A Little of this, A Little of That

- November 04, 2021

I brought my geraniums inside this week; in past years I've just let them die in the fall but I've decided to try to keep them over the winter.

I love having them here in my studio--they keep me company! I can't name one favorite flower, but I am very fond of geraniums--they're sturdy, they smell good and I do love pink. Besides, one geranium is made up of a bunch of tiny blossoms--E pluribus unum!

Across the street from us is a construction site--a building that once was a garage, then a photographer's studio and restaurant and now will be a private residence if it ever gets finished. I once asked a worker standing in front of it what they were doing and he said, " We're Building America." Well, I wish they'd hurry up.

Everybody swears that that's as high as it will go and I really hope so. I don't want to lose our view of the Empire State Building--what a friend's little girl re-named the Entire State Building. Whenever I glance out the window that orange fencing catches my eye and I think for a moment that it's an autumn tree. Oh, well. The sky looks nice too, don't you think?

I also don't want to lose my view of the big brick building behind that--it's 61 Jane Street. On some evenings it catches the sun's last rays and it glows like an Edward Hopper, especially when there are rain clouds behind it and the sky is a deep slate blue. I haven't taken a picture of it, although I did call Arthur to come and look. I didn't want to take the time to grab my camera, and I didn't believe I could capture that beauty. I just hold it in my memory. I hope you can imagine it.

I have been working; I started on my portrait of Saint Barbara's Church in Bushwick a month ago but, as often happens, I got tired of it and decided I hated it. Also it had a spill on it that I didn't know what to do with. The paper I draw on is very expensive, also it's so large it's hard to carry home from the store with out rolling it up, so I have to order it on line which takes a long time, so I turned the paper over and started again.

And then I got tired of that side and came back to the first. You can see the blue smear, but I'll deal with it.

I decided to give this one a night sky. I put a little Saint Barbara with her tower here to cover up something I didn't like. I've been working for a while--and finished the upper left corner. Not a great shot, because it's now dark out but the work goes on.

Having two pieces to work on makes my life more interesting.

I hope you'll put Monday, December 6 on your calendar. That's when I'll talk about the Saint Barbara project and, I hope, show you two finished views of Saint Barbara in Bushwick. I'll be joined by Eileen Hoffman, an honorary Barbara, who will show her work about Rapunzel.

I'm also happy to say that two of my pieces are in Mostly Monochrome, an online exhibit produced by