All that's left

My beautiful plants had to stay behind in Chicago. This is all that's left of my huge green plant and my long dangling wandering Jew. We just had no room in the car for them. I made clippings and put them in a cup, which is how they got all the way here from Chicago (in the cup holder in the car). I wasn't sure they would even survive because I had to leave them in the car overnight and it was really hot out. Soon I will separate them, make clippings of the clippings, and build them up before planting them once more.

Fruit

A very short time after moving to NY someone said to me, "SOOOOooo! What's your favorite thing about living in NY so far?!!" A lot of people have high expectations for living in NY. So far, NY has been okay, but since we don't have a lot of friends here yet, we are kind of lonely and missing Chicago (at least I am!).

However, one of my favorite things about living in NY so far is the availability of delicious fresh fruit. There's the weekly farmer's market, little fruit stands, and some pretty awesome grocery stores with great fruit selections. Not all the grocery stores are awesome - in fact, I pretty much dislike grocery shopping here on the whole. It's even more stressful than grocery shopping in Israel, where I am at a language disadvantage, mostly because the grocery stores here are so small and people are pretty rude (rudeness would be okay if only we had more space to be rude in).

So, in honor of this, I am trying to eat more fruit. My summer favorites are nectarines and apricots, but maybe I will start to branch out to some more interesting fruit. I'm looking forward to the massive amounts and variety of apples this fall at the farmer's market. OHHHH the pies and crisps and cakes and all kinds of things I will make with them!

New Garden

As a housewarming present, JewishGuy's parents are assisting in paying for some things to plant and put out on our fabulous new patio. So on Tuesday I went out and bought some bushes and also some herbs (thyme, chamomile, lavender, basil, oregano, spearmint) and even one little pepper plant. Most of the plants were on sale because it's the end of the planting season, or maybe it's too late, I don't know.

Then I spent about two hours ripping up the flower bed, taking out all the weeds and dead brush, also the trash that seems to have accumulated there. ALSO, as an added special bonus of awesomeness, it seems the indoor/outdoor cats who live upstairs that like to terrorize Lilly have also been using our flower bed as a litter box. Luckily they're only pooing only in one spot, which I carefully avoided, and later I will purchase some anti-cat hormone spray so hopefully they will stop it. If not, our neighbors can look forward to a sweet passive-aggressive note I've already composed in my head ("Hello! I was wondering - how do you manage to keep your cats from pooping in your garden? Because I'm having trouble keeping your cats from pooping in my garden.")



(Upstairs is where the mean cats live, you can see there are lots of places for them to poo, plus there's a whole ground-level garden patio down those steps with more places for them to poo)

It was really fun getting dirty and actually putting my hands in the soil. There is this whole little world down there, including lots and lots of potato bugs (pill bugs?) that curl up when you touch them. They are like eentsy weentsy armadillos.



Can you see him scooting away from my camera towards the chamomile?

I didn't think about this but we have to get our soil tested before we can eat from the herbs I've already planted. D'oh. I haven't planted the basil or spearmint yet so if the soil comes back and we can't eat from it then we will still have the those (and the lavender, since we won't be eating that). Don't worry, I didn't lick my hands while gardening and washed them afterward.

Ugly Art

Sadly, I cannot claim this as my own sculpture. We bought this on our trip to Austin in 2009. He used to live in the bathroom, staring at you while you sit on the toilet, but our new bathrooms have tile walls and we can't hang him in there. Now he watches you in the living room, but you might not even notice him (he is only about 4 inches long).

When we first brought him home, JewishGuy's sister SportyJew said we were officially beginning our Ugly Art collection.

Oh but imagine the ugly art I would own if only I were filthy, filthy rich! Because Francis Bacon and Willem De Kooning are some of my favorite artists...

Francis Bacon

Willem De Kooning

I don't know what it is about this work that draws me to it. I am too scared to make my own ugly/scary art so maybe I just live vicariously through other people.

Monster Corner

This part of the apartment is called "Monster Corner." Here we have Mr. Jefferson (far left) who is a sore loser at board games, underneath him are our stacking robots, our monster towel from Target, Lilly the art room assistant, Doug (red monster) who is a Canadian Zamboni driver, and Julie who has a false eye to deter predators from eating her head.

