Silhouette Caught in the Studio

The 'Office'

I put office in quotations because although we refer to this room as the office we never use it as one. It functions as run-over for everything; Alex's closet, a laundry room, a guest bed and a place for my collections.

A few favorite things from left: student made ceramic, picture of grandmom in snow, pods including chestnut and cotton, bee hive, coral from Jamaica, antique deer figurines

Painting of my great uncle Clyde by my mom

Closet spilling over and desk area including a vintage wall clock and an old travel case from Alex's grandmom which functions as storage.

Our daybed!

My parents built this daybed! I really don't know how they did it...one day Alex said we should get a nice daybed for in here and all the sudden they had made this! It is so sleek and perfect for the space and great for when people visit. I want to get a few more accent type pillows but I think it looks pretty good for now. The only problem is they had to bring it up in pieces because of our windy stairs so when we move we'll have to break it down again...there is no way I'm leaving this behind!

Susan Fenton

While doing some holiday shopping, I finally stumbled by Schmidt Dean when it was open. I've been trying to see Susan Fenton's new photographs for a while but always seem to be walking by before or after hours on my way from PAFA.

The subtle color photographs were my favorite. They were incredibly formally considered and reminded me of some of my favorite paintings, most notably Morandi. The color relationships were beautiful and intensified the more time I spent with each. Also, the way the forms touched or just missed one another was really wonderful. I could feel the careful delicacy with which she observed and felt each piece. Here are a few of my favorites along with the image above all courtesy of her website:

Lucky Find

Last week on my walk to school I found this frame with the note above inside, taped to a brick wall with about 5 identical others. Turns out to be a project where participants need to take a photograph of the frame in their home or life and send it to the email provided. I want to just hang the empty frame on my brick wall with my other artwork but I'm not sure this is what they want. I'll try it and see what happens...I'm hoping to get a website where everyone has posted but we'll see...

It's Not Going Above 30 Degrees This Week...

Katie Pomerantz's Blog

Beet and Banana Peel, 5 x 3.5 ft, oil on canvas, 2010

Wayne Art Center, Feast the Eyes Exhibition

My friend and classmate from last year, Katie Pomerantz has a relatively new blog. It's called A Lonely Hunter. Good name right? It's also a really nice blog that shows some of her recent work, events and life. The photo at the top is an example of her work. Usually large still lifes of fragile pieces of the natural world -- banana peels, leaves, vines. They are very sensitively rendered and exude a quiet mood, the objects many times looking shy of the spotlight. I always admired her work and we seemed to have similar interests in the feeling portrayed...quiet, felt, almost awkward yet elegant. Needless to say I miss having her around school this year.

She also posted this funny picture of us at the Feast the Eyes show we both participated in. (Our other friend and classmate, Mike Branca, not pictured was also in the show for a nice little yam painting. Check it out on her blog.) I like looking at the photo and remembering how good the feeling is when all the hard work and anxiety amounts to a show and experience to share.

Print Show at PAFA

Emily Diehl

Danielle Deangelo

You're going to be jealous. I got these two prints at the holiday sale at PAFA for....$10. Total. I couldn't believe the whole thing. The prints were beautiful, there was a ton of work and it was all priced so inexpensively. I'm going to make it an annual thing and bring more cash next year because I could have done some serious holiday shopping.