Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

  As I write this I'm getting ready for the big dinner.  I've already made the turkey soup, always a highlight and my family's favorite part of the meal so when I bought my turkey I got extra thighs, roasted them, and started the stock for the soup on Monday. Also, we cut up the bird and cooked the wings, neck and back to make more stock for the stuffing and gravy.  Later today we'll roast the legs and breast separately.  It has made our apartment and also the hallway smell great. I hope the neighbors appreciate it. Do you ever have a chance encounter that really makes your day? I had one last week, as I walked down Broadway at 168th Street to see the eye doctor.  A man sitting on the wall said to me, "Hey, Mama, you got something for me?"  I smiled and said, "Sorry."  And he said, "Well, you look gorgeous!"   That certainly put a spring in my step so after my check-up, which was good news, I found a dollar in my pocket and decided that if ...

 I've had to face a sad loss this week. You know that little envelope The New Yorker tucks into each issue so you can renew your subscription?  For years it's carried the image of Eustace Tilly, New Yorker's cover boy taking a walk with his nose in a book.  I always cut him out and paste him into my date book like this;      Suddenly they've changed it to something not nearly as engaging. I loved that little man and now he is no more.  It's the end of an era. Once again, I'm deeply saddened but I must move on.       On to more collages. I'm happy to say that Vogue, Ralph Lauren and the World Wildlife Fund gift catalogue have come through for me.        Look at my second-grader's Mona Lisa here.  She likes what she sees.      I'm happy to announce that my drawing, The Red House, is in an online show titled Seeing Music,  curated by Yvonne Lamar-Rogers and Cheryl Aden, sponsored by the cura...

 I've had to face a sad loss this week. You know that little envelope The New Yorker tucks into each issue so you can renew your subscription?  For years it's carried the image of Eustace Tilly, New Yorker's cover boy taking a walk with his nose in a book.  I always cut him out and paste him into my date book like this;      Suddenly they've changed it to something not nearly as engaging. I loved that little man and now he is no more.  It's the end of an era. Once again, I'm deeply saddened but I must move on.       On to more collages. I'm happy to say that Vogue, Ralph Lauren and the World Wildlife Fund gift catalogue have come through for me.        Look at my second-grader's Mona Lisa here.  She likes what she sees.      I'm happy to announce that my drawing, The Red House, is in an online show titled Seeing Music,  curated by Yvonne Lamar-Rogers and Cheryl Aden, sponsored by the cura...

 For the past two weeks as I've waxed dithyrambic about the golden Honey Locust, I neglected one reason those leaves stand out so brightly.  We have been enjoying the most beautiful weather, with bright blue skies.  The contrast against the blue really makes the gold pop. I've written about Green,   Brown and Yellow, or Ochre; now I'll turn to turn to Blue. I wore Blue to vote this week--I like to think it brought good luck.  I've looked back at what I've done with blue over the years, cutting and tearing up magazines, just playing with color, texture and sometimes images. Edward Hopper's Ground Swell, "at once pacific and sublime, and seems paused on the precipice of action or danger. Painted in 1939 as the world teetered on the edge of war, it is a crisp but uneasy scene of sun-rays, sea-spray and the surging promise of youth. "  I used to tell my second graders when looking at a painting to imagine how they would feel to be inside that scene.  ...

Rest In Peace, Jerry Lee Lewis. Here's another nice thing about the Honey Locust; when the leaves fall they make a gorgeous carpet! This morning I saw this  on my walk with Lucy to get my coffee and I didn't have my camera! They were getting ready to sweep so I rushed home and came back to take these pictures.  I try to live in the moment and not worry about taking pictures but then how can I share?   Yesterday I had an appointment with the eye doctor so I got an early start, walking to the subway at 14th Street and 8th Avenue.   But when I got there I remembered that I needed the 1 train. Oh, no!  But then I remembered that I could change from the A or C to the 1 at Columbus Circle.  Okay, this wasn't great but not a disaster. And who did I see when I changed trains but Sol Lewitt!  This piece is always a treat to see.   I was feeling kind of blank about this week's post; thinking I didn't have much to see but then I had an idea--some of my favor...