Author Archives: kittycalash

Street

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Art Rant, Museums

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Street_featuredVideo art has often left me bored. It can be too schlocky, too stupid. Not that I don’t appreciate simple, silly work. The first piece of video art that made an impression on me was at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. It was  William Wegman’s  Heads With Tails, featuring the ultra-patient Man Ray. This simple video was an excellent introduction to conceptual for a 10-year-old. (I could not have been more than 10 or 12 to tolerate going to a museum with my mother…by 13 and 14 I was going on the bus by myself.)

Flipping a coin and turning a dog around, while hilarious, is not necessarily what everyone thinks of as art; for others, Nam June Paik is a more valid artist.

Album page, New York City. Bernice Abbott, 1929-30. MMA 1982.1180.106–.116

Album page, New York City. Bernice Abbott, 1929-30. MMA 1982.1180.106–.116

I give you James Nares, and his Street project at the Met (which closed 5/27/2013, sorry). There’s a short clip (2:17 out of 60 minutes) if you scroll down the page. This isn’t the section I stumbled upon, but it captures much of the essence of the piece. I think it was the best thing I saw all day, and even better, the video is bracketed by galleries of photos and objects selected by Nares from the Met’s permanent collection.

These are can be found online, though they are not divided or arranged the way they appear in the galleries. Still, you can see connections between the pieces.

For other interesting and rather less famous street still photographers, check out Vivian Maier, orJoe Sterling (who lived around the corner from us when I was growing up).

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Frivolity

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Clothing, Making Things

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chintz jacket

Detail, back neck and neckhandkerchief

Well, not all that frivolous, but pretty frivolous for someone who has been doubled down on a uniform production and class prep.

The remnant of chintz has turned into a nearly finished jacket, which is good. All that remains to do is the hem, and once the lining has been trimmed that shouldn’t be too hard. The pattern is an adaptation of the JP Ryan jacket pattern, with sleeve and length adjustments. It’s plain enough to pass, and with a striped “lincey” petticoat, will answer for New York-New Jersey servant wear. I have my eye on Monmouth.

checked linen bagAlso for Monmouth, the first of two checked linen bags. Small enough for toothbrush, comb, and other toiletries necessary in this century but out of place in 1778, these bags should help make camp packing lighter weight and more authentic. Hope so anyway, or what’s that backstitching and overcasting for, fun?

JoAnn Cotton fabric.

I watched it for six months.

And, finally, on a whimsical trip to Jo-Ann for plastic drawers, the remnant table was half off. The fabric I’ve been watching since it was $7/yard was $1.50 a yard. I got all 8 yards for $12. I see a dress of some kind in this fabric, though it will require caution to wear. 100% cotton, this will burn. Which century or decade? Not sure yet. But I like it, and that’s enough to start with, when you’re feeling frivolous. (And yes, I did read that article in the Times about hoarding, but this is Strategic Fabric Reserve purchasing, not hoarding.)

Lunatic Fringe

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Clothing, History, Living History, Reenacting

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Hunting frock and overalls complete!

Hunting frock and overalls complete!

Oh, my goodness, it’s done! It’s done, and the photos have passed the master. Phew! Just one more to go, oh, my goodness, no.

The Young Mr was allowed to carry a musket in the Warren Memorial Day Parade. I do not love a parade, so I didn’t go. But he had no overalls of suitable fit and they were so nearly done, that I resolved to finish them, and finish them I did, in time for bed on Saturday, no less. It’s all thanks to BBC’s brutal but entrancing programming. My sewing better to blood curdling screams (also courtesy ITV), which seems awful but there it is…though the darkness of Mad Men has proven good for back stitching, decent button holes require murder.

Buttonholes. I hate those guys less now.

Buttonholes. I hate those guys less now.

Fifteen button holes, multiple fittings, and some curse words have resulted in a pair of decent-fitting overalls that did not split at the knee or stretch too extremely when worn. And atop it all, in the yard if not in the parade, the new model hunting front adopted by the 10th Massachusetts. The Young Mr is uniform-forward as Neal Hurst’s research has led the adjutant to conclude that the men were wearing frocks, and not shirts. (In the Rhode Island records, I found that rifle frocks were listed until 1780/1781, when the Records of the State of Rhode Island began to indicate rifle or hunting “frocks or shirts.” That’s a wrinkle for Mr Hurst, but I saw only frock in 1777-1780.)

Lunatic fringe. Cut, fold, clip, strip, stitch.

Lunatic fringe. Cut, fold, clip, strip, stitch.

