Monday, November 30, 2015

Jack o Lanterns


As fate would have it, this is the second-to-last Polaroid I ever took with my old Polaroid camera (and the new fancy Impossible Project film). The last one was on Halloween day itself, with everyone in their costumes. Then I went to New York, and when I got back I got all ready to take a welcome-home-Mamma picture, only to discover the camera wasn't working. Darn, I thought, must be out of film. Went to replace the film and realized I was all out. Ordered more film. That film came, loaded a pack, and it failed to work. Tried another pack (each pack costing an arm and a leg, let's not forget), which also didn't work. Finally admitted the beloved camera which I've been using religiously to document the kiddo for the past 5+ years (and periodically to take random pictures for maybe 8 or 10 years before that) had finally given up the ghost. Almost cried, but then Bill told me he'd been planning on getting me a cute new Fuji Instax camera for 40th birthday (which is coming up in January) and that instead he'd get it for me early. Because he is a darling. It arrived and I tried out the first few shots over Thanksgiving weekend. And the pictures look great. Different. But great. So all told we only lost a month of instant photo documentation. The story has a happy ending, thanks to my dear husband, which is why I can now bring myself to tell it here. Still, it does make the pumpkin photo above much more spookily poignant than it otherwise would have been.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Frank Stella at the Whitney


The Frank Stella show at the new Whitney Museum was quite a revelation to me. I've long been familiar with his huge, flat, bright, crisp-lined paintings (and everyone in my household is a fan of those), but I had somehow never before seen his enormous metal sculptures that hang on, and protrude off of, the wall. Don't know how I'd missed those, but now that the omission has been rectified I'm really quite excited about them. Happy Art Friday!




































Thursday, November 19, 2015

The Poem Series On the Subject of the Summer of 2006 Continues


July 21, 2006
I’ve been home real sick

for a couple of days and
today all I can seem
to notice is the heat

Walking to work and
then at lunch it felt
pretty good to be
out in the sun

but now
it’s just
stuffy
in this
office

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Chronicle Art Stuff Spotted in the Wild


How lovely it is to see Chronicle Books ART books and products scattered all over the fine retail establishments of New York City. The Brooklyn boutique Sterling Place, legendary bookstore The Strand, the MoMA shop, the Whitney shop, and super cool Chelsea retailer Story all had our goodies out in abundance. Yay!