cough could ostensible

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.” (Confucius)

Cute and fluffy and mammalian, however, THIS 

is what has moved into my front door fountain with her (apparently) unmarried son.  I figure he's unmarried because he's only around mom about half the time.  Mom just sits there like a somewhat smaller and submerged version of Jabba the Hut.  She is the size of a pie plate.  If she wasn't poisonous I guess I would be more welcoming, but I am always in fear she will jump out and scare the dogs who will go after her.

And DIE.  Yup, a Bufo.

Sitting here all innocent yesterday when I remembered I need a tracking number for the stuff I sent off to the Show coming up-  never thought about it until now.  I went to the FedEx site and unbelievably they show the delivery as being Dec 22.  I say unbelievably because they picked up the stuff on the afternoon of the 19th- I an assumed Christmas packages would interfere, and only sent it ground because it isn't needed yet.  Two days-  wow.  When we drive from FL to Boston it takes us THREE days.  From now on I am shipping my dogs with them to save us all some wear and tear.

Ahh, but you know me well, the RUB here is that I opened the computer a few hours later to find a string of messages that the boxes arrived in terrible condition.  The museum sent me photos of just the tubes as they arrived:

I've used FedEx for years with no bad effects-  never had a problem until this where I end up with possibly NINE problems.  Fortunately the crew at the museum went in to check that they all arrived and they did, but tops are missing, tops fallen off, and the plastic has been torn through to expose the quilts in the 3rd from the left tube.  And also unfortunately they found a few things I guess I didn't notice-  a button falling off, one leaf still pinned, stuff like that.  But DO NOT WORRY, next week I will be there with a needle and thread and some clipping scissors so all will look pristine when you get there.  Damn.

Since I will be away from the studio so long I've been trying to put in extra time and managed to carve out a hole day today.  My fingers are bleeding from hand stitching into canvas, but I made good headway today.  I mostly got the fence strips in the background layer sewn down.  

printing, stenciling with metallic paints on old canvas

I was planning on finishing by next week but now it looks more like next month since I'll be gone for so long, then kids are arriving here for a long weekend.  Neither allow any studio time.  

Before you give out, I have a slew of geometry for our ARTY PARTY today!  Geometry is important because it's the only math that I ever got on with.  I am forever indebted.  Actually it was recently discussed that understanding planes and surfaces in space was a better indicator of intelligence than some dumb IQ test.  Yup, this doesn't get me any Mensa invitations, but I can sure enough make a triangle out of a tree.  (Err, got an eraser?)

You have to love these shapes, eh?  Gorgeous renderings ow out of copyright-yesss!

These guys HAND PAINT the geometric Arabic designs on floors in decaying buildings.

Once you’ve caught your breath this holiday season, you’d do well to visit the Schmidt Dean Gallery for the current Jane Piper (1916-1991) exhibition. The gallery’s light-filled, fourth-floor space seems fit for paintings that are as bright and full of life as hers.

Color is the organizing principle of Piper’s work, which builds upon the tradition of early Modernist painting. In “Untitled” (1961), a mid-career oil on canvas, she fills the space with small, kinetic squares of pink, orange, and green, which contrast with the yellow-tinged white marks surrounding them. Piper’s skill as a colorist shows in her ability to mute the white with the vibrancy of her color palette and the confident movement of her brush.

silent ostracod silhouette

“Wisdom consists in doing the next think you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.” 

(Meister Johann Eckhart)

Hey look folks, a real painting, not street art for a change!

OK, so it's still all about a squirrel-  I can only take baby steps!

I have to admit I am feeling a little smug about actually working on a new piece and LIKING it again!  This is not a statement, not political, not for anybody else, just a wall quilt made from a giant folder I made years ago to carry lots of quilts at once.  And everything else I am using is also from a previous use-  oh-  I guess I always gravitate to old stuff, never mind.  Today I am going to make some acrylic skins and see how they will work with what I've done so far, then I hope to start the handwork to hold it all together.  I actually have to do that next because I used all my pins to hold it as is, need them back now before I do more sticking-this-to-that!

This is all good, the hand work will slow me down.  And maybe I'll share some pictures of the Thing before I take it off the wall.  I always like a series of pictures so I can see how much I meddle with over the course of a project.  And, like my figure drawing teacher cautions me, 

"This is never going to hang in the Louvre."

