Day Two: the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

This room was amazing; it was a very large hall filled with paintings salon style, and it was a bit overwhelming (in a good way), and the light was just right for looking at paintings.

But the best painting in the hall was the Boar Hunting Scene by Franz Snyders.  He apparently specialized in hunting dog portraits, and apparently Reubens would call on him to detail the animals in his own paintings.

Painted by Whistler in about 1879.  I like this painting, and it's too bad I couldn't avoid the glare.

Vilhelm Hammershøi painted this in the early 20th century.  I like it.  But I'm also a sucker for low contrast interior scenes.  I also like that this painting is the same room, with no furniture, at a different time of day (or perhaps a different season)

Oh Cezanne:

This painting was one of my favorites:

It's a very small piece, hung in a hallway with other paintings all around it.  This one stood out, though, and then when I read the placard, I was like "duh" It was painted by Goya.  And I know it's hard to tell in the mildly crappy photograph, but it's a very beautiful painting.  I was very much attracted to the angel's dress.

My current infatuation with Tiepolo also started here:

And then, there was this painting:

The cow (bull?) is huge! And the dog! lapping up the blood? oh my,  But it really works as a still life: there is so much to look at, and everything about it draws your attention.   It was painted by David Teniers the Younger in 1642.  The classification on the Museum website is interesting: genre, interior, still life, food.  I guess I don't really look at this painting and think "food"

But this painting was my favorite:

The Execution of the Emperor Maximillion, by Manet
He was another artist I (re)fell in love with this weekend. He painted multiple compositions of this scene, and this one is technically unfinished.  But it's still the best one.  The MOMA had a show of Manet's paintings of the execution a few years ago: you can view them here.


While in Boston, we also visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which is the site of what could very well be the greatest unsolved art heists in history.  The museum itself (other than the empty frames) is wonderful.  In her will, she left the museum to the people of Boston, stipulating that nothing was to be removed or added (or even moved from her original placement).  So you have a very eclectically organized museum that is still the same as it was when it was a house nearly 100 years ago.  She also, obviously, had very good taste in artwork. It reminds me of the Frick, which is quite possibly my favorite museum ever.

A week of Museums

We're going to have Art week here on Lock and Spoon.  My mom was visiting last week, and, when she visits life tends to be a whirlwind of art museums.  She also has a really nice little digital camera that's a bit easier to cart around than our larger canon. Last Monday we went to the MOMA, and here is the recap:

One of my favorites: Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965

They also had a exhibit of Picasso's prints:

This print was made after this painting by Lucas Cranach the younger.  The original was painted in 1654 and hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Picasso's version was made in 1958. 

The Bull Series were my favorite prints in this exhibit:

From this:

to this:

 But the best part of the museum was the Fluxus room:

The chromed objects might be the best of the best:

A head of cabbage, a straw, lollipop, earthworms, and a worm box

If you don't know about Fluxus, you definitely should look it up.  It's kind of become my life philosophy.  I also have a thing for keeping art in boxes.

At the Museum

It's been painting after painting the past few days (with some driving and shopping, and oh, a derby game thrown in).  We went to the MOMA, Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum and the Boston MFA, and there is still more--it's definitely an art overload week!

This room was my second favorite at the Boston MFA (the Sargent room was my first favorite).  The hunting scene in the upper right corner is both a fabulously amazing as well as slightly horrifying depiction of a boar hunt by Franz Snyders.  It was one of my favorites.

There will be more pictures soon!

Cucumber Lime

Sadly, the Heat Wave is still with us, with no signs of subsiding any time soon.  Even when the temperature drops, the air is still so humid that it is never "nice" out.  Fortunately, the heat gives reason to make more fancy drinks.  This time we're using cucumber and lime.

It's simple: slice the cucumber, drop it in a glass (or jar as it may be) fill the glass with ice, and squeeze in half a lime.  Fill with cold water and--ta da!  Cucumber somehow makes water taste extra refreshing and cold.  I don't know how it happens, but it is a very good thing.  Sometimes I'll let the cucumber water sit for a few minutes (or as long as you want) to let the cucumber infuse a bit more, but you can taste it right away--it just depends on your preferences.

Baby Alpaca

Look at what Em Dash brought me from Peru!! Superfine baby alpaca yarn.  She went to the farm and got to meet the alpacas. (I'm jealous)  I think I'm going to make a lacy crochet neck scarf, or perhaps a floppy hat.  The yarn is so soft; I love it!

Tiny Mushrooms in the Garden

We have all these tiny mushrooms growing in our container garden.  They sprout in the morning and are dried out by the afternoon, but then they go again the next day--I'm enjoying watching the process.

Two Old Things

A seal from the Moscarite Mining Company, and an old makeup tin.  These were both salvaged from my great grandparents' house, aka the farm.  I assume the makeup tin was my great grandmother's, or possibly another family member's, but I have no idea where the seal stamp came from.  It is fun to emboss papers, though.  I believe the seal stamp is replaceable,  so I'll have to keep on the lookout for seal stamp disks!

Photoshoot!

We're putting together a catalog and a lookbook to take on wholesale orders.  Here's a sneak peek at what we did over the weekend!

Hot Days

It's been hot here.  And right now we're gearing up for a week of near 100° daytime highs.  This is not exactly my idea of nice weather.

Luckily, there are things that you can do on hot days to make them slightly more bearable: like make smoothies.  Right now, however, peaches are the perfectly delicious (and perfectly ripe!) fruit at the stores, so we buy and freeze (literally) pounds of them and they work just as well (if not better in some respects) than the cherries for a breakfast yogurt smoothie.  But you can't drink smoothies all the time, so we're mixing it up a little with one of my other favorite daytime drinks:

Squeeze half a lime over ice
Fill half the glass with seltzer
Top it off with Looza (or Goya or any brand) peach nectar
Throw in some peach and lime wedges for garnish (and added flavor)

Delicious!

Hannah's Prints

Some prints from my sister (the same one who made our cards) for you to peruse and enjoy! I especially like the rollerskate print, but the zombie one is pretty good, too.  OH! to be in college and have access to so many tools and materials!

And, of course, one of the whales (there are three)--I love the whales!

Fabric Scrap Postcards

I need to cut down on my fabric scrap pile.  So I made a slew of post cards with some of it: I cut the fabric to size, glued it onto chipboard, had lettered 'post card' and drew some lines on the back.  voila!   

I like that the edges are still raw and slightly rough cut.  I started drawing the lines with a ruler, but preferred the look of hand drawn lines.  I'm very excited to send them to people!

Everyone is Wonderful

OK, so that may be a tad too saccharine a title, however, you should keep reading the amazing things below that would make me type it!

First off, our bottles are not in one, but two lovely treasuries right now:
Not your granny's square and Lovely Bunny.  Is it bad that I want every item in the crochet treasury?  And also all of the items in the bunny treasury (particularly this ring, but mostly so I can give it to Lock)?

And our customers are fabulous.  Look at this wonderful review by Dunnellev.

And then, we have another amazing write up in the blog: ponder and stitch.

It feels very good for people to notice your work.  Thank you, both of you!