This is where most of the monsters in the apartment live, but not all...

Grocery store gardening

Shhh! Don't tell JewishGuy, he thinks this is so gross and annoying (I think). I like to buy herbs at the grocery store and set some aside to root and eventually plant. Cilantro was something I tried once but it just rotted in the jar. Well, I'm trying it again, this time because when I bought it it had its roots still intact.


It's gross because last year I rooted and planted beans, garlic, and onions, only to completely forget about them when they were moved to another room, and they ended up dying and rotting.

I've also put some spearmint in a jar to root. Apparently spearmint is one of those weeds you don't have to really take care of and will root at the slightest opportunity. I got the spearmint at the farmer's market and it might be a little dry, so I don't know if it will want to come back to life.

I almost bought some basil from the farmer's market to try to root but I know that doesn't work so well. I will have to buy a basil plant, especially since our back patio gets good afternoon sun.

Old Photos (Variations on a Theme)

While I'm posting 1) photos from the beach, and 2) old photos, I thought I might post the oldest photos I have from one of my beach trips. By that I mean, I took these pictures when I was 9 or 10 with my 144mm camera. The pictures were completely washed out because it was way too bright for the film I used, but after scanning them into the computer I was able to recover some of them by filtering it into black and white.

One tricky thing with these 144mm cameras is that the viewfinder is so far from the lens. You can tell because so many of my early pictures with that camera are pretty off. Once I figured it out, I took some great photos. Maybe next time I go home I'll get them and scan them in.

New plant: Snakey

On Friday I went to the farmer's market nearby and kind of went to town on the vegetable stands. It was so exciting to be able to go to a farmer's market easily - in Chicago there were a few that didn't meet on Shabbat but they weren't as easy to get to from my apartment.

One surprise was a vendor selling apartment plants, like this snake plant. It was sooo cheap I couldn't resist. He was also selling cacti and succulents, so when I figure out where to put them I will make that purchase :) The plant store nearby is so expensive, so it was nice to see a plant I could afford.

His name is Snakey...




I looked it up and it seems snake plants MAY be poisonous to cats, or may not be, it's not quite clear. Or maybe they are just a little toxic, but only a little. In any case, Snakey is up on a very high shelf, far out of Lilly's reach. She's not interested in chewing on the plants I have, anyway, except when she's mad at me (then she makes sure to do it when I'm watching).

What I like about this plant is everyone says it thrives on neglect. Watering? Sunlight? Who needs these things? That means it might survive in my care. Hooray!

You don't train cats...

..they train you.

Lilly, our cat (otherwise known as the art room assistant) is a cutie-face but she can't help being a cat. A dog, you can train them not to dig through the trash, or chew on your stuff, or pee on the rug. Dogs want to listen to what you tell them to do because they want to make you happy (usually). This is not the same for cats. This same cat doesn't give a care in the world about my houseplants until she is mad at me, and then she will wait until I'm in the room, stare at me, and then chew on my plants. Just because she's mad.

We have had to learn to outsmart / predict her moves. It requires a lot of patience, creativity, strategy, and psychological analysis.

Example 1:

Lilly is not de-clawed so she does what cats do, which is enjoy a good scratch now and then. These delightful exercises for her meant pretty severe damage to our old couches.




We got rid of the couches when we moved, so we bought a new one when we got to New York. We are desperately trying to keep her from destroying this one. We have tried spraying and making loud noises, etc, but when it comes down to it, you just can't train a cat. She's going to do what she wants when we're not around, so all we can hope for is to try to sabotage or redirect her habits and instincts.

In the past, we tried techniques that would hopefully make her avoid scratching the couch. We tried double-sided tape because we thought if it was sticky where she wanted to scratch, she wouldn't do it. Well, she's too smart, and would just find another spot on the couch. Plus, the tape left a disgusting residue that was impossible to get out of the couch after we took it off.

This time, we bought two narrow scratch boxes and put them in her favorite places to scratch on the couch as a way of following her lead. It's like how if a cat poos in a certain spot that isn't where the litter box is, you can try moving the litter box to that spot. This is a very person(animal)-centered approach (haha).



