Eyes wide open -- sketching interiors

So much beauty at Key Biscayne a couple of weeks ago! I carried my notebook everywhere, and didn't even feel intrusive. I used black Sharpie and added watercolor pencil later.

Coffee table, with orchids

This is the same coffee table, and the alcove beyond.

I wish I had left the flowers white!

Eyes Wide Open -- Sketching faces

Faces fascinate. I still don't get an exact likeness. I'm new at this. I just use my Sharpie, watching TV and sometimes the crowd around me. These were mostly talking heads  from TV.

In the upper left I'm practicing a nose.

He has crayon added. 

How conceptual artists do it

Lives of the Artists: Portraits of Ten Artists Whose Work and Lifestyles Embody the Future of Contemporary Art by Calvin Tomkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know art is a state of mind, but I still have a hard time understanding conceptual art, which is supposed to be all about this mind of the artist. Tomkins helps. He shows how conceptual artists take an idea and run with it, haphazardly, skillfully, lucratively -- confidently calling their escapades art. They are artists. They make art.
Painting -- been done, done, done...sculpture from stone -- so yesterday! But hey, I've got an idea! Float a dead shark in formaldehyde ... stick a circle of dead butterflies onto the wall ... consider ways to channel the elusive element of light .... take a series of selfies, wearing a different get-up in each ... and best of all, SELL it for big money. That manipulation of the market becomes art too.
I liked this well-written introduction to new art that is old enough to have made it.


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The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion by Meghan Daum

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

There's so much we don't discuss, and that's what Meghan Daum wants to talk about: she wasn't patient as she watched her mother die; she actually likes LA; she doesn't want children of her own; she used to affect lesbian style, although she is not gay; she doesn't like to cook.
I respect Daum's impulse to be honest about things that she could just as well hide. But for me the embarrassments, at least in these essays, are boring. Maybe that's why we don't discuss them.

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Seven Days in the Art World

Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A couple of years ago I began calling myself an artist and it felt so right. Friends even said, "We knew that. What took you so long?"
One thing in my way might have been the pomp of the sanctified -- those who live in the Art World, a gated community.
Sarah Thornton, an art anthropologist who seems to enjoy her element, tells what it's like in there -- it has a bit of beauty, but mostly smells like lust and looks like novelty, and screams excessively loud. So shrill it keeps out the pitiful rest of us. I enjoyed the book.


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Working small with watercolor

Leslie gave a great mini-workshop on watercolor last month, and she got me thinking ... There's something, well, watery, about the paint that I don't like ...  but ...  maybe I just don't understand how to use it. But I can splash around, and that's what I did last week. I used metallic paint and Setacolor pabeo gold glitter finish, which turned some into 4" x 6" Christmas cards. Fun.

Lebkuchen, step one: Candied orange peel

Candied orange peel
good by itself,
dipped in chocolate.
or flavoring lbekuchen

Can't help myself -- I've just got to bake lebkuchen, a traditional German cookie, for Christmas. Yesterday I took the first step -- candied orange peel. I used a slightly different recipe from the one I posted a couple years ago. Right off, I can't really tell the difference, except this one is a little easier. Most of this will go in the cookies, and any peel left over will get dipped in melted Belgian chocolate. Truly, that is as delicious as the lebkuchen. But Christmas will not happen without lebkuchen.

Candied orange peel

2 large oranges (I used navel oranges, and I used three, since they weren't that big.)
4 C. sugar, divided
3 C. water

Cut 1/4 inch from the top and bottom of the oranges. Cut the peel down to the flesh in half, then in half again. Remove the peel, pith and all.  You will have four pieces per orange. Cut each into quarter-inch-wide strips. Cook the peel in boiling water for 15 minutes. Drain it, then rinse it and drain it again.

Bring 3 cups of sugar and 3 cups of water to a boil and cook it until the sugar dissolves. This won't take long. Put the peel in and boil it again. Reduce the heat and let it simmer until the peel is soft; 45 minutes worked fine for me.

Drain the peel. Put a cup of sugar onto a rimmed baking sheet. (I use the large crystals that you can find in the baking department of fancier grocery stores. It adds crunch. This time I didn't have quite enough, so I mixed it with regular sugar.) Toss the peel in the sugar. The peel will be limp, but don't worry.

Transfer the peel to a sheet of foil. Make sure it is not bunched up. Each strip of peel should have a little air around it. Let it stand until dry. This could take two days, depending.