A Thousand Clapping Hands

Suzy Snowflake - A Tradition

2011-12-21T14:15:00.000-06:00

My favorite childhood Christmas short - Suzy Snowflake. A 1951 Centaur Productions stop-motion animated film from WGN-TV in Chicago. If you don't have 2 minutes right now, be sure to stop back for this delightful American Classic. It is unforgettable.

This will be my final post for 2011 and I would like to wish you all a very happy season with your friends and loved ones. Thank you for your many visits and generous comments throughout the year, they've meant so much to me. And for those of you who blog, thank you for your enthusiastic, inspiring, insightful, and always entertaining posts.

May you have the Happiest New Year Ever!

See You in 2012!

Catherine

May I Offer You A Cookie?

2011-12-11T14:10:00.001-06:00

This is a good time of year to be 'nutty as a fruitcake'. Well, that's me. I tried to do a post with a Christmas Card that you could save to use as your Desktop Background and after doing so and saving it myself it was too small. But after deleting that post and then checking the post in my mailbox, it seems that the large size will appear...however, it might only work for those who subscribe and receive my posts by mail. This technical stuff makes me nuts. So now, on to the nuts...

I offer you a cookie instead. These are Ischler Tortchen - layers of almond cookies filled with raspberry preserves and covered in bittersweet chocolate glaze with chopped pistachios on top. Although I've never had the original, I do believe they should be fully encased in chocolate, which I wasn't able to do. They are extraordinary! For all delightful treats of the Viennese-kind be sure to visit my friend, Merisi, at Merisi's Vienna for Beginners. Click HERE.

And the others: my husband's favorites - Greek Melomacarona. Again, almond cookies but with orange and cinnamon and then bathed in a honey syrup which they absorb, and then finished off with a sprinkling of chopped almonds. Delicious!

And here is the Christmas Card. A collage of my favorite images from last season. You are welcome to try to save it to your desktop. Happy Holidays to All.

Update: I didn't include the recipes because they are not my copyright. The recipe for the Ischl Tarts can be found in the book Kaffeehaus by Rick Rodgers available HERE. And any good Greek cookbook should have a recipe for Melomacarona. Thank you.

More Holiday Imagination

2011-12-09T08:43:00.000-06:00

An antique ornament becomes a necklace...maybe for a party at Miss Havesham's. I won't really be wearing it, but I love the way it looks against the black velvet display and tied with a satin ribbon. It sits in my bedroom.

Today is a baking day - round one...2 batches of cookies, one for me and one for him. We're cookie incompatible...well, I like his...I like everybody's...but he's never that crazy about mine. I love walnuts - he hates them - that sort of thing. Something to consider if you're planning on spending your life with someone. It's alot less work if you're cookie-compatible. Ha!

A busy weekend. Have a good one.

Tarnished Favorites

2011-12-08T08:24:00.001-06:00

A box of tarnished favorites from the early 1900's to the 1960's.

My active imagination often works to my advantage during the holidays. Despite the glitter and aluminum caps, I find that the palette of pink, pale blue and gold - along with tarnished German tinsel - lends an 18th century air to them. This year they hang from a small frosted tree in the dining room.

The largest of my trees is in the living room and is hung with German handblown ornaments - reproductions made in the 70's which are still available - a fish, half-moon, squirrel, turkey, fruits, and vegetables, as well as hand-made ornaments from our 1st Christmas together and beautiful little carved wood angels from Italy...which always hang near the top of the tree just below the glittery star.

The house I grew up in in New Jersey was on land that was the first Christmas tree farm in America. The land was owned by W.V. McGalliard outside of Trenton and I attended McGalliard Elementary School. There were still Norway spruce scattered throughout the neighborhood with one house nearly hidden, as if it was in its own little forest within the neighborhood of 50's tract homes. One year they cut one down and brought it to the school as a gift. I was too young to grasp the historical significance but, to this day, I recall the proud looks on the family's faces when they presented it. It was like our own Rockefeller Center tree. No wonder I have a thing for trees. Must have been something in the soil.

Info on the history of the Christmas Tree from "The Christmas Tree Book" by Philip V. Snyder (Viking Press 1976)

Little Tree

2011-12-05T09:29:00.000-06:00

I set out on Saturday morning to find some grapevine to wrap into a tree shape and cover with moss and...surprise of surprises...found one already to go...and potted, too. All I needed to do was add the sheet moss and the old framed print with velvet ribbon. I seem to have a thing for small trees...this is one of four.

Clove-studded clementines are always a sign of the season for me. In NYC I used to hang them from ribbons in my window that looked out over W.73rd St. Now I use pretty cordial glasses as stands and fill them with silver dragees for extra sparkle. My grandmother's candy dish holds orange and rose hip scented Agraria - another holiday tradition for me. When I'm sitting there I remove the lid...it's heaven.

My little stuffed Grinch never makes an appearance until all the decorating is done. He has the best seat in the house all season - not that he deserves it.

It's freezing here today - a "stay in your pajamas kind of day", which is what I'm planning on doing. I'm going to light the fire and read...reading John Steinbeck's, Cannery Row.

My crocus' are coming up slowly...reminding me to be patient. There's a new photo of their progress on my sidebar but I don't think they look too much different from last week. Like I said, they're coming up slooowly.

Hope your week is a good one.

Little Wreaths

2011-11-30T18:55:00.001-06:00

A round of berries in shades of red encircles an old print of the Madonna and Child. Originally meant to surround a candle, I reappropriated it to hang as a wreath on an old screen shutter. The wreath is bordered on each side by large red-velvet acanthus leaves. Behind the shutter: a curtain of French-inspired fabric with bows and baskets of flowers gives it an old world charm.

For a white bedroom - an entirely different feel: silver branches with scattered pale pink sequins and a sparkly bird hangs from an organza ribbon over a long, narrow mirror with aged print on top. Below it sits a small silver Christmas tree, which photographically was beyond my expertise!

Happy Decorating

My Bulb Update - Green Thumb?

2011-11-29T10:19:00.000-06:00

I like to think I know alot about alot of things, but I'll admit that gardening isn't one of them. Although I dream of having a garden someday, my own turf has always been either a balcony or a terrace...and usually on the shady side of the street. It's a good thing I happen to love ivy and ferns in all varieties (and have a secret desire to be a moss farmer) because green and non-flowering has been the constant in my world of container gardening.

Although I wanted my crocus bulbs to come to life in those black urns (and to do that time-lapse header I promised) I was beginning to fear a miscalculation. Even after much research I was still unsure - Were the containers deep enough? Have adequate drainage? Should I plant them in a rich potting soil or would they thrive with water and rocks like narcissus and amaryllis?

So here is the result of my worries. They're now nestled half-way up to their necks in soil in one of my favorite containers and seem to be thriving in their new home.

I can't write anymore today - That song, "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is going through my head on a loop and drowning out all my thoughts. Who is that? Andy Williams? It's awful. I think I may have had too much coffee this morning.

More Holiday Merriment to Come!

Simplicity

2011-11-23T16:56:00.000-06:00

A Gardenia

Wishing you All A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

click photos to enlarge

Kneading...Needing

2011-11-19T14:04:00.000-06:00

This year, instead of a sugary birthday cake, I spent the day making a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread. There are few breads more comforting to me than this loaf...and sometimes comfort is what you knead when you spend your birthday so far from those you love.

Watching dough rise in my Grandmother's yelloware bowl connects me to my roots and the entire process of baking always fills me with nostalgia and a longing for home.

We ate it warm from the oven and it was delicious. I glazed the top and let it drip down the sides, but I will admit I prefer a thicker, sweeter icing. And, of course, the added bonus of baking this loaf is that the smell of cinnamon wafts through the house. I felt like a kid again...and isn't that what we all want on our birthdays?

Happy Weekend!

Tea - An Exploration

2011-11-17T13:04:00.000-06:00

Dining with my friends Phil Krampetz and Kyle Stewart is always an event. We once shared one of the grandest dinners ever to be enjoyed on this side of the Atlantic when the chefs and sommeliers of the Paris Ritz arrived via private jet along with their food, wine, plates, glassware, silverware - even their own pots and pans - for what can only be described as a once-in-a-lifetime evening: a sensational recreation of "An Evening at the Ritz". The only detail we needed to provide was the art of conversation...an easy task for the illustrious guests at our table.

Phil and Kyle are experts in the field of specialty teas and coffee and travel the world to find the finest selections for their on-line emporium "The Cultured Cup". (Kyle is one of only approximately 60 Certified Tea Specialists in the world.) I dined with them again last week and as always came away with - not only a better understanding of the enormous complexity of these beverages - but with a promise to myself to make my daily tea-taking a ritual for the senses and the soul.

There is so much to know about this ancient art and I've only begun to delve into its history. The exciting thing is that an entire world of unknown tastes and sensual pleasures waits to be explored, not only in a tea cup, but with tea as an important flavor component in food, too - from vinaigrettes to desserts.

In the year ahead I'll be looking at tea in a whole new way and writing occasional posts on my experiences and observations.

Right now I'm hooked on Mariage Freres The' de Fetes - Tea of the Holidays - A China Black Tea with Essence of Citrus and Vanilla with a very long finish. It's exquisite.

Have a special tea you'd like to share?

'The Cultured Cup' is my favorite source for the finest coffee and tea.

Please visit 'The Cultured Cup' website by clicking HERE . You can sign up for their very informative newsletter and also visit them on Facebook.

Japanese Tea Ceremony photo - Wikipedia - public domain

Rose Soup

2011-11-14T17:50:00.000-06:00

This antique Italian soup tureen has been a favorite "vase" of mine for about 25 years. This week its been holding my birthday bouquet - heavy, waxy pink roses and spicy-scented lavender stock. I move it from room to room with me...dining room, living room, studio, bedroom. I'd love to have flowers in every room but I don't have Elton John's budget. There is a wonderful book entitled 'Elton John's Flower Fantasies' that shows the incredible floral arrangements he had in his country estate in England. Worth a look - HERE.

Never underestimate the healing power of flowers. I'm convinced that each glance releases a pleasurable jolt of serotonin into the brain - something this moody Scorpio chick needs more of.

Here's an update on my crocus bulbs: They're coming up very, very slowly. At this point I'm hoping for blooms by Valentine's Day.

On a Sad Note: RIP Doyle Bramhall - An amazing musician, kind soul, family friend. We are so sad to hear of the loss of another great musician who has been a part of our lives.

Candle Power...and My Book

2011-11-11T09:10:00.000-06:00

A photo from my little tome of photographs of San Miguel de Allende.

I could use some of the energy they're sending forth. It's been a busy, challenging week and all I want to do this weekend is - Nothing.

It's my birthday weekend with no plans but to re-energize by staying away from everything with buttons, bells, clickers, and batteries.

The only bells I'd give anything to hear are the church bells that ring throughout the day in San Miguel de Allende. To be there this weekend wandering through the cobblestone streets, sitting for hours in the shadows of the pink cathedral - La Parroquia, visiting with friends, and dining in one of my favorite romantic restaurants would suit me just fine. It's a place where all my worries melt away...a place that puts me at peace.

