slightly wonky

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.

Ori Gersht

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…