i'm working on something.  i swear.  back soon to share.

thank you angie and maria (and my friend laura - i had no idea you read my blog!) for holding me to it.  i mean, i know it's next week and not tomorrow, but i'm here.  and feeling like it's anti-climactic at this point, after all of the promising to talk about the art and stringing you along.  but i'm going to tell you all about it anyway because really, it's something.

paper.

it's hanging at eyebuzz until the middle of june.  a show devoted entirely to small, unframed works on paper.  tacked to the walls using a most ingenious and stunning system of reclaimed boards and steel (is it steel, tara?) strips and tiny magnets.

i love to paint on paper.  i love the feel of paper, i love taped edges and smooth texture and i love the possibilities of paper.  i love paper, but i don't love framing my paintings on paper (aside from being expensive, i really enjoy the "noise" on the edges of the paper around the painting that's lost when a painting is matted and framed.  i realize that there are framing options that would reveal these edges and this "noise," and i could go on about the framing and the edges and the noise, but that will have to wait for another day.  or another week.) and i have long imagined a show where my paintings on paper were pinned to walls.  needless to say, i love the concept for this show.

it's not only that.  there is something very precious about unframed artwork on paper, i think.  it's fleeting in a certain way.  fleeting, and precious.  so imagine an entire gallery filled with fleeting, precious unframed artwork on paper.  swoon.

the show is full (and i mean FULL - there is work lining the walls of the gallery and filling a file box on the counter) of these small artworks on paper by a host of talented artists.  i was especially thrilled to see the work of some of my friends in person for the first time.  to be introduced to new-to-me artists.  and to see a different sort of painting from artists whose work i've admired.  all of it unframed, tacked to the walls with teensy magnets.  it's something.

i wish you could see it in person.  i wish you could see the show and i wish you could see the eyebuzz gallery.  and i wish you could meet tara and tim who are two of the loveliest people i've met in a long long time.  i wish you could be there.  i wish we could all be there together.  but all of the work is available in the eyebuzz online shop, and that will have to do for today.  it doesn't have the reclaimed boards or the teeny tiny magnets (or the super cute town) or the promise of a hug from a new friend, but you'll get a sense, i hope.  have a look, won't you?

the art!  i know, i've been remiss in telling you about the art - and there's so much that i want to tell you.  about the beautiful work hanging at eyebuzz this month, and about the evolution of the work that i created for the show.  

but there's been grandparents visiting and grandparents' day at school and a big celebration for this organization which is near and dear to my heart, and baseball and softball and baseball and softball and baseball and softball and baseball, and an orientation to a new school, and some painting and lots of cooking and trip-planning and a choir performance and a fourth-grade plant sale and lots of plants to deliver and the heat - oh has it been hot here this week.  and that's not even all.

so the art will have to wait until tomorrow.  and by tomorrow, i really mean tomorrow.  hold me to that, won't you?

but in the meantime.  shari has suggested a week of blur/abstract photos, and you know how i feel about blur.  

also, today is my mother's birthday.  and her mother's birthday.  so we have some celebrating to do around these parts.

tomorrow, the art.

i want to tell you about the art.  really, i do.  there was so much of it, so many varied works - different media, different styles - all of it on small pieces of paper tacked to the walls with magnets.  i want to tell you how lovely it looked, beautifully worn boards lining the walls covered with little paintings and tiny magnets.  i want to tell you all about it, but first i have to talk about the people.

when i'm asked how i met the owners of the eyebuzz gallery in tarrytown, ny, i find it hard to answer.  do i simply say, "we met online?"  or, "through my blog?"  do i explain that i'm lucky enough to have an online community of friends who are artists and artists who are friends?  i never know.  so i say they are my friends.

and saturday evening was all about friends.  

