REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES

Last night I went to the Museum of Fine Arts with my niece, Ellie. We drove in, got a parking space right behind Wentworth (a major coup) and walked over behind the School for the Museum of Fine Arts. Outside the main entrance is a rhino sculpture done by Katherine Ward Lane Weems, a former student, c. 1937. This rhino, whose sisters flank the Harvard bio labs, was based on a female rhino in the Bronx Zoo, but with the measurements of the largest recorded specimen. This is a huge sculpture, which means the real rhino was YIKES!

After getting in, we started to look around and decided to go check out the modern art gallery. Modern is my favorite era so I was really looking forward to it. We were looking at works over by a Matisse painting, in front of which there were three twenty-somethings (top) discussing the model in the painting, Reclining Nude, 1925 (bottom). They were disgusted by how FAT she was! I was, and am still, astounded by this. They completely missed the point of the painting and sounded, well, STUPID!

The lovely and talented Ellie wanted to go and see her favorite RENOIR (Monet, i can't believe I wrote Monet!), so we trekked up to the 19th-century rooms to have a look-see. She says she could look at it forever, so here she is, frozen in time, looking at it forever! Neither Monet<>

After looking at everything we wanted to see inside, we went into the gift store, where Ellie purchased the poor person's art, postcards! I procured a copy of a photography book I was looking for, The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski. Not only am I trying to learn how to use my new camera and taking a lot of pictures, I'm reading about theory and looking at the work of others. It has been very interesting. Of course, looking at old work and the quality of the photos makes me want to learn how to use a film camera now. Oh well, as my friend Jill says, in for a penny, in for a pound!

The art doesn't end after you've exited the building. Among the pieces outside, there are two giant baby heads by Antonio Lopez Garcia that are so cool! I love these baby heads! They remind me of a certain little girl who lives in Middleboro.

And here we have a photo of the Zen garden which was closed by the time we got there. I had to sneak the camera through the fence while Ellie held the branches back to get this secret shot. I love the Zen garden; it's so peaceful even though it's in the middle of the bustling fenway.

Sidewalk graffiti for my sweetie. Hey, that rhymes! I sing this song to him quite often so I thought it was appropriate that I get this shot.

This is a photo of traffic going home on Route 3 south. I love all the movement and colors.

IT WAS A LOO-LOO!

So, over the weekend, we needed to replace the toilet in the cottage.

It had cracked all over one side and who knows how long ago it happened. What we thought was sweating was actually leaking.

Needless to say, the floor underneath was rotted too.

The outdoor workbench.

Jeff "helping" Ian tear out the old floor.

Ian putting in the new floor joists.

Jeff fashioning the new floor.

The new floor is in!

A support column added underneath, nice and strong!

We have a bowl!

We have a new, working, non-leaking toilet, thanks to Jeff and Ian. Toasting a job well done!

The linoleum will be going down sometime this week and the bathroom will be back!

RANDOMNITY

Some random photos from over the last week, a few tidbits of my day-to-day.

Sunday was the college graduation of my cousin, Hillary. At the party afterwards, my Auntie Sheila Darling was wanting to know about Ian's facial hair. What is that soul patch anyway? Rock 'n Roll!

On Thursday we went to a classic car show at Patriot Place in Foxboro. I couldn't believe how many really cool cars were there! This is a 1964 Plymouth Valiant Barracuda, hands down one of the coolest cars there. If I could have driven one away that night, this would have been it!
This is a fern growing INSIDE a cellar window of the building in which I work. There are also some kind of critters living in my suspended ceiling and there might be a gopher living in the wall. Fun place!

On Friday I went to visit my friend Jill, it was so nice to see her and all her crazy kids! She's just recently acquired 4 chickens and we were down checking out the pen when we discovered that one of them is probably a rooster! These lovely irises are from her yard and I thought they looked nice with my buddhas and Ian's photo.

Friday night was band practice for Colossus at the really cool home of Kendra and Eric. While the boys played and Kendra created, I went to see Angels and Demons. All I can say is wait for it to come out on dvd. After the movie, I suggested to Eric that it was a beautiful night and perfect for a fire, so he built one! Here's Ian keeping warm and listening as Eric regales us with stories of his job. Eric is one of the best and funniest story tellers EVER!

