Recently my stepdaughter Catherine visited. She was on her way back from a residency at Vermont Studio Center. It gave us a few days to visit, but one of those was a snow day. We had a great time even then watching "Mozart in the Jungle" on the sofa bed. Another day, we made it to the "Wonder" show at the Renwick Museum.
Catherine brought me some fun gifts. One was a box of cards with some of Ruth Asawa's paintings. I knew I couldn't copy Asawa, but decided to do something in the spirit of Asawa and so thought of some with repeated, bending forms and layered effects. This is a painting of a silver bowl....repeated as a freeform, and a candle in the shape of a garlic head. The background is loosely based on a scarf...it is the color of the scarf, at least.
Oh, the best thing about the Asawa cards is that Catherine got them at a show of Black Mountain art, Ruth Asawa went to Black Mountain and so did Catherine's father and my beloved Howard. Howard was actually more a faculty brat than a student, but he did take drawing from Josef Albers. The show is over now, but it was called "Leap Before You Look." It was in Boston. Black Mountain College closed in 1957.
It was fun to try something a little different....quite a challenge, too. Thanks, Catherine, for the great visit and the inspiration to do something different.