If you have never been there and would like to take a walk through old San Miguel there is a link on my sidebar that will allow you to preview my book in its entirety. It's like a little memento of a day spent there - from morning till night. I hope you enjoy it.

Wishing you a Happy Weekend.

Subscribers can click here to arrive at my blog - HERE

Planning the Season

2011-11-05T12:18:00.001-05:00

I'm planning menus for Sunday night dinners by the fire - little stuffed poussins for my birthday, maybe a duck with dark cherries another night, and loaves of homemade raisin bread dripping with royal icing for an indulgent snack. I keep it simple, but it's the stepping out of the routine that makes it special. I really love these weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

This weekend I'm forcing bulbs. Last year it was amaryllis - and although the flowers were gorgeous, they overstayed their welcome by coming up three times. Sometime in the middle of January we'd had enough: We looked at each other in agreement...we were sick of that bloom.

This year I'm trying crocus' in two black iron urns. All you need are rocks or pebbles or gravel or even those colored glass stones, plus water and bulbs. I picked up a package of fifteen at my local garden center for $4.00. So easy and inexpensive. Tiny stems are already pushing through and in a few weeks I should have pots of spring flowers in unknown colors. Nuturing them is a daily reminder of what we need more of during this season: patience.

I'll try to do a time-lapse header, recreating it as the shoots come up. Please pray to the garden-gods for me.

(If you would like to blog or pin one of my photographs please leave a comment and become a follower. And link back, of course.)

...About That Tablecloth

2011-11-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

Leave it two exceptional artists, Theresa and Gina, to zero in and ask specifics about my lavender tablecloth.

I coveted this tablecloth for a year in a neighborhood antique mall, always surprised on my weekly visit to find that it hadn't been sold. Eventually it was marked down...and then again...until finally, one day, I saw that the occupants were moving and everything must go at 50% off the already marked down price. It was mine.

It is the most sumptuous fabric, soft as silk or pashmina, with a design woven in gold threads of a procession of turbaned men riding elegant horses surrounded by long feathered birds, flowering branches, and palm trees. One man holds a falcon. A large paisley is used as the design for a sunshade. They are followed by three women walking behind. The first woman appears to be older than the other two and is leading the woman in the center by a chain or rope gathered and forming two rings. They are heading towards an elaborate oriental structure where people are gathered above and a dancer is dancing in front. The opposite side is the exact reverse with the gold threads as background. There are six napkins, also with gold reverse.

My guess is that it's a wedding scene and was probably a gift to a bride. Indian, Chinese, or French made? I don't know as there are no tags.

Thanks for asking. What do you think?

I highly recommend the blogs of Theresa and Gina for the beauty and expertise they share each week:

Theresa's 'Art's The Answer"

and

Gina's "Art and Alfalfa"

To blog or pin one of my photos please leave a comment and become a follower in appreciation. Thank you.

Dark Shadows

2011-10-31T07:08:00.000-05:00

Night falls on my little party and my table is transformed into a still-life from another century.

This is usually my least favorite hour of the day - unless the hour is blue...like the indigo blue over the Atlantic at dusk or the blue that veils Paris - l'heure bleue.

I know I've said it before...I don't like the night. But if every night created a scene such as this, I think I could learn to welcome it.

(If you blog or repin - please leave a comment and become a follower in appreciation. Thank you.)

Masquerade

2011-10-28T18:54:00.000-05:00

It needn't be about the menu or the decor...it's the time spent together that matters: the catching up on each other's lives, a few laughs together, memories shared while looking through old photographs. When I moved halfway across the country, far from family and my oldest friends, these were the things I missed most.

I've been a collector of the flotsam and jetsam of the dining table for decades now - nothing extremely precious, just things that spoke to me with old world charm, particularly French charm. I don't mind chips, cracks, tarnished silver, frayed linens - in fact, I prefer it. I would take a seat at the "Beggar's Banquet" any day.

This occasion wasn't about an over-the-top elaborate menu that would have me in the kitchen for days with aching feet and raccoon eyes. This was a few simple tea sandwiches followed by tiny lemon curd tarts that I whipped up that morning. I've found that Teas here in America can often be calorie-laden, heavy-on-the-whipped-cream affairs, but they needn't be. We each had three little triangular sandwiches and two tarts each and were perfectly satisfied.

If you were my guest for tea you would leave with one of my paper hats. This one is hand-painted wax resist. The trim is the 'real French' thing - bought at Tinsel Trading in NYC about thirty years ago. I made the white wig on the "masquerading" kitschy bust.

Here she dons a pale blue hat with lace trim and feather and a hand-painted swan with necklace.

When it comes to the Tea Table, which do you prefer, the sweet or the savory? Although I have a serious sweet-tooth, I'm still a girl who goes for the vegetables on the plate first. I'd have to say I like them in equal portions. (Chocolate stands alone. More is always better in my book.)

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL"

More photos to come on Monday, All Hallow's Eve

If you would like to blog or pin one of my photos please leave a Comment and become a Follower to show your appreciation. Thank you, kindly. And please link, of course.

Art Boxes, Wig, Hand-Painted Paper Hats, Food, Styling, and Photography by C. Andrako

Tea for Two

2011-10-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

I'm having a "no-fuss" masquerade tea for two this weekend but it seems that even a "no-fuss" occassion turns into something of an event. It would please me no end to be able to make my living styling tables. I'm crazy for dishes, linens, silverware...all the extras and oddities like sugar tongs and little footed dishes with glass domes. Pristine, chipped, or mismatched...I love it all. Just add flowers and music and stir. A simple recipe for an afternoon break. If you have a favorite tea to suggest, I'd love to know.

San Miguel de Allende - My Photography Book - Coming Soon

2011-10-23T00:04:00.000-05:00

My photograph of this door in San Miguel de Allende - that ravishing Spanish Colonial town in Central Mexico - has been blogged, pinned, and re-pinned more times than I probably know, so it was an easy choice when deciding on the cover of my book - San Miguel de Allende, photographs.

I just received the review copy and it should be ready for purchase on Blurb the first week of November.

It's a small volume of 80 pages of color photographs that I shot from 2003 through 2009 and it will be available in hardcover with dustjacket or softcover without.

It was such a labor of love and so thrilling to see my photographs bound together. It's not a lavish coffee-table book...but small and affordable...and light, too...with three lined pages in back for travel notes or travel memories.

San Miguel has become wildly popular since my first visit in 2003 and has been chosen as one of Conde Nast Traveler's Top Ten Best Places in the World a number of times. If you have been, or are going, or know someone who is, or, if you have a passion for travel, I hope you'll have a look. There are quite a few books on San Miguel and I am always amazed at how differently everyone views the town through their lens.

Preview information coming soon.

Tea and the Tate...and Alice

2011-10-20T21:43:00.001-05:00

I was reading about the Alice in Wonderland exhibit at the Tate/Liverpool - opening Nov. 4th - and it reminded me of this odd little Mad Hatter's hat I made about 10 years ago so I went off on a search through my closet to find it. I based it loosely on a design by the extraordinary London based milliner, Stephen Jones. His was tall and striped and attached to a turban. Fantastic.

The exhibit at the Tate/Liverpool will have Lewis Carroll's original manuscript (1864), his photographic portraits of the Liddell family and others from the Victorian era, Victorian children's games, wallpaper and textile design, and 20th century moving images - even some of Disney's first animated films.

A special section will be devoted to Surrealists who were inspired by the book - and Pop Artists, too.

Me - Central Park - 1960 (I think.)

Tea and the Tate sounds like a great way to spend a rainy afternoon in Liverpool.

From Fri. November 4 thru Sun. January 29, 2012

Visit the website HERE

Eat Your Roots...so to speak

2011-10-17T11:09:00.000-05:00

We have a theory around my house - my restaurateur husband and I - that foods indigenous to the country or countries of your ancestors might possibly be more healing and have a more positive effect on you than those from other lands. We're no scientists, but this is something we've noticed with ourselves over the years.

Being second generation Europeans we both grew up in homes where the food, traditions, and languages of our grandparents were a part of our daily lives. For me that was the traditions of Slovakia, for my husband, Greece.

Is it the healing properties themselves of vegetables like cabbage, beets, and kohlrabi that get me quickly back on my feet, or is it the comfort of the happy memories that are infused with them: my Baba in her kitchen with religious icons on the walls, a babushka tied over her hair, a foreign language softly spoken.

Like Proust with his tea and madeleines, I fall into dreamy reveries that take me to a happy place. Stress falls away and I begin to feel better, happier, as if I've reclaimed my own little corner of the world. The piece of the puzzle wasn't missing after all...it was right there in a big pot on the stove.

Dancing in Autumn's Light

2011-10-15T02:37:00.000-05:00

The wonderful thing (one of the many) about the art form of Flamenco is that the aire of it stays with you forever. Now, if you're born in Spain you will, most likely, be born with that aire or you will acquire it without having any say so at all. Spain is music and dance. It's inescapable.

As an American dancer who became a Spanish dancer, it took a bit more time but I knew it had seeped into my soul when I would get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and grasp my nightgown on one side, swishing it back and forth as if it was my skirt while I was still half-concious. Twelve years since I last performed and I still do it...just as my feet break into a rhythm when they hit a wooden floor.

I can't dance with the gusto I had when I was younger and in top form - the knees won't co-operate - but the aire will remain forever. Spaniards do not stop dancing because of age - they adapt...beautifully.

An antique hair comb from my collection

The lovely P.Gaye Tapp had a very popular post at her intriguing blog "Little Augury" on the newly wed Duchess of Alba dancing at her wedding and more. Do visit to see the posts. Click HERE .

I took the photo on top last week after I was dancing "Caracoles", one of my favorite old dances. When I was finished dancing around my living room I placed the fan on the sofa and later I noticed the room glowing in the gorgeous end of September light.

Nice to be back.

A Silent Moment in Champagne

2011-09-11T17:13:00.000-05:00

I thought of this photograph today - September 11. I took it at a crossroads in Champagne. I parked the car on the side of the road and walked over to it. There was no one else around.

A silent prayer among the vineyards.

Ode to Summer - Labor Day in Polaroids - 1983

2011-09-01T13:53:00.000-05:00

These Polaroids were taken at a friend's cabin on a mountain near Albany, N.Y. on Labor Day weekend, 1983. We'd taken the train from Grand Central Station and enjoyed - from the dining car - the beautiful vistas of the towns, historic homes, and islands along the Hudson while eating breakfast on a starched white tablecloth with roses in a silver vase. It was everything I've ever wanted in a weekend getaway: a new terrain to explore, meals with a view, a few flea market treasures to carry back to the city...and all of it shared with the closest of friends. And yet there lingered a tinge of sadness. Summer was over.

I think these aged Polaroids capture perfectly the way I feel about the end of summer. In one of the photos below I'm the one in the middle with the short white Grecian skirt and black top. I was 28.

Any exciting plans for the weekend?

An Ocean View

2011-08-28T11:24:00.001-05:00

Just a few of the lovely homes that face the Atlantic Ocean just south of Asbury Park. Slightly blurred as I took them from the car window while driving by.

