warning: you might find this offensive

The other day I came home from shopping and tried on a dress for my husband (this dress)…

“What do you think?” I stand a few feet away.

He looks up, “Are you going to wear a sweater with it?”

“Huh?”I question “It is a sweater, why would I wear another sweater with it?” I was quite proud of myself for finding a warm, comfortable, practical dress, suitable for New England winters.

“Well,  it’s just A LOT of STRIPES,” he said rather seriously.

“Stripes?” I ask incredulously.

“Yah stripes, it’s just… well it’s a lot of them,” he responds in a sort of warning tone.

I am lost in the logic of this conversation. After watching Visual Acoustics together this week, a fabulous documentary on Julius Shulman’s photography of modern architecture and I totally thought we were on the same aesthetic wavelength.

“Is the wearing of stripes visually assaulting? I mean is wearing  numerous stripes in close proximity to each other impolite? I have never heard this too any stripes thing before—really?”

He is serious.

Maybe using contrast with such wild abandon is akin to conspicuous consumption—like driving a super gas guzzling vehicle?

Or maybe he was thinking it was like a strobe lights and afraid it would cause people seizures and wanted to be sure I was ready accept responsibility for my actions?

Do you think this flagrant use of stripes makes me I look like I am stealing style from a chunky zebra?

Are we really talking this dress?? I liked it…and I think this stripe thing is crazy talk.

I am guessing it’s part of some engineer ethos, “Be reserved, and above all else don’t wear too many stripes.” Being married to an artist, well I guess he never knows when I might get wild and try to pull a striped fast one on him. Maybe we should stick to a simple pass/fail system or go back to the ranking system implemented after this incident. So tell me are my stripes offensive?

catch me

http://pivotboston.eventbrite.com/#m_1_100
October 4th at this event in Boston displaying some of the domestic series. It’s almost sold out—so last call for tickets.

Cambodia bound

headed out on another operation smile medical mission- this time to Cambodia- here are the latest works from the studio

the boy who lived

sorry harry potter this nickname belongs to my 3 yr old (as seen here riding his beloved steed ‘Pokey’)… while you might think this makes reference to the fact that he was born with a blood clot that occluded venous drainage from his liver and required weeks of injections with anticoagulants to save him-- in actuality it has reference to the fact that he dumped and smeared 1/2 a pan of red jell-o on my studio carpet and is still alive to tell the tale (or rather have it told by his mother, on her blog)

176 volumes

I did this piece over vacation earlier this summer. Mixed media on 30x40 canvas. I decided to be simple and start naming these pieces based on the number of books on the shelves…

if you’re patient

Well today I stopped in at the mall to pick up another $4 pair of sunglasses, after mine faced an ignominious death-by-porta- potty, at the town beach earlier this summer thanks to my youngest son. When I spotted this shirt. I knew I had to get it- see many years ago (circa 1993) I had this friend gwen, who lived on my floor in my freshman dorm, and  I always coveted one of her pairs of pants—they were white with butterflies on them. I always wanted to borrow them because, well they were just so cool but given that she was petite (probably about 5’2”) and I was 5’10” wish fulfillment was not in order –unless I wanted to sport some ill-fitting high waters.

So the moral of this beautiful story is if you wait long enough your dream for butterfly clothes might come true or else dropping your sunglasses in a port-a-potty might be some sort of wishing token like coins in a fountain.

