Ah, Saturday morning

Saturday - a chance to catch up - or to relax. I plan to do both, so have been cruising around blogs and websites, following links, getting excited ... the way you do ...

It was supposed to be a morning of "set the timer for 15 minutes" - 15 on the computer, 15 doing housework. This is "reading week" - no classes - a chance to do the essay and go to exhibitions (and catch up on blog posts) - I don't want to spend it in a messy environment. "Be good to yourself" and all that.

First discovery was the website of Kyoung Ae Cho - whose "wood quilts" I recognised from the Quilt National books. These images

are shamelessly plundered (and not good quality) but you must go look at the entire website for yourself - the body of work is wonderful, and it's so interesting to see the development. She exhibited in Kansas City in conjunction with the Surface Design conference in 2007; here's what a newspaper write-up said:

"She has always worked with natural materials, exploring nature's rhythms and our cultural relationship with nature. "Path," from 1999, is a 22-foot-long, 16-inch-wide trail of small wood squares that Kyoung Ae has cut against the grain. The blocks are mounted in pairs on black fabric, the ends of which are rolled into scrolls. It's a luminous and varied trail of changing grains that undulates across the length of cloth. A formalist whose attention to material is always critical, Kyoung Ae lets her conceptual impulses provide her forms with additional depth and context.

"In many of the pieces, she has used corn leaves, sandwiching them between silk organza, which makes them appear radiant. In 2002's "Continuation," a wide and narrow piece, she has cut corn leaves into small pieces, pressed them between the fabric and then hand-stitched around them in contrasting thread to create a horizontal line across the vast piece. Her works' delicate appearance suggests the fragile relationship we have with the Earth."

On the other side of the world is Raft Artspace, with many wonderful exhibitions on line, currently Imbi Davidson's "Lost at Sea" - paintings on found mailbags.
If you're near Parap NT, you can see the show until 31 October. If you're not, and need to see a bit of colour, check out the previous exhibitions here. Pink, anyone?

Today there's a grey sky, it's a wet day in London town - nice and cosy at home, inside - but yesterday was gloriously sunny. My walk to the tube station is wonderful at this time of year

especially on a day with blue skies and strong shadows -
And now, "work" calls - put on some music, set the timer!