Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Last night I dreamt I was on Cranbury Island again

in 1975, three friends and I rented an old house on Cranbury Island off the coast of Maine.  We read, and wrote, and drew and painted, shopped and cooked, walked and swam.  Last night I heard one was doing a poetry reading at Johns Hopkins where I was visiting my daughter.  I stepped into the back of the lecture hall in time to hear a half-hour of wonderful poems wonderfully read.  As the students cleared the hall, I walked over to say hello.  It has been so long, and I fear I don't look the same, so I introduced myself by name.  A look of delight came over my dear friend's face and the 35 years slipped away for a moment.  Last night I dreamt I was on Cranbury Island again

Friday, April 22, 2011

Louise Nevelson, The Federal Reserve and Don Quixote

Don Quixote: Dost not see? A monstrous giant of infamous repute whom I intend to encounter. Sancho Panza: It's a windmill. Don Quixote: A giant. Canst thou not see the four great arms whirling at his back? Sancho Panza: A giant? Don Quixote: Exactly. 



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.....


The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Saturday, April 16, 2011

What is the question?

   Title 8, Section 1401, of the U.S. Code provides the current definition for a natural-born citizen. 

        
       • Anyone born inside the United States and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, which exempts the child of a diplomat from this provision 
        
       • Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person's status as a citizen of the tribe 
        
       • Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S. 
        
       • Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national 
        
       • Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year 
        
       • Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21 
        
       • Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time) 
        

Sunday, April 10, 2011

The pigeons of Paris

We stopped for a quick morning breakfast on the Champs Elysees near our hotel.  The insane Parisian pigeons were hysterically funny, aggressive and intimidating enough.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Edgartown Abstracts

The crosswalks in Edgartown, are the most amazing green, especially when it rains, and the crosswalks shine.







Thursday, April 7, 2011

Cadmium red, yellow or orange, alizerin crimson, cerulean blue.....

The less precious the materials, the more easily comes abandon and the magic that comes with it..... so I squeezed out gobs and gobs of paint in every color color I could find.....and I love that one yellow does not serve in the place of another. Ditto one red for another. Green. Turquoise. Blue. Orange.

So clearly a UFO. What's the question?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

View Northeast from 126 Fifth Avenue

The loft was on the 14th floor of 126 Fifth Avenue.  The ceilings were were 11'4" high.  Three large double hung windows faced due-north to the Empire State Building.  To the northeast, Madison Park, the old 'Metropolitan Life Insurance Company', New York Life Insurance and in the distance, the Chrysler Building.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

At the Silvermine Guild


Brought some pictures over to the Silvermine Guild this morning.  Best art there was the piece by a young guy, whose name I did not catch, of 4 figures, variously dressed in chinos and Nantucket Reds and the like, one with a garbage can on his head, the next upside down in a flower pot (head in the sand?)....and so on.  Loved the juxtaposition with my paintings!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

At the corner of Prince and Thompson Streets


In 1976 I got an apartment on the fourth floor of a building on Thompson Street and Prince Street.  Widows in black primarily occupied the 5 floor walk-up, and the apartment had three rooms.  An entry-way with printed yellow tile opened into a main-room which had a shower on cinder-blocks, a refrigerator, a gas-stove, with an exposed brick-wall behind that had a hole punched through (where we stored our kitchen matches), an old double ceramic sink on legs, and a toilet in a closet, water-tank-with-pull-chain-above.  Off the main-room were two bedrooms.  I woke up, my first morning in the apartment, feeling as if someone was staring at me. And indeed as I opened my eyes, a might cock-roach stared me down eye-to-eye, both of us resting on the pillow.