Another 25 minutes and it'll be the last day in March!

The whole month has gone by and I've hardly posted a thing.

What have I been up to?!
Watching a lot of movies and slightly delayed TV, on hulu. I've been sucked into the vortex and it's extradinarily hard to extricate myself.

On top of that a few days ago I joined facebook and in the space of three days accumulated 51 friends (as of 7:30pm...who knows how many more I've gotten since then).

However, this past Saturday, a wonderfully balmy 60 degree day, I dragged one of my old futons (the one that's over 15 years old, not the one that's only 3 years old...that one is replacing the gone to the landfill sofa cushions of yesteryear) over to my studio. You'd think this would be a fairly simple matter, but it took some doing. Then I did a little painting with caran dache crayons,  with the window open (!) and the radio on. 

I've been staying up past 12:30, 1am, most nights and feeling all dispeptic and abashed when I wake up and it's almost 10am (okay, this happened...twice). If there was someplace I had to be before then I would, of course, get up to make the appointment or what have you. But my work schedule is noon to 8pm (give or take), so unless I have something planned I can sleep in, if I need to. Kind of nice sometimes. But I always feel a bit, um, decadent, when I do.

Anything else to add here? Passover is coming. I will be at my brother's place in Massachusetts for the 2nd night, Thurs. Apr. 9th. I lent my mother's self-published cookbook to a co-worker, whose wife is Jewish. The co-worker was saying he wasn't fond of any of the dishes that were usually served at the seders he's been to, so I thought good old mom could help him out. Here's hoping.

Happy end of March everyone! See you in April.

 

Update

Hi everybody. I have to get up early tomorrow morning, so I won't be long. Just want to keep myself from falling off the edge of the blogging universe with this little update.

I've been doing some drawings of my Aunt Rose from photographs, three so far. They are very rough so I won't be posting them, just want to say I'm doggedly making progress in my studio, one drawing at a time.

I went out and got a 17" LCD monitor (for my apt) and a new CD/radio (for my studio) - yay tax refunds! -, and found how listening to the radio helps me stay in my studio longer than without it. I kind of knew this, but actually experiencing it was unnerving.

My Aunt Elaine died last Saturday (she was my Dad's sister; Aunt Rose, also deceased, was my Mom's sister). I went to the funeral, in Philadelphia, where a lot of my family lives, and where my aunt lived her whole life, except the year she was pregnant and gave birth to my cousin Jancy, when she lived in Japan. The stories I will be needing to tell. You betcha.

In the meantime, think end-of-winter thoughts: Day light savings time starts this Sunday. It's gonna be light out at 6:45pm.

 

Vermont Art Zine - new on the scene

Vermont Art Zine, check it out!

Valentines; mysterious and otherwise

I received three valentines today.

The first is the image, above, of a red stylized heart on a white ground. This image has been plastered all over the windows of my little city's downtown businesses for years and years. No one, or very few, know who the mystery lover is. But that just adds to the pleasure of coming downtown to the red and white love-liness of it all. 

The second was an orange shasta daisy (with a sprig of greens) given to me by my dear next door neighbors, fellow college alums, renters to me of my studio, and artists, not necessarily in the order. A gentle surprise and shining with pride of place on my kitchen butcher block table.

The third valentine I just discovered when I went over the studio to give my friends a reciprical valentine and to retrieve my water bottle from my studio. I was carefully walking across my very icy driveway when I saw a large piece of paper attached to my mailbox. What could it be? From a distance it didn't look like an ordinary advertizement. Ah, no, not an ad at all!

Actually, it's a limited edition valentine from my favorite small press printer - Kelly, of mayday studio. If you squint you can see she only made 15 of 'em. Such a select group! So sweet of her to think of me! I can't remember the last time I enjoyed Valentines Day so much.

Is it finally coming true that once I've let go of expectations I actually get what I want? I woke up grumbling a bit "Oh, yeah, it's valentine's day, whoopee." But I didn't expect anything from anybody (I had even momentarily forgotten about the downtown plasterer). So it's been pretty sweet saying Happy Valentine's Day and being greeted with equally friendly returns.

If you're reading this please consider yourself officially bestowed with a personal valentine's, from me.

Love,

Eva

links and some thoughts on being a Jew & antisemitism

I'm linking to this site: Its All Connected and this site: Alas a Blog both posting and taking comments about antisemitism. The author of this series of posts, titled "What We Talk About (and don't talk about) when we talk about (and don't talk about) antisemitism and Israel" is Richard Jeffrey Newman a published poet, writer, translator and educator. RJN is currently working on #5 in the series, which I look forward to reading whenever it goes up.

