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!

Aunt Bonnie sent me a sweet card for my birthday last week, and in it was this photo of mom and me… taken.. I’m not sure when! Early 1990s, I’m thinking.. perhaps at a celebration lunch for Eric and Staci prior to their wedding? Not sure why I think that…but there ya go. Don’t take any of that to the bank.

Anyway… this is the pic and I LOVE it. I actually look a bit like mom.. and I like that! I’ve never really seen the similarities, but they’re there. 🙂

The photo’s not yet set in a frame… it’s just leaning up against this one (it can’t live in this frame because under that photo is my all-time fave pic of Peter). For now, the photo’s sitting on my desk, the one I got from mom’s house, after she passed away and we distributed all the goods. I was eager to have this desk. We all got an assortment of owls, all part of her collection, which used to sit on this very desk in mom and dad’s entryway (I acquired about 6-8 owls in the distribution.. this parliament (like that?) is some of them). The lamp (its base just visible in this picture) was also part of the package. I love this lamp.

(That would be my somewhat amusing — to me — version of speak softly and carry a big stick… in case that was not obvious.)

Here is somebody else’s even more amusing meme-y thing suggesting Taylor’s gonna take down the presumptive republican nominee for president, hopefully by registering a bazillion young people to vote democratic in the upcoming election.

Go get ’em, Taylor.