Bluebell Wood at BBG.Part 3

Another shot of the Bluebell Wood from my recent visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Click the photo to enlarge it.

Bluebell Wood at BBG.Part 2

Another photo of the Bluebell Wood at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Mass plantings of a single flower fill me with a mix of repose and excitement. Click the photo to see it better. This path was inviting but, in the end, we did not explore it because the day was short and we still had not reached our planned destination -- the peony trees.

Bluebell Wood at the BBG.Part 1

May 17 was an overcast, rainy day at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This shot was taken in the Bluebell Wood. Visitors were scarce, the lighting was beautiful, and everything was fresh-washed with rain. Just lovely. Truly.

Infinite Variety

This week, the American Folk Art Museum in New York City has a special showing of quilts: "Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts." The show is free!  The 651 red and white quilts are part of the collection of Joanna S. Rose.

Location: Park Avenue Armory, New York City
Dates: March 25 - 30, 2011
Times: See the show website






For those who are not fortunate enough to attend, here are a few options:

• The show website which includes:
• Photos of some of the quilts
• Free apps for various devices
• Conversations on Twitter
• Flickr group of video and photos -- really wonderful!
• Listen to the curator talk about the show on your telephone. Dial 212-514-0013 and then select a recording (1 through 13). I found #3 and #12 especially interesting -- they explain the exhibit layout and describe how all 651 quilts were hung in just 2 days!
• Martha Stewart
• 37 photos of the show on her blog
• Will feature the exhibit on her show tomorrow

The photo above is not in the show. It's part of my Valentines for Jane series, a collection of virtual quilts made with photos of Dear Jane blocks. You can view the series here.

Met Roof in Blue and Green

Note: You can now buy this design online at this link You can even select the fiber content and fabric weight you prefer.

This is another swatch from Spoonflower, this time, in green and blue. The original is on the left; the print is on the right. It was printed on the upholstery weight cotton. The colors on the swatch are actually deeper and richer than they appear in these photos.

To learn more about this image, see the previous posting.

Met Roof in Stripes

This swatch (printed by Spoonflower) is based on a photo taken from the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with color changes made using IrfanView's free software.You can read more about all this here and here. The design is on the left and the fabric on the right. Obviously, the image was cropped and repeated.

It's printed on upholstery weight cotton, which made the photography a challenge. In the end, I used the scanner. Click on the photo below to see more detail including the fabric texture and the jig-joggy angles of the buildings -- an unexpected and pleasant surprise when I edited the colors.

Spoonflower Special

Spoonflower is offering free 8"X8" swatches today (maximum 2 per customer) until midnight EST! Even the shipping is free and you have the option to recycle your savings into a donation to
Heifer International.

I just placed my order for two designs based on a photo I took from the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The image was then adapted on IrfanView. Each design is a bit different in scale and color. I chose the upholstery weight for both. The photo is deceptive because the Met has hedges planted all around the roof -- maybe 5 feet deep. From one side of the roof, you can look out onto the tops of the trees in Central Park.

To preview my Spoonflower designs, visit my account at http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/minka.

I'm eager to see these swatches and already have tenative plans for how I will use them. I arranged the repeats to make horizontal stripes. Maybe I should have done one of them as a checkerboard. Oh well, maybe next time. I hope you get over there and try your designs on Spoonflower!

NYC from the Roof of the Met.v3

This third image in this series looks less abstract and fake than the previous two -- in my opinion. I like the way this version makes the buildings look all jig-joggy; that's just from the color changes on IrfanView -- nothing else. I think this would make a fun fabric.

I tried to post these photos onto a Flickr group of photos taken from above but they keep rejecting them. I think they think this photo is fake or was taken while standing on the ground. Here's a link to that group.

NYC from the Roof of the Met.v2

An IrfanView edit of yesterday's post. I like the pink buildings on the left. For the first time, I'm recognizing how similar the foreground texture is to a texture in one of my paintings this summer. The difference is that this texture came from a camera and the other was first created with a paint brush.

NYC from the Roof of the Met

This is a summer shot of New York City from the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The roof of the Met has about 3 to 5 feet of evergreens around its edge (probably to keep people from falling off and maybe to also control what you see). At this angle and with the edits, it brings to mind fog-covered treetops. I like the contrast of the organic texture in the foreground with the cubes along the horizon and the way the buildings are so much smaller than the shrubbery.

This shot was taken in June 2007 and edited on IrfanView.

NYC View.23

This is one of my favorite cropped images from the eighth painting in the series.

NYC View.22

This is a cropped image from the seventh painting in the NYC View series.

NYC View.21

NYC View.20

NYC View.19

A sepia version of yesterday's post.

NYC View.18

Another cropped image from the seventh painting in the New York City skyline series.

NYC View.17

Here's sepia version of yesterday's post -- a la IrfanView.

NYC View.16

This is the first of many images cropped from yesterday's post.

NYC View.15

This painting, the seventh in the series, is my favorite. From this painting I learned that if you can crop many images out of one painting, it probably has a lot going for it. Watch the coming posts to see what I mean.

The brighter one was edited on IrfanView. The color in the original painting looks like something halfway between these two. I love the way the big shapes seem to distort the proportions of the paper.

NYC View.14

Here's a cropped image from yesterday's post a la IrfanView. Life in "the city" never felt so deserted. LOL!