Winter Paradise....Lucky Us!

I just cannot believe that I have gotten to posting this! Yikes and OMG! Life has high jacked me. Instead of blogging I've been writing papers for my community college adventure.
In any case, in J A N U A R Y Kim, Siegy, and I went down to Palm Springs to visit newly transplanted John and Clayton.

It was beautiful.

Clayton, Ice, Kim, Siegy and Fire...

John...

Instead of Winter holidays, we did January in Palm Springs.

It was pretty tough hanging out there....

Not much to do but lie around....

Or sit and talk...

Night time in Palm Springs involved good food and drink a n d friends!

Day time also brought good food......

Two amazing little gals! Fire on the left and Ice on the right.
They were exceptionally happy to meet all of us.

How about the 80's during the day and beautiful sunsets.

We danced after dinner....

We played Wii

Palm Springs is so full of entertaining opportunities!

Palm Springs is chock full of fresh grapefruit...

and lemons. They were incredible!!

Breakfast morning hosted by John & Clayton...
We were in Spa Land!!

Views of their beautiful home...

Like I said, Spa Land.

At night the fire pit glowed warm and full of friendship.

Yes, it's true that I brought fruit back in my luggage (and Kim's). Siegy passed.

I'm hoping we can do this again next year. Advantages: No holiday rush. No having to go to work or keep to visiting schedules. We just were able to be with one another and relish our time together. Lucky us! Thank you boys!!

Thank you.

Those Who MUST Create...

Can you guess what Kim and I did today, Sunday?? The exhibit has been here for about three months and we finally got in gear and attended. The exhibit is at the Seattle Art Museum and presents an exhibition of the work of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). " The Musée National Picasso in Paris holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Pablo Picasso’s artwork in the world. Housed in a converted 17th century mansion, the Museum is undergoing an extensive renovation, making it possible for their unprecedented holdings – much of which came from Picasso’s personal collection – to tour the globe. With its U.S. debut at the Seattle Art Museum, this exhibition marks a rare opportunity to view works from this stellar collection."
Here are a few of my favorites:

Two Women Running at the Beach.
No surprise that it is a favorite!

The Crying Woman.

Have you recently read about how the tears of women impact the testosterone levels of men? It was a big study done in Israel. It basically concluded that men get the message, "Now's not a good time."Massacre en Coree

He was very political and described his art work as his diary. He lived through many conflicts--the Spanish Civil War, WWI and WWII; the Korean War. I believe this painting was to depict the Korean War.

"Dora Maar", one of his many lovers.

She was a famous artist, photographer, painter and poet in her own rights.
She also seemed to be pretty high maintenance...(a little judgmental, I know.)

We took the time to take a docent's tour and learned a lot--how to better understand his work and to understand how and why he transitioned to his modern forms. He was amazingly prolific and they estimate he did 20,000+ works. As I wandered through the many rooms and looked at his work and photographs of his studio, I suddenly remembered that I never recounted another prolific artistic experience that we had when we visited Siegy in Gloucester. So while I could go on and on about this exhibit, I am going to transition to....

Jon Sarkin: Born in Hillside, NJ, 1953. He was a chiropractor for many years and one day in 1998 while golfing, he suffered a brain hemorrhage and a stroke that nearly killed him. To save him, the doctors removed part of his cerebellum. He became a changed man, emerging with a changed personality and a great compulsion to create artwork.

Mr. Sarkin and Dan King have been friends for a number of years.

Dan asked if we could visit Jon's studio and he kindly agreed to a tour:

There is art everywhere and in many formats--on old pieces of cardboard, slips of paper, pieces of wood...you name it. Everything becomes a canvas.

We wandered from room to room taking it all in. He enthusiastically spoke of his current, and future projects as we sorted through his works....

This piece caught my eye as well as Kim's. It's a compilation of quotes by George Bernard Shaw.

Dan King acted as our go between. He approached Mr. Sarkin and asked if he would sell us the "Shaw" piece. It was destined for a showing that he will be doing in Ireland later this year.

Lucky for us, he did agree to sell the piece.
His comment: "I'll just do something else." I don't know if it will ever become Picassoesque; I really don't care. It was just very wonderful to meet him and have him allow us into his world for a bit of time. Like Mr. Picasso, Mr. Sarkin MUST produce art--some we understand, some we don't. But what a wonderful thing that people like Pablo and Jon can express themselves and the rest of us can find intrigue and emotional releases from their expressions.