Kaffe Fassest: “Color is a Life Force”
I attended Kaffe Fassett’s talk “The Power of Color” at the Ridgefield Playhouse with two students from one of my classes, “Art Journey”. I would call him a polymath as well as someone with seemingly boundless energy and vitality, all at age 86. When someone in the audience asked him how he has so much energy and vitality at this age, he responded with this: “Working with your hands, color, and imagination makes us healthy. Working with your hands keeps you forever young.” He also said, “color is a life force” (my favorite quote!! Goosebumps!!!) that has its own vitality, and that if you play and arrange with color, you can inspire yourself every minute. He was certainly a breath of fresh air and an inspiration. Some people have a lot of charisma and presence, and he certainly has both in spades. At the event, his quilts and fabrics were draped all around a pop-up shop outside the auditorium. It was a sumptuous celebration of color, joy, spirit, and life. I will certainly be keeping his words close! We all received a copy of Fassett’s new book Quilts on an English Farm and got a chance to get it signed by him whilst getting our photos taken with him and his partner Brandon Mably. This book really draws attention to what I would say is an amazing and separate art form that Fassett has created. He photographs his quilts outdoors in environments that are harmonious with their colors, textures, and patterns. I love how he situates them outdoors! It’s interesting in many ways - one is that quilts are NOT outdoors items, they are pretty much always indoors, and find this an interesting, lovely, and surprising juxtaposition. In this book, they are all located on the farm as the title suggests, but during his presentation, he showed quilts that he photographed in cityscapes and other random areas that somehow magically “matched” the quilts perfectly! He certainly has a wonderful eye powered by a true awareness, attention, and curiosity for the world around him. One quilt was placed next to painted metal shutters that you see in Europe at the front of little shops on the street, another was next to a pile of wooden pallets, and they both just “worked.”
I really enjoyed the story of how Fassett became fascinated by color; it was such a lovely and serendipitous way. He was accompanying a friend to a Scottish fabric mill and he came upon all of these richly colored yarns on offer and wondered why knits were so drab. He immediately bought them and subsequently immediately learned how to knit in 20 minutes from a stranger on the train back to London (he said it’s easy. I say he’s a polymath) and knitted a sweater - his FIRST sweater - that went on to be featured in Vogue. Wow!
We all had a great time basking in the patterns, colors, and Fassett’s brilliant presence. Afterwards, we had lunch at the lovely Gallo restaurant right down the street from the Playhouse.
A grand day for all, and a truly special experience!
What I’m watching: Yoga with Adriene YouTube videos. OK, does this count? Yes, it does because I get to decide! I do yoga with her most everyday. She has a great video "Don’t be brilliant, just begin” (what a great title!!) in which she talks with Julia Cameron (of The Artist’s Way fame) and it’s really great for creativity. I like how this is an unexpected combination, but of course, creativity is really a part of life no matter what.
Reading: The Forest Feast: Simple Vegetarian Recipes from My Cabin in the Woods by Erin Gleeson. OK, so this is a week for the unconventional. This is a great cookbook. The author is a watercolor artist and food photographer. I love the totally unique mostly visual presentation of the recipes, how simple they are, and that they are delicious! Also, the author wrote way more than usual in the introduction - I always recommend reading the introduction!
Listening to: Call to the Divine by Sacred Earth
Simply lovely and calming.
