Friday Happiness :: Thirteen things

I'm loving today:

::sun streaming in the windows.

::the dog we're babysitting for the week, sleeping at my feet now.

::sneaking pink and red m&ms from the girls valentines.

::this movie, especially this, and the last four minutes.

::feeling well rested for the first time in weeks.

::listening to Al Green non-stop. All of it the same, all of it great.

::my first ever homemade biscotti, from here, a success.

::little encaustic paintings from tangled sky studio; find them here.

::friends who give wine as payment for babysitting a dog.

::books from the library; this one, The Houses of Greenwich Village, and this one about Georgia Keeffe's cutivated persona in photographs. There's a picture of her at thirty, that I just can't stop looking at.

::sneak peeks at design*sponge. Maybe just a little bit addicted to this, actually.

::little girls (not mine!) in coats and party dresses, playing in the park outside my window.

::loving that spring is coming. Soon-ish.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

tt

Next

Tim's had the idea that eyebuzz launch a zine, and we are running with it. Fortunately for us, we have so many talented friends who are game, so we're getting it off the ground pretty easily.

The first zine I'd ever come across, I found in a gallery on a road trip to Beacon last fall, when I picked up a copy of Kate Bingaman-Burt's Obsessive Consumption. It struck a cord with me then. Now it seems like necessary therapy for all of us. Check it out. No pun intended.

What's funny to me (in a funny,interesting slice of self discovery, sort of way), is that when Tim first proposed this idea to me, it didn't even occur to me that I wouldn't be a part of it. That I wouldn't have something to add. Something to say. (Well, I guess I always have something to say...)

But what's interesting about that, to me at least, is that perhaps not only has my definition of artist changed or developed over the last two years, but that my definition of me has, too.

Here's to a slice of self discovery. I'll let you know how the zine's developing. If you've got some suggestions, or some submissions, you know where to find us.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

tt

The Creative Class

Now it's the little one's turn to be very, very sick. So I only have a minute or two.

But I wanted to mention that Brian Lehrer had an excellent show yesterday about funding for the arts, and if you have the time you can listen to it here.

Lots of interesting, intelligent discussion, but it all boils down to: let's stop viewing the arts as a charity case and start treating artists and "art workers" as a vital sector of the economy.

I suppose my role at the gallery places me in the latter group, although the semantic proximity of that term to "sex workers" is a little unsettling. No matter, though, because the most accurate term for me right now would be "home healthcare aide".

May all of you stay warm and healthy this week. Thanks for reading.

tt

The Tuesday before the Tuesday

I am so touched by the enthusiasm that we are getting from people about our upcoming show. I wish I could come up with the right caliber thank you to Jen for the pieces she's created for us.

And now Molly is joining us by sending her Obama finger puppet to watch over the show. Her encouraging words about what we're doing are spurring me on.

If you've kept up with us a bit, you might know that in the past we've had some... slow openings. But I feel like we're on the crest of a wave with this, and that people do care, and will come.

In any event, we are excited, and...well, you'll come, won't you? And maybe, bring a date or something.

Hope to see you there. Thanks for reading.

tt

Monday Morning Love

Today I am loving:

that I got my bread mojo back. Turns out, it's the flour, stupid.

the first piece Jen made for The Obama Show. Getting excited for the opening. Being re-inspired by this.

the minestrone I made on Saturday, which fed eight of us dinner that night, three of us lunch the next day, and two girls dinner Sunday night...still going, still yum.

January. The ease, the coziness, the nothing-special-going-on-but-let's-get-together kind of nights we've been having with our friends. And it's my birthday month. And Lindsey's. So, something special, after all.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

tt

Who does she think she is?

I'm sorry I missed this film when it was at the Jacob Burns last month. Just reading about it, watching the trailer, browsing the site, makes my heart beat faster. The basic premise, that women who want to fulfill their own artistic passion have to do so at the peril of their being (or being seen as) sub-par mothers, is one that chills my blood.


Because, artists or not, don't we all feel like this, to some degree? That constant scale inside that tips uneasily whenever we are tending to either being a parent, or being our own person. The feeling that it is necessary to choose one or the other? And knowing absolutely that we shouldn't have to.