Ps if you too coveted gwen’s pants you can find the butterfly shirt at charlotte russe—and I bet you won’t even have to sacrifice your sunglasses to the potty gods to get it…

just wanted to go on the record saying

that people should give playlists better titles… like…

“makes me feel sappy and nostalgic for being 16 and slow dancing with boys”

“makes me shake it while I cook dinner”

“I hope none of my neighbors hear me listening to this cheesy music—because really I am not a cheesy person”

“things I listen to annoy my kids”

“songs that help me stay up till 2 am painting”

“dang it I don’t care what anyone says I really like the Bee Gees”

or at least those were accurate descriptions for some of the thing is was compiling on spotify the other day… after all I am all about descriptions and creativity (and verbosity). I have a long tradition of creative naming. In college it was a tradition, amongst my roommates, that all mix tapes included the name Jermaine in the title—(after a basketball player who always needed my help in freshman physical science class). Suffice it to say lame people title their playlist things like “work out music” or “love songs”. And if you are a playlist titling novice you can always fall back on “play it again, jermaine”

(and yes that’s me cutting the rug with my 3 year old at my cousins wedding last weekend- I was also going to start in on why people over 30 are afraid to dance but I’ll save that for another day…)

so what are your playlists really all about?

press

Thanks to design mom gabrielle blair for her kindly press - Leslie Graff, domestic series. I have to say it brought so many compliments and kindly emails to my inbox it made my day.  The internet was nothing but love today! 

this picture is the way i want to remember mothering

yah we all know it’s not like this all the time, but the best moments are—and that’s what I want to remember!

Actually --The look of elation probably has to do with the fact that I found the bottom of my new yellow swimsuit (only 2 weeks old)which had gone AWOL. It disappeared. I waited for ransom demands, they never came, I offered up rewards—no one came forward with information. I searched my whole house for 4 hrs (oh ask my husband it was a tense, thorough operation, all family members were impressed into service). As you can see it was a cute suit and I was not about to see disappear without a fight… my search included under sinks, every drawer 3x, broom closets, pantry-- you name it I looked there—I have sons I never know where I will find anything. After I gave up all hope I found it the next day- as I was carrying things to the attic. Yes it was 9 1/2 feet in the air in a tupperware cake tender top on a high cabinet in my laundry room. Obviously I did not put it there- and it did not get there by any natural means. If I had to make my guesses as a veteran mother of boys for the last 10 yrs I’d say it’s lycra spandex nature probably made it a natural candidate for slingshotting- oh tell me I love them!

scenic views

In all of the chaos of motherhood  you sometimes need things to look at that aren’t easily messed up…

Here are some of my favorite spots to look at in our house…

dining room shelf of abstracts

family room back wall, 1960s slat table and arc lamp

stirring things up with vintage mirror and tiered tidbit tray

cherry chairs with volumes piece

 

go big or go home

when I was growing up my cousin used to joke about the mini shrine (collections of their children's pictures) that his and other parents displayed in their homes.Well I know he will be proud that I am taking it to a whole 'nother level. Yes in lieu of bad elementary school pictures my kids will get 4 foot tall gouache portraits of their heads on wood panels. I may have to pay future therapy bills for the megalomania/cult of personality issues I am spawning in my progeny with this larger than life project. But honestly I think they are outrageously fun- 1 down 2 to go… and ps I love my kids!

can I take a picture of your house?

Well recently I have wanted to do a series of paintings of houses, I guess another series exploring the intimacy of our  spaces isn’t much of a stretch after my domestic series. For the past few months as I drive around I find my self staring at the windows of house. Something about the spaces we dwell in, they are pragmatic, sentimental, private. The echo the the spaces of our minds holding all our thoughts and emotions.

The problem is to paint houses you need study shots. I was afraid walking around taking pictures of houses in my small town might get me booked as a peeping tom and give our otherwise generally unoccupied police something to do.  So to avoid such unwanted escapades, I decide to make somewhat awkward introductions to my fellow townspeople. So last night after dinner I drove down by the center of town. I knocked on people’s doors, handing them a business card “Hi, I am Leslie, I live here in town, I am an artist. Your house in charming and I was wondering if I could take a few pictures of your house to used as references in a new series I am going to paint”. 

