Looking Forward to Warmer Weather

We are a week away from our trip to the Philippines, and the snow of last Sunday, which is still on the ground—unheard of in Atlanta—and the subsequent three days of being housebound has certainly added to my excitement and anticipation. I have some last minute shopping to do and managed to get out yesterday as the temperature was above freezing for the first time in a week.

The roads were still icy, but the interstate was clear for the most part; although there were areas of Northbound 400 were whole lanes were iced over.  Luckily, most were driving at lower speeds than usual for Atlanta and being careful.  There were several occasions when I watched whole sheets of ice covered snow fly off the roofs of vehicles, remaining whole until they hit the road in an explosion of ice and snow—I gave any vehicle with snow still on the roof lots of space, fearful of having one of those sheets land on my windshield.

There couldn't be a better time for a trip to a warm climate.  We leave next Saturday, flying from Atlanta to Detroit, from there it is 21 hours direct to Manila. Thankfully we had enough Delta Skymiles to upgrade to first class; I don’t think I could do 21 hours in coach. Upstairs cabin with fully reclining seats!

We will be visiting our very good friends Bob and Mari who have been living in Manila for the last two-and-a-half years. They have planned a couple of trips for us over the two weeks we’ll be there—Palawan, volcano climbing, snorkeling, and a visit to the rice terraces—and there are numerous things close to Manila to do while they attend to work and children.

Watch for pictures of blue water and white-sand beaches.

Do People Buy Art They See Hanging in Restaurants? I Hope So.

In October, just after the tour of homes, I received an email from Jason at Stone Soup Kitchen asking if I’d be interested in hanging a few paintings in the restaurant. Now, SSK is one of my favorite Grant Park restaurants—and one of our best kept secrets—great for weekend brunch (you can actually get a table without the 45-60 minutes wait) or weekday lunch. They always have interesting art from local artists hanging in the restaurant, so I’m happy for the opportunity for some exposure. Guess putting my card on their bulletin board back in the spring paid off.

Early in December I hung six pieces from a series I did on fall trees, which will hang in the restaurant until the end of January.

Colors of Change, Winter's Solace & Barren

Signs of Change & Fall Trees

They also invited me to be part of their Holiday Art Sale & Party, which was held at the restaurant on December 16th. This was my first event of this type, and I was curious to see if it would be worth the time. I sent out an email blast to my local mailing list and a few people made it by. It was a great chance to meet other local artists—from whom I learned about ICE Pop Up Shop—and make connections.

I enjoyed talking to friends and potential buyers, and sold two paper cuts—A Day in the Country (my personal favorite of the paper cuts) and The Guardian.

A Day in the Country

The Guardian

The night before the show/sale, a colleague of Mr. Man’s and her husband came by the house to buy a piece for each of their parents—Mockingbird in Dogwood and a tree painting I had just recently finished.

Mockingbird in Dogwood

Not a bad December.  Now if I can just do that every month.

A Weekend in the Nation’s Capital

Mr. Man and I were invited to attend the ICF corporate holiday party Saturday night in D.C. Mr. Man flew up early on Friday morning to spend the day working in the Calverton office, and I flew up in the afternoon, arriving at my hotel around 3:30pm. We stayed at the Hotel Monaco (this is a very nice boutique hotel for those of you who don’t like staying at the major chains or just want something a little different) located in a great area walking distance to the National Mall and all the museums/monuments.

Located directly across the street is the American Museum of Art and National Portrait Gallery, and I decided to spend a couple hours there. Currently there is a special exhibit at the Museum of American Art showing the collection of Steven Spielberg’s and George Lucas’ Norman Rockwell drawings and paintings. Now, I’m not typically a Norman Rockwell fan, finding his content a little too idealistic—possibly due to my limited exposure to his works, which consists mostly of his Saturday Evening Post covers.  Regardless, I’m able to recognize and appreciate what tremendous talent he had. His drawings in particular were wonderful; well rendered with incredible tone and value. Being part of Spielberg’s and Lucas’ private collections, these are rarely seen pieces and I was glad to happen upon the exhibition.

My favorite piece was “The Connoisseur” (1962) which depicts the back of a gray-haired gentleman in gray suit, hands behind his back, clutching white gloves, white hat and black umbrella; he is standing in front of a very colorful and believable Jackson Pollock painting. The juxtaposition is excellent, black, white and gray tones against color, traditional against contemporary, realistic against abstract.

At the Portraiture Gallery, I happened upon a special exhibit of Elvis photos by Alfred Wertheimer taken when Elvis was 21 years old and still virtually unknown. Wertheimer was able to capture moments in time of the everyday Elvis: at a diner where he easily charms his waitress; at home, relaxed and shirtless; on stage with an adoring audience of crying, screaming females; reading fan mail in his hotel; and, my favorite, a clandestine moment in a darkened hallway where Elvis seduces a kiss from an unknown fan. At the time of the photo shoot, Wertheimer had never heard of Elvis. The photos are an astonishing glimpse into Elvis’ life before he becomes famous.

