California Poppies, the state flower, usually bloom after the rains...somehow, they've bloomed this year after enough fog. They are the quintessential California sunshine color...evoking the brightness of the sun and the colors of california that have been expressed in landscapes for decades.
In January I looked at the scribbles on my calendar and said, "before I know it, it'll be April." Here we just past the borderline of May. All of that scribble turned into events that have already happened and pages of the calender turning present to past. This winter seemed onerous with continuous snowstorms back East in comparison with our unusual Eternal spring of the West Coast including the Pacific northwest...a place usually know for grey skies, rain and emerald green landscapes. I'm teaching my first East Coast workshops along with a trunk show at my first East Coast gallery, Alchemy 925, located just outside of Boston. I'm excited about this trek East but seriously hope the snow is melted...and I'm only half joking.
Here's the Logo for Center For Metal Arts in Florida, New York...sprinkled with a little bit of quirkiness.
www.centerformetalarts.com
Actually, my East Coast sojurn is quite busy...the entire trip is instigated by my nieces high school graduation. Aside from visiting family I'll be teaching Custom Clasps at Center For Metal Arts in Florida, NY...that's about an hour from NYC, a very pretty spot in the woods near where I went to summer camp as a kid. Center For Metal Arts has a strong Blacksmithing and architectural object program along with their newer small metals program...then a few days respite and visiting followed by a four-day workshop, Engineering Your Way Out at Metalwerx in Waltham, MA. Metalwerx is a long established school offering year round classes and workshop along with Summer With the Masters, an intense month of workshops. During my time at Metalwerx I hope you'll join me for an evening trunk show at Alchemy 925 as a way to introduce my work to the Boston based area. This is the first gallery I've worked with in many years and I'm thrilled to be part of their well-edited collection. Alchemy 925 is also hosting the exhibition The Power and Beauty, in conjunciton with the SNAG (society for North American Goldsmiths) conference. I am honored to have two of my show pieces in this juried exhibition. The show runs from late may until June 6th so I'm going to figure out how to get there and see it in full bloom.
This collage of 100 brooches pairs Jamie Reid (Sex Pistols’ graphic designer) with Rosalie Gascoigne (Australian traffic sign collage artist) dispersing to create individual wearable statements.
Ransom: 100 Brooches created by Boris Bally www.borisbally.com
I bought a Pin. We metalsmiths call them Brooches. The word sounds more romantic, historical and glamorous. My brooch is part of a group of many brooches. Wordsmith/Metalsmith, an Exhibition at Rhode Island College Bannister Gallery from May 19 to June 19th features a group of artists including the artist responsible for this composition of road sign brooches. ...and I figure, I'm on the East coast it's all so close so why not go to that exhibit as well, especially since I am the proud owner of one of the brooches that make up the exhibition, Ransom: 100 Brooches is designed by Boris Bally. This is a series of 100 brooches made out of old traffic signs. These brooches were all put up for sale and I bought one of which will eventually lead to another aspect of the exhibit-of which I'm not yet at liberty to tell. Nevertheless, the 100 brooches look pretty cool together in the picture and I want to see it live and in person. Many of them have parts of words or letters on them which in a sense are deconstructed, giving the 'piece' in the exhibit a presence evoking a lot of thoughts in many directions...depending upon your point of view.
What can I say, I want Lobster and I found the most avant garde image reflecting my love for Lobster.
Lobster. I must have lobster. I'm not one to make up lists of a million things I must do when traveling somewhere...I, more so, have general ideas. Except for Lobster. We in the Bay area have so many riches in locally grown food...choices of hand baked breads and pastries, hand-pulled noodles and long simmered flavorful broths. Eggs with the richest ochre yolks, wild lettuces, strawberries for 8 months out of the year. Oysters and clams from some of the cleanest waters in the world, wild salmon which is soon in season again and dungeness crabs...which are sweet and delicious...but, no Lobster.
So you see, I am a weather wimp. I live in the land of eternal spring. it's a delicate matter and I hope that mother nature obliges. Stay tuned for tales of my Eastward journey, 3,000 miles direct.