Filed under: Drawing, Fleeting thoughts... | Tags: art, artist, housewife, John Wilson, playground, Stop & Shop
Well, winter has arrived in New England. Joy.
Yes, that’s FOUR DEGREES! I know…those of you above the arctic circle are laughing. Let me describe for you the layers of clothes that I must wear INDOORS: undershirt, then fleece long underwear top, then wool long underwear top, then a fleece jacket, and then my mint green fuzzy robe on top. Oh, I know…my outfit is “suburban housewife AWESOME”. I’m not taking a picture of it, though. I don’t want it to go viral and waste my fifteen minutes of fame on being the latest “Domestic Loser a.k.a. The Mint Green Marshmallow Mommy” on Reddit.
The big highlight of this week was my trip to the Danforth Museum. I LOVE that museum. They currently have a show of the works of John Wilson. Let me just tell you…his drawings/paintings/lithographs were STUNNING. I mean, drop dead stunning. Look at the lithograph of a baby held in a man’s lap:
John Wilson, Child with Father, 1968, lithograph
Okay, so my photo had an awful glare…this is from the Boston Globe:
John Wilson, Child with Father, 1968, lithograph
Isn’t that so beautiful??? His works were MESMERIZING. The density and the sensitivity with which he drew was really breathtaking. I honestly feel that I could look at that print for days. Look at the baby’s face! Look at the hands of baby and father interlocked! Am I the only one out there who is in awe of this??? IT’S AMAZING. More:
John Wilson, Self Portrait #4, 1997, ink
Again, sorry for the annoying glare. I am astounded by this drawing. Is he not so masterful at describing form??? If you are in the Boston area…you really MUST see this show. It’s open until March 24. I’m going to go often, so I may see you there. (You’ll recognize me as the rumpled housewife in the mint green robe.) More:
John Wilson, Roz #15, 1972, black pastel on paper
This is an enormous drawing. It’s so dramatic, and his lines are so gorgeous. Martha Richardson Fine Art here in Boston has quite a few of his works (and they own the drawing above). PLEASE check out their website here. His work captured many views of his world…both personal and societal. Some images are of injustice and despair, while others exude the palpable love that he had for the subject. I know that sounds sappy, but his work is so full of quiet emotion. I loved this show. I’ll have to go back many more times before it closes.
It made me think of the quiet emotion in my life…like, how I hate grocery shopping, plastic bags, and Stop & Shop. You know…really poignant stuff. This was the highlight of my grocery shopping week:
Work of Unknown Artist at Whole Foods in Woburn, MA
Okay. Don’t laugh, but I love this. WHO DID THIS???? It was up (stapled, actually) on the wall in the seating area of my local Whole Foods. IT MADE ME ACTUALLY LOVE THE GROCERY STORE…MOMENTARILY… Seriously, though…don’t you love this??? It’s a construction paper collage with marker. SO BRILLIANT. I didn’t see a price, so I assume that it’s not for sale. Too bad. Actually, because it was at Whole Foods, I know that I wouldn’t be able to afford it anyway. Hmph. (for those of you that don’t know…Whole Foods has the nickname “Whole Paycheck” because purchasing a single tomato requires a home equity loan.)
Speaking of crafty brilliance, here’s something that I made this week that I’m sooo proud of:
No, not the crumbs on the floor…the PAPER SPIDER! My five year old son asked me to make him a Mesothelae out of paper. What’s that, you may ask? Oh, just an enormous, prehistoric spider. I initially balked at his request, as he handed me several sheets of 8 1/2″ x 11″ printer paper. BUT LOOK! Didn’t I do a good job??? Do you think that I should give up pursuing art and just make prehistoric paper things? Hmm. Maybe. Maybe if I brought it to the Paper Source, I could get a “real” job. I’d probably have to get rid of the mint green robe though, so forget it.
Daddy has been out of town this week, so Mommy has had to come up with many fun thing to do in order for her to keep her sanity:
1. Turtle Bread
2. Lego subway station
3. Old school wooden playground.
This is an awesome playground that has an ENORMOUS, vintage wooden climbing structure. They are a dying breed typically replaced by the safe (a.k.a. boring) modern ones made of plastic. Pshaw. LOOK:
Isn’t that GREAT? Sigh. A true sign of getting old is reminiscing about playground equipment. Perhaps instead of moping about my age, I’ll celebrate my Gen X status by eating a fruit roll up whilst I watch reruns of Voltron and crimp my hair.
