Me Versus The Machine

For the last few weeks I've been doing battle with the front door lock in Newport. Sometimes the key opens the door easily and I'm on my way, but sometimes it opens the door and then refuses to come out of the lock. It got so stuck yesterday that I literally used a screwdriver to remove the lock from the door and bring it to the hardware store. I'm pretty proud of my "handiness" that I was able to both remove and re-install the lock!

Watch Out: Wet Paint!

Every year, the Newport Art Museum hosts a wonderful charity fundraiser auction called "Wet Paint" that brings together the artists and art patrons of Newport for a weekend of fun. On Saturday morning, all the participating artists gather to pick up bag lunches and then disperse to spend the day painting. That evening the artists clean up and cool off at a cocktail party and preview silent auction, and on Sunday there is a public silent auction all afternoon that culminates in a rousing live auction for the 50 most popular paintings from the silent auction. All of the proceeds (or 80% of them) go to benefit the Newport Art Museum, so its not only a fun event, and a chance to snag some deals on a few really great paintings, but it also is good karma!

I contributed two paintings this year (I cheated a little and painted them both earlier this summer). While they weren't popular enough to make it to the live auction I think that the fact that they both sold is a huge improvement on last year's 'my parent's bought my art' fiasco. It was super exciting to watch people bidding on my art, and I even got to see a bidding war go down over this little beauty:


I was absolutely shocked and flattered to see that it got about ten bids and it ended up going for $120!! Not bad for the first piece of art I've ever really sold.

I had actually expected this to be the hotter ticket, mainly because its much larger, but I guess the audience was a sucker for blue. Still this went for the very respectable $95!


It's the first time I've ever had a painting (or two) go home with strangers. Its a little weird, I wonder if I'll ever walk into someone's house and see my work hanging on their wall.

For Mom's Birthday

My mom's birthday is this Monday so we're celebrating this weekend in Newport. I painted this little (8"x10") oil sketch this morning, and I'm planning to give it to her tonight. (The absolutely greatest thing about being an artist, you never have to buy presents!) You may recognize this fire hydrant, the painting is actually based on a photo I took last week and posted on the blog!

Getting Under My Skin

For a long time I've felt that while my collages have matured in terms of appearance, they haven't yet found their niche in terms of medium. Their slick entropy makes them look a little silly on a canvas up on a wall. Because they are so vibrantly technological in appearance I'm really interested in using them in a more modern way. Gelaskins are these really cool covers that you can get for your phone or computer, and they let you upload your own images, so my phone could look like this:



I actually ordered a computer skin with one of my collages on it to be sent to Carly Blitz for her birthday, so I'll post images of that once it arrives!

"Touch-Up" Has a Dirty Connotation in England

While watching Craig Ferguson late one night I learned that while the phrase "touch-up" is completely innocent in the United States it has a dirty meaning in the United Kingdom. While they didn't parse it out entirely on the TV, I gathered that it has a similar meaning to the way American's colloquially use "feel up". Luckily I was in the US when my parents asked me to "give a touch-up" to this old painting so I knew it wasn't a raunchy suggestion:


After years of sitting in my grandmother's living room the fluctuations in temperature and humidity had caused some of the oil paint to crack and flake off. The damaged area was quite modest in size, but so smack dab in the center of the composition that it was really impossible to ignore:


While the actual area that I had to repair was quite small, it was a time-consuming project because of the necessity to match the new paint exactly to the extant color. It was easy sailing once I settled on the correct color recipe for the foliage:


Looks good as new now!

Fire in the House

On the street directly behind my parent's house in Newport, RI there is a firehouse that was built in 1887. A few years ago, to my great dismay, someone dismantled the thing entirely. As I sobbed over the empty lot, I didn't dare dream that this was just one stage in a complete renovation/reimagining of what the firehouse could be. Eventually they rebuilt the facade brick by brick to retain its historical appearance while reconfiguring the rear of the building into a modern living space. From the street it looks largely as it did before; albeit cleaner and shinier:


And they even retained their Historical certification:


But there are modern windows, and a roof deck!