I have to say all my interactions turned out to be lovely. Once they understood what I was doing…. One woman admitted to saying the rosary when she heard someone knock on the door. Then we got into a discussion about ants and diatomaceous earth and she recommended I read some of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s short stories. Another woman at first thought I was soliciting commissions, but I explained no I didn’t intend to sell them to the owners of the houses at all. She then invited me in to see a painting they had done of their house years ago and actually asked if I would paint a portrait of her dog. The owner of the yellow house- was worried because it was under renovations and wasn’t done yet. Even just talking to these few people and taking pictures gave me a more intimate view of their lives and reminded me that it is only a mere moment that moves us from strangers to people connected.

Compositionally I want to play with the angles and parts (you know how I love to chop things off!) and vantage points. Exploring color, flattening out shapes and shadows. As I painted this one last night it felt a little like Wayne Thiebaud goes painting with Edward Hopper. 

Ancient Egypt Birthday Party Plan

So my son decided he wanted an ancient Egypt theme for his 6th birthday party. So this is what we did. He invited 8 friends. We designed cool invitations with an Egyptian hieroglyph scene and printed them on gold paper. We found these archaeologist hats at iparty and rubber snakes at Wal-Mart and made pyramid favor boxes from 12” square sheets of paper from Michaels- which we filled with candies and small Egyptian figures from the safari limited ancient Egypt tube for the take home party favors. So here is how the party went down including all the games and activities. As the kids arrived they used our wooden blocks to build pyramids and cities out in the studio room. My 10 yr old son had designed an Anubis robot for the party and programmed him to chase the kids round- so the 6 year old boys were most impressed with that. Then we moved the kids into the dining room where I had set up the tables with individual cupcake decorating stations. Each child got to decorate 5 cupcakes. Each place had their own cupcake box, and plate of decorations. I piped out of chocolate Anubis heads, scarab beetles, vipers, eye of Horus, and ankhs and also filled candy papers with spoonful's of various sprinkles- gold, silver, chocolate, rainbow.The adults frosted and let the kids decorate them. Then we moved on to the cartouche station I set up in the breakfast nook. I spray painted canvas boards with gold paint then used a hieroglyph translator to write the kids names in hieroglyphs on the boards, they then decorated all around with feathers, gems, titles, pom poms, fabric pieces and some foam Egyptian shapes I got from oriental trading company. When they finished this we moved into the family room room for the mummy wrap game- we divided the kids into pairs, one was the mummy and one was the wrapper. They had fun using 2 rolls of tp to make their mummies and each pair wrapped differently. Then we went out in the yard for the Nile relay. We had crocodile grabbers which they used to pick up a jewel and run it down to a bucket of water. They then dropped the jewel in and used the grabber to pull out a long snake which they ran back to the start with. Everyone got to do 2 rounds. then we came in for tomb treasures memory. I put a bunch of Egyptian things on a tray we looked at all of them and they tried to memorize the group. Then we covered it with a blanket and they had to remember all the items. (We did have scarab beetle hot potato and duck duck goose variant pharaoh, pharaoh, mummy- but ran out of time) Then we had lunch, present opening, and cake & ice cream featuring the king tut sarcophagus cake. We decorated with gold balloons, yellow and black streamers to make pyramids. the party playlist included king tut (steve martin), walk like an Egyptian, the Theme from the mummy (instrumental) and some Arabic music. The kids seemed to have a fabulous time and most of all my 6 year old told me it was exactly what he hoped for! I highly recommend it for a party theme there are so many fun things you can do with it.  For a full how to make a king tut sarcophagus cake tutorial you can read my post here.

(I do recommend moving the kids from area to area for the party it always helps with the general management of excited kids and you don’t loose a lot of time in the changing gears and set up)

How to make a King Tut Egyptian Sarcophagus cake

My son requested an Egyptian theme for his 6th birthday party and wanted a king tut cake-and no not just the head—the whole sarcophagus. So I printed out a good image as a reference and attempted to craft one. here is my tutorial--

I used one batch of homemade pound cake. ( I would not recommend attempting to make this with a box cake mix or anything too soft) I cooked it in 3 mini loaf pans, one large loaf pan and one small 3” round cake. (I also made one extra mini loaf than I made two small squares with – as when my kids have a really fancy cake they want the candles stuck in some mini cake not in the big one)

I lined them up on my giant turkey platter and cut then to sculpt the general form. Then covered them in buttercream frosting and draped the entire thing in gold marshmellow fondant (mixed brown and yellow wilton colors to tint) I then sculpted the rest of the layers of fondant (hands, head dress, crook, etc.)

