As winter continues on into it’s doldrums, you can do a nice thing for your houseplants and give them a shower!  The dry air from heat doesn’t do these guys any good.  A tepid shower fully hydrates them, gives them a nice dose of humidity, and cleans off their dusty leaves.  They will reward you for your efforts with renewed growth and a little extra green, all of which helps when the days are very grey.

Sight School is pleased to host this one-night exhibition and public reading of Chicago-based collective Temporary Services’ newspaper titled, “Art Work: A National Conversation on Art, Labor and Economics.”

A handful of local artists, writers and curators including Sean Fletcher & Isabel Reichert, Lynne McCabe, Julian Meyers, Ted Purves, and Natasha Wheat will deliver public readings of texts directly from or related to the newspaper, while providing analysis and commentary in an informal reading-room environment. Readings will feature works by Chris Burden, Carolina Caycedo, Cooley Windsor & Futurefarmers, and the Guerilla Art Action Group (GAAG), among others. In addition, this event will serve as a distribution point for free printed copies of the newspaper. Participants will be encouraged contribute to the event and participate in discussion on how to build an economically viable arts community in the Bay Area.

This event will take place from 7-9pm on Wednesday December 16th.
Sight School, 5651 San Pablo Ave, Oakland CA

As some of you know, we are using the car crash as a cue and trying out life without owning a car.  Unfortunately, we are not people who don’t need a car at all and so we have been using City Car Share as well as renting cars about 3 days a month.  We’re also renting a car for 5 weeks to drive to and around Utah.

We also just learned a couple things about renting a car in California:

1. It’s illegal to drive a car without liability insurance

2. Car rental companies here do not include any state-required liability insurance into the base price of their rental cars.  Apparently, California, from what I have read, is the only state where this does not happen.  So, if you live in another state and have been buying liability insurance through your rental company, you should know that what you are buying replaces and adds on to what is already included in your rate.  I would still check with your specific company to find out if this is true, but it seems to be.  We use our credit card for our collision insurance.  Again, you still need to check with your credit card to find out what your terms are because they vary a lot.  We use Amex Blue (which we specifically got for it’s good rental car coverage)

So- 5 weeks of buying insurance at $13 a day is a lot.  What other options are out there, you ask?  Well, there are Named Non-Owner policies.  These policies are for people who drive either rentals or other people’s cars.  It is an insurance plan for the person, not the car.  However, you can only do this for cars that you do not own.

The plans seem to range in price quite a bit. So everyone knows: these plans are for two drivers with clean records who have had their licenses for 14 years (ack- oldness).  These plans are just for liability insurance.

Geico, to be fair, were the people who even told me that these plans existed and though I owe them that debt, I am not going with their plan.  (I was calling around seeing if I could get “temporary insurance” for the 5 weeks we would have the car – the answer is universally “no” just so everyone knows.  But, you can open a new policy and then cancel it- though it is hard to do when you have absolutely no information about the car you will be driving.)  They offered a 6 month plan for the two of us for $186.80.  Not terrible.  But, you can’t drive one car or be a regular user of one car for more than 30 days.  She offered that to get around this, we would just have to get two different contracts from the rental company.  That seemed unlikely.

Travelers insurance seemed incompetent and though they offered the policy, the woman on the other end of the line didn’t seem to understand it, forcing me to tell her what type of car I would be driving though I am renting and don’t know.  They never even got back to me with a quote after being on the phone with them for 45 min.

Progressive makes you go through a local agent, so I called Wayne at D Star Insurance in Oakland.  (OMG I thought he was awesome, but just found their website. He looks awesome too.) Wayne was very nice and told me about the rental car policies in other states.  He mistakenly believed that it was also true in our state, but I found out with a little research that that is not the case.  Progressive seems to be the most expensive option.  For a 6 month policy for just one of us it was $381.  If we wanted to cancel after the 5 weeks, it would be a $50 fee.  He included in the quote medical and uninsured motorists, which added $118.  Without that it would still be $263 for 6 months for just one of us.