I hope that they, and you - if you or your loved ones were in the path of Irene - have fared well. So relieved that she never was what she could have been.

This was my first time using twitter to stay up to date as the storm was bearing down. It was an amazing tool. Everyone should use it during an emergency. Even if you don't have an account you can go to twitter and type in the place you're interested in and any tweets mentioning that place will come up.

Those of you who are still in the path, please be careful out there.

Photos of Jersey Shore (c) C. Andrako 2011

A Strange Day in North Carolina

2011-08-26T16:51:00.000-05:00

Thinking of my family, friends, and fellow bloggers as Hurricane Irene heads for the shores I love.

Be safe everyone.

(These photographs were taken on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the Spring of 2011. click to enlarge)

Thoughts of Time and Friendship

2011-08-19T12:49:00.000-05:00

As my collection of artwork has grown over the years, I've often wondered what would become of them when I'm gone...what I want to become of them when I'm gone. I've taken great care to build them to last and given every consideration to their survival by using archival materials and glues, gessoing before painting, sealing the glass against bugs and dust, even constructing the dream box/bed box with parts that will unscrew for future transport. Unless there's a natural disaster or accident they will surely outlive me.

Unlike most artists I know, I'm an outsider in the art world. I create for myself and it's my great luxury to be able to wait until the mood strikes. It's my therapy as much as my joy. But, since I don't sell, and without children to pass them down to I often wonder who will care for them and treasure them as I have? Perhaps these are the things everyone contemplates in middle-age. But then again...I'm not a mother...these are my only creations...and so I think of these things.

When I see photographs in flea markets I'm immediately drawn to them - I'm intrigued, but also sad. Time marches on - one generation replaces another until, finally, everyone who ever knew you personally is gone. I think of Pere Lachaise cemetary and all the beautiful crypts with broken doors that have been left unattended, unvisited...for how long?

This piece from 2007 was born from these thoughts. A small monument to friendship...to the women who became my closest friends, and to women I never knew whose portraits I found on a flea market table.

If you would like to see more photographs of this work, please click HERE.

********************

I hope you've all been having a great summer. I'm so envious of those of you who've been jumping in cool lakes, wearing sweaters, or sitting by a fire. I've been cooped up while the world melts outside my door. And then a broken air conditioner to top it all off.

But, at last, in just the past two days the light has begun to change into an 'almost September' light and I'm feeling revived. I've bought lots of film for my old Nikon and I'm looking forward to new experiences with that old friend. Thank you to those who've stopped by...I know that when I step away, I really step away...but I think of all of you and I'm ready to catch up with all your August posts.

I needed a fresh look over here for the new season...so tired of grey. Hope you like the roses.

It's Vacation Time

2011-07-29T18:34:00.000-05:00

I'm heading out to search for new things...in the same old places.

Have a delightful time...wherever your journey may lead you.

...until we meet again....

Catherine

Found Photo & Something K.A.Porter said

2011-07-22T22:22:00.000-05:00

I was lost at sea today - never mind that I'm landlocked. Up until a few hours ago I thought it was Saturday. Well, surprise surprise. Now I have an extra day on this weekend Ship of Fools. Which is appropriate: I'm nearly finished reading (for the 2nd time) 'Katherine Anne Porter - The Life of an Artist' by Darlene Harbour Unrue.

Here's a passage that resonated with me today. She discovers that a young man who came to visit her in the hospital was not someone who just stopped by to chat, but a psychiatrist. He had recorded, "Miss Porter suffers a good deal of anxiety and fears regarding death and particularly suffering with illness and old age. She regrets very much not being able to be young and carefree and to do somewhat wreckless [sic] things."

Miss Porter had a few things to say about that:

"I've never talked to a psychiatrist and I didn't want to," she told an interviewer the following spring. "That's picking my pocket." She had insisted on speaking to the young psychiatrist again, and she told him, "Kid, there are rules in every game. What you did is like tapping a telephone or opening a private letter. I don't want you in my mind. I have little packages there, and they're not labeled, but I know what everything is for. I need every weapon I've got - my weaknesses as well as my strengths." As for his suggestion that she was an old woman frightened at age, she declared indignantly, "I was never afraid of growing old."

Nor I.

Do you know this blog..."Advanced Style"?

Above - Another Found photo from my collection.

Also:

Click HERE to view one of my photographs that was published this week in "La Lettre de la Photographie."

Happy Weekend, All

Eavesdropping

2011-07-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

Advice columns for the lovelorn and requests for pen-pals at the back of this 1934 pulp-fiction mag had me eavesdropping on another era. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. Language was much gentler then - more polite and slightly formal - reflecting the rhythm of that time...but the deep-seated need for social interaction remains the same.

Here are some requests for pen-pals sent to "The Friendliest Corner" by columnist, Miss Mary Morris:

Dear Miss Morris:

I'm the only child in our family, and get very lonely for congenial companionship. I'm a girl nearly sixteen, with brown hair and gray eyes. I am greatly interested in drawing, and hope to be a designer some day. I've never taken lessons, but every one says that my drawings are realistic and original. My other hobbies are writing letters, movies, reading, and swimming. Won't some of you girls please write to me?

Naomi of Hammond

Dear Miss Morris:

May I enter your happy Corner? I'm a young man of twenty-one interested in writing songs. I play the guitar and sing over the air. I would like to hear from young men who are also interested in songwriting. How about it, boys?

Lonesome Lloyd

Dear Miss Morris:

Is there room in your corner for a dark-eyed, brown-haired, good-natured girl of twenty-five? I would like to have a few true-blue Pen Pals. I enjoy drawing, painting, and am greatly interested in writing short stories. I can tell you all about Nova Scotia. Don't overlook me, Pals!

Halifax Miss

Dear Miss Morris:

I am an American-Indian boy of eighteen. I write music and poetry, but my hobby is horseback riding. I have been a rider in a rodeo for several years, have traveled to a number of States, and hope to travel some more. I will gladly exchange snapshots and experiences, and will tell you all about myself. You'll find me a true Pal, boys.

Chief Rom

Dear Miss Morris:

I would appreciate hearing from single and married Pals of any age. I am a young married woman of twenty-two. My husband works late every night, and I get terribly lonely. My mother died a few years ago, and my only relative, my father, is a thousand miles away. I have lived in Beverly, California, and can tell you lots about movie studios and some of the movie stars. I want to hear from Pals everywhere, and promise to answer every letter I receive.

Lola S.

Dear Miss Morris:

Well, Pals, how's your ink holding out? Have you enough left to write to a peppy sixteen-year-old girl? I have traveled a great deal, and if you want to hear about the Hawaiian Islands, I'm the girl to write to. The first ten Pals will get a souvenir.

Big-City Girl

Fascinating, don't you think? I couldn't help but wonder if they found their ideal Pen Pal. I'll post one of the letters from the advice column at another date. They're lengthy...but intriguing.

Cover artist unknown. What a great cover!

Post Cards from Le Petit Trianon

2011-07-15T20:48:00.000-05:00

Palais du Petit Trianon

Le Boudoir

The delightful Belvedere...Then

...and Now.

One of my favorite buildings on the planet. Architect - Richard Mique.

Once when someone asked me why I made my boxes I thought a minute and then said:

"It's my desire to be Mique."

(I think it was lost in translation.)

Happy Weekend

A Little Red, White, and Blue for France

2011-07-13T16:54:00.000-05:00

A mise en scene styled by one of my favorite influences - Marie-Paule Pelle' - creative director, designer, author (Valentino's Magic). The chairs are by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.

A Per Spook wedding dress hangs from the door of Marie-Paul Pelle's Paris apartment.

For the patriotic bride on Bastille Day, perhaps?

Or maybe just a little something to wear while watching the morning parade.

Wishing all of my friends in France a long and restful holiday weekend.

Photos by Alexandre Bailhache for HG 1989. Painting Claude Monet - Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of June 1878

Best Reason to Visit Santa Barbara this Summer!

2011-07-12T17:59:00.001-05:00

The latest newsletter from my friend and former teacher, Catherine Turocy, director of the critically acclaimed New York Baroque Dance Company, had me wishing I was California bound come August. If you're heading west...or would like to be...or are lucky enough to live in the area...read on for all the details of "The Prince and the Pauper Dance Weekend" at UCSB. The links will be of interest to all lovers of dance. And as Catherine Turocy states in the following newletter - Look for historical dance workshops wherever you may be. It's an exciting way to add to your social networking!

Dear Friends,

Since Jennifer Homan's book, Apollo's Angels, has been released there has been a wide discussion of dance and ballet in particular. In case you have missed this discussion I can refer you to Claudia La Rocco's internet posting on Slate: Apollo's Angels.

Education is the best defense. I am troubled by how ignorant we are of our own history. My only response is to continue to offer classes, lectures and workshops on the history of dance and to maintain an open mind and lively discussion.

I hope you will join us in Santa Barbara this August 19-21. We are interested in establishing a multi-era workshop which brings professionals and enthusiastic amateurs together. I believe there is a need to have a meeting ground for practitioners, intellectuals and those dancers who just want to have fun. I would love to see dance critics and writers, musicologists, actors, theater directors, reenactors from all time periods and my friends and relatives dancing along with me, Sandra Noll Hammond and Richard Powers. If our workshop is not at the right time or place for you, please look on the internet and go to another historical dance workshop. It may be the most fun you have all summer and it combines physical and mental exercise with real life social networking.

This link will take you to our workshop on the beaches of Santa Barbara at UCSB
The Prince and the Pauper Dance Weekend

Sincerly yours,
Catherine Turocy

The White Shirt

2011-07-07T18:24:00.000-05:00

I don't often do a fashion post but I've been in the mood lately for a new white shirt. These tear sheets from my 80's and 90's fashion file are proof of the timelessness of a good thing. White shirts are:

Elegant

Glamorous

Classic

Sexy

A great choice for any mood - especially with that summer tan.

Happy Weekend, All.

Photos - American Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Mirabella, La Perla

What's Next on the Menu

2011-07-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

Holiday overindulging might not be good for the heart, or for the waistline, but it's mighty good for the soul. I find so much pleasure in deciding my menu, designing my table, arranging flowers, waxing nostalgic. At times it's only the two of us, but the show must go on and skimping is not my style; it's an extravaganza whether two or twenty.

Cooking for two is a challenge so there are always leftovers. Holiday indulging is not a one day affair around here - it's usually two or three. (Food is a top priority to my restaurateur husband.)

But when we've eaten the last 4th of July hot dog, deviled egg, and bowl of Junior's (Brooklyn's famous) coleslaw, it's time to get serious again. For me that's usually a detox of lots of healthy fruits and vegetables, very few carbs, green tea, and lots of water. (Seriously, my rings are on the counter from swollen fingers.) And in the past few months I've rediscovered the pleasures of giving myself a ballet barre - modified but with great results.
By the end of the week I'm back where I started - guilt free and looking forward to the next holiday extravaganza.

I'd love to know - What's your favorite summertime overindulgence?