The fringing is a task completed by Mr S, who has fringed the strips for his own Rhode Island hunting frock, and now knows what fun awaits him as another frock will made for him. My goal? Another complete 10th Massachusetts kit by June 15. I’ve sewn buttonholes in a moving car before, and I expect to be felling seams or sewing buttonholes as we travel down to New Jersey. They’ll be fine; after all, the traffic is murder.

Family Arts Night

24 Friday May 2013

Posted by in Events

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Inspired by Shepard Fairey

Inspired by Shepard Fairey

Well, it wasn’t the Met or the MFA, but it was pretty interesting. That’s the Young Mr’s self portrait, captured by my lousy arrogant phone. You will have to take my word for it that it’s as good a representation of a 14-year-old Providence kid as a Brooklyn-based hipster writer as you are likely to find in a public middle school. It was described to me by the creator as “discombobulated.”

TimeLine

TimeLine

I was quite taken with the posters created in one class of 8th graders (some of whom I know). This one, “Time Line,” struck me for the maker’s familiarity with the passage of time. From the EBT card to the prescription bottle, it seems this kid has grasped life’s progression.

$20,000 a Year

$20,000 a Year

I liked this one, too: Education and Success starts with Money. Everyone Should be Entitled to at least $20,000 a year. You can just hear the anti-public-school activists’ engines starting, and if this were to end up on the ProJo’s website, the anti-union comment trolls would feast upon hatred. (Those comment threads are dangerous waters.)

Black Friday Mayhem

Black Friday Mayhem

Austin, who played Toto in the fourth-grade play, took aim at consumerism and Black Friday. He likes Manga and used to play Yu-Gi-Oh with the Young Mr on the school bus. The text was hard to read even in person, but I believe there is commentary on people should be home with their families, and people don’t even know what there is to buy, but they want it. The mayhem is clear: I think this must be a drawing of the awful trampling incident. As far as I know, his parents are still a teacher’s aide and a cook, so is likely a pure expression of a basic instinct for fairness, which is probably what’s behind “$20,000 a year.”

Sad Elephant

Sad Elephant

This had no caption and no artist’s signature. I like the haunting, sort of Miyazaki-esque quality of the artwork (I saw a lot of manga and anime-inspired work), and I like the contrast between the light and dark areas, though it is probably not quite finished.

There were musical performances, one a violin piece played by a girl with twig-thin arms, and another set by a jazz trio who seemed unsure of their lyrics. Still, they soldiered on, though they may have sounded better when they slipped into a classroom and played just for themselves.

The Young Mr was wound up and bossy as an Art Guide, and had to be removed from school half an hour after the event ended so that he could be made to eat his dinner. It is fortunate that we are only two blocks from school. Next year, at least there is a coffee shop across from the high school. I suspect they’ll get to know me well.

Museum Madness and Things to Make

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in 1763 Project, History, Making Things, Museums

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After a day at the Met on Friday, I went to work at my own museum on Monday. We moved paintings, rounded up miniatures for photography, and packed an ax for transport.

Glass at the Met. I hate this stuff.

On Tuesday, I took the MBTA up to Boston to deliver the ax (tomahawk, throwing ax, ax comma belt in Chenhall) to another museum, at the Old State House. I think this show will be very nice, and I had the pleasure of meeting someone whose wife I know through the interwebs: behold the power of the interwebs, and the small size of the reenacting community. Also, my state.)

Then, because I cannot get enough of this stuff, I took the Green line over to the MFA. By now you’re thinking, Kitty, really? How many museums do you need to visit in five days? Should we get you help? But the thing is, objects get me really stoked. Paintings, sculpture, heck, even glass– and I hate glass– make me pretty happy.

1998.96, overdress or tunic. MFA Boston

I’d just been to the MFA in July, so this trip was to visit some friends among the Copleys and Greenwoods and Blackburns. But I also know that the textiles have to rotate often, and there are dedicated mannequins in the Art of the Americas Wing.  My reward for a return trip? This lovely over dress or tunic.

I love the fabric, and thought immediately of Quinn’s Tree Gown. Hmm. As you can imagine, I will be hot on the trail of something like this fabric as soon as I am done with the menswear on my list. (There is a lot of menswear, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do some real thinking and research in preparation for this tunic…which is all I can do for now.)

It does cross over in the front, and the floral motifs line up across the layers.

There are more photos of the overdress in the MFA set on flickr, and I have a lot more thinking to do about this tunic. It does have a cross-over front, which I like, but the lacing is really striking. This may take another trip to the MFA with a better camera.

Oversleeves, cross front, lacing, diamond-shape piece in the back like a keystone…there’s a lot of detail, and lot to love (and eventually curse while making) in this tunic.