What a week! Did you have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday? I spent mine making an east coast circuit, from brisk walks and bouillabaisse in Boston; to a cozy night in Middletown with three absurdly cute dogs (Georgie picture above), Julia Child's brioche pecan sticky buns, and holiday decor with feathers and shells as only Wendy can do; to western Connecticut for Wii DanceDanceRevolution2 by the lake, Karen's Ridiculous Feast of Abundance (where guests beg for mercy around the cheese course), and then back to LA. These illustrations by my mother-in-law were one of my favorite finds of the trip. As a senior in high school in 1966, she illustrated drawings of each of her classmates for the yearbook, which appeared on their senior page (along with photos, favorite memories and most embarrassing moments). I love how their messages run across the image, and remind me of Alyson Fox and Olivia Jeffries. That brown ink!
We just returned from a glorious holiday weekend to Winthrop, Washington (pop. 349) where we visited my sister-in-law, her husband and my adored nieces at their homestead. There are many things I look forward to about our annual visit: the slow pace of small town life; not opening my computer or having need for money; staying at their beautiful cabin in the woods (you can too!); gathering around the wood stove in the evening; Sarah's delicious homemade meals; hearing about adventures from the smokejumper base; art projects and snuggling and story time and puzzles and monkey bars with the girls, who are growing up in an environment best captured by Laura Ingalls Wilder; walks by the river; the veritable Noah's ark of animals (chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, deer, cows, fish and herons have all made appearances at one time or another); rainbow sunsets; the standard daily outfit that includes both muck boots and a tutu; jumping on the trampoline; the hand painted mural of local mountains on the side of the general store.
One of my favorite parts about our trips out there is learning a heap of new skills and information. This time: thinning out (is that the most delicate way of putting it?) their flock of chickens and ducks for the winter; felling a tree and using a chainsaw for the first time; employing the hydraulic splitter; lessons in stacking firewood; new recipes for apple sauce and oatmeal.
When we were cutting down trees, Daren told me about the disappearing practice of using horses to drag logs out of the forest, instead of diesel trucks that destroy the environment (see the above video). "We've gotten too efficient," says Daren. It many ways, I agree.
...included a screening of "A Miracle in Milan" and "Umberto D." The latter is too heartbreaking to talk about. The former is a very gentle and complex meditation on poverty, and should be required viewing for the Occupy Wall Street Movement (does anyone know if there is a film series there in the park?) and its critics. It begins with a baby found in a cabbage patch and ends with a group of disenfranchised Milanese flying on broomsticks. I found this essay by director Vittorio de Sica illuminating. Especially this part:
[A Miracle in Milan's] content is humanist, but its inspiration, the climate in which the characters evolve their way of thinking and behaving, and their very fate itself, is more closely related to the legends of the North, to Andersen for example, than to the reality of our present-day Latin world. Here is no hymn in praise of poverty—as I read somewhere to my horror—nor any condemnation of riches...This is a fable, slightly wistful perhaps, but quietly optimistic within its poetic framework; if I may be allowed to give it such a name. Men and angels are to be found here, living on good terms together...Finally—to give life to this film of mine, I tried to find the meaning of a little word that likes to hide everywhere; it is goodness. I beg you to tell me if you find it here in these images, if you recognize it at least here and there.
While at the Hammer Museum we witnessed the painting over of Linn Meyers' labor-intensive exhibit (each swirl is composed of thousands of tiny lines) which closed this weekend. All of that work (14 hours a day for 12 days!), in minutes, vanished and hidden under a layer of white paint!
And then, a few days in San Diego with dear cousins, a hike to Torrey Pines, a soak in a hot tub and homemade oatmeal cookies. Genevieve, who is 7 years-old, has a very sophisticated sense of color and pattern. She whipped up an apron and headband. The collages are especially dear. They are made on old envelopes that my mother-in-law gave her niece Tammy (and Genevieve's mother) when she was a little girl in Ohio. Tammy told me that, unlike her daughter, she was very conservative with and protective of her craft supplies, hoarding them and never using the special stuff. Which means now, 30 years later, her daughter has found a new use for them and blazes through the supply with abandon. Don't you remember that feeling of having "special paper"? Maybe the world can be divided into those who use and those who hoard it. I am definitely a hoarder. Which one are you?
