Yes, it's been a whole year since I last blogged. But, what a busy year it's been! I assisted in the creation of an on-line store, www.santafefabrics.com, and wrote stories, fabric descriptions, and Cookie's blog for that gorgeous website. I also helped women become their most creative selves in the brick and mortar store, and drew many followers on Twitter and through Cookie's witty banter and stylish observations. Sadly, the owners, Nancy and Jack, decided to close the business, and so I moved on to help launch Detours at La Fonda www.lafondasantafe.com, the hotel's new gift store. It carries all the guest necessities ("I need a bottle opener for that Merlot I just purchased"), along with La Fonda Lifestyles, high-end art and much more.
It's good to write for myself again, so I'll update my Facebook page www.facebook.com/StudioLizzy, Tweet Cynthia Cavanaugh@StudioLIzzy.com, and Reggie will be heard from again (he's been very miffed, and his fans have not been happy about his absence).
And, since I'm also looking for those perfect writing assignments, here are some examples from my very eclectic portfolio.
The keys are clicking again!
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Lunchtime
Letter
My
Darling Peach,
You
and your partner were the chosen ones.
So
huge and gorgeous, nestled in your little carton
near
the late summer melons and early fall apples.
I
placed you gently into my basket and nudged you
around
so the onions, pinto beans, beets, and roasted chilies
wouldn’t
bruise your tender skin
I
knew you weren’t ready, so you sat in a plain brown bag
in
my kitchen for a few days.
I’ve
had my lunch of earthy quinoa salad from Real Food Nation,
and
the last of the glorious tiny cherry tomatoes, so sweet,
they
burst on my tongue like exploding sugar balls.
Wouldn’t
anything after that be really anticlimactic?
But
there you were, filling the house with your heady perfume.
So
huge I’d have to cut you in half with no one to share you with.
Peeled,
sliced, and laid out in jeweled slices,
one
bite sent all cherry tomato memory into orbit.
Your
days in paper bag seclusion released all your musky sweetness.
You’re
so good, you don’t need a pie or tart to add to your pure,
luscious
magnificence.
Memories
of long-ago evenings of mom’s canning from the Little
Tree
in the Yard fill my mind with every bite.
You
are the essence of summer, my darling.
Thank
you for sharing yourself with me.
All
my love,
-C
Cynthia
L. Cavanaugh 09/10
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A fabric description for www.santafefabrics.com by Cynthia Cavanaugh
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| A Devore Velvet Coat from the 1920's |
Fukeiga
Devore Velvet
65%
Rayon / 35% Silk, 42-44" wide
Fukeiga, or Japanese
landscape, is beautifully rendered in this sumptuous burnout
(or devoré) velvet. The sheer dyed scene in soft, subtle colors
sits next to the gorgeous black velvet. This treasure reaches back to the
popularity of devoré in evening coats of the late teens and early 20's:
think Fortuny and Callot Soeurs, and wraps, opera coats, or jackets...
.....or,
if you're very at ease in your own skin and a
little adventurous, consider separating the two landscape scenes into
pieces with sheer areas placed wherever you're comfortable. A form-fitting
dress with each fukeiga
running vertically down your sides, or fitting snugly in a horizontal
placement ever so strategically...
...or
fabricate your piece on the diagonal to float this scene around your body.
This
work of art could be executed in your own art piece: an evening wrap, vest, or
shaped jacket in its most elegant form. The black ground with softened shades
would be the star of any night out.
Have fun with your own work of art! A Cookie Favorite
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A page from a lecture for on-line class at CSULB
Cynthia Cavanaugh, Instructor
COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT
MODULE 3: CARE
AND STORAGE
Class Eight:
Exhibition
Introduction
The size and type of institution that you work for will
dictate your involvement with exhibitions. Your institution might not have
exhibitions at all; but you might loan out your pieces to other institutions
for exhibition. In that case, you might need to courier the art to its
destination.
You might work for a very small institution where you “wear
many hats” and will act as Curator, Registrar, Collections Manager, etc. In
that case, your roles will be very broad.
You might work for a large institution that does exhibit,
but has many departments involved, and so your role is strictly in Collections
Management.
In this last lesson we’ll deal with both the first and third
scenarios because both of those cover the second scenario, that of a small
institution, as well. Please refer to your hand-out,
“Exhibition Protocol”. This is a protocol that I collaborated on
with Conservation to clearly define everyone’s role within our department, in
the installation and de-installation of an exhibition. I think that the role of
the Collections Manager (in this case called Collection Administrator) is
fairly typical of what you would find in most large institutions that handle
exhibitions.
Also, this last lesson is all about your organizational
skills. You have learned about the hands-on aspect of Collections Management,
and you’ve already started to organize your own files with many of the sources
that we’ve made available to you to refer to in the future. Your involvement
with loans and exhibitions calls upon the handling skills you now have, and
will, develop. But, more than that, if you are already a very organized person,
that will greatly enhance your ability to handle the intricacies of art
movement. If organizational skills are not your greatest asset, now is
definitely the time to work on that!
In this class we’ll talk about:
- Loans
- Collection
Manager as courier
- In-house
exhibitions
- Record
keeping
Required reading
1. The New Museum
Registration Methods pages 189-191, 151-155, and 355-358.
2. Hand-out:
“Exhibition Protocol”.
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A fabric story for www.santafefabrics.com by Cynthia Cavanaugh
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| Making Mali Mud Cloth |
Mali Adventure, Day 4 –Djenne′
Sitting here in the cooling
shade of a café by the River Bani, it’s hard to imagine that this bit of oasis
is in a place of so much sun and so little water. But this is a small, moist corner
in a country made more of sand than of green. Along the Saharan trade route through the
millennia, this country of empires that have come and gone, Moroccan and
sub-Saharan influences, French colonization, where Tuaregs and their camel
caravans can appear unexpectedly on the horizon; it’s a surreal landscape. Along
with the official French, Bambara, Dogon, Songhai, Bozo, Fulani, and Tamashek can
still be heard in the marketplace where slabs of freshly caught fish lay by baskets
of gloriously colored vegetables, the ever-present rice, and beautifully
patterned cloth. In this town of mud houses, goats everywhere, the Great Mosque
of Djenne′, and 3 hour tea rituals consisting of two pots of water and lots of
sugar and mint, are beautiful, gracious people.
Tomorrow, Timbuktu!! But
first….a purchase of Malian Mud Cloth.
A country of few resources,
but with a rich history of music and art, young men are continuing a textile
tradition that reaches into the balance of water and soil that is so indigenous
to Mali. Bo`go`lanfini or bogolan
cloth is a coarsely woven cotton cloth set in a yellow dye that is then removed
to reveal clean, simple black and white designs that have been painted over the
yellow. The dyes of leaves and bark are used to create the gorgeous earthy colors
of this striking fabric. Each piece is a work of art, with simple geometric
designs that echo the stark beauty of this harsh land. Perfect hung alone on a
wall or as a beautiful floor statement, it can also be adapted to wear over
other softening fabric. And with big chunky necklaces or a band of silver or
gold African bracelets….magnifque′.
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