Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Art Installations

Mark and I are visual people. We enjoy having artwork on our walls. While we could wallpaper our walls with quilts, and there are quite a few hanging in our home, we enjoy handmade art by different artists.

Our most recent acquisition is this edgy piece by Jordan Wiebe (you can find him on Instagram here: @jordanweeb), he's a friend who used to live here in the valley and now lives in Minneapolis, MN. He recently began selling some of his art, and this is the one we chose.

Mark recently wanted to duplicate part of my Delta Breeze quilt into fused glass.
He chose that lower right corner, and did a magnificent job.
Some of the colors mimic those in Jordan's piece, so we hung them together in my office. I like the juxtaposition of the edginess and feeling of Jordan's street art along with the modern traditionalism of Mark's piece. I think they look wonderful together.
If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you will remember that Mark did so much of the prep work at Thrift on Blackstone. The manager, Ilone, had many, many ideas of how to make a thrift store seem more artsy, with an Anthropologie feel. Mark then had to figure out how to bring her ideas to reality.

The store has big windows in the front, and she has come up with creative ideas to fill those windows.

One window changes seasonally, and I'm constantly amazed by the ideas she comes up with.

This was the first installation, and involved making and hand painting flowers made from newspapers!
As you can see, there was an ombre effect.

Next came origami cranes.

And then a darker, spookier version of those origami cranes.

When spring and summer rolled around, this gorgeous dress was front and center.



But I may just be the most impressed with her current installation. While the store has been closed because of the pandemic, Ilone has been working on her current art project. I'm always intrigued by how she turns thrifted items into stunning art displays. A restaurant across the street went out of business several months ago, and they had plastic lids from the drink cups. I don't know about you, but I would never have thought up a creative use for plastic drink lids.

Ilone was inspired by Monet's Water Lilies paintings. Also, it would never cross my mind to combine the two...



She used alcohol paint on 7,000 lids. Yes, you read that correctly: 7,000 lids.

She then strung them together.

It turns out that they were quite a bit heavier than the previous art installation projects, so Mark added a support bracket midway on the hanging rod.

And this is the stunningly epic display she created.
I just know she is already working on ideas for the next installation. And like all of them, it will be creative and amazing. Quite something for a thrift store, don't you think?

6 comments:

05 08
Rochelle aka Bella Quilts said... #

Wow! I love all the different art you've shown today. Your friend's art work and Mark's glass project do go well together. And the different displays at the thrift store are so great. I love that she converted those lids into the beautiful art. All of them are gorgeous. Thank you for sharing them.

Deb Cox said... #

amazing, absolutely amazing.

Helmine said... #

Ilone has done it again! Amazing artist!

Needled Mom said... #

OMGoodness! Ilone's artwork is incredible! I love each window and no, I have never seen a thrift shop with such art.

Jordan's piece is beautiful! It's one I would have chosen too. Mark's glass looks great with it.

Robby said... #

Just like with the Louvre, beautiful art has come to me via the internet. And you. Thanks for sharing all of this beauty.

Cathy O said... #

Wow gorgeous art!!