DECORDOVA

Last weekend we took a motorcycle ride out to the DeCordova Museum. They have an incredible sculpture garden, so cool that we didn't even make it inside!

This is the coolest ticket booth I've ever seen! You drive up to it, pay, and then park. Since we were on the bike and we get in free with the Museum Reciprocity program, I had to wait behind cars and walk up. The attendant said "I guess Plimoth Plantation qualifies as a museum." Philistine.

I love these sprawling pieces. Donut with Three Balls, by Fletcher Benton.

This piece, Butterfly Effect, is by Rick Brown, a professor at MassArt, my alma mater.

Ian and I are in love with weeping trees. My favorite is the weeping willow, he's rather enamored of the weeping beech, pictured here dwarfing him. The sculpture on the left is called Ence Pence and it's by Ursula von Rydingsvard. It reminds me of the sculptures on Easter Island.

We both love these Two Big Black Hearts by Jim Dine.

A detail from one of the hearts.

We both love this piece too. Manna by Tom Chapin

This is called Camera Man, by Mark Fredenburg. This is how I feel since I got my new camera!

The park is amazing and if you ever have the chance to get up there to see it, you should. It's in Lincoln, Mass, which is a beautiful town, and well worth the trip.

R A I N B O W

Always love to see the rainbows.

BONEYARDS

I am slightly obsessed with cemeteries. I love to walk through graveyards and read the headstones. I love the verses, the details, the confidence that they were going to heaven, back to god.

These pictures were taken in Mansfield and show what happens to all the lovely decorations that the living bestow upon the dead for the holidays. It was a pile of trash, not well hidden, full of wreaths, plastic flowers, stuffed animals, dead plants, and more than a few fast-food containers.









I've been interested in death rituals for a long time; the way we deal with death, our fear of it, and the afterlife. Personally, though I miss my loved ones who have died, I think it's the next great adventure. Or, it's nothingness, I can't decide. Fortunately, I don't have to decide, there is nothing I can do to stop it, so I've decided to embrace it. I just hope I don't have to embrace it for a long, long time. I'm having way too much fun here!

ROADSIDE SHRINES

Am I the only person who finds these roadside shrines a little over the top? I am fascinated by them, and yet I find them incredibly annoying. I can certainly empathize with the bereaved, but I feel this type of display is disrespectful to the dearly departed.

I'd really like to know what other folks think of this.

ALBANY VISITORS and TRICIA LEARNS TO SPIN

Last Friday I got an email from my cousin in Albany saying that friends of hers would be visiting the plantation and could they come up and see me in my wardrobe lair. Later that afternoon, Amy McCarthy came up with her two daughters, Kate (11) and Maddy (10). As there was an embroidery session going on, Tricia asked them if they'd like to sew on some of the paillettes (aka sequins). They were most enthusiastic and jumped right in!

Here we have Kate sewing on her first of several paillettes.

Next, Maddy takes over and is complimented by Tricia on her hand-eye coordination.

Here we have Amy taking a stab at it. They all did a great job.

This picture shows the paillettes that they collectively applied.

Here, the girls are checking out a new project by fiber-artist extraordinaire, Carli. It's an embroidered, stuffed sheep. Not fabric with embroidery on it, but a sheep constructed from embroidery stitches. Carli never ceases to amaze us with what she's created between sessions in the colonial wardrobe.

Earlier in the day, Tricia decided she wanted to see what it would be like to make the gilt sylke twist embroidery thread on a spinning wheel, the way it would probably have been done in the 17th century. Of course that meant she had to learn to spin, which she did in less than five minutes. Is there anything she can't do!?!?

Here she is practicing with plying two wool yarns.

Now she's wrapping one silk with another silk.

Spinning silk and gold together. Rumpelstiltskin?!

The finished hand-spun gilt sylke twist on a spool.

For more information on the Plimoth Embroidered Jacket project, visit

http://thistle-threads.com/blog/