Really digging this art by Brian Lotti.   Great little video segment.   PEOPLE: BRIAN LOTTI from Monster Children on Vimeo.

Extreme Beauty. Minnesota Winter.

Moving to Minneapolis, MN from New York City has been an adventure in many ways.   But lately I am (constantly) reminded that we have moved to the land of extreme living.  In the middle of a long hard winter, it's not unusual to have days where the temperature doesn't climb above 0 degrees Fahrenheit.   That's before wind chill is factored in.  This is weather in which you HAVE to wear a hat and gloves or you may have frostbite before you know it.  Well, I've decided to embrace it.  It's HARD CORE winter.    We gear up and face the day.  With warm clothes, hot tea and warm soups it's really not all that bad.  I've discovered the joys of wool socks (as someone who had perpetually cold feet, my feet are no longer cold with those suckers on).  Oh, and my remote starter helps too, especially with my 2 small kiddos.

So it's dangerously cold here sometimes during the winter.   But the snow!  It's absolutely magical.  The extreme cold this time of year keeps it pristine and enchanting.  Once it gets over 25 degrees it gets all slushy and dirty, so extra cold means extra pretty snow.  The light it reflects, oh the light!  The white of the snow reflects so much light that it brightens up the inside of the house to keep the winter gloom at bay.  To my great surprise,  my street (in the city of Minneapolis) regularly has snow packed over it even after plows go by.  So it's white out my window as far as the eye can see.  I love it.  It's beautiful and refreshing and different.  From what I can tell we should expect snow for at least 4 months and it pretty much stays put.

There is something ethereal about winter sunrises and sunsets too.  Perhaps the snow sets them off.

Then there are the lakes - the City of Lakes turns into the City of Frozen Lakes and they sparkle in the sun.  Huge light reflection spaces.   And locals use these frozen lakes for oh so many things: skating, flying kites, cross country skiing (if there is snow), ice fishing.  There is so much to DO because of the snow.

I've spent years living in Chicago, London and New York City.  I never cared all that much for winter in those places, but it never really got cold enough, even in Chicago, to have a real culture surrounding winter.  I'm intrigued as never before by winter and the places, countries and customs that have evolved around it.

Part of me wonders if I'm still new here and the wonder of winter with it's dangerous and beautiful qualities will wear off and I'll tire of it.  But for now, I'm fascinated by this crazy cold place.

Oh, hello blog.  It's been a WHILE.
Some children's book illustration inspiration for today:



Found on: Booooooom

A year ago....

Can't believe this was a year ago last month...

First Veggies: Radish Harvest

At our home here in Minneapolis we were fortunate enough to inherit (ok, rent) a backyard with a charming veggie garden and 3 raised beds for growing veggies.  This was a pleasant surprise in the spring, as the whole yard was covered with a good foot of snow when we rented the house in January.  As a complete and total big city dweller for all of my adult life, the closest I have ever been to having my own garden before this year was cultivating a couple of window boxes full of petunias at our last apartment and a basil plant in the kitchen window. That's one of the great things about the Twin Cities - you can live in the city and still have a little earth to call your own without selling your first born child.

A couple days ago I noticed that the radishes I had grown from seed were looking big enough to eat.  It seems like a small miracle to me that anything I planted from seed grows into a plant.  Especially one that is big enough to eat.  Amazing.

Here comes my little helper.

Fiona helped pull these babies out of the ground. 

Check out these red beauties.  

Hmmm, probably want to wash them before consumption.  But a little dirt won't hurt.

We harvested the lettuce and spinach today and had a great salad with our radishes.  Fiona even ate her leafy salad.

I hope the Swiss Chard will taste as good as it looks.  Going to wait a little longer to harvest it.

Yum.  

Moving to the 'Minn'ies

   
So it's been a long, long time since I updated anything on this blog.  And a lot has happened in the meantime.   For the last year I've been writing about how our family was planning to leave NYC.  My last post of 2012 was at the end of November.  Things happened VERY quickly and on December 20th we packed up and moved out of NYC. After over 8 years of living in in the Big Apple, where most of the significant events of my adult life have happened, including meeting Patrick, giving birth to Fiona and meeting some of my best friends.

Where, exactly, we were moving was still up in the air until about 2 weeks before we left.  There were a multitude of possibilities: Copenhagen, London, L.A., Austin, Sacramento and Minneapolis.  In the end, it was to be Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.  A decision that, after researching the Twin Cities, I was excited about.  Initially I was reticent but, other than the cold, no one seemed to have a bad thing to say about it.  It seems like a great place to raise a family, there is good food to be had, culture, art etc. and we could rent a house (a HOUSE) in a nice neighborhood for less than the cost of the rent on our 1 bedroom apartment in NYC.   And still live in the city.

