The Seattle Art Museum

The 3 Fairy Tale tapestries are finished! Photographed! Submitted! Ahead of the Oct 13th deadline. So I took time out to visit the Seattle Art Museum. I was really impressed by this place. The exhibits were arranged to create meaningful connections between the past and the present, with explanations that included the artist’s thoughts. Here are photos of the pieces that sang to me, along with photos of some of the explanations:

(above) A 100-year-old rubbing from a 2,000-year-old gravestone. Old art created from even older art. (below) They had 2 sets of samurai armour.  I loved the hand covers

(Above) A painting by a contemporary Australian Aboriginal artist. (Below) several different patterns painted by other artists. Each dot hand painted.

(above) Masks from the original people of the Pacific Northwest, and something I had never seen before  (above right): a human being neck ring. There are legs hanging down the back, but I couldn’t photograph them.. 

I’ve seen these two paintings before, but I really liked the explanations they gave with them (below)

The African exhibit was GREAT! They had the usual ancient tribal masks (below):

But they also had a parade of mannequins exhibiting contemporary costumes (below)

(above) Old African beadwork, but also the contemporary textile work of artist El Anatsui

(below) Ancient African headdress….. with Nick Cave sound suits!

A magnificent ivory carving that until now I had only seen in photos, along with a cutting-edge installation (below)

I read the explanation for the installation, which has to do with empathy, and watched the accompanying video….but I’d have to read it a few more times to make sense of it (below): 

(below) Last,  huge photographic self-portraits by the South African artist Zanele Muholi:

I don’t pretend to fully understand her images, but I like the way she has some modern versions of ancient headdresses (below):

While waiting for the bus back home, I noticed these copper and stone decorations on an old Macy’s building (below).

And some good news: my Tablet series is being featured in Bound & Lettered Magazine:

The magazine did a great job showing my process, details, and information. It’s the first time that the printed black-and-white line image is shown next to the dye-painted image.

Back to the Opus next week. Contact me at dianesavona@aol.com