La Vie En Rose

I hope you can join me Saturday, February 25th from 4-5pm for my song set at the infamous St. Francis pasta dinner fundraiser.  386 Buttles Avenue in Columbus' historic Victorian Village.  Tickets may be purchased at the door and include a fabulous spaghetti dinner, no matter what time of day you show up. Festivities begin at 12pm, end at 7pm,  and other entertainers are also on the program.  

My song list includes some of my favorite standards with a few others tossed in for fun (You just GOTTA do Tom Lehrer's "Vatican Rag" at a Catholic church fundraiser, right?)  "La Vie en Rose" is also in the set, and that's been on my singing dream list for years.  I don't know if it's because I thought I wouldn't be able to memorize it in French, or just what took me so long, but I'm so happy it finally came together.  AND I've got an accordion player for that one too (thanks, John Marazita!)  What more could a gal want?

I am super-excited about this whole thing.  Tony Hagood is playing piano for me, and I even went out and bought that retro Shure55 microphone.  How could I not?  Many years ago --- and for a few years in a row --- I performed at the St.Francis dinners.  It was my first time singing jazz for an audience and I just loved every minute of it.  I wasn't even nervous (which seemed so very odd for me) and it just felt like it was exactly what I was supposed to be doing.  While I will never put down my camera or stop creating visual art,  if I had to pick one thing to do for the rest of my life, this would be it.  Now, to make it happen. 

Life Lately: January

I've never written a "life lately" post, so I thought I'd give it a whirl...

First off, I'm sooo excited to be making progress on one of my goals in such a big way already.  I am working on a song set for none other than the St. Francis Mardis Gras pasta dinner on February 25.  I'm still tweaking the list, but it's mostly standards with some fun ones thrown in for festivity.  Trying to memorize La Vie en Rose in French... wish me luck!

Here, Sherman is helping me pick out music.  "You have to start with Cabaret, of course," he said.

I've also been testing out papers, pens, and framing for the Flying Adventures exhibit.  The prints for frames are bigger than the original book, so I was worried that my handwriting would look too small or the ink line too thin, but it's working out just fine.  In the photo below I'm writing in pencil on scrap paper to see how the words will line up with an image. After getting that ballpark idea, though, it's a pen and no guide-lines.  I take a deep breath and just do it.

I want the framed prints to look like an open book so that they appear three-dimensional, not flat. I decided to hand-sew signatures and mount them individually in shadowbox frames so that you can see all the page edges and the fold of the paper.  I got goosebumps when I held up a finished piece... they look really good if I do say so myself!  Now to start working on 42 of them... 

I visited my brother in Florida a couple weeks ago.  We decided to start going through the boxes of family memorabilia that we'd left in storage after selling Mom & Dad's house.  We got through one box and found some gems!  Here I am with my Mom and our dog and cat when I was five.  I still have the same haircut lol.  And I still love picnics.

My brother just got himself a new office, which is exciting for him, obviously, but also for me because he asked me for my opinion on decorating and artwork, and wants to display some of my photographs.  (My first corporate gig - yes!)  We spent a Saturday afternoon at the Orlando IKEA looking for odds-and-ends (and had meatballs for lunch, of course).  I can't wait for it all to be finished!

I designed a print ad for him too while I was visiting.  I've never done an ad for anyone but myself and I thought it turned out pretty well!  Design work always feels like putting a puzzle together: there are all these independent elements you have to try to fit in a certain space and somehow make it look good.  I designed his website too, which made me realize that I'd love to do more website work.  (Need a site?  Let me know!)

Back at home it feels like there really is no winter.  I got to make that one snowman early in December but there hasn't been snow since.  It's terrible.  That said, I've been going for a walk every day and I'm always wondering what the river's going to look like.  Foggy one day, rain another, a crazy pink sunset... Before the big thaw it was frozen and every now and then you'd hear the dark echo-y twang of the ice cracking.  It was so eerie but beautiful.  Made me jump out of my skin every time.

