Eclipse 2024
Last week began with a total solar eclipse in the US, though we weren’t in the path of totality … and then clouds covered it at the big moment.
Well, I can tell the light is diminished in these images, leading up to the moon covering the sun. The light is not quite right:
I took this before the eclipse started, for contrast, but also because this is my only daffodil with these colors and I love it:
We tried!
We were away the previous weekend and didn’t get glasses. I made a pinhole box to view the eclipse! But when we saw the heavy clouds roll in, we knew our eyes would be safe. But eye safety matters, to be clear!
Seams to be Constructed by Margery Amdur
A few days after the eclipse, I caught the closing reception of “Seams to be Constructed” by Margery Amdur, an art exhibit on the Rutgers-Camden campus.
These are makeup sponges:
Incredible that I can see other shapes in this collection of sponges! But there is so much more happening here: Think of the waste of these discarded after single use. What is makeup, who puts it on, and why? Sometimes makeup can feel like paint, but it’s applied to the body. It enhances our bodies — maybe obscures bodies. Makeup sponges could be conceptualized as tools in the physical world that make us all look like cyborgs, or give us “InstaGram Face”, or otherwise fuel unrealistic and frankly inhuman beauty standards.
So much of “Seams to be Constructed” and Margery’s Amdur’s work is about the suggestion of bodies on fabric or other materials, without seeing the bodies themselves.
Other themes in Amdur’s work include clothing, purses, bodies, and secrets. I am especially intrigued of her previous exhibits that spell out her thoughts with wire. I never thought to “draw with wire” before.
According to Amdur, the body is where the internal and external worlds meet. Her work often has an “implied narrative,” for viewers to “read between the objects for the narrative” (instead of reading between the lines!)
Amdur said, “Clothing is a second skin.”
One of my favorite elements is that the exhibit continued to be worked on as it ran; it looked different when it closed compared to when it opened:
I was so inspired by the installation and artist lecture that I picked up some of my own cross-stitch pieces, for some fixes.
When I stitched this Moon on denim two and a half years ago (!), it made me level up my own stitchery skills. For the past three years I’ve been slowly stitching over two yards of vintage denim, with a larger project in mind. My own skills have to advance for me to be able to achieve my vision.
And sometimes, I make kinda big mistakes. They are fixable! I just know that when I finished the Moon, I knew right away that the shape wasn’t … quite … a circle. I always intended to go back and make fixes.
Now, I can say that I did!
Laura Eppinger 