Matisse’s Chair

The Boston Museum of Art has an exhibit of the works of Matisse along with many of the objects he used in his drawings and paintings.  He found this chair in an antique store and had to have it.  What a find…the arms are eels!

I went to Boston this weekend to visit my daughter and see the show.  You can never get too much Matisse in my opinion (having this year also been to see him in Baltimore and Montclair).  And there are always works I haven’t seen before, like one of his first collages, above.  I like how he drew/painted the objects and then cut them out and arranged them.

There were some beautiful textiles, like this North African cut screen.

And of course he drew from his textile collection to drape the models for his portraits.

I love the vibrant colors in the still life above.

And I had never seen this paper cut out before.

The museum is good for wandering.  Suddenly you’re in a room with this burial urn from Mesoamerica.  That’s a bat on top.

Botticelli…luminous.

John Wilson’s Martin Luther King Jr. prints were a highlight.

Eldzier Cortor, another African American artist in the museum’s collection, shaped many of his print plates.  This one is full of visions.

There was a small show of the prints of Terry Winters, another favorite of mine.  I always want to recreate his organic visions in stitch.

And we didn’t even get to the Monets!  Next visit…

 

Great Falls, Paterson NJ

After a crappy Mexican dinner I took my husband and some friends up to the Great Falls in my hometown of Paterson. This location was recently made a national park which makes me proud. It is spectacular up there. ​

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Feeling the energy of the water put me in a really good mood. I also had consumed a few margaritas so there was that. Here’s a couple of other pictures of what are really the pre-falls–before it goes all the way down the rocks. 

(What I did my painting from.)

 

Today NYC

 

“This is what Democracy looks like.”

 

Hope/#PoetsForPeace

“Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”
–Lady Bird Johnson

“If you could
have three wishes, what?”
Number one–
always “peace.”
I’ve been repeating that word
since I was a child.

What is peace?
Easy to say what
it is not–
not guns, not
bombs, not hate or violence.
Not this destruction.

There are seeds
but they need sunlight–
fertile soil
to nourish
growth, to send roots; open space
to reach for the sky.

This is not
complicated.  This
happens if
we let it–
the Earth can teach us if we
can’t find our way home.

Despite the way we mistreat it, the Earth still shares with us its bounty.  As it does each summer, the Rose of Sharon tree is blooming, surrounded by concrete and the sorrows of our world.

Writer’s Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge Theme-“Hope” #WQWWC

Join in with your poem here.

Even the Statues are Texting…

…or at least that’s the way it looked when we entered this room at the Met.

I don’t know, even when I know what she’s actually got in her hand,

it still looks like she’s checking out the screen to me.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, June 2016

Church, Bloomfield NJ

I’ve been in this church years ago for a funeral mass. I rode by today and snapped a shot out the window. I’ve been wanting to draw a building and this one struck me as quite lovely. 

Here’s the photo. A beautiful day today in NJ. 

Arbor Day

as lovely as a tree, rooted in the earth, reaching towards the heavens

as enchanting as an ash, central column of life, cosmic axis

as captivating as cherry, awakening the magic of spring

as handsome as the beech, guardian of knowledge, wisdom writing words

as magical as an elder, conjuring, healing, restoring life

as stately as oak, enduring portal, shelter, protection and door

as graceful as a willow, mirroring the moon, fulfilling wishes

as dazzling as holly, solstice companion, glow piercing winter’s grey

as simple as the arbor, center and pivot, beginning and end

The last Friday is April is Arbor Day, a day to celebrate trees.  From cosmic axis to shelter for fairies, trees have always been honored by humans in stories and myth, symbols of life and rebirth, connecting, protecting and healing.

The photos were taken when I visited the Jewish Museum in March; the colorful geometry of the window decorations caught my eye first, but then the reflections of the trees across the street in Central Park worked their own magic.

The poem combines two NaPoWriMo prompts:  long 17-syllable lines from day 27, and using a line or phrase from another poem to begin your own from day 25.  Raise your hand if you had to memorize Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” in elementary school!  Permanently embedded in my brain, “lovely as a tree” seemed perfect for Arbor Day.

When you go out today, instead of keeping your eyes on your device, look around and take in the beauty and majesty of trees.

National Read A Road Map Day

Another day worth celebrating–I love maps.  Useful, yet full of abstract and often mysterious beauty.

A few years ago I did a stitched map Sketchbook Project of Main Streets based on Google Maps.  Google Maps are a mainstay of any traveling I do into unfamiliar territory.  That softball field in Queens?  It’s right there, along with the nearest subway stop.

There actually is a Main Street in NYC, and I stitched it (above right), but it’s on Roosevelt Island, the entirety of which has always seemed to me to be superimposed onto the five boroughs.  The Real Main Street of New York City?  For almost 40 years, I’ve lived on or steps from Broadway, which travels from the bottom of Manhattan to the Bronx and 18 miles north to Sleepy Hollow.

That’s my Main Street.

They’re digging up Broadway
at night the clatter of wheels over metal plates
provides a rhythmic accompaniment to music from car stereos
double-parked outside the 24-hour deli on the corner

Sunday mornings the finery of congregants mingles with
the dog walkers
and the finery of the refugees from Saturday night

Headlines announcing Politics As Usual
step into the street dance
the Daily News of space and Times

“They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway…”
blinking red hand
“They say there’s always magic in the air…”
neon green walk

crossing Broadway

Lyrics borrowed from “On Broadway” by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil in collaboration with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.  (The Drifters, 1963)

Thanks to Charlie at Doodlewash for inviting everyone to share his “month of days”.

Isaac!

I actually went to the Jewish Museum with the purpose of seeing the “Unorthodox” exhibit, which closed last weekend (full of interesting things:  for a future post).  But imagine my delight as I stepped out onto the second floor and saw this:

Having worked in the fashion industry, Isaac Mizrahi is well known to me.  But this exhibit puts his work together in a way that has both surprises and charm.  The wall of color swatches that he has collected over his career was just the start.

There were costumes and accompanying videos of performances

walls of sketches

glamour and glitter.

I have always been fond of the totem pole dress and the native American-inspired beaded jacket.

The visitors, young and old, fashionista or not, seemed to latch on to Mizrahi’s exuberance with smiles.  The exhibit will be on display until August.

Hands, Eyes, Skulls

I went to see the American Folk Art Museum exhibit of Masonic and Odd Fellows art, “Mystery and Benevolence”, this weekend.  Lots of my favorites!  Hands, eyes, skulls.

Both the Freemasons and the Odd Fellows were (and are) secret fraternal organizations, dedicated to fellowship and the development of ethics and good moral character.  As one article about the exhibit pointed out, you can look up symbolic meanings online for, say, hands and hearts, but the true and complete meanings still remain a mystery except to the initiated.

Is the mystery part of the beauty?  I loved this hand and hearts hooked rug.

The all-seeing eye is another prominent symbol.  It is often shown with chains.  “F L T” stands for friendship, love and truth.

Eyes are shown with the sun’s rays radiating.  The sun itself is represented as well.

One of the purposes of these organizations was the contemplation of mortality.  This would hopefully lead to better choices in life.  Thus, the skeletons and skulls.

I managed to photograph this wonderfully eerie skull and crossbones right over my reflection.

Animals associated with these organizations include snakes, owls, bees, and double-headed eagles.

The Ark of the Covenant and Solomon’s Temple are also have meaning.

An intricate papercutting includes many of the mysterious symbols.

This painting shows why these organizations are often associated with the occult.  The secret rites and rituals and cryptic symbols invite speculation.  But they are also wonderful to contemplate simply as works of art.

This is a great show.  It’s open through May 8.