On Saturday, Mr. Man and I walked several blocks to the National Museum of the American Indian. The design of this building is great, all curves and flowing lines, not an angle anywhere. You begin on the fourth floor and work your way back down. On the second floor is a wonderful ethnic food court with fare from five different regions. It's a little overwhelming; trying to make a decision took a bit of time, but we finally chose to split a buffalo burger, lentils with chorizo, cabbage salad, and cucumber and grapefruit salad. Expensive but tasty.


Ginevra de' Benci c. 1474/1478 

After lunch we headed across the National Mall to the National Gallery of Art where spent a good amount of time perusing paintings from early centuries (favorites of Mr. Man)—including Ginevra de' Benci one of only three portraits painted by Leonardo da Vinci and the only one in the United States—as well as some more contemporary works by Matisse, Pollock, and Rothko (pictured below) among others. We really wanted to spend more time, but after a late night the night before, and a holiday party to attend in a few hours, we decided to head back to the hotel for a nap.

The ICF holiday party was held at the National Air and Space Museum. What a great backdrop to a party for 2400 people. The whole museum was open to us, but we didn’t get far off the main area as every ten feet Mr. Man would be stopped by someone from either the (Macro) Calverton office or ICF (ICF bought Macro about 18 months ago). We hardly ate any food, lines were long and food tables sparse, and we made it to the bar only twice, but it didn’t matter. It was obvious that Mr. Man is very well regarded and we spent the entire evening schmoozing. Then, at 11:00pm, they kicked us out into the cold night where we spent some time trying to hail a taxi. Tired and hungry, we ordered room service and then fell asleep.

A quick aside: On the way home Mr. Man was upgraded to first class and he offered the seat to me, he just rolls that way. While the plane was boarding, a soldier in uniform passed by and after people were settled in their seats, a gentleman in the row in front of me called the flight attendant over to request that she offer his seat to the soldier, who was returning to Afghanistan after two weeks leave—he gladly accepted. This act of respect and kindness has, however briefly, restored my faith in humanity.

A Visit to Nature's Harmony Farm

On Sunday morning Mr. Man and I drove to Elberton, Georgia to pick up our Narrangansett Heritage Turkey. You may remember that I wanted a heritage turkey last year and in September or October began looking for one only to find that you need to order much, much earlier. So, I put my name on a list and right after Thanksgiving last year, put down a deposit for this year’s bird. I’ve been wanting to visit Nature’s Harmony Farm for a while and was excited for the road trip (Elberton is approximately 2 1/2 hours east of Atlanta). We arrived around 10:30am after a couple of wrong turns here and there. We had, of course, brought Marley along (he loves a road trip too and since we were going to a farm it seemed like a no brainer) and no sooner had we approached the area where people were picking up their turkeys than Liz had to run out and ask us to please pick up our dog. I had forgotten that they raise Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGD), a cross of Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherds. They are trained to not allow any animal on the farm that doesn’t belong there and as Liz explained, they don't just chase the intruder away, they kill it. No sooner has she told us this than Jethro made an appearance; he is huge, with the top of his head coming to my elbow, but as long as we held Marley he was calm and posed no threat.

We spent some time talking with Liz about how to cook a heritage turkey—very different from how you cook a supermarket turkey. Since the balance between white and dark meat is more balanced, you cook at a high degree for much less time. Our 14.5 lb. turkey should cook in under 2 hours. I promise to write and let you know how that goes. To my delight, Liz invited us to tour the farm and to check out the evisceration lessons that were going on in a nearby processing building. Now this may not be for most people, but Mr. Man and I were not going to let this opportunity slip by. We put the turkey in a cooler in the back of the car and headed over to the processing building. Unfortunately the birds had already been killed and feathers removed, but we were in time to observe both a beginning evisceration as well as one that was already in process.

Narrangansett Heritage Turkeys

Next we headed out across the field (where we were able to put Marley down and allow him to take in all the sights and smells of a farm) to check out those Narragansetts still out on the pasture and the Large Black Pigs. We had seen some along the driveway on our way in and I was curious to get a closer look. They were as curious about us as we were them and came over to give us a closer look. I tried to put my hand out to them, but they briefly smelled me and backed away. Seems the mud was calling to them. I touched the fence and got a little shock, afterwards noting the large batteries connected to them.

Large Black Pigs

After this we went to visit the cows, who were not interested in us, but the two donkeys crazing with them were. After standing for a while and talking to them softly one actually let me scratch him for a little while and then followed me for a short ways when I moved further down the fence line to get a picture of a cow and her calf. Cutting back through the fields we noted the large flock of chickens outside, inside, on top of, and under their moveable tractors. Even though they are free to roam near and far, only a few chickens are adventurous enough to wander far from the rest of the flock.

This is small farm is so inspiring, and Tim and Liz go beyond what is considered organic and humane. According to their website, they use “no artificial fertilizers, no growth hormones, no vaccines, no antibiotics and don't keep animals penned up (which was obvious on our visit). [Their] cattle forage on grass with sheep browsing what the cows don't eat. Chickens follow the grazers, spreading fertilizer naturally, and follow their instincts by foraging for insects and scratching on the ground.” This is real farming, not industrial farming which is cruel and unhealthy, to both animals and people. Check them out, you won’t be disappointed.