As you can see, she got the gist of it quickly... with the help of a little catnip spray (it wears off in about a minute but it gets her attention long enough to try out this weird new thing that she's not sure of). Will this replace the couch for her scratching post? Only time will tell.


Example 2:

Another bad habit/instinct is her desire to terrorize the guinea pig, Fiona. I have no doubt that she would not hurt the pig as I've seen them interact many times over the last five years, but she finds her to be utterly fascinating. One time I came home and found her sitting in the cage on top of the guinea pig's house. Fiona had moved her food bowl under the house so that she could spend her whole day in there, scared of this ridiculous animal that keeps invading her space. At least I know I've earned some respect from the kitty because when I shouted "Lilly! Get out of there!" she immediately leaped out of the cage and sat on the floor, blinking and looking quite ashamed.

In the past, I would use more of the wire grids that I use to build the cage and kind of create a very tall wall that is impossible for the kitty to scale. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, a tall wall would also make it impossible for me to access the cage for feeding and cleaning.

This is where an analysis of Lilly's personality comes into play. She is not a risk-taking type of cat; she will not jump somewhere unless she knows 100% that it is steady. She generally just doesn't jump. To get into the cage she would put her front paws onto the cage and then kind of leap-frog herself in there. My object, then, was to prevent her from putting her front paws on the cage, thus sabotaging her efforts.



I tied lots of plastic zip-ties to the edge to make a kind of barbed wire fence, then added a cut-up grass mat to increase the unpleasantness of putting her feet on the edge of the cage. We joke that it looks like Fiona is in a bunker in Vietnam.

After I did it, I sat and watched. She came over and surveyed it, tried putting her paws on it, found it unpleasant and backed away. She walked back and forth looking for a weak spot but eventually gave up.

How do I know it's working? I saw Fiona lounging in a nest of hay outside of her box this afternoon. She feels safe enough from the kitty not to hide all day.



It's perhaps to early to say this, and maybe I will jinx it, but...

Me: 2
Kitty: 0

Alone time

Freshman year of college was difficult for me, especially in the Spring. I'm not sure why but I just couldn't seem to handle much of anything. I skipped class one day and drove to the beach for some alone time.

(March 2002)

Drawing hearts in the sand

I'm going through some of my old pictures in order to come up with some material to post because I am running behind on my NaBloPoMo... This was from 2002 on a trip to Seaside Heights, NJ with some friends. I took this photo of my friend and then she sent it to her boyfriend :)

Please bless this rocket house

"Please bless this rocket house and all who dwell within this rocket house" - Homer Simpson

I took this photo in Houston in the summer of 2006. When I went back there later to show other people this awesome rocket house it was broken :( I wish I had been able to go inside and see what it looks like!

Jerusalem

Photo from my time in Jerusalem in 2006.

Easy fast for those who are fasting.

Covering my hair?

I'm married and I'm Jewish and I don't cover my hair.

AHHHHH.

I mean to say: like all the other married women in my family, and most of the married women I know, I don't cover my hair. I don't want to cover my hair on a regular basis. I like my hair out and about.

However, I am going to shuls nearby that are more observant than me and I have been wondering if I should cover my hair when I'm at shul. When I would go to the Modern Orthodox shul in my neighborhood in Chicago, I would cover my hair because I wanted people to know I was married (it's kind of a single's scene sometimes) as well as out of respect of the customs of the shul. I know a few people who cover their hair only at shul, even at a Conservative shul. It feels weird to potentially wear a hat only at shul, but then again most men I know only weird their kippah at shul, too.

There's been a lot of buzz on the internet lately about women covering their hair, which has made me really think about it. If I go to one of these shuls and don't cover my hair, I am making a very strong statement. I also run the risk of people being unwilling to eat in my house (because for some reason not covering your hair - though it's not a law - will make people question your kashrut).

This is also compounded with the fact that I generally don't like the way I look in hats, and I have short hair which makes it challenging to use a scarf.

