New York January

I'm always looking for a reason to go up to the art nourishment capital - right now my friend Joyce Weinstein has a solo show at Ceres, and I have a piece in the partner show, Womens Nature. Here is my piece, a mixed media collage from my Song of Songs series, Living Water.

I arrived last Wednesday via my favorite mode, Vamoose Bus, and dashed over to MOMA to see the Line show. Even the Schwitters pieces were mouthwatering. I want to live in New York! "So what else is new?" as my parents would say.
Francine Perlman, an energetic sympatico woman I met years ago at a No Limits meeting, offered to put me up. Fantastic person, fascinating artist. We are now buddies in an ongoing project. More later, when it starts to bubble.

The next day I spent at the Whitney. The coolest show I've seen in ages was there: the work of Charles LeDray. It filled a whole floor of the museum - hundreds of miniature articles of clothing, all imbued with meaning, all full of heart. Nothing sentimental or schmaltzy, but all miraculous and moving at once. Pieces made of cloth, and other unbelievable things - a thousand teeny tiny thrown vessels, and tiny sculptures made from human bone.
If in NY, you need to see it.

Someone at the Ceres show suggested I donate my piece, Living Water, to the Hebrew Union College Museum, unless of course, someone purchases it. Great idea. I hope Laura Kruger agrees. The opening itself was like a warm hug. A lot of the women there remind me of me, in the best way. I felt totally at home.

Spring in New York City

Not really spring, but 3 pieces from my works inspired by spring, were up for a month at Ceres Gallery. We bussed up for the opening, stayed at an apartment I found via a special artist list, and came back the next day. Lots of compliments on the work. Gabe came to the opening. Always a pleasure to see him. Having and raising a child and then seeing him as a man - this is one of the wonders of my life!

That same night (Friday) we went down to Dupont Circle to see a show curated by Pat Goslee, because I wanted to meet her. It's part of my project to meet hometown artists whose work looks like the real thing to me. Who are they?
I liked her. Totally unpretentious. I will call her this month, now that we are back from our travels up north. More on the trip later.

Art and Music New York trip

We went to New York this past weekend. New York City in July - not the place to flock to, usually. But just the right place to be.
Carl had a recording session with Charley Gerard and his saxophone quartet. Yep, a saxophone quartet! Charley wrote a piece for piano (Carl) and the quartet that they played here in DC last year, and then recorded yesterday. By the way, the sound of Charley playing jazz saxophone is unspeakably moving and delicious.
We traveled by luxurious Vamoose Bus.
While in NY Carl and I and our son Gabe spent some time at MOMA, and I saw some terrific never before known about James Ensor drawings. And Ensor paintings. He did more than those creepy skulls and masks - beautiful little gem-like satiric paintings that are intriguing and incisive and funny.
Also moving was a huge installation by Song Dong who filled the biggest museum space on the first floor with things his mother collected over 50 years in one house - piles of socks (neatly stacked and bundled), stacks of clay planters, blouses, bowls, a teeny ironing board ... FULL of feeling.
Then on Monday I met my friend Lucy Blake-Elahi from L.A. and we went to the Neue Museum on Fifth Avenue - saw magnificent trippy Klimts and a particularly gorgeous painting of a garden by Gabriele Munter. It made me want to rush home and paint, which is just what I did today. Trying to get the feeling of that explosion of yellow lilies without just painting the same old same old....