Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, collage, crafts, historical society, new shoreham on July 9, 2011| 1 Comment »
I always like visiting the arts and crafts events on the lawn of the historical society.
Sometimes I come home and tackle my own crafts. The collage cards are generally for birthdays, anniversaries, and sympathy. If I remember, I make Xerox copies for future occasions. I’d be happy to post some readers’ photos of their art or their crafts. E-mail me your photos at suzannesmom@lunaandstella.com.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged DeCordova, greenway, sculpture, Tom Otterness on July 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »
While I was taking my morning walks elsewhere, The Greenway seems to have sprouted sculpture — and in the very spot where mere weeks ago, a sign warned “Grass is Resting” and invited me to hang my art on the rope.
The DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass., is behind the transformation.
I love that the creator of the toothy beaver and the literary opossum is called Otter-Something. Tom Otterness.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged concert, library, new orleans, panneubean, saxophone, steel drum, when the saints go marching in on July 9, 2011| 2 Comments »
Summer concerts on the lawn in front of the library mean lawn chairs and group participation. Toddlers in pajamas gradually get up their courage to dance. Young gymnastic girls do sudden cartwheels and back flips, then walk away casually, pretending not to check if anyone was impressed.
Last Wednesday, the featured band, PanNeubean Steel, consisted of steel drum, electric guitar, drums, and saxophone.
The band played some New Orleans jazz. “The Saints Go Marching In” brought back memories of my brother Will playing his sax every New Year’s Day to family acclaim.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged finn, finnish, midsommar, midsummer, stockholm, swede, sweden, swedish, switzerland on July 8, 2011| 3 Comments »
Caroline A. and Suzanne met during the senior year of high school, when Caroline left her home in Sweden to spend a semester in the U.S. After graduation, we took Suzanne on a trip to Stockholm. We hit the tourist spots, hung out with Caroline’s family, and helped celebrate her birthday with a pig roast.
Sweden made a big impression on us all, especially Suzanne. Later when she was attending business school in Switzerland, she met Erik, and that was that.
Nowadays I have Swedes as Facebook friends, which forces me to rely a good bit on Google Translate. that can be fun but puzzling. When Caroline writes —
“Tack så mycket! Nu ska vi bara ta kål på det förbaskade viruset som belägrat min kropp och sen fira lilla mig. :)” —
I can sort of understand Google’s “Thank you very much! Now we just kill the damn virus that besieged my body and then celebrate the little me. :)” — I especially understand the universal emoticon.
With “Finsk midsommarsoppa: häll upp vodka i en blommig sopptallrik,” I barely need Google Translate to tell me it means “Finnish midsummer soup: Pour the vodka into a floral soup plate.”
But more often than not, I find myself skirting the edge of a dark intrigue. Consider “och inte lär de sig. Plattsättaren la ner jobbet direkt då uppdragsgivaren lämnade landet. Nu är det hot som gäller eftersom vädjan inte fungerar,” which means, says Google, “rather, they learn. Flat assembler put down the job immediately when the client left the country. Now is the threat posed by the appeal as not working.” Hmmm. I believe an international crisis is brewing. Hard to say where, though.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, gallery, jessie edwards studio, kathleen noonan lang, kathy lang, lobster, lobster pot, monotype, opening, Sally Frank on July 6, 2011| 2 Comments »
The first art opening of the season at Jessie Edwards Studio is great not only for the art but for catching up with friends after the long winter.
I greeted David and asked why he hadn’t been at the 350th anniversary festivities, given that his family goes back so far on the island. He said he had been putting in lobster pots that day. He has put in 30 this year. Last Saturday he pulled 11 lobsters, which he doesn’t think is much for 30 pots. His extended family eats them all.
Another friend is writing a biography of his parents, which he intends to self-publish. He hopes the cost doesn’t keep him from getting the words that he wants on his tombstone: “I broke even.”
Given the crowds at openings and all the catching up, you have to be pretty determined to see the art. I nudged my way through temporary gaps and checked out everything.
Kathleen Noonan Lang was showing her island monotypes. See them here. I especially liked her “Sailor’s Delight,” with its rosy evening sky reminiscent of the weather rhyme “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”
When my cousin Sally had a show of her monotypes in Connecticut, I asked her to describe her approach. She wrote:
“To make a monotype, you basically create an image on a sheet of plexiglass and run it through a press. There are dozens of techniques but my tools of choice are primarily paper towels and Q-tips; very sophisticated. I roll on a layer of ink on the plate and then push it around with the paper towels and Q-tips, run it through a press and then work on the plate again and print another layer. Often I’ll develop several prints at one time, working on the ghost impression left over on the plate, rolling on a transparent base to raise the viscosity of the remaining ink (as my father would have said), and print it again. That’s the short version. Most of my monotypes have 3-4 layers. It is a very exciting process and there is always an element of surprise as when the paper is pulled from the plate.”