And, of course, it is not just in the art world that the challenge of pursuing one's own goals is mightily compounded by virtue of being a woman and a mother. Lawyer, vet, architect. Teacher, dancer, chef. In this day and age of fabulous promise and change, I can only hope my girls grow up feeling they can be their best selves, and still be the best mom.

That they can be whoever they think they are.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.
tt

And you may ask yourself...

Well, how did I get here?

All day long the lyrics to the Talking Heads kept pushing themselves into my brain. Frankly, I'm mostly relieved that this has replaced this.

But still...when I focused on what I was humming, I realized that "letting the days go by..." was getting to me.

December 31st.

As I said here in the nascent days of eyeblog, I feel much more invigorated, energized and ripe for reform at the start of school, than at the start of the new year. And anything which at this stage of the game involves my kids wanting to stay up way past my bedtime is not going to score points with me.

But still...one can't help but to pause and reflect. I feel that both in our home life and our "gallery" life, this year was one of moving forward and hitting our stride. A lot of the fits and starts that we went through began to smooth out, and our hard work pay off, and, perhaps most significantly, we began to recognize that things are working.

I am not too proud (or too delusional) to tell you that it has been hard, and that things don't always work so well around here.

But still...here we are. The kids are growing beautifully, and faster than we can buy them pants and shoes. The gallery has a small but solid roster of artists we are honored to show. We have come up for air enough to appreciate having both a family and a business that we love (if, indeed, with differing intensity!)

Sometime this summer, I was looking around the internet for information about the new place we were going to in Maine, and I stumbled upon something I was completely unfamiliar with: a blog. That blog happened to be Swallowfield, and it was like nothing I'd ever seen.

I went on from there, following links to other blogs, until my head was spinning with images and information I couldn't help but feel both envious of and encouraged by. I shot off an e-mail to Tim, the gist of which was "honey, we need to get inspired". If there were all these amazing people out there making art and living life with so much passion, humor, and beauty, why were we so bogged down? We had the raw materials, now we just needed some oomph.

Well...we got it. And what happened in this fall's election, and what is about to happen January 20, was a big part of that, for us.

It is with this energy and excitement that we are putting on The Obama Show: Group Thought. We will feature work that is in some way inspired by not only our next president himself, but by what this election means personally-to us, and to each of the artists in the show. As I've mentioned here before, we're thrilled to have Jennifer Judd-Mcgee contributing, as well as Rob Larson, (our own) Tim Thayer, and others, including for the first time at eyebuzz, a video installation.

So, here we are, at the end of the year, at the start of something new, looking forward. My wish to all of you is that you find some inspiration this year, too, in whatever it is that you love.

Looking forward. I couldn't ask for more. Thanks for reading.

tt

Friday Happiness

This weekend I'm looking forward to:

getting our tree...not that we need a large living object looming in the corner of our dining room. But it will be beautiful, and I love the ritual of decorating it, as much as having it there for the next few weeks.

finding a few perfect presents, and crossing some more names off my list. I'm trying to avoid the panic that results in buying the overpriced last minute gift.

taking a long walk in the Preserve. It's been a couple of weekends now since our last one, for various reasons, and I find I need it: both the connection to nature, and the connection we make with each other when we are out there with nothing to distract but the trees and the path.

Uncle Nick will be here!

sleeping in as much as motherly possible.

starting one new knitting project and finishing one long standing one.

snow.

On another note:

I've mentioned our January show a few times now, and am excited to let you know more about it. We're set to put on what seems inevitably called The Obama Show, a group exhibit of work inspired in some way by the hope and promise of our new President.
We plan to open the show on January 20th, and look forward to celebrating the inauguration with a reception in the gallery.

I'm thrilled that Jennifer Judd-Mcgee, the talented artist from Portland whose name you may recognize from all of those Swallowfield references here, will be a part of our show. We've admired her work for a while now, and are honored to have her involved with our gallery.

More about this in the upcoming weeks.

Enjoy your weekend, too! Thanks for reading.
tt

And now, a word from our sponsor...

It's always exciting to have that brown UPS truck stop at our house, but never more so than when it's delivering the new show. And today!: the originals, and the postcards, all at once.

