personal collections

I love seeing pictures of where people hang the pieces they buy from me!

This incredible wall of art belongs to an amazing art collector named Rick who lives in Brazil. He had me paint a tattooed lady replica for him on an oval plaque. I'm so honored - she is hanging beside portraits of Russian icons of the Orthodox church that date back to the 1800s!

Katrina at Pugly Feet just posted these pictures to her blog! I sent her my "your secrets felt like velvet" print to thank her for making me 'blogger of the week' in September. I love how she framed it.

Speaking of art collectors, I watched a really neat documentary about the Vogels on PBS last night.

I was really touched by their love of art and the way they let it over-take their modest home. Aside from their pets, it was the most important thing in the world to them.

The Vogels in their apartment.

With Christo's "Gates" in Central Park, winter 2005. (I have pictures of me with that orange pathway on an un-developed disposable camera! Maybe I'll finally develop it!)

I hope you're all having a great start to your week!

Love, me

dollhouse winter

It's snowing, it's snowing, it's snowing!!!

This makes me really happy! (aside from that the poor birds and animals who dislike winter maybe haven't fully migrated yet and are cold). :(

This is a picture of one of my favorite clusters of stores/restaurants in Harvard Sq. They come onto Eliot Street off of Winthrop Street, which always reminds me of an ocean-side town like Rockport. It's probably hard to see the snow in this picture, but rest assured, it was indeed snowing! I must get back to work on my project now.

xoxo Amanda

my baby girl

I don't like being away from her while I'm in the city and she is back at home! I go home and see her about once a week, which is nice, but cold nights here make me wish I had my Tiger to cuddle with me.

Cuddle your animals on behalf of Tiger and I tonight!

Love, me

black and white photo of lovers #4

George Harrison and Pattie Boyd.

I couldn't decide on just one photo. George is my favorite Beatle, and Pattie is the reason my mom loved combining lime green and navy blue pieces for outfits in the 60s (and also there were lots of cool black and white photos of them...and one in blue :).

But it's not something you can put into words - explaining why a formula is beautiful is like trying to explain why the stars are beautiful.

small sketchbook drawing

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There is an interlude to my reading of I Capture the Castle. Sometimes I have a hard time getting into certain books. I'm surprised I'm not enjoying I Capture the Castle more. Several of my friends/co-workers/and even blog readers were excited to learn I was reading it and said that they loved it. Maybe I'm not far enough into it yet?

I think the writing almost reminds me too much of my childhood journals. I used to obsessive-compulsively write down every. little. thing. I wanted to remember EVERYTHING. I would write things like this: "sitting on a rock by the lake. A dog in a pink sweater just walked by. It is now two minutes after I started writing this entry. Dad just said, 'There's a big pine tree in the corner.' He means the corner of the yard. This rock feels cold. Earlier I was sitting on one of the deck chairs, but I had to move because mom was rearranging the deck." I would start to write about one thing and then get sidetracked by mundane details I felt were necessary to record, then go back to what I was writing about before... exhausting! And that's kind of what the writing in Castle reminds me of, as it is written in the form of a diary by a young girl...who seems to feel the same need I once felt to talk about everything surrounding her (not enough feelings and too many external notes...ah, the diaries of 11 year olds!)

Anyway, the book that is intercepting my reading of I Capture the Castle is The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, and I truly love it. It's about a math professor who has an 80 minute memory span, and the woman who cleans and keeps his house for him. I think I love books that have a sentimental psychological element to them, if that makes sense. My entry title is a quote from the book. The book is detailed yet fast-paced (which Castle is not). The details in Professor are more thought-provoking and feel real and like they are there and yet kind of magical, where as the Castle (which I think is supposed to feel magical) just feels incredibly ordinary to me. Hmmm.

Well anyway, those are my book reviews for the evening! When I've finished both books I'll have a more accurate report to make. :) I hope you're all having a wonderful middle-of-the-week!! 

xoxo Amanda

ships and pearls

a ship sketchbook page

a pearl-covered sweater.

(like a vintage constellation I get to wear!)

I hope you're all having a lovely week!

love, me

four-film friday

"misled" sketchbook page

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Lately (at least on the days I've been home and not at my job), it's been so nice out that I've spent more time outside than inside working on projects. The other day it was incredibly rainy. I had to go to my pay-the-rent job and I wished the weather would be like that on a day I didn't have to work so I could stay in and get some painting/drawing/writing done.

Today was such a day! And on one of my days off! I worked on my Derrick Brown project from my comfortable bed all day and watched The Devil Wears Prada and then Marie Antoinette. At night I got restless so I walked (under umbrella of course) to the Coolidge Corner theater and saw 

Coco avant Chanel.

