The Most Delightful Holiday

Easter.  As I thought about it's arrival this year, I wondered what I would do and who I would spend it with...another Holiday in New York, unlike holidays at home with families, they are times where new traditions are born and things are done very unlike the ways remembered.

As I thought about Easter, I realized that it used to be one of the most exciting holidays when I was a child; with new dresses, shoes and hats, bright jelly beans (and loads of other candy), egg hunts, a day at Grandma's with family, fresh mowed grass, the arrival of Spring, and Christ's resurrection, why wouldn't it be a favorite?  Easter was perhaps the prettiest and most whimsical holiday of them all!

This year, I am remembering my Easters' as a child and spending it with the one family member I have in New York, my sister, doing fun and perhaps child-like things...the park, painting, cooking, church...attempting to capture the delight, joy and whimsy that I remember this holiday embodying.

For Friday

 As I was working last Friday, I walked past a mirror and stopped, thought about my weekend and said, "wooooo!", with a tilted head.  This illustration is what I saw in that mirror (sans the cute outfit).

Not that I hate working and not that I party-it-up on the weekend, rather, I get excited about the weekend because it feels like freedom, space to be creative.  We have to get excited about something and it seems my free creative time is what I get excited about...shocking, I know (said sarcastically).

Happy Friday! Happy Creative Time!

Summer Headscarves Have Arrived

This winter hit is transitioning into a summer thing.  It is currently being offered in three color ways, as viewed above: White, Hot Pink and Brown Tie-Dye.

They are 100% cotton and will thus be very breathable in the summer.  Wear them to keep hair out of your face, hide your messy head, or as a fashion accessory.

Buy on Etsy.  Just $15.00 each!!!

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum

Lacking a little inspiration this past week, and for the first time in I can not remember when, being uninterested in Fashion Week, I was thrilled to stumble upon this jewel in Inwood, New York.  My sister recently moved up to Inwood and we were exploring.  

The Dyckman Farmhouse is located at 204th and Broadway and was built c. 1784.  Can you imagine a New York farm that stretched from the Hudson to the East River, and the change that the property went through as modern New York arrived?  The History Lover in me had a little field day at this house.  The old is enchanting and being able to experience something like this preserved in upper Manhattan is very inspiring and unexpected.

Outsider Art

 I had my first experience this week with Outsider Art,"art brut" in French, translated "raw art" or "rough art".  I am blown-away by this genre that I had previously known virtually nothing about.  Having heard about the fair through a Times article by Robert Smith, I was interested and went to check it out.  For those who like myself a few days before, do not know what this genre is, it is art that is created by individuals on the fringes of society, untrained in classical art, and separated from the traditional world of art.  Originally, this term classified mostly people in insane-asylums, people who did not think as the rest of society.  Now, the genre encompasses many more than those institutionalized for mental problems, it is any art that is made without the influence of the traditional.  Outsider artists are also people like Winfred Rembert, who while in prison, learned to make art on leather; his work is so descriptive as well as rhythmic and has a very clear commentary.

I found this art so special because it recognizes the artistic heart and sometimes the unadulterated flow of the mind; describing how things are and what the world is like.  In it, there often isn't such a strain to achieve perfection or demonstrate a certain learned skill and as a result, what is made often is very raw and very straightforward.  

Some of the art is very fun, and will make you smile.  Other pieces will make you think and stand in awe of the clarity that they achieve.  The genre on a whole, gives me inspiration and encouragement in my own work as well as renews my faith in our ability to see the value that all individuals have, regardless of what society at whatever particular time chooses to value.

Below are a few of my favorites from the show.

Daniel Belardinelli

Jim Bauer 

Sketch; for your Sunny, January, Tuesday

A Simple Kind of New York Morning

Breakfast at Foragers City Grocer on 22nd Street.