Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Weekend in Rio

Saturday morning, Colleen and I gave our slide presentations at the Rio Patchwork Design show.  Above is Colleen signing autographs, just like a rock star.

This was my first presentation to a quilt group!  "Sticks and Stones" was an exploration of my design processes in creating my Tangle and Geology series.  I found out later that our talented interpreter, Astrid, has a sister who is a quilter and had lived in Vancouver!  Small world...
  
Here are Colleen and I with some folks who come up from Sao Paulo each year for the show.

With Zeca, Patchwork Design's producer, in front of my quilts.

Zeca does a beautiful job displaying the quilts.  Zeca's mother sews many of the quilts to a black background, which is then framed with a black metal frame.  The result is spectacular.  It gives the exhibit a wonderful coherence. 

After a lovely afternoon "talking" (suprisingly effective even when one speaks less than ten words in Portuguese) to the show visitors about our quilts, we took a stroll along the lake before grabbing a cab back to the hotel.  We had a great evening at Bartholomew's.  We're starting to feel like regulars there. 
Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas
Sunday morning started with a walk through the neighborhood to the Parca Gal. Orsorio. 


This is a view down the Rua Visconde de Piraja, the main shopping street just a couple of blocks from out hotel.
We spent a good part of Sunday at the flea market.


Fruits and vegetables of carved wood.
Hand-bound books
Metal jewelry that is wonderful, whimsical and goth all at the same time


I braved the subway for the second time to go to a small museum displaying items from the indigenous groups, Museu do Indio.


From that neighborhood I got my first glimpse of a favela, one of the shanty towns built up on many of Rio's hillsides.



Also in this neighborhood was the Museu Villa Lobos, the president's house before the capitol moved to Brasilia.


The architecture of Rio displays many different styles and influences, often within one city block.



Inside a metro station
On the way home, walking from the subway to the hotel, I got my first glimpse of the Cristo Redentor, Christ the Redeemer, on the top of Corcovado Mountain. Up until that day it had been raining or there were clouds covering the mountaintop.  You can barely see the statue at the top of the mountain between the trees.  The statue is 38 meters (125 feet) tall.   The mountain is 2310 feet in elevation.

I walked along the beach at Ipanema.  Unlike the first day here, this Sunday the beach was jam packed.




A margarita and dinner at, you guessed it!, Bartholomew's topped off the evening.

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