One year anniversary

Mike snapped this picture with his Treo the other day. He might need to clean his lens. I found a lovely bench for drawing on 22nd Street in Chelsea at the 535 building. It being August, Chelsea was very quiet. This space was cool, Mike was late. I got a lot done.

Today is the one year anniversary of ATfreespace, so I've decided to start another blog about Pocket Utopia. On the Pocket Utopia blog I'll able to really write about other artists, their projects, and the issues of running an exhibition and salon space. Visions can be shared, defined, and refined. Hopefully, in another year the view from here will be free and utopic and not so blurry.

Every drawing is a work in progress

Being that it is almost the end of the summer, I have removed all my drawings from their sketchbooks and laid them out for some fresh air and a viewing. In total there are 22 larger drawings and 37 small drawings. They are all works in progress that will make their way into more finished drawings this fall. The sketchbooks which go everywhere with me, from dentist waiting room to playground, have become an essential component to my post-studio practice. I really have the dentist to thank for making me incorporate this sketchbook regiment.

The subway ride to Pocket Utopia has become one my favorite places to draw. After evaluating the drawings on the floor, the blank sketchbooks await more drawing. Draw whatever you go and you'll get a lot done.

Excuse me, you have art in your teeth #8

Tonight's "Excuse me, you have art in your teeth," salon was held at the post-studio of Bill Gerhard. Using the available light in his apartment, black construction paper and sheets of glass, among other objects, he exposes paper to varying effects that are beautiful, Zen-like, purple and poetic. He exposed us to wonderful pesto and thoughts on process and performative work. Bill will do a site-specific installation at Pocket Utopia for the Pierogi Show.

It's good to be home, done with California. The whole experience left me with a lot. I've been thinking about the constant social space of the family and how to make it more like an art and food salon and less like a trip to the dentist. And the dentist is where I'll be tomorrow. Enough of the dentist and enough of family. Neither are going away, unfortunately, both are constant and not relative. Maybe a little bit like Bill's art. Rain or shine, it's exposed.

Home from the honeymoon

My sister comes home from her honeymoon today! Mike is back in the kitchen and we have a clean up job before my sister's plane lands. We leave tomorrow and then all week it's going to be Pierogi, Pierogi, Pierogi!

We had a wonderful day yesterday, hanging out and drawing. We drove to LA to visit Lucas Reiner. It was good to chill out after dropping off my sister's kids with their dad. My nanny job is done. Now I just have to be a maid for a few hours. Then it's back to Pocket Utopia!

5-minutes, maybe more

I've taken a plunge into serentity. Grant is asleep in the car, which is in the garage (the door is open and I can see him sleeping). The other children are at camp (which they hate, by the way, so I'm not the only one that hates camp). I'm at my perch in the kitchen again, with sketch pad and coffee. Grant says, "Mommy drinks coffee all the time." He's right. An empty house, a white sheet of drawing paper, and a cup of coffee surround me.

No honeymoon here

While my sister, pictured above with her new husband, honeymoons, I am in the middle, it being Wednesday, of nanny-duty. Mike left. Three kids and a grandmother remain. Things are hectic, but I am attempting to move from a place of love.

Reports from the renovation of Pocket Utopia cheer me on (new doors and storeage unit additions). Individual structure, keeping to a schedule, and carrying Grant everywhere I go keep things happy here. There's so much sun too! I long for the subway and it's dark tunnels. Where's my sketchbook? It must be under the sunscreen and the gas card!

A spirit of optimism

Reporting in from Costa Mesa, Ca. My sister is on her honeymoon and I am settling into my nanny/artist-in-resident position. I've got a new perch here in the kitchen where I can draw, cook, drink coffee, and finish planning the opening show at Pocket Utopia.

It's easy setting up a "post-studio" work area in the home of a working mother or rather two working parents, for the house is very efficient, clean, and adaptable. The kids have their schedule, parents have theirs, meals are simple, and everything seems to be optimized for work and getting things done.

This house reminds me of an exhibit I recently saw at the Corcoran on Modernism. The exhibit contained a Frankfurt Kitchen that was designed in 1926 by Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky for enabling efficient work at low cost (no sub-zero here). The kitchens were installed in housing projects.

Grant is napping and finally catching up on his sleep after travel and wedding receptions. I am optimismic about the week ahead, like a good modernist I will chart a discernable path through Costa Mesa. and the kitchen.

Building Utopia

We made it to California and have discovered that we are immediately in charge of the kids, house details, driving or rather shuttle service, etc. The wedding is tomorrow. I've just returned from Trader Joe's and have set up a small drawing station. Perhaps I can view this trip to sunny California as a nanny/artist-in-residence project/program.

While over here, the work over there in Bushwick on Pocket Utopia moves forward. The walls are almost complete and painting will begin soon. Right next to me right now is mom (a.k.a Kay Thomas) and origami expert, so maybe we'll do a round of folding between car-pooling.

Off to California

From the palm trees at 60 Wall Street to evergreens up in the country and now to more palm trees in Newport Beach, California. My sister is getting married and we are watching her kids while she honeymoons.

I have to pack light and be in constant contact with my friends renovating Pocket Utopia, but I will bring all the "unstraight" rulers that have been carved and manipulated and my sketchbook. My plan is to fill up my notebook, for when I get back a new project awaits. I'm going to switch up my focus to assembling all the "unstraight-line" drawings into larger works on paper and then focus on the text pieces for fall. It's all about building a post-studio system.

Mommy escape

My bags are packed with a small sketchbook, pens and craved and manipulated rulers. My train leaves in about an hour and ten minutes. I plan to work on the Pierogi Flat File Show on the train. I'll gaze out the window dreaming of utopic social space and after about 2 hours I'll arrive in the country, where for about twenty-four hours I'll be with like-minded souls!!

Pictured above is one of the rose windows from Jefferson Library.

Social space being built

I'm trying to type and Grant keeps banging his head on the keys! Perhaps we could discuss my typing and his head banging on the computer in terms of relational aesthetics!

Pictured above is my pal Roger taking pictures of Pocket Utopia with his new iphone.. The space is coming along just fine. I'm trying to save areas with old wallpaper and tin, tailoring the old space for new purposes. The first of those purposes to be the Pierogi Show!

It's so hot today, the only place to go is 60 Wall Street, for it's my avant-garde ice box of a free space. Up the air conditioning, I'm packing up my pencils!