pink, restaurant review, Bernstein, etc.

My friend Marlene worries when I have not posted to my blog for a while. Sometimes she is right to worry, but other times I simply don't have anything to say that would interest anybody but my mother. Or I am so overwhelmed with things to say that I don't say any of them. Then, of course, there are the times I think of something brilliant I want to talk about and by the time I sit down to write, I have forgotten what. I'm sure nobody else can identify with THAT. Pink This is the color I dislike most in the world. I just made a piece with a large amount of pink in it. Granted, it is sort of a medium-dark, put it is still PINK. I had a piece of pink fabric I tried to overprint and disguise - but no-o, it is still pink under all that paint. The only solution is to overdye it. Perhaps I will do that when I finish blogging. Tonight, I just dyed a piece that I meant to be red, but it came out PINK. Is it a conspiracy of the dye gods? Or is something else at work here? NY Times Restaurant Review Sunday's Times, NJ section. See if you recognize anybody you know. The less said about that meal, the better. Trust me, the review was overly generous. Leonard Bernstein I adored him; adored his music. I wept when he died, I wept when I read his biography, and I was so moved by Michael Tilson Thomas' beautifully written article in the NY Times (an edited version of the one on his website) that I wanted to write to thank him. So, if you grew up with Leonard Bernstein's music, his Young People's Concerts, (I used to take my kids to Lincoln Center on Saturday mornings), his conducting, his writing, and his TV appearances - if you are still riveted by his magnetism 18 years after his death, you might want to read this insightful article, Being Leonard Bernstein. Yes, he was influenced by/ borrowed/stole from other composers. Sometimes I hear a phrase that sounds like Stravinsky or Copland or Gershwin and I have to wait a little bit to be sure I can identify whose work it is: frequently it is Bernstein. You know what? In the end it didn't matter because his work was his own. Special treats for me Yesterday I signed up for a 3 day workshop at the Newark Museum with Jan Myers-Newbury on the weekend before Thanksgiving. The mysteries of shibori elude me and I suspect it is jsut the ticket for all those ugly pink (and other color) fabrics I have dyed. If you are within driving distance of the Newark Museum, hot-foot it over to their website, click on the PDF brochure and sign up! She is listed under Special Events on the left hand side of the brochure page. There is room for only 12 students and I know several who have already signed up. My check goes in the mail on Monday. On top of that, I've signed up for a collagraph class on Monday nights. I love collagraphs and have always wanted to take a workshop - so I figure now is the time. I want to get back to printmaking on paper and use my press, which is sitting mostly unused in my studio. A change of pace is always good. eyes, etc Diane asked whether my color perception has changed. Not one bit. My cataract wasn't bad, it was just in a bad place, so it hadn't gotten to the point of making everything look gray. When Marty had his first eye done, he came home and announced that while he was out they had painted his office walls and they were now blue instead of gray. Uh - nope, they had done no such thing. One more round of eyedrops and then I'm outa here. Blurry vision sent me to the eye doc this morning and instructions for steroid drops every hour instead of thrice a day. Between eye drops, sewing didn't seem like a good idea, so I dyed (hence the ugly pink) and printed. Probably not a good idea, either. My attempt to rescue this fabric with dye and discharge was not entirely successful, but I consider it a work-in-progress (of course). Stay tuned.