Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

Almost done with the Blue House--at least I've gotten to the roof line.  I've read that the custom in building a house is that when the roof is complete you throw a party. So I hope you'll celebrate with me. I still have to finish the round window on the top floor-- but that'll be easy.  Then I'll hang curtains and decide who to put in the windows.  Then on to Blue House Interior! All week I've been thinking about blue; Navy Blue, Sky Blue, Cobalt Blue, Aqua, Ultramarine, Teal, Cobalt, Periwinkle, Cerulean, Cyan, Indigo, Woad, Prussian Blue, Egyptian Blue, Slate Blue. My etching inks were Chinese Blue and Horizon Blue. Then I hit my crayon box and found Robin's Egg Blue (there's a robin living on my block-he's so handsome I think I'll draw him!) Turquoise, Cornflower, Pacific Blue, Denim, have I missed anything? My friend, Mara, told me about this wonderful book, the Secret Lives of Color, by Kassia St. Clair, the history of all the colors.  Br...

Last week I said I would try something in blue and here it is, as a work in progress. It's a blue house,  based on a picture of an antique doll house I've kept in my collage notebook for years. As I sit making all those little dots I think about what comes next. I have to put something in the windows.  One of my guilty pleasures is peeking into windows--Arthur thinks I'm going to get arrested but it's too tempting to see how strangers live. So I should offer something in these windows for my fellow peekers. What to put in the windows of this house?  Maybe some of my own work, like a tiny version of the Bear and the Bison. I thought about some of the gorgeous mosaics at the 81st street station of the C train, right by the Museum of Natural History. Sometimes I get out there even if it's not my destination, just to look. ere's another whale. The Hall of Ocean Life is one of the most amazing spaces in the city--a full sized blue whale hanging from the ceiling.  Tha...