when i walked into the gallery and introduced myself to tim, and when tara walked in a bit later - it was as though i had always known them.  when amisha called to say her train had arrived and when i walked to the corner to meet her, i was giddy at meeting an old friend.  when amy walked into the gallery with her boys and we recognized each other instantly, i was overcome by the connections we share.  when i introduced amy and amisha and realized suddenly the things they share in common, i had goosebumps.  we talked - all of us - we talked and talked on saturday night - about daughters and nepal and paintings and law school and cameras and camera straps and scarves and film and sewing and pizza and family and on and on and on.  

two of my childhood friends joined us at the opening celebration and later at dinner - and i felt like i was in a little bubble of friendship and love and history and possibility.  i know it sounds silly and corny, but as i sat there at a dinner table with friends who have known me since i was 14 and friends i've only just met face to face, i kept thinking about the song: "one is silver and the other is gold."  it's corny, but it's true.

when all was said and done - when we had talked and talked and eaten and talked and hugged and taken photos and laughed, and after i had said goodbye to my old friends and we had taken amisha to the train and i said goodbye to tara and tim and i was back in my car on the way out of town - when all was said and done i felt keenly aware of how we hadn't even begun to scratch the surface.  of how we covered so much and there is still so much left.  all the way home i was thinking about friends.

about the friends i've known forever.  the people who know me from before i was me.  the people for whom it doesn't matter, really, who or where or what i am because we share a childhood of sorts, we share history.  we hardly need to fill in the blanks, and we will always be a part of each other's stories in one way or another.  they are a part of me.

and i thought about my new friends.  about how we know each other in a particular way that is dear and intimate, and yet i do not know where tara went to college.  or what is amisha's favorite color.  it's an unusual thing we have - a way of knowing each other that is solely of this time.  a way of knowing each other as the people we are today without all of the layers of life - the good and the bad - that fill in the shadows of ourselves.  a way of knowing each other that is so full of possibility.

am i rambling?  it feels to me like rambling in a way, but i prefer to think of it like this.  i am so full from this weekend - so full of friendship - that i am spilling over with possibility and reflection.  like the cup, filled to the brim and then filled some more.  i am that cup today, full to overflowing.  the rest will have to wait.

i was honored to be invited to participate in the "paper" show currently hanging at the eyebuzz gallery in tarrytown, new york.  it's a lovely show - all small works on paper, all unframed, all under $200.  some of my favorite artist friends are also in the show.  as well as some lovely new to me artists.  

six pieces from my "underpaintgs" series are hanging in the show (you can see a peek of them hanging here), and they'll be for sale in the eyebuzz online shop soon.

i'm headed up to tarrytown this weekend for the opening.  i'm excited to see the gallery in person, to see the show, and to see some special friends.  

* * * * * * * *

a few other bits of news:

* have you seen heather's big announcement?

* and alicia's home tour?

* and martha and jen's latest collaboration?

* * * * * * * *

there's more, i know.  but it's 5pm and all i've got for dinner so far is oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies.  oops.

i wait for this week all year long.  this one week in april when all of the trees in our yard are in bloom.  it's like an explosion of pink, and i don't even really like pink.  but i love these trees, whatever they are.  and the dogwood.  my obsession with the dogwood is well documented.

the weather feels like june.  school is back in session.  i have the loveliest salmon-colored ranunculus on my dining room table.  we're going to the baseball game tomorrow.  i'm getting ready to mail a pile of small paintings to a friend in new york.  i'm captivated by this project.   i'm tired of the stinkbugs.  we're planning an adventure.  and you must go read this article right now (many thanks to my wise friend shari for bringing these words into my world today).

we're having an early spring.  it's been 70 degrees since last tuesday (83 predicted for tomorrow) and i'm loving every minute of it.  our windows are wide open, kids are running in and out of the house with and without shoes, my precious dogwood tree in our front yard has begun to bloom, and i've taken the heavy wool blankets off of our beds. 

i know.  i know it's too good to last, that it's likely to be in the 50s again by the weekend.  that i shouldn't put away our sweaters just yet.  but i'm soaking it up while i can.  