I've been following the posts and occasionally, briefly, commenting since they started to go up on January 19th. They were inspired, in part by this post by Julie at (and cross posted at Alas a Blog) Modern Mitzvot: Why I've Stopped Talking About Gaza which, after some of RJN's posts and many comments inspired this: A Gentile Priviledge Checklist

I've been riveted by these posts and have a lot of thoughts but nothing I've attempted to write, in the comments sections of a number of the above posts, says what I want to say. So I thought I would start by posting here, on my own blog, that I am following these posts. 

I think that's all I can write even now. Everything I write sounds strange and not quite it and so I will just have to wait until I write something I don't immediately want to delete. Wish me luck, and if you're interested do have a look at the links above. Thanks.

sand dollar beauty

Thanks to Will Cook for providing this image on his web site carolinanature.com

For a few weeks now I've been wandering around with an image in my mind of a sand dollar skeleton - a white disk with a star shape in the middle and little slots around the perimeter. Tonight I looked around the internet and quickly found three images; two of skeletons and this. I had never seen a live one, as pictured above, never mind with such gorgeous colors. I'm besotted.

Now that I have seen it I can't stop looking at it and I've made it the desktop on my computer screen.

Oh yeah, and I just got a big table for my studio, so I hope that'll help move things along there.

More about this and other developments soon.

Founders Keepers

I was just at SPA. There was a memorial exhibit for John Hanna, a Barre stone sculptor & community activist who passed away a few weeks ago. I thought I'd only be there for a few minutes, really, but ended up staying for a couple hours, catching up with people and generally having a good time. After, that is, I paid respects to John Hanna's memory and had a look at the exhibit and the slide show. And getting to cry a little over losing such a fine human being.

But I didn't feel completely at ease until Sue Higby asked if anyone had a cork screw and Michael Sherman and I pulled out our Swiss Army knives at the same time. I ceded the honor to Michael and after that I felt right at home.

I saw a lot of familiar faces, including fellow SPA founders Janet Van Fleet, Maggie Neale, Georgia Landau, and Nancy Hanson, and a bunch of people from the stone sculpting community of central Vermont. Maggie and Georgia wanted to know if I would join them for a snow sculpture competition on January 31st. Georgia had this wonderful gleem in her eye and just about pounced on me while saying "It'll be great - we'll be the SPA Founders team!". She even got Janet to reluctantly agree to join in. Then Georgia and Nancy started talking about about what the sculpture might be, maybe an ear or an eye...or maybe a mermaid or a merman.

I haven't decided yet, but it might be fun, especially because I haven't been part of any group art activities for a long time, and I haven't done anything with the SPA founders for an even longer time. Yeah, it might be fun. We'll see.


Here's Georgia, me and Nancy circa 2003, at the "Puttin' On The Dog" show and annual winter gala, with a Rhoda Carrol painting in the background.

a good night's work

Thanks to Amy for asking if I wanted to go out to draw and Gina for the new pencils and sketchbook. I LOVE TO DRAW PEOPLE SO MUCH! What a gas.

Edited 1/7/09: Oh, yeah, I did these drawings at the Langdon Street Cafe, of high school students and their mentors performing poetry and music wonderfully together.

bakery fun

I took this picture at the bakery the day before Christmas. At the mixer is Randy, bakery co-owner (and husband) with Liza, who is just outside the picture frame on the right, and his two children, Solveig (pronounced soul-vey) who is standing on the palette of flour and Maia, standing next to her Dad at the mixer. It's a blurry picture, which is partly a drag and partly great, as it shows the motion of the moment, basically what I was trying to capture. The girls were squealing with pleasure over having the the formery all to themselves (the formers and bakers all had a rare day off of production). I loved their squealing happiness. It made my day. Oh yeah, and getting a shot of that great big taffy pulling loop of dough, so awesome and so everyday.

niece and nephew

Here are portraits of my niece and nephew, at my brother and sister-in-law's house at Thanksgiving. Happy December everybody!

new studio!

I just moved into this new studio today. I just brought a few things, stared out the windows (there's two), read a little bit, and took a nap while listening to my friend practice accordian and harmonica next door.

VOTE

My mom, a lifelong Democrat, got me started on the campaign trail early. I helped her put up posters for the McGovern campaign in 1972, when I was six years old.

I was sworn in as a registered voter in my college cafeteria in the fall of 1984, just barely 18 years old. I voted in the primaries and the subsequent presidential election.