I like that sort of surprise. It’s kind of like writing a blog post and being surprised by where your train of thought leads you. In playwriting class we are encouraged to surprise ourselves that way.
I wanted to include some clay art from Suzanne here, but she says she hasn’t been taking pottery long enough to have anything to display. Her brother said, “How about the shell she painted for my birthday?”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bait, flower, lobster, lobster pot, ragged sailor, rhode island on July 5, 2011| 1 Comment »
In case you find yourself with too many lobster pots, consider this approach, suitably embellished with the U.S. flag for the Glorious Fourth. (If you don’t live in the U.S., you could skip the flag.)
There is quite a variety of flowers here. The blue ones on tall stems in the front are called chicory by most people but Ragged Sailor in Rhode Island.
If you have any creative ways you have retired your own lobster posts, do leave a comment.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged eire, hawthorne, ireland, irish, james hackett, leprechaun, peat, poet, poetry, postaday, yeats on July 4, 2011| 2 Comments »
James is an Irish poet, widely considered part leprechaun. Every few years he comes to stay with his cousins for a couple weeks, across the street from my house. James is on the left in this photo, which I took at the Fourth of July parade.
James has two main modes of conversation: storytelling and poetry recitation. It is a pure delight to chat with him. As we waited for the parade, he narrated pages of Irish history, including dates, and recited from W.B. Yeats and our own Nathaniel Hawthorne, among others.
Earlier, he was sitting on his cousins’ front porch and saw a young woman he knows coming across the street. He was moved by the way she walks, as he told me, and with a kind of poetic spontaneous combustion, intoned on the spot:
Meran, fairest maid art thou,
Lovely is thy stride.
My heart goes out to thee
As ebbs the great sea tide.
But, ah, my kind Meran, I’ll not forget thee.
Nor the kind words you said unto me.
James has self-published a couple books of lore in his unique style. He and his brother, both lifelong bachelors, sell peat. On certain Sundays, James bikes 18 miles to the ruins of an old monastery, where he narrates the history for visitors. Then he bikes 18 miles home. In any kind of weather. James is 73.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birthstone, cartoon, earrings, gem, holograms, Jem, Jem and the Holograms, jewelry, Luna & Stella on July 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I must have spaced out in the ’80s because I had no idea that Suzanne loved watching a cartoon show called “Jem and the Holograms.” The TV was in the basement, but still …
What’s really interesting is that when Jem tapped her star earrings she activated special powers. I leave it to you whether that explains these earrings at Suzanne’s business, Luna & Stella.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged archipelego, beach, fire island, ocean, salt, sand, sweden, waves on July 3, 2011| 2 Comments »
One of the great things about going to the beach with your toddler grandson is seeing it through his eyes and remembering your own early experiences.
I remember the first time I went to Fire Island and played in the tide pools on the broad, sandy beach. My brother and I didn’t want to leave, and my parents also seemed relaxed and playful.
This morning I asked my in-law children whether they recalled any early beach memories. My daughter-in-law remembered an overcast week on Cape Cod, where she and her younger sisters liked climbing on a rocky jetty that stretched out into the water along the sand.
Erik, growing up in Sweden, didn’t see a lot of sandy beaches but has lovely summer memories of the islands of the Archipelego — climbing on the rocks and exploring. He also spent a lot of time on the water in boats and remains an avid sailor.
Here is Erik’s nephew climbing the rocks on the Swedish seacoast as Erik did at that age.
Here is my grandson with his mom yesterday. He was crazy about the ocean. And although he is not quite walking yet, he held hands and ran like mad along the sand, shrieking for joy.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Behr, car, Chicago, color, colour, Home Depot, marianne moore, Martha Stewart, NY Times, poet, Turtle Top, Valspar on July 3, 2011| 3 Comments »
Suzanne began her retail career working summers just a few hours a week at a tiny toy store called Mouse House where her brother, John, had worked before. Between Mouse House and leaving college, there were at least two clothing stores and many restaurants. When she graduated from college, she worked for a popular clothing manufacturer in New York, in the merchandising group. One of her tasks was to make up names for lingerie colors. A particular color she remembers was a shade of pink that she called “flirt.”
The NY Times just published an amusing article on the accelerating trend of naming colors to evoke an idea or a mood. There is an art to it.
