Bob Dylan In America

I'm reading the new Sean Wilentz bio of Bob, a  Christmas present from my husband David. It starts out tracing the roots of the liberal-lefty-Commie elements of American folk music, and surprisingly, it goes back to Aaron Copland. (In 1934, he won the Communist Song Award!)
 It also turns out that Copland's young protege was Leonard Bernstein....and Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan were all part of this left wing group.
  Pete Seeger's father, Charles was a folk music collector, along with John Lomax and his son, Alan. Pete Seeger dropped out of Harvard, and worked with Alan at the Library of Congress, where the Lomaxes created the Archive of American Folk Song.  Alan discovered and recorded a young songwriter named Woody Guthrie, who then teamed up with Seeger and a group of folk artists to form the Almanac Singers. They promoted union organizing, racial justice, and other left wing causes. In the late 1940s, the Almanacs evolved into The Weavers, who had a number one hit with "Good Night Irene", which was a 1933 Leadbelly song discovered by the Lomaxes. The Weavers introduced the younger generation and Bob Dylan to the music of Woody Guthrie. Of course, Pete Seeger was named a "subversive", and the group was blacklisted. (The 1963 cover of Bob's album "Freewheelin" features him and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo, whose parents were New York City intellectuals and Communists, as well.)
This was all kind of news to me, the American Communist connection with folk music...though I knew about Pete Seeger & The Weavers being blacklisted. I wonder what it was about Communism that was so attractive during the 30s and 40s to all these artists, writers, and musicians. I guess it sounded good at the time...
Recently I was up late, and watched (for the 3rd or 4th time) the Martin Scorcese documentary "No Direction Home, which was divided in two parts so perfectly, and I was really primed to get this new biography. We just can't seem to get enough of Bob, from his folk period through his going-electric-mid-to-late 60s. It's all so brilliant, and he was just exploding with creativity. Was anyone ever as cool? No one could wear a checked suit & a top hat with more style. But then, I love his Rolling Thunder Review phase too, where he tours with Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and others. He was really our spokesperson, whether he liked it or not--we grew up with him, just like we did with The Beatles.

Collecting

 I love vintage cards! These are the latest score from a Poughkeepsie junk shop on Route 9, and I got an entire box for $1. For some reason, they're easy to find, and they're usually really cheap. These are from the bottom end of the Christmas card market, and are kind of cheesy, but who can resist them? The Santa ones are all covered with dusty red flocking, and the kitten on the sled is a little pathetic. I like the dry brush style ornaments, they look very late 50s to me. The cards are all done by Whitman. I have some vintage paper dolls, and the Whitman ones are all done using this technique. I guess it was the style of their in house illustrators. Another detail: all the vintage Christmas cards I have are done on paper, as opposed to card stock, so it's pretty amazing that they've lasted this long, especially the ones from the 40s. And the box that these came in was from an old massage vibrator. It was so awful looking, that I actually decoupaged over it!

But, I do like the Eloise Wilkins style children dancing around Santa and riding on his sled... they're really pretty sweet.

Collecting

This is our Wall of Icons. When we lived in Los Angeles, David and I started collecting them. We began going to the incredible flea markets around LA, and there was a different one every Sunday. Our first one was the Elk's Club, and in 1987, painted Monterey furniture was cheap, and just about knocked our socks off. We would go with our East Coast friends who were living in LA at the time, and we were all completely taken with Bauer pottery, vintage cowboy stuff & Western paintings, vintage fabrics, lamps from the 40s and 50s, and wonderful old, peeling furniture. It was a magical time, getting to Pasadena in the early morning when they were unloading trucks with primitive Mexican furniture that was painted in shades of green and turquoise. The winter sun was always shining and you were surrounded by mountains. Eventually, we started going to the Rose Bowl, Pasadena City College, and Long Beach...all filled with the stuff of Old California. We bought a big sturdy Mission armchair (now recovered using a Mexican blanket), dark green Adirondack chairs, vintage textiles and clothing, McCoy Pottery, sets of dishes, stunning oil paintings, and we hauled most of it back to the East Coast. Our house is filled with found objects have been refurbished, garage sale stuff, and lots of our old flea market purchases. Now of course, a painting that you bought in 1992 is worth ten times what you would have paid then. And the icons above are one of the things we went wild for in LA--where you would see a jeep with a Virgin of Guadelupe tire cover hanging off the back, driving around the Valley. I'm so nostalgic for our LA life lately...the boys were little, and we had a wonderful group of friends, many of them from New York, like us, who were there for a period of time. My sister Linda & her family lived around the corner, our wonderful friend Julie Von Zerneck had her lovely Portrait of a Bookstore (and still does), our dear pal Brett Brdas lived down the street, our neighbor Lilly Holden and her mom lived across from us. LA was an incredibly inspiring place for us---it's a city that has so much creative energy and such gorgeous terrain--mountains, desert, beach, and all that Old Hollywood history.
PS--the cool peace sign is made by David!