I don't understand why people don't register to vote, or use that as an excuse not to vote, or use any excuse not to vote. It's a mystery to me. But like all good mysteries I come back to it every couple of years and see if I can figure it out. No luck this year. I still meet people who I otherwise love and respect who aren't going to vote. Some of them have the grace to be embarrassed. Some won't meet my eye and are angry I'm judging them. So be it.

I'm voting on Tuesday. I hope you are too.

Bizarre and more bizarre

Back in this past winter and spring I posted a bit about health issues.

On September 1st my doctor died from a stroke. He was, I think, 61 or 62, and in otherwise good health. This in itself is a shock, but there's more. I was deeply immersed in my art making project in September and so wasn't reading the newspapers much and completely missed the obituaries that were published in the weeks following my doctor's death. I even missed the letter I got from my insurance company telling me my doctor would no longer be available. They didn't say he died, they said he would no longer be able to provide care.

Finally, about a week ago, I got a new insurance card in the mail with a new doctor's name on it. I got my mail too late in the day to call the insurance co., but I did call my doctor's office. I got the answering service. Not a machine, but an actual person. I said I assumed I was reaching the service, and they said yes, but the office was closed. I said, sure, it's 7pm, I figured that. And the woman said, no, the office is closed for business - the doctor has died. Well. I'm sitting there with my mouth hanging open. The woman apologizes, says she understands how shocked I must be, and every time she tells another patient she herself is shocked all over again. She tells me some details about how the doctor died (in a kayak, with his wife). There isn't much else to say, so I mentally note that I have to call the insurance co. and the doctor I've been assigned on Monday morning. 

Monday morning. I call a doctor who a friend of mine really liked, but she's not accepting any new patients. The office is at capacity. OK. They give me the name of a new doctor in town who is taking new patients. I try to find the phone number of the doctor I've been assigned by the insurance co., but I look everywhere and there is no listing for them. I look in the hard copy phone book, white and yellow pages, I look on line. I look under the doctor's name, I look under the practice's name. Nothing. Nada. So I call the friend's doctor's office and they, thank God, have the number. I reach the assigned doctor's office. They advise me they aren't taking patients outside their limited geographical area (even though this is who the insurance co. assigned me to). This area doesn't include where I live, and they recommend the same doctor my friend's doctor's office recommended. Apparently this guy is probably the only doctor in central Vermont who is taking new patients. OK  then. On to the new doctor. I call, I explain. They know all about it. We make an appointment for December (which I later change to January so it'll be an annual physical, and therefore covered by the freaking insurance). They say they will send me an introductory pack of forms, including a release of records form that I can use to get my medical records from my deceased doctor's office.

Which is really good, because it turns out the deceased doctor's office isn't releasing records directly to patients, but only transferring records to other doctor's offices. I find this out when I call the deceased doctor's answering service on Tuesday, because the answering service told me I could talk with someone there on Tuesdays and Thursday between 2-4pm. It turns out I couldn't actually talk with anyone besides the answering service, but they did clarify that I could drop my release form at the office during those hours, but only to drop it off (or fax it over), that I could not actually get my records. And how, I asked, would I know that, first, they'd recieved the request, and second, responded to it and sent it to my new doctor? Oh, they said, you could call your new doctor's office and check with them. As much as I wanted to argue the circular logic of this response I saw that the woman at the answering service couldn't help me, so I said thanks and hung up. 

One thing that took a day or so to sink it was a detail the answering service woman had told me (or maybe it was one of the receptionists at one of the other offices...it's kind of mushed together in my mind now). It's this - the deceased doctor's office will be processing requests to release medical records until the end of October. I called my new doctor's office yesterday (Friday) asking if they had the correct address for me, as I hadn't recieved the forms yet. They told me they had a big stack to send out, but they appreciated getting a confirmation of my correct address, and that they'd be sending the forms out shortly. I sure hope I can get my records transferred before Oct. 31st. I don't want to think about what I might have to do after that date. Sue? File a brief in civil court? What all?

Then, today, Saturday, I'm at the farmer's market. I see the nurse practitioner from my deceased doctor's office. I tell her I feel badly for her, she must be having a hard time. Well, she wants to know if I got a letter from the office letting me know what happened. I told her no, that I found out from the insurance co. She told me the family of the deceased doctor, through an intermediary, told her they didn't have any money to pay her a week after the doctor died. That she couldn't work there anymore, not even to contact patients to let them know what happened. The nurse, on her own, looked for (in the phone book) and was able to find 53 of the several hundred patients she knew, and in this way was able to let them know by letter, that the doctor had died and they needed to find a new doctor for their primary care.

