winter break

winter break…oxymoron I known, there is no break in winter in New England. We have plenty of winter, and the word “break” for me is generally problematic-- given my hyper-productivity tendencies. Still with a week off school, we decided on a last minute whim to got to Virginia for the week. I got some painting done (another one 2/3rds done), we got to go to the really good library, the picasso exhibit at the VMFA, spend time with family, eat ukrops donuts, and walk around with no coats on (thrilling in itself). Sadly while we were there one of my parents chickens died, Rhonda Warbler, (they have 3- this one was the one my oldest son had named) so he went and picked our a new chicken, nighthawk, a black araucana and is excited for it lay blue/green eggs. We  also got to stop in and see my paintings at the fulfill the vision show in Washington, DC.

now showing L. Graff

In case you are in the DC area, The Fulfill the Vision juried art exhibition is running at the Washington DC Temple Visitors' Center through Sunday, March 27. It has about 100 pieces in it form about 80 artists. Three of which are mine… (any many thanks to my fabulous friend rose datoc dall for her delivery service).

you know your mom is an artist when

your house is filled with stacks of paintings like this… YES this weekend was the annual art shuffle in which I move everything around. My 3 year old goring to a little bossa nova amid the moving mayhem.

olive trees

You know my art changes like the seasons. I start new series, generally give it a good run and move on to something else. in fact it is that freedom to explore styles, instead of feeling confined that keeps it fresh.  Sometimes I go back and revisit the series later, but its never the same I have been different things in between, experienced different things. You may remember a few years back I did some olive trees, reminiscent of my summer in Jerusalem, well my recent trip to Jordan made me want to get back to the series.  So here are some recent pieces…you can see the influence of some other series in this piece…

allegory 30x40” and lone 18 x 24”

label challenged

In keeping up with current social media I feel the need to be on LinkedIn…trouble is I can’t define myself enough to finish my profile. Our society likes you to be one thing. well you are allowed to be 2 things sometimes like a coffee shop barista/struggling actress, or a hip hop artist/reality TV star

But child life specialist/former college faculty/former elem school teacher/artist not so much. See the problem is the connections those spheres are generally very different. And also choosing one seems to delegitimize the other. So how to prioritize?

If I say artist, my educational career feels shot through the heart and dumped in the toilet, if I say child life specialist my art feels like some mere housewife hobby conjuring Bob Ross happy trees images

1. Which do more people know me as… child life specialist based on patient census contact. Now If you go for internet hits artist will win.

2. Which earns more money- hourly… art—ironic huh-- let this be a lesson to all your parents who attempt to encourage your children to be responsible and dissuade them children from pursuing art careers.

3. Which have I invested more in… well given the cost of graduate school (okay I had a scholarship- so I have probably spent more on paints now)

4. Which am I better at…umm I don’t know? you decide…

It has be thinking deeper about our outdated linear, hierarchical, single track view of career paths, a topic I will save for discussing later.

so I guess I am destined to be LinkedIn’s Sybil?? given I read a disturbing article the other day in Scientific American Mind on the links between artists and schizophrenia—-

sometimes to amuse myself I make things out of cake…

yah I do this on occasion. I can’t do it everyday or it gets tiresome but when the mood strikes, kitschy edible sculpture projects have bizarre appeal. My cousin dean and his girlfriend jenny created the very cool short film Marcel the Shell which (by now I expect you have seen if you are internet savvy). Marcel made it into the Sundance film festival this year. 

So in honor of the accomplishment I made this for our Christmas dinner party. I crafted this marcel the shell cake out of cake and fondant. Poor smart son #3 developed this deep attachment to the cake and kept asking for marcel the rest of vacation and expecting me to make more of them…

well in case you ever need to know how to make marcel the shell in 3d cake form. You start with almond pound cake cooked in small loaf pans for the shoes, a 6” round (cut in half and remaining half used to build out the 3-d form of the shell, and some mini cupcakes (for the ends of the shells) You need  a batch of buttercream frosting and a batch of marshmallow fondant. I crafted this while watching 1/2 of the movie White Christmas (a requisite holiday activity).

Really it was pretty easy and fun… to which you will probably respond in your best marcel voice “oh yah compared to what??!!”

