Category Archives: arts and crafts

Drawing for the ages — or the aged

Posted on January 30, 2023 by stillalife

Some people excel in painting, ceramics, collage and other artistic media. I do well in photography, but not so well in others. But that knowledge doesn’t keep me from dreaming of success in every medium. A group of friends I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in aging, arts and crafts | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

New Year’s resolutions are to blame

Posted on January 31, 2022 by stillalife

After the holidays, I attended a Zoom class on how to keep a visual diary.  Not having kept a diary before, but having received dozens of notebooks as gifts in anticipation of a time I might keep one, I decided … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, luxury of time, personal reflections | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

We didn’t really dress that way, did we?

Posted on January 8, 2016 by stillalife

I made it to the last day of an exhibit called Counter-Couture at the Bellevue Arts Museum, which allegedly “celebrates the handmade fashion and style of the 1960s and 1970s.” I went to be reminded of my life after college. … Continue reading →

Posted in aging, arts and crafts | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Ceramic painting for dummies

Posted on September 26, 2015 by stillalife

For many years, a group of friends and I visited arts and craft shows together and came up with a simple mantra — “We can do that”– which we intoned after each show. After years of completing, collectively, dozens of … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, travel | 4 Comments

Homage to dilettantes

Posted on August 6, 2015 by stillalife

Clearing out years of accumulated stuff is like shining a spotlight on your past.  As part of my current focus on de-cluttering, I have found all the evidence I need that I’ve been a lifelong dabbler. And I’m certain I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, personal reflections | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Origami has gone beyond paper cranes

Posted on June 9, 2014 by stillalife

Origami is the art of paper-folding; it shares something in common with paper cutting, namely, that both look simpler to do than they are. Ever tried to fold a crane? How about a thousand cranes? According to one Japanese legend, … Continue reading →

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Paper cutting in China and Denmark

Posted on April 2, 2013 by stillalife

There’s nothing like having a group of three- and four-year-olds as teachers.  Six years ago, when my husband and I visited schools in China, we got to spend a couple of hours in a lab preschool connected to a university. … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, travel | 2 Comments

Garden of translucent delights

Posted on December 18, 2012 by stillalife

I used to think retirement meant living a life of spontaneity.  In fact, that life we used to live, which consisted of dropping in on friends any day of the week and being invited to stay for dinner, driving to … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, no escape from goals, touring town | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Hawaiian music without the bubbles

Posted on November 26, 2012 by stillalife

In my youth I thought the ukulele, as well as the songs played on it, were among the purest examples of what my peers and I called “lame.”  (Funny how the word has resurfaced in recent years and seems to … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, personal reflections | Tagged | 2 Comments

Quilts: links to art and family

Posted on August 10, 2012 by stillalife

You can see the shapes of Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian and the colors of Franz Marc in the Bellevue Arts Museum’s African American Quilt Show, “Bold Expressions.” The quilts on the museum walls are predominately from the American South … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and crafts, friends and family, memories | Tagged , , | 2 Comments