This project is exactly the kind of work that I dream about one day doing. Being involved in transforming the function of a pre-existing structure so that it can continue to exist in the context of modern life would be a dream. Sigh...someday

Morbid Beauty

If you look out the front windows of my parent's house in Newport RI, straight ahead just before the road curves out of view you'll see a white picket fence, and behind that fence is a colonial burying ground. Having occupied this ground since sometime in the late 1600's, the residential neighborhood has grown up and around the graveyard, so that for a few houses it sits directly in their backyard. (They are generous to extend their landscaping into the burying ground)


All of the stones bear the marks of having weathered many years:


But some are really remarkably legible, and I love the memento mori detailing:

Wandering on Historic Hill

I grabbed my camera for few hours of entertainment while strolling near my parent's weekend house in Newport, RI. Their house is in the Historic Hill district, which, like their house, dates from colonial times.


There are some fairly strict regulations on the appearances of homes, specifically their facades, so that the district retains some of its historic feeling. You are only allowed to display a maximum of three colors on the front of your house, so generally a main color, a trim color, and a vibrant door color.

Architectural Tour of Chestnut Hill

I took my camera along while I was walking to my friend Jordy's house today, and got the chance to snap a few of my favorite houses from the neighborhood I grew up in.


I've always liked this driveway, courtyard, garage combo:


This field is the site of an old monastery that I can just remember from almost 20 years ago:


This curvy wall is extremely unique, I doubted it when it was first put up a few years ago, but with ivy grown on it I like it a lot more.


This house looks like it dates from colonial times:


Interesting rustic gate at the back of someone's yard:


This house belongs to a friend of my parents, I love its French allusions:


And right around the corner is this house:


Interesting the way that this tree is growing over a cobblestone:


And on my way home, a view of my house from across the street:


And of the wall and border garden out in front:

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Six Jefferson Road, Chestnut Hill Massachusetts


This is the home of Jordy, one of my dearest friends, her mother Susan and her brother Callen. I've known her most of my life, and this is where she's always lived, so returning here always feels like journeying into my childhood. In fact this drawing became the t-shirt we all wore on Jordy's ninth birthday:


This is the driveway that we used to sled down, and race down in toy trucks.


Here are the tree branches we used to climb:


It dates from the early to mid 1920's, around the same time as the house that I grew up in, and they are both in a Tudor style. It must have been the trend of the 1920's.

Jordy, Charry, & Luna

Jordy is one of my oldest friends, we met in pre-school, so I always make a point of stopping by her house when I'm in Brookline.


She hates having her picture taken but I prevailed in the name of our years of friendship, and I got some really great shots. (Thank god for the Sports setting I swear it was designed to get off lots of shots of camera-shy friends.


I think her strong bone structure looks unbelievable in this light!


When we were little there were cats all over her house, but the brood has since thinned down to three, and while Basil was too camera-shy, I did get the chance to snap a few shots of Charry and Luna. This is Charry investigating the camera:


Luna lounging:

Holly's House

Many of you may know that I grew up traveling to business conferences all over the country with my parents who both work in the bankruptcy business (mom=consultant; dad=laywer), and it was in the context of one of these corporate cocktail parties that I first met Holly Etlin. I must admit that my initial image of her commanding the world in a pantsuit didn't at first mesh with her cooking in a swimsuit, but she is a formidable threat to Martha Stewart. Away from the conference room she is as warm as her cooking, and her house is open to the breeze and to the constant flow of neighbors.

Of course, being situated only a few feet off the beach has to help with that fresh salty breeze:


And certainly this gorgeous deck is a lure to lounging friends and neighbors:


The property is full of homey, personal touches, like this outdoor shower and the red wagon bearing the house's moniker "The Duchess" (which is indispensable for transporting luggage and groceries on this island without cars):


The Duchess is rarely air-conditioned because of the refreshing breeze spilling over the dunes, and the airy, high ceilings inside:


It has been so hot this year that most of the late summer flowers in Holly's garden are already in bloom!: