Meet ” Chairman Meow “.

My entry last season to the annual live auction benefiting The St. Croix Womens’ Coalition. They’re a non-profit organization that provides counseling, shelter and family services to abused women and children here.

The evening is billed as a “Chair-a-Table ” event because alternating years they provide local artists with an unpainted chair or table to festoon, paint or reassemble in any way they choose. This is the mainstay of their biggest fund raising gala and aside from private donations, brings in the most revenue to support their sadly needed services.

All the items go on the auction block and the bidding frenzy begins. A few glasses of wine, champagne, people outbidding each other -it’s a terrific night and everybody is a beneficiary of something good.

Opening bids start at $400 and it goes from there. As the artist, you have the option to donate all or %50 of the final bid price. I indicated a total donation, thinking it would fetch ( oh it’s a cat, they only fetch live mice and release them in your bedroom ) seven or eight hundred dollars.

I worked on this for weeks- 5 coats of red lacquer paint, drying and sanding in between, the lettering, the tassels, and the Chairman himself with his Peoples’ Republic jacket. I remembered while I was doing this, how much I enjoy the craft part of art and craft.

Seems the Chaircat had a secret admirer who called in a pre-auction bid of $2200.00!!!! Yikes and whaddya know? I fell off my chair. Must have been the whiskers….

A great night indeed.

Take a look at some other kittie stars here-

This funny topic was brought to our screens by the Jack-in-the Box mentality of the zany, philosophical, witty, creative owner of the blog “ Single for a Reason“. This challenge was preceded by ” What’s On Your Refrigerator”, which I can’t qualify for since ours is stainless and magnets don’t stick, and tape won’t hold because of the humidity.

This is my entry.

Yikes- what is that yolk colored, pear shaped object on the top shelf? It’s a local fruit called an egg fruit and it’s official name is Canistel. It has the consistency of cheesecake and is beyond sweet. We use them in smoothies.

Notice the bottom shelf and the pink plastic wrap. It’s protecting the precious bounty I brought back home with me from NY- Parmigiano Reggiano! Five big bricks of it. I’m surprised the airport beagles didn’t stand at attention when THAT box rolled through.

Mango seasons’ in full swing- see the started one left to dry up? Who cares- there’s bowls of them. Take note of the recipe suggestion from our local Botanical Garden that hosts its’ annual Mango Melee event in early July:

Simple enough even for kitchen klutzes.

If it appears that the contents display mostly unrecognizable condiments, it’s because this shot was taken when I just got home after being away for more than 3 weeks. Husbands’ food shopping requirements are seriously less well-balanced than wives’. There IS a Red Stripe beer- and purple cabbage, so I suppose they cancel each other out.

Some of the other fruit not in the refrigerator but so pretty to look at.

Too much time away and not enough time painting, prompted a quick, just do something so you don’t get painters’ bends if you come up too quickly, brings this:

Will the day come that I’d rather paint fruit than eat it……….

You can’t just leave here. You have to have a plan and consider- did I do enough?

There’s never enough time to spend with family but I managed to see as much of my wonderful son as I could, without running out of things to say and appearing like a sentimental mother. Even though I am.

My dear friend Judy provided culture, comforts, laughs, a cat and a dog to fill the sucking void of leaving mine for all this time. She is across the street from another famous landmark- The Flatiron Building.

How’s this for the quintessential view of NY as I woke up in the morning?

Still one of the grandest icons of architecture and embedded in our collective psyche regardless of what version of King Kong you grew up with.

After all the falling cranes perched perilously on top of yet more glass skyscraper sliver buildings, it’s not hard to be pulled in by sights that remind you how long the history of this city is.

I came across this old Sephardic cemetery on West 21st Street, sandwiched in between two modern buildings. It’s the origin of the oldest , only Jewish congregation in NY, dating back to 1654 at another site. Read about it’s history here.

And another view-

This lovely gentleman of British inflection and endless energy, demonstrates how to peel carrots, potatoes, vegetables of all varieties, with a Swiss made ( meaning the opposite of made in China ) $5 peeler. The peeler is almost as enchanting as this fellow. We bought 2.

If you were a knitter, wouldn’t you want to buy your hand dyed yarn from this vendor?

Van Gogh could have survived nicely here, given the displays of flowers.

Maybe it’s this image that reminds me that no matter how many shops, restaurants, big deals, limos, fabulousness, grandiosity and excess you experience here, what it all comes down to is this:

My grandmother was always right.

I’ll be back home to St. Croix tonight, feeling wealthy in so many ways.

-I left St. Croix last week for my yearly excursion to New York City, my former home. Gentrification is everywhere. While savoring a $6 scoop of gelato, on the Lower East Side, ( when gelato was known only as ice cream ), I noticed this very old sign, still affixed to a very old building.