Maybe not, but it might hang somewhere-  maybe just my bedroom, but I need it to look like something I want to look at no matter where it goes. 

DEC.25th UPDATE:  I did get to the studio, barely got a strip cut off an old blouse to be part of a gate when I heard a gunshot, sounded like a rifle.  Nobody at work at 4 PM Christmas Eve in the industrial park, it sounded very close.  I had forgotten my phone too so I shut the lights, grabbed my bag and as I was exiting I heard the second shot.  I drove like a bat outta hell, passed a police car on the way out but I have no idea what was going on...and don't want to!  Needless to say I will be very careful on my off-hours visits from now on!  
Merry Christmas, bang bang!

I did the Seven Fishes dinner last night, some hits and some misses, but only I know. It was a hit and I'm glad I pared down the seven courses to seven fish and Cioppino was the answer to my prayers-  I jammed it with seven fishes right there and that left me able to play with however many more I could. 

      I ordered some lobsters from the local fish market and found out they would cook, clean, and crack 'em for me, deliver all neat and split and ready to go.  I ordered 1 1/2# lobsters and think I might have got 3# lobsters, they were huge!  And a hit!  And they went nicely with the squid ink pasta packets.  I had some trouble making the pasta, lost almost half of it as it became too hydrated on it's 'rest' (OK, I forgot about it for too long!) 

and wouldn't go through the rollers on my machine reliably.  I need to make pasta more regularly but the problem is that if I have it, I EAT IT.  And this was really good.

     

Here's the Fougasse bread I made into giant fish, ended up with way too much and will beeating this delicious anise and orange bread for a week.

I did not make this, this is not arty.

This IS our today's very cool ARTY PART.

Spanish artist Nacho Ormaechea who lives and works in Paris creates beautiful digital collages by filling silhouettes of people photographed on the street with visually contradicting images. Because of the these strange juxtapositions of color, place and subject we’re left wondering what the meaning is. Are these memories or desires of these anonymous people, or are they portals to another place and time? Head over to his website to see more.

So, here it is Christmas Eve and off I go to the studio. I wish all of you a Merry New Year and Happy Holiday, and with all of you I am sure, a better year ahead!

Odalisque, Harmony in Black and White*

modeling her Walmart Toddler's tee shirt because she won't pose nude.

* with reference to Matisse, except his was red...

vitriol vitriolic vitro

All good ideas arrive by chance.

Max Ernst

not necessarily a Max Ernst Good Idea.

Hmmm, ya know, the last weeks have been so stressful around here that I was worried the sun was colliding with Mars or something else astrological, but I am here to report, dare I say, a few days of less frustrations and drama for a lovely change.  I think I left you the day my 270#s of quilts got picked up by FedEx, and that was a good thing.  The next day I was in the studio and my AC and internet connections both crapped out but it was Saturday so there's no-one to call.  I had ordered some cheap plates from CB2 because they were black and I am serving mussels for the Seven Fishes dinner this week and I was completely OCD'd about how spectacular that would look...  one arrived broken, just another thing in the pile of crap to deal with.  Pepper had some sort of stomach issue for days, and today Molly has it-  am cleaning up after her as she poops uncontrollably.  I know, TMI.  Sorry.


So here's what has happened:

While I was waiting for FedEx I had started going through a huge folder of special papers-  I sort of HAD to do this because the entire contents slid to the floor and I had to get it sorted and thinned out so that didn't happen again.  I cannot lift the folder by itself so I had to start from scratch.  I just didn't look, but made a run to toss out anything smaller than a 9x11 sheet.  What a revelation as to what I actually had in that folder-  I will never buy another huge sheet of expensive paper until this is all gone!  Hold me to it.  Anyway, I got it all sorted and back together and cleaned out.  A giant task all neat and tidy.

I arrived at the studio to wait for Comcast to grace me with their presence, it was hot as all get out so I thought I might fiddle with the thermostat for a second and WHAM-  the motor turned over and I could feel air on my neck!  Yes, it recovered itself, no human intervention.  And that certainly made the wait more tolerable.  The appointment was from 1-6 and I knew I would have to leave before that but instead, at 1 PM, a big guy with a  tool belt walked in and fiddled away for a bit, told me the modem was indeed fried and went back to his truck to get me a new one.  Within 30 minutes I was back online with a new password instead of "yb3UJGnmmkh G79bn".  

