Lesley Riley | Fabricologie

Red Shoe Installation "Townie" by Lauren Lysaght

Walk with me through the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, located at the Brick Bay Winery in Warkworth, NZ. See, that’s what I love about NZ. In one place you can enjoy three pleasures, nature, art and wine. A feast for the eyes, heart and soul. Come on, there’s lots to see, over 50 art installations, native flora and fauna. You walk a mile that doesn’t seem like one, through meadow and forest, up hill and down and play hide & seek looking for the art.

Bottle Run by Judy Darragh. "Planted" empty wine bottles with red painted bases

Sometimes it was right under your feet:

Meteorol by Mary-Louise Browne. Bluestone steps play the game of changing one letter of each word per step - Mist to Rain. Can you figure it out?

Buddha Bell by Phil Neary (cedar, bronze, stainless steel)

I loved the Buddha Bell, probably because so many of my friends call me the Buddha – (no, not because of the belly, silly,  but because they think I am wise)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flotsam by Jeff Thomson. Colorful corrugated iron floating in the lily pond

By far my favorite were the colorful, discarded pieces of corrugated iron, a common roofing material in NZ. The curled iron floats gracefully at the whim of wind and water and is an hypnotic sight. I could have lingered there all day.

The beauty in the contrast of hard and soft.

This walk through the sculpture garden and my trip to New Zealand was brought to you by Leanne Rogerson. She had a dream and she made it happen. Never underestimate the power of an artist seeking techniques!

Leanne reflected in the beautiful tiled cafe wall

She made it happen, not just for herself but also for the 22 students who were also looking for inspiration and ideas. US magazines are 3x the cost there – the same for books (+ high shipping), if they can even get them. Art conferences like Art & Soul and Artfest are few and far between, if at all. Their small country and wee population (4.2 million, compared to 8.3 million in NYC alone!) are what attracts me to this beautiful island, but it can be quite a disadvantage when you hunger for new things. It does make for some beautiful art though, as seen above. And NZ is a mecca for independant clothing designers. It seems as if there is at least one in every town as well as some with shops all over NZ.  But I digress.

My students. Each one brought her own talents and sensibility to the table. All were a joy. I hope I gave them as much as they gave me. The fun atmophere in the class was heightened by the bright, sunny classroom with windowed walls on both sides, color and art and well-used supplies hiding in every corner. Leanne had found was an intermediate school art classroom for us to play in for the 4 days. (NZ schools were on summer break.)

How to Grow Wings class

Sew What???? class

Fragment Fabric Collage class

Quilted Memories class

 

There are still more NZ stories to come. And I am still snowbound by the 27″ of snow dropped on us. We’re all beginning to dig out and many are without power, including my in-laws, who were rescued by my brother-in-law with a big honkin’ 4-wheel drive – the only thing getting around right now.  I have been jumping between art and blogging, reading and washing. How’s that for a snow day? Schools have already announced they will be closed Mon & Tues, but wait! There’s 2-6 more inches on the way Tuesday night! Yes, this is a record snowfall.  If another 1/2″ falls, we will move to #2 of all-time snowiest winters in DC. We are not aiming for #1 – that was 54″ in the winter of 1898/99.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.