Redefining Rebbetzin posted today a link to a site (The Style Underground) where a woman not only makes scarves but also has videos on how to use them in interesting ways. Most of the techniques require having a ponytail to serve as a base for the wrap, but I could probably pull off this one:

I'm new to the community so nobody would know whether or not I always cover my hair (at shul or all the time). I'm definitely not going to cover my hair all the time, that would not be my style - although it kind of was my style freshman year of college. But maybe I will try out covering it at shul, or maybe just at some shuls, .... I DON'T KNOW. This is too much for me.

Maybe if I find a really cute scarf before Shabbat it will help me make up my mind.

Pizza, I'm Home

One great thing about our neighborhood is there is a pizza place around the corner that actually has good pizza. Maybe I shouldn't say "actually" in New York. But I can't even remember ever being able to go and get pizza that tasted really good - whenever I wanted. Sure, in Houston there was this place that had good pizza, but it was a trip. Not a long trip, but still a trip, we had to decide to go there and then get in the car and go. In Chicago, there were a couple of places nearby that had acceptable pizza, but it was just acceptable. (When making a list of pros and cons of moving to Chicago, the lack of good pizza was definitely on that list!)

Sure, the place around the corner isn't gourmet. I'm not looking for gourmet. I'm looking for something that's crispy on the bottom and smothered in orange grease all over the top. Something you can fold and eat with one hand. Ahhhh yes.


[NOTE: This post was written on Friday and scheduled to post on Saturday because I am spending Shabbat in Queens and won't know what time I'll get home. I didn't post on Shabbat, don't worry...]

Wednesday scribble

We did scribble drawings in one of the art therapy groups on Wednesday, kind of just trying something new and seeing what happens from it. I think my supervisor suggested it because she knows it's my thing (haha). Some people really got it and seemed to like it a lot. A scribble can be anything, so even the people who didn't quite understand the concept came up with some interesting drawings.

This was the scribble that I made...


I didn't process it afterwards, but I feel like it's an opening up picture, like the top of some kind of vessel is sliding to the side and you can see the juice inside.

Ferry ride

This weekend we took the Staten Island ferry...... ooooooooooooh!

Support

I started my new internship/volunteer position this week and it has been an interesting experience! One thing that I feel is so great is the supportive professional environment that seems to exist among the staff.

In the morning staff meeting one day this week a person said she wanted to check in about a client. She said the client came to her group the day before and spoke a lot in group about really personal things. This client had just come out of more intensive treatment where it was encouraged to really delve deeply, so the client may have been "opened up" (per se) from the time spent there. The client then began to cry, left the group, and said that he/she would never return to treatment at this organization. The staff member said she wanted to know if anyone had heard from this client and if he/she is doing okay.

The amazing part of this that I saw was that not only did the staff assure her that the client is okay and came back, but the staff recognized that this person needed some support around what occurred in group. She was asking if she had made a mistake, if maybe she should have known this person just came back from treatment and should have sat out of group until he/she had time to settle. And the staff was supportive of her decision to have this person in the group, that there was no way she could have really known what the client was bringing to group that day, and that if he/she hadn't had that experience then his case workers may not have known about how this person reacts to opening up to people and feeling vulnerable. This staff member didn't specifically say "I need support around what happened in my group yesterday," but other people heard it and supported her.

It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :D

Levitation

Yafo, Israel
(photo taken June, 2008)

Kosher Street Meat

One very exciting part of my New York experience so far was stumbling upon this Kosher street meat vendor in Brooklyn. Of course... I didn't get the meat, I got falafel, but I COULD have gotten shnitzel :D (I like to stay parve when I'm not sure when I'll get hungry next and what my options will be) I felt like an expert at this stand because they also had "sabich," (although he wasn't serving it when I was there) and I had to explain to everyone what it was. Sabich is eggplant and hard boiled eggs in a pita with the fixins like falafel. YUM.

I was standing on the street eating my falafel while waiting for a bus and a lady came up to me and asked me where I got that delicious looking sandwich. :D

Sorry for not so much art making posting but the art room is basically unusable right now and I am posting on JewishGuy's computer so I don't even have old pictures from previous artworks.

Subway Ghosts

Fruit of Light

This is an update on this print that I made from a scribble. It just didn't feel finished, the more I looked at it. I felt like the little balls/fruit of light coming off of the tree weren't radiant enough and needed a little more something.