tomorrow is our last day of spring vacation, and it has been a glorious blur of days - celebrating, sleeping late, lunches at 330 in the afternoon, staying awake long past bedtime, pretending there's nothing at all on the list of things to do, enjoying being outside in those dusky hours after supper, eating with friends, eating outside, hiking in the woods, walking in a stream, long lazy days full of nothing nothing nothing, finding ourselves surprised that it's almost dinner time, soaking it all in.  we really needed this break, this time outside of time, these days away from school and instruments and have-tos and pressure and school uniforms and sitting at desks.  we needed this time, and it has been glorious.  i'll be carrying these days in my pocket next when it's 50 degrees and raining and there are lunches to be packed and homework to be done and children who are tired of being indoors.  i'll remember.

hi.

hi hi.

i feel a little bit shy typing tonight.  it's been so quiet here lately.  i've been so quiet here lately.

it's not that i don't miss this space, because i do.  and it's not that i don't love this space, because i do.  oh, i do.  there are so many factors making me feel quiet lately - life, big decisions, unfinished projects, long lists, good intentions, and so much more.  there's change in our blogging neighborhood.  there's knowing that change is coming around here and not knowing exactly what that will look like when it comes.  there's trying to spend less time online.  there's how i've obviously got comfortable with fewer words.  and how, in spite of that comfort, i'm missing writing.  i also miss taking photographs and carrying my camera everywhere, and when i'm carrying my camera everywhere i miss the space to just be without the camera.  it's a lot of things.

but i miss being here.  

and so instead of staying quiet while i wait for the answers to come to me.  instead of staying quiet while i figure it all out.  instead of staying quiet, instead of waiting, instead i've decided to just be here again and let things evolve.  we'll see how it goes.

i decided a long time ago that i wasn't going to apologize when i was away from this space for long periods of time.  and i won't apologize, but i will say that i have thought plenty about whether to make some serious changes around here.  especially after reading amisha's brave post this week.  i just feel that there's change in the air, somehow.

in the meantime, these windows have been open on my desktop all day, so i thought i'd share them here.

*molly's wise wise wise words.

*50 steps to happiness (found via lecia) - i think it's worth nothing that every other entry on this list is a spa treatment.  a message?  perhaps.

*this beautiful dye project (found via shari).

*i want to hand sew something so badly.  i just don't feel confident that i can do it.

*this wrenching poem.

*this blog (found via martha).  i'm a tiny bit obsessed.

*this sky.  and this one.  and this one.

*and while we're linking here, this was open on my desktop all day saturday as i cooked (found via angry chicken).  make it.  you won't be sorry.

i'm stealing a few minutes in the midst of a jam-packed weekend to pop in here for a little list of things on my mind:

*there are six boys, ranging in age from 9-12, playing (ahem) dungeons and dragons in my dining room right now.  popcorn, anyone?  

*there are two of these pies in my ovens at this very moment, found via angry chicken.  how could i resist the name?  i'm cautiously optimistic - hopeful, really because i'm taking them to dinner at a friend's home tonight - but they're taking a lot longer to cook than the recipe indicates.  we'll see.

*i had dinner with a friend last week, and got to spend a few minutes poking around ikea beforehand.  i came home with some sweet vases, which clearly means that i need to buy more flowers.

*tonight begins the jewish holiday of purim.  it's a festive holiday, but the story is a complicated one - like so much of life.  i've written before about the carnivals and the prizes and the junk that comes home from school and synagogue this weekend.  i'm feeling far more peaceful about the junk this year.  we're getting our costumes ready around here.

*this is the weekend of the big american craft council show - i look forward to it every year (it's where i had the great good fortune to meet martha and gwen two years ago), but i'm not sure i'm going to make it this year.  i'm hoping, but not sure.

*i'm feeling ambivalent about green week this year.  maybe it's all of the snow on the ground, or maybe it's that green week has run its course.  let me know in the comments if you have an opinion, one way or another.  i'm open to doing it if enough people want to play along.