Now, to make things even better, I took all my figure drawings off the design wall to make room for the new piece I was auditioning, and put it up so I could start moving elements around.  And I am loving it seen vertically instead of on the table.  It's about a hurricane, but just a little piece of hurricane as it affected  
my front gate. 

I don't do broad subjects it seems, just little glimpses where it tough to illustrate small feelings. But this is working if I don't fuck it up too badly-  since I have a tendency to overdo a thought.  I'm trying to leave time between additions and elements.  Since I am now working IN A NEW AGE, A NEW WAY, A NEW DAY.  I don't need to crank out something for a date or theme any more, I will just do what I want to do.  And I love this one so far.  Of course I have all this stuff pinned up and that makes it impossible to stitch on so I WILL be bemoaning my methods as I go but for now...

Obviously I am at #1 here, blending into #2 trying to figure out how to do it.  

When I got home before 5 there was a big box from CB2, only three days after I called about the broken plate and three days before my dinner party-  and there was my new plate!  I'm back to that dream of the shiny black mussels on the matte black plate.  

We had a dinner last night with a glee club doing Christmas carols so everybody was in a fine mood-  nothing like sitting outside watching the gorgeous sunset and singing without even needing a sweater!  I love it here.  But, even better, they had a new menu that featured my favorite-  calves liver!  I was in Bunny Heaven, or it just seemed that way since so much piddly crap has been happening.  Must have Iron Deficiency Anemia (remember that?) or something because after that liver dinner I gobbled up, I feel so much better.

And yesterday morning, before I left the house, I had made 5 loaves of French spice bread.  If I can just keep it out of my mouth, I now have some small presents for some friends.  It's all coming together. I have made TY promise we will have NO plans from Christmas Day to New Years Eve.  No studio today, I have to do a load of food shopping to get this Friday dinner supplied.  And as you might well imagine the place is a cluttered mess.  Oh yes, Molly is better thanks to a dose of pumpkin.  

AND I have justified to myself that hand-delivery of Christmas presents is fine as long as it's before Armenian Christmas, thus avoiding mailing.  Thanks to all of you who have sent me cards, again I didn't get around to it but I sure enjoy hearing from you with your 4 page newsletters!  I know you won't believe me, but I READ THEM even though I don't know your grandkids or your cousins from out of town!  

Today's ARTY PART seems particularly appropriate because of following Molly around these last few days---



     

French paper artist Junior Fritz Jacquet created this fantastic series of weird masks made from toilet paper rolls. Inspired by the craft of origami, each mask is made from a single paper roll which is folded and squished into an expressive face. The pieces are then finished with a coat of shellac and different pigments. These masks are just one small facet of Jacquet’s artwork, you can see more of his functional paper lights and other paper creations over on Facebook. 

, 

(I think I may have shown these before, sorry if I did, but worth a second look!)  Maybe this will make up for it-  make it big an print it of future reference!

cotoneaster vitrify cotta

My resident Booted Bufos have joined together to send you every good wish

for your Christmas.  Don't have a clue what they do with the bad wishes.

“Be your own worst critic,” wrote Paul Arden.

Sent to me yesterday by an old friend who apparently knows too much about me.  

Thanks, V!  

The End of History is arguably the rarest beer in the world. In its first run, back in 2010, only 12 bottles were made. To make them as distinctive as possible, BrewDog struck up a relationship with a taxidermist (who goes by Simon the Stuffer) and bottled the beer inside of a squirrel.

Simon the Stuffer.  Indeed.

I think the saying goes, "I SHOULDA STOOD IN BED".  Yesterday I was at the studio painting away and putting things back where they belong and sticking labels on boxes to prepare for pickup on Monday.  I was happily washing brushes when there was a Poooppp Pooof and the AC stopped working.  A minute later it went back on but was making a funny noise.  At the same time the internet went out.  So I fiddled away trying to fix these things at the thermostat and the computer, visited the modem and tried to restart, visited the electrical box and snapped a few switches, nada.  So I packed up stuff and went home but stopped at AT&T on the way where a Laotian kid with spiked hair fixed my phone so I can again get messages and texts.  And make calls to the AC guys and Comcast-bless their hearts.  I feel like I'm being attacked by a gang!

