The Zipper at Ulysses Fair, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg NY, 2013
I quote Rob Cassetti. He is so right. As usual, he is always right. But we do, we live in a place people go on vacation. It is this time of the year that points to that truth...so I wanted just to reiterate it.
It is the end of summer. The end of platters of corn, bowls of peaches and big lovely thick slices of tomatoes to share with a tableful of family as next week is packing and preparing for the next semester--the distance from here to Christmas. It is the end of big breakfasts, long sunsets on the porch with ideas, laughs and questions. It is the end of deep, bone resting sleep--of fan-driven dreams and the sound of screech owls in the middle of the night. It is the end of late day Fridays on the deck at Two Goats, meeting new people, laughing at the crazy brides enjoying their last hurrah before "tying the knot". It is our vacation stay cation from May until next weekend. It is the end of my waking my sleeping ones, to get to work five minutes late but with conversations of music, the gleam on the corn stalks, looking for hawks, orioles, goldfinches and counting the days that the hay has dried. The summer is a seemingly golden ribbon of days and nights--all one hundred days of it--and as it is transitioning to another season....it seems to short, too sweet and too extraordinary.
Next weekend begins the rush from now to Christmas. We drop our students off at Hofstra and Hampshire with tasks surrounding that and a business meeting for Rob in NYC. The home team are both ready to get back to college and all that it entails. Kitty spent the last week on Martha's Vineyard with friends. Alex and I had some quality time---some of it very sad, some happy. We had a photo "shoot" together at the Ulysses Fair with his new lens and my new camera. Rob recommended I look at the Canon EOS-M when Amazon was running an amazing promotion ($299. for the body and pancake lens ( fixed 22mm). I jumped as the price was great and I was tired of getting fuzzy pictures from my collection of point and shoots that I have. I have been delighted as this is a small, mirrorless camera with all the features of the big, grown up SLR cameras without the size or gravitas they have. So, I can carrry it in my pocket and get great shots.
Here are some shots from our weekend at Sagamore (with said camera)>>
Here are some shots from Alex and my visit to the Ulsses Fair>>
The Ulysses Fair was fabulous. The color, the lights, the sheer small townieness was just what the doctor ordered. There was a free animal show with a brassy, confident lady in red with sparkles making her poodles and ponies do little crazy things while running around a ring. I loved it. And there were harnesses that were like big kid Jolly Jumpers that you could wear and jump on a big trampoline--and get flung up in the air. I loved watching these limber kids flip and jump--often doing tricks as their parents shouted out their favorites for the kid to try. Wonderful. The graphics and hand lettering was sublime.
The Wednesday of the first week of September, I have an unexpected treat. I am flying out to Cedar City Utah to speak to art/design/illustration students at Southern Utah University. I will fly out Wednesday and be picked up in Las Vegas (!) and we will drive through the desert. WOW! and then have a day with the students etc. Thursday. I will talk in the evening. I will be giving them a run through of many of the bodies of work I do and talk about how I get my work "out there". Its an hour...so not much time...but I am crunching on what to show, what to save. I want to make it a bit more personal than the presentations we had in graduate school as I always wanted to know a bit more about the person, his/her life/ their studio/ what they do for fun etc. I will have a day to rubberneck in Las Vegas--and take pictures (woot!), and then back home. I got a room in Las Vegas via Hotwire (shopping for five stars and above)--and ended up with a room at the Aria (near Bellagio) for a bit over $100 a night. I figure if I am going to be in Las Vegas I should try to go towards the high end versus the middle to cheap....just to see more of the reality TV version of this town.
I have to go visit the big client in the middle of September, so I will need to really get my travel game on.
Gotta go. There is apple/peach sauce to process to keep it fresh and keep the fruit flies away. Rob is busy cutting the hedges--with his cuban hat on and long sleeves.
more sooner versus....later.