Vegas Art

Here we are in Vegas and on a Sunday, what better thing to do then visit Art Galleries--yes!  Here we go..............

Barrick Museum

Once a natural history museum, the Barrick Museum on the University of Nevada Las Vegas campus has changed its focus to art in an attempt to fill the void left when the Las Vegas Art Museum closed its doors in early 2009. The small staff at Barrick mounts rotating exhibits for the community while raising funds to become a full time art institution. Shows have ranged from contemporary paintings and sculpture to a photography exhibit of legendary photographerAnsel Adams's black-and-white works of American landscapes and architecture, which spans five decades. Also, stop in at the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, which rotates student exhibits with working contemporary artists.
• 4505 South Maryland Parkway, +1 702 895 3301, barrickmuseum.unlv.edu. Open Tues, Wed, Fri 10am-6pm, Thurs 10am-8pm, Sat-Sun 10am-2pm, free admission, suggested contribution: adults $5, senior citizens $2

Neon Museum

 Neon Museum, Las Vegas.

The Neon Museum's outdoor Boneyard located in the city's Cultural Corridor is not only an international tourist destination, but also a beloved project and collection for the Las Vegas community. The sign collection goes back to the 1930s and tells the story of a famous city that erupted in the desert. All that's often left of Vegas's past is the sculptural metal and neon, arranged in this gravel lot on Las Vegas Boulevard. The guided tours are often given by employees who are exhibiting artists, and are devoted to the rich narrative of this unique city.
• Watch our video on the Neon Museum
• 821 Las Vegas Boulevard North, +1 702 387 6366, neonmuseum.org. Boneyard tours are available by prior booking only and appointment times are determined by availability of staff

Centerpiece Gallery

 Centerpiece Gallery, Las Vegas.

It's unlikely you'll stumble across this white-walled gallery near the valet at City Center's Mandarin Oriental, but it's certainly worth seeking out. Depending on where you're coming from, you'll pass chunks of City Center's $40m art collection, including works by Maya Lin (a suspended rendition of the Colorado River made from reclaimed silver) and Frank Stella (a 32ft work on canvas from his protractor series) in registration lobbies. Look out for Nancy Rubins's Big Edge, a large boat bouquet made of more than 200 tethered canoes and aluminium boats, which serves as the centrepiece for the $9bn campus of hotels.
• 3720 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 181, +1 702 739 3314, centerpiecelv.com. Open daily 10am-6pm, free admission

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art

 Photograph: Blaine Harrington III/Corbis

The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art manages to stir up a lot of press, and had visitors lining the corridor overlooking the outdoor landscaped pool when it opened in 1998. At the time, art exhibitions on the Strip were unprecedented. When a subsidiary of New York's Pace Wildenstein took over the gallery, it shocked art-world types by partnering with Boston's Museum of Fine Art, bringing works by Monet to the heart of Sin City. The gallery has also tapped into the collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to mount exhibits, including the current A Sense of Place: Landscapes from Monet to Hockney.
• 3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 693 7871, bellagio.com/gallery. Open Sun, Mon, Tues and Thurs 10am-6pm, Wed, Fri and Sat 10am-7pm. General admission $15, senior citizens $12, children under 12 free

Cosmopolitan's P3 Studio

 Photograph: Kidrobot's Chalk It Up Dunny on Flickr/ some rights reserved

It wasn't too unusual to find Portland artist MK Guth camped out at the Cosmopolitan hotel's P3 Studio this year with more than 200ft of synthetic blonde hair braided into her own mane. The Rapunzel-style art installation and performance, which included thoughts and dreams of hotel guests scribbled out on pieces of fabric, is just part of the creative narrative playing out at the hotel, which has also presented murals by Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf in its parking garage, and rolling digital art in the hotel lobby. You will find the studio next to the beer-and cocktail-sipping guests shooting pool in the busy P3 Commons.
• 3708 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 698 7000, cosmopolitanlasvegas.com. Open daily, hours vary depending on the exhibiting artist

Contemporary Arts Center

 Chris Burden's Urban Light installation at the Contemporary Arts Center, 2008. Photograph: Museum Associates/LACMA

