Eli Leon ~ African-American Quilt Maven

Eli Leon

June 27, 1935
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March 6, 2018

Sherry Ann Byrd -  "M-provisational” quilt     

            ~ Collector's Weekly     

What would jazz look like if it had a physical presence? According to Sherry Ann Byrd, a celebrated quilt maker, it might look something like the hand-made “M-provisational” quilts produced by six generations of her family, who descended from a former slave named Edward “Ned” Titus in Freestone County, Texas.      

Eli Leon ~ Who'd a Thought It 

 catalogue of African-American quilts 

San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum, 1987

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photos by Styrous®

(click on any image for slideshow)

2006

2012

2013

2016

         

          

Net links:          

          
Images for Eli Leon, quilts          

NY Times ~ Whitney Museum, ''Abstract Design in American Quilts''    
NY Times ~ Eli Leon obit       

National Gallery of Art ~ Rosie Lee Tompkins & Eli Leon        

Berkeley Art Museum BAM ~ Rosie Lee Tompkins / MATRIX 173

Oakland Museum of California ~      

        Yo-Yos & Half Squares: Contemporary California Quilts       

The Plaid Portico ~ YoYos and Half Squares exhibition review       

Collector's Weekly ~ The Beautiful Chaos of Improvisational Quilts    

The Berkeley Planet ~ Colorful Passion for African American Quilts   

Smithsonian Libraries ~     

        Who'd a thought it : improvisation in African-American quiltmaking    

University of Chicago Press ~ book review       

         Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African‐American Quilts         

Berkeley Daily Planet ~         
        A Colorful Passion for Unique African American Quilts            

Berkeley Daily Planet ~ book review              

        The Art of Doing it Right by Eli Leon           

Daintytime ~ A Visit With Eli Leon And His Quilts        

         ~ Part 1      

         ~ Part 2      

Berkeleyside ~      

         Eli Leon vintage quilt collection for sale          

         Eli Leon ~ A lifetime of quirky collections
Quirky Berkeley ~ Eli Leon – A Life of Making Art and Collecting
Rosie Lee Tompkins            
Washington Post ~ Rosie Lee Tompkins obit          

SF Gate obit         

       
     

Your Negative Space never was!

Styrous® ~ Tuesday, March 20, 2018        

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Adiós mis amigos . . .

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Richard Nixon articles/mentions

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The 1968 Exhibit        
All of Us or None          
Dear President Obama and Mrs. Obama     
The Guess Who ~ Live @ the Paramount     
Gregory Peck ~ Mr Suave        
Ralph Records ~ the inner sleeve           
Vietnam War Protests ~ 1973          
Protest poster (1973) ~ Another Déjà vu 
                  
                       
Richard Nixon - 1973           
Getty Images                           
            
                           
            
                           
               

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Oakland Museum

 ~ The 1968 Exhibit      

 ~ All of Us or None         

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Art/Exhibitions articles
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Radio

In order of appearance

Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary    
The 1968 Exhibit       

Mina - Salomé        

The Andrews Sisters      

Frank Sinatra        

Jeff Wayne ~ The War of the Worlds      

John Fitzgerald Kennedy         

Flaming Lips ~ Zaireeka      

Kay Kyser ~ The Old Lamp-Lighter        

Hue Lee ~ Rose, Rose, I Love You        

Percy Faith    

Judy Collins ~ In My Life           

Jon Lord - Gemini Suite           

Barbara Streisand           

Mystic Moods Orchestra         

Can Hear It Now ~ Gamal Abdel Nasser           

Well Made of California           

The War of the Worlds ~ Worlds on Film           

Orson Welles ~ The War of the Worlds        

Kay Kyser        

Todd Rundgren radio show              

Depeche Mode ~ Just Can't Get Enough           

The Tubes - White Punks On Dope             

Frank Sinatra ~ Blue Eyes @ 100            

Depeche Mode ~ Master & Servant           

Action Jackson & Vanity      

Tchaikovsky ~ Symphony #6          

Edward R. Murrow          

Ralph Records ~ the inner sleeve               

Gabor Szabó ~ Dreams           

Chuck Berry ~ Maybellene           

Howard Hughes ~ a strange life     

The Beatles ~ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band           

William P. Gottlieb: Jazz photographer          

Bernard Herrmann ~ Psycho         

Michelle Vignes         

Lon Clark            

Earl Robinson ~ The Lonesome Train

Leila And The Snakes, Obiko & Kaisik Wong        

Jane Dornacker & The Tubes     

White Punks On Dope - VHS video tape       

Roy Acuff & the Smoky Mountain Boys        

Hank Williams, Sr. ~ Move It on Over        

Meat Loaf ~ Hits Out of Hell       

We Are The World on the radio      

Orson Welles ~ Director Extraordinaire: Voodoo Macbeth    

Lux Radio Theater      

John Wayne ~ America, Why I Love Her     

Raymond Massey ~ Thespian Extraordinare         

Patsy Cline ~ Still Walkin' After Midnight!         

Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy

Dragnet on the air        

       

       

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Amy Sollins ~ Introspective @ the Gray Loft Gallery

July 14 - August 26, 2017

  
2nd Friday Jingletown Reception: July 14, 6:00 - 9:00 pm

Closing Reception: 

Saturday, August 26, 4:00 - 6:30 pm

Introspection invitation 

Gray Loft Gallery



Amy Sollins is currently showing her amazing work at the Gray Loft Gallery. Press release from the Gray Loft Gallery:  

Sollins creates charcoal drawings of her possessions, including her grandmother’s cast iron doorstop, underwear, jewelry, and other inanimate objects that have meaning for her, revealing a whimsical nostalgia for sacred and personal artifacts. 

Uprooted from the context of her life, the artifacts are drawn on large white pieces of paper, floating and swimming, disregarding the natural laws of gravity. She draws with the softest charcoal possible so that the dust falls in shadows, enhancing the objects from her personal mythology and that of her heritage. The result is a surreal narrative, where scale and context are less relevant than emotive charge, and the everyday, inanimate object is poetry. She is interested in the difference between perception and reality, and her work is rooted in the ways in which the scale of objects and their meanings may be opposite and the same—at the same time; the unity of opposites, the co-existence of being and non-being.  

Sollins is known earlier in her career for her intricate abstract paintings – of which a few will be on display in the gallery.   

A Baltimore native, Sollins earned her M.F.A. from the California College of Arts in Oakland, California, and her B.A. from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Her work has been exhibited at the Seattle Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, San Jose Museum of Art, Fresno Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, Richmond Art Center and numerous galleries.        

Gray Loft Gallery

 2889 Ford Street, #22

Oakland, CA 94601

Viewfinder link:              

         

Amy Sollins               
       

Net link:              

         

Amy Sollins website     

       

          

          

Styrous® ~ Wednesday, July 19, 2017                

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Art/Exhibitions articles
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Parkin' the White Elephant

photos by Styrous®

I had fun today working with fellow members of the JABC during the fund raiser they organize when there is a White Elephant sale.

What is a white elephant sale you ask? I'll tell you . . .

The Oakland Museum Women’s Board is a California non-profit public benefit corporation that provides services and funds to the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). Founded in 1955, The Women’s Board has been providing funds and services to OMCA for over 50 years. With the annual White Elephant Sale as its only fundraising activity, they have contributed more than $19 million in support of OMCA educational programs, acquisitions to the permanent galleries, exhibitions, facilities, capital improvements, and much more. White Gloves is an online documentary by filmmakers, Les Blank and Courtney Stevens, about the Board's activities.

So, what is the White Elephant? During the year, people donate items to the Women's Board for the sale. The public then comes to the gigantic warehouse where the items are stored and buys them; it's a garage sale of enormous proportions.

However, this article is not so much about the sale but about the folks of the JABC who park the cars of the people attending the event. The funds raised from the parking is used by the JABC for community improvements in Jingletown; safety, environment, beautification, etc.

The Elder Village Development, LLC, who is building the Phoenix Commons on Pier 29, allowed the JABC to use the now empty lot for the parking for the fund-raiser. A big thanks to them.  

Headquarters

Ford Street - staging area one

Ford Street - staging area two

Pier 29 - staging area three

I heard that people had camped out over night to be first in the line up for the sale. Now that's what I call determination.

The line went from the entrance at Lancaster Street . . . 

. . . down Lancaster for three blocks . . .

. . . around the corner down and back up Chapman Street to Lancaster again . . .

. . . down Lancaster to the corner of Seventh Street, down to the corner of Fruitvale Ave, around that corner and down Fruitvale Ave. Yep, really determined people.

. . . all the while the crowd was entertained by the White Elephant . . .

. . . and the Museum had a shuttle from the BART station to Ford and Lancaster . . .

too cool driver, Latita, thanks

. . . at ten O'clock sharp the doors opened, the crowds kept coming but we were ready . . .

Commanders                                                                  Intelligence

. . . so were the vendors . . .

Stroopie Gourmet

Tod & Lily of

Stroopie Gourmet

The JABC Gang in action!

The Ironworks joined in . . . 

. . . so did the Boy Scouts . . .

. . . and the buyers went home happy!

all photos by Styrous®

 
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) brings together collections of art, history and natural science under one roof to tell the extraordinary stories of California and its people. OMCA’s groundbreaking exhibits tell the many stories that comprise California with many voices, often drawing on first-person accounts by people who have shaped California’s cultural heritage. Visitors are invited to actively participate in the Museum as they learn about the natural, artistic and social forces that affect the state and investigate their own role in both its history and its future. With more than 1.8 million objects, OMCA is a leading cultural institution of the Bay Area and a resource for the research and understanding of California’s dynamic cultural and environmental heritage

It was great working the parking as I got a chance to talk to fellow members and learn more about them. That was my payoff. Thanks.

Styrous® ~ January 26, 2014

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