“At Valspar, located in a Chicago high-rise near O’Hare airport, colorists can meet in ‘vignette’ rooms that encourage storytelling. One resembles an outside deck, replete with a porch chair and mural of Wrigley Field. Ms. Kim assigns the colorists homework, like browsing certain magazines and blogs. One, called colourlovers.com, allows users to create and share their own palettes; among more than one million offerings are I Feel Sorry for You and When Time Ran Out. They also watch movies and visit stores. And a few times a year, they head downtown for a big brainstorming session at a loft building called Catalyst Ranch and its brightly colored meeting spaces, which are intended to help employees think creatively. …
“Taryn Look, 25, an actress, who was checking out Home Depot’s Behr collection the other day, rolled her eyes at some of the names. ‘I wonder how much these people get paid,’ she mused, glancing at Genteel Lavender, a color
she said she would rebrand My Gay Best Friend. But she did pause at a color named Lightweight Beige, and soon she was telling a story about when her parents met. Her father told her mother that he liked her in beige, and so she swapped her once-colorful wardrobe for one that was all beige. Ms. Look said she would rename the color My Mother, After She Met My Dad.” Read more.
This reminds me of the poet Marianne Moore being asked to brainstorm names of cars. She came up with Turtle Top, but the idea was not adopted.
Use the comments feature to suggest a name for a color? I’ll start. How about a sparkly blue called “Tanya Running through the Sprinkler”? Or a dark purple called “Black Fly Season.” Or a gold-orange called “At Last the Missing Manuscript.”
Not sure this will ever be my forte.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Actors Gang, arts, california, convict, ex-con, jail, offender, penitentiary, prison, prisoner, recidivism, Tartuffe, theater, theatre, Tim Robbins on July 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Today’s NY Times has an article on the cutbacks in prison arts programs and on the many ways they help convicts prepare to lead a better life outside. Tim Robbins and the Actors Gang is trying to raise funds to keep this theater program in a California prison alive.
“Two years ago, arts in corrections programs were a mainstay of prisons across the country, embraced by administrators as a way to channel aggression, break down racial barriers, teach social skills and prepare inmates for the outside world. There was an arts coordinator in each of the 33 California state prisons, overseeing a rich variety of theater, painting and dance. But these programs have become a fading memory, casualties of the budget crises.”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged block island, island nurse, mary d, mary d fund, mary donnelly, nurse on July 2, 2011| 1 Comment »
Pippa Jack at the Block Island Times reports today on a Rhode Island humanities grant for post-production work on a local film. The film is called “Island Nurse” and is about island treasure Mary Donnelly.
“The filmmaker, Sue Hagedorn, who is also a nurse practitioner, retired nursing professor and summer resident of the island, shot the intimate footage over the past two years, following Donnelly as she made house calls, visited with family, did non-profit work and remembered the past. Next she will film other people, collecting stories about the frail-looking but dynamic woman who has tended to the sick here for two generations.” Read more here.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged coldplay, massachusetts, paper sun, shaimus, sonic youth, young at heart on June 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Do you rent movies? If you haven’t seen “Young at Heart,” try to get it.
It’s about a group of seniors in Central Massachusetts and a choral director with a wild imagination. These guys go on tour — and pack the house. If you’ve never heard an 80-year-old on oxygen sing Coldplay’s “Fix You,” get ready for … deeper meaning.
“When you try your best but you don’t succeed
“When you get what you want but not what you need
“When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
“Stuck in reverse …
“Lights will guide you home
“And ignite your bones
“And I will try to fix you.” More here.
And while we’re on the subject of music, here’s Shaimus, a young group with songs that are sometimes pretty mature. I like this line, “Do you ever wish you could rewind” from “Slow Down” on their album Paper Sun.
Here’s the official Shaimus video.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged anne, anne kraus, art, artist, garth clark gallery, kraus, Lacoste Gallery, minneapolis, Northern Clay Center, porcelain, pottery, tea cup, teacup, Warren MacKenzie on June 28, 2011| 13 Comments »
My last job in Minneapolis was located not far from the wonderful Northern Clay Center on Franklin Avenue. I liked to go over at lunch, and when the late Anne Kraus was showing her ceramics, I must have visited five times just to look at her domestic but fanciful pieces and read their cryptic messages. Kraus decorated exotic tea cups. teapots, tiles, and more with intricate, mysterious scenes, and on them she wrote puzzling remarks. You would think about them long after leaving.
This one, “I Can’t Sleep Tile 1998” has this written near the top: “I ask this intruder if he can be quiet because I want to sleep so that I can dream. But he tells me that we are right now asleep and deep into a dream.” (The photo in the Garth Clark Gallery survey book was taken by Noel Allum.) You can see more of Kraus’s work online. Here, for example.
By the way, Warren MacKenzie, a giant among potters, was one of the original founders of the Northern Clay Center in 1990. He gets around, and I have observed that he has an exhibit at the Lacoste Gallery in Concord (MA) almost every year. He is showing there now.
On October 28, 2011, the NY Times noted a sale of some Anne Kraus ceramics, which brought numerous people who were searching on her name to my post.
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