Pooja Mehta: Indian Embroidery

Over the winter I discovered that the Erie Art Museum offered classes...yes, you heard correctly, you can take an art class at the Erie Art Museum and learn from an amazing local artist...so what are you waiting for?!? Anyway, with my work schedule there were only two classes that I would be able to enroll in and here is the description of the one I choose or rather choose me:

Indian Embroidery - Pooja Mahta

Students learn the basics of Indian embroidery as traditionally used in Indian clothing. Participants learn techniques such as aari, resham, bead, sequin, coin and zardosi work. At the end of the course, each student takes home a unique square of cloth filled with their own ornate work. In addition to scheduled class hours, an additional practice session is held every Saturday.

Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect when I signed up. I had no idea what Indian embroidery was and I had no experience in normal embroidery, so this was probably going to be a terrible idea, but I was looking forward to learning something totally new.

The first class was awful. There were four of us in the class, all not completely understanding what we were getting ourselves into, and then our amazingly talented teacher Pooja. The first thing we did was look at all her beautiful handmade designs and then listen to her tell us that we too would make something that beautiful...yeah, right... Then she gives us the world's smallest crochet hook and explains that it is the tool we must master during the next four weeks. You should have seen the look on all our faces. It's hard to explain how this tool is used, but I have found it helpful to describe it as becoming a human sewing machine. Anyway, the last 45 minutes of the class we all struggled to comprehend how to use our new tool with no success and on my way home I questioned weither of not I wanted to continue.

Needless to say I stuck with it and got totally addicted. I'm pretty sure I ignored Jeremy for a good month (if not a bit longer...)while I worked on the different stitches we learned in class. I could hardly wait to go and learn more, and I looked forward to every practice season we had on Saturday. However my embroidery was completely different than Pooja's. Traditionally Indian embroidery is meant for making intricate designs, but I made pictures instead, but none the less I ended up having a great time and learned something completely new. And I am proud to say that I was able to complete two projects which I framed: one in which was in the "First Class" show at the Erie Art Museum and the other which I submitted to the "Spring Show" at the Erie Art Museum but got rejected. (a sampling of my work can be seen in the picture below - the three small blocks in the bottle right hand side.)

Pooja lives in Erie with her husband and daughter but frequently travels to her home in India, where she owns a ladies' boutique which features her designs. Her specialty is Indian embroidery and textile design, however she is also does mixed-media painting, which can be seen in Urraro Gallary at 12th and Sass.

Sleep patterns

Experimenting with color

Wet Dog Smell.

Animal Kingdom

The Avalon Restaurant

I remember the first time I saw "The Avalon Restaurant" piece in the Erie Art Museum - I was probably 9 years old. Every New Years Eve my family would head downtown for First Night Erie where we would go from building to building hearing music, watching plays, making crafts and drinking hot chocolate. Every year we would end up in the Erie Art Museum and I would be drawn to the display case featuring a dozen or so handmade fabric people. They terrified me, but like a trainwreck I had to look.

The other day I was in the new Erie Art Museum (bigger, greener and super cool!) and I couldn't help bu seek out "that creepy people display" I remembered from those First Night Eries so long ago. When I found it it was like I had looked at it every day. I remembered everything about it! Except now I didn't find it creepy, only fasinating. What were they made out of? How long did it take? What do they feel like? How hard are the tootsie rolls after being in there that long? Who made it? So I did a little research and this is what I found:

Since 1984, visitors to the Erie Art Museum have been delighted to discover Lisa Lichtenfels' The Avalon Restaurant. The installation depicts a moment from the life of the Avalon, a now-defunct downtown diner. The Avalon contains 21 soft sculpture figures, scaled to 1/3 life-sized, each remarkably lifelike and painstakingly detailed.

Artist Lisa Lichtenfels was born in Erie and attended Harborcreek High School. She graduated with honors from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1980. Her first interests were in animation and illustration, but in college she began to work in three-dimensional figures. Her series of soft sculptures, inspired by Philadelphia street people, won the prestigious Ely Award.

After a year's stint in the animation department at Disney Studios, Lichtenfels left to devote herself full-time to her sculpture. She first showed her work locally in the summer of 1982, when her exhibit entitled Dolls was on display at the Erie Art Center. That year the Museum acquired the Avalon Restaurant for its permanent collection. In 1983, Lichtenfels' Krazy Horse Saloon diorama was displayed as part of the Erie Art Museum's grand opening exhibition at its new home at 411 State Street.

The artist's method reveals her fine attention to detail. Working from sketches, Lichtenfels constructs a skeleton from armature wire, including a skull with individual teeth and lifelike eyes. Cotton batting is stitched onto the skeleton to form the musculature, and the entire sculpture is covered with nylon of the desired skin color. The eyes are made of carefully painted marbles, the fingernails are of plastic, and the hair is unspun wool or wig hair. The result is a unique, anatomically detailed sculpture. Each figure takes more than a month to complete.

Lichtenfels worked as a waitress at the Avalon one summer during college. She described herself as "a terrible waitress...but one of the reasons was that there were such interesting people there." At the Avalon, Lichtenfels was able to "study character," which would influence her work.

Years later, Lichtenfels happened to be back in Erie when the Avalon was closed down. At the same time, the artist was in the process of developing her distinctive soft sculpture technique. Distressed at the loss of the special community that the restaurant was for many people, Lichtenfels set out to "immortalize the Avalon" through sculpture.

"The first figure I made for the series was the little Mennonite girl. I had seen the Mennonites come in from the old Greyhound bus station next door. After I decided I wanted to do the Avalon, I made each figure with an idea as to how it would fit into the installation."

Lichtenfels created the clothes, shoes, and food, and designed the tables, benches and counter for the Avalon. The entire tableau took over a year to complete. Frank and Hazel Merva, the restaurant's owners, who are depicted behind the counter, first saw the installation in the gallery. "I was worried that they might be upset," Lichtenfels said, "but they were enthralled." (The waitress figure behind the counter is a self-portrait.)

Asked if she had a favorite from the Avalon series, the artist identified the Frank and Hazel figures and "Violent Viola," the largest figure in the installation. Viola, like all the figurines, was inspired by one of the Avalon regulars. "She was one of the more intimidating characters," Lichtenfels recalled, "She would walk in and just take over the place, both visually and verbally."

"'The Avalon' was a boon for me," Lichtenfels said, "it really started me on my career." Currently, the artist is exhibiting her sculpture and working on "mostly individual figures, and small vignettes, of two or three pieces. But," she says, "I'd like to do more installations in the future."

http://www.erieartmuseum.org/exhibits/permanent/avalon/index.html

Trashy Beach Art: finished

Trashy Beach Art: update

My project is well on its way, however I keep needing more plastic. I have picked up two grocery bags full so far, but I still don't have enough. Then again I tend to pick up plastic/trash regardless of its color...so this next trash run I'll have to be a little picky.

Needs:

* beach trash (blue/green)
* hot glue sticks (a lot!)
* time (we are moving in a week!)
* black piece of fabric/bed sheet

Glow Coloring

Yesterday I had my first experience with an Ipad while hanging out with our friend Bunny and her hubby Jason - I had no idea what I was doing. But, there was a program on it called Glow Coloring so I was naturally drawn to it and what did I find? You got to draw pictures with your finger OR you could color over a picture you took or uploaded...with you finger! I must admit it was a little disorienting since I wanted to keep licking my finger or wiping it off on a napkin, but man did I have a good time.

Our Time at Long Meadow Farm (Maine)