I took a photo of this drawing over the weekend in anticipation of making a grand entry today titled “new baby and new year’s goals,” but after a trip to the emergency room last night the new baby part isn’t true anymore. I thought after 15 weeks of nausea and daily afternoon naps I was ready to make some big announcements– and so I did let the women at church know I was pregnant yesterday when I taught our Relief Society class. Bummer.

I had even gotten used to the idea of having 4 kids, busily making plans and lists of things I want to get done before the new arrival. I’ve been a woman on a mission and really excited about all the nesting I’ve got started around here.

So, though I’m not keeping the baby, I’m keeping the nesting and rearranging, the new year’s goals.

And that’s where the drawing above comes in. It’s Brenna at about 18 months. Her first word was duck and she carried that Beanie Buddy around everywhere. I loved her crazy hair… so I stood her in front of Seasame Street one morning and got busy. Then Jonah was born, we moved, and this has been tucked in a drawer ever since. I feel too guilty framing it and hanging it because I have two more kids now– kids who I have made no art about. So, I will make drawing/ paintings of the boys before Logan turns 2 in July. And I’m propping this up on my mantel shelf as a constant reminder.

Also in the works is a complete overhaul of the bedrooms. I already started by buying Brenna a new bed quilt (big step BUYING something and not feeling like a total loser for not MAKING it myself), making bedside tables for our room, and making my first light, airy Roman shade for our bedroom window. I have plans to buy this Denyse Schmidt quilt for our room, frame and hang my new Karl Blossfedlt prints, and make some Big Zig quilts for the boys. The horribly ugly wall paper in the kid’s room was scraped and scraped on Saturday and I acquired a new toy-box-bench for $25 from a nearby antique store. I have been a woman on a mission and have quite a momentum going.

Hopefully I can fill my time with kids I love, a husband who loves me, and we can work together on making our house a special place that showcases what we love and who we are… and that will help me cope with this sad, sad, sadness…

Here are 2 more of my Karl Blossfeldt prints that I won on eBay. My favorites keep going for over $100, which is a little out of my price range, but I got these two for $9.99! How can ya beat that?!

Karl Blossfeldt. Why had I not heard of him before?!?

I just found some photogravures of his on e-Bay (if you’re reading this DO NOT bid on them). My breath is taken away. Literally. I am gasping and wheezing and getting dizzy with the utter amazement…

They’re seedpods. SEEDPODS do you hear? I’m obsessed with drawing and collecting these things, and here they are REAL ART– and etchings none the less. I will be dreaming of them… for a long time. I will have some on my walls. You mark my words. They speak to me…

UPDATE: Barry bid and won a couple of prints the other night. They are photogravures printed from copper plates, the flower bud one in 1942 and the stem in 1929. I’ve still got my eye on some more. My first real art investments!

So, not only did I get to go to a workshop with Denyse Schmidt, I got to go to Manhattan to look at museums!

After wandering to find a parking spot at the train station for like 20 minutes, I finally figured out where to park, bought my ticket and boarded the train. People in big crowds like that are interesting– keeping to themselves for the most part, almost pretending they are alone. But, one “bless you” when someone sneezes, or a chuckle at a jabbering toddler can really break the ice and then there’s a warmth and friednliness– realization of “Oh yeah, we’re all people here huh?”

I braved a block in Harlem where I was OBVIOUSLY out of place, made it to the subway station, got off at Lexington and 51st, walked a few blocks to 53rd, and went into the Museum of Modern Art. I had a very expensive sandwich and water, then walked around for 4 or 5 hours.

Here are my feet while I rested on a bench and looked at the sculpture garden. Boy did I get tired– my bag was too heavey…

HIGHLIGHTS:
I just loved seeing REAL paintings and not just pictures in a books.

I never had really got it that Jasper John’s paintings were encaustic (melted wax) over newspaper collage. They were such a cool texture and really neat to see in real life.

I fell in love with Mondrian. His paintings always seemed so flat and too mechanical, but in real life they were paint on canvas. There were subtleties that were just beautiful and they had a calming affect. Never got that from a book.

The architecture and design room was fun. They had the first Apple SE and a new Imac, a Necchi sewing machine, cool pottery, a Vespa motor scooter.

I’ve never been big on Impressionism, but Monet’s Water Lilies was so big (like 50 feet long) and so beautifully textured it was overwhelming.

I’ve always loved Abstract Expressionism. I still love Mark Rothko’s color field paintings, but was VERY disappointed that there was only one Helen Frankenthaler.

This is Jacob’s Ladder. She did her paintings on unprimed canvas with really thin oil paint calling her technique “soak stain painting.” The colors and layers and soft edges are the perfect feminine anthithesis to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings.

BUMMERS:
The Print and Illustrated Books gallery was closed for the installation of an exhibit of etchings. (I was a Printmaker in college, so this made me want to cry.) I could see some on the far wall that looked like they were on hand dyed paper… oh the delicate lines and texture of prints. Sad, sad, sad, I didn’t get to see any.

There weren’t enough women artists!

By the time I was done at the MoMA my body hurt ALL OVER. I was SOOO tired, but went next door to the American Folk Art Museum anyway. I was really excited about the comparison of art as defined by the art world (at the MoMA) with the self taught, annonymous everyday things people create to make their lives beautiful. I think I was just too tired to enjoy it, because I was a little disappointed in the Folk Art Museum. I was hoping for it to be more domestic and feminine, I guess– with more textiles and quilts. The special “Obsessive Drawing” exhibit was pretty cool.

Anyway, I somehow moved my aching, tired, body back to the subway, back on the train, got something to eat, got back to my hotel, and fell asleep at about 7:30. I was beat!

Before I went I was expecting that I would have this feeling of longing, of missing out and really wanting to be part of this “art world,” but suprisingly I felt just the opposite. I have made some deliberate decisions and have chosen that this time in my life, right now, I need to be a wife and mother. I need to serve at church. I left feeling so peaceful and satisfied that I am doing the perfect thing for me. Even if I won’t ever have a painting hanging in the MoMA. That made the trip worth it. I think every mom needs a weekend ALL to herself once in a while. I think I’ll suggest once a year…