-Before Orange Alert and Heightened Security Warnings, there were fallout shelters. They were essentially windowless, basement rooms in apartment buildings, suitable for bike and camp trunk storage. In the event of threat of Soviet Missiles aimed at our city, we could descend to this subterranean den and survive on its’ well stocked larder: Bottled water, crackers, toilet paper and aspirin!

Initiated by then governor Nelson Rockerfeller, an expample of fifteen million of our 1958 tax dollars well spent to protect our citizenry from radioactive fallout with acetaminophen.

-I thought about the extremes in contrast this urban mecca is. Adjacent to the Lower East Side is Chinatown where you can buy a bus ticket from NYC to Boston, 200 miles, for a meager $15 on the Fung Wah Bus.

-Somewhere in the middle of too little and too much is just perfect- The Union Square Greenmarket, where you can buy organic cheese, chickens, eggs, beef, breads, pastries, flowers, varieties of carrots in Crayola colors and fresh lavender tied in fatly compacted bundles.

- These really caught my eye: Varieties of RADISHES! Who knew?

-By the time radishes, plain, red, pedestrian radishes reach St. Croix, asphyxiated by plastic wrap and their 10 day journey across the sea, they’re bitter, old, and ready for the compost heap.

Next week starts the museum circuit with my good friend, host and marvelous artist Judith Wolfe.

She defers to my epicurean tastes, and I in turn, get the lowdown on the best movie reviews, museum shows and all things New York.

-The -est? What?

Am I referring to the self improvement training program popular in the 70’s? No, not that.

OK, then, is it about changing the clocks to Eastern Standard Time? Unh-uh. Not that either.

Little known to most anyone - assuming most people even know about St. Croix (” Is St. Croix, you know, off of the Canary Islands?” Even my best and smartest friend refers to me as a Croatian. ), is that we’re on Atlantic Time and never change our clocks. Ever.

For those of us digitally dis-inclined or disinterested in changing every device and electronic wing-ding in our house, this is a lifetime exemption.

The -est refers to the deepest and the largest. What, already, you’re asking- of course, if you’re still reading.

-This is a sign posted about 2 miles from my house that indicates a place on this island where the water drops off to a depth of about 3,000 feet, but quite close to land. So although there are deeper waters in the world, none is deeper THIS CLOSE TO LAND!. Hmmm, little ol’ St. Croix.

OTEC was an idea presented to the government in the 90’s- you remember the 90’s when your car was bigger than the house your parents grew up in? The technology was dismissed then. It’s a low cost, carbon neutral energy producing technology that would be ideal in this location.

Now that gas per gallon is more than ice cream, it’s time to reconsider this. It’s going to be another option presented to our power utility ( we have the highest electricity rates in the NATION! ) and our government. Talk has been about using coal! COAL!!!

Cheap, shortsighted, total lack of vision or concern for the future and akin to seeking an 8 track cassette player for your car to replace your iPod.

The other -est is our refinery- Hovensa. The largest refinery in the Western Hemisphere- on an island in the Caribbean- so unlikely. It’s otherworldly- as in Mad Max Superdrome humongous. A belching, smoking monstrosity. Driving from North to South, you’d think you were not in the Caribbean but in Pittsburgh in the 60’s. Yes, they employ thousands of workers and donate significantly to the community.

I’d show a photo but I’d probably be breaching security. And as well, diminishing the aesthetic content of these pages. If you’re hankering to see it- check their web site above.

We are also the eastern most land mass of the United States. So we get to celebrate New Years Eve after Guam, but, eat your heart out Times Square, before New York City.

Which is where I’ll be for the next few weeks, so there may be postings, who can say?

I’ll leave you with the Cute-est Sand Crab, thanks to my good pal and hotelier in NY, JudyLobo.

And tell me you don’t just love the music!

-This tribute was passed on to me by Paz of Pazs’ New York Minute. How could I not love that blog AND that award? Paz captures little jewels of unexpected surprises in an about NYC through her photographs.

The best part is that I can accept this award without the pressure of choosing a gown, a hairdresser, writing a dopey acceptance speech that I’d be flub-a-dubbing from a tele-prompter or a sweaty handed, partially crumpled note taken out of a too small purse in front of a fickle love you when you’re up, hate you when you’re down audience.

Second, her blog contains great little hits of NY pie slices of life in photos that make me wish for some seconds that it was still home.

-And then, of course I look out my deck and that feeling passes.

The suggested guidelines for this award ( no rules, remember this is without pressure ) are:

Award guidelines:

“Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.”

So to the following people, I pass on this icon of appreciation.

