Dadaist Minisuled Mutton-Thumper

Remember my duplicate shoes the other day? The fates have gotten even with me and nearly broke my ankle in the process. Needless to say, these are in the North Adams landfill by now and I am back down to one pair (but saw another pair in my size a few days back just-in-case)

Ahhh, Mass MoCA. This is what I was going to post yesterday but got busy finishing up my knitted blankie and didn't get back to the computer. So, here goes: The main show was Spencer Finch, "What Time is it On The Sun?", a conceptual show I thoroughly enjoyed as long as I didn't get too far from the wall descriptions. He is concerned with measuring and categorizing things that are, for most of us, immeasurable. For instance, one of the first rooms on entry is white and completely bare except for a few simple benches in the center. One whole wall is a set of huge industrial windows that have been covered with (or maybe sandblasted) with diffused bright colors, one each to a pane. There is a warm glow over the whole room, then, when you read about it, Mr Finch has isolated the colors from candlelight, put them on the windows and the whole room approximates a room lit just with candles. And it sure does feel like just that.

Another very small wall has a series of 7 or 8 framed color photographs that are a progression from an image of a landscape scene to the image of an interior doorway. These are taken of a window and charts the light as time progresses from day into evening so in the beginning you are seeing the outdoor scene through the window but as it gets darker outside and lighter inside, the door reflection becomes more clear until finally it is the only image. Simple, and lovely chronicalling of time changes.

This continues as a theme as he dissects elements and reassembles them in all his pieces. Another very compelling piece is also in other Mass MoCA windows- he has put gels on the top halves of a bank of windows in an exhibit room to duplicate the sky color for 6 months of time in his home studio. You don't even realize it's there until you read about it, then you see the different colors of gray, white, and blues seen against the sky from the exhibition space- compare and contrast days of color!

But do take a minute and go to the 2 websites to read about what's going on. Frankly I cannot wait to get back, but that also might be due to the wonderful hotel we stayed at right around the corner from the museum, The Porches which I will recommend to anyone.

Here we are on our ride home along the little dots on the map, coming down out of the Berkshires. The day was overcast up high, but as we went east the clouds lowered into the valleys and congregated on the little lakes off in the distance. The ride was spectacular, but when we saw this view on the side of the road screeched to a halt to take a picture.

No Hot Offe today, the place was shut tight. Sure could have used it too.

So after three days of not holding a fiber in my hands, I raced to the baby blankie and finished it up. It's blocking on my design wall held up by many interior pins and I hope this kiddo drags it around for years, or like my daughter, even takes it to college.

A few days ago I posted some pictures of the lift they are using to paint the building, and right before we left I managed to print a few onto some vintage damask. The prints are 13" wide and for the most part look OK, except that I am having severe problems with clogged print heads now. This is from leaving it abandoned for months, even off, and then not even taking full advantage of it when I am home. I don't know what to do... I was running the 'clean heads' utility before every print but by the time it was halfway through I was getting the lines again. I sure hope I don't need a new printer here- was planning on getting a good one for FL but frankly I was getting better photo images down there from the free HP that came with the computer. The problem with it is that it's not the right inks for fabric and it's only a small format. It did work great for the Dumpster series of collages.

Any ideas on how to get these heads clean once and for all? Again?