Memorial Day -- And the story of the stolen Chinese General's Jeep

Visited with my folks this Memorial Day weekend.  My dad is 93 and is never at a loss for a story I have never heard before.  This time had him stationed in the far east during WWII.  He was running the motor pool, and a sergeant on his staff offered to fix the jeep of the local Chinese General.  The jeep was fixed and disappeared, at which point my Dad's superior officer asked my dad if he knew anything about the missing jeep.  And the jeep showed up.  Learn something new every day.

Parts of Paintings

Back from Baltimore where it was hotter than Hell. Okay, it was not hotter than Hell. Had a blast at the Johns Hopkins graduation.  But didn't stop at the Clara BARTON rest stop. Too bad. Grass in incredibly green this year.

The two on a bi-plane graduate

Two of my children are graduating soon.

My oldest is graduating from college.
I remember bathing her in the bathroom sink of our loft on 18th street.
I remember when she had bangs and an eye patch.
I remember her bunny Rosie, who was pink
And her bunny Daily, who was real and lived a long, long time.
I remember when she went away to prep-school.
And travelled to Greece.
And when she went away to college.
And took a road trip across country with her boyfriend.
And I am so impressed with who she is, I can hardly say.

My youngest is graduating from highschool.
And I remember pouring a trash-can full of water on him so he'd stop screaming while I washed his hair.
And I remember the bub-lights, and leprachan traps.
And I remember leggo contests and the taste of victory.
And when he went to Paris and directed the cab driver to the guitar store,
And when he went to Greece.
And when he went to prep school and made the friends of a life time.
And I am so impressed with who he is, I can hardly say.

Details

These details from larger landscape paintings are WAY better than the whole paintings.  What's that about?  Why is it ok to frame and crop and edit a photograph?  Is it ok to do that to a painting?

It's a matter of your perspective

Still Life 1980

Glass vase from fourteenth street.  Flowers from the Korean grocer.

Four small compound ellipses and one arc

Got up this morning a did five diminutive pencil and water color drawings before the house got going.  

Meeting up with old friend's paintings off the beaten track

For the second time in a couple weeks I caught up with the work of a couple of old friends from college, James Angell and George Negroponte.  A couple weeks ago at the Kouros Gallery in NY, and today, picking up my daughter from college, we caught a great group show at David Hall Fine Art in Welleseley  including the work of Virva Hinnemo, George's wife and a delightful painter.  

Enchanting paintings by Virva Hinnemo - delightfully subtle in color, light and composition.

Works on wood with wallpaper by George Negroponte. Simple, direct, elegant, playful, charming.

Paintings by James Angell,  symmetry, vibrations, color, light rhythm.

Check it out.

Orange Arc

Small drawing of an orange parabolic arc.  Would like to do one 20 times the size.  Soon.

Alien visit to Costco

I'm trying to figure out Costco.  I think it's the only club I belong to.  It's incredibly fun to push the oversize carts down the oversize isle and peruse the clothes, light-bulbs, batteries, packages of too-large steaks, too-many-chicken-breasts, pounds-and-pounds of lettuce, cases of St. Pellegrino, jars of nuts, enormous bottles of ketchup-triple-packed.  So, I usually don't leave the store with much, unless the kids are home.  A box of blackberries. A gallon of olive oil.  And an enormous chunk of Irish cheddar cheese.  What a blast.

Grand Central

Mother's Day

Managed to get these dozen roses into a dozen glasses and line them up for Mothers' Day....all in a row.

If you are in NYC check out George Negroponte & Virva Hinnemo @ Kouros Gallery

Went to a great double show the Kouros Gallery tonight. 

The enchanted spirits of Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb and Wolf Kahn visited us in the Vivra's wonderful dancing paintings. 

And the likes of Matisee, Picasso, Judd, and Miro smiled down on George's elegant, serene, playful constructed pictures - perfectly proportioned plywood pannels with paper, cloth, and pencil marks, that seemed like great old friends revealing wonderful new sides.

Go to the show if you can. Kouros Gallery, 23 East 73rd Street.

The first week of May sings with color

The pink petals for a path along the paving stones as the trees burst green, pink, red and white

Printemps

The crew arrived on Thursday and in no time had mowed down the spring growth of grass that had turned to seed, evaporated the winter's worth of twigs covering the yard, cut back the winter-weathered tall grasses and exhausted brown hydrangeas to make way for the new spring growth.  We bought some pink geraniums and some vyncas vines and planted pots on the patio.  The trees are blooming, pink, magenta, white.