Filed under: Drawing, Fleeting thoughts... | Tags: art, cape cod, drawing, New York City, pirate booty
So, yet again, I have done NO new artwork. I did, however, eat two bowls of Pirate’s Booty just a minute ago…does that count for anything? Seeing as my latest body of work involves drawing food, I’m just going to chalk up this indulgence to professional R&D.
Sound convincing? Should I run for Congress? Perhaps…but only if I could attend all sessions wearing my fuzzy, mint green bathrobe carrying my half-eaten bag of Pirate’s Booty under my arm. I’ll be representin’ the moms out there…I MAY even brush my hair…
I did attend the reception for the National Prize Show at the Cambridge Art Association.
I ran into some friends unexpectedly, which was great. My cousin and his friend also came, which was wonderful as well, AND greatly added to the evening. My work ended up in a corner of the room:
There it is! Actually, there’s my husband! Poor guy. Little does he realize his portrait is hanging up in Cambridge. He may not be able to handle the fame of people coming up to him on the T saying…”Hey! You’re the guy in the drawing who mysteriously has no hand! What’s up with that???” He can just nod and mumble something about his crazy wife as he tries to hide under his Kindle.
Sometimes, my posts aspire to be “marginally intellectual,” or at least NOT ridiculous. But…as a result of my son’s continued absence from preschool…any remaining braincells that I might have had to create a “marginally intellectual” thought have shriveled up and are now forgotten…much like the errant Cheerio that rolls itself off the dining room table from my son’s cereal bowl and ends up underneath the radiator. (Just wondering…do I need a third bowl of Pirate’s Booty? Thoughts????)
I was digging that pen and pencil drawing of a grasshopper on the right, in spite of my bug phobia.
During this past week, as well as getting nothing done, I stumbled upon the work of Joan Linder online. Check it out:
She recently had a show at Mixed Greens in NYC. I WISH that I had seen it. Her show was titled, “Sink.” She has numerous drawings of her kitchen sink/countertop that are mesmerizing to me. Some of the drawings are realistic, and they almost have a “family portrait” feel to them. They are long, colorful and detailed…and they make me feel as if the viewer has interrupted a private party amongst the artist’s kitchen items and food. The black and white drawings look gorgeous. I love the look of the drawing and the entire theme. The multicolored line drawings have a very frenetic feel. I almost relate to the faucet in the center…it’s trapped and trying to deal with the culinary fracas. Amazing! Did anyone out there see the show? If so, let me know what you think. I would love to see her work in person.
It makes me wish that I could make something amazing from my lowly kitchen sink. (Yes, I’ve heard of Bon Ami…thankyouverymuch.) I’m going to hold off on posting a photo of my own kitchen sink …lest I get arrested by the housefrau police. They have spies everywhere. I think that I can pretty convincingly plead ignorance.
I’m just like that, except that my dress is red, not blue. I’m also right handed.
This past weekend, we went to the Cape…
AAAAHHHHHH. Now, I know it’s not the Caribbean (unless we took a wrong turn after Albuquerque), but it still has a zen effect on my psyche. I am lulled by the sparkling waves…the noisy seagulls…and my son asking repeatedly when we can see his friend who lives nearby.
Have you noticed that eating soft serve ice cream seems to have a zen effect similar to being at the beach? I have. Or, perhaps it’s just the beach and ice cream combo that work together so well? Beach + ice cream = zen. As opposed to: 5 year old boy + 5 year old boy = NOT zen.
I find that sprinkles are helpful too…especially when applied topically to my temples during one of my son’s raucous playdates…
(FYI…they’re also easier to pick off the floor than shriveled Cheerios…)
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts... | Tags: art, artist, Cocoapuffs, drawing, Family, housewife, Lego Ninjago, parenting, peeps, St. Botolph Club
Yes, I am still here…although my focus on art has taken a serious hiatus. I recently stopped sending my son to the preschool that he has been attending, for reasons that I will not bore you with. In a nutshell: I have no regular childcare now. SAVE ME. My mom has been exceedingly helpful by coming to watch my son while I attempt to run errands, like picking up six of my drawings from the framer, or having a series of stressful portfolio reviews. I am CLEARLY not cut out to be a 24 hr.-a-day-stay-at-home-mom. You know those blogs where all of the photos are dreamy and misty, and where the author is a stay-at-home-mom who makes muffins from scratch with wild blueberries that she just picked whilst her brood of delightful children invent delightful games with rocks and sticks?
This is not one of those blogs.
I feel that having a child is one of the universe’s ways of telling us that we have stuff we need to work on…and it’s only by being confronted with such issues as a parent, that we will ever attempt to work on those things we need to. Am I being too vague? Okay. Basically, I have a very short fuse and an excess of buttons that are easily pressed. My son, whom I love dearly, has been, besides “my little love”, the one impetus for me to excruciatingly stretch my fuse and reduce the tsunami normally unleashed when my buttons are pushed.
Sigh. I love him, AND he can seriously drive me cuckoo for Cocoapuffs.
Yes, my eyeballs explode just like that.
My mother and I recently took him to the MFA to see the samurai exhibit. Great idea, right? Aren’t I “Mom of The Year”? Hmm. The universe told me “no,” as I hopelessly overestimated my own brilliance and the attention span of my five-year-old…
Seriously. What is not to love, right? The helmets especially were…AMAZING. It’s hard to believe that anyone wore these, as they are so fantastic, intricate, and other-worldly. I especially liked the room where several were set up to be “on horseback.” In spite of the similarities between his Lego “Ninjago” figures and these REAL suits of armor, my son gave up halfway through the exhibit and wanted to leave.
SERIOUSLY. Is there ANY comparison? Sheesh. Maybe if they could have had someone walking around in a samurai outfit…kind of like a “Late Edo period Chuck E. Cheese”, the show would have been a bigger hit with my son?
No? I’m not sure what would have scared him more…a masked samurai walking around or that big rodent? The kid in this photo doesn’t look too sure either…
Besides being a well intentioned yet hopelessly idealistic parent these past few weeks, I also attended the reception of one of the group shows that I am in. It was the “New Talent / New England” juried show at the St. Botolph Club in Boston. Nice!
Thank you to Kyla P., Karen S., Karina C., Marcus S., and Charlie S. for coming to see it! I really appreciate it. I also appreciated being able to go out and have a good laugh with friends, as that doesn’t happen often enough, IMHO. My friend, Kyla, brought me something that evening that she had been meaning to give me for weeks:
Really?
I don’t remember anyone saying ANYTHING in my professional development class about bringing stuffed animals to show openings…do I really need to be holding a deranged stuffed Peep while I am trying to carry on an intelligent conversation and look remotely professional?
Of course I did. Kyla, thank you for coming to the reception AND for reminding me why we are friends in the first place.
Now, if I can just hold onto this thing for a few days before my son absorbs it into his growing harem of freakish toys…
Is that selfish of me? I’ll just go look up this kind of “typical parenting dilemma” in my growing pile of parenting books…
slightly wonky 