I then painted the entire thing with gold pearl dust mixed with clear vanilla extract. Then I used black, cyan,a deep prussian blue,(mixed cyan and black) and a red violet to pipe on all the details with a super fine round tip. I took some liberties to simplify  some of the details- because well it deserves just so many hours of my time and I am not a perfectionist. you can see here the finished project. I made the mini ankh and eye of horus cakes from the scraps as the mini “candle cake”. I used fondant tools and bamboo skewers to achieve fine texture and details. I have to say though he was very pleased with the finished project…

all I can say is if my son ever doubts that I love him I will pull out this picture to remind him- only extreme mother love- can drive me to spend an afternoon crafting a 2 foot long, 3-d sculpted, gold covered, king tut sarcophagus cake.

SVU show

Last Wednesday at 10 pm I loaded up 30 paintings and headed down to Buena Vista, VA for SVU’s education conference. Thursday night I arrived and hung all the paintings before going to a delightful presenters dinner at the Knights. Friday I got to enjoy a wonderful collection of talk s and delicious food and a fabulous performance of man of La Mancha and stayed up late talking to my great friend Liz. Friday brought more delicious food and workshops and socializing. I spoke Saturday afternoon about my paintings. If you want to listen to my talk you can hear it here. All I can say is it was wonderful. I loved meeting so many people there, as well as seeing old friends. I had a wonderful response to the pieces. While most people would come up and ask why no heads, one woman’s first comment was “thank you for not painting the heads because it makes it so it could be me” (I was so excited and said – yes you got it!!), she later told me that seeing them gave her a feeling almost like narnia- she wanted to step inside and relive things gone by. Another man told me how one of piece really began to stand out to him and couldn’t look it without tearing up remembering times with his mother. It was so interesting to hear the reactions and connections of people of many different ages. I can’t believe the feeling of accomplishment and relief I felt finally completing the series and showing them.

really I am almost there

so I am 4 days away from debuting the domestic series at SVU. Tomorrow the 30th and final piece will be done (I can’t wait to finish it—its one of my favorites already)… but here are the others I have done recently

“milk and cookies”

“easy as pie”

“it’s lovely”

“I’ll wash, you dry”

in the final stretch

of the domestic series that is… here is “hanging it on the line” it is 19 of 20 in the domestic series (one left to finish in this group and 4 left to finish in the mothering series) I am cramming to get done before education week at Southern Virginia University, the first weekend in June.  I will be speaking on Saturday. Yep all thirty pieces will be on display (that’s more than 250 sq feet of paintings) ! I know I can’t believe there are that many paintings either??!!! I am excited to see the series wrap up. When I first started I thought I’d do 12-15- HA!

I actually cant wait to see them all in one place. And I highly recommend coming to the conference. be expecting the final pieces shortly!

chucks

last saturday I felt the uncontrollable urge to paint some pop art- hence 24x30” black converse tennis shoes. I think I’ll put them in one of the boys bedrooms

volumes on white

well this is my latest piece- I have had a great time with this series- although my husband watches me do them and says it in no way looks fun. Truth be told these pieces are best appreciated up close. It is mixed media- layers of acrylic, tissue, painted tissue paper. So there is a lot of play with transparency and translucency and every book is different. But there is much of adhesive and cutting tiny strips which is arduous but fun.

Come to think of it I think I forgot to post the other pieces in this series- such is my life... so see them below

volumes on white 48x48”

volumes 30x40”

volumes on shelf 10x20”

small volumes 9x12” on cradled hardboard