slightly wonky

Is it Friday already?  How did this happen?

Well, this is the FIRST week in a month that I’ve actually gotten a chance to DRAW.  I almost forgot which end of the pencil to use!  Just kidding…luckily, my friend got me a deranged pencil sharpener to help me out:

Yes.  There it is.  (except that mine is black.)  Did I mention that the cat meows when you use it???  SICK.  Actually, having this thing around pretty much ensures that all of my pencils will remain dull.  I’m also keeping it away from my five-year-old, who will want some kind of explanation that I cannot possibly give him without him needing years of therapy, which I don’t want to start him on until he’s at least eight.  I think that my friend would have preferred to have given me this in person, as my horrified reaction is really the priceless part of the gift.  Thanks, TB.  I’m going to have nightmares tonight…

Besides eating my weight in chocolate chip cookies this week, I also went to the The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury to see the work of my advisor, Adria Arch.

Adria Arch

So exciting!!!!  She has her work in the main room of the Art Complex.  Her work is large and has a lot of impact, so it’s great to see it with the space that it needs.

Adria Arch

The show is titled, “Iconic.”  She plays with the subconscious markings of other people and magnifies and intensifies them into monumental glyphs.  The forms, compositions and colors are very compelling.  I can’t help but wonder who made each of these marks?  I love the mysterious quality of them.

Adria Arch, I Love You More, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 96″ x 96″

In her words, “These elements, spattered across and extending beyond the picture plane, bring to mind galaxies and explosions of energy. The compositions suggest randomness, belying an intentional painting process in which I project and then paint enlarged pencil lines onto canvas, wood panel, or walls. My practice grows out of the tradition of mark-making. I am drawn to the expressiveness found in unselfconscious pencil doodles – some I find and some I elicit from other people. The eccentric lines derived from these marginal marks are, for me, metaphors for boundless physical energy: floating, spinning, and falling through space.”  So fascinating!  Please go and see this show. It’s up from May 36 – August 18.

While I wish that I had a modicum of physical energy, I have managed to do SOME productive things this past month.

Look what I grew!  Actually, I should say…”Look what I didn’t kill!”  Yes…that’s an ORCHID.  The flowers fell off a couple weeks after I bought it, which made me sad as I thought that was the kiss of death.  BUT NO!  I discovered that if you WATER it…more flowers will grow.  Imagine that!  I am convinced that plants hate me, so I am happy that this one didn’t get the memo.  My other plants are probably blowing it raspberries in their own plant-like way.

Speaking of blowing raspberries, my son is back at school this week.  SANITY.  He was NOT happy about that, but I felt that I should not mislead him by thinking that school is “optional.”  He says that he is besides himself with boredom.  I nod.

Welcome to reality, kid!

This is what he would prefer to do all day, rather than “boring” activities, like making bumble bees out of construction paper.  (can crafts EVER be boring????)  He told me that this is a hotel.  Perhaps my son will become the next Donald Trump?  As his mother, though, I would not allow him to have the Donald’s hair, though.  In reviewing his design, I feel that the penthouse unit has a catacomb-like quality to it.  Thoughts?  Perhaps a skylight would help?  Maybe he’s catching onto the micro hotel thing in Japan?:

There must not be a word for, “claustrophobia” in Japanese.  Those wouldn’t work in the States anyway, as they’d each need to be the size of a shipping container to work with our girth.

Speaking of…I’m going to go and look for more cookies.  Let me know if you need me to sharpen any pencils for you.