Tryptich

This is colored pencil on board (3 boards) that I drew a couple of years ago. I have no idea who bought them, or, for that matter, if they were even sold as one group. I loved this piece. It may be, in my opinion, I know lots of people find this stuff too weird, the best thing I've ever done. I don't know why I don't do more of it. For that matter I don't know why I don't just plain draw more often.

My father on a pony

It's hard to understand how we developed from a culture where in a person's lifetime there were maybe 100 photographs taken of him or her to one where photography is something that is utterly mundane. On the one hand there are so many photographs that they are nearly meaningless now. On the other, no one has photo albums anymore. 

This is one of the maybe 10 photographs of my dad's childhood. He self-consciously took his glasses off.

Two guys walk into an airport...

I've always loved this photograph. I took it in the airport in Schenectady or maybe Scranton while I was stuck in a snow storm. Eventually I had to stay overnight. There were plenty of places to sit down. They didn't have to sit next to one another. They may have even been together. It's less fraught than it looks. The guy on the left is a Sikh. I don't think they have any problems with Jews and vice versa.

Tootsie

My uncle's dog. Now mine. I begged him not to get a puppy, get a dog from the humane society. He got a pure bred, white, toy schnauzer that he, being 80 cannot deal with after 6 or 7 months. Now I have her. Mostly. I share custody with Loralyn so she does not have to stay home in a cage all day while I work.

Frank O'Hara, apropos of nothing

Frank O'Hara was the roommate of Edward Gorey when they went to school together at Harvard. While Frank O'Hara was gay, Edward Gorey was very sexless, or so he said. Frank O'Hara died at the age of forty, though he looked older, presumably from a rough life of drinking and smoking. Although maybe it was just that back then everyone was older looking. I only imagine he had a rough life, being gay, smoking and the way people drank back then. Plus he died on Fire Island. 

He was handsome from the front but his beaky nose from the side is distractingly unusual, as it were. As you can see from the photographs below.

I have always admired Edward Gorey, and very much appreciated his art. I somehow also always hoped to meet him, as I did Julia Child. But I did not. I did meet Maurice Sendak once though.

Pencil drawings

Some stuff I draw.

Crocuses in my mother's yard

I have to take care of my mother's yard. This is her first blooming plant.

Artists Corner

I'm in France in my apartment in Hyeres. I'm painting. Here is where I do it.

My first boss

The woman in the center of this picture is Ruth Lives. She was my first boss and a lovely, wonderful woman to whom I was not all that nice. Not that I was ever deliberately unkind or ever rude. But as a 24 year old who thought he knew everything, not to mention an in-general pushy person, I was just that. A young pushy guy. I did a good job. I got promoted very quickly. I had a lot of responsibility and I got a new job pretty easily after she'd taken the time to train me.

I feel bad about it. She died ages ago before I ever had a chance to thank her for all she did for me.

She drank vodka.

Other endeavors

So I'm doing some painting when I have time. 

This guy, who looks like Jude Law but isn't, 

is a recent acrylic on water color paper.

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New Year's Resolutions

Gotta get my scooter fixed. #1.

Rejection

The coldly, I thought, written letter arrived yesterday. Each piece was listed and followed by the word declined. They try to make it sound like it was just a fluke because they had so many entries that yours was just one of most of them that were rejected. It doesn't feel any better. I had been working on a new collage, maybe construction is a better word and nearly winged it across the room. I'm putting all this shit away.

Running

My father was a runner before there was running. He used to run down the road out in the country where we lived and my friends would ask me where he was running to. Sometime when he got older after retirement, he started walking. Despite all that running, walking and clean living he died at 73 in November of 2001 of a stroke.

'Tis the last rose of summer.

Or something like that. My balcony all packed up and ready to over-winter. I might plant some bulbs this fall and see what happens. I am making a solemn promise not to plant tomatoes next year.

Most recently

Three collages I entered in a show at the Kohler Arts Center.

Zen

In the Charlotte airport I ran across a group of Tibetan buddhists in line at Burger King. Aside from matching the place quite nicely, the 10 or more of them enjoy Whoppers. Two spoke English and they ordered for the rest who hung around the outskirts waiting anxiously. They all had Crocs and Teva sandals on.

Forty minutes from nowhere

My friend Lois moved to somewhere outside of Marshall NC about 15 years ago. She lives in utter isolation. The view from her window, below, is worth the price of admission. The town of Marshall, 20 minutes from Asheville, boasts, Ponder Auto and not much else but a Presbyterian church and the French Broad River. The last picture is Lois pointing out where her cat, Black Cat, is buried, just beyond the angel that marks the grave for Bob her beloved dog.

The last rose of the summer

I snipped off all the little pretty blooms and blossoms from what is left of my balcony garden. And the next day hideous cold winds blew through and took whatever I hadn't gotten.

Sunday dinner.

I made dinner for friends on Sunday night. I'm not sure where the compulsion to feed people comes from but I have it. I started with curried butternut squash soup. I roasted a whole butternut, then caramelized shallots, leeks and garlic and added the secret ingredient from Lea and Perrins and some chicken stock and cream and loads of butter. Then I made a roasted beet, walnut and bleu cheese salad, followed by spaghetti and sugu meat. The sauce is made from my tomatoes and the meat is meatballs, sausages (purchased the sausages), beef, chicken and pork. It cooks for days. and I followed it with chocolate cake. Hate frosting things.

A use for the useless

While I may not have cooked with them, I did find a use for them. Still Life. I took them to St John's for my class. I usually bring something for everyone to paint. Yesterday it was peppers. So at least I did something aside from look at them. And I did put one in the tomato sauce I'm currently making.