Moosewood Cookbook

My mother-in-law gave me her original edition of the Moosewood Cookbook because I eat a lot of vegetarian meals and like to make soups.  She said it was very well known but I had never heard of it.  The cover does not look that appealing but when I flipped through I fell in love immediately.  The author, Molly Katzen, hand wrote all the recipes and illustrated nearly every page with something related to food or cooking.  I just love the eggplant and tostada pages and quite a few others are great too.  I daydreamed up this whole scenario with her and me, cooking stews, laughing, sketching, instant best friends.  Can't wait.

Louisa Matthiasdottir

I always thought of sheep in multicolored hills when bringing up an image in my mind of Louisa Matthiasdottir's work.  But after doing a bit of a more in depth search I found some paintings of hers that are very different and figurative, I really like looking at these again and again.

Pierre Boncompain

I love Pierre Boncompain's work.  Every line is specific and he has a beautiful color sense.  I guess its because his name is so close to Pierre Bonnard I keep trying to put them together and weirdly I think their work is the perfect compliment to one another.  Now if I could just make paintings that merge the best of both....

Amazing Tumblr Stream

Charles Hopkinson, Sparkling Ocean at Manchester

If you like any of the things you see on my blog you must click this link right now!  I have found pure gold!  Or better -- this link goes to a tumblr stream of a person whose taste in art is fabulous (obviously in my opinion).  And he has thousands of pieces of artworks that are many of my favorite artists, many pieces I have never seen and some pieces like above which I love by artists I have never even heard of.  I feel like I have cultivated my own personal google images search titled "art I would love"  And the fact that its so vast  worth means it should last me at least a few hours right?!  Haha. 

P.S. My blog just made 20,000 views or so the ticker says.  I'm convinced half are by me or my mom but oh well -- thanks for reading if you are out there.

David Rakoff

This is a great piece done by NPR on David Rakoff, one of This American Life's contributors who died a few weeks ago from cancer at the age of 47.  I have listened to it twice now and figure I will run through it at least once more to commit some parts to memory.

I think I am so moved by it because his personality seems familiar to me.  He has an undeniably Jewish sense of humor and approach to the world.  He reminds me of myself, my husband, of many people I know and love -- very pessimistic, self-loathing and critical -- but at the heart deeply hoping none of that is true. 

Beyond his exacting observations of the outrageousness of life, he finds keen and beautiful reflections on what it is to be human. Towards the end of the piece, and his life, his desire to experience that is palpable.  

Skip to 40:20 to listen (its much more powerful coming from him)  

"He had thought of himself as uniquely proficient at seeing, but now that sense felt insufficient. He wanted to grab, to possess, to devour, to eat with his eyes -- how he needed that power."

I think he achieved that and left poignant reflections here for the rest of us -- all that you can hope for as an artist or human I guess.

Nice Portrait

I like this portrait by Elizabeth Mayville -- she has a nice little shop on etsy.