Life of Wry

Today was sure an unexpected surprise of a day!

Here I was, deep in a flurry of home projects, some unplanned (the act of putting away a single piece of tupperware, let to the cleaning of that (huge) drawer, then a cabinet, then another, then another… which resulted in the full-on reorganization of so many items — storage containers, coffee mugs, ramekins, thermoses and insulated vessels, stemware, guest-ware, some appliances — AND another good-sized pile of items to be donated), and some planned (packing for my upcoming Guatemala trip).

Well, as I said… I was deep into a super productive morning. Then I got a text from Sidne (who lives in Auburn) who said she and a fellow PVHS classmate were in town and how about getting together. By the time I got the text I’d likely missed getting together for lunch, but suggested they drop by afterward if possible. Which, apparently, it was.

So they came by and we had a lovely couple-three hour visit. Most of the time was spent replacing a teeny, tiny eye that had dislodged from a small sculpture Neal had brought over from Italy, where he lives and works as an artist in the mountains an hour or so away from Florence. He’s in California for a week or two to meet up with various gallery owners up and down the state, hoping to place his work in one (or more) of those galleries. He’s hoping to introduce himself in the US as a California-inspired artist (he grew up in PV) and get a foothold in the art market. Not a world I know much about; it was fun to hear how that might work.

Neal sculpts in a style I think he called post funk, having been inspired early on by Robert Arneson and so many others (I don’t know them, but I do know Arneson). He uses mostly marble, often an assortment on each piece, gathered at locations all over Europe and the Middle East. His pieces range from the small ones he pulled out of his backpack for Sidne and me to see, to huge pieces that are human-sized, or even bigger.

Here are some examples:

Here is Neal working to re-affix the eye… (there is a story …. )

.. actually, he’s trying to open a tube of super glue here.

And here’s the piece with its new eye intact:

Here’s a pic of Sidne and Neal. I’ll see them both again in July as we’re all planning on attending our 50th high school reunion!