Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

Wednesday, the day before yesterday. August 28, represents a number that has great significance for me and my family. My grandparents, Robert and Louise Swanson,  took Romans 8:28, from Paul’s epistle to the Romans, as their motto and the name of their home in Sag Harbor.  Romans 8:28;   “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, for those who are the called according to His purpose.” Those words are implanted in me.  Once I was about to commit road rage over a parking spot and the silent dashboard clock clicked loudly.  I looked down to see that it was 8:28. I took a deep breath and moved on. At my grandchildren’s school, the day begins at 8:30 but the doors open at 8:28.  That’s a good start. The March on Washington where Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech happened on August 28, 1963.  8:28.     This verse had given me enormous comfort and assurance, a sense of secu...

When we moved to Vermont in 1964 there were still more cows than people in our county. My High School boyfriend lived on a dairy farm; he'd get up at four to do the milking, go to school, go to basketball practice, get home for milking again, than play baketball.  There was no break on the weekends-- milking continued always.  He'd come over to my house and fall asleep. I begged him to let me watch a calf being born and so he called me early one morning.  I rushed out of the house--my Dad said, "Ah yes, the miracle of life."  The mother was still locked in her stantion--the apparatus that held her in place.  I persuaded the hired hand to let her go so she could nurture her baby but as soon as she was free she took off for the feed room.  The baby was a boy so he was off to become veal. So I'm not romantic about cows but I still love them and I especially love to draw them. This is the little town we lived in.  Here's a b...

Happy Birthday to All Born Under the Sign of Virgo

I first encountered Joseph Cornell at a show of sculpture at the Whitney Museum. This is the piece I saw; it's titled "Taglioni's Jewel Box." "The first of dozens Cornell made in honor of famous ballerinas, this box pays homage to Marie Taglioni, an acclaimed nineteenth-century Italian dancer who, according to legend, kept an imitation ice cube in her jewelry box to commemorate dancing in the snow at the behest of a Russian highwayman. The box is infused with erotic undertones—both in the tactile nature of the glass cubes, velvet, and rhinestone necklace (purchased at a Woolworth's dime store in New York) and in the incident itself, in which Taglioni reportedly performed on an animal skin placed across the snowy road ." Joseph Cornell thought outside the box while making beautiful little boxes. He was a pioneer of assemblage--taking found objects and making art.  He never traveled and spent his life caring for his mother and his brother who...

I"m having an exhibit of drawings at the Syosset Public Library, with a reception on Saturday, August 10, from 2-4 pm. If you'd like to go, it's right off the Long Island Expressway. Take Exit 43, turn left at Oyster Bay Road and it's on your right.  You can't miss it.      Is Syosset not on your itinerary this month?  that's OK, I'll give you a tour right here. Ten pieces, eight 18"x 24" pen and ink drawings of gardens and trees.  and two 41"x 29" of house elevations. Here they are. This is called Pink and White.  I love to draw trees. I love to draw pagodas--eastern and Asian houses of worship.  I start with a little building and let the garden grow around it. This is one of my favorites especially the sky.  I also love the tile floor--done with no thought of perspective. The golden frame; I think it gives the work extra heft and depth.  More pagodas in a fantasy landscape. I really love houses, elevation...

On Wednesday, July 31,  Arthur and I celebrated our anniversary.  We got married at the home of my Aunt Jan, on Long Island.  We planned a reception on the lawn and didn’t order tents, because they’d be too hot under the July sun, but if it rained, all would be ruined.  I told my grandmother that I wouldn’t listen to the weather report because what could we do about it?  She replied,       “Oh, they can report and predict all they want and then the Lord just goes ‘Poof!’ and the weather changes.”   The morning of the wedding dawned cloudy and gray.  As I walked out with Jan a few sprinkles fell on us.  She looked up at the sky, shook her fist and said, “I haven’t been tithing [giving away ten percent of her annual income] all these years just to have rain today.”   I stepped away from her, knowing she was about to be struck by lightning.  But the sun came out. That’s the irreverent but sincere relationshi...