Inspiration

Inspiration. Or... a kick in the pants.


"Do you create?"

Maybe those weren't the exact words. Maybe it was "Do you still create?" or "Do you ever create?"

But they have haunted me since they were said to me a few weeks ago.
Because the realization is...no...not really. I haven't had the time or the drive to create.

And that makes me very sad.

The winter was hard and cold and snowy and maybe that sapped my creativity. My work has been chaotic and full of change and yet more change is coming.  As in...I won't have a job after June 30th.

So much snow this winter. 

I should be panicked. I mean, I do have bills to pay and tummies to fill and one very reckless daughter's car insurance to pay. Instead I am angry. And I'm not sure what I am going to do.

I think I need to recharge. Look at some art. Experience something new. Maybe take a trip. Not rush.

Picasso: Seated Woman. 

From No. 52: Spend the day at the Museum

And maybe the words will come back to me.

When I first started this blog, I had to create. The posts wrote themselves. They insisted on being written.  All I had to do was sit down and tap the keyboard and Voila! words making sentences making a story. I revelled in completing the challenges, finding new things to share, experiencing life.

Recently though, my mind has been consumed mostly by work.

But. I  LOVE my job, I say. I love the people I work with, I love the patients. I love my window next to my tiny desk.

Then I had a premonition. My life was due for a correction. Things were going too well. Just like when the stock market gets too high, too rowdy and things crash a bit.

Amazing how intuitive we can be if we listen.

I ran over my prescription glasses with the car. The kitchen sink drains both started leaking. The roof seems to be molting with every gust of wind.  There's a funky smell coming from the basement.

And my employment is ending. No fault of my own. The office as I know it will just cease to exist.
So maybe this is just a kick in the pants. A reminder that a complacent mind loses its creativity.

Because I want the answer to that question at the very top to be "Yes. All the time."

No. 63 and No. 86: a Two-fer

No. 63 and No. 86: Over Achieving!


No. 63 is go to twelve new restaurants in 2016.  I'm lagging behind a bit but figure I will catch up before year's end.   I've also been to a few that I haven't counted because I've been too lazy.

No. 86 is how many museums can I go to?  (The grammarians might correct me. To how many museums can I go? But this is my blog and I can make purposeful grammatical errors if I want.) This is a grand challenge. I LOVE museums.  I may even make this challenge the focus of 2017.


So this past week I killed two birds with one stone by going to a museum AND eating lunch there.

Museum of Fine Arts Houston,

Caroline Wiess Law Building

Houston's Museum of Fine Arts is lovely. Two buildings with a wonderful permanent collection and exciting traveling ones.  Kusama: At the End of the Universe was our main destination when friend Nell and I headed out on Tuesday.  Timed tickets are required for this exhibit and none were available online so we were taking our chances for a same day,in person ticket.    An arrival at 10:45am netted us some 1:45pm tickets. Did we want to wait? Why, yes. Yes, we did. And it was worth it. 

This exhibit is really two separate small rooms. Both are mirrored and only a few people are allowed into each room at a time. 

The first room is Love is Calling.  About 5 of us entered into this magical room of translucent cloth stalactites and stalagmites, each covered in black polka dots, with lights inside so that they glowed and changed color. These forms, and the people viewing them, were then reflected again and again into infinity.  It was MAGICAL and a little disconcerting. The mirrors made walking uncertain. Was that a wall? A mirror? How many people are in here? 

Me taking a picture of Nell, ad infinitum.

After three short minutes we were ushered out. 
Any longer and I think it would have overwhelmed us.  The colors changing, the lights, the mirrors all fascinated but also added to sensory overload. 

So cool, so confusing

The second room, Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, was even tinier and only Nell and I were allowed in together.  We stood on a narrow platform surrounded on three sides by water and were plunged into darkness. All around us tiny white lights glowed like the most magical fireflies-on-steroids night ever. I wish we could have stayed longer but were only given one short minute inside. 

Absolute magic

And what did we do between 10:45am and 1:45pm?   

Visited the permanent collection!

First off was the Antiquities. Mummies, a sarcophagus, lots of alabaster plus a gold myrtle wreath straight out of Animal House.

John Belushi, where are you? ∆

Then we wandered through the Beck Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art. We visited my most favorite painting in the museum, The Turning Road, by André Derain.  I wake up to a poster of it every morning. (In Texas...) 

Those colors!!

This piece speaks to me. ∆

All that art viewing left us with an appetite so we headed downstairs to the museum cafe. Formerly a Cafe Express, MFA Café is the museum's current restaurant featuring "an array of Italian-inspired fare with a Texas flair".*    So much for Italian inspired lunches, we both had salads! The restaurant is all clean modern lines, simple yet sophisticated. The food was very fresh and-for salads- good and filling. I'd give the place a Thumbs Up even though we did have to ask for ice tea refills multiple times. The tea is self serve but the container ran out and then went missing in the back for a bit. Minor detail.  

Sleek, almost sterile, but still good food. †

A fabulous day spent with a fabulous friend in the most magical of places.  

Art. It does a body good. 



 † photo credit
∆ photo credit Museum of Fine Arts
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No. 18: Paint a picture

No. 18: Paint a picture.

Well, I would love to say I have whipped this one out in my spare time but that is NOT the case.

But with the few brain cells I have left, I have been thinking about it.

I have also been inspired by a friend from high school.  Funny how you can sit next to someone every morning for six years straight and yet know so little about them.   I had no idea this person was so creative...but she certainly is. Reconnecting on Facebook after 40 years has totally opened my eyes to her amazing abilities.

The Crowd

By Ann Mulvey Woodroof

This is the second painting in this style she has done.
And I love it. I tend to go towards realism when I draw and paint but maybe I need to branch out.

I have a painting over my fireplace that I love that is abstract. Certainly I could do something just as impressive for my dining room? There's an enormous wall in there that could use some art.

Over my fireplace (at Christmas it appears)

I confess that this painting had only gold leafing on it when I purchased it. 

I felt the need to add a little silver. 

Had no idea how much fun silver/gold leafing something could be!!

(Shhh. Don't tell the original artist.)

So that is my plan.  A large abstract. I know I still need to come up with a composition, even if it is abstract. And a color scheme.  And it will have to move me if I am going to love it.

Wish me luck.    
And wish me some spare time.
That is totally in short supply around here.

Also...going to be traveling some the next few weeks.  Hopefully I can keep up with posting but no promises.  Had no idea this summer was going to be so crazeeeeee.