I got out & explored Columbus a little bit this month too.  Finally went to check out the renovations at the Columbus Main Library.  Fortunately they left the foyer exactly how it had been.  I lloooove the foyer sculpture.  It just feels so grand.  I can't help it:  I always just want to jump off the second floor balcony and swing around on those things! 

The renovations are gorgeous.  Open space, lots of tables and hang-out spots, and a great cafe.  But I dunno, the main level just feels so empty.  I'm all for big spaces and minimalism, but you don't see any books when you walk in.  I know that libraries are about more than just books, but it feels more like the entrance to a museum than a library, kind of distant and institution-y.  Maybe they've got plans for the lobby that I don't know about...? Regardless, I will ALWAYS love our library.  It's one of the Carnegie libraries, and it's always one of the top-ranked libraries in the country.

I also decided I would finally figure out how to get to the abandoned bridge over route 70 downtown.  That's the LeVeque tower in the very-distance.  I found it!  It winds up dead-ending at the railroad tracks, which makes me wonder how long ago it was still in use as a road.

Every now and then we've gotten some sunshine, and I love the winter sun glowing up my orange tree, which I've had for over ten years now.  It started out as a little 6-inch Home Depot purchase and I just keep repotting it.  It's four feet tall and smells sooo good when it blooms.

Been reading too.  Flights to and from Florida were perfect for that!  I read Kent Haruf's Our Souls at Night, am in the middle of Andre Dubus III's House of Sand and Fog, and finished Jean Nathan's biography of photographer Dare Wright called The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll.  I can't remember where I came across the recommendation for that book, but I'm glad I did; it was such a fascinating read.  Dare Wright wrote children's stories about the lives of her doll and teddy bears and illustrated them with black and white photographs.  That alone piqued my interest... I didn't know her books even existed.  I'm always curious to see works of fiction illustrated with photographs instead of drawings. It's such a rarity!

Her stories, though, hinted at Wright's unconventional life, psychological insecurities, and unhealthy -- most would say, too close -- relationships with her mother and brother.  A "girl who never grew up," Wright explored her sense of self through photographic self-portraiture and lived in the world of the stories she created.  I don't know why a filmmaker hasn't taken Wright's story on yet. 

Anyway, this has been my January so far.  Too rainy (or too cold) to fly, but that's okay, I need to be in the studio!  I hope your 2017 is going well.  Cheers!

ps - A hello from Miss Kid whose mission here was to keep me from changing the sheets. Success!

2017 Goals

I'm not really a New Year's resolution person, but I like the idea of thinking ahead for the year and asking myself what I'd really like to accomplish.  If I pin this list over my desk it will inspire me every day.  If I post it here then it's even more official!  Except for the first goal, which feels the most important to me, they are in no particular order.  Here goes:

 - HELP OTHERS. I'm still working out what I mean by this.  It's pretty easy to donate money to good causes (and I need to do more of this regardless), but I think it's time I got more involved. I'd like to start an ongoing relationship with at least one organization that's a good fit. 

- READ 25 BOOKS.  I used to be a "take-a-book-with-me-everywhere-I-go" kind of girl, but somewhere along the way I became more of a bedtime book reader (which doesn't get me very far because I fall asleep).  I think I have a hard time stopping "being productive" to sit down and read a book during the day.  It feels so decadent and maybe even lazy.  But that's ridiculous!  So I am vowing to become a book girl again.  I have so many books of my own, and I've since added a huge chunk of my Mom & Dad's collection, so I have plenty of material to get through. 

- SING.  You know that question: "If there were no money, what would you do if you could do anything?" Well, it's a no-brainer for me.  I'd be a jazz singer.  So, this year, I want to dust off my red velvet dress and get out there.  Since goals need to be specific, I want to have five songs ready to go and I want to sing in public five times.  More would be nice! 