Some are new to me but new favorites:

1. Nathalie of Nathalie With an H

2. David of David Lobenberg

3. Bill and Lisa of On Painting

4. Of course, Paz of Pazs’ New York Minute

Some are favorites and always give me something to have with coffee or lack of original thoughts:

5. Judy of Lobos’ Rants

6. Terry of Livin’ on St. Croix

7. Linda of Linda Blondheim Art Notes

8. Carol of Carol Marine

9. Sue of Ancient Artist

10. Nancy of Nancy Moskovitz Fine Art

And because 11 is and always has been my lucky number,

11. Sharon of The Art of Horseracing

]]> http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/a-you-make-my-day-award/feed/ bonnieluria http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/the-elixir/ http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/the-elixir/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 21:13:42 +0000 bonnieluria http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/?p=165

- An earlier post ( Oh No, I’ve Hit A Wall ) showed this drawing which led to the progression of studies that ultimately produced the finished painting at the very bottom of this sequence. It’s acrylic in 11X14.

Thought it would be interesting to show how painting or drawing the same thing over and over again makes it familiar. It worked for Van Gogh. How many of HIS self portraits can you look at and never find it repetitive!

-My reference is a vintage photo from Guadaloupe seen here on top of the easel. ( Notice the red-eyed and eager studio assistant in the right hand background ). From the drawing, I moved again to my new favorite- cardboard, to do a value and placement study.

-The Committment- CANVAS! I found myself referring to some of the lessons of my workshop in the use of focal point and making the contrasts of light and dark more bold.

James Gurney in his spectacularly informative blog, Gurney Journey, describes “flagging the face” where you highlight the focal face with a contrasted light color behind to draw the eye in.

I used a glazing medium which allows the paint to be more malleable and layered the colors for subtle color shifts. Finished painting is here to the left.

-The Elixir is taken seriously in the Caribbean and Africa. There are references to ” Bush Tea ” here on St. Croix which includes some or all of : Lemongrass, Basil, Ginger, Mint. The applications of leaves that have been heated in oil and applied directly to afflicted parts of the body are legendary among the elders who have passed this information on.

Eden South, a local company here on St. Croix has a very extensive listing of plants and herbs with illustrations and uses for the endless varieties that grow here.

Let’s all raise a glass of our favorite elixir and toast to creativity, good health, free expression and a change in November!

-I used to live on another island. Manhattan. You could buy anything, anytime. Not so, here. Much of my shopping is done via catalogue or the web which means lots of cartons come to my post office box. Our mail has to be picked up at the post office - we’re pretty far from any main road where mail delivery might be an option.

So now there’s an attic full of heavy duty cardboard boxes that I hate to throw out but also hate saving, “just in case”. Just in case what? I have to ship back something whose warrantee expired five years ago or worse, one day after the three year extended warrantee is up? Took them down from the attic ( it always feels good to purge and re-acquaint yourself with your collective accumulations ) and cut them apart to flatten them and thought they’d make good platforms for painting. I like the color of brown cardboard- kinda like the sienna tint of a canvas that was once white.

-There were gobs of assorted colors left in my Sta-Wet palette so I tried a few really quick studies, aiming for free-hand, no drawing, fast blocking in of dark mass. The way the lights jump off the brown background creates a striking contrast without having to paint in those light spots to be whiter than an already white canvas.

-These were two really fast and painless exercises. It’s good practice. I may have to shop more.

- Now I’d like to engage the encyclopedic collective of my friends and art readers to help me identify a painting. This one immediately above, with the painting in the background of the painting, is a version of one of an impressionists’ ( the best attempt to learn from the masters is to copy them ) that I did more decades ago than I’d like to confess to. ( If I had any memory left, I believe my age group would have ended with ” teen “. )

I took it from my Jansons’ History of Art Book, which I no longer have. I thought it was Cezanne and I’ve checked on-line but don’t see this turning up in any of his archives. Does anyone have an a-ha?

-A few weeks ago, I started this still life at a workshop given here by Bruce Williamson, a visiting artist/teacher from Texas. Unlike the other members of our class who used oils, I was working in acrylics.

Bruce would begin each class with a demonstration ( think of it as You Tube LIVE ).

As a visual learner, and aren’t most artists, I gained so much by watching him begin to fill in spaces. And hear his mental process, not because we were psychics but because Bruce, while working, was telling us how he translates what he sees into what he applies.

-By the time his demo was over, it was midday and the sun was directly on top of us which gave our still life set-up the very sharp shadows as you can see in the photo.

It also very nicely baked my paints into a abstract form on my palette, much faster than I could paint. That’s the Sour in the title.

But I liked the beginnings. It taught me to work fast and not over think each stroke. I took it home and worked on it in the studio, using the photo as a reference ( what did we do before digital cameras??).

How we look at shadows- they’re not one color. There are at least 6 colors in each object and its’ shadow. The true color, the mid-tones of the true ( or local ) color, the shadow of the object, the shadow of the object reflected on the surface, and finally the best part- the little highlight on the true color that gives the object its’ “ping “.

