Jennifer Michie

Tag: art (page 17 of 18)

October 15, 2010 / 0 Comments

The Tate

This week, Mr. Michie visited the Tate Britain with his media students. The museum lover that I am, I have to admit, sacrilege as this is to say, that the Tate just doesn’t seem to really do it for me, and maybe that is because I always seemed to end up in the Turner room with my classmates studying his pieces and I slowly came to hate going there, being stuck in that room.

And maybe, because the John Singer Sargent that I love and used to visit often, “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose”, suddenly, never seemed to be up when I went, it started to become this elusive painting, I was always hunting for.

I do love going to the Tate Modern however. I love that an old power station instead of being torn down was used to create a space in which people can walk around, interact with art, or sit in a chair, look at an art book and watch the Thames float by.

But, after Mr. Michie’s adventure out on Thursday, I am starting to slowly love the Tate again, if only for this:

I will be going to visit the Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern in a few weeks and I am going to try to squeeze in the going to the Tate as well and I will be looking around it again with fresh eyes, as Humphrey Bogart once said, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

(Image taken by Mr. Michie, Artwork by Bob & Roberta Smith, I was Hansel in the School Play, 2008)

September 26, 2010 / 0 Comments

The Art of Simplicity

I have gone through so many changes with my new blog, In the Art Cupboard. I had so many different ideas of how I wanted it to look. It would be cleaner, simpler, not all the girly flowery things that exist here on Jenny Wren’s.

I mocked-up a “board”, trying a background that looked like a cork board with my designs pinned on it and lived with that for awhile, although something about it never felt right. I tried a stretched canvas background, a solid color in a variety of hues. Like Goldilocks, I just new they were not the right fit.

And, then it hit me! I was trying too hard, too hard to make it look like something it wasn’t, this is a blog about simplicity, about finding one thing a day you want to photograph and putting it up for the world to see and so, the site itself, should be just that. I lost my way for a little bit, but I found it again, simplicity is key.

September 12, 2010 / 0 Comments

Mid Act

Well, this past week has left me feeling like I have been caught mid-act! I can see the bar I need to grab and I am reaching out for it and going to hold on tight as I swing into week 2.  I have been busy every day tidying, organizing, assisting the department and finding new things to catalogue that I plan to photograph.

One of my faves this week was a something I spied behind the door of a colleagues room. It was a  commissioned piece she created out of an old book for a library. It was beautifully done and the way it was imagined and executed left me feeling like Alice about to tumble down into the “rabbit hole” of this book. This is a work of art that will feature on In the Art Cupboard and she has kindly agreed to let me discuss her work in a blog piece here on Jenny Wren’s, which I plan to do in the near future.

The gentle jazz crooning of Nat King Cole’s “Your Nobody till Somebody Loves You” is beckoning me into the kitchen to dance with Mr. Michie, while we make dinner and enjoy the last lingering drops of sunshine as evening falls…

P.S. I bought my first Fall item this weekend. A little pumpkin trick-or-treat bucket to put on my desk and fill with candy for my cupboard visitors, I can’t wait for October!

(“Breathless” by G. Elvgren)

September 5, 2010 / 0 Comments

Back To School

Tomorrow is my first full week at school. I jumped in last week and now I am just swimming around, not sticking too close to the edge, I have thrown myself into the deep end and I am just fine, for the moment anyway.

I have plans this week to do more cleaning in the cupboard, just taking it a section at a time. In going through a pile on Thursday (it cascaded down when I went to reach for something above) I discovered some treasures from China. There were little paintings, bought in a market, a box of two shadow puppets and a few packets of tissue paper wrapped intricately designed paper cut-outs including circus figures, the New Year’s animals and a selection of Oriental women.

I cleaned the other half of my “hallway”, so now there is an easy path inside, with no tripping, twisting, or contorting to get through into the main part of the cupboard. So, tomorrow I will be donning my green apron, rolling up my sleeves and getting back to work!

In celebration of going back to school I will be doing a small series this week of “Back-to-School” posts, so keep a look out for ideas and projects that I will feature here!

June 24, 2010 / 0 Comments

A Place to Be

It is warm here today, the sun is coming and going as giant puffs of cotton candy clouds pass by. It is the perfect day to find a cool place in the shade and just be. Just be with a book, with music, with yourself. This looks like a good place to just be, but looks can be deceiving. This place to be is actually inside here:

This is one of many adorable pieces created by The Rifle Paper Company. I discovered them a little while ago, while searching for something on Martha Stewart. I went to their website and followed that to their blog and I was enraptured! Look at this stationary:

If this doesn’t make you want to sit right down and write a letter to someone, I don’t know what would! I still believe in snail mail you see. For as much as I write online and e-mail, there is still a magic in sitting down and writing a good old-fashioned letter and posting it off into a shiny red postbox as it begins its journey to be popped into someone’s mailbox on the other side of the pond.

