art from there to here

It's always good to get off the Rock. We enjoyed a rare visit to the Amherst home of James Steinberg and Paola di Stefano, fellow artists and fond friends from way back. Their feisty chickens inspired this quick pastel.

After a breakfast of fresh eggs, James gave this wee book he illustrated to our juggling daughter.

I love their art collection, especially a mask with some Year of the Snake spirit.

 

They pointed us west and we headed to Mass MoCA, where we were riveted by Xu Bing's Pheonix Project.

It's gigantic and resourceful, made entirely from construction debris in Beijing, referencing new wealth and excess.

The enormity of it, over 20 tons in all, is jaw-dropping, and yet the fluid design is breathtaking. Metal canisters and hard hats become frilly embellishments.

 Another exhibit, O Canada, featured other surprises. We all wanted to hug this, titled Widow by Janice Wright-Cheney.

This mural made us wonder how the Forward on Climate rally was shaping up in DC. Maybe not everybody in Alberta wants to drill for tar sands.

Sol Lewitt's retrospective of wall drawings made us all SO happy. What's not to love about color immersion?

It fueled us for the long haul to Boston, where our hotel had some art on view as well.

After a trip to the moon and beyond, we browsed around, taking note of the current owl invasion, this one at Anthropologie. Window dressing is an art in my book.

 

Same trend only different over at Paper Source.

Mannequins never cease to please me, this one at Betty.

This one at Boomerang in Jamaica Plain had character to spare.

There's just no resisting Marimekko, is there?

Even a small thing, a polka dotted mug, can make a trip complete. That, and drawing it!

There's beauty to be found in moons, chickens, dots, everywhere I look.

love that dirty water

I left some of my heart in Boston years ago. It was my formative post-college city for 8 amazing years.

I did the above illustration eons ago, but it still captures my vibe for Kenmore Square. See the moon?
I recently connected with Nancy F Passmore, esteemed publisher of Luna Press, to which I have contributed for 30 years. We roamed about the MFA for three languid hours, catching up under the lights.

 I have Buddha on the brain, for a current project. Plenty of exquisite places to pause for meditation.

We made our way through the maze of galleries to see Seeking Shambhala,
an exhibit that contrasts old and new. Delighted to find the work of Gonkar Gyatso, who made this divine halo by secular means.

Check out the crafty detail, you sticker lovers.

There's a whole statue covered this way, in the center of all the Tibetan paintings acquired over a hundred years ago.

All the Asian art made me swoon. I did this drawing of Saraswati last year. Should have
visited the Asian wing for proper immersion.

Understood the neon wisdom here.

We also visited Paper Zoo, where I fell in love with a very graphic turtle.

Something about the symmetry of turtles, their slow but sure magnitude, is a fantastic drawing challenge. I drew this turtle for A Warmer World.

I was also drawn to Beauty as Duty, a startling lesson in British war-time fashion. Who knew that austerity measures meant patriotic scarves?

I noticed during my recent trip to London that the Brits do love their flag. Who doesn't? My favorite souvenirs show the same colors.

This Getty image is spooky. I try to imagine the prospect of daily life with gas masks, but what leaps to mind instead is "are you my mummy?" from Dr. Who.

Meandering back to the exit, I discovered a room of magical instruments. What kind of song could be played with this?

I can hear it. Can you? Enough to make this mermaid surface in my pastel.

I was quite moved by the sculptures flanking the Fenway entrance.

The enormous baby heads beckon me to be like new, to see everything for the first time.
I headed back to Kenmore Square, washed by rain and memory, feeling young.

Boston, you bring me back every time.

boston blast

The whales have made their journey to Charlesbridge at last. If I didn't deliver my illustrations for Here Come the Humpbacks a minute sooner, I might still be obsessively redrawing them all. There wasn't even time for me to lay them all out together until I arrived at their offices.

I'm proud of these! I have the dusty blue sneakers to show for it, too. I wasn't at the publisher long enough to take off my coat. But I sported my whale t-shirt by Miles to Go with pride.

With business complete, we visited my nephew, Garrett, who graciously gave us his two cent tour of Emmanuel, an institution of higher learning and angelic proportions.

Here's an old angel of mine, dropping some snowflakes. We saw a few in our travels while in Boston.

We ventured alongside the mobs to the Museum of Science. The geckos are a wondrous marvel!

So many varieties, and each with unique personalities. I was envious of this contented sleeper.

