Summer is over...

Hello everyone!

I am back from my vacations to Kos island. The island is beautiful and we had a great time. We visited many archaeological monuments that are scattered all over the island,  castles, ancient temples, old theatres and the Ancient Market.  Over time Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and Italians have passed through the island leaving their marks on it.

Kos is the birthplace of Hippocrates, the father of medicine. We saw the Tree under which he used to teach. It still stands in the centre of the town, being the oldest tree in Europe and one of the oldest worldwide (more than 2000 years old). The Asklepieion is undoubtedly the most important monument that we visited, the oldest and most famous centre of healing in the ancient world. 

I should not forget to mention all the beautiful sandy beaches that we visited!  

That's it. Kos island is one of my best places to be!

KP

Embroidery in Art - Patricia Dahlman

Some time ago I wrote a post about embroidery as a form of art through the artistic work of Olja Stipanovic. Patricia Dahlman is another artist I discovered in the Internet that uses embroidery to express her artistic temperament. She works on canvas, cutting out forms, then stuffing and sewing them together. These stuffed, sewn forms are either stitched using different colors of thread or painted with acrylic paint.
 

Her three-dimensional sewn forms are based on photographs from news magazines and off the Internet of people such as George Bush and events like the insurgency in Iraq.  The creation that follows, named "Freedom?", is a good example.

The subject matter of her work is taken from personal thoughts, life experiences and reactions to political events around the world.

My favorite creation is this one called "Family".

Short Bio:
Patricia  Dahlman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and studied art at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and Yale University Summer School of Music and Art in Norfolk, CT. Patricia has received a New Jersey Printmaking Fellowship at Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, two Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowships to attend Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts, a Yaddo Residency and a Puffin Foundation Grant for the War and Peace Print Project. Patricia has shown her work all over the United States and exhibited recently at George Adams Gallery in NYC, 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, FL and Jersey City Museum in Jersey City, NJ. Upcoming exhibitions include a solo show at "Art in the Windows" at the New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan Library in NYC. Patricia lives and works in Lyndhurst, NJ with her husband the artist, Michael Dal Cerro.
 

You can see more of her work here.

So have you used or seen other people use embroidery in a similar or other contemporary  artistic way?

KP

Embroidery in Art - Olja Stipanovic

Embroidery is a form of art. When it intersects with other forms of art, the result is innovative and contemporary. An illustrative example is the artwork of Olja Stipanovic, an emerging artist from Croatia. One of her exhibitions, called "Stitches", uses embroidery combined with photography and drawings on a rice paper, to express the tangibility of human skin with marks related to human body.

Human body as an embodiment tool with so many experiences in cultural, social and personal life carries numerous codes of identification, articulating at the same time notions and ideas. By using the red thread she writes on "rice" new substitutes with an aim to articulate the body as a word, thought or semantic code (for more details click here).

Her stitches originate from a variety of myths, through kids' games or simply, palm readings, creating her own "bodies".

I hope you liked this post. I have never imagined embroidery used in this way. Have you used or seen other people use embroidery in a similar or other contemporary way?

KP

The Lovers' Pocketbook by Raymond Peynet

For all the incurably romantics this is the perfect gift!

A really cute, romantic book featuring Peynet’s lovers. The book is full with lovely illustrations. I found a  wonderful set in Flickr.

This one is from my favorite. Peynet's famous couple, Les Amoureux, is shown here sheltering from harp strings.

KP