Dear friends and family,
We are thankful that we are sometimes called upon to travel for business and art-related activities as not only are they usually fun, but it forces us to go out and see things beyond our normal everyday realm.
Kathy Goncharov, the head curator at Boca Raton Museum of Art, had been working hard for a considerable amount of time putting together a fabulous exhibition of tapestries, carpets and all sorts of textile art - Nomadic Murals: Contemporary Tapestries and Carpets. We had promised we would show up for their museum supporters opening and give a little presentation. So happy to pack our bags again, but of course things were super busy at Magnolia. We left a lot on the shoulders of Tallulah, Nicholas, Alyssa, Nick, and our part-time helpers, Arlene and Sam. Fortunately, they are well up to the task.
Had a wonderful dinner right after our flight at Kathy's; she's a talented cook. Fennel risotto; yum. We met her significant other of many years, Charles (Charlie) Doria, a scholar of Ancient Greek amongst other specialties. Don was excited to question him as Don loves Homer's Odyssey and has listened to a full version about three times.
Bruce Conner tapestry, At the Head of the Stairs, to the left, courtesy of Magnolia Editions and the Conner Family Trust. Information placards are not up yet. This is before the opening. The carpet to the right was hand made in Nepal of Tibetan wool, courtesy of Equator Production. For more detail, more images and further information on these tapestries, please go to: www.magnoliaeditions.com.
A stretch of Magnolia Editions tapestries: Reclining Youth by Leon Golub. This immense tapestry is too large to hang in some museums. It almost looks small at the Boca Raton Museum of Art; Harbor by Kiki Smith; Allegory of the Monoceros by Andy Diaz-Hope and Laurel Roth-Hope; Mythos I - Homage to Mantegna by Donald and Era Farnsworth
There is also quite an amazing carpet on the floor, a Swedish production.
Doug Hall's Piacenza Opera House
The sort of exploding red carpet is Virgin by Faig Ahmed, Azerbaijan.
The next evening Don and I gave a presentation with slides for the museum's Benefactors Group. They had a reception afterward with tasty food and drink. Then we went out to dinner (burp) with Kathy Goncharov, Carlos Luna and family, Carol Damian, ex-director of the Frost Museum, Petra Singh of Equator Production, and others.
We are thankful that we are sometimes called upon to travel for business and art-related activities as not only are they usually fun, but it forces us to go out and see things beyond our normal everyday realm.
Kathy Goncharov, the head curator at Boca Raton Museum of Art, had been working hard for a considerable amount of time putting together a fabulous exhibition of tapestries, carpets and all sorts of textile art - Nomadic Murals: Contemporary Tapestries and Carpets. We had promised we would show up for their museum supporters opening and give a little presentation. So happy to pack our bags again, but of course things were super busy at Magnolia. We left a lot on the shoulders of Tallulah, Nicholas, Alyssa, Nick, and our part-time helpers, Arlene and Sam. Fortunately, they are well up to the task.
Had a wonderful dinner right after our flight at Kathy's; she's a talented cook. Fennel risotto; yum. We met her significant other of many years, Charles (Charlie) Doria, a scholar of Ancient Greek amongst other specialties. Don was excited to question him as Don loves Homer's Odyssey and has listened to a full version about three times.
William Kentridge, tapestry handwoven in South Africa.
Beautiful detail in this tapestry.
Bruce Conner tapestry, At the Head of the Stairs, to the left, courtesy of Magnolia Editions and the Conner Family Trust. Information placards are not up yet. This is before the opening. The carpet to the right was hand made in Nepal of Tibetan wool, courtesy of Equator Production. For more detail, more images and further information on these tapestries, please go to: www.magnoliaeditions.com.
A stretch of Magnolia Editions tapestries: Reclining Youth by Leon Golub. This immense tapestry is too large to hang in some museums. It almost looks small at the Boca Raton Museum of Art; Harbor by Kiki Smith; Allegory of the Monoceros by Andy Diaz-Hope and Laurel Roth-Hope; Mythos I - Homage to Mantegna by Donald and Era Farnsworth
There is also quite an amazing carpet on the floor, a Swedish production.
Duppy Conqueror II by Faisal Abdul-Allah and The Gypsy Fortune Teller by Kehinde Wiley
The next evening Don and I gave a presentation with slides for the museum's Benefactors Group. They had a reception afterward with tasty food and drink. Then we went out to dinner (burp) with Kathy Goncharov, Carlos Luna and family, Carol Damian, ex-director of the Frost Museum, Petra Singh of Equator Production, and others.
Next morning Don took a large group of the museum's docents on a fast-paced educational tour of how Jacquard tapestries are made, and some snippets about the different artists and their tapestries.
Shown here are Don and some of the docents in front of Alex Arrechea's Havana tapestry.
And here admiring The Visitor by artists Aziz + Cucher
We got stuck in very bad traffic and didn't have time to visit Alex Arrechea at his studio, as we had hoped. Probably just as well as he seemed very busy himself, having just flown in from somewhere and was about to leave for Spain.
We did see our friend Santiago Montoya at his new studio. Here Era and Santiago standing in front of a large piece constructed of $1 bills and silver-leafed $1 bills. American money around the world.
Admiring Santiago's open air patio in the middle of his studio complex.
Santiago took us to what is currently his favorite restaurant in Miami, MC Kitchen. As it happened, they had a large Squeak Carnwath painting in one of their dining rooms. The food was inventive and delicious.
The lovely owner Brandy Coletta is a huge Squeak Carnwath fan. She insisted on giving us a dessert; so we dug into a beautiful Tiramisu, which didn't do any favors to Don and my waistlines.
We not only missed Alex Arrechea on this trip, we also missed Chuck Close who had left for NY only a few days earlier. But he did let us stay in his wonderful apartment. View of Miami Beach from his hallway.
Next day, like magic, we find ourselves in beautiful Costa Rica.
It's a short plane ride to Costa Rica. It's even shorter to Cuba; it seemed like we had barely taken off when we were passing over Cuba. I hear it is more difficult to go there now that we have our Unhinged Leader in power.
We were picked up at the San Jose airport by a driver with a placard and whisked off to the Volcano Lodge outside of Fortuna, at the base of Mount Arenal, an occasionally active volcano, seen above. It's about a three-hour drive.
The climate is hot and humid, and the local vegetation so tropical.
These are all taken on the grounds. I wish I could tell you the names of the plants.
Sculptural ripening bunches of bananas
Orchid
The next day we signed up to go on a Hanging Bridges walk. We were hoping to see birds, but most of the strictly birding walks started at 5:00 or so.
More on that in the next episode.
Love from,
Era and Don