I know. Not cool. Sooo not cool.
Filed under: Drawing, Fleeting thoughts... | Tags: art, Dinosaur, drawing, Paleontology, parenting
So, I recently brought my son to a dinosaur exhibit at the Boston World Trade Center.
Total. Parental. Hell.
I imagined that there would be oh…50 or so of these large scale dinosaurs to look at. Great.
There were actually more like 15, which only filled 1/5 of the expo hall space. What was in the rest of the space, you may ask? Well…the rest of the space was devoted to:
1. A store where your children could obsess over dinosaur paraphernalia,
2. A dino bouncy house, for which you had to stand in ANOTHER a mile long line to BUY tickets for (because the tickets that you bought to get into it didn’t count), and
3. A dino mini-golf area, where you also needed to stand in the four hour line to BUY more tickets.
It was a total dino-scam. Do NOT go. Luckily, my son didn’t want to do the bouncy house or mini golf. He did want a mini paleontologist kit, though. I thought it sounded harmless enough…you dig out bones from a block of something. Cool, right?
Oh…SO unbelievably NOT cool. SO MUCH FILTH. There was dust EVERYWHERE… thick, reddish plaster dust EVERYWHERE. There was so much dust that I thought my son and I would develop black lung and/or a nasty rash. I am the worst housekeeper ever, but even I was in a filth panic. Me! Parents…do NOT buy this gift in the winter. This is an OUTDOOR gift. Actually, you may want to just forget it altogether.
DO NOT BUY THIS, EVER.
Yes, my son did work on it from 11:30 am – 3:30pm , with a brief break for lunch…but still. It was NOT worth it. I suggest that you be the slacker parent and neither take your kid to the dino-scam exhibit, nor buy this educational toy.
Consider yourself warned. So there.
I had high hopes of going to see some art this week, but it didn’t happen. I did install a cabinet door myself, though! Only 17 more to go! Woo hoo!
Here is a recent concern of mine that I’d like your feedback on:
My son can sometimes be a happy normal kid, and draw stuff like this:
These are aliens, I think.
Or, he can be kind of high strung, and draw things like this (on the other side):
(I erased the background scribbles from the other side for clarity)
Do you think that I should be concerned? Who was this for??? Me? What was I not supposed to touch? Wha? Thoughts?
This drawing, and other instances, sometimes make me feel unwanted. Example:
This lego ship is apparently using the couch. I guess I’ll just go sit on the floor with the red plaster dust and be sure not to touch anything. Is he trying to tell me something?
Don’t mind me…I just work here…
Just so that you don’t feel totally gypped from seeing any art, I’ve found this cool artist online:
Original Drawing of [Expedia City Breaks:Paris], 2012, pen on kentboard, h.42×w.29.7cm., Ogilvy & Mather collection
Kind of crazy, right? Look at this detail:
Detail of Original Drawing of [Expedia City Breaks:Paris], 2012, pen on kentboard, h.42×w.29.7cm., Ogilvy & Mather collection
ISN”T THAT SO COOL???? He/she draws these incredible images with tons of doodle-esque characters! AMAZING!!! Isn’t that incredible??? Talk about skill. I would like it more if he/she would not choose these famous images, but instead drew images from his own life. What do you think? Comments? Isn’t he/she SUPER TALENTED????? Check out the website here. Also, if anyone can clarify if Sagati is male or female, I’d appreciate it. (ありがとう)
Wish me luck avoiding the flu epidemic here!!! I’m going to go now and order a haz-mat suit online. I hope that I can wear it on top of my snuggie!!!