It would've been fun to sketch these fellows, but there wasn't room, or any sitting place. Here's a skink I drew for Nest, Nook & Cranny. Can you tell the difference?

The MOS has fantastic permanent displays and live demos, too. We enjoyed Mind Games, all about the mysteries of perception. Love this vintage optical illusion.

Ever since art school, I can't resist a good skull. I did the below as a freshman, layers of self from skull to skin.

There's also a fantastic display of taxidermy. Where was this marmot when I was working on A Warmer World? He could have posed for me!

Here's the illustration I did, without him.

There's critters all over Boston. Spotted Lack and Mack crossing a major intersection, bringing to mind Robert McCloskey. They still ignore the signs!

We headed to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where we waited in a line outside to stand in a line inside.

The new wing has brought plenty of buzz, but it's still the old courtyard that remains the best draw.
Again, too many people for contemplative sketching. There is so much to take in, my mind melted.
Never too tired to browse the bookstore, though!

We found these exquisite orchids in the Living Room, a chic retreat from the collections, where you can relax.

I drew an orchid and a golden toad on the last page of A Warmer World, two examples of fragility in our changing world.

That reminds me: today is Leap Day! Happy hopping, everyone.

I'll be making two school visits this Friday, which is Read Across America day, in honor of Dr. Seuss.
In the morning, I will visit the Peaks Island Elementary School down the street. Hooray!
And in the afternoon, Yarmouth Elementary, across the bay.

O, the places we will go!

boston blast

I've been digging in to my current project with all hands on deck. Drawing a multitude of animals, and taking lots of notes.

  

I scavenged a plastic bear from my daughter's neglected toy bin to help with shadows and form for the book jacket sketches.

These two sketches (cropped here) were the favorites out of 8 variations.

 

I did a color comp for the publisher's jacket meeting. Again, here is just the bear.

While awaiting feedback on cover issues, I resumed working on the interior illustrations. Just as I was about to tackle a complex page of penguins underwater eating krill, DING! The bell rang for school vacation. 

We made a blast down to Boston, where my better half and I met, so many moons ago at the Boston Globe. And where did we go first? Yes, the penguin pool at the New England Aquarium. They have a little comic "Penguin Power Adventure Guide" that educates about climate change and overfishing in simplified, graphic form. I tried sketching the zippy penguins, who zip far too fast for my camera. Seen from above, it's like they are flying in the wave pool.

Quite a few are content to just chill in the shower.

Had my eyes peeled for lots of other things I still need to draw, such as coral. Of course, the coral in these tanks are fake. But I marvel at who fabricated these. The problem is that climate change is draining coral of color like this.

We circled and circled the central tank, mesmerized. Along with about a jillion other families. It made my day to have a face-to-face with this guy.

So much immersion led us to get wet, too. The hotel has a nice view from the pool.

From there we headed to the Boston Athenaeum, for a fantastic exhibit of Edward Gorey's work.
Croquet in the snow, anyone?

Gorey's work has surely inspired Tim Burton, Peter Sis, and countless others, with his meticulously detailed line and eccentric wit. I loved seeing sketches and lists of made-up words, decorated envelopes, and hand-stitched toys alongside unpublished pieces and fond favorites. Go see it!

Next stop was Mass Art, for an animation exhibit, "Astatic." I thought my daughter might find some inspiration for an animation project she's doing. But, the show was not entirely appropriate for children. Some of it was fun, but a room of Nathalie Djurberg's work was unwatchable after just a few seconds.

Nothing can just be what it is anymore. Like our multi-tasking society, art often has multiple layers now, of both meaning and form. This piece by Atsushi Kaga was an installation as well as a  naive animation made with child-like lines, but it was by no means simple-minded. It had a charming quality that made you want to play with it.

In the Stephen D. Paine Gallery, we encountered a much more satisfying show. Artist Joe Fig interviewed a group of artists and then made miniatures of their studios, displayed along with their work. It was fresh and engaging;  his ability to displace one's sense of scale and consider the maker, the maker's space, and the viewer's relationship to all that creation, made so perfectly tangible, was stunning.

This is a view inside the studio of April Gornik.

Here, from another angle, is a giant viewer.

The mental scale transport was incredibly fun. One can pretend to be a giant looking at the whole gallery, or imagine an enormous face peering over gallery goers.

With that, another bell rang. Time to head back to Maine, the vacation meter had expired. We've returned to our island orbit. Nothing like a blast to Boston to refresh our sights!