Daily Drawing

Castle of Leaves - gouache in 8x6 Gamma sktechbook

'Feather' - Pigma pen and Prismacolor pencil in 8x6 Gamma sketchbook

'Pogo' - gouache in 8x6 Gamma sketchbook

I bought a little 5 color mixing set of gouache paints at the Big art store in Denver and have been enjoying the opacity of them, which allows me to build up color in a different way.  Hope your week is going well.

Tyvek Beads in Denver

One more post from Denver, although as I write I am in the Seattle airport on the final leg of my journey back home.  My Mom, Dad and I shared so many fun times.  How grateful I am that we all survived my troublemaker younger years – couldn’t have without their unconditional love.

acrylic on Tyvek envelop

 Making beads of acrylic-painted Tyvek is a lovely addiction we indulged in one cool, breezy morning.  We cut apart Tyvek envelops, painted them with a combination of acrylic paint and Lumiere fabric paints... 

 ...cut the dried paintings into long, narrow strips and then...

 

... twisted the strips around a bamboo skewer.  Some we wrapped with embroidery thread.  The twisted strips were then zapped delicately with a heat gun (ventilation, please).  Push the melted twist off the skewer and the result is a wonderful bead.  

Bet you can't stop with one!

Thanks again to you, Razt and Dad,  for all the love in Denver!

Yves St. Laurent at DAM

While visiting the Real World, it’s important to make the most of museums and such.  Mother and I did that as we visited the amazing Yves St. Laurent retrospective at the Denver Art Museum.  Curator Florence Muller and exhibition designer Nathalie Criniere did an incomparable job of illuminating the iconic designer’s genius through well-narrated audio guides and interpretive notation about the many displays of his exquisite fashion.

Photo used with permission by

Vintage Style Files

Especially interesting were the reproduction of St. Laurent’s studio and the display of his fabric samples arrayed floor to ceiling along both sides of a twenty foot long hallway in rainbow color order.  I also loved the stunning ball gown collection and the portion of the exhibit given to fashion inspired by artists such as Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh and Mondrian. 

Photo used with permission by

Vintage Style Files

Most impressive to us was the breadth and depth of St. Laurent’s creativity, as exemplified by the two Tuxedo Walls.  Designing an innovative tuxedo for his collection as he did each year demonstrates the potential of limitation to spur the creative process. 

Pausing in front of the collection of his early work which brought men’s ware to women’s fashion for the first time, we were struck by how those elegant tailored looks influenced my mother’s wardrobe all through her professional career as an educator.

Photo used with permission by Vintage Style Files

I think the fact that St. Laurent was as committed to haute couture as he was to ready-to-wear is part of what gave his work the power to mark the way women dress both then and now.