Who could have known you’d need an abacus to tally the contents of your work while you’re having at it!!

Art is math. Art is science. And some darn fine teaching too.

This is what I finished in the studio.

-I’m very happy with the lemon. I adjusted the pear to be more grounded into its’ axis- it wasn’t leaning authentically. The apple, well, I’m learning to compensate for how acrylics dry darker than you think they will but I’m not into overworking this piece anymore.

What I did get out of it was a sense of having fun while doing it. I haven’t done a still life in a very long time.

How pedestrian, to be living in the Caribbean and presenting you with a trio of fruit you could find in a convenience store on the interstate! But mango season is coming right up and hopefully may compensate your disappointed eyes.

]]> http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/sour-and-sweet/feed/ bonnieluria http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/they-took-a-village/ http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/they-took-a-village/#comments Mon, 05 May 2008 02:28:53 +0000 bonnieluria http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com/?p=152

We have a community here on St. Croix that reaches deeply- into their pockets, into their hearts, and into their consciences to help a good cause. There’s no shortage of those, certainly not here on our own island.

This past Friday night I went to an art show fund raiser that was unlike any other I had ever been to. One of our local galleries - Maufe` by name, hosted at its’ own expense, a show dedicated to a newly formed, St. Croix based non profit organization known as Haiti Community Support. Please don’t stop reading now. There is a very important story to be told here.

Headed by Bruce and Mathilde Wilson, they have devoted their lifes’ work to changing a pocket of humanity, one cinderblock, one child, one bag of rice at a time. Mathilde has lived on St, Croix for many years but was born in Au Centre, a poor among the poorest village in the mountains of Haiti.

They have made numerous trips back to her village where not one child had ever been to a school or had even seen a school. Through the setting up of their 501 (c )3 organization, they have raised some of the funds necessary to build a school and hire two teachers to make sure that the next generations have an opportunity to improve their lives.

I’d like to offer some quoted text from Mathildes’ Spring 2008 newsletter as no one can put this into words better than she can-

HCS Newsletter Spring/Summer 2008

“For each of my 41 years on this earth, my country, Haiti, has been a place of terrible suffering and despair. I’ve wondered all my life how this holocaust could be allowed to continue, year after year, with no meaningful intervention from the developed world.

Recent press stories about mud cookies and deforestation, food rotting in the ports, and hunger riots in the cities are shocking and discouraging. But Haiti has been this way on and off since my earliest memories. I’m worried that if that’s all people hear about Haiti, maybe they’ll just completely give up on us.

Sensational stories hide the greater truth: That Haiti’s survivors are eager to rebuild their ravaged country – if given even minimal help. Deep in the mountains, in the poorest and most forgotten of mountain villages, our school kids and their parents are today making great progress; planting a community garden, running the school lunch program, and learning new skills. Men and women who have survived the odds already just by staying alive, defy the odds again, to build a school and a medical clinic.

Making progress in Haiti is difficult and exciting work. You’ve been a part of our success. We’re a young organization, and early supporters like you are especially important to the future of an effort like this.

I and my husband have been working in Haiti for the love and exhilaration of success. What has kept us going has been your support and encouragements, and especially the hard work and dedication of our village leaders in Haiti.

I hope you enjoy reading some good news out of Haiti. Feel proud! It’s news you are helping to make happen! “

Thanks,

Mathilde Aurelien-Wilson
Director HC

The gallery event Friday night was something that made every resident here feel proud of our community. Up for auction were paintings by Haitian artists, some of our local artists, and in the best tradition of total involvement, paintings by young local art students, some of whom never painted before.

This was coordinated by the supreme efforts of Monica Marin, the art teacher of Country Day School here. What this group accomplished was not only raising over $10,000, just last night, but to instill in children here that what they do can make a difference.

If all we do is focus on what’s wrong with our society and our politics and policies, we will become beaten down and deadened. There is so much to be done, and thankfully, there are people like Bruce and Mathilde who risk so much and try so hard and in the end, refer to themselves as a ” lucky crew”. How can we not help them? With last Friday nights’ collection they will be able to expand the school and add another 50 children from neighboring villages.

There is no doubt that unlike any other agency you may give to during the year, there need be no question as to where every penny goes. It ALL goes to the children and families of Au Centre.

Please have a long, deep look at the photos.

I’d like to ask you all to visit their website here to see what the best of humanity is capable of and click on their automatic payment button to make a real difference in the lives of people who have never known running water, electricity, a meal before bed and still, only want an education.

Thanks to all my readers and friends for indulging me in something I feel so very strongly about and just know that whatever you can do- will truly make a difference. Let’s all take a village.

Peace and love now more than ever.