And, I look forward to them as well. Getting a letter from my Mom, my Sister or my Nana in the mail is like a mini Christmas. To touch what they have touched and see what they have written in their beautiful handwriting. Now, that to me, is worth more than gold!

To see this beautiful stationary for yourself, click on the link below:

(All images copyright: The Rifle Paper Company, embellished by: J. Michie, Polka Dot Frames: The Pugly Pixel)

June 11, 2010 / 1 Comment

Let the Weekend Begin

We are kicking off the weekend with a bang tomorrow and I can’t wait! Next week is my Birthday and we are starting the celebrations this Saturday. In our house Birthday celebrations are not limited to just the actual day, they are an ongoing feast of little surprises. So, tomorrow I am being whisked away to one of my favorite museums, the V&A to see the Grace Kelly:Style Icon exhibition and the Quilt Exhibition.

Then off somewhere fun for lunch and a bit of shopping in the afternoon. I am looking at my crystal ball and I see a trip to Anthropologie in my future! I am gazing harder into my ball now and if I am lucky I see these jumping onto my feet:

My pink pair are sorely in need of a break and I love the bright happy color of these. So, the house has been cleaned this morning and made ready for the weekend, the only thing to do now is sit back and enjoy the ride….Hope all of you have a wonderful happy filled weekend too!

June 6, 2010 / 0 Comments

A Cozy Nook

Well, Mr. Sunshine has gone away for awhile, it looks like he will be on vacation all week by the weather reports, so the rain is here to stay.  When it is raining like this, I want nothing more than to curl up on the couch with a good book!

This image looked like a cozy nook to curl up in and just read the day away. You can see the window from the bed, which I like because I stop reading and just day dream on rainy days like this and if you got too cold you could drag the rocker over to that adorable stove.

And on a day like today as Summer begins to fully blossom (even in the rain) I would be reading an old favorite, “Anne of Green Gables”. I wanted to be like Anne when I was growing up, I had quite the imagination, so it wasn’t a far stretch to pretend I was Anne Shirley who lived on the second floor of Green Gables with a window that overlooked the pastures, with my best friend and kindred spirit Diana Berry living just a short cut through the fields.

Like Anne, I too am moving on to new adventures, I am going to be working in a school this coming fall. I will get to put my degree to good use working in the Art Department of a local school and I am so excited and nervous and looking forward to this next bend in the road. It isn’t as quaint as Anne’s one room school house in Avonlea, but I will have my own nook to make cozy and I can’t wait!

“When I left Queen’s my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla.”
❈ Anne of Green Gables 
(Image of “A Cozy Nook” found at: Gypsie, image of “Anne” copyright Sullivan Entertainment, “A Cozy Nook”, embellished with tape from a freebie by: The Pugly Pixel)
May 23, 2010 / 1 Comment

Elephants on Parade

We headed into central London yesterday and to our surprise were met with an elephant dressed as Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street.

He was the first of many that we came across on our walk about town. These elephants were all created by artists and celebrities to support the efforts to conserve the dwindling Asian elephant population which is in dire need of help.

My favorite of the day was this one, “Cholai” in Leicester Square:

When we got home we looked up the Elephant Route Map and read about the project and we plan to go back in to see more, like this one by Jack Vettriano, “The Singing Butler Rides Again”:

I want to see the next one especially, outside one of my favorite places, The Natural History Museum. Her name is Phoolan, created by the artist Carrie Reichardt.  She is representative of the beauty of elephants to the eye of an audience, dressed for a parade but the other side of the coin is their destruction by man’s abuse of the land and of them. I love her pink and raspberry red skull head-piece and ankle bracelet, very Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-ish.

Click below to watch a video on how Phoolan was put together, a lot of man hours and tile went into this little lady:

To find out more about the elephants on show and to download a map if you want to see them yourself click on the links below:

(All images copyright The London Elephant Parade 2010, except the image of Phoolan close-up, it is a press release photo from the Blog of Carrie Reichardt)

May 21, 2010 / 0 Comments

Thank You Mr. Postman

My Jolly Postman rapped at my door a few mornings ago now with his cherry red bike in one hand and this in the other:

And what was inside this adorably wrapped tube? It was this:

My sweetie surprised me and had ordered this print I had been pining away for on Etsy.  It is by the very sweetly named Katie Daisy.

I believe very much in this quote, I am wandering, I think I might have found a new path (more to come on that), but I never felt lost.

Go look at her gorgeous page and her other wonderful designs. I love this one:

And this one:

And so many more…

Click on the image below to be taken her to Etsy page:

(images of mailing tube and business cards by J. Michie, all other images copyright Katie Daisy)

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