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…
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.
slightly wonky 