not about exploitation

My son Josh is home for Thanksgiving, so we came downtown and visited the Art Institute today.  On the way to the Modern Wing, I noticed that there is a new Fiber exhibit, on the lower floor and we went to see that. I LOVED it.  One of the pieces by Claire Zeiss, who lived in Chicago and did these tall sculptural macrame things, was I think, responsible for the start of my love affair with fiber. I lived with my grandmother when I was in 4th grade, and my uncle gave her a book on Macrame, which was just beginning to be a fad back in the 60's.She didn't really want to bother with it, she knitted. But I loved the book and started tying up the furniture. My grandmother was short and had a footstool. I used it for a frame for macrame when she wasn't using it to hold up her feet.  The book, which I initially lost track of but bought a new one on ebay a decade or so ago, had many examples of Claire's work. I had never seen it in person before.

After we did the fiber, it was fun to walk around the Contemporary gallery.  I knew a lot of the artists and if I didn't remember their name, I knew a fun fact about each one, or the work. Josh is working on an MFA at the University of Iowa, in Intermedia, so he had a lot to say too.

Josh took a picture of me standing in front of the picture of someone standing in front of the picture of the people in Paris on a rainy day. And it was a rainy day!  too bad I didn't have an umbrella.