The metaphor that came out of this print was that fruit doesn't form without pollination, which actually can't happen in isolation. So every time I come in contact with someone (metaphorically speaking), they help the pollination process, which creates fruit. I identified these fruit as the part of me associated with my emotions, intuition, etc. I'm not a lone tree but a tree in the forest and all of us interact with each other on an almost invisible level to create our fruit :)

4th of July Pictures

While we spent most of the day packing, we took a break to our friends' rooftop patio to watch the fireworks. While we were waiting, we watched a stormcloud slowly pass by us (we did get rained on but not for very long). Ahh, it was reminiscent of my days going to the National Mall for fireworks, where it rains almost every year at some point on the 4th.

A great shot of Lake Shore Drive from the 38th floor...




We were so high up the fireworks seemed below us (although also they were far away). These were the Montrose fireworks.





The cloud (you can even see it raining on the lake).





It almost seems like you can see up into the suburbs from this view. It didn't come out well in the picture, but when you looked in this direction you saw at least 10 other sets of fireworks going off at the same time. It was like watching popcorn pop across the city.





These are the fireworks from Navy Pier.



What a great last night in Chicago!

When we arrived in Chicago it was a Wednesday night and Navy Pier has fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday night. As we drove in on Lake Shore Drive we were greeted with fireworks. So on our first night and our last night in the city we saw fireworks. :)

We made it (phew)

Box mountain was transported from Chicago to New York. Finally.

In fact, there are so many boxes we can barely move around the apartment. Literally, we have to scale box mountain to go to the bathroom or to the kitchen (the worst of it is in the kitchen actually). This apartment is significantly smaller than our last place and even though we got rid of most of our furniture we are quite challenged by the space! The cable guys came this morning and almost cried (haha).

While we were moving they were still painting and finishing up the bathrooms so that was interesting. It's not like we had anywhere to go, we were sitting on the street in the truck - idling, because it was 100 degrees out and we were overheating, so we just unloaded around them. Good times.

Today I go to IKEA to purchase all of our furniture and then wait around for them to deliver it. Oh yeah, and move things around and unpack things so we can fit it in. OY.

Freedom

I was kind of in a rough situation for a while... I made this painting in response to the cautious feelings of freedom that I felt when I thought I saw a light at the end.

Proposal Submitted!!!

I have just submitted a proposal to present at a conference in New York this November!

I've proposed to do the same workshop I did as my thesis presentation back in May. The workshop went really well and I got a lot of great feedback, so I am excited to have the opportunity to do it again (and make it even better). Plus maybe I will get more time - the biggest complaint was that an hour and a half was not enough time.

Also, it should be noted that I submitted this proposal during the second night of my move to New York. Yes, it is taking three days and two nights to get to New York. We are in a hotel room right now with the animals. It is a hectic time for us all.

In honor of leaving Chicago, here is a picture I took with JewishGuy's iPhone last summer when we ate at the restaurant in the Hancock Building.

Stress (and avoidance)

This was the last painting I made in the series, actually. I made it during the packing and moving process.

Art Therapy (for me)

This semester I went to an art therapist regularly for a few reasons... 1) I was having a really hard time with a lot of things relating to school, so I needed some support; and 2) I am an art therapist so I'd really like to know what it would be like to be a client.

Because I'm an artist I didn't use my time in sessions to make artwork. I used the sessions to process the work I made at home or in other classes/situation that I felt related to what was going on. I also decided that I would use the time in one of my classes this past semester to make art for my therapy sessions - in this class we were supposed to outline a project at the beginning of the semester and work on it consistently during class. I decided to explore myself through art making.

July 1 was my last day because we are moving this week, so we put up all of my artwork on the wall and talked about it. I didn't put it up in chronological order, but rather the order that seemed to make sense visually.



The pieces at the bottom are print-outs of large scribbles I did at my internship (many of which I featured here).

I think I will show some of the paintings from this exercise throughout the month, especially if I can't think of anything else to write about!

Being a client was an interesting and educational experience for me. We took a narrative approach, by that I mean I identified characters I play in different situations and really analyzed them (instead of analyzing me). I learned what some of these characters feel like when I'm playing them, when/why they show up, and how they affect others. Well, mostly anyway. It didn't feel like it was enough time to really get into it! But you can see the characters showing up in the paintings and interacting with each other, which is really cool.