2011’s not quite resolution

well I am not really a hard and fast goal setter, crazy I know. I don’t do well with resolutions because well I am not the most disciplined person in the world and I actually detest overly structured things- they suffocate me (I know so surprising to hear this from an artist). Also because fundamentally I disagree with being so set on one path that I don’t take advantage of other things as they arise. I always prefer to do “end of year evolutions” instead of new years resolution (that is where I go through what I accomplished in the last year and say wow that was a great year—plus it is so much more reaffirming). I love the unexpected way opportunities and experiences unfold. This year I am semi- breaking my own no resolution rule and setting a goal of kicking out 50 paintings this year? can I do it—not sure, but it sounds really fun. So far this year I have done 6 and 3 (1/2s) and its only the 16th of January… so we’ll see what this year holds.

One of the pieces I completed this past week street view 30x40 acrylic on canvas.

this morning I stayed in my pajamas

till 1pm and painted these while simultaneously playing ancient Egypt with palmer… and then to celebrate our fun morning we made a delicious 3 layer white cake with silky chocolate buttercream frosting… (okay I did a few small productive tasks in there too, but honestly not too many)

yesterday I was thinking about color and when I woke up I was channeling hans hofmann and couldn’t do anything else till I worked it out. Its crazy how your thoughts, emotions, & conversations spit themselves out in the form of paintings… it’s a strange form of catharsis and continuation…you somehow capture and concrete a given feeling, thought, or experience.

delicious

I finished this piece for my domestic series before my trip to jordan and somehow got too busy to post it.

I forgot

to post this one as well- “all clean” the 4th piece in the mothering series. 30x40”

for you only

a few months back my friends darling son stopped me at church and asked- “Sister Graff- would you ever paint ME?”I knew this was because I had done this painting of a girl that his mother had that resembled his sister. Well how could I respond to this  sweetest most earnest questioning request and so I said yes. (also maybe he was just preying on my mother guilt  for middle children—they so often just get sandwiched in and you always worry about them feeling special). Now you must know I hate portraits--- I will not do them for love or money or even blood relatives! It seems strange for a woman who has spent the last year painting figures- but really legs are easy and especially painting my own legs 20 times -- I pretty much have them down.  B the truth is generally portraits stress me out and make me grouchy. So I finally got around to doing it. I just did something quick- gave myself a 2 hr time limit (here you can see SS#3 helping me paint the background.

But nothing beats the ear to ear smile I saw when I gave it to him. He ran around the church parking lot with it and was the cool kid in the family for that moment. But the best was his thank you note which included a lovely portrait of yours truly. He selected which image he wanted to draw from with his mothers access to my Facebook photos. I must say I was most impressed by the detail of my toes, wedding ring, and shoes and even the legs  and fabric of my family room ottoman. And his enhancement of my figure would make any Brazilian proud. And if you see the big brown man around tell him I am waiting to be paid  for this in chiclets or indian food.

and to darling C- XO always-- love sister G!

In other news

I am headed back to Jordan in December on another medical mission with Operation Smile and I couldn’t be more excited Jordan has to be the most welcoming place I have ever been, my friends there are like family. I can’t wait be back in the land of mint lemonade, great hummus, and fatoush. I have been making way too many visits to the salvation army and savers for playroom toys—my husband should be glad this is my worst shopping habit! I painted a giant mural for the playroom wall. My toy suitcase is almost totally packed- and I mean PACKED- (no one can fill a suitcase like me). I spent a few hrs. today sewing scrub hats not one or two but 17. This is an excessive number I have a hard time doing anything on a small scale or in small quantities. My motto is the more you have the more you can give. And I am already planning how to bring homemade cake and cookies in my roller bag carryon- because you also know I love to feed people. So stay tuned for more jordan exploits.

picking up

Well the 5th piece in the mothering series is now done! This is set at my parents house this summer using my youngest son, my favorite gray shoes, and the vintage tinker toys of my childhood.

So this means the mothering card set is now for sale.

oh and if you aren’t a fan on FB already well then be one of the cool kids and hit like…