Not-for-profit arts groups in Las Vegas have battled hard for attention in a community built around a 24-hour gaming industry and its flashy entertainment scene, but if you look hard enough you'll find success stories such as the 21-year-old Contemporary Arts Center and its avant-garde exhibits. Located in the industrial downtown arts district, the small gallery has brought in a diverse selection of artists and their works for rotating shows, including SOMArts Cultural Center's touring exhibit of work by Tony Labat, Dale Hoyt and Guillermo Gómez-Peña who mostly address political and social issues in video and sculptural/conceptual installations.
• 107 East Charleston Boulevard, Suite 120, +1 702 382 3886, lasvegascac.org. Open Tues-Sat noon-5pm and by appointment, first Friday of the month 6pm-10pm, free admission

Trifecta Gallery

 Todd & Bryan's Bed (& Breakfast) at the Trifecta Gallery. Photograph: courtesy of Trifecta Gallery

Set in the Arts Factory, the Trifecta Gallery has been one of few downtown galleries to survive, financially, in the arts district, maintaining solid exhibits focused on contemporary representational paintings and illustrations. The large three-room space in the old industrial brick building is where locals go to buy and experience works by, in the main, emerging artists, and to enjoy creative art openings such as the pancake breakfast that accompany high-end flapjack sculptures by Todd VonBastiaans and Bryan McCarthy.
• 107 East Charleston Boulevard, +1 702 366 7001, trifectagallery.com. Open Mon-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat-Sun 11am-3pm, and the first Friday of every month 11am-10pm, free admission

Lou Ruvo Center

 The Cleveland Clinic, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Photograph: Alamy

Frank Gehry's titanium-panelled structures that encase the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health are cultural destinations of their own, but inside the complex in downtown's developing Symphony Park is a rotating art collection of works by some of Gehry's big-name artist friends. Pre-scheduled tours of the building give visitors a chance to see (and buy) works, and among the permanent collection is James Rosenquist's Cervello Spazio Cosmico, a 10ft-by-20ft vertical painting, commissioned by the casino mogul and art collector Steve Wynn
• 888 West Bonneville Avenue, +1 702 263 9797, keepmemoryalive.org

Big Springs Gallery

 Big Springs Gallery

Inside this 180-acre attraction focused on interactive exhibits about sustainability and the history of the desert environment is The Origen gallery. A quiet, dimly lit, meditative and contemporary space, the gallery features work by mainly local and regional artists – established and emerging – who create pieces influenced by the desert environment and the glitter city plopped into it. Exhibits range from a show of multimedia contemporary works responding to desert colours influenced by intense natural or manmade lighting to fine art black-and-white photography of Cliff Segerblom: modern landscapes of the American West, Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas skyline as it appeared in the 1970s.
• 333. South Valley View Boulevard, +1 702 822 7700,springspreserve.org/attractions/origen. Open daily 10am-6pm, adult ticket $18.95, includes admission to gardens, trails, Desert Living Center and the Origen Experience

Clark County Government Center

 Photograph: Picturenet/Corbis

In an area where city galleries and museums are scarce, curators often rely on exhibits in public spaces to reach visitors. The circular Clark County Government Center, designed to reflect the desert's natural beauty in form and materials, includes a cavernous rotunda where locals find themselves strolling through large-scale installations by artists who have worked and studied in Las Vegas.Justin Favela's cardboard appropriations of CityCenter artworks may have been quizzical to the incidental observer, but was a favourite among locals amused by the somewhat satirical cardboard recreation of a $40m art collection.
• 500 South Grand Central Parkway +1 702 455 000, clarkcountynv.gov/art-at-government-center. Open Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, free admission

We're Going to Vegas--Baby!

You can hear them say "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!"

The last time we were here, we renewed our wedding vows for our 

anniversary--at the Graceland Chapel with "Elvis" officiating!

Now, we are here just because...............

I'm not a gambler, but love the sights and sounds of the city.

Later in the week we'll attend a couple of shows--will try to pick up

an inexpensive one--like ha ha!

But, here we are----in Vegas, baby!!

Need a Quick Quilt!

If you need to make a quick quilt for someone, here is your answer!

We thought this one was just perfect size too!

The quilt takes one charm package of your choice and background fabric, which will

be your sashing around each block.

The charm packs are cut in half--2.5" x 5", sew five together = 10.5"

Sashing cut two for each block 3.25" x 10.5" and sew on each side

Easy peasy, huh?  Just repeat this for each block and then rotate them in the quilt top.

you will have a delightful quilt top.  In this sample block,  fabric was cut into 2.5" x 5"

strips; five different fabrics.  No need for a charm pack if you don't have one on hand.