Americana - Summer Memories

2011-07-03T00:49:00.000-05:00

Like scenes from a novel by Mark Twain, these circa 1910 photographs taken by my maternal great-grandfather of my grandfather (L) and my great-uncle are steeped in Americana. Childhood scenes of life along the Delaware River were commonplace in my family. For generations we've played, fished, explored, and discovered the natural world along its banks. We lived by the push and pull of tides - its rhythms dictating our daily routines...and oftentimes our moods.

My Grandfather (R) and Great-Uncle

My grandfather fished along these banks his entire life - the river was his backyard. He was a gentle soul who recited poetry to us by heart: John Keat's 'Ode to a Grecian Urn' and my favorite - Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha". A prolific carver, he was one of the finest duck decoy carvers of the Delaware River school and his works are now in museums and private collections. When they come up at auction the prices are so high now that I can no longer afford to buy them back. He also built his own sculling boats. After spending so much time with him in his workshop it's no wonder that I grew up with a love for crafting things from wood and that I also share my great-grandfather's passion for photography.

My Grandparent's House

I celebrated the Fourth of July here, at my grandparent's house, for nearly twenty years. The house was located in a small town (9 square miles) in South Jersey that was settled in the 1850's. Many of the original houses still stand, including my grandparent's house on the river.

Watching the parade. My mother giggles as I bury my head into my grandfathers chest. I was scared of clowns and firetrucks. My brother and sister have curbside seats.

Fourth of July is the holiday I'm most nostalgic about. It always began with a parade followed by afternoon activities in the town park - pie eating contests, relay races, catching the greasy pig, or climbing the greasy pole for the twenty dollar bill nailed on top...those last two being games for the boys and men...no females would have dared back then. (We dressed for the holidays.)

Parade Scenes

My older sister and I.

And after that - a picnic in the yard with hamburgers and hot dogs, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, baked beans, watermelon, strawberry shortcake...all the classic American picnic fare.

Low tide on the river. My grandfather taught us to observe nature. Here he points something out to my sister & brother.

We searched for arrowheads along the river, napped in the hammock, chased fireflies at dusk and then, when nearly exhausted from all the fun, someone would bring out the box of sparklers as a prelude to the fireworks in the park. And just like every kid, everywhere in America, we thought our fireworks the grandest of them all.

Happy Fourth of July, America!

My sister and I (L) konked out in the backseat of our old Mercury after a long day of fun. 1963.

Summer in Paris - circa1928 - What to Wear - Where to Shop

2011-06-26T18:04:00.000-05:00

From a travel brochure for Paris - 1928. Written by Mrs. Myer Agen:

The month of July has at last brought us some real summer weather, permitting us once more to wear those ephemereal fluffy ruffles that all real womenly women adore. There are some, it is true, who are never wholly satisfied, complaining when weather is unseasonable, and then again grumbling that the heat is tiring. But, as the old saying goes, one cannot satisfy the father, his son and his donkey.

At any event now is the time that one should take full advantage of the heat by wearing the light frocks that are so becoming. Women are indeed blessed to be able to go about in almost scanty attire when the men folks are obliged to fume and sweat in upstanding collars and laundered shirts. As one of the delegates to the Democratic Convention remarked when the heat became intolerable down in Texas, "If men dared to dress as lightly as women, they'd be arrested."

Among the very pretty gowns that I have seen for summer wear, there are few that I like so much as that made up in breaking, and which may be had in a multitude of delicate fresh looking toillina, a material that wears well without tones. It is indeed delicious for wear in Paris during the heat of the dog days as well as in the country or at the sea. It is quite simple in line, as is another model that is both light and easy to put on, something that women will particularly appreciate in hot weather, when nothing is so annoying as a fussy dress that puts one into perspiration after one has managed to get refreshingly cool by taking a midday bath.

Advertisments and Text from "This Week in Paris" 1928. My collection.

Summer in the Vieux Carre'

2011-06-24T22:21:00.000-05:00

Everything I want of summer lingers in these rooms. Draped in unbleached muslin and shrouds of ethereal net they are the imagined interior of a cocoon; a delicate refuge for butterflies of another age.

Truman Capote wrote of such rooms "...for I lived beyond in three old white rooms, rooms with elaborate wedding-cake ceilings, wide sliding doors, tall French windows."

This is New Orleans in summer. The Gallier House to be exact: an 1857 mansion in the French Quarter - the Vieux Carre' - where memories float through chambers of perfect stillness.

At the windows lace curtains diffuse the afternoon light and scatter patterns across the natural straw mats. These are rooms that hold the simplest of summer pleasures: a desk for correspondance, a tray for refreshments, a half-bloomed embroidery waiting to be finished.

I would gladly spend my summer hours here. (I'll pretend there's no heat or humidity. No threat of tropical fever.) And you?

The Gallier House is located at 1132 Royal Street. Tour information is here.

These photographs are by photographer Henry Bowles and appeared in House and Garden. I don't know the year.

Armchair Traveling and Thoughts of Clarence

2011-06-23T02:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a few ghastly reality shows my home state of New Jersey has gotten an especially bad rap in the past few years. For those of us who need no compass and who know the true beauty of The Garden State it's been an annoying time. I've been on the defensive...been searching for ways to describe my state to the unfortunate ones...but I realized: There's no describing it, really. How would an astronaut describe what it's like to float amongst the stars in his little capsule? The visual is easy enough, but how does one make you feel it without the experience? (Well, there are people who can do that. They're called Poets.)

Here's the Situation: Let's not let a few bad apples spoil the tree. (And btw - only two of the Jersey Shore cast members are from N.J.) Lest I sound like I'm writing a pamphlet for the tourist board, I'll just say this - New Jersey is one of the smallest and most diverse states in the U.S. It has it all - mountains, ocean, acres of farmland, and neighborhoods rich in ethnicity where old world traditions (although become scarcer) are still to be found. Don't mock my state. Please. I'll fight you. I'll flip tables.

I get homesick in summer. I'm far away. I read. A trip to the bookstore had me searching for entirely new subjects and genres. I found it. Janet Evanovich. Yes, a departure of the strangest kind for me. But here's the thing: Janet Evanovich writes about my hometown. Trenton, N.J. and Hamilton Township. What?!!! And where have I been? She only has a gazillion books.

I can't tell you the last time I read a book in paperback format - the squatty kind of paperback - the kind with the spine meant for creasing without guilt - not the trade paperback that you read by peeking into the pages so as not to crack the spine. And I have never read about a bounty hunter...nor have I ever wanted to. I'm not big on girls with guns. (Or guns.) But, surprisingly I'm really enjoying this. I chose the first of her Stephanie Plum novels - One for the Money. It reads like a movie...and that's not only because Ms. Evanovich tells a good story but because I know every street, I hear the accents, I smell the food wafting through the neighborhoods, I know these people...these are my people. When she writes of the hospital, that's where I was born. When she says she parked the car on the corner of Olden and Hamilton I know where she is. I know which streets are one-way, I see her parallel parking. It wouldn't be a big deal to me if this was about NY, even though I lived there too, but this is Trenton. Who writes about Trenton? I've gone home without going home. This is true armchair traveling.

Flags will fly at half-mast in my home state today in tribute to Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen's long time friend and sax player with the E-Street Band who passed away last week. I've seen him play so many times I've lost count. His passing hits me a little more each day as I realize that along with the passing of Danny Federici last year, one more important element to the soundtrack that is New Jersey has been silenced. I remember sitting in a friend's room as a teen-ager listening to Bruce, hands positioned around our saxes - our air saxes - poised and waiting for that great soulful melody in Jungleland where we would become one with the music and with the essence of the Big Man. I think I'll do that once more for old time's sake.

Goodbye, Clarence.

Note: Spammers have finally been taken care of. Thank you, Blogger. And my apologies to my subscribers - It seems that Feedburner went whacky last week and randomly sent out a post which happened to be Happy New Year! Geez. I know you all thought I'd lost my mind. One person even unsubscribed! Now there's the holiday spirit. Too funny.

Anyone, besides me, having trouble scrolling on my blog page? I deleted one of my videos (you can still see it by clicking the Vimeo link on the sidebar) and thought that would do it, but no.

Happy Summer Everyone

Where's Everyone Coming From?!

2011-06-08T16:24:00.001-05:00

Hello hello! Hope all is well out there. I have a question. I've been having an unusually large number of page views today - unusually large - and have no idea why or where they're coming from. If anyone knows would you be so kind as to leave me a comment? I would love to know if someone linked to me. Whatever it is, there's something very strange going on here.

I will be back posting soon...just taking some time to relax and enjoy the beginning of summer.

All the best.

Here's an update...

I did quite a bit of research and according to blogger help others have written in about this before, too. The stat is from the blogger stat page from the dashboard only. Sitemeter is not affected and one source or post can't be determined. One response from the blogger team was that it could be from the Next Blog link at the top of the blog page. I don't know if that's it or not. My concern is to keep my site and the sites of those who visit me safe. If I see something unusual I look for answers. It's kinda whacky out there!!! Thanks all.

Traveling Women

2011-05-10T10:12:00.000-05:00

My great-grandmother in a boat on dry land. Photo by my great-grandfather. It is hard to believe that I knew her in her lifetime. How quickly life has changed.

I have so many wonderful old photos from both sides of my family; many from the 1800's thru the turn of the century. While looking through my family photo albums this weekend I was mesmerized by photos of the important female figures in my life who are perched on, or in, various vehicles of their time.

My grandmother on the wing of a bi-plane.

While none of them, myself included, are in the driver's seat, we're no shrinking violets either. Bossy back-seat-driver's, all. And our motto has always been - "We don't care where you take us, just take us somewhere."

None of my grandmother's drove, nor does my mother, and I had no need to drive until I left NYC at 30.

My mother in top-hat riding in a rumble seat in a parade.

"Taking a ride" continues to be a favorite form of entertainment for the women in my family. Just say the words, "Let's take a ride" and out the door we'll go - purses snapping and screen doors slamming.

Only now, we leave the men at home. We'll fly that plane ourselves, thank you very much. It may have taken us two score and ten years, but we're finally in the driver's seat.

Me in 1973 surfing at the shore with my best buddy, Albert. The happiest days ever.

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
Susan B. Anthony

Glamour Girl

2011-05-08T14:34:00.000-05:00

Mother and I - 1956. My very glamorous mother - dancer, photographer's model, and voted Best Dressed in her graduating class. Born to a French/Irish mother who adored fashion and decorating and passed those passions down to all of us.

Here she holds me - the third of four children - in an Organza ensemble from The Lilliputian Bazaar at Best & Co. New York, where most of my baby clothes came from. How tirelessly she sprinkled and ironed all those tiny tucks, pleats, and ruffles.

We are the best of friends - as close in demeanor and physicality as twins. We call each other at the same time, say things in unison, even share the same aches and pains on the same day.

But most importantly - when we are together we laugh, and then we laugh, and then we laugh some more.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

Wish I was there to spend the day with you.

Gill's Rabbit

2011-04-23T19:02:00.000-05:00

My favorite rabbit of all. Andre Gill's rabbit for the landmark cabaret in Montmartre, Au Lapin Agile. To read about the history of Au Lapin Agile click here.

