Never a dull moment

I will skip the vicissitudes of the week and tell you that Friday night's opening at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at UConn Avery Point was wonderful.  The exhibit was really about things previously considered to be utilitarian that are art/fine craft.  The work was diverse and ran the gamut from art glass to art quilts.

Below, three small pieces beautifully done and mounted by Jude Larzelere.

I must admit that as usual, I was too busy chatting with the other artists and forgot to take many pictures and didn't get any of Barb McKie's pieces.  But here are some of my favorite other pieces in the exhibit:

Hand-made one-of-a-kind string instruments.  Imagine! They were gorgeous.

I loved this little left-handed tea pot.

And this was Nancy's favorite piece in the whole show.

One of the five pieces I was invited to exhibit was this one: 

I started chatting randomly with a charming and handsome (not to mention talented - more about him later) man who had come with his wife to the opening.  When he found out I was the artist of this piece, he immediately told me that it was very African and tribal and reminded him of the various languages and ways of communicating - oral and written - among diverse peoples. (I'm paraphrasing).  It was not the first time I had had this response to the piece I call "Babel" but his depth of observation led to a whole interesting conversation that was the highlight of my evening.

Turns out that the man is a talented playwright named Michael Bradford who is a professor at UConn Storrs and a founding member of the Bated Breath Theatre Company (scroll down on the linked page for a very interesting bit).  His plays have been performed off Broadway in NY and I gave him my card and asked him to keep me posted on when something opens here.  So cool! You never know who you will meet at an art opening!

 

After the opening, Nancy and I headed for Olio and had a fabulous dinner - worth a ride from anywhere.

Well, not ANYwhere but you know what I mean. An hour's drive, anyway.   We grabbed lunch in Greenwich on Saturday's ride home and here I am.


I'm excited about teaching at Illinois Quilters Inc. in Northbrook because we'll be Reinventing the UFO - which is always a fun experience.

 
And I'll be meeting in person some people I've been on an e-mail list with -- something I just love doing.  As a bonus, I'm having dinner with Sharon Rexroad, a C&T author I have e-mailed with and whom I just rediscovered on Facebook. Yay!

Finally, I am juggling teaching dates for 2012 and have been invited to teach in Wisconsin with the hope that another guild or two would like to share my travel expenses. Let me know if you belong to a WI guild that would like to piggyback and I'll see what I can do about putting them in touch with the program chair who has invited me to teach.

Dinner time at my house and then I really have to finish facing that quilt.