an accounting

Well I feel I really should give an accounting of where I have been the last few months- October found me in NYC . I was presenting at the vascular birthmarks foundation conference and running psychosocial support sessions, attending a fundraising gala, and also a board mtg. This meant the family got to tag along for NYC weekend. Which always rocks (I mean the food in NYC alone is reason to get me there) Akdeniz Turkish Restaurant is my boys favorite as well as late night strolls through time square for Jamba Juice. I was set to go alone to NYC because #2 son was sick the day before, but the next morning he was miraculously well and so being the good mother I turned around at the train station, cancelled my ticket and drove home, madly packed the boys, and  loaded up the whole family so we could go to NYC together- this however did mean sacrificing my planned trip to the Guggenheim- but I was glad to have all my boys there with me. (but really any mother who willfully gives up a weekend in NYC alone probably needs to have her head checked).
I also went to the power of mom retreat - a fabulous weekend with an amazing bunch of women! Which included driving to and from with my friend Whitney, and when we get together we have the best discussions, creative brainstorming ever. A fabulous hot tub evening with my friend Margaret, Jamie, Anne, and Chrysula. Surely the at Wentworth-by-the-Sea hot tubs rarely encounter such a group stellar of moms thoughtfully discussing  politics, religion, social issues. The sessions were great and I loved getting to talk with so many other really wonderful moms.
We also had my parents come visit as well as some other friends from Virginia. This also facilitated me reorganizing every closet in my house and both attics.
And november well not quite sure what I have done in november- it is the 17th of the month and I have barely taken a breath. I am still cranking away at early morning sem. (hence the bags under my eyes). Just shipping off 6 paintings to Singapore and just finished another pre-Christmas deadline commission. Filling orders for card sets. (all the domestic series, organics, mothering, and mixed media) Just taught a 4 week after school painting class for the boys school. And the in between spaces have been filled with drs appts, dentists appts, parties, showers, piano lessons, the blare of trombone practice, laundry mountains, cookie baking, hosting play dates, and 100 other sundry things in case you though I had just been sitting around eating bon-bons…

my story

Well seeing as I reached 15 in my domestic work series- I decided to switch gears a little and round out the mothering series to 5. This is piece number three in the series and piece number 4 will debut shortly- it is about 2/3rd of the way done.

I will indulge you in some sentimentality regarding things in this piece even though with this whole series. The last thing I  want is sort of cheesy sentimentality assigned to them. This is mothers rocking chair, the one that she read to me in, and yes this was one of my childhood books of Raggedy Ann and Andy (wow children's literature has come a long way in 30 –odd yrs). The basket on the side is actually a wicker Moses basket I got in Turkey as a little girl and kept my stuffed animals in and the blankets on top were made by my great grandma.

on color…

Okay so I kind of have a thing for color, okay make that a major crush…I love to play with it. How colors look next to each other, the seemingly endless variations of shades—it’s intoxicating. The emotions that come from various combinations. So here are some new pieces I have done lately-- a mixed media piece-- urban, 12”x 36”. I love mixed media even though a lot of people have a harder time relating to them as they are generally really abstract and non representational . They are really great exercises in composition, balance, and movement. And here is a piece I did this weekend returned to my chain garden series- one I haven’t painted in in a while. I was so interesting though because this one is definitely different from the others in the series. Its’ funny how you sort of change as you go along and can’t go  back to being just the same. It makes me appreciate the uniqueness of each painting that can never be duplicated.

Chain Garden Structured, 30” x 40” x 1 3/8”

ode to town beach

This was my summer, every afternoon watching my boys splash in water,fight over turns with the yellow inner tube, dig deep holes, and try to catch fish in their nets. We passed so many afternoons on that sandy stretch on a lake known to all the locals as “town beach”. It is one of the most sublime pleasures of small town New England life. Here is a painting of my 2 year old this summer at the beach. My remembrance of the blissful moment for childhood summer.

all sorts of comings and goings

since i last wrote…

school started

we now have another piano player

and trombone player

our latest round of tadpole shrimp died

we’ve has two visits from family (this is one of my favorite pictures of the boys with cousins)

I have taught a few weeks of sem.

the boys have built a fort in the woods with the neighbor kids

i finished 2 commission paintings

first round edits on an essay

all the back to school paperwork

eye, dentist, and drs appts.

phone calls, bills, cleaning,

yah that about it

summer slipping away

i can feel it slipping through my fingers like sand. i hate this time of year. as a mother i love the unstructured-ness. i want to drink in ever last drop of sun before the winter comes. it is hard to believe that in a few months i will wonder if i can ever be warm again, that it will be dark long before dinner.

in a few days school will start and the magic of summer will evaporate into the routines of life. crowded out school supplies and halloween costumes.

i always love the line from the song stolen by dashboard confessional

“i watch the season pull up it’s own stakes, and catch the last weekend of the last week, before the gold and the glimmer have been replaced another sun-soaked season fades away”

it captures the feeling of this time. i am already mourning the loss that is to come.

domestically speaking…

here are the next two pieces in my domestic series and here are the rest of the guest posts I wrote for shabby apple…which will tell you everything you wanted to know and more about this series and maybe a few personal secrets about me…

domestically speaking:origins

domestically speaking:motivations

domestically speaking:from the studio

domestically speaking:on life