I have to run, as my house-sitters have arrived and I am getting ready for some r&r, but I wanted to wish everyone a very happy weekend and a Happy Easter.

Will be back soon.

Image - Musee Montmartre

Navigating

2011-04-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

It's taken me a while to come to terms with the on-line relationship, to understand it and be comfortable with it. There's an element of mystery involved that keeps it interesting. I like mystery and I very much enjoy the interactions I have with fellow bloggers.

Many non-bloggers don't get why we do what we do and if someone is unreceptive to the idea I don't try to explain, but those of us who've been at it for awhile know that communicating through this medium can mean the difference between a sad and lonely day for some and one filled with glimmers of friendship, kind words, shared interests, and a sometimes needed pat on the back. In short: it can be a very friendly and compassionate place, which in turn can lift spirits and give people hope.

There's an important new blog whose focus does just that. Headed by the gifted writer and editor, Ysabel de la Rosa and entitled "Getting Along with Grief", it is a place - and I quote from her sidebar - "to share thoughts, ideas, experiences and suggestions on what makes it possible, meaningful, and easier to live while working to make peace with the loss and absence of a loved one." I was deeply moved by the content of the posts and wanted to share the address with you. If you would like to submit poetry, prose, or an image for consideration there are guidelines on the site.

We all know someone who, right at this moment, could benefit from the experiences of others who've navigated along this difficult path. I hope you will bookmark this wonderful new blog and then send the link to someone in need.

www.gettingalongwithgrief.blogspot.com

An Assemblage of Thoughts

2011-04-16T23:53:00.000-05:00

Perhaps I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole… Why not? It’s nearly Easter and bunnies have been on my mind. Today’s been an extravaganza of attention deficit – not that every day isn’t one giant leap into the Big Top – but today has been especially fractured.

It began with a crystal-clear understanding of something that’s been bothering me for ions- and all it took was asking the right person (the right brilliant person, I might add) a question or two about this particular topic and all fell into place. Seek and ye shall find. If you don’t open your mouth and ask, will you ever get an answer? My life is forever changed because I took that risk. Be street smart about who you trust – but trust.

After that – a total disruption in the normal daily schedule… My husband leaves for the day. Not normal for us since he is usually gone at night. I fall into housewife mode (something I never do, but actually enjoy.) I open the blinds and let the light stream in. I dust. I assign seven guitars new places to stand and I stop and examine each one: they are sculpture, history.

I make a list for the grocery store – tomorrow we will have a huge feast…a blend of my heritage and his. I’m making up for the fact that we stupidly made plane reservations for Easter Sunday because we pay no attention to calendars. Tomorrow’s feast will make up for our lost Easter this year.

My husband is off to work at his restaurant and I uncork a bottle of wine that I actually bought – something you don’t normally need to do when you own a restaurant – but, in keeping with my weird mood, that is what I did. I chose a Francis Ford Coppola Zinfandel (which my husband said I paid too much for) because all I think about right now are movies and also because I just finished reading Eleanor Coppola’s (she is an artist, he is her husband) memoir, “Notes on a Life”. I adored her, related to her, and I wanted to drink the wine from her vineyard. Cheers to you, Eleanor.

Next, I take my wine outside. The fountain is on and I’m waiting for my little squirrel to appear. (She has become a he. It’s very confusing.) I realize: Oh my, I have a new phone. I can read the internet on my terrace. I am reluctant. I fight modernization. I don’t want to experience this for the first time because I know there will be no turning back. But, because I’m a brave and courageous soul, I go ahead. I’m in love with my new phone. The sun is going down and the background I’ve chosen for my phone has turned from the brightest blue sky to a subtle sunset and then a starry night. I’m breathless. I’ve never cared about phones. I live an unconventional life…maybe a half hour a week on the phone. Maybe. Hello? Seriously. When I handed the guy at Best Buy my old phone it was as if I showed him an 8-track. Hahahaha!

Right before the sun went down I wanted to read – so I picked up one of my favorite books ever – short stories by Sam Shepard – Great Dream of Heaven. I won’t try to explain – not my strong suit – but his writing moves me. Phenomenal.

I’ve been thinking of joining Twitter. Have researched it, gone on the site, clicked around. Don’t quite get it, but I think it’s something you have to do to get. It’s all about self-promotion, I hear. Slightly creepy. Such is the world today. I don’t expect the NYT to come calling, honestly.

Before my husband left for work tonight he asked me what I was going to do. Oh, I bought this VHS of “Chaplin” the other day for 1.00. I think I’ll watch it. (I adore Chaplin and have seen the Robert Downey Jr. portrayal before but look forward to seeing it again.) And then I click on to Twitter – and I see – in tiny print – a link – to Charlie Chaplin. Today is his birthday. Today is his birthday. Today is his birthday. My god, I think…..How does this happen?

And so, I am off to the movies.

Catherine

Dream Box / Bed Box

2011-04-07T22:33:00.001-05:00

Dream Box 2005 - wood, fabric, glass, paper, net - 23 x 11 x 7

This box-structure holds four dreams I had in the 80's. I sometimes feel compelled to preserve fleeting moments in time - moments in my life as well as obscure moments in history or literature. I don't know where that comes from. A fear of being forgotten? A form of self-preservation? I'm not sure. I prefer not to psychoanalyze. I never really know what thoughts were in my mind until after a piece is finished. That's when I begin to understand.

Four glass viles hold the dreams. I removed one for the photo. They rest on a tufted mattress.

The silouette resembles an 18th century pinball machine...if such a thing existed.

The 'Headboard' is an apparition of Boucher's 'Toilette of Venus'

Back - signed and dedicated to Marianna Gambara

Dream -One

I was playing chess with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas

My head was resting on Gertrude's fat, bare arm

My chess pieces were carved and polished granite

One was missing

I thought that I would buy one to replace it and present it to them as a gift

We finished playing and decided to go to a Greek restaurant to eat Spanakopita.

Dream - Two

I was in a museum with a tall, thin man with grey hair and a white beard

We were there together but didn't know each other well

We stood in front of a painting that resembled a Vermeer

It was of a peasant woman wearing a long dress covered by a long white apron

She was grasping a rope that hung from a trap door in the ceiling

As we looked at the painting it came to life

The woman pulled hard on the rope and the trap door opened

Light streamed in and we could see bright blue sky and puffy clouds

People began to come up to my companion and congratulate him on the painting

"Thank you" he said, "it's one of my favorites."

"That's your painting?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "I am Georges Braque."

Dream - Three

I was walking through the woods with three female friends

I stopped to take Christmas ornaments off some low shrubs

My friends called out to me from the top of a hill

They said to hurry; there was a clearing up ahead and an old cottage

I yelled for them to keep going: that I would catch up with them

I put more ornaments into a brown paper bag and then walked up the hill

I entered the abandoned cottage and began to sort through old linens on a shelf

When I turned and looked at my friends they were in different stages of ageing:

the oldest being the first person to enter the cottage

We talked about what I would do in the time that elapsed from their deaths to mine.

Dream - Four

There was a shop on the southeast corner of Broadway and 72nd that sold antique clothes

On the sidewalk in front were wooden shelves with sale items

I picked up a fur hat with a floppy fur brim and a chartreuse hatband and went inside to find a mirror

The shop had many rooms but no merchandise

The wood floor was splattered with paint

In one of the rooms an old man sat at an easel, painting

I told him I wanted to try on the hat and he pointed to a bare wall

I went off to find a mirror

There were many mirrors but they were all either too high or too low and whenever I tried to look into one my shoes came off

I finally found one the right height. The hat fit perfectly

When I took it off to look at the price tag I dropped it, and just as I caught it it turned into a book with a thick, shiny cover

I opened it and it was an international cookbook and as I turned the pages food spilled out of the book. I stood in a mess of spaghetti, chow mien, and Hungarian dumplings

I wiped off the book and quickly folded it back into a hat so that the man wouldn't know how magical it was and raise the price. It was $25.00

I looked for him. He was in another room now...painting at another easel

"I'll take it," I said.

He examined it inside and out.

"You can have it for twenty," he said.

I left the shop and Keith Richards was standing on the corner.

This piece is dedicated to Marianna Gambara, a character in Balzac's book 'Gambara'. I was reading it at the time I was working on this. The description of the furniture made by Giardini and of her bed reminded me of the bed I was creating:

"She had spent the entire morning dusting the strange furniture, the handiwork of Signor Giardini, who had employed his leisure moments making such items out of the scraps of instruments Gambara had discarded. Andrea had never seen anything so peculiar in all his life. In order to preserve the semblance of gravity, he was compelled to look away from the grotesque bed the ingenious chef had fashioned out of the case of an old spinet, and turned instead to Marianna's narrow cot, its simple mattress covered with white muslin, which suggested thoughts at once melancholy and delightful."

Balzac

The Blackbeard Project

2011-03-27T07:52:00.000-05:00

I had so much fun putting this together. This is the first movie/slideshow I've ever made and I know there will more forays into movie-making in the future. I keep myself awake at night writing stories in my head, thinking of camera angles, noise effects, writing my own tunes. I may have unleashed a beast.
My post editor seems to be broken and I'm having trouble getting this typed. I will add my youtube channel link since this will not show up for my subscribers.

www.youtube.com/user/cathandra4

Sorry, this post editor is not typing and I'm banging on the keys!

How To Hide Chocolates

2011-03-20T03:53:00.001-05:00

Box Construction - C. Andrako 2010 - 15 x 9 1/4 x 5

How to hide chocolates.

I take elaborate measures.

An advertisement for chocolates, circa 1900, was the inspiration for this work, which is one of two chocolate boxes I've made.

When the ribbons are untied the lid with attached frame can be lifted to reveal whatever chocolates I've stored there. It is an ever-changing vitrine of chocolate textures, shapes, and colors.

I guess you could say, I'll have my art and eat it too.

Have a Wonderful First Day of Spring!!

More photos and descriptions at "Boxes and other structures" HERE

A Giveaway

2011-03-16T19:29:00.000-05:00

If your name is selected I will make you a hat in a color of your choice. Hats are approximately 6 inches in length, the perfect size to perch on your upswept hairdo or powdered wig. Or, display it on a hat stand, statue, or table. Bonne Chance.

Please click on the name below to visit my blog

Boxes and other structures

for Japan

2011-03-14T11:39:00.000-05:00

I tried to have a little diversion this weekend...a bottle of wine, a few dances to my favorite music videos but the devastation in Japan has overwhelmed me with sadness. I cut the party short and turned out the lights.

My heart breaks for Japan.

Here is a Haiku from Ryunosuke Akotagawa:

Sick and feverish

Glimpse of cherry blossoms

Still shivering

I Dream of Venice

2011-03-05T14:21:00.000-06:00

Venetian Carnivale is in full swing until the last elaborate fan drops on Shrove Tuesday. I'm perfectly happy viewing the revelry from afar via YouTube...but, to be sipping tea at the legendary Caffe' Florian next to this extravagant vision in orange and chartreuse might be worth elbowing my way through the crowds.

