The open doors of her third floor studio inspired this black and white watercolor my mother painted to illustrate my grandmother's poem about aging and seclusion. When the three of us started working on The View in Winter, Alice planned to use her skill as a colorist to brighten up her mother's poems. I argued against the use of full color illustrations because I wanted the art to complement, not overpower, the verse. Alice agreed, reluctantly, to work in black and white, and later, she was … [Read more...]
The Mother-Daughter Way Unfolds . . .
I'm excited to share a work-in-progress, the Mother-Daughter Way, although I rarely do that. This work is highly collaborative, and I welcome your questions, comments and feedback. In the potential cover for the book, my mother sits before a blank canvas in a watercolor self-portrait, "Winter Work," (1994) done in her Merchantville studio. The image on the right is her oil portrait of me, "Jan in Blue," done in 1973 as I prepared to move across the county and start a new life as far away from … [Read more...]
the Alice book goes to press . . .
Yesterday morning I made the final correction to the document that will become a book of my mother's art life, with more than 200 images from her studio. What was the final change? The addition of the title "POEMS" on the copyright page . . . it's interesting how many iterations it takes to get things right. This is not a book of my poems, but there are three of them in it. It is not my grandmother's book, but her portraits by her daughter are included (two of them) as well as two photos of her: … [Read more...]
November Light
Although I participated in two Thanksgiving dinners, I am feeling lighter than last week. Why? Because we finally buried my mother's ashes in the Moorestown Quaker cemetery that she chose as her final resting place. The family gathered there on Saturday morning. We read and spoke of her love and the way she held us to ourselves and to each other. I had removed the urn from my dining room cabinet, where it had rested for more than eleven years. Paul and I had prepared a Thanksgiving feast for my … [Read more...]
The Sound revisited
Last week, I visited the Long Island Sound for the first time since 1973. The last time I swam there was in 1960. It was my Great-Grandparent’s home. Generic Cialis if you think that it simple to celebrate that to big disappointment of many people. It not the truth. As it is necessary to spend the calories also. When you wake up everyone a shadow. Generic cialis online not on each height it is possible to rise and understand that you not correctly understood everything in the life. I … [Read more...]