Paper and Threads

I was invited to hand applique a subway mosaic square for the 2011 Raffle Quilt for the Empire Quilt Guild in Manhattan.  I chose a photo that I really liked only to find out that it was a mosaic of King's College which later became Columbia University.  We are a Columbia family - with 6 undergraduate and graduate degrees among my husband and children.  I went down to the Chambers Street IRT station to see and photograph these old platform mosaics and then sketched and painted one as I planned my quilt applique square.

My husband and I went to the James Ensor exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art on Saturday.  I knew very little about the artist, and enjoyed seeing his paintings.  But of course his sketchbook and drawings were the highlight for me.  Since the sun was out, and we were so tired of daily rain, we sat in the Sculpture Garden where I sketched Picasso's She Goat and my husband did the Saturday NY Times crossword puzzle.

Today I retired, almost exactly 40 years after I graduated from medical school.  During that time I worked at the University of Chicago, The University of California at San Diego, The University of Texas in San Antonio, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  In those 40 years, the number of women increased from <10% of each medical school class to slightly more than 50% of each class.  There was no day care when my first child was born, and 3 year olds were only "supposed" to be away from their mothers and in nursery school two mornings each week.  I loved my career, but my greatest joy was my 3 children and now my grandchildren.  I feel fortunate that I have so many active interests that I will never be bored.  I sketched my work suit from today to my bathing suit for the beach on Thursday!

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Vicky gave me permission to paint her lovely photo of a rosebud, and we've had so many straight days of rain, I needed to brighten the day with a little yellow.

This week my two oldest grandchildren came to spend the night and Sydney brought 6 beautiful peonies.  While she was using her new paints, I sat with her at the table and painted the peonies - one of my very favorite flowers.

After dinner and before bed we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and after they went to bed, I painted Harry and Hedwig.  I had book 1 for several years but waited to read it until I had a grandchild old enough to read it at the same time.  For the past month my daughter read it with Henry and promised him the movie when they were done.  We loved it - although Henry thought the end was really scary.  On to the second book in the Harry Potter series over the next month.

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Jane, Kathleen, Peg and I were supposed to meet at the Central Park Zoo but torrential rains forced us inside.  I started in the Greek and Roman galleries at the Met and sketched this statue from the bench conveniently placed behind it.

 I then wanted a modern counterpart on the facing page and remembered one of the "Grunge designs" in the 1990s Gallery of the exhibit "The Model as Muse."  She had the same "flippy" skirt in the modern version.

Both of these pages were done in watercolor pencils. 

Peg and Kathleen sketched in the Oceanic Galleries while Jane and I went to the Fashion exhibit and then we met in the Petrie Sculpture Court to talk and exchange sketchbooks.  I'm enjoying getting to know these art buddies that I met in Danny Gregory's Visual Journaling class last Fall.  Hopefully next month we will get to the Zoo.

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Our youngest Grandchild spent the weekend with us in New York City - we don't see her nearly enough, so it was our first opportunity to see her walking.  On Saturday morning her sneakers and my son's sneakers were next to each other, requiring a quick sketch and journal page.

She played wonderfully by herself when all of her cousins weren't surrounding her in a whirlwind.  The wooden peg set that we bought in Zurich and that her father loved as a child was the biggest hit.  My son took a photo of her squatting, and carefully placing two pegs back into the board!

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This is a drawing of my tote/book bag that I use for work.  It is made of a heavy canvas and has one zipper pocket and two mesh side pockets - one of which always contains my umbrella.  It is black and I decided to draw it with a Pilot Varsity pen and then brush water over the non-permanent ink.  I just felt like playing!

Tuesday was my birthday.  I spent the day in New Jersey with my 90 year old mother and then returned to Manhattan to have dinner with my husband and oldest grandchild.  Henry graduated from kindergarten last Friday - and came to stay with us -across the Park - for a few days because his siblings were still in pre-school each day.  We had a wonderful dinner at Naples 45 and then as we were walking back to the entrance at Grand Central Station, I took a photo of Henry and my husband carrying the left over pizza.

After getting Henry into bed, I only had enough energy to sketch some 90 second pose maniac figures - this time in different colored pencils,

The next evening I sketched from the photo.

I am currently doing a countdown until I retire - 40 years after I started my first full time job!  I have only 7 more work days - scattered over the next 2+ weeks!

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