The power of a photograph: This image, by photographer Patrick Ward for a 1990 issue of European Travel and Life has been embedded in my memory for twenty years. It's the one I see in my mind's eye whenever I think of Carnivale in Venice. Who are you, you elegant creature?

A corner table at Caffe' Florian, shot by photographer Guy Bouchet for Victoria Magazine. Images such as this one bring out the wanderlust. I already know that I'll sit there someday...the photograph tells me so.

A Taste of Venice: Chocolate gelato with bitter-orange sauce, topped with a chocolate gondola at

The Hotel Cipriani.

Richard Bowditch, photographer

The Weight of Roses - C. Andrako 2005 - Box Construction

I dream of Venice.

I've added this work to my Art Blog.

Click here if you would like to view more photos and read about it's mysteries.

"Wishing You a Weekend Filled with Revelry"

My "Oscar" Accessory

2011-02-25T14:44:00.000-06:00

There's an accessory in my closet that's been waiting and waiting for that perfect occasion - something akin to a Royal Wedding (not likely) or a walk down the red carpet to attend the Academy Awards.

(Well, you never know.)

But then again, this might be its only moment to shine so I've given it the star treatment.

No, it's not a corset...although it's playing one here on this blog.

A little pink underneath to show the rhinestone detail.

The softest, supplest, thinnest white suede.

My Movie-Star Gloves. Take a bow girls.

Have an Oscar-Worthy Weekend.

my week in a few pictures

2011-02-23T21:35:00.000-06:00

I was going to write that its been an uneventful week here so far...but how could I consider my week uneventful when so much has already engaged my senses?

From my weekend flea market finds - a 1978 poster of a photograph by one of my favorite photographers Sheila Metzner, and a hat made of millinery flowers that I sat on top of a square glass vase to form a bouquet...

To a Sunday dinner of Roast Rack of Pork with Rosemary and several excellent bottles of wine...

To many hours studying the last of the roses through my lens...

(Click to enlarge)

And an afternoon revisiting some of my old collages...

I'd say it's been a pretty good week so far...with much to be thankful for.

a few blooms

2011-02-16T21:34:00.000-06:00

I collect vases like some people collect shoes...but even with all the beautiful shapes and styles and textures I have to choose from, it's the odd container - the old Lepanto sherry bottle with painted gold filagree,

the Avon perfume bottle of a hand holding a vase that I bought on the side of the road for a dollar,

or the delicate glass olive oil ewer which always sets me dreaming of Venice that, to me, make the prettiest presentations.

When a large bouquet has nearly run its course I fill these favorite 'vases' with the last of the blooms and scatter them around the house...giving them, and me, a few more days of beauty.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T09:07:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all you romantics out there. I tried to cram every cliche' I could into one photo and I think I did a pretty good job. No flowers, though. Well, it's early yet.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Eat lots of chocolate.

A Colorful Weekend

2011-02-13T12:46:00.001-06:00

I know how lucky I am - an ice storm that only lasted three days followed by an inch of snow that melted overnight. It will be in the 70's most of the week - with an unseasonable 77 degrees predicted for Thursday.

All I can think of is spring, spring, spring and color, color, color. Here are some vignettes of my colorful world this weekend. I think I'm beginning to feel the effects. Color is such a cure.

Love - Optimist or Pessimist?

2011-02-12T21:44:00.001-06:00

Is the sky beginning to clear...or is the worst yet to come? Will the rose soon turn to stone...or has the spell been lifted?

Optimist or Pessimist?

I hadn't thought of any of those things when I was creating this collage several years ago, but those thoughts came to mind while I was scanning it this afternoon...that it could be looked at either way.

I only ever saw it as something dark and brooding - a scene from a fairy-tale...the cold-hearted prince being turned to stone.

How else would I see it? When I was a child one of the neighbors had a nickname for me - "Little Sarah Bernhardt". So theatrical.

Even back then. Amazing.

Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovely, warm-hearted folks out there.

Au Bonheur des Dames

2011-01-29T12:21:00.000-06:00

All talk has been of Paris Fashion Week. I brought out one of my favorite finds - an advertising fan from Galeries Lafayette, marked 'Made in France 1926'. The front is signed by an artist by the last name of Domingue - I can't read the first name...begins with a Y. I bought it at a flea market in Pa. for 7.00.

One like it sold at auction for 1,600.

The reverse side is signed by artist, Gabriel Ferro.

Au Bonheur des Dames - The Ladies' Paradise - a novel by Emile Zola - 1883

Set in the world of the modern department store in late 19th century Paris. Modeled after Le Bon Marche'.

Publisher's Comments - The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century.

Octave Mouret, the store's owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life as much as in business he is the great seducer. But when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu, he discovers she is the only one of the salesgirls who refuses to be commodified.

Objects for Two Children

2011-01-24T09:30:00.000-06:00

I encountered this painting of Charles Phillip (Charles X) six years old, and Mme. Clotilde, four years old by painter Francois Hubert Drouais - 1767

and I wondered

What would delight these two children?

My answer is on the site for my art:

Boxes and other structures

click to link

A Chocolate Game

2011-01-19T19:04:00.000-06:00

Another work added to my online exhibit.

More photos and story

by clicking

HERE

Venetian Inspiration

2011-01-16T01:08:00.001-06:00

If I ever announce that I've bought a trunk, you'll know that I'm going to Venice. I've always thought that that would be a great way to travel to Venice - with a trunk filled with costumes. And given that the Venetians have a passionate love of pets, these fans would be the purrrr-fect accessory. (Sorry.)

Did you know that in the 18th century carnival season began on December 26th and lasted right through to Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday as it's called in the U.S.? Permission was officially granted on the 26th, St. Stephen's Day, for the wearing of masks and they were worn by noblemen, beggars, priests, and courtesans alike, usually white ones or black, velvet or silk. Can you imagine the setting; people going about their everyday lives for weeks and weeks with the mask as accessory? And a tricorn? That's the life for me.

This year Carnival is from February 26 to March 8. It's not too soon to start powdering those wigs.

One of my favorite paintings. Pietro Longhi.

Wild beast shows were popular during carnival and when a rhinoceros was exhibited in 1751 it created a sensation. The oval black mask on the woman in the back row has always intrigued me. It almost looks like a blot on the painting. I can't get over how it draws me in.

Inspired by Venice.

My new avatar on my new site:

Boxes and other structures. Link.

I really need a new portrait.

I'm so appreciative for the many visits to my new site. I waited a long time to finally put it together and your support meant alot to me. Many thanks.

Fan photos from Victoria - The Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Fla.

My photo - Kathleen O'Hara

My Art Online

2011-01-12T11:30:00.000-06:00

Please join me as I create a site to exhibit my art. I'll be adding pieces

from my collection as I photograph and write about each one.

"Boxes and other structures"

click to link

An Explosion of Beauty - Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T12:55:00.000-06:00

A gift to myself...a bulb of unknown color. I planted it and watched. What a beautiful way to end the year.

Observing this astoundingly beautiful Amaryllis as it transformed itself from tight bud

to single bloom

and then to a radiant display of five red trumpets was a lesson in patience and a reminder to slow down in 2011 and to revisit all the things in life I hold most dear.

So, here's to 2011...May all your plans, and hopes begin like the bud of this flower, and with a little nurturing may all your dreams come true.

"A Happy, Happy New Year to All"

Thank you so much for your friendship throughout the year.

Catherine

Found Photo and Old Print

2010-12-24T22:36:00.000-06:00

The corn was frosted, taters is scarce, an I lost my best houn'dog, but jest the same

Christmas is Christmas

Gustave Baumann , German, 1881 - 1962

Linoleum Print - The Art Institute of Chicago

Not the prettiest Christmas card in the world, but I must say it moves me beyond any other.

Merry, Merry Christmas Everyone

Thank you so much for your kind comments throughout the year...they mean so much to me.

I hope you're warm and surrounded by those you love...and that there are plenty of taters in your larder.

Have a Wonderful Christmas

On The Mantel

2010-12-14T22:17:00.000-06:00

Season's Greetings, my friends. While so many of you have been festive and posting prolifically, I've had an unwelcome bout of writer's block. I've tried again and again to write a post - only to delete one sentence after another. These particular photos have been posted on "draft" for days now - something I've never done before. I sign in and I have a look - I sit and I stare - I sign out and I walk away. Perhaps the words wouldn't come because I felt my thoughts were already conveyed by my photos.

Two sweet faced creche animals, a few glittery fruits and berries, a 30 year old marzipan pig, and several of my handmade objects from long ago were all I needed to express my feelings this holiday season. My wish is for less rather than more, for quiet and peace, for solitude and serenity. For me those feelings exist in these simple holiday decorations.

Back in the olden days - when I lived in NYC - my husband and I would go to the Gotham Book Mart and Gallery on W. 47th St. to see the tree that was decorated with Dresden ornaments. It was beyond amazing. And even though you followed a queue of people that wound its way around the tree, there was a quiet, a reverence...as if you were in a library, a museum, or a church. We were ornament worshippers all. I still have the printed price list (Yes, some of them were for sale and I will e-mail you a copy of this nostalgic list if you are interested.). I especially loved the cotton batting ornaments and Santas, but they were out of my price range so I decided to make my own.

There they are above - circa 1983. My husband - son of an engineer - actually made the patterns on paper for me (because I 'was' the worst pattern maker ever) and I sewed them together. We went to Central Park on a snowy day and collected the branches and pine cones that are tucked in their arms. Their faces are from a shop on Columbus Ave. I can't believe how they've browned with age.

The 30 year old Marzipan Pig with a coin in its mouth. It is a symbol of 'Good Luck' in Germany, Norway, and Denmark.

Since this is getting lengthy (so much for writer's block) I'll add that I sat on my Christmas crown this year and had to replace the little tree on the snow covered hill. I didn't feel a thing - which is a whole other story. I'll remedy that after the holidays. (Hee hee!)

Season's Greetings One and All!

Thank you to my friend FX, who so generously lent me his very fine camera so that I would have a new toy to play with over the holidays.

Party On!

2010-11-26T22:52:00.001-06:00

I love this video. I've watched it a million times. 1972...Italian star Adriano Celantano. You've gotta watch . Seriously. It's a cross between Fellini and DeLaurentis. The choreography reminds me of what I was dancing in the 70's with the great Luigi. Someone took the video - which is Adriano, (who didn't speak English but made the lyrics sound like English) and added subtitles which sound exactly like his spoken gibberish. Adriano recorded this long before Rap emerged. Genius. The choreography and direction are fabulous. I'm especially in tune to Italy now that my friends have opened the charming B&B Fiordaliso in Florence. Have a look...at both.

2010-11-25T11:57:00.000-06:00

"Best Wishes for a very Happy Thanksgiving"

Autumn News...and...When In Firenze

2010-11-22T18:27:00.001-06:00

I've returned! Two weeks seems like a long time in blog years. I was in dire need of a break from my computer after mucking about on Facebook, and now that I've rested and banished myself from FB for life, I can get back to doing the things I enjoy.