Festival of The Thread!

Festival of the Thread is a happening in Montana!

How exciting to have this event

At the Shane Lalani Center
for the Arts in Livingston, Montana. September 2 through 4, 2016
Livingston's Shane Lalani Center for the Arts will host the third annual “Festival of the Thread”, an exhibition of textile art that takes place September 2nd, 3rd and 4th at the Shane Center. Featured will be works in fiber and decorative arts including: quilts, mixed media textile art, weaving, batik, knitting, fashion and furniture. This unique juried exhibition will showcase textile and decorative arts by artists from Montana, Idaho & Wyoming.  All the artists represented in “The Festival of the Thread” have been recognized for mastery of their craft and bring a diversity of styles and mediums to this unique exhibit.  Also this weekend the Shane Center will be expanding the venue to include a full weekend of live music, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, and food vendor  Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Yay! For Last Wednesday in August!

I've been cleaning out my fiber closets--not that I wanted to, but we needed to put down carpet, which meant everything had to be pulled from the closet floor.

Okay, so all the fiber is out, it's a perfect time to go through all those skeins, wound balls and is what is what.

 I found these two handspun singles and thought--hmmm, how would they look plied together.

and there you have a new ball that I will use.

Searching patterns on Ravelry there was this great cowl--interesting pattern feature and since

I'm not sure how much yarn I'll have, the way to go.

And we are off and knitting!!  

My Woven Coverlets

When I came across the article about the gals doing research for the Ozark Coverlet Project--my memories went back to my coverlet 'collection'!
As a weaver, sometimes there comes a point in your weaving history that you want to weave a coverlet--most coverlets are overshot patterns.

A weaving progress based on 1-2-3-4 draft

Many years ago, our weaving group decided to do overshot panels--we each graphed our pattern, gave our yarn choices to each weaver (there were 12 of us).  We each wove our pattern in the weavers color choice and once finished, we had a big exchange party.  Here is the result of mine--I dyed my wool yarn with indigo.  

So much fun--although alot of weaving the same pattern, we knew at the end of the warp

we'd have a great collection of coverlet patterns.  I wove wool yardage to put my blocks together

A dear friend had this coverlet on hand and offered it to me--what a lovely indigo dyed coverlet.

The sister of this coverlet is in this book "keep me warm one night"  the best collections of

old coverlets

Here is the pattern from the book

My coverlet is in fair condition-I guess I should place it on my bed so it's not folded up to crease the yarns in places

Now, this coverlet was woven by the best weaver I ever knew in my life.  Of course, you can tell

from the color choices, it was woven in the early 1970's, but I don't care--It's in 3 sections--much like older coverlets, the weaver seamed it together perfectly.

Years ago while living in California for a short while, I came across this coverlet in

a garage sale!  Horrors!  In a garage sale lay this lovely woven coverlet--well, it's purple, not traditional colors, but I couldn't leave it there.  Even though I do not like purple I had to buy it--when asked how much.  The seller said "$10!"  Unbelieveable!  Yes, I'll take it.

notice how the seam matches up with each motif perfectly

The edging pattern is thought out well by the weaver.

It has this awful fringe.  I haven't tested it to see if it's wool, but I

don't really care.  It's a coverlet woven with love by a unknown weaver and it

can live in my 'meager collection' where I'll cherish it.

Ozark Coverlets

Recently, there was an article about two ladies making a decision to document Quilt from the Ozark Region of the US.  The Ozark Coverlets Project focuses on  re-creating old weaving patterns and telling the stories of the weavers who made them. Marty Benson and Laura Redford are long-time weavers with an interest in conservation of textiles.  They have written a book

After hundreds of hours of research, Marty and Laura authored and the Shiloh Museum published Ozark Coverlets: The Shiloh Museum of Ozark History Collection in 2015. 

Here is one photo from the book from Mary R Skelton's pattern page.

Not content to rest on those laurels, Marty and Laura are now working on the Ozark Coverlet Project—a study of historic coverlets and handwoven items in museums and private collections throughout the Arkansas Ozark region.The long-term goals of the project are to shine a light on Ozark weavers and their coverlets by recording their personal histories, and to keep the tradition alive by recreating historic threading patterns in modern notation for today’s weavers.