Thursday, May 30, 2013

What would it be like...

to sit in a chair and read a book? I know people who do that. Sit. For hours at a time, reading. I envy that, yet I can't seem to get myself into that chair. I read in bed before I go to sleep, or while I'm eating lunch or breakfast. If I have to wait for Ray somewhere I read. I have most books on my Kindle these days and I can read them on my phone as well, so I always have my book with me, but still it takes months, sometimes, to get through a long one. I have been working on The Woman in White for at least a month now. It is very good—I am just reading it very slowly. I think I am doing too many other things. I think I need to make time to sit and read.

The house is bathed in dust and the eery plastic hanging in the hallway has become part of the decor, but it doesn't keep the dust out of the rest of the house. The bathroom remodeling continues. No more ugly surprises. It is moving along smoothly. The old wall is out, the new wall is in. The sheetrocker finished up today. This weekend Ray and I will paint, then next week the floor goes in and the sinks and cabinets.


 I have not spent much time in the studio. I need to stay around the house to answer questions when the workmen have them. Besides, I need to be at my computer gathering and organizing the registrations and photos for the Open Studio tour. I am the registrar. The registered artists are to send me three photos of their work to be used on the web site, in the catalog and for publicity. There are clear instructions for what we need. Artists are terrible at this. Terrible. They do not name their photos as instructed. They do not send them in the correct size or resolution. This is all spelled out for them. They ignore the directions. They do not know how to attach a file to an email. It takes hours to rename and resize and resave all those photos. My patience grows thin, but there is a small reward when I open a photo of something exquisitely beautiful and I can almost forgive someone who makes something so gratifying for being a technology illiterate—almost. They really need to learn to do this if they want to be in shows or have their work published online.

Last week I presented the last Art Literacy lesson for the year at Sofia's school. It has been a good experience and I have learned a lot, especially about the limits of a Kindergartner's attention span and their vast range of competency with art materials and tools. Last week's lesson was on Louise Nevelson, who is really a favorite of mine. The art project was a wall sculpture made from wood pieces and found objects. The kids chose their objects, arranged them on a small piece of cardboard and glued them in place. I brought the pieces home and spray-painted them all silver.

They turned out great.

Here is a photo of one of Nevelson's sculptures:


The kids' work really captured the essence of the artist, I think.

So that is all part of why I am not getting much reading done. The days are full. So, now I shall turn off the computer and go off to bed and I may get in 15 minutes of The Woman in White before I am out.

7 comments:

  1. I'm sending good wishes for a smooth and successful conclusion to your remodel. I found that I could not do any creative work because of the dust, noise and distractions. So there has not been any work done on my house for several years. It is way past time. I'll have to grit my teeth and endure. Or, I could sit and read a book, maybe on the front porch?

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  2. I know EXACTLY what you mean about artists not following submission instructions!

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  3. Love that photo of the children's work. Looks like a range of futuristic cities.
    Sandy in the UK

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  4. I can sympathize with your plight as registrar. I've never done that, but I did put together a BIG memory book for someone that consisted of photos from lots of people - most not really usable the way they came - and long, long shaggy dog stories that had to be edited down to a couple of sentences so they would fit. It took slightly less than forever. :-)

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  5. And don't forget the deadbeat artists who are ignoring the deadlines to register, that require you to remind them.... all because they are busy reorganizing their studios in anticipation of endless creative moments and masterpieces. This is all due to the promise of warm, dry weather, allowing the contractors to paint and the construction on said deadbeat artist's condo being concluded by...dare we dream (and believe them) this weekend?! (Oh and I agree about envying the sitting,reading friends. Maybe there will be a hot weekend in July to do just that.)

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  6. love the Louise pieces! those kids are geniuses! good luck with finding time to read....I struggle too...

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  7. Reading in a chair - how DO people manage that? But sometimes I manage to get to bed a bit earlier and fit in extra reading that way. It takes me back to those carefree days of youth, when reading (including in bed on Saturday morning) was the main leisure activity - and there was so much leisure time....

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