potpourri

It's Saturday night -although yesterday also felt like Saturday. It has been busy around here. Allergy season has started but the weather has been fine for the past two days.

Suffice it to say that Friday (alias Saturday #1) was another medical merry-go-round with a few errands thrown in for good measure.  Not enough time to go to the studio but I did work a bit at home, creating some other fun/cool elements with the leftovers from the yellow and blue star block.

Then, it was off to the opening of Strong Women - the art exhibit at the Newark School of the Arts.  I was really honored to havebeen asked to be with so many accomplished (and strong) women artists and I was especially happy because mine was the only fiber piece amongst the paintings, drawings, prints and collages.  The curator

specifically wanted to include a fiber piece to show that it is as valid an art form as the other mediums. Because of the  exhibit's subject, she selected this piece, which pays homage to the strong women in my family who emigrated to a foreign land -- unknown territory -- to start anew. And to the strong women who stayed and perished.  The show included work from 29 artists and was, in fact, very strong!

After the opening, two of my studio mates and I went out for drinks and dinner in Newark's Ironbound, the Portugese section of the city, loaded with wonderful Spanish and Portugese restaurants.  Casa Vasca, actually a Basque restaurant, served the best paella I've ever had. Will return!

Today, trek to Brooklyn to see Miss Emma. I made a wrong turn(made the mistake of following the sign that said "Brooklyn" and ended up driving in circles in parts of Chinatown I never knew existed. Remind me not to believe the signs.  To get to Brooklyn, I need to follow the sign that says "Uptown."  This doesn't make any sense, but it works.

You've heard of garage sale, yard sale, house sale, estate sale, boot sale (in the U.K.), sidewalk sale? Well, this is New York and they call it a...

The main attraction was not the sidewalk/fence/stoop sale.

 At least I'm not the only one in the family with two chins.

I hated to leave but we had to get home to see my mother. Back on Canal Street heading toward the Holland Tunnel, traffic was stopped enough for me to shoot this.

There was a time you would never have seen butts like that on mannequins.  But fashion on Canal St. is catching up to real life. I'm wondering who the intended audience is for that black and white dress.

Tomorrow - bill-paying and then another opening of a show which promises to be extremely interesting.  My friend Rachel Leibman is guest curator for this exhibit. 

PULP - Artworks made of Paper
Opening 1-4 pm at Arts Guild New Jersey
1670 Irving St.
Rahway, NJ
The exhibit runs March 19 – April 15

If I can get permission from some of the artists, I'll post pix tomorrow night.