and Knit Graff Ad

I've been having fun scanning flowers and I'm LOVING the effect.

Scanning Flowers seems to be quite popular

Judy Stalus has a lovely set on flickr

Katinka Matson's are reminicent of Dutch Flower Painting during the late 1600's.

How to Scan Flowers

AND

Been sewing flowers

"gobble head"

Satin Stitch, Cretan Stitch (video tutorial), long & short

This will be incorporated into a larger piece. The flower is a drawing  based on a glass sculpture I saw in a magazine and collaged in my sketchbook.

Knit Graffiti used in Adverts Now

Yellow Springs Video

Jafagirls Nancy & moi did a wee video (by Jafapal Susan Gartner) for the Yellow Springs Experience organized by the Yellow Springs Arts Council. We will be part of the Cirque Carnival on Dayton Street July 16th.



One of my fave Yellow Springs Bloggers, Mark Willis at a blind flaneur gave an interview for the bbc4 show The Paris Bouquinistes.

Nana Knit at the Snite

The Snite Art Museum at Notre Dame University in Indiana has to be one of the best art collections I've seen in a University so far in the United States.  And what made it even MORE special was coming across a small painting my Paula Modersohn-Becker. Unfortunately the Snite is rather stingy when it comes to sharing images of their collection and I can't find this particular painting anywhere online. I have loved Becker's work for a long time but to actually see one in the real, I was over the moon and NOT disappointed.

I called the wee guerilla knitting Nana knit in honor of my nana Sally. Lit a candle for her in the grotto near the lake. Such a beautiful campus to walk around, with gargoyles on some of the buildings and a gorgeous lake with plenty of ducks and swans.

All photos by c. bayraktaroglu

Flowers in a Sketchbook

Mixture of collage and ink

 I love playing in my sketchbook

AND

with photoshop

This is my new haircut and BIG earrings.

sending smoochies to you Mutha

Bird Murals put Village in a FLAP

Seahouses is a beautiful village (I WON a pen at bingo there-made my day, and the best fish and chips on the planet, whee)

and yes there is such as thing as the British Toilet Association

I think they look very nice myself, a vast improvement over a plain ugly concrete slab loo, but then  who am I to speak, I run an art gallery in the local train station netty LOL.

Oh! can't resist

Q: What do you get if you cross a bear with a toilet?

A:Winnie the Pooh!

Garage Sale Finds

When I saw this at a garage sale there was NO WAY I wasn't going to buy it. And for $2 I walked away with a BIG grin on my face. I can't wait to incorporate this into some kind of assemblage piece.

Meanwhile 

Feeling a little more relaxed (although my back is paying for it from volunteering at Camp Pheonix yesterday) after a hectic few weeks.  I got a bit more painting done and worked on the skull.

I am really enjoying the challenge of painting the carved coffee table.

Squeezing art in

Been sneaking in  a wee bit painting in between a week that has been marked by a lack of routine.

Added some glazing using oil paint and liquin.

Nancy & I were on call to do a vid clip for the Yellow Springs Experience Event.

AND

Spent most of the week preparing to teach three textile art classes for Camp Phoenix, a Hospice run summer camp for bereaved children . I was freaking out about it, not having worked with children for years, but they were so sweet. This is one of my fave pieces by a 5 year old, can you guess why?

Art is NOT a thing

Art is not a thing; it is a way

Elbert Hubbard

 Crafty Chica's Advice 

on nurturing and living your creativity

Bronwyn shares seven tips

 on living an artful life.

Jibber Jabber 

I haven't (for a couple of weeks) and won't be able to work on my art for another week or so and I feel the creep of rumbling agitation starting to gnaw at my bones like a dog with it's favourite toy.

 It is starting to drive me

Meanwhile I do take comfort in and enjoy the art around me.

A shelf in my living room

lava lamp, pompous rabbit teapot, ceramic bowl, oil on wood portrait "smitten" ,ceramic hippo baring teeth, beater head by Lisa Goldberg, cat rattle by Leanne Pizio, papier mache angel, victorian deer inkwell.

AND

I'll be going life drawing today

That should keep the demon of discontent at bay for a wee bit.

 

Touchdown Jesus Struck by Lightening

Photo by jafabrit

This is one of my fave views from the freeway driving back home. It is 62 feet tall and is in front of Monroe's Solid Rock Church. So this is kind of sad, but yes seriously it was struck by lightening and burned to the ground.

Roadside America has a nice article about the statue here.

This is all that's left

source:  staff photo by Nick Graham

Book Project

Gale Zucker at the Flower Power Pole

Wednesday was a pretty exciting and exhausting day. Nancy and I are honored to be included in a new book that Joan Tapper and Gale Zucker are doing. The book is a coffee table book about Craft+Community+Activism and profiles artists around the country with projects to make. 

Their last book was Shear Spirit and if you check out their blog Two Shear Spirits it is chock full of  beautiful photography, travels, writing and assignments (latest entry  is a visit to etsy labs in DUMBO Brooklyn).  After 11 hours of being photographed in various places around town, in our studios and putting up some craft graffiti on Elaine's bench outside the post office we ended the evening at Winds Cafe (the rosé wine and rhubarb ice cream, WOW!)

Elaine's Bench  Corry Street

Jafabrit signing off

image source unknown

and getting myself a cuppa

Happy Flower

Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life. -- Picasso

Jafabrit's Happy Little Flower on the Knit Knot Tree, Xenia Avenue, Yellow Springs, OH

ArtThreat♥ Studio Work♥Police Action

Not sure why it took me so long to find this site Art Threat considering the nature of much of my work.

"Art Threat is a leading media outlet devoted solely to political art and cultural policy. We write about art that seeks to interpret, influence, or reflect upon society. We discuss policy as it pertains to culture. And we showcase artists whose work inspires social change. Whether your passion is video or visual art, design or drama, music or literary musings, we’ve got you covered with a blanket of information and eye candy."

Jafabrit's Studio

The grisaille is nearly done on the clayboard panel. Just have to refine the upper left corner of the coffee table. The carved wood flowers and leaves got a little more complex than I expected. Also have to do the wire spirals on the Canson Sketchbook.

Guerilla Art

We added more knit/crochet to the knit knot tree II and it was quite an event.
Cop Rescues Yarnbombers



 

What an inspiration: Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois Fabric Sculpture

I will skip doing a blog entry about her as Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas wrote a lovely one. At 98 Louise Bourgeois was finishing up some pieces when she had a heart attack. What an amazing career she had.

Her final exhibit is titled "fabric drawings" and is in Venice.You can see some samples of her work and the artist here.

Finished

"lead belly"

Paint and hand embroidery on muslin

satin stitch, long and short, couching

I think I'm going to leave the edges raw, which will further support the theme.

Jafagirl Updates

We added a new textile graffiti totem pole in town called "mellow yellow" sponsored by the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce.

I thought if we went 8:30am to start putting it up hardly anyone would be around, HA!!!!! was I mistaken. Backstory on our blog. 

Feathers thrown around us by some bloke as he passed by.