I was making cranberry sauce tonight and turned around to the sink when I saw these two bowls I had on the counter. Clementines and ripening green tomatoes.
November in Chicago.

Just home from my recent opening. Actually, from the opening and a late dinner with friends. But anyway, I knew you would all be on pins and needles waiting to hear how it went (ha-ha-ha!!!) No sales tonight, but some really nice feedback from some locally well respected artists. This is the kind of stuff I need to keep me going. After seeing the incredible stuff at the Art Institute the other day
I was feeling pretty bummed, actually to tell the truth I was feeling pretty crappy about my work. One of the artists at the Art League has his films in the Art Institute. I saw them on Monday. I'm not sure why they are there, I guess I have a hard time with video/film stuff. Anyway he was there tonight and said he thought my work was "very nice". Maybe he was just patronizing me, but I'd like to think he liked it. He was saying that he was not pleased with a couple of his films at the A I so he was almost as insecure as me I guess. Sometimes being an artist is pretty tough. What we put out there is so personal and intimate and it's hard to distance ourselves from it and see it as a comodidty instead of as an extension of ourselves. Let me re-phrase that. It's not that it is always a personal or intimate reveal, but the actual work comes from a personal struggle. It is a struggle to make what is in the head or heart or soul, or where ever it comes from, appear out "there" in some form. It is usually the struggle that is so personal or intimate. Some artists do put their intimate selves out there but the struggle is still the hardest part. Of course there are those "interesting" artists who make their art using themselves as the medium. Some like to paint with their spit as the medium with acrylic paint or maybe use their semen on a particular surface that turns it a different color. Ah, such talent. Years to perfect it! But I must not condemn such creativity or I will be condemning all of us. Oh, what the hell...that kind of crap is just that, crap! And I'm sure there are "paintings" out there done in just that, with perhaps a bit of oil paint mixed in.

But I digress, my intention tonight was simply to say thet my little opening was ...well...little, but nice. I will keep working.

Book club and Dorothy

"They sicken of the calm, who know the storm” this from Dorothy Parker.
I have been trying to get my bookclub to read D. Parker for some time now and finally this month was hers. She was, undoubtedly, a very sad woman, but her wit and her mind...oh my God! If I could have one percent of the amazing
wit-ability that she had I would be exstatic and ...very witty! This is one of those (many for me) times that I wish I could time travel. I would love to just be in a room with Dorothy Parker. To listen and watch and ask.
She was quite something for her time.
Here's another:
"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."
And just one more:
"Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship."
Just google her and her quotes. Yup, it's worth it.

This is from a couple of years ago. It's the Milwaukee Museum of Art. I was there again yesterday and didn't have my camera, but watched from the inside this time.The shadow play was magical. I have several pix on my phone, but of course I don't know how to get them out.

I'd like to spend more time in this space.

My Jim piece

This is a part of a piece I did about my brother for a show titled "Remembrance" a few years ago. It has been packed in a brown paper shopping bag since the show came down. The piece exposes times when we shared our hopes, our ordinary lives our and despairs during the brief time we lived together in the sixties. We were in our early 20's and both trying to figure out who we were and where we were going. He got it and I am still trying to figure it out. He died 19 years ago. I still miss him, but I cherish our time together.

I'm glad I pulled it out of the brown shopping bag that it was stored in and put it up in my studio.

Sometimes it's just nice to have favorite things near. This feeds my memories.

Sold and sad

VIEW FROM THE DOCK

Floating
through time
as a dream
blue air,
yellow breeze
caress
the soul
within me

Here we are as the arts fest begins...











We decided to see how our work would be received by being in an art fair. Holy crap! What a lot of work!


















This is the first and last art fair I will ever be in. The packing, catalogueing, pricing, loading, un-loading, packing, un-packing, getting up at 5:30 AM, toting & hauling, loading, un-loading, hauling again, hanging again, loading again, un-loading again, ....exhausting! How do these artist do this for a living??? I have a whole new, and HUGE, respect for them!













I should tell you that my work is the smaller pieces (the encaustics) and my friend's pieces are the larger ones(cold wax paintings). We both had some nice sales and we met some lovely artists, so it wasn't a total bummer, but our bodies are suffering from all the physical labor!

So next time at an art fair, buy at least one thing and always compliment the artists. NEVER say "My three year old could do that" !