HBO

John Adams is a fabulous mini series, catch it if you can on HBO.....

Saturday Night- Not so live (or lively)

Last night I did a little hand sewing in front of the tv, while watching the HBO special we had taped called "John Adams" the story of John and Abigail Adams during the 1775 years of the Continental Congress and the beginnings of the Revolutionary War and signing of the Declaration of Independence. EXCELLENT !! the acting was superb, and it was fascinating to see the story acted out as though you were right there ! I think there are 6 or 7 parts to it, and we were able to watch the first 2. It was produced by Tom Hanks, and he did a wonderful job.
While watching,( never let it be said I can just sit and watch tv alone), I closed up these pillows that I made out of some vintage chenille bedspreads I found. I really think they turned out cute. I used 19" feather pillow inserts for the insides. I'll probably take them to the cute shop in Glendale, and see if Sue's interested in selling them.....

Thanks to the Lisa See novel, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" our book club will be discussing this fascinating book dealing with girls growing up in China over a century ago. The practice of "footbinding" is one I had never had much knowledge about, but this book started me looking into the practice. Small feet were thought to be a thing of beauty, and in order for a young girl to marry into a prominent family she would have to have her feet bound to keep them from growing. Between the ages of 4 and 7 the process began with mothers and grandmothers wrapping the feet so tightly that the toes would curl under the foot and break from the pressure. This was an excruciating experience which lasted for years for these little girls. In some cases girls could even die from their footbinding torture. Infections were common, which could lead to death. The feet would continue to be wrapped, and remolded into grotesque deformed cone shapes. This of course rendered the girls and young women and older women alike, weak and unable to do very much walking. The servant class were allowed to let their feet grow, and thus would give up the chance to every have a very successful marriage. The marriages were all pre-planned by the parents, and matchmakers, as well. Women in that culture for 1,00 years had no choices in how their lives would turn out. They were at the mercy of a barbaric and sadistic system of footbinding and caught in the web of a society which did not value them at all, or give them a voice.
Footbinding was completely outlawed by 1911, and had not been practiced in most parts of China, except the remote villages.
Lisa See helps us to understand the struggles the women have faced throughout this time period of history. Do we still suffer and put our young girls in jeopardy for beauty sake by exposing them to countless advertisements showing the ideal women as rail thin, and unrealistically beautiful ? Do we show unattainable goals to these young girls, subliminally telling them that they are NOT okay because they are REAL and are of average weight, or possibly larger sizes? What do we base our values on? Is it only how someone LOOKS ?

Monday Club Art Opening Reception

Originally uploaded by bufferzone

Here are a few of my daughter's photos from my art Opening Reception on March 2nd. The show contains 54 oil portraits, mostly of my students, and will run through April 2nd. The Monday Club is located at 37 S. Maple Ave. in Webster Groves, and is open on Mon., Wed. and Friday from 9:00-11:30 , and on Sunday from 1:30- 4:00.
Thanks to the Gracious women of the Monday Club, and especially to Evelyn Rogers for all their help and support. I haven't shown my work for over 20 years, and this was a great way to get back into the art world, a very positive experience. Thank you to all who helped.

Originally uploaded by bufferzone

Originally uploaded by bufferzone

Beautiful Folk Art

While taking pictures of some MOLAS, which I used to use for teaching ART, I made a collage, and thought it was worthy of sharing... The Mola is a fabric design in a technique called ,
"reverse applique". Molas are specific to the Cuna Indians who live on the San Blas Islands, off the coast of Panama. The girls and women wear them as decorations to their blouses and dresses. The man that I bought these from was a world traveler, who collected antiquites and brought them back to America to sell them... He actually sold items to the St. Louis Art Museum, also. He was very old, and was having an Estate Sale to empty his stock.....
He told me the story that the young girls were not allowed to wear the large traditional gold earrings until they turned 16 years old. They would save and collect molas from their dresses to exchange with the jewelers on their birthday for the coveted earrings. The jewelers would end up with stacks of these later to sell.
The designs are almost always made up of organic forms of birds, fish, plants, etc. and most often they are very symmetrically designed. The work is hand done, which is remarkable to me. I do quilts, but I piece them on the sewing machine. The collage of the molas makes a very dramatic Graphic Design, I think..... I wanted to share this (I guess it's the teacher in me) so that you could appreciate these "works of fabric art" from another place and time.......

Another Biggie !!

Here is a picture of my beautiful Anniversary Bouquet from my Hubby! I know it's extravagant, but it's THRILLING, just the same to see so many blooms in one centerpiece ! (He buys one more each year to add to the total, so now we are at 41 ) Can you Believe ??? It's just SO SWEET of him!!!! Love you, Bus !

