gold

On Tuesday my friends took me on a night drift through New Haven for my birthday. We were all stopped short by the window of Artspace radiating a gold glow into the darkness of Crown Street.


I was tired and distracted and might not have looked more carefully, but my fascinated friends lingered long enough for me to notice the San Marco Annunciation tucked high in the left corner. I've learned to always pay keen attention whenever that painting shows up.


And upon closer inspection of the window I found these gold scarabs,


and this gold dress,


gold shoes,


and my friends pointed out this dove was only one of 3 or 4 things not gold.



I love this window.

photographs and mountains

Kathleen McTigue gave a moving sermon at USNH this morning.

She told a story about meeting an older woman at the top of Mt Adams, who, upon reaching the peak, hurriedly got out her camera and took a dozen photos while turning 360 degrees. When asked why she said this was her habit: she loved to hike but had become nearly blind and could not see the view. But she would later be able to look at the photos up close and see the beauty of where she'd been.

I'd just seen a tv show about a man who takes blind teenagers mountain climbing. He said you don't need sight to experience the unique awesomeness of being on top of a mountain, that you can feel the elevation, and you can hear the immenseness around you that is unlike anywhere else on earth.

I think sometimes what we are experiencing is so grand that while we are experiencing it we can't see it at all. Some things are too big to see from the inside. Memories and photographs show the details of things we want to identify, but not until after we've come down from the mountain.

While you're up there just pay attention, take some pictures, and trust that you'll be able to name it another time.

It's time to revisit Rilke:

Do not observe yourself too much. Do not draw too hasty conslusions from what happens to you; let it simply happen to you.... Your life...of which I think with so many wishes. Do you remember how that life yearned out of its childhood for the "great"? I see that it is now going on beyond the great to long for greater. For this reason it will not cease to be difficult, but for this reason too it will not cease to grow.

interlude

"...children, do new things!"
- Richard Wagner

interlude

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibres as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects." -Herman Melville

the blog is back

I took the blog offline for a number of good reasons, including that my computer died tragically and it was too much effort to borrow computers to blog. And I just didn't feel like writing for a long time.

I didn't realize it would show a page that said "invited readers only", and that so many dedicated readers would feel slighted by not having been invited. Rest assured, I didn't invite anyone! If you have come back you will see that nothing new has occurred during that time. Well lots has occurred, but it's not written here.

And, something felt wrong between the world and me while the blog was gone. I still don't know if I can manage posts very regularly, but I feel better having it back out there.

Thanks, my friends.

sunny spots

I stole this photo from the Blue Rose Girl blog. This Sunday I went to Libby's in Mystic with all the other Blue Rose Girls for brunch and roller skating. Libby's sunny apartment by the water has become my fondest haven. Life has been rushed, hectic and confusing, and I've been keeping a nocturnal schedule and not seeing much daylight. But for a few hours I felt as wonderful as it looks in this picture. Yellow walls, yellow mimosa, yellow Alvina socks! See the official BRG recap here.

dark night of the soul

Before it goes on 2 months since I've blogged...

Back in November I had to go to the Danforth Museum to repair a small crack to the Grace angel on display there. The museum staff was kind enough to let me in after hours, along with Libby and Grace who came with their knitting to keep me company.

On our way out they let us into the Ana Maria Pacheco exhibition: Dark Night of the Soul. I knew I'd want to see it, but I didn't at all expect what I found there.

It is one room kept nearly dark, with a stone patio in the middle on which 19 giant carved wooden figures stand in a mysterious grouping. I walked the perimeter around them, glimpsing other figures behind in the shadows, with spotty light catching just a hand, an untied shoe, an agonized face. Our guide told us it was okay to walk onto the patio and through the figures. All three of us hesitated. Though they are not realistic, the shadows, their stilled intensity, their hugeness make them appear to move and be realer then real.

I stepped in feeling dwarfed and intimidated, and followed the direction most of them were looking toward, finally coming to Saint Sebastian with a chest full of arrows. It completely stopped me and filled me with things I couldn't identify. Then I got dizzy and the levelness of the room began to fade. I had to hurry off the patio and out of the room before I fell.

It's been a long time since I've had an experience like that in a museum. It's been a long time since art moved me that much. The exhibition is there until May 18, I hope to go back. It shouldn't be missed.

gifts

2007 was full of gifts, because I'm lucky to have the greatest friends on earth. I mean it. Sprouting paper whites from my mum; my fire eating page in the local paper framed by Margaret; a hand made (blue!) pottery fountain from Eric; fire photos of me from Haus; the most amazingly thoughtful gloves ever made for my winter-chilled middle finger by ElizaB; a Peruvian mirror of masks from Sandra; and a gorgeous new Canon Rebel xti camera, (technically company equipment, but around for me to take all these pictures with!) from Karl.

Master Peter

I meant to put this up a long time ago! Thanks to Bob Bresnick for YouTube-ing this video of the Master Peter show we did at Wesleyan University and the Kennedy Center. The puppets were built by Leslie Weinberg and her Wesleyan students, and I built the horse at 4:45. The puppeteers were also all students directed by Bob, except for Don Quixote's right arm, which is me, at 5:44. I miss this show so much.

Watch the other 2 Puppetsweat videos listed too. I didn't put them here because I'm not in them. :)

toy teachers

Four of our students added Bob and me to their puppet show. We played cops, kind of.

toy theater

The Quinnipiac puppetry class wrapped up with five happily surprising toy theater performances.

annunciation

The winter of 2007 has been wonderfully full, too full to blog about yet. To fill in the gap, here is one of my all time favorite paintings, Fra Angelica's Annunciation at the top of the staircase of the San Marco monastary in Florence. When I first saw it 12 years ago it knocked me over, and it continues to whenever it pops up, which it often does at the most interesting times and in the most interesting places.

Happy holidays to all!

shadow puppets

Bob Bresnick, my co-teacher, and the Quinnipiac students' shadow puppet dress rehearsal. Karl and I built and designed this nifty, portable stage. I'm looking forward to using it myself.

CWOS 07: Sunday

Meg, me and Kim on the final day of City Wide this year; our great bright room; Tony; and our annual Thai Taste celebration afterwards: Kevin, Kim, Tony, me and Aidan.

assistant

I really need one, especially so I can relieve my mum who diligently comes and works 16 hour days without (much) complaint, stuffed into my tiny studio with me, matting and framing so I can keep painting. Here she is with the box of prints getting ready for City Wide Open Studios, which has become such a big endeavour.

She has to put up with a lot when I am in pre-CWOS stress. She's learned the trick of making martinis to keep me out of her hair.

CWOS: Toxic School (take 2)

It's my 6th year doing the New Haven City Wide Open Studios Alternative Space. We're back in the former Hamden Middle School, and I'm so happy to be sharing a room with three super talented friends: Tony Baloney Juliano, Meg Giannotti, and Kim Mikenis. This week they've been busy working on cleaning and decorating the Computer Lab, while my space (last photo) is a bit lagging. But with my mom's help, by Saturday it'll be rocking. www.cwos.org for info and directions.