Happy Thanksgiving

I know the post is a day early, but I wanted to get it in before I disconnect from the world. The family and I are headed up to Potic Cottage with a couple of good friends for our Thanksgiving weekend. With tomorrow's soup to nuts dinner already ordered from Black Horse Farms, we are all set for some much needed downtime. It won't all be naps by the fireplace, however. With next week's show already framed and ready to go, I've packed up the paints, planning to work on a portrait of Modernemama's house, as well as a painting for The Book About Death show in Brazil.

It's also a good time to reflect on all the blessings I have been given throughout my life. I am incredibly thankful and look to give back as much as I have been given.

Rosalyn Drexler

A couple of years ago, PaceWildenstein Gallery had a Rosalyn Drexler collage show. The graphic images mixed painterly figures with expressionistic text, and the effect is electric. Drexler, working at the height of the Pop art movement, is also an accomplished playwright and novelist and gives new meaning to the inclusion of text in visual art.

Big Girls

What happens when girls as big as Godzilla take over the earth? You'd better watch out! The first book I ever wrote was a novella called Searching for Moon Girl. Based on a series of images I created, this modern-day Alice in Wonderland is a surreal, episodic journey where a ten-year-old girl discovers herself. Writing the book was a fun journey for me too; with a cast of talking insects and seven-foot-tall big girls, it helped me explore writing a fantasy novel for young readers. More recently it's been great to see some of those images framed and ready for the Ripe Art exhibition in two weeks.

Our Crew

The blogging crew, Jane of Modernemama and 'The Guy', Heidi of Faboolosity and her guy, and of course James and myself, met up last night at Crew, a charming restaurant in Huntington Harbor that had the ambience of a yacht club. After an opening round of their infamous crab balls, which inspired a few anatomical quips, we sat down to a tasting menu and a lively conversation.

Verace: The Punchlist

For those of you who have ever done an architectural project, you know the joy of looking at the final punchlist. Verace, now in its final stages, is at that point, with the lighting and interior finishes in place. I love the variety of textures, with punches of color and light articulating the spaces, even in the rest rooms.

Captree Progress

Progress on the Captree project continues. The family compound of three beachfront houses are now in different phases of framing. One project has a rough hewn cedar shingle roof just completed, while the others are getting ready for final framing and shingling.

Mel Pekarsky: Desert Series

Walking the line between abstract and realistic, artist Mel Pekarsky's series of desert paintings, on exhibition now at SUNY Stony Brook's gallery, offer a surprising amount of interpretation. Like a giant rorschach test, the shapes and textures of the landscape take on an associative quality--- that looks like a groundhog, it reminds me of war, the black and white images feel dry; I loved eavesdropping on the conversations around me.