Stitching Up a Storm in Alamo City

My weekend was FABULOUSO!

And I didn't take a single picture of it.

Last fall I showed you a photo of this Picasso painting that I'm researching.   I'm still at it.  On March 15, I will give a presentation at the museum to my new docent class of 22 people and a few current docents and staff.  Of course, since I'm presenting on the last day possible (which wasn't my choice) my reading/research/work is expanding to fill the time available.   Just yesterday - a week away from the presentation which I've been thinking about or working on since December took a major shift in a different direction. 

Over the weekend, I went to Richmond, Virginia.   I stayed at a most wonderful Bed and Breakfast - Maury Place B&B; spent 2 amazing and fun packed days with my stitching friend, Kelly; and saw the Picasso exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art.   The exhibit is on loan from the Musee Picasso in Paris, which is undergoing renovation. 

I was privileged to meet Kelly's husband and her parents - all of them are so lovely.   And I teased her about the fact that we met "on-line".   She was one of the first people who followed my blog in the early days - and she COMMENTED!!.   When I went to ANG National Seminar in August, 2007, we met for the first time.   Somehow we felt a connection, and kept up with each other, so that when I went to Philadelphia in May 2009, she came up from Richmond to hang out with me.

And we've continued to stay in touch.   Pretty regularly.

So it was such a treat to spend 2 days with her.  The second day I was there, we went to Williamsburg.  Her friend, Marita went, too.  What a hoot.  There wasn't even a 5-second space of dead air.   We talked the whole time. And Williamsburg is still a wonderful spot.   I realized that I love the building and the gardens the most - not so big on the history and the "in-character" historical interpreters, but it was still charming and magical.

I picked up a book about Picasso at the VMFA while we were there and read most of it on the way home.  That's the reason my presentation is changing around so dramatically, but for the best, I'm sure.

So pretty soon I'll not have this thing hanging over my head any more - and the house will be back to normal - and maybe, just maybe, I can stitch for a while.

Happy stitching,
Jane

 

 

 

About my new life...

A couple of weeks ago, I started training to be a docent at a local art museum.  This is something I'd been wanting to do for a few years, and it all worked out for me to move forward with it this year. 

The museum is the Marion Koogler McNay Museum of Art - a collection focused primarily on 19th and 20th century European and American art.   Ms. McNay built a very fine Spanish Colonial Revival home (mansion) in 1927 and the collection is contained in her home (and its expansion) on the grounds of that estate.   I'm sure you've been to museums where the building itself is a work of art - I always loved the Eiteljorg museum in Indianapolis for that reason - and the McNay is in that category, as well.   Beautiful, beautiful home.  

As a part of this process, which ends in May, 2011, when I will hopefully be ready to start touring on my own, I am going to the museum at least 2 times a week for classes.  And I have HOMEWORK - as in written assignments!!  READING ASSIGNMENTS, too!!

This Picasso painting is my research object - I'll be working with it for at least another month.  My first assignment is due this week. 

So far, I've met some wonderful people - mostly women, but a few men, too (just like stitchers) and I'm impressed with how smart they are (just like stitchers).  

If you're wondering what I'm doing - why I'm not posting about stitching - I just might be at the McNay staring at a work of art. 

Happy stitching and staring,
Jane