Prom goers, 2012On to the week. Prom, as usual was great. The kids were excited and glamorous—with all of us drab stringers, happily snapping pictures and wishing them well. From our report, it was the best prom ever…loving the dining out, loving the limo ride, loving the picture taking. The girls were beautiful with Kyra in purple and Elly in gold. Kyra had a wonderful hair design with feathers. Elly posed with her hawk who thankfully wasnt grumpy—just confused with who this glittering creature was that came to get him.

Alex and Sevi were gentlemen (with a little reminding)… and all was good. We went to the Rongo to hear Long John and the Tights and mix it up with our friends from around here…old time music afficiandos who turn out for LJ and Tights. A quiet weekend for all of us. Just some shopping, some groceries and a nice chance to just be in the moment.

This week promises all sorts of things from work and project completion to Farmers Market needle moving. There is hope to do a project with the Farmers Market and the community build this summer at Grassroots, so I need to honcho this…or get some help with someone else honchoing it…Perhaps a glorious, eccentric Market Manager office with a bulletin board, a place to hold a Gott cooler for water, a clock, a brochure rack, and a place to sell our bags and do the food stamp/chit exchange. I want it to be really fun and perhaps be a campanile with awnings? a two storied lemonade stand? I want weathervanes and whirlie gigs. You get the idea. Now, I just need to muscle the people to make it happen. Time is awasting.

Had a good chat with Kitty. She is in the throes of final projects— and she is busy signing up for classes for next semester, and putting her plans in place for the summer. She will be with us mid May until the end. And then she has May> August in NYC to study sewing, draping and pattern design at FIT with her weekends working for the Governor’s Island installation of the Hot Glass Show with the Museum of Glass. This will be really electric for her…and then she starts mid August for a few weeks to help catalog costumes at Smith College with her wonderful teacher. All in all, reinforcing her path of costume design…and I think it will be a remarkable time of learning and growing.

As you know, Alex is to be Ike Skidmore in Oklahoma along with piano lessons and working for me doing social networking and brochure distribution for the Farmers Market. It is going to be a fast slide from the end of school to the beginning of college. And, as I have not mentioned it, Alex has chosen Hofstra as his college. He got into every school he applied to…and with the knowledge of his learning issues combined with his desire to delve into music composition as soon as possible, Hofstra will give him that along with access to the city, access to prime internships, and a supportive learning environment. I think it will be great.

On to the paying work.

Madhubani collectionHere is a collection of Madhubani illustration to cut through the grey day and burn some color into the back of our brains. Don’t you love the line work to the left with the flat hits of red in the background and the smattering of yellow in the detail. The black and tones of grey pulled out of the line work is so lacy and beautiful and can really stand up to the solid hit of red in the background. Totally inspiring. Now, the snakeman to the right, second image! With the floaty happy bubbleheads, the inverted lotus/loti and the waves to suggest either the wind blowing or the water flowing. And the white wiggly pattern juxtaposed against the black and white heavy dot patter that is either a snake or a boat or a mat that the god and goddess are sitting on. Again, more crazy fish and turtles just for fun. These artists should have been paid by the line as they would become very rich. In my search, I disovered a wonderful blog, A Journey Around My Skull with an entry authored by Will Schofield “Riding the Roller Coaster with Ganga Devi” (February 22, 2010). Schofield shows us and speaks to work from a remarkable Madhubani painter, Ganga Devi (1928-1991) with her interpretations of the Madhubani tradition which then stretched to be interpreting the world as Devi saw it. She painted rollercoasters, ticket booths and national flags. Take a look. Her work is extrordinary technically and as an eastern vision of our crazy western life. Another nod to Will Schofield who links to an amazing posting of Folk Art Books from india….I am crazy with jealousy over the works he was sent by Tara Books….

Take a look.

Alex is off to sing this evening. Rob is in..but the next few nights will be out with Museum business. I think tonight I will make dinner and some cupcakes for the work team. They have had modest lunches (leftovers) for the past few days and I havent done anything for them that is nice. So cupcakes and some new soup would be good.

There is a ton of publication work to do here. I am catching up slowly. Had a nice chat with Joe Sepi at Pioneer who (angel) is going to test my valentine with a series of foils (I wanted copper…he suggested others) so I can get it done. He said we would see it early next week. I need to get the photo stuff moving for the 3x3 article. I need more stuff added to the website to enliven that work too. Seems stale and old.

Its cold here. The cats have all found their hot spots on the floors and have not moved. Shady is odd as she wants to protect me in my office, but hates the plastic surround that is there to keep the dust from moving in the new space. She tentatively steps through the airlocks, painfully looking back at me as if to chide me for forcing her to pursue this uncomfortable and odd labyrith. The new bathroom and room have been defined by uprights today…and there is no abstraction to the new spaces. All seems pretty real and realized. This one is a big change with relatively small moves.