artful hands

All manner of hands

at the MFA in Boston

 

ny ny : 53 project week 51

took a whirlwind trip

to ny ny

car train taxi

east side west side times square

art furniture photographs

lights moon lights

food friends love.

hello again new york

so good to see you after all this time.

inspiration

I was so honored this week to discover that one of my photos (you'll recognize it from the header of this blog) was the inspiration for a painting by a complete stranger.  The day after I opened my redbubble shop, my photograph September Sea was (amazingly) featured on their front page.

An artist from Germany,  Eckhard Besuden, saw my photograph and wrote to me.  He said it brought back memories of his brother, who died at the age of 16 but who loved the summer sea.  "He loved the summer waves and you have made a shot of just that summer sea with blue and yellow. That impressed me very much and touched my heart."  And so he re-envisioned the blue and yellow and created his own summer sea.

I've been so inspired by the amazing photographers and artists I've met here in blog-land and on flickr, and I'm so humbled that my work has touched someone else.  That's what it's all about.  Thank you!

You can find some of my work, and Eckhard's, along with thousands of other photographers, artists, writers, and creative souls, on redbubble.  Support your favorite photographer or artist by purchasing their work.  It puts beauty in your hands and dinner on our tables. xoxo

no red hat required

In just a few days my mother will turn 77, and today we spent the afternoon at the Fuller Craft Museum, admiring the dynamic quilt exhibit and the other handcrafted pieces -- furniture, glass, pottery, textiles. We had lunch in the Cafe surrounded by a group of Red Hat ladies, and Mom pondered whether she would ever want to join a group like that. According to the Red Hat website, they "enjoy life to the fullest"... and they do "exactly what they wish to do." I would say Mom's got all that covered already.

I took this photo of her at the museum today, and I think it embodies exactly who she is -- leaning in to take a closer look, curious about life, surrounding herself with beautiful things, and strong and steady, even though now she may need a cane to help her along the way. Happy birthday and much much love, Mom!

return of the normandy milkmaid

Great-grandpa Chester Loomis' Normandy Milkmaid (that I wrote about in my earlier post) is back up for sale on ebay, this time with a starting bid of $50,000! So, check under the couch cushions and in you car cup holder for some extra change, and we'll all chip in together....!

You can see the listing here.

recent chester loomis auction

There is a Chester Loomis painting listed on ebay at the moment -- it looks like one of the small studies he did in his leisure time.

I contacted the seller with a question, and he said he bought it at an estate auction in Frederick, Maryland this November, where seven or eight of Chester's paintings were up for sale. I checked out the auctioneer's website, and to my surprise there was one of the paintings I seem to remember hanging in Ruxton -- "Normandy Milkmaid." It was painted in the 1880s when he lived in France. I guess it was sold, along with a number of other paintings, when Grandma's house was sold, back in the late 1970s? Or could it have been at Uncle Jack's?


The other paintings in the group are listed on the Trout Auctioneer's web page if you scroll down a bit, and additional images can be seen here. Here are several more that I remember -- "Capri Girl," and a study for a stained glass window for the Presbyterian Church in Englewood, New Jersey, where Chester and Sara Dana lived:



While it's lovely to know that our great-grandpa's work is still being bought and appreciated, it's hard to see a part of our family history up for sale. But maybe that's a delayed reaction, since the paintings were originally sold off over 20 years ago. I don't know. Do you all remember these paintings or am I mixing them up with some of the studies and prints I have in his sketchbooks? What do you think?

artistic inspiration

My cousin Pam is one of the dedicated followers of this blog, and also a regular commenter (thanks Pam!) When I was 12 years old she came to spend the summer with us and work in my parent's restaurant, and I developed an instant girl-crush on my funny, pretty, quirky older cousin. I wanted to BE her -- she was so cool, she even looked good in the brown waitress outfit she had to wear to work. And when she caught me smoking upstairs in our 100+ year old house, she managed to convince me it was a stupid idea without making me feel stupid. How did she do that? A gift, I think. She also wrote with these really fantastic Lindy pens that I can't seem to find anymore, but that's another story.

So it was really amazing when Pam said that one of my photos inspired her to paint -- Pam is a talented artist and illustrator. She had gotten her inspiration from a photo I took of the sky over Barnstable Harbor -- one of the first photos I took when I bought my first camera last winter. I get inspiration in so many surprising ways, and I'm glad I could inspire someone else! Here are the photo and resulting painting. As Pam would say -- yay!

Click the image for a larger view

chester loomis images on flickr

Today I posted a set of Chester Loomis illustrations on flickr. They're the same images that I used to create the set of notecards that I gave as Christmas gifts a few years back. Several of you have asked for more cards, but with these images you can do-it-yourself!

Most of the images are from his alphabet book, but others are preliminary sketches for his 1892 edition of Mother Goose.

For more info and other images, you can also visit my Chester Loomis page or search his name on this blog using the search box at the top of the page.

westward ho! part 2

So on day 2 of my trip to western Mass, I headed out on Route 9 and drove to the northwest corner of the state to visit Mass MOCA, the museum of contemporary art in North Adams that is housed in amazing old manufacturing and industrial buildings. Definitely worth the trip if you're in the area. I was as intrigued by the buildings themselves as I was by the art, as you will see from the photos. I decided in the spirit of creative expression to take a few self-portraits in some of the reflective surfaces around the building. Silly.