The Coolidge Corner area is a Jewish neigborhood in Brookline. There are lots of little shops, bakeries, delis, and restaurants all family owned (and an awesome tiny candy store with a red and white striped awning next to the school which I think has probably been there since the 40s or 50s). Anyway, on my walk to the theater, I noticed that one of the temples must have had a community dinner on the lawn that night. It looked like a maze of trellis-like walls all tangled with twinkle lights and hidden behind the hedges. The walls made these kinds of halls and had set tables within them. The trees were wrapped with the lights, too. No one else was there anymore. It was so beautiful and eerie and magical looking by itself with no one there. I had forgotten my camera, 

so I couldn't take a picture.

After Chanel I spent some time in the Booksmith, which is an incredible bookstore across from the theater that always has at least one dog in it. Tonight I met a wheaton terrier. This is interesting: I pet dogs everywhere I go, but for some reason it is always the owners of the dogs in the Booksmith who ask me if I have a dog.

When I got home, Geoff and I watched Anchorman, which means I watched four movies today. That's a lot, considering I rarely watch movies. I hope you're all having a nice start to your weekends!!! If it's rainy I hope you enjoy your time inside. I should have a new painting to show soon.

Love, me

of poets and fireflies

This past weekend, I had the honor of spending two evenings with one of my favorite poets, Derrick Brown.

Saturday I saw him read/sing/drum etc. alongside Shira Erlichman, Andrea Gibson, and Buddy Wakefield, and  they were all amazing.

Sunday we went out to dinner and saw a zombie movie.

One of my favorite parts of the performance (I think this video was filmed at a show a couple of nights before I saw them): this poem by Derrick accompanied by Shira's singing.

I'm very excited to be collaborating with Derrick on something right now, which I'll explain further in the future!! I hope you're all having a wonderful week. I'm sorry my entries have been so sparse lately! (I've mentioned before that sometimes I get shy on my blog...and I'm not quite sure why...but I think it comes and goes in waves and the shyness will be leaving soon!).

Also, thank you so much to my dear family friend Jill, who bought the Bunky Walton print! She's a wonderful, kind animal-lover and person. :)

xoxoxo

Amanda

P.S. - "My God, it sounds like Beejees lyrics, does it not?"

I got one of those bars of chocolate that come with a love poem. It came with Percy Shelly. Derrick began to read it in a ridiculous voice (is that what Percy Shelly sounded like?) while we were waiting for the movie, until a theater manager told us no film allowed. Tragedy!

The Bunky Walton Fund

I've listen another tattooed lady print on etsy to benefit The Bunky Walton fund. It's a wonderful foundation that raises and provides money to pet-owners who don't have enough income to pay for their pet's vet bills and medication.

When I volunteered at Buddy Dog, we'd sometimes receive dogs who were tied to the front steps overnight with notes from their owners. The notes were heartbreaking: people who loved their pet so much, but couldn't afford to take care of it, or even the fee that shelters charge to bring your pet in. These animals often had health problems that meant costly medication and expensive vet bills. 

My favorite dog who came this way was a rottweiler named Keyser. He had to have one of his eyes removed during his time at Buddy Dog (he had a bad eye infection, one of the reasons his owners couldn't afford to take care of him), but he was such a trooper. He touched my heart so much and if I'd been on my own and in a position to adopt a dog, I would have taken him home with me immediately (I remember buying him a pink stuffed pig toy, and how he'd cry when I left. Out of all the dogs I met and loved at Buddy Dog, I think I had my most special connection with him). I'm happy to say he was adopted shortly after his eye surgery.

The stories of these dogs and cats make me so sad, because they don't understand that their owners love and want them so much, but can't afford to give them the care that they need. I love the Bunky Walton Fund because it's doing its best to make sure these pets don't have to be given up by their owners.

So the print is available here, and though the Bunky Fund doesn't have its own site, you can read some info about them here. Full proceeds of the print go to the organization, and I'm shipping the print for free. :) And I want to say thank you to those of you who bought the charity prints I've done in the past. It means so much to me that you help me donate money to all the wonderful animal foundations there are out there.

Love,

Amanda

P.S. - Keyser was adopted before I ever brought my camera in (if only I had a picture of he and I together! I definitely printed one of the Buddy Dog web site so I'd have one, though :), but here are some pictures of some of the other dogs I loved at Buddy Dog:

Bonnie and Tina, two kind-hearted and loving beagle sisters who loved each other as much as they loved people.

The beautiful Samantha.

Odie!

Scrunchy kisses from Bonnie.

me and Tina

Camera-shy Samantha.

I miss them so much! But I'm so glad they're in forever-homes now. :)

animal crackers in my books.

a sketchbook page from the end of September (while I was watching Mona Lisa Smile!), from my book for The Sketchbook Project Volume 4.

I am currently reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I did not realize how old the book was, and that Dodie also wrote 101 Dalmations! Kind of neat, I think. I have so many events/things I need to write about here soon, and will do so within the next week I think. I haven't been on blogger as much lately and I miss all my blogging friends! I need to keep up with it better. I hope you're all having a wonderful end to your weekend! 

xoxoxo Amanda