- SEW THROUGH MY FABRIC STASH.  Since setting up my Mom's sewing machine and figuring out the basics, I've made a few pairs of pajama pants, a new favorite skirt, a jersey long sleeve t-shirt, and I've altered a bunch of other things so they fit me right.  I've also spent many giddy hours in New York fabric shops and at Sew to Speak up in Worthington.  I LOVE that we have such a great independent shop close by.  Anyway, I have now amassed a (still growing) collection of fabric-waiting-to-become-something-grand.  It's terrible but I can't help it:  What if the store runs out of this beautiful (insert coveted fabric here) before I know what I want to do with it?  Buy it now!! *Sigh*  The stack in the photo is only a selection of what I've got in the closet, BUT it is my goal this year to make something out of everything in that pile. 

- LEARN 5 SONGS BY HEART on my ukulele and play them in front of people.  I can sing jazz standards for an audience until the cows come home, but for some reason I am soooo nervous playing an instrument in front of people.  It was the same with piano.  The shaky hands!  Ugh!  I loooove my ukulele and I'm getting better at playing it, but I want to get over my stage fright (I even messed up playing "Happy Birthday" for my brother!?) so I gotta play in front of people more often.  Look out... next time I see you you'll get a shaky-hands concert!

- MOVE MORE. Okay, I admit it, I'm sort of a couch potato.  I work at home doing things that involve sitting, or only small bits of moving around, and I don' t like the word "exercise."  In seventh grade I did aerobics until my legs practically fell off but now, yeah, not so much.  I used to do a lot of yoga too... dunno what happened to that either. No, I don't need to lose weight, I just want to be healthy, so I want to do every day (or at least most days) that involves moving my body for a little while.  A walk, a bike ride, polka dancing... whatever.  One of the projects I started last year but didn't finish was fixing up my old three-speed.  It doesn't look as bad in the photo as it does in real life but it's pretty busted.  I took it apart to clean the whole thing and now I can't remember how it goes back together.  Hello, bicycle repair shop...?

- LEARN TO FLY AGAIN.  It's been a looong time since I was up in the air by myself.  It was hard to find time to fly regularly when I was helping my brother take care of my Mom and Dad, and eventually I just let it go.  It's okay.  I now have "my" little Aeronca Champ and spring is just around the corner...

- PLANT A BETTER GARDEN.  I learned a lot from my first year of keeping a garden.  So this year?  More flowers, more herbs, fewer vegetables.  We just didn't eat enough of what we grew to make it worth the effort.  

- FINISH UNPACKING.  It's been a year and a half since we moved.  It's time to open the rest of the boxes and also put away the things I've already unpacked but are just stacked in piles all over the house -- it's hard to keep a clean house when every available surface is covered with something.  Besides, I finally want to have  a housewarming party.

- HANG UP ARTWORK & FINISH DECORATING.  I finally put up some of my photographs and a few of my Mom & Dad's prints and paintings, but I want to finish putting books on shelves and hanging my artwork on the walls.  It makes me sad that some of my favorite pieces are still living in a giant box behind the sofa.

- COME UP WITH A GOOD STUDIO/OFFICE ROUTINE.  It's a catch-22:  I'm a night owl, but that means waking up late and feeling like the day's already passed me by.  Then I put things off because there's no official deadline for projects.  Or I'll get distracted by my sewing machine.  Or -- Ooooh! It's a gorgeous day! -- I'd so much rather be outside!  Artists & freelancers out there, you KNOW what I mean. Ugh. I gotta figure out what works for me.

- FIND 25 GIGS FOR MY FLYING ADVENTURES BOOK.  Readings, workshops, exhibits - whatever. I want to make a concerted effort to get the word out, and if I don't have a specific number goal, then I'll be lazy about sending out queries.  I think 25 is a doable number... they don't have to be all in one year, just 25 places that say yes and put me on the calendar somewhere.

- USE MY PASSPORT.  Life is short and the world is big.  I know I will never see all of it, but I'd like to make a dent.  

So those are the big ones!  I have a few smaller ones: drinking more water, keeping a neater house (which should be easy once boxes are unpacked - ha!), and coming up with a system to stay on top of editing, archiving, and printing my own personal photos.  Oh yeah, and keeping up with this blog!  I'm proud that I've kept up (mostly) with my weekly posts.  

I know I'll find some things to add to the list along the way, but for now this is a good place to start. I wish you all the best with your own resolutions and goals for 2017... cheers!!