The Gregg Museum

Recently I visited the North Carolina State University's museum, the Gregg.

Here are some images from their collection.

(Some images are blurry because I wanted the colors to be accurate, so I didn't use flash)

19th Century Quilt

19th Century French Dress

19th Century Kimono with the four seasons depicted

Crystal Dress (1970s or 1980s)

Woman's Turkish(?) shirt

All silk embroidery with beetle shells and mirrors

(thought to keep away the evil eye)

Top: Inside of shirt

Bottom: Outside of shirt

Gold wrapped thread sari

Window Displays

What do we lose when when we move so many businesses into strip malls? Lovely window displays lining our streets, for one thing. Here are some examples where Vienna keeps it real. These were found just rambling around the city. I was rambling, not the window displays.

Petersfriedhof, Salzburg

Up against Monchsberg (a mountain in Salzburg, Austria) is Petersfriedhof, or Saint Peter's Cemetery. It is the earliest Christian graveyard in Salzburg, dating back to 1627. It is commonly recognized as the hiding spot of the Von Trapp family in The Sound of Music. The cemetery is enclosed by a wrought iron fence and many of the grave markers are iron as well. The mountainside holds its catacombs.

catacombs

My impression of Petersfriedhof was far different than that of any other cemetery I've seen. Unlike Recoleta in Buenos Aires, or any I've seen thus far in the States, this cemetery is light and airy. There are no headstones or any heavy ornamentation. The cemetery is lush with its flowers, ferns, and wild strawberries growing on and in-between the graves. It was reminiscent of a memorial garden. Instead of bestowing a somber attitude, Petersfriedhof made me feel fresh and lively.

Denton Welch

Above is a self portrait of Maurice Denton Welch. He was born in Shanghai on March 27, 1915. His mother Rosalind Welch, to whom he was very close, died of nephritis when he was eleven. He attended Repton and after a break in Shanghai, which is the subject of his first book, Maiden Voyage, attended the Goldsmith School of Art. While bicycling to visit his aunt in 1935 he was hit by a car and suffered an eventually fatal spinal injury that led to spinal tuberculosis, kidney failure, and hemorrhaging. After his accident, he began to focus on writing, and gained notoriety from an article about a visit with Walter Sickert. Edith Sitwell enjoyed this article and wrote the foreword to Maiden Voyage. She became somewhat of a mentor to Welch. He went on to write In Youth is Pleasure, and Brave and Cruel. After his death A Voice Through a Cloud, A Last Sheaf, I Left My Grandfather's House, and Dumb Instrument were published (De-la-noy 1984). He died December 30, 1948 while writing A Voice Through a Cloud.

Below are two examples of his painting.

the above two images were found at http://www.sienese-shredder.com/3/denton_welch-the_coffin_house.html

The picture of the coffin house below his painting is just for reference.

picture of young Welch

Denton Welch and I have a similar temperament and I enjoy reading his reactions and observations. Easily I find myself there, in cahoots with him, because he is so candid and describes scenes and objects so vividly.

Like me, Welch has a fascination with the macabre.

The Journals of Denton Welch. Ed. Michael De-la-Noy. Allison & Busby Ltd.: London, 1984.

Mourning Embroidery and Memorials

I've been thinking a lot of about mourning pieces from early America. What sparked my interest was the image below. I felt I had little connection with that kind of mourning ritual. The way Americans mourn death has changed over the years; mainly due to a less rigid societal structure.

This is a mourning embroidery on silk with water color. It was a common project made by girls when they went to school.

Death rings usually had death symbols such as skeletons or skulls, commonly under crystal cut coffin shapes, like the one above.

This is an interesting piece. The artist fell in love and painted her breast in this jewelry box and presented it to her lover. For monetary reasons he married someone else, but the box remains in his family. It is called Beauty Revealed. I guess some would find this explicit, but I thought it an intimate gesture.

The above images are from The Art of Family: Genealogical Artifact in New England.

Peter Benes and D. Brenten Simons. Boston, MA: New England Historic

Genealogical Society, 2002.

Using this research as a jumping off point, I made prototypes of death pieces for Jace. I would like to use his hair for the embroidery, but presently his hair is buzzed, and I don't have the patience to couch each one onto the fabric.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

vintage belt purchased in North Carolina

German book cover seen in antique shop in Lexington, North Carolina