The past few days have been a blur of birthday parties (my red headed freshly seven-year old neice had an Incredible party, travels across this great state, and bread baking. We're low on nickels lately (no surprise for two people who chose to work to connect people with art or help feed those who are really, always, truly low on nickels.) But fresh baked bread costs just a little and fills a belly up.

All the painters and sculptors and troublemakers, I've talked to lately have been breadmakers. My breadmaker is on it's final bake cycle with a loaf of coconut pineapple bread. That ought to be enough to make my co-workers like me at the office holiday pot luck. Nothing's going to get me a raise because...well I work in the arts. So, I'll just suck it up and send you off to look at pictures, make your own, or somehow sneak some joy into the edges of the mundane. Who says you can't take a long lunch break tomorrow? Who says you have to buy all that holiday crap and run around like an idiot? Not me, not me.

All of this bread baking and running around has me thinking about Dennis Oppenheim's Galloping Through the Wheat. I saw that piece a mess of years ago at a NY gallery and couldn't stop laughing and smiling. Still can conjure up those mechanical horses gliding through plain old big fat white bread. What a lovely blur. Reno press is here.

take care,
Rachael

A recent painting of mine below because one of the voyeuristic pleasures of this blog reading is seeing what folks are making, right? Is for me. So I simply offer my small show and tell moment and ask you to comment.

Trust me.

More related thoughts by other folks:

ritual in the art classroom
new forms of drawing, even if years old
no excuses for draw-ring with plain #2 pencils
more drawing education
hungry to go back to the Drawing Center

off to draw.

take care,
Rachael

What happened to the daily blogging me? oh well, I got bizz-izzy with painting, and writing essays, and taking walks while it's still not snow-riffic and I don't have to wear my boots. Only I reallly can't wait to wear my boots .

This has been a week of surprises. A few years aggo I found
Peregrine Honig pretty facsinating but now I'm not that excited and then she seems to be everywhere. In the latest Budget Living we have little inkling, even, that she's a painter, just a party gal.

Speaking of party gals, thanks to Carolyn's link to Susan Orlean's piece on Thomas Kinkade , I stumbled onto an old favorite fabulous piece, my life: a series of performance pieces.

Ain't we all. Were I closer to the bigger new york, I'd see the mini works show at Tattfoo Gallery in Staten Island and so if you are there, go. Ok? Just that easy. Looks good...

more
more
more
soon. I think. I suppose. Most likely.

take care,
Rachael

Granted, I haven't had a tv in years but I miss me some Eyedrum and bet there's a wider audience for this program. Should you be in the ATL on Thursday, go see:

Eyedrum's Word + Praxis series proudly hosts the return ED engagement of
internationally renowned Buffyologist

Rhonda Wilcox

Presenting a chapter from her forthcoming book, "The Art of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer" (I.B. Tauris, Spring 2005):

"'For Those of Us in Our Audience Who Are Me:' Xander, Laughter, and 'The
Zeppo.'"

Eyedrum/8 p.m./Tues. Dec. 7/$4 donation

"Laughter is a protest scream against death"--Mel Brooks
"I laugh in the face of danger--then I hide until it goes away"--Xander
Harris
"Dissecting humor...is an interesting operation in which the patient usually
dies"--A.A. Berger
"What we laugh at tells us who we are"--Rhonda Wilcox
"Now that 'Buffy' and 'Angel' have ended, a question remains: Will the
scholarship continue, or will it die out as new shows garner interest? Before,
scholars could only speculate about what would be the ultimate fate of the
characters, but now they have closed texts for both shows, and that means the
scholarship can now truly begin"--Nikki Stafford ("Once Bitten: an Unofficial
Guide to the World of "Angel")

As those who made it to Rhonda's previous appearance at Eyedrum know, words like
"lecture," "academic," and "scholarly," though technically
accurate, are
misleading descriptors for the entertainment value of her presentations on
"Buffy." Her inimitably lively presentation on one of the funniest "Buffy"
episodes will be followed by audience discussion of any and all things
in the Buffyverse.

Dr. Wilcox is a professor of English at Gordon College, coeditor of "Fighting
the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the coeditor of
"Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies," and the
author of
The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

This program sponsored in part by the Bureau of Cultural Affairs.

Bye.
Rachael

Amazing stories on this week's This American Life. Hear about Nauru, (more scary descriptions here ), and Julie Snyder's miserable MCI experience (blogged about here. It's scary, powerful, smart radio. Here's the latest Amnesty International report on the refugees in Nauru.

So much happens under the radar, in the middle of nowhere...

scary.

Rachael