feeding the kitty

I write fairly often about exhibits at Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, Indiana. It's a great area resource. I love that their exhibits feature all types of art activities. (they have classes, too, including nuno felting...)

This past weekend we spent more time at the exhibits (five in all) than I think we ever have done before.This series closes on June 26--if you can, it's well worth a visit:
Woman as Artist, Woman as Muse: Diamond Collection Posters of the Belle Epoque 1890-1910
Women are featured as both artist and subject in these rare, original art nouveau advertising posters. We really enjoyed this exhibit that focused on women in many roles. Some were quite cheeky, others very demure. This exhibit shows the range of effects that can be achieved with lithography--from very crayonlike and loose drawings to almost photographic realism.

Tommy: The Material Girl (upstairs) -- Colorful art quilts by Tommy Fitzsimmons. Gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics are used in her interesting quilts.

Vintage Vogue: Cover Art from the LCA Permanent Collection (upstairs) -- From the permanent collection of the LCA, these Vogue magazine covers from 1916–1933 feature fashion illustration by masters of the Art Deco style, including Helen Dryden and Eduardo Benito. This isn't a huge exhibit but it nicely complements the others. I really like the earlier designs from the 19-teens.

This one closes June 24:
In Their Shoes, Artwork by the Social and Learning Institute for the Disadvantaged (downstairs)
Portraits and spectacularly decorated shoes created by clients of Michigan City’s Social and Learning Institute are featured in this exhibition. The product of weekly art classes, taught by local artist Debra Sawyer at Lubeznik Center for the Arts, the mixed media works are both expressive and exuberant. All of the artwork from the exhibition will be offered for sale, with prices starting at $75. Proceeds will benefit the Social and Learning Institute for the Disadvantaged as well as Lubeznik Center for the Arts’ outreach and education programs, like the one that produced this exhibition. Awesome and colorful. Check out the titles for the shoes. Amazing.

There was also an exhibit of portraits in acrylics and oil paint sticks downstairs that reminded me in some ways of the lithographs--broad strokes along with fine detail.

We topped our day off with a lakefront visit. Our local lakefront venue, the Hammond Marina, park and beach, is no longer available to us. Unless you live in Hammond you have to pay to get in and if you're out of state, like we are, it's $10 per visit. So, we'll probably be using more gas and driving out to the dunes area more often.

More Kid Art

Before I got sick, we got a chance to get out to Lubeznik Center for the Arts and see the grade school art on display. These exhibits are my favorites.You can't top it for color, vibrancy and imagination! This show ended yesterday, but their new shows include a quilt artist, Belle Epoque posters and vintage covers from Vogue magazine. (Woman as Artist, Woman as Muse)

antique treasure, gallery show, dunes

I found this over the weekend (Michigan City Antique Mall) and am still bouncing a bit. It really helped put a smile on my face. I put labels on it.For our Valentine's weekend Hubby and I played. We went out to Brauer on Saturday (Valparaiso University). If you're in the area, this is a show well worth seeing. It'll be there another month. Paintings by Richard Loving. African art and photos also in the galleries. But the paintings--they just were amazing.We headed back into Indiana on Sunday, first to the antique mall where I found my treasure, and then on to Lubeznik Galleries by the lakefront. We saw the end of the show of art from the McDonald's corporate collection. There was a wonderful of display of photos from the 70s--culture at a particular set of bars on the north side of Chicago, full of famous and not-so-famous faces. And two children's exhibits--always our favorites. One was photos by the kids in the Boys and Girls clubs and the other Black History month posters. It is amazing what children see.

Then we drove out to the Dunes to blow some fresh air into our lives. The snow was piled very high both on and off shore. I took this photo of pack ice at the water's edge from the road with a strolling couple in it for scale. I don't think I've ever seen the pack ice this high.This week has been a big melt off. We may hit record warm temperatures today (60F!). At first the temps hovered around freezing--snow would melt during the day and everything would be wet--and then freeze at night. Very slippery, especially when it all began to melt again. No morning walks. Now I'm dodging puddles on my walks, enjoying the "warm." This is kind of "Indian Spring" like we get "Indian Summer" here each year in the fall (Indian Summer is an unseasonably warm period of a few days that follows the first hard frost in the autumn). Winter will soon have us in it's grip again. But for now I'm enjoying no scarves, shawls, mufflers, mittens, hats and boots!

Lake Michigan in Winter

Brrrr, it was chilly looking out over Lake Michigan on Valentine's Day. We did not venture down to the beach as these brave souls did. The wind was from the west, along the shore, and it looked a bit like a wind tunnel down there.
Another view of the lake. The ice here is dangerous, although when I was young I regularly wandered out on it. It's often floating on water and you never know when you'll find a thin pocket.
I was fascinated by the pearly sheen on the snow. The temperature and light were just right.
Birds were active here. The sheen was much more visible in person--but only from one direction. If you looked back, it was gone.
Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth often talks about edges and I found myself contemplating the edges made by the snow and ice.
It was very good to get outside for a bit.

We also visited Lubeznik Center for the Arts for their new shows, The New Moderns and Seeing the Light. I hadn't been excited about them, but I was very happy we went. I learned a lot, saw a lot and left enlightened.