So, all the mechanical and computerized stuff is busted.  And Molly was peeing all night long, going outside every hour.  Her glucose is out of whack, poor thing, and today she's a doggie mess from being so exhausted being up all night-  not that I wasn't too.  Sigh.  The THING is that I already have to sit in the now HOT studio all day Monday until FedEx shows up and the AC problem will require more time being there, plus who knows what will fall out with Comcast.  I have stuff to do-  party at 6:30 Monday night, class on Tuesday morning, dinner that night with a concert, things I need to follow up on and get sent out PLUS I have 8 people coming for dinner Thursday night so shopping and cooking and arranging and cleaning to do.  Bitch bitch bitch.  And oh yeah, I haven't made any cookies yet. And those are the reasons I don't get excited about holiday seasons. 

Tell me, how much do you dislike this years new Pantone color, 1 to 10?  

I'm at about an 8 in the dislike club.  Not a pastel fan.

Lets bring some ARTY to this PARTYso I can stop complaining about simply everything.  Fungus will make me happy.

This stunning time lapse footage from the new Planet Earth II series on BBC One captures a wide variety of unusual fungi as it blooms at night. The clip is from the latest Jungles episode (UK only) and includes a few specimens that were shot for the very first time by Steve Axford whose fungi photography we’ve shared here many times. Unfortunately, watching Planet Earth II anywhere outside the UK legally is almost impossible until early next year, so you’ll have to hang tight for the whole episode.  (Sorry, couldn't resist making them as big as possible!)  And now I am (temporarily) happy.

cotman vitreous oscillatory

Christmas Greetings from Sandy

*************

 Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. (Hermann Hesse)

heresy

Another gorgeous bright and sunny day here in South Florida, yet I have so much to get done that I can't even sit around enjoying cool temperatures-  barely supposed to kiss 80 today, the reason I am here.  

(Ahem) HOWEVER I discovered last night as we came home from dinner that we have a friggin family of Bufos living INSIDE our front door fountain.  One kind of poked his head out of the water as we entered (we don't use that door often since we exit the garage usually), the other hunkered down under the surface pretending to not be there-  that was the one that was about the size of a small dog!  Huge ugly thing-  just hope they are dad and son rather than a breeding pair.  I've seen them all summer hanging out by the storm drains and seeing them plop back under the safety of the grill when they saw me approaching.  Guess they aren't scared of me any longer and have chosen to live off my dime.

Good news here is that I called FedEx and they walked me through getting the 9 labels printed.  Told them nicely that they are badly in need of a website update- things COULD be easier.  Now, still, I cannot update my credit card they are holding so I have to fight with that of my boxes won't be taken.  

'It's always something'', Roseanne Rosannadanna

So, back at Christmas Central here, I haven't been able to shop for the Seven Fishes dinner-  can't buy fish ahead!  Last night though, friends invited us out to the Palm Beach Yacht Club for dinner-  a very traditional wonderful place on a pier surrounded by the inland waterway.  My favorite time to go is during a lightening storm because it's flashing all around the dining room and is so amazing with it's walls of windows.  Unfortunately it was clear as a bell last night until we sat down and there aimed right at my face was another Super Moon!  Absolutely breathtaking, and made my dinner even better.  I love that place-  BTW, it sounds kinda snooty, being called Yacht Club and all, but no yachts were owned by any of us landlubbers.  

Speaking of light shows, 

We haven't yet gone looking at Christmas displays.  Maybe later this week, and do not worry, I WILL take pictures because several neighborhoods here go completely nuts making displays-  whole streets of neighbors.  I don't know how anybody ever sells a house on those streets unless they just pass them on to people who will participate, who must have vast collections of untangled lights and construction skills,  plus work for FPL.  

Lets do an ART PART, and then get out of here to run more errands!

In Chichibu, Japan, two hours northwest of Tokyo, there’s an odd museum; perhaps the only one of its kind. It’s called the Chinsekikan (which means hall of curious rocks) and it houses over 1700 rocks that resemble human faces.

The museum houses all kinds of jinmenseki, or rock with a human face, including celebrity lookalikes like Elvis Presley. And according to a 2013 post on Kotaku, there are also movie and video game character rocks like E.T., Donkey Kong and Nemo.

Who knew...