I must admit I felt a little guilty about spending as much money as I did, as I usually do when I spend money on myself. I'm a strange bird, I generally live pretty frugally but I do spend a fair amount of money on original artwork every few years. I don't own any jewelry, my cell phone is five years old, I don't have an ipod, a TV, a speaker system, a video camera or many of the other accoutrements that many of my friends own. I have one pair of jeans (which I didn't even buy but are hand-me-downs from my dear friend T), one pair of running shoes (sorry dad, I haven't gotten around to getting second pair like you recommended) etc.
I guess I just feel like good artwork is one of the great pleasures of life and that I'd rather give money to an artist I know and respect than a large chain store. I don't know why I feel like I have to defend my choices...
This is what the piece looks like (I took a photo when I went to pay at the gallery):
Last time I was in NC, for my sister's wedding, I didn't take a photo of it and when I got back to DC I went on Kathryn's website and looked for a similar piece to post on my blog. I'm amazed at how well I remembered it-- here is the piece that I selected as similar to it, called "168 Days:"
Also this weekend, my mother and I made a trip to the Durham farmer's market (more like I dragged her there at the height of the crowded buying frenzy since we missed the opening). We got rainbow Swiss chard, tomatoes, corn, peaches, blackberries and blueberries and then cooked a delicious lunch of sauteed Swiss chard, microwaved corn (simple is good), and salmon on challah. For dessert my mom had gotten me a specially ordered spice cake, just like the one at my sister's wedding. Yum. Thanks mom!
That afternoon I watched the first movie I've seen in over a year on a DVD at my mom's with my friend ebcbdb who I know from college, when we lived together off campus for two years. We watched Bruges. It was very dark, both in mood and lighting. I liked the scenery, but didn't think the plot or storyline was captivating at all. The best part was when the characters are in a museum looking at a Hieronymous Bosch painting because I really like his work. I guess I'm not so much into sitting still and watching movies these days. Actually, I found I didn't enjoy being inside at all. The air conditioning felt funny to me after all the time I've spent outside so I spent quite a bit of time sitting on the front steps or back porch reading a light romance by Radclyffe Hall called When Dreams Tremble. I'd started it at my ex's house last summer and so was already halfway through it and able to finish it in just a few hours. It's the first book I've finished all summer, which is very unlike me as usually I read at least one book a week. I guess it hasn't been a summer for sitting still much at all.
As for trying new food, we picked up food from the tiny Mexican take out stand just up the road from my mom's place called La Vaquita (it used to be a dairy and it has a cow on top of the building, something that was odd enough that I remember it clearly from my childhood). It doesn't look like much, but it got written up in Gourmet magazine and also got several other outstanding reviews, which was enough to convince me to give it a go. I got a huarache, which was beans, tomatoes, feta cheese and avocado on a corn tortilla. As we sat and waited for our order to be ready, lots of Hispanic workers pulled up and ordered. It was obviously quite a popular place.
The last thing I did before leaving town was stop by the Nasher, the Duke Art Museum, to see Barkley L. Hendricks' retrospective one last time as today was the last day of the show. Guess who I ran into there? Kathryn DeMarco. She is so cool. She wanted to see it again too. I also took my mom and dad with me to see the show. They really liked it. Actually, of the five people I took to see Hendricks' work, every single person was struck by his skill and irony. I can't remember the last time I saw an artist that so many different types of people liked so much. When I spoke to the employees at the Nasher, they said Hendricks was pretty much unanimously popular. That's incredible, what a testament to his work.
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