Fun, Family, Festivities, Fabulous !

click on any picture to enlarge



Gracie turns ONE ! Auntie Lin turns ___ !! On the same day !! We had party after party, and then the BIG EASTER EGG HUNT,TOO..... TODAY is my Anniversary- would you believe 41 ?!, and tomorrow is TEDDY's birthday, so there will be more celebrating on Wednesday !! Then it's off to Kansas City with Lin and Rog to visit with Arica and Jeff for the Easter weekend, then back to St. Louis for a SUNDAY night dinner with the kids here... whew !!! Fun, Fun, Fun !!!

The First Collage is from the ACTUAL birthday, which was March 13, 2008 ! We had fun that night, and spent the evening with just parents, grandparents, and BABY !!! SPECIAL !

Bus is sick, however, and so it was a potpie dinner for our anniversay tonight..... big whoop !
We DO have a special dessert of Coffee flavored Oberweis ice cream, though. (eat your heart out, Roggie) Here are some pictures of all the fun, plus my annual bouquet of roses (41 this year) from thoughtful hubby..... They really are gorgeous, extravagant, but gorgeous, and I've gotten them every year. I get one for each year, so this year my bouquet is Quite large, tee hee.....

The book group."Wine, Women, and Prose"

The other picture was small, and some people got cut off a bit in the collage, so I ran the group again.....

What a Hoot !

Last evening our book club had the most fun ! We invited the author and band leader, Bob Kuban to speak to our club about his recent book, " My Side of the Bandstand". He answered our many questions, and told us stories that didn't even make it into the book ! We thoroughly enjoyed our time with him, reliving the days in the 1960's, and the fun of the teentowns, and going dancing on the Admiral in St. Louis ! His has been a life full of interesting people, and interesting experiences. He talked about the old Club Imperial, where Ike and Tina Turner used to play. Bob often sat in on Ike's band, on the drums. We heard funny stories about Micky Dolan of the Monkees, and the horrilbe account of how his band member, Wally had been murdered. Oftentimes young performers were taken advantage of by managers, and this was the case, for a time, for Bob Kuban, and his band, also. Another funny story was about a time, when going to a huge venue that they had booked in Chicago, they noticed that the crowd all appeared to look Latino. They had inadvertently booked his band as, " L. Bob Kubano", and the entire audience thought he was Cuban ! Realizing the mixup, Bob quickly decided to trade spots with the band which was meant to lead into the show for him, because they were Latino.! Bob told many stories about playing with the St. Louis legend, Chuck Berry, too. That guy was a real character, as many in the music business are. Bob even spent 4 ore 5 years teaching at DuBourg High School, a fact that interested most of us. Lots of us are, or were, teachers, and Kathi Kalke went to Du Bourg, and remembered lots of the same nuns and priest that Bob told stories about.....

The evening was most interesting, and fun! Thanks to Bob, for spending his time here last night. We enjoyed ourselves so much the group stayed til 9:30, instead of our usual finishing time of 8:15 ! Thanks, Bob, for the MEMORIES.......

Thursday is "Gracie time"

Gracie turns ONE next week. This first year has flown by...

Thursdays are spent with Gracie, if I can, and yesterday she was so much fun. Reading books, eating , practically standing up all by herself, and dancing, of course, at the least hint of the creation of a "beat" resembling music, HA ! I had to post a few pics, so you wouldn't forget how cute she is...tee hee.

Spinnin' My Wheels

Ever since Sunday, it's been hard for me to focus on getting anything done. I've planned for the artshow for so long that it's hard to imagine not doing that..... Anywho, my studio has taken a turn for the worst, I think. Because it is so cold in the garage, and navigating my basement steps is really challenging with a tall piece of furniture, I decided to paint this one I found in my studio, where it was easier to get to. My studio now houses all of the estate sale and goodwill "finds", because prior to that they were taking over the diningroom table.! It's almost impossible to move around in there, though, and it seems ridiculous that during retirement years I would NEED MORE SPACE !!! I maybe just want to do too many things, and can't decide what to spend my energy on ~ Does anyone else out there have that problem ??? My desk (table) in my studio is covered with this and that , and I can hardly even maneuver.!! Maybe I should write to an advice column in the newspaper, Maybe I just need to get the CLOSET COMPANY to come help! Or maybe I just need to chuck it all and just focus on paintings ! What do you think? Signed, Confused in Kirkwood.....

Here's the newest piece for the antique booth