Monday, November 25, 2013

Hockney, Homemaker + Holiday Style

I've been up since 1:46 a.m.  Sleep is going to be elusive, so I put on my felted slippers, cranked up the thermostat and shuffled into the living room.

It's cold.  And dark.

The past 10 days have been full and satisfying.  I feel like I need to get the images and thoughts about what's been going on down here in this space.  It's less like a chore lately to come here and write.  I guess that's because I've taken the blog to a private-invitation-only status, so me and my family are not quite so exposed online and I have somewhat mastered the photo editing site I use (ahem, finally) for my collages.
Persimmon harvest + newly arranged living room
Our home is feeling really good right now.  I've been tidying up, purging periodicals and loose books, hanging art and rearranging furniture.  Somehow, this always brings me a little bit of inner peace.
I've got a confession to make.  I've kind of been on a book binge this week.  After all the touching and rearranging of Grady's bedroom bookshelves and perusing my dozens of magazines, I needed more.  I hit the local library and independent book store several times last week and even picked up my library book haul from the mobile librarian in Tomales.  Grady and Steve stopped by the new elementary school library to find out about their new after school family hour(s).  I just can't get enough of the printed word lately.
To help satisfy my love of letters, words & fonts, I attended a poetry letterpress workshop at iota press in Sebastopol this past Saturday.  Walking into that studio is like getting a fix.  Grady ended up having to go with me and I'm so glad he was there.  The workshop was about 4 hours long and he was my assistant.  Good thing, too, because he has really good, young eyeballs and helped me set the type for the poem I wanted to letterpress.  This poem was one that he wrote five years ago after getting a prompt from his former preschool director (who was teaching the kids about Langston Hughes) and was recently published online here.

It was very important for him to add his name in small italic type and put the age he was when he wrote it.  He is a little embarrassed by the poem, but I think he feels really proud of it now that he selected the font, set the type and used the Vandercook Press to print same.  I know I just absolutely love it and can't wait to gift it to friends and loved ones this holiday season.
The David Hockney exhibit at the de Young in San Francisco blew my mind.  Seriously, Hockney's 12 foot paintings of trees, landscapes and portraits of people were out of this world.  I wandered from room to room and was in awe of his prolific body of work.  My favorites were actually his portraits with pencil and white crayon, using the camera lucida technique, and were the very last images I saw before I wandered out of the museum.  I felt like I needed a nap after taking in all of that beauty and grandeur.  I was absolutely exhausted visually and physically.

I must take Grady back to see this exhibit.  When I got home and told him all about it, he shared that the best painting he has ever done is Forest (above middle) and asked if I would frame and hang it in our home.  He will love this show and appreciate the paintings done using an iPad, of all things.
1,000 hand-crocheted doilies using 100 different color pathways
Later that same evening, I met up with a fellow/former blogger, Amy (aka - The  Hip Homemaker) from Montana.  We met at the opening reception for artist, Lisa Solomon's show Sen at the Fouladi Project.
1,000 hand-drawn cranes
We joked about how awkward it was to be meeting and that it sort of felt like a blind date.  I was nervous before meeting up and she shared that she was too.

We ended up taking in all of Lisa's amazing pieces and then walking across the street to grab a cocktail and some yummy pizza.  It's weird when you meet someone that you kind of already know through their writing and sharing on a blog.  I mean, you don't really know them, but you definitely get a sense about a person.  My sense about Amy was spot-on.  She is a smart, witty woman in transition, she has two sweet kids and she has a desire to find out how things work and what makes people tick.

I feel honored to have met her and it gives me hope that this big bad world isn't so bad after all.  Kind people are out there.  You just have to take a step and you will most likely be met and accepted for who you are.  I can't wait to go to Montana one day and have a cup of coffee at her kitchen table and meet her little ones.  Yes, I just invited myself, Amy.  Let me know what I can bring. ;-)
Two Crabs or Four Crabs?
Dungeness crab season opened without a hitch this year and we shared our first two this weekend.  There is nothing like fresh crab.  We buy it live, boil it up and serve with hot melted butter.
He stole your grandpa's style, right?
Grady has a new holiday outfit and he is really happy with his look.  I picked up this bow tie for him at J.Crew and wasn't sure how it was going to fly with this guy because he has been super picky about what he wears and how his hair looks lately.  He put together this outfit on his own and asked me what I thought.  I love it.  What do you think?
This weekend was spent sharing meals with friends, watching movies, reading and planning Thanksgiving.  I had a lot of really good heart-to-heart talks with Grady, as we have been working on how we talk to each other these days.  His tone (and mine) need a readjustment every now and then.  We finally figured it all out and he asked if he could spend some of his own money to take me to get a frozen yogurt in town.

Just the two of us.

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