ASpinnerWeaver

Friday, March 7, 2014

From Oaxaca City, Oaxaca to New York City, New York - Sharing My Love of Color With Fellow Artists

I wanted to share some fun and exciting things that have happened this past week which involve other artists who clearly enjoy playing with color as much as I do. I find this very refreshing as I think that in our culture, in general, we are much too timid with color.

Each of these artist uses color in a masterful way!

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For several months I've been admiring the beaded designs of Pedro Robledo of Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, looking at the Etsy shop he runs with his wife, Danielle, and reading some of her blog posts. I finally decided that I needed a bracelet. But I couldn't choose, so I bought 3!!

Each one is fantastic!

He draws inspiration from the Huichol Indians of northern Mexico and their symbolism, mandalas, spaceships and crop circles.

"Huichol, Mandala Inspired, Galactic Spaceship Diamond"

I love the center which appears to have one large red area, until you look closely and see that there are actually two colors there, one slightly more purple.
When I hold it up to the light, it really comes to life. Magical!

In this design, my favorite part is that there are only 4 turquoise beads placed near the

outside of the central diamond. That and the lovely gradations of color.

Pedro's designs are beautiful especially because he has given incredible depth and movement to them by incorporating somewhere between 15 and 19 colors. (There are 1500 to 1700 beads in each bracelet.) I realized that he also uses this idea in his designs which I talked about a few posts back. They are woven on a bead loom and I was thrilled to learn that he, like me, most often does not use a written pattern or chart, but each of the designs come from his imagination straight to the loom. I highly recommend a look around the Pachamama Native Art Etsy shop.

Prepare to be bedazzled!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/pachamamanativeart

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Tripp Derrick Barnes, a painter living in New York City, saw my posts on Instagram and told me that he'd love to have one of my straps for his camera. Judging from his Instagram posts, I saw that he uses a lot of vivid color in his artwork. Inspiring! We began talking about what colors he'd like for his custom strap, and to my surprise, he said that primary colors are his favorites.

Here you can see him at work in his studio.

Originally from the deep woods of South Carolina, Tripp is now living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Pop Neoism is a new movement based on Tripp's new style on Pop Art.

His artwork is best described as a cross between Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock.

"When Worlds Connect" by Tripp Derrick Barnes

What I love about these paintings is the way he takes so many bold colors and makes them all work together. And while they appear to be at random, each color is in balance in the piece overall.

Have a look at his website here to see some of the interesting projects he's worked on.

http://www.popneoism.com, but to see his latest you really have to follow him on Instagram!
Instagram: Tripp_Art

He sent me this photo of the new strap on his camera.
I had a great time doing this special order, because of his easy, friendly manner and especially because of his super enthusiasm!! If I ever get to New York, I'm looking him up!

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I 'll leave you with some music. Last week I met Steve Palazzo, a Santa Cruz guitar player.

Thanks, Steve, for choosing one of my straps! Have a listen to his great style here:

Hard Times Come Again No More

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Winning Color Strategy - Using Red and Black

I've found that red and black and almost any other color produce a winning combination.

Try starting with red and black and then add one of these:
white, off-white, silver gray, steel gray, tan, yellow, gold, orange, blue, turquoise, green,
hot pink, maroon, violet or purple.

If used in the right ratio these can produce stunning effects!

Think of how many times you've seen red and black used in beautiful combinations in Navajo rugs.

I collected a few photos of Navajo designs where the dynamic duo of red and black
play a strong role. You can see them here.

This Ganado round piece hangs on the wall in my dining room.

In these two wool purses from Chimayo, New Mexico red and black also play a key role. These were purchased from weaving shops in Chimayo and then I added my own woven straps, made to match.

Laverne Waddington cites several weaving traditions for giving her the inspiration to do a lovely series in red, black and white. She says that her first inspiration was probably back with her first weaving experiences when she made a Navajo Storm Pattern piece. She has also long admired the combination in Bedouin textiles and her Montagnard teachers used it a lot.

In this post, she talks some about the inspiration for this combination.

These patterns, while they all share the color combination have a wide range of inspirations for the patterns. The lower one of stars came from spending time at Lake Titicaca, Peru where the stars filled the night sky, the center one, has motifs from the Wayuu culture of Colombia and Venezuela and the top one inspired by "chamantos", ponchos used by the "Huaso" (Chilean cowboy). The motifs represent the rich agriculture and horse culture of the central part of Chile...wine producing area.

The two sashes below are woven in the traditional Pueblo sash colors,

red and black with a green border stripe.

I love this shawl I purchased from the weaver, Mercedes, in Santiago Atitlan, Solola, Guatemala.

I used the same color scheme in this guitar strap (minus the tiny bit of white).

This one was woven yesterday while I showed my straps at the

Santa Cruz County Art of Guitar Festival.

This is one of my favorite guitar straps of all times using the bright turquoise in the center surrounded with a heavy dose of black and red.

And here's an older wool sash which I made and always liked the particular shade of blue and how well it worked with the red and black.

It's pattern draft looks like this.

The guitar strap below is handsome with two shades of gray, light and dark combined with red and black. Sometimes a fourth color is just right, too.

And it's pattern draft is below.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Art of Guitar

Santa Cruz, California is home to an extraordinary number of luthiers who have achieved recognition in the art of high-end guitar building.To celebrate these accomplished artists, their work will be displayed for six weeks at the R. Blitzer Gallery, located on Santa Cruz’s westside. Additionally, six weeks of concerts, lectures and other events associated with the exhibit will highlight this distinctive aspect of Santa Cruz’s thriving artistic climate.

On Saturday March 1st, from 2:00PM to 8:00PM I will be set up at the gallery with my loom. At 2:00 there will be a free concert with Russian classical guitarist, Yuri Liberzon. Another concert starts at 8:00, with Alex de Grassi, William Coulter and Evan Hirschelman. It is sold out!

At this evening concert there will be a debut performance on this "Humanitar", a sculptural harp guitar built by Fred Carlson. Read more about Fred's work on his website here.

A new book by Renée Flower and Jim MacKenzie tells the story of how such a relatively large and robust community of guitar makers came to be located in Santa Cruz County. It includes 170 illustrative photographs along with 18 profiles of local luthiers, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their woodworking techniques and their instruments-in-progress. A selection of these photos is on display in the gallery exhibition.