Perhaps it was because our road trip was such a frenzy of natural beauty and roadside BBQ shacks that by the time we arrived at Little America in Flagstaff the hotel seemed like a palace of design. I'd like to think it's not just because my senses had be flooded with mountain vistas and red checkered tablecloths that I noticed, and fell in love with, the (top to bottom) carpet patterns, old prints, chandeliers, vintage maps, room decor, bedspread and gauzy curtains hiding the Ponderosa pine forest. All this at 1980s prices. Amanda told me grand stories about the founding of Little America: how it was created as a family destination off of major highways where you could enjoy all of the comforts of home -- a turkey dinner, a comfortable bed, friendly American hospitality. Unfortunately there is a dearth of information on this totally charming chain (I even went to the gift shop and asked if there was a coffee table book on the history of the hotel and they looked at me like I was crazy). After our stay, I considered only vacationing in cities with Little America hotels. It is a national treasure.
Yesterday, to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, we hiked Topanga Canyon's Eagle Rock. Above: I love the choice of Gothic stencils for this red coal can at the ranger's station; the careful vinyl letters on the mailbox; the seal of the peace offers (featuring a ship, a bear, a red-caped woman) and here is Eagle Rock itself. The friendly ranger told us about a helicopter rescue from the face of the rock a few days before, which you can watch on youtube here (things get interesting around minute 3:30). Eek!
This weekend: Santa Monica Farmer's Market, Venice's Abbott Kinney, Eggslut, Milk's Rocky Road ice cream sandwich, a Truffaut double feature at the New Beverly Cinema -- "The Soft Skin" with the beguilingly beautiful Françoise Dorléac who died tragically young. And lusting after wallpaper by CFA Voysey (pictured in Design*Sponge at Home -- above, Apothecary's Garden and Fool's Parsley). Also read a bit about the quite amazing snowshoe hare who, in the winter, grows a tremendous amount of fur on its splayed paws creating little snowshoes with which to skim the snow (I have never rooted so enthusiastically for a preyed upon rabbit).
What a relief to welcome the first day of autumn-- the fall semester, sharp new pencils, soup. During our drive across country we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park. In addition to the very autumnal colors on display, my favorite part was an exhibit at the park's modest museum. At every turn, there's a reminder admonishing the removal of even a nugget of petrified wood. The letters above come from remorseful thieves. "Nothing in my life has gone right," since I stole the wood, says one letter. The other: "My life has been totally destroyed since we've been back from vacation." I couldn't help but notice they were written in the fall, before the year's end. Something about the season and making things right...
Looking at these colors I was reminded of a Fyodor Tyutchev poem I studied long ago:
At autumn's beginning There is a short, but wondrous time When days seem made of crystal And evenings are radiant…
During our cross-country trip I happened to catch two phenomenal exhibitions at SITE Santa Fe. The first, pictured above, is Suzanne Bocanegra'sAll the Petals series. These works deconstruct 17th century paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Bocanegra takes apart, petal by petal, all of the flowers in Brueghel's Sense of Smell and Flowers in a Blue Vase. (I found it useful to see the original painting). It is interesting to see the works set against a white background, and from a distance. I also appreciated a glimpse into her process seen here. And Pae White's Material Matters, in which she takes everyday objects like a thrift store decoration or crumpled up tin foil and transforms them into gigantic tapestries, was also terrific.
As is my custom I rifled thorough the last year of snaps for a photo of Andrew's wedding ring-- in celebration of our two year anniversary today-- and this came up. I don't post an image of a captured cutthroat trout from our flyfishing expedition lightly (as my eyes dart to the mention of Martha Stewart on my right) and yet this seems to convey what our love has been about this year: rolling up our sleeves, getting our hands dirty and bringing to these experiences love, curiosity and respect. Our beloved friends-- so many present on our wedding day-- constantly model how to do this. Friends like Alex (pictured above), a masterful angler who lured this beautiful fish from the water with such an arresting grace and calm and sensitivity that the current nearly swept me away.
As you may have surmised we finally landed in Los Angeles after an epic and unforgettable road trip. And now, I find myself in a welcoming new studio embedded in the side of a steep canyon. The photo on the left is the sunset in Harrisburg on August 15, when we set out on our trip from Philadelphia. And on the right, the sunset in LA last night, after a Sunday concert at LACMA. And the new blog header is from the mountains of Northern New Mexico. A bit of that adventure tomorrow...
