Art books and what I like about them are not a topic that can be covered in one writing. Here are books I’ve been looking at most recently, which include historical, technical, business, and just for fun.
The collection of Hokusai’s work on display at the MFA Boston is so vast that I found myself thinking, “Did this man ever sleep?” Room after room after room after room (all with intriguingly well-chosen wall colors, I might add) of his work kept unfolding in front of us.
Today’s the Boston Marathon, and the city is bustling with out-of-towners. As of this mid-morning writing, it’s 42 degrees out, the sky is grey, and there is a 35% chance of precipitation (increasing over the day).
As I wrote yesterday, I’ve begun a new adult coloring book project. I’m getting more excited about this each day as I think about shaping the direction and content. The image above is a new coloring page in progress. The scene is a low rise South End Boston stoop, on a street near to the Back Bay border. It’s a little funny feeling to be working just in black & white. If you’ve seen my art, you’ll understand why! Have a good evening, friends.
What comes to mind when you think of Boston? Walking the Freedom Trail? Eating cod with baked beans? As far as I can tell, these are things that Bostonians rarely (if ever) think about doing, unless they have tourists coming to visit. I could be wrong. This isn’t to say that there aren’t worthy tourist attractions in Boston. There are. But having lived here 22 years, I see much more interesting threads in the fabric of my adopted town. In my South End neighborhood alone: the local grocery store, the community garden, the artist studio buildings, the Spanish tapas bar, the post office, the sandwich shops, the homeless shelter, the hardware store, the dog park, the vintage cookbook store, the super-modern new house in the midst of a block of 18th century brownstones, the fire station, the bilingual pre-school, the doggie bakery, the bus stops. The fountains in the park, the park bench sleepers, the belligerent dog walker with her massive herd of canines. The red brick sidewalks, the parking spaces, the cherry blossom trees, the seagulls. The old man in the red, white and blue jacket who rides around …
So many people walk into my shared art studio in Boston’s South End and say, “What a great space!” And it’s true, the space part is great but there are some weird aspects we could do without.
Last year at this time was my first time with a plot in the garden. I can’t even describe how I grew to love going down to the garden and picking fresh arugula for my lunch.
