Kimonos at The Met

I got a chance to go over to The Met last week before the kimono exhibit closed. 

 

I am glad that I did.  It was quite extraordinary.

Typically, the Japanese kimonos on display at The Met are heavily embroidered. 

As someone whose artwork is focused on embroidery, I visit them often for inspiration. 

Most designs focus on nature - flowers and animals. 

This one features swirls of water because it was a fireman’s outfit!  Very cool.

The characters on this piece are the words from a famous poem.

The exhibit also included more modern pieces where the design is imprinted in the material rather than embroidered on top of it.  Nature was still big. 

But some of the pieces were more abstract.

 So many ideas.  So little time.

Here’s a link to the “China Through the Looking Glass” from 2015…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2015/05/china-through-looking-glass.html

 

Enjoy!

PJ

 

© 2023 PJ Lehrer

Crocuses 2

 

The crocuses have started to bloom in Central Park.

Not surprisingly they are early this year.

So far winter has been a non-event. 

 

We had a couple of cold days. 

And we broke the record for the most days without snow with a whopping .4 inch of snow on February 1st. 

A few tree pits had a dusting but it hardly seemed like enough to qualify. 

This was the latest first measurable snow of the season since 1869. 

At this point Texas has had more snow than NYC this season. 

The previous record for the latest seasonal snow was set on 1/29/73, 50 years ago.

Makes you wonder what next year will be like.

Previous crocus blog…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2014/04/crocuses.html

Cheers!

PJ

 

© 2023 PJ Lehrer

Collaboration with Tim #29 – Bethesda in snow

We haven’t had any snow to speak of in NYC this season.  We had just enough (.4 inch) for them to say that it had snowed on February 1^st.  That’s a new record for the latest snowfall in NYC.  But since it barely coated the tree pits you could hardly call it a snow day.  You certainly could not go over to Central Park to take photos as I like to do.

Luckily, I have plenty in reserve from previous years. 😊

I took this photo in December 2020…

 

I tried my hardest to keep it people-free.  But even though it was early in the day and still snowing, it was difficult to get a shot without humans in it.  This was the best that I could do.

When Tim finished his recreation, he of course emphasized the very people I had been trying to minimize.  Ha. Ha. 

I decided to combine his piece with several others to create a collage.  Since I took these photos a while back before Central Park got so popular, I was able to eliminate the humans.

I doubt that I will ever be able to get a shot of Bethesda Fountain without people in it again.

Here’s the final piece…

You can use the label at the bottom of this blog to see all of our collaborations.

And you can follow us on Instagram at @pjlehrer and @timbaynes.

Cheers!

PJ

© 2023 PJ Lehrer

Villa D’Este

 

The beautiful Villa D’Este, is located in Tivoli just outside of Rome, Italy.

It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

famous for its terraced hillside Renaissance gardens – especially the fountains.

It was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II D’Este (son of Alfonso I D’Este and Lucrezia Borgia) in 1550, and took 20 years to build.

Ippolito ran for Pope five times, but was never selected.

The architect of the gardens was Pirro Logorio.  He repurposed some of the marble and statues from nearby Hadrian’s Villa for his design.

It was quite a task as the water for the fountains comes directly from the River Aniene through a 600-meter underground channel.

 Located on high ground it also has beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.

You can actually walk behind this fountain.  I remember doing it and banging my head against the rock on my first visit in 1975. 

I was more careful the second time. 😉