A Girl's Favorites

This is Ruby Ritz's new fabric design, with all the things she holds nearest and dearest to her heart. Shoes, lipstick, perfume, a ladylike handbag, her grandmother's pearls, and of course, a good strong cup of coffee and her cell phone---which she could never be without! And that hard-to-find perfect moisturizer. We thought a soothing pastel palette would become her and calm her nerves. She has so much on her mind these days, and is stressed to the max....but aren't we all? Money, money, money...that's all anyone can think about. And you're either working too hard, or hardly working. I guess we should have put a TV on this design too---a nice HD flatscreen--as it seems that's how Ruby's spending a lot of her time. Watching TCM & HBO. Wondering how she's going to make it through the winter without Mad Men....Betty's outfits, Joan's snappy career gal wisdom, Sally's directness, Roger's cool, Don's flaws, and Peggy's resilience. And the spot on, perfect art direction--how about poolside 60s LA in the final episode? They even got that slightly faded polaroid color just right.

Photoshop Fun

I just learned this weekend how to put a design in repeat in PHOTOSHOP, and I think it's going to be a huge life changer! Now, these repeats, as you can see, are basic side-by-side style. I have to figure out how to do a half drop repeat, which will give a different look. But still, I can take a design and instantly turn it into a repeated one...so it's really exciting. And of course, I have Danika to help me if I get in a jam and am stuck. And my son David is a Photoshop pro as well. I have a lot of designs in my portfolio that are painted and finished, but not really in repeat...this way I can make them more fully developed, and maybe get them printed up. I found this website called SPOONFLOWER that I had read about last year, and forgot the name. You can upload designs to them, and they'll print them on cotton fabric. You can get samples for $5 a yard, or actually order yardage for $18 - $32 per. So, it sounds like it would be worth a try! I'm not sure what digital quality is like on fabric, if the colors are a rich, but I definitely want to look into it. 

These are some more of my fabrics printed by Michael Miller. You can get them online now at the Fat Quarter Shop website, as they're sold out at MM. Clotilde made dresses out of the cream colored one, which is called "The Old West". They are adorable, trimmed with a brown & white gingham. The red design is called "Ropin'". 

I have to say, it's so much fun to have your paintings made into fabric...there's just something about it that's so tactile....it's very different than having it just stay flat, like a painting on a wall or a print. It moves, folds, drapes, and molds into whatever shape you put it on, like a chair. It's a totally different experience.

Jamestown sketches

We spent the last two weeks in Jamestown, RI.
 We were house sitting for Marisa Quinn& Jay Sisson, watching their two Labs, Maq & Gillie, and their cat, Samson. It was very relaxing, and I spent a lot of time drawing, just using colored pencils. We went to the beach, and hung out in Newport and Wickford, just poking around. 
Here are some pics of Jack Romano, Ray Noonan, and Patrice Arundale. Jack made a trip to Mackerel Cove while recuperating from spinal surgery. He looks fantastic, and is about 8 inches taller! Ray, of course, is never without a guitar, and was plinking away while watching some tv show. And Patrice  was nice enough to sit in her yellow & white striped suit while we were at the beach one late afternoon. The next night she made us a fabulous dinner!