Chickens

Beautiful and bold chickens are all over Kauai. They’re feral chickens thriving on this island after being let loose from cages being blown apart during the numerous hurricanes that pass through here.  They’re not at all afraid of being eaten, coming straight up to the door to see if food is forthcoming.  The chicken above otherwise known as Dark Meat (named by the boys) has a small flock of small chicks.

The hen below is named White Meat and has a larger brood and larger chicks.  These chickens rule the roost around here.

I don’t expect that they’ll live up to their names any time soon.

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Second Chances

Hot on the tails of seeing Isabelle De Borchgrave’s work in Pulp Fashion comes these dresses made of Tootsie Pop and Mary Jane’s Taffy wrappers.And this ‘quilt’ made from old mattress spring, printed cans, and bed frame.

Time spent in airports is not my favorite time even when I’m going on a fun trip.  There’s too much simultaneous waiting and rushing happening.

At the SF International Airport there are exhibitions in concourse areas and big spaces that rotate in and out.  This one is on the way to most of the United Airlines gates after security.  After the waiting, rushing and craziness of the security lines, it’s good to take a cleansing breath and look at art.

We’re spending the week with friends in Hawaii.  Aloha!

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Pulp Fashion

There’s an exhibit in SF at the Legion of Honor called Pulp Fashion.  (No, it’s not art from a Quentin Tarantino movie)  It’s an extraordinary exhibit of costumes, fashions, and textile items created in paper.  The artist behind all this is Isabelle de Borchgrave.  The name might sound vaguely familiar to folks that have shopped Target’s paper goods section.  She designed several seasons’ worth of party ware and paper goods, but apparently she was busy doing other things as well.

leanor of Toledo (and detail), 2006, inspired by a ca. 1545 portrait of Eleanor and her son Giovanni de’ Medici by Agnolo Bronzino in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo: René Stoeltie

This exhibit is filled with paper textiles and costumes painted, cut, molded, burned, pasted, ironed, pleated and gilded.  Isabelle De Borchgrave took her direction for many of these costumes from paintings made from those periods.

Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo and her Son, Giovanni de Medici

Image courtesy of Bridgeman Art Library

Taking a two dimensional picture of a dress to a three dimensional costume gave me a new perspective on how incredibly ornate the real things must have been.  It was all I could do to not reach out and touch the garments.

If you’re in or around the SF Bay area, it’s worth seeing before it closes June 5th, 2011.

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