So here we are.  Living in Minnesota.  One of those things I NEVER thought would happen, but it has and so far so good.

Things I like about the Twin Cities so far:

It's quite cosmopolitan - lots of culture, art and theater as well as restaurants, places to go out etc.
Nothing takes longer than 30 minutes to get to.  Even rush hour traffic is nothing compared to NYC or Chicago, where I grew up and went to college.
The lakes and parks in the middle of the city.  It's beautiful.
Tons of free activities to do with kids that are not nearly as crazy busy as the free activities in NYC where you always have to get somewhere super early to get a spot/participate.

Things I don't like:

Ok, so yes, the winter is long and cold.  And the snow this year (most years??) doesn't melt until spring...it just...keeps...piling up.  It's pretty but I miss early spring in NYC.   Although the snow is pretty too.  I sometimes missed the snow in NYC since the winters have been so warm for most of the last 8 years I lived there.

I miss all of our in NYC friends.

And I miss walking everywhere or taking public transportation.   We actually have a little neighborhood main street nearby that is about a 5-7 minute walk with a grocery store, library, post office, hardware store, bakery/bistro/bar, italian restaurant, clothes store, book store and shoe store.  Plus a micro brewery and bar is planning to open up in the summer. So we CAN walk to some things.  Which I love.  But it was too COLD to really do that (maybe I'm just a wimp) until the last month or so.  There is also light rail in our neighborhood that they are expanding and there are city buses that go everywhere.  But it's not Broadway.

So before this post gets too long, I just wanted to mention that I am hoping to share some Twin Cities adventures on the blog.  I'm still settling in here for various reasons that I will reveal in ongoing posts so I've been a bit slow to share but I'm hoping to getting back into sharing a bit more in this space.

So hello from Minnesota!

Copenhagen, Illustrated

As I've been talking about occasionally on this blog, we will be moving out of NYC fairly imminently.  One of the possible places we might be moving to is Copenhagen.  Isn't this illustrated map of Copenhagen by Matt Chase pretty fabulous?  

Discovering Columbus

Hello Columbus.  Nice to see you all up close and personal.  

I went to see the Tatzu Nishi Discovering Columbus Exhibition by the Public Art Fund a couple weeks ago.  The exhibition is actually a room that has been built around the statue of Columbus in the middle of Columbus Circle.  Overall, I liked it.  It provided a different perspective on Columbus Circle and the statue.  It was surprising how large Columbus felt up close.  However, although there were some clever things about the decor of the living room Columbus entertained us in, I do feel they could have jazzed it up a bit more.  There was a little something lacking.

Regardless, the views from the top of the exhibition were stunning.

59th Street

Broadway, facing North

Central Park West

One fabulous thing about the exhibition is that it is free.  Although you have to reserve tickets in advance.  Originally it was supposed to close mid-November, but it is now scheduled to close December 2nd.  Check it out here.

I love how the woman in this shot appears to be self-consciously smiling at the camera...

I was there at the end of the week Hurricane Sandy hit.  Columbus Circle happens to be right nearby where the crane is dangling in Midtown.  Broadway South of Columbus Circle was cordoned off and so were many of the adjacent streets.

After the Storm

View of Central Park from Columbus Circle. 11.2.2012

There is a melancholy hanging over the city post Hurricane Sandy.  We have been lucky here on the Upper West Side in that we did not lose power and most of the damage up here seems to be confined to the trees.  Regardless, the last week has not been 'normal' by any means, even here.  Most of our friends in our neighborhood did not work all of last week for various storm related reasons: from being unable to get to work due to the loss of the transit system, to their offices having lost power, or having their office indefinitely closed since it was located across the street from the dangling crane in Midtown.  There is a long line of cars that stretches in front of our house every morning while people wait to get gas.  Store shelves are emptier than usual.  Schools have been closed all week.

Although power has been restored to many, our friends and family that are still without power are going on over 1 week without power in winter weather.  Pretty awful.  And then, there are those in worse circumstances still that have lost their homes. The sadness is palpable, although so is the determination to go on.  That people are offering to help in so many ways is uplifting. Things are slowly beginning to feel more normal but I think in some ways we may be only beginning to learn what the true costs of the devastation will be.

How to Help
Artists Giving to Sandy Victims
Help a Family that Lost their Home

Inspired by...Maira Kalman

Rick Meyerowitz

Ok so everyone seems to be highlighting Maira Kalman this month.  See here in Lonny Mag and here on Design Mom.  And why shouldn't they (or I)?!  She's fabulous!  I loved reading her illustrated columns in the New York Times (now available as books:  "The Priciples of Uncertaintly" and "And the Pursuit of Happiness").  Illustrating the "Elements of Style"? Brilliant.  Her style (art and writing) is so direct and relatable, poignant and funny.  Thank you, Maira, for you all your loveliness.
Now I'm going to have to delve into her children's books with Fiona.