As some of you know, I was setting up someone else's blog and FB site and started my own first to see how it worked. Just a note here: If you plan on re-directing your feed through your FB site be sure to use Networked Blogs. It's very easy. There are other ways to do it, but this was the easiest.

Having FB in my life was like having a bad moon hanging over my head. I hated it. In an impulsive moment I hit the delete button and immediately felt a great sense of relief. Many thanks to those of you who found me there - and especially to my good friend, Judith from Paris Atelier, who was so kind to lend me a helping hand when I was losing my mind.

ALSO

I'm Still Following Your Blog! My photo (avatar) has mysteriously disappeared from all blogs that I'm following. No grey square...no blog name...nothing. I'm still there and you are still arriving on my Dashboard. I've tried everything but it seems that I am following privately instead of publicly. I hope you'll see me there again, soon.

And now on a pleasant note:

WHEN IN FIRENZE

Two people who are very dear to me have opened a charming and affordable B&B in Florence, Italy on the most beautiful street in the historic district: Borgo Santi Apostali. I can hardly wait to visit. Please click here to enter the website of B&B Fiordaliso. It would be a lovely place to stay while visiting your friends or relatives over the holidays. I will keep a link on my sidebar for easy access when planning your next trip to Florence.

Photo of Florence at Sunset - MBisanz via Wikipedia

Found Photos - Ballet

2010-11-07T00:06:00.000-05:00

Welcome, new Follower - Peter Fox Shoes. You have no idea how many times I've stood in front of your windows and dreamed. These photos are for you.

Photos found in Texas

November 2, 1755

2010-11-02T19:00:00.000-05:00

At thirty-eight years old, Empress Maria Theresa was about to give birth for the fifteenth time. She was busy with her work when the labor pains came. But why waste time? She had a tooth extracted while she waited. At 7:30 in the evening, after a difficult labor, Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna was born. The French called her Marie-Antoinette. Her mother called her Antonia.

I found this paperback version of Stefan Zweig's biography of Marie-Antoinette at the bookstalls in Paris.

Today is the birthday of Marie-Antoinette and also All Souls Day.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-28T20:31:00.001-05:00

My long time followers will remember me as the (aging) 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' from two years ago. I adore Halloween...and welcome any excuse to put on a costume. I think I own more costumes, or costume-like clothing than contemporary wear. It's impossible for me to clean out my closet...One doesn't dispose of pleated ruffs and lace detail, embroidery, pleats, or shell buttons. The bar and shelving in my closet crashed to the ground a month ago in the middle of the night. The only warning there was to rearrange - not to discard. I thought I was through with collecting, but I discovered a new antique mall with a booth full of things that made me gasp. I've begun looking for beautiful old shoes...no matter what the size.

Please click onto this photo to enlarge. These orange and yellow tulips were gorgeous. They were sitting on my coffee-table. Other than a little brightening, this is how the photo came right out of the camera. (x's 3). The black background is merely shadows. Posting it with Vermeer's Girl seemed appropriate.

I've set up a Facebook page - something I vowed never to do - so we'll see how my introverted self fares in that social world. I've been full of anxiety over it but I was the same way with blogging. It does get easier. I'm trying to link my blog through it...and I did...and then it didn't. So please bear with me as I work out the kinks. I'm still trying to get the linking and sharing thing straight in my head. I'll attach a Badge here that will link you to my page. Please stop by. It's a place where I'll have lots of photo albums and eventually, yes, eventually my art. I've been creating shadow boxes and free-standing pieces for over 20 years...leisurely. I never show them to anyone - but I think I should. I think I will. Eventually.

Returned to add this note: The Facebook page I started is not a personal page but a business page. You 'Like' the page by clicking on to the thumbs up widget on the top of the page. Updates come to your Wall. It's different than becoming 'Friends' as on a personal page. I'm not going to have that kind of page. Thank you for inquiring. Have a great weekend....Happy Halloween.

Mama's Little Monkeys

2010-10-22T21:38:00.000-05:00

This photograph is from the estate of an old Vaudeville agent. I can only imagine what their life was like with five little monkeys to care for and train.

My friend Linda had five little monkeys of her own and they were in their tween and teen years. She was going through a divorce and they decided they wanted to go live with their father, Mr. Moneybags.

She spotted this photo on my desk and asked if she could make a copy. "Sure," I said.

Later she told me that she replaced the family portrait that was hanging on the living room wall with this one when her kids moved out.

"Did they see it?" I asked. "What did they say?"

"Oh, they saw it," she laughed. "And they didn't say a word. They just kept glancing over at it. I guess they didn't want to draw attention to the fact that they were little monkeys."

I know some very funny people.

Opera in a Teacup

2010-10-16T18:02:00.000-05:00

When I left you last it was John Lennon's birthday - and as John once said, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." It's been an exhausting week for me - a week full of new endeavors and a marathon of hours on the computer. I am spent. My brain has shut-down and my rosy complexion has turned a lovely shade of griege. So fashionable for October, don't you think?

Tea and a movie are on the agenda for tonight...and a heated lavender sachet for the back of my aching neck. I found a double VHS of the French masterpiece "Children of Paradise" for 1.00. If you've never seen it, it's a must for any lover of French cinema. Here is the trailer for your enjoyment.

Wishing you a relaxing Sunday.

Whatever Gets You Thru the Night

2010-10-09T17:22:00.000-05:00

The Soul Singer (c) C. Andrako 2010

Sometimes you just need to get out and do whatever it is that will get you thru the night. I've been feeling like that lately. I shot these at a club last Saturday night. It was alot harder than I thought it would be and I found soul music to be the perfect accompaniment.

I'm thinking about music today. Thinking about John.

The story goes that John was channel surfing one night and stopped to listen to Reverend Ike, a famous black evangelist who was preaching that "it's whatever gets you through the night". John wrote it down. "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" is one of my favorite songs and was a #1 hit for John.

John Lennon would have been 70 today. Put on a Lennon tune and dance. That's what I'm doing tonight.

Photo of John Lennon - Wikipedia

Found Photos with Stories

2010-10-01T22:02:00.000-05:00

Sunday's are for roaming now that football season has arrived. I couldn't be happier. The entire afternoon is spent either out and about taking new photographs or out and about looking for old photographs. Here are a few I've added to my collection recently, along with some very creative stories by a little girl practicing her penmanship - a Miss Agnes M. Ackerman of Nazareth, Penna. The stories are dated: 1879 and 1880.

The center photo is a Tin-type. I've never found one in this great of a condition before. Click to enlarge.

From Where I Sat

2010-09-23T19:41:00.000-05:00

The Ukrainian Church as seen through the window

McSorley's

15 E.7th St.

The Oldest Irish Tavern in NYC - mid 1800's

Legally forced to serve women in 1970

Frequented by U.S. Presidents, Poets, and Literary Figures

Where to go if you're looking for Houdini's handcuffs

Adrift in New York

2010-09-21T18:49:00.000-05:00

Heading East from Chinatown after a delicious (and very inexpensive) lunch at Wo Hop on Mott St. - a restaurant I've been frequenting for forty years - I saw the masts of the 'Peking' towering above a block of 1811 counting houses known as Schermerhorn Row. Here is the South Street Seaport.

Despite the Mall, the Ann Taylor Store, Brookstone and the kiosks that dot the cobblestone street (one of which has lovely goods from Morocco and I could kick myself for not buying the beautiful, soft leather slippers in bright colors for $18.00!) it's not difficult to imagine what NY must have been like back then. (Although, I'll admit I have a pretty good imagination.)

The last time I was in this part of the city it was a freezing cold day in the 70's. I'd gone with a friend to the top of the World Trade Center and then to see Trinity Church before heading over to the Fulton Fish Market. (It was relocated to the Bronx in 2005 after 183 years.) We ordered a whole broiled fish at a quaint restaurant facing the water and then ran back and forth across the deck of the Peking - the only two people on the ship...the only two crazy enough to be running around in 0 degree weather. It's like a different place now - but the ships are still the same.

Hanging from the front of the Tugboat.

There's an exhibit here of Stieglitz's photographs of old New York which runs through to Jan. 19, 2011. Thirty-nine photographs from the periods of 1893-1916 and 1930-1935 and you can also view his 'lantern slides' (scanned from the originals) which have never been seen before. Click here to read more about it.

Alfred Stieglitz "The Steerage" 1907

Playing Tourist

2010-09-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

It's a strange feeling to return to a city you once called 'home' and to see it through the eyes of a tourist. This is the second time I've stayed in the Wall Street area at my friend's apartment in the very modern, Andre Balazs designed William-Beaver House and I've really enjoyed wandering about in this old and unfamiliar section of downtown Manhattan. I rarely search for 'new' New York, preferring to visit my old haunts and the New York of by-gone eras, so I found this neighborhood (for a neighborhood is what it is, now) with its Baroque plan based on 17th century Amsterdam to have just the right mix of old and new to keep me visually thrilled and physically comfortable. (Not the place to stay if you've never been to NYC. The Village or Midtown would be better.)

On the website for the William-Beaver House (click here) there's an informative history of the area by writer, architect, designer James Sanders, who also won an Emmy for his documentary "Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film" that's worth a read if you're interested in the history of Manhattan's early beginnings and of the Wall Street area, which he describes as being "the birthplace of the modern city".

The photo above is a view from the roof on a clear, beautiful afternoon. We would meet here - family and friends - every evening just before sunset to drink champagne until the city lights came on, and then we'd head out to either a favorite restaurant or a new one we wanted to try. Here's one I highly recommend - Pylos. The tall building with the green roof in the foreground is 40 Wall St. which was once - from April 1930 to 27th May 1930 - (yes, one month) the tallest building in the world, but was surpassed by the Chrysler Building. It's now owned by - Guess Who? - The Donald.

The presence of the early Dutch settlers is still felt in the architecture of quaint buildings that stand in the shadows of some of the 20th century's most spectacular skyscrapers.

An aerial view of Lower Manhattan. (Thanks, Wiki)

And City Hall rising up like a castle on a picture-perfect day.

More photographs to come.

Making an Entrance

2010-09-13T10:23:00.000-05:00

Venetian Glass Chandelier and Mosaic Ceiling

Bank Foyer...Financial District

NYC

Remembering

2010-09-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

Shot on 9-8-2010 at the NY Stock Exchange and on a terrace in Lower Manhattan.

God Bless America

I've just returned and wanted to post these today, Sept. 11th. Back soon.

Collage with Found Photo

2010-09-03T20:25:00.000-05:00

In the center oval is an old photo of two people walking in snow near - what looks to be - Niagara Falls. Click to enlarge for a better view. My collage - 2006.

Traveling is on my mind. I'm off to hang out in one of my favorite cities for a week. See you soon.

East Hampton Summer - Circa 1980

2010-08-23T12:12:00.001-05:00

It was 30 years ago this week that I met up with three girlfriends in lower Manhattan, threw my bags in the back of a station-wagon and headed out to the Hamptons. We'd been offered a week at another friend's rental property and we jumped at the chance to get out of the hot city.

