Stitches West, knitter's paradise

I spent the last three days fondling fiber at Stitches West, the biggest knitting convention in the U.S., which just happens to be about an hour from where I live. I took a class in backward knitting (handy for entrelac) and "Foxglove sock architecture" from Cat Bordhi. Yes, I bought some lovely hand dyed sock yarn, more Noro Kureyon so I can make some felted bags, and a few other goodies.

Marianne North

Have you ever heard of an English painter called Marianne North? When I went to England last year, I found an old house/museum packed full of her paintings at Kew Gardens. You can see how the walls are completely covered with her work. She was a Victorian-era artist who traveled all over, especially to tropical countries, and painted the weird and wonderful plants and scenery she saw there. There are a couple books of her paintings available for sale on kewbooks.com.

A scarey sculpture at the Getty Villa

I just got back from a whirlwind three-day trip to LA. The initial reason was to check out the LA Art Show, which is held at the Santa Monica Airport in a couple of hangers. I also wanted to show my daughter the Getty Center and visit the Getty Villa, which I have not seen since it reopened a couple of years ago. So here is a scarey sculpture from the Villa, my daughter outside the LA Art Show standing next to a large yellow sculpture, and another shot of the art show entrance. The last picture is me, sitting in front of a tiled fountain at the Villa. I used to go there when I lived in LA, and it was very nostalgic to see it again--now all the art is Greek or Roman, and a new cafe, bookstore and open theater has been built on the side. But the museum, which is a recreation of a Roman villa that was buried at Pompei, is still much the same. You need reservations to get in, you can make them online and find out about both Getty museums at www.getty.edu.