The new exhibit: Bruce Habowski- Quiet Interiors

It starts Thursday, but unfortunately (and understandably), Bruce and Mary can not make it down from Maine this time for an opening reception. We are considering our options, for maybe just a plain old party in the gallery, with out the benefit of artist-in-first-person.

But maybe not. I am a big proponent of "do one less thing". Do you do this, too? Sometimes, when your weeks, or weekends, or days, are just too full, too chaotic, too trying to be more than one place at a time...just do one less thing.

There must be one thing that could go. That maybe, you could say no to. Or be honest with somebody and say "I.just.can't." It's not easy, because there are the things you want to do and the things you feel you must do, and the things that fit both criteria...and the decision between them is never as clear cut as we might wish.

Of course, if Bruce were coming down, it would be a no-brainer. And a lot of fun, to boot.

But frankly, his work speaks for itself. And this show is really good. Poignant. Personal. Each piece tells just a page of a story you want to read more of.

Then again, maybe we'll have a party.

I'll let you know.

Until then...say it with me. One.less.thing.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.
tt

Music in the air

The only thing that's knocked this out of my cd player lately has been this.

The former is someone I had never heard of until Bret included Skinny Love in a mix he gave me last summer. Then, once I got into (ok, obsessed by) Bon Iver, references to same started showing up everywhere, most notably (for me, anyway) on Swallowfield. I actually got chills, thinking that my favorite Maineartistmomblogger was listening to the same music as I was.

But these days we've been listening to the latter, Calexico, who will be at our own Tarrytown Music Hall on November 15. Tim and I will be listening both from inside eyebuzz on our cd player, and out on Kaldenberg Place, where the sounds of the Music Hall drift through the air and down the street to our little gallery.

It's pretty cool for us to witness the comings and goings of all the increasingly big-time artists who are playing the Music Hall. We don't get to actually go to any of those concerts, since, well, we're either home with our kids, or trying to lure ticket-holding-art-lovers into eyebuzz with wine and cheese. But we love that it's there, or, rather, Here. It's one of the things that makes Tarrytown not-your-runofthemill-suburban-cultural-wasteland.

That, and the galleries. Of course. Thanks for reading.

tt

p.s. While I'm on the subject of music, here's a little autumnlovesongdedication to the man in the house. 'Cause it's my blog and I can do what I want.

It was a dark and stormy night...

and we still had a great opening for the new show. Thanks to the friends of eyebuzz who came in from the rain to meet Russell . We loved seeing & talking to all of you.

I love a rainy night in Fall with friends. Thanks for reading.

tt

"Little things can be scary, can be sublime."

Tim's interview with Russell deYoung is now on the eyebuzz fine art website.

You can check it out here. Thanks for reading.
tt

In-between days

We are in-between shows this week: Eunju Kang's show ended on Friday, and Russell deYoung's begins this Thursday. Which leaves us with a few days off (?!) and lots to do to get things ready for the next exhibit.

We're excited to have Russell's show, and as usual, we have a mild case of pre-opening-night jitters. Tim and Russell have been working on a really interesting interview, which should be wrapped up and online in the next day or two; Tim will hang the show, and we'll put on a nice opening reception Saturday night. {That was me pausing to make some phone calls to babysitters, a detail I always seem to leave to the last minute!}

We've moved the reception time back to six until eight at night...we're hoping it makes it easier for people to stop by on their way out, or even make a night of it at eyebuzz.

In the meantime, Bruce Habowski sent us these two paintings to keep on-hand at the gallery, and we think they're really good. The smaller sized Habowskis fly off the shelves, and I'm sure these will be no different. Keep 'em coming, Bruce.

I'm posting the above picture, as opposed to some others I took the minute the package arrived at the house, to prove that they made it to the gallery. Always tempting to keep them for ourselves!

Our plan when we first started the gallery was to buy one piece from each show to have on our walls at home. That hasn't been possible yet, but during every exhibit we play the "which one will we keep" game. Interestingly, (but maybe not surprisingly), we don't always choose the same one.

I've already got mine picked out from Russell's show, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

tt