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts... | Tags: art, boston, cabin fever, Ori Gersht, poster art, vacation
For those of you only interested in art…please scroll down…
For the rest of you…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! YES, I made it through what seemed like an endless school vacation. SO EXHAUSTING. I think that what made it more exhausting is that for some odd reason I also decided that it was time to paint the kitchen cabinets:
No joke. Do you realize how many square inches of surface area cabinets have??? BAJILLIONS. All the doors and hinges have to come off…holes patched & sanded…prime EVERYTHING (at least once), and paint everything (at least once). Because this project is such a royal pain in the tush, I decided that there was no way that I could afford to hire someone else to do it. BAH! Merry Christmas to me! (not)
(FYI…blue tape is an a tool of the devil which is only used by non-professionals in the hope that paint won’t get everywhere, but that’s a total lie. Did I mention that I also managed to dip the end of my hair in the paint can? Yeah, I know…that’s not the fault of blue tape, but whatever…)
It also snowed here:
That’s the igloo that my son and husband started. Yes, they were so stir crazy, that they started an igloo. It was four degrees here this week…FOUR DEGREES! (that’s Fahrenheit, FYI) Needless to say, the igloo is unfinished. Also:
Yes, I was so stir crazy that I was willing for my son to play with the science experiment kit that we have. This basically involves making a big mess with things like vegetable oil, baking soda, and food coloring. I’m kind of a high strung person, so giving my kid a large eyedropper filled with ANYTHING makes me nervous. It was okay. Nothing really bad happened, other than me having to clean up a big mess and vowing to mysteriously lose the science kit somehow. At least it gave me a break from our imaginative play with Lego, where I’m always the Lego astronaut who falls to earth, lands in the middle of a dinosaur trapping station, and somehow can’t see anything until one of the dinosaur-trapper Lego guys tells my astronaut Lego guy to take his helmet off.
Yes, I am totally serious…and no, like my cabinet project, that’s not a joke. In fact, I may have to run to the fridge right now to get a second soy ice cream sandwich just to have the strength to finish this post.
It’s been a long eleven days.
My son drew this. Do you think that he wrote my name on it because he was making the drawing FOR me…or do you think that he was making it OF me? I’m assuming that I’d be the large creature in the center with the tiny head and sharp teeth. Thoughts? Comments? Reassuring remarks? Why do I have so many legs and why is steam coming out of my shoulder? And what’s up with that back hair???? Discuss.
Okay, so one of the highlights of the week, besides me eating two, soy ice cream sandwiches in a row (FYI…husband is vegan, and no, that doesn’t explain why I ate more than one…), was going to the MFA to see the Ori Gersht show. If you are in the Boston area and are not in the middle of overindulging, as I am…then RUN to the museum to see this show.
His work…is…stunning.
I mean…SOOOO stunning.
Please take a look at the numerous links for him here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
In the photo above, he has frozen these flowers in liquid nitrogen, then blown them up with dynamite. A-MA-ZING. His work comments on beauty, life, death, destruction, violence, fragility, humanity, history…I could go on. His photos and videos are mesmerizing and painterly. He is thinking of the most heartbreaking subjects (Hiroshima…WWII…) and tapping into the agony of these events through his slow, videos and photography of beauty coming to an end. I wish that I could do his work justice with a poetic description, but I am lacking in both poetry and writing skills (and yet you’re still here!) Seriously, though…his work is breathtaking. The show at the MFA closes on Sunday. GO NOW. WAIT OUTSIDE, IF YOU MUST. DON’T WHINE…IT ISN’T FOUR DEGREES ANYMORE, IT’S THIRTY-TWO. DEAL WITH IT. IT’S WORTH IT.
Okay, enough ranting. Perhaps that faux ice cream is having an odd affect on me? Maybe that’s why vegans are grouchy all the time. (just kidding, honey!!!!)
There was also a postcard exhibit, and a poster exhibit as well:
Ib Andersen
I had to take a picture of this, as it made me reminisce about being an architect. Ah…the sectional perspective…classic. But, naturally, the non-architecture poster of a toothbrush was my favorite:
Niklaus Stoecklin
Isn’t that so fantastic??? I’m not sure which is my favorite part…the change in the toothbrush’s appearance as it exits the glass, or the look of the toothpaste tube through the toothbrush handle, or the pink reflection of light on the toothpaste cap. Either way…this is pretty amazing. It’s like Mario Testino decided to take a picture of his bathroom sink, or something. His toothbrush would look like Giselle Bundchen, while mine typically looks like someone who just ate two ice cream sandwiches. Hmmm. Maybe I should get a third??? Okay, maybe not…
slightly wonky 