East Hampton was a quiet town back then - no traffic, sparsely populated beaches, plenty of parking in town. I remember Dean and Deluca's and a grocery store where we bought our essentials for the week, but I don't remember being lured by any other shops. We weren't there to shop, anyway - we were there to rusticate. If East Hampton was a money town, then we fell down the rabbit hole: a pastoral pocket on the Sound side became our summer idyll for a week with nary a mansion in sight.

I loved taking photographs then, as I do now, and looking at these shots reminds me of how I'd jump at the chance to play art director. Asking my friends to stand apart and stare blankly was my novice attempt at recreating the feel of Deborah Turbeville's Bath House series, which was fresh on my mind. I laugh when I think about it now, but it's for that reason that this is one of my favorite photo memories. Cutting Ginnie's middle out was unintentional: I hadn't yet learned "to see". (Although, I like that about the photo now.)

Here I am in a field with a rusty tractor. I must have been influenced by Andrew Wyeth's painting, Christina's World, which was a favorite of mine back then. The Polaroid doesn't allow you to see that I'm chewing on a long piece of grass. Too funny.

An uncomfortable pose in the dunes at Montauk.

We drove to nearby Shelter Island one afternoon and discovered this forsaken lawn surrrounded by a carved stone balustrade and statuary. It was like a secret garden...a perfect spot for a Gatsby-esque party with lanterns and orchestra and champagne...and fireflies. On the way back, Nikki serenaded us with a slow and sultry rendition of Billie Holiday's 'Summertime'. It was one of the highlights and surprises of our week - we hadn't known that she sang and played guitar in New England coffee houses in the seventies.

But it's this natural, un-posed shot of my friends walking on the beach on a blustery day that really captures the spirit of that happy summer vacation...and of days that will never come again.

for Nikki, Ginnie, and Barbara

Designs In Nature: Photography and Synchronicity (or, How I Became a Blogger)

2010-08-17T22:46:00.002-05:00

UPDATE: MARCH 2011

Photos can now be viewed in a movie/slideshow on Youtube

Please click link below:

Catherine's youtube channel

Followers of this blog know that, at least once a year, I escape to the tranquil outer banks of North Carolina to write and to watch the waves roll in...and they also know that I'm a late-comer to the world of computer technology. It was, in fact, a discovery that I made on those Carolina outer banks that led me to buy my first computer just two years ago. Since I inadvertently let June pass without any mention of my two year blog anniversary, I thought I'd take the time now to recount the event that ultimately led me to blog in the first place.

Along the waterway that separates the narrow, sandy island from the mainland of North Carolina, there are groupings of trees whose branches have been ravaged, bent, twisted, and gnarled by the forces of hurricane winds and other elements of the coastal climate. Stripped of their leaves and exposed to the glaring sun, the bark has turned a dry and powdery driftwood grey, which renders them as sculptures against the blue sky. While my husband and I were driving down the island's main road I saw, at the end of a short side-street, a group of trees - the shapes of which attracted me more than others (especially a felled tree entwined with leafy vines) and we doubled back to find them.

I got out of the car and started shooting with my film camera - a Nikon 6006. (I didn't own a digital camera then.) I'm not a pro, but I've taken lots of photographs in my day and I've sometimes experienced that feeling where you just know...where you just feel it before you see the results and this was one of those times.

I had the film developed and duplicate 4x6 prints made and, of themselves, they weren't much to look at, but there was something there that kept haunting me. One night I was lying in bed and holding the pictures up to the light and I realized that if I flipped the duplicate around and synchronized the two pictures it would create a pattern. Basic art school stuff, I'm sure, but this is where it gets interesting.

What I needed to do was to turn that into a photograph. But, how? I was working on a very primitive level, as you can see. I began by taking the negatives to my camera store and asking them if they could "put the film in backwards and print them in reverse". They looked at me like I was crazy (I am), but they did it without asking questions. (I'm surprised now that no one ever suggested using a computer...which I didn't have, anyway.) When I finally had the reverse images to match with the originals, I took those to be photocopied in multiples so that I could play around with them and create different patterns. The guys at the copy center were equally perplexed by my methods.

As the patterns began to take shape, something far more interesting emerged. Here in the patterns of the tree branches that grew on an island known to have been frequented by the notorious pirate, Blackbeard, and where legend has it he buried treasure - I discovered nearly twenty patterns including sea creatures, monkeys, the initial B - for Blackbeard, and most incredibly - a Jolly Roger - the pirate flag with insignia of skull and crossbones, only this one was formed entirely of tree branches. At its base, green leaves took the shape of a heart with crossed bones behind it. When I researched the Jolly Roger that Blackbeard flew I couldn't believe it: it was of a skeleton piercing a heart with an arrow. I also discovered the outline of a wolf's head - a fitting symbol to turn up in the land where Blackbeard once roamed - the wolf is 'referenced in the bible as a symbol of greed and destruction' (wiki) - two of Blackbeard's despicable traits.

I knew that these photographs needed to exist and I knew that I would need a computer to create them. The adage, 'It chose me, I didn't choose it', seems to apply here. I felt as if a duty had been handed me to make them exist. I've returned to that spot many times since I took the initial photos and, due to constant change in the natural world, those patterns will never exist in nature again. They're like snowflakes that can never be duplicated.

I bought a computer and, on my own, with no one to ask for help and with an overwhelming computer anxiety, I spent hours and weeks trying to teach myself how to work it and how to work with photos. (I paid a price - a nagging pain across my shoulders from repetitive movement which can keep me from blogging for days.) It was totally trial and error. I was thrilled when my friend gave me Photoshop 6.0 to help me along. I've finished all of the images in low resolution first as a learning experience, but I've yet to do the high resolution because there are still things I need to learn. The images are so large that I need to make sure I won't crash my computer when I put them together. See - still more to learn, lots of questions that need answers.

Eventually, when I do the high resolution images, I'm going to do a Blurb book so that I have a nice record of them. I don't particularly want to post them on my blog and was thinking about Flickr or some alternative where they could be viewed. I'd love to hear from any photographers who might have a suggestion for an alternative to Flickr.

If anyone made it this far - there's your answer - that's how I ended up with a computer... and a blog.

Lucky Girl

2010-08-13T09:09:00.000-05:00

Friday the 13th. Luckily for me, I'm starting off the weekend with roses and candy.

Bonne Chance and Happy Weekend

Mysterious Footgear?

2010-08-07T19:57:00.001-05:00

I found this postcard at an antique mall and I don't know if the author of the card is this beautiful young woman or not, but I like to think that it is. There's a sense of fun to her writing that makes this postcard one of the favorites in my collection. It is undated and unstamped.

It reads:

I tinted this myself. How do you like it? We cleaned house last week & in the "debris" of my closet, found an almost new pair of oxfords. They are long & narrow & we can't explain them. Miss Tucker denies them, I never owned them & Mother is ignorant of them. Are they thine? They are too narrow for Aunt Alice. Have you any knowledge of this mysterious footgear? Will write later. Worked like a dog last week. Got all thru. Much doing! Sew is other program for the next two weeks.

Love to all,
Jane

Summer of Goethe

2010-08-05T00:50:00.001-05:00

Enjoying this blast furnace of a summer? Me, too. It's 100 degrees F. today, which is 105 in dog days. What could be better than sweat and lethargy? Well, Goethe, for one.

I followed a link to theGoethe-Haus, which was posted by one of my favorite bloggers - Victoria Thorne - and I think this is turning out to be my "summer of Goethe'. One link has led to another and another and now I'm immersed in a wonderful biography : 'Love, Life, Goethe - Lessons of the Imagination From the Great German Poet' by John Armstrong. References to Goethe have cropped up often in my reading over the years so I thought it was time for me to take a closer look. Anytime a historical figure crops up repeatedly in your life you should stop and take notice and search for a message, don't you agree? I'm lax in getting to this one, but the timing turned out to be right: much of Goethe's thought mirrors my own at the moment.

The physical book is a joy to the senses: the jacket design by Chika Azuma, with a copy of Tishbein's celebrated painting Goethe in the Campagna, has decorative gold borders, a beautiful shade of lilac-grey on the back, and is soft to the touch...as are the pages. (If I were an author I would request this paper. The weight and feel alone make it hard to put down.) John Armstrong, who was previously the director of the Aesthetics Programme at the University of London, and currently (at time of pub. 2006) a research fellow in the philosophy of art at the University of Melbourne, Australia, has written his book in chapters which - luckily for me - are of a length short enough to keep my attention-deficit at bay. I found myself skipping along, chapter after chapter - my concentration intact. I would love to have John Armstrong for a teacher: his straightforward explanations gave me a clear understanding of Goethe's thoughts and philosophy and half-way through I began to put the book down more often - just so I could prolong the experience. Strange but true.

Sometimes all you need is the right teacher. He happens to be a brilliant one.

Goethe's Colour Wheel - His "Theory of Colours" 1810, was influential to the Pre-Raphaelites, J.M.W. Turner, and Kandinsky

I know my limitations, and interpreting poetry and/or philosophy is not my strong suit - not even close - but exploring new territory is, and when it comes to delveing into a subject that is beyond the scope of my experience or level of education - I'm fearless. I always find something - be it great or small - that will enrich my life. And enriching one's life was an important theme to Goethe. In describing the book, John Armstrong wrote: "The aim of this book is more intimate: to consider how getting to know Goethe might enrich life."

As more of my day is spent on the internet, it concerns me that the quality of my life now, as opposed to two years ago when I didn't have a computer or know how to use one, may have diminished somewhat. (With the exception of blogging, which has been a positive experience.) Goethe couldn't have come along at a better time. This particular thought of his - as explained by John Armstrong - has resonated with me:

"...exhaustive taking in - visiting all the famous places, reading everything is a sterile occupation unless what is absorbed becomes personally enriching."

Now, when I find myself in that computer trance we all seem to fall into as we jump from one item to another and get side-tracked from the real business at hand, I stop and I ask myself, "Is this enriching my life?" If it's not, then I'm done. Long live Goethe.

Do click Victoria's name above to visit her blog. She always has interesting photos and great links.

Book photo - me. Color wheels via Wikipedia. Book is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

A Cake for Madame Bovary

2010-07-30T20:41:00.000-05:00

This is perhaps, the most memorable description of a cake in all of literature. It is certainly my favorite. Let your imagination soar.

"The pies and cakes had been ordered from a caterer in Yvetot. Since he was starting up in the district, he had gone to considerable pains: and when dessert time came he himself brought to the table a wedding cake that drew exclamations from all. Its base was a square of blue cardboard representing a temple with porticos and colonnades and adorned on all sides with stucco statuettes standing in niches spangled with gold paper stars. The second tier was a medieval castle gateau de Savoie, surrounded by miniature fortifications of angelica, almonds, raisins, and orange sections. And finally, on the topmost layer - which was a green meadow, with rocks, jelly lakes, and boats of hazelnut shells - a little Cupid was swinging in a chocolate swing. The tips of two uprights, the highest points of the whole, were two real rose buds."

From 'Madame Bovary' - The first published novel by Gustave Flaubert. Serialized in 1856. Published in book form - 1857.

Photo of a wedding cake I whipped up for one of our anniversaries. All Rights Reserved C. Andrako photo