Random Thoughts: Wednesday, December 7

Now we are on part three of what might have otherwise been a much longer single post! Such is life.

Here are a few more photos before we talk about the last film of TIFF we saw on Sunday late afternoon.

The first two are obviously the two of us being tourists with a "T". That is okay, everyone needs to be some time.

The photo below is one of the most photographed in the city, we think. Children play and pose on it, as do adults. Several years ago it was in an unadorned space with only concrete. Now it has a lovely setting and we like this new environment as it really adds rather than detracts from the sculpture.

Now for the movie.

The last day of the Tbilisi International Film Festival, we went to the cinema on Rustaveli Avenue to see "Life is Be", a Georgian film set in the city of Telavi. It depicted the lives of five individuals, all of whom were living under very difficult conditions. Some of them were in homes that were classified as historical by the city. Thus, the owners were prohibited from making alterations or even repairs, so the houses were falling down around them. Another man was homeless, living in the shell of a building surrounded with trash. Each of the persons had a history of achievement, but time had passed them by and they were left with only each other. The film maker was sensitive to each character and always preserved their dignity and humanity. After the film he discussed making it and told the audience that these were people he knew and that the film was not yet finished. His work won him one of the awards, we believe for documentary work.

Now we will switch gears to Monday of this week.

Marty started her day with Maia Good and learned how she puts together her quilts and quite a few other tricks of the trade learned over 20 years of quilting. Below is Maia in the garage of their building where their garage is closed off from the rest of the space. Her husband had put a surface on one wall that allows her to tape the backings of her quilts, then using a special spray she adheres the batting and finally again using the spray attaches the top. This wonderful Bargello design was just one of the quilts Marty got to see in the works.

In the late afternoon we went to the Modern Museum of Art in Tbilisi, aka Tsereteli museum. This we went to with our friend Maia and Judy Holtze to see the Art Doll Exhibit we had seen advertised. Along with this was an Italian Fashion exhibit that had some really amazing clothes, some even worn by the likes of Ava Gardner.

The above "garment" is constructed entirely of black bras! Don't know if Marty would have ever worn such a thing...ever..it did cause us to chuckle though,

The dolls were the highlight though and we were so glad and fortunate to have seen these. Marty has an entire Flickr gallery of just them so you can click on the link and see them all. https://www.flickr.com/photos/significant_images/albums/72157677383723026

There were dolls of pure fantasy as well as those of extreme realism, all wonderfully displayed.