I'm definitely glad I had that opportunity and I can't wait until I actually get to see clients again...

July 3

I have to quickly post before it's midnight. Shabbat ends so late that it's hard to stay on top of things!

Yesterday I went on a Segway tour with SportyJew (JewishGuy's sister, my sister-in-law). I have been wanting to do one of these for a very long time. Segways seem so awesome and - guess what - they are!

This is a photo of all of the Segways lined up when we had our 10 minute break (it was a 2 hour tour).



I guess you could say, in a way, I saved the tour for the very end of my stay in Chicago... Leaving on Monday!!

Button Flowers

For our wedding, we had felt and button flowers commissioned from Princess Lasertron (aka Megan Hunt). I am so happy that we did this - not only did we get beautiful, unique additions to every bouquet and centerpiece, not only did we support an independent artist, but also we have fun little reminders of our wedding around the house in little vases. I definitely recommend having some non-fresh flowers in weddings because you can save them or give them to guests / bridesmaids as presents.






Other things we were able to save from the wedding: kippot with our names in them, and a copy of the booklets we made ourselves that served both as place cards and helped explain the ceremony to our guests. There's a lot that goes on in a very short period of time in a Jewish wedding ceremony (well, it's short if you leave the explanation to the booklet and just go-go-go!).




We also had bentchers made for our wedding (of course). They are little prayer books that have the blessing for before and after meals as well as some songs. We have a ton of these left over, actually! But it's great because now when we have people over for meals we have plenty to go around.



I love that a lot of the things we saved from the wedding show up in our regular, every-day lives. :)



(Photo Credit: Amy Raab Photography - our fabulous wedding photographer!)

Canada Day / Good bye Chicago!

Today we're having a good-bye party (for ourselves haha) and it turns out it's on Canada day. So I made a Happy Canada Day banner, complete with iconic Canadian things (hockey sticks, beer, mounties, a moose and a beaver) to put up at our party. I mean, it's not like we're going to put up a good-bye banner for ourselves! Anyway, JewishGuy is Canadian, so it had to be done.

The Art Room

I wrote about how moving makes you take inventory and how I am sad over the loss of our books, among other things (though it's an important purge). Recently, we also gave away our couches and coffee table, as well as JewishGuy's office furniture. We're giving JewishGuy's sister our dining room furniture to hold on to for an indefinite amount of time. We will arrive in New York with... what?

Having my own art room has provided me with the space to collect a large number of art supplies, especially over the course of the last two years. I've always had this cart:

(This picture is from 2005, when Lilly was a baby, but already a budding assistant)

This cart contained basically all of my art supplies until grad school, when my art room became a new frontier for all kinds of media I hadn't much explored before: screenprinting, fabric dying, small found-objects sculptures, fiber art (crochet, embroidery, felt sculptures, etc). I began making stationary and small books last summer, and had a whole shelf dedicated to that inventory, plus what I collected from others. Before this art room, my art cart mostly had supplies for linoleum cut relief printing, collaging, and painting (acrylic). These supplies, too, exploded - even before the new art room - as I bought more magazines than I could handle, bought new linoleum blocks, and collected a massive amount of acrylic paint for the mural project that inspired this blog.

When we moved to Chicago I had the art cart, a folder of paper and prints, and maybe a box of miscellaneous supplies. Packing up the art room now took at least 8 boxes, some of them very large.

Our apartment in New York isn't very large. It could sort of be considered as being a two bedroom, but one of those bedrooms is very narrow and long, which makes it practically impossible to use as a bedroom. The last time we had a two bedroom apartment (in Houston), the spare room became JewishGuy's office, where I kept my art supplies and a small table to sometimes make art on. Now the second room is going to be my art room, with a small table for JewishGuy to put his laptop on when he's at home.

I'm going to buy a new, fold-up drafting table. I've already imagined how I can set up the space for optimal use of the drafting table while still having a place for my computer - I have a desktop now (old school!) so it actually needs a permanent place to sit. I imagined where the plants would go and where I would keep my art supplies so they are within easy reach of my seat.

I'm so excited!



(This month's theme is "saved.")