Some other interesting links concerning Maira Kalman:
Love this article, especially the story about her mother.  Just that small tidbit of information says so much about her.
She gave a TED talk
Julie Saul Gallery

 

The Vogels...Herb & Dorothy

While painting this evening I also watched/listened to 'Herb & Dorothy' on Netflix on Demand.  Herb & Dorothy have been collecting art since they were married in the early 1960s.  They were devoted to collecting, in particular, minimalist art.  It was interesting to get to know them a bit as a couple of modest means but with an intense passion for art that they funneled into collecting art.  The movie offered a unique view into a specific part of the New York art world of the late 20th century to be sure.  But most of all it was inspiring to see the passion with which they loved the art they bought and also the relationships they cultivated with the artists they collected.

I painted a small piece inspired by them.  I would show it to you but I can't get my scanner to scan the whole piece. Only random parts of it. Hmm. Going to have to figure that out.  ahem.

explained absence...and tonight, paint

We've been sick pretty much non-stop since we returned from our Road Trip of the East Coast. Boo.  We all caught colds coming back from our trip.  Then Fiona contracted Hand, Foot and Mouth disease (not to be confused with the bovine foot & mouth disease.  this one is mostly confined to toddlers).  And I somehow got another nasty cold.

I've obviously been absent from this space lately.  In addition to our illnesses, I've decided to put most of my energy into creating art, and to make blogging a lower priority for a while.  I expect to get into a groove where I can do both, but for now, I have been sketching every night (almost since mid-August), and tonight, painting.   Here is my palette for the proof.

Sketching...

I have decided to start posting the occasional sketch...since the middle of August I've been trying to draw every day, even if it's just for a few minutes.  Sketched this earlier tonight with pencil from a photo I took of Fiona a few weeks ago... I added a little watercolor to the lips.  Recently,  I have really been getting into the look of drawings with watercolor.

Road trip!

We are on a two week road trip of the East Coast. Last week we left NYC and rented a car to drive down to Yorktown, Virginia and spent a few days with my grandparents. We then continued down south to Charleston, SC where we rented a beach house with a bunch of my family for my sister's wedding this past Saturday. The wedding could not have been more perfect and now we are staying on at the beach house for a few more relaxing days at the ocean and fun nights in Charleston. This picture was taken looking out toward the path to the ocean from our deck. Heavenly!

Today at the Playground...

Here are a few favorite pics I took today with my new DSLR.  I'm still shooting mostly on auto mode, but I experimented a bit with manual mode today...and I'm happy to report that some of what I learned when I used to shoot with my parent's film SLR camera 10+ years ago is bubbling up from the deep recesses of my memory...

Finally....

I FINALLY did it.  I braved 34th street to go to B&H yesterday (love B&H, hate 34th Street) and bought myself a DSLR camera.  I didn't want to spend a ton of money on my first DSLR since I'm pretty much a beginner so after some research I decided on a refurbished Canon EOS Rebel T3 with a basic 18-35mm lens.  I am in love.  Why oh why did I wait 6 years to do this?!  I think I was afraid it was too big and bulky to carry around and I wondered if I would really use it.   But the image quality is so fantastic just on auto mode, and I can't wait to delve into manual mode.  And the camera is really not that heavy (at least not with the lens I have).  Here are a couple pictures I took yesterday afternoon with my new DSLR... Um, the quality is soooo much better than my Canon PowerShot A710 or my iPhone Camera.

Governor's Island Ferry Terminal Art

I love how this art installation by Lawrence Weiner stands against the Brooklyn Skyline on the ferry fender rack at the Governor's Island ferry terminal.

Ice Cream at Dylan's Candy Bar

We were out and about all over the city this past Labor Day weekend.  Patrick was out of town so it was just Fiona and I adventuring about.  We spent part of Friday visiting some home deco stores around the 59th Street and Lexington area.  Since we were indulging my whims, I figured Fiona deserved a break so I treated her to an ice cream at Dylan's Candy Bar.

It was our first time there and she was enraptured by the colors and the kids.  And boy did she savor that ice cream, barely letting me get a bite in.  She had a dairy sensitivity until about a month ago so she has only had ice cream a handful of times.  It is such a riot watching her eat it.  Her eyes roll back in her head a little and she pretty much looks like she has just tasted a little bit of heaven.  Welcome to your lifelong love affair with ice cream kiddo.

We walked back to the West side through Central Park and enjoyed watching people begin their long weekends relaxing in the beautiful sunny weather...