So she is trying to find her own way and is working to get a new practice together. You see, a big reason I was a patient of the deceased doctor was because the nurse practitioner was on staff. I could get my physical examination with a woman. Now? Now I have to start all over again, with a  new doctor whose only recommendation is that he's so new he has room for me. Meanwhile, if the nurse practitioner starts a new practice I may or may not join her there, as she is a bit muddled in methods and communication. Fun all around.

But I can see even though this is a general pain in the ass, it is not so awful as it might be. I am in good health. I am not dependent on the deceased doctor for any prescriptions, treatments or diagnosees. As frustrating as this situation is, it could be so much more so. I'm grateful for that. My heart goes out to the patients who actually have to find their way through this morass, not just checking in around the edges like I am doing. 

Hopefully everything will go smoothly with the transfer of records and I won't have anything new to report until next year. I'll let you know.

existential questions and Curtis Savard photographs

Curtis Savard took a bunch of photographs at Fort Can Gallery during the reception a few weeks ago. I've been chilling out, so am just getting around to posting about them now. But I have to say I love them. This one, above, is of my friend Amy and me in the gallery, mural of kissing couple in the background, portraits and other artwork in the foreground.



And this is a section of wall that includes the poster for the show, an abstract drawing a number of people particularly liked, and another view of the group portrait of Brian, Tara & Kelly. Can you read the writing? It says, in large letters "Is it too much?" and then in smaller lettering below, "Is it enough?" - questions I ask myself all the time. 

almost last day of "Mild to Extra-Spicy"

Here's my first portrait of the day - Tara.



And a group portrait of my hosts at Fort Can Gallery/May Day Studio. (They are much less cartoon-y in person.) From left to right: Brian Zeigler, Tara Jensen and Kelly McMahon.



This is a portrait of Linda, Brian's wife. We both liked the way it came out. It almost looks like her. Pretty close.



Last but not least, Megan. It was a great day. There were a couple people who couldn't make it, but a bunch of people came to the reception who I hadn't expected, and then some friends who came by took me out for dinner afterwards. May Day Studio also had a good day, meeting new people and making plans for the future. Curtis Savard took some excellent photographs of the event which I'm looking forward to posting soon.

More about my future plans for art making, soon.

portrait Friday

I drew four portraits today, and anticipate drawing another four or five tomorrow. Andrew above.
 

I got to draw another portrait yesterday

And here she is. I had five people scheduled but only one was able to make it. I've rescheduled with two, one I've contacted and one I still need to call back. After getting off the phone with one of the rescheduled I felt so tired. As if the marathon I had anticipated all week (five portraits in five hours) had actually taken place. Anyway, next Saturday, the last of the exhibit, will be pretty busy with three portraits and a double portrait early in the day possible, and a reception in the afternoon. It's almost over and I feel like I'm just getting started.

from my sketchbook

gallery time/portraiture

I spent the day at Fort Can Gallery & Studios, drawing people and enjoying being immersed in art making. Last Saturday I drew four portraits: Karen (above), Cora, Gladys & Duffy. I hadn't arranged to draw Duffy ahead of time, but it worked out well, as the person I had planned on drawing didn't show. Today I had three subjects: Sarah, Rhoda and Harrison. Sarah brought her sweet dog, who I didn't know how to fit in the drawing. Rhoda was a gas and I started two drawings before I settled on one that I liked well enough to finish. I did Harrison in crayon and it came out OK, except his mouth looked like someone else. Thursday morning I started painting and drawing on the walls of the gallery. That's where the image from the "kinda spicy" post came from. After a week of feeling shy about having this gallery space, I found I needed to splash some color around. Once I got started I didn't want to stop, although I only had about an hour. But I got far enough that I came straight over after work on Thursday night, and worked through past midnight. I had a blast. Brian Ziegler, one of the studio renters, was there most of the evening and was very supportive and helpful. I haven't worked on one art object for more than an hour or two in years and years. I just love being able to do it. The only problem I was having was a certain stiffness in one of the figures (of the kissing couple). I found hundreds of kissing couples to study online, sketched a couple for reference, and went back Friday morning to loosen things up a bit. It worked like a charm and I'm pretty happy with the result. I may work on the painting more...I'm not sure. But since it's on the wall, and it will have to be painted over, I may stop where it is now and move back to more portable media. We'll see how it goes. I still have one wall I haven't done anything with yet, except write the words "I don't know", "I don't know, either" (which I erased) and then on the other end of the wall "is it too much?". Before any of these statements I wrote the question "Why" on the opposite wall. I love writing & drawing on walls. I've been doing it since I was maybe three or four years old, when my Dad repainted the upstairs hallway and I couldn't resist applying my crayons to the freshly painted surfaces. Oh, I love making art. I really do.

kinda spicy