AAA, our old car insurance and our current renters insurance policyholder, won out in the end.  Though I called them first, they didn’t tell me about the Named Non-Owner policies.  Then I thought I wouldn’t go with them as they only have 1 year policies.  But then they gave me a quote for just one of us and it was $141 for the year.  After learning about the other plans out there and the problems they posed, I confirmed that they do not have a cancellation fee and they have no limit on the number of days you drive the car, as long as it is not registered to your name. When I called to sign up, I found out that to add Oliver, it was just $4. For the year. So that turned out great. Hooray!

So, if you rent a car once a month in California and usually buy liability insurance through the rental company, I’d advise this plan.  It is less per month than one time of buying insurance on a car.

Welcome to a new day for optimism.

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Hanson

Anyone (anyone?) want to vote for the design they like better?

Regretfully,

Eleanor and Oliver

When is Fiber Art, Art? An essay in Fiber Arts Magazine (a good source of info for all things related to (surprise!) fiber arts) by Janet Koplos

The Jacquard Loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that has holes punched in pasteboard, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order.

Because it was the first machine to use punch cards to control a sequence of operations, it is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware. The ability to change the pattern of the loom’s weave by simply changing cards was an important conceptual precursor to the development of computer programming.

Fiber Artists and Shows:

Thread at Johansson Projects: a review of the show, a list of artists involved “Thread, a survey of sewn, stitched and woven works whose common thread is the media, not the medium. By re-exploring the functional avenues of textiles and materials, these eight artists begin to converse in a neo-craft dialect which diverges greatly from its domestic and industrial traditions. Pins are re-invented as figurative joinery, refuse amassed to render owls, interactive fabric measures changes in electro-magnetic frequencies, making the outcome from these dexterous hands undeniably rare.”

Two artists from the “Thread” show work with the Jacquard loom: “Lia Cook, collected by the Cleveland Museum, de Young, The Met, and NYMOMA and her former student, Christy Matson, who currently lectures at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, both utilize Jacquard weaving looms though their kinship divides from there: Matson’s interactive woven audio cloth relays the constant human flux of the very space Cook’s pointillist portraiture hopes to hold in a single woven moment.”

Anni Albers – was a German-American textile artist and printmaker. She is perhaps the best known textile artist of the 20th century. In 1971, her and her husband founded the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, a not-for-profit organization they hoped would further “the revelation and evocation of vision through art.” Here is a gallery of Albers’ work much of which is strikingly similar to Text/ile. Here is a great interview with Anni that gives some insight into her work and theories.

Seiko Kinoshita – contemporary textile artist from Japan working out of England.

Deepa Panchamia – contemporary sculptural textile artist out of England

Emilio Lobato – Painter inspired by woven textiles. Honoring the weavers of his Spanish ancestry, Lobatos’ new work revisits the ‘Blanket’ series and builds upon its tapestry-like foundation. With inclusions of text and cross symbols, the weft segments are painted the artists trademark colors: earthen reds, blacks and ochres.

Maggie’s Links:

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

is an AMAZING site that really inspires me on many different levels.

www.knittaplease.com

this is a great group that combines knitting and graffiti.

www.microrevolt.org

This is the web site for Cat Mazza who is using stitching and knitting for revolution and activism.

radicalcrossstitch.com/2008/07/14/stitch-for-senate/

A new project collaborative–way cool feminist site!

The Jacquard Center in Henderson, North Carolina – Text/ile was produced while Maggie was an artist in residency here.

Fiber Arts as Activism:

Stitch for Senate is an initiative of knit hobbyists making helmet liners for every United States Senator. Building on the tradition of wartime knitting, a practice dating back to the American Revolution, Stitch for Senate revives this cultural trend by engaging with public officials about the war in Iraq. Hobbyists knit in solidarity to persuade elected officials to support the troops by bringing them home. All the senators will receive their own helmet liner the week of the 2008 election, after being displayed in the seating chart of the US Senate at gallery venue. Once they are received, senators can opt to send helmets to a soldier.

We are looking for a space in the area of the Oakland Art Murmer to show (TPG7, Subscriber’s Choice Artist) Maggie Leininger’s work for a one night show September 5th, 2008. Anybody, Anybody?

thank you