Once a Jew, Always a Jew?

Lately I've been thinking about what being Jewish (gasp!) means to me. Am I Jewish, agnostic, atheist, Wiccan?? Don't get nervous...that last one was a joke...not that I mean to be insensitive to all you Wiccans out there. I guess I do have something in common with them. I always tell people that my temple or church or place of worship, where I find peace, is probably in the woods, although you won't find me naked dancing around a fire. OK, I may have danced around the campfire a few times, but I was definitely clothed from head to toe to avoid mosquito and black-fly bites. I still consider myself Jewish although I don't belong to a temple and I only celebrate the holidays for the food and family. I just don't care for the weird ceremony and fake holiness of organized religion. For me,being a Jew is more of an identity that you can never shake. I've got the Jewish sense of humor and the worship of the Arts. Could my lack of interest in traditional Judaism go back to my childhood?? My brother had a fairly lavish bar mitzvah. The girls were forced to attend Sunday school but we never got the party!. Don't worry Mom and Dad. I know that's just the way the world was back then and I don't blame you. ( for that anyway!!) Ha-ha, always with the jokes. The world back then did not hold much space for the ethnic beauty and diversity we appreciate today. The ideal was white, blue -eyed and blonde haired. OK, I am white, blue- eyed and sort of blond, but looking at me, you would know I am not a WASP. I take that back. I guess I did fool a few people over the years, especially after I married and acquired the ultra Waspy last name of Adams. Unfortunately, that has led to many a Jew put down in my presence. Later, laying in bed and seething, I thought of many a catchy come-back to my so-called friends' slurs and stereotypical put-downs. My husband wants to know why the thousands of anti-Semitic websites and anti-Semitic politicians do not get more (negative) press. Why don't I care, he asks. Well, of course it upsets me. But let's face it. After thousands of years of persecution, hatred, and exodus, you get used to it! Sadly, I guess mankind will always come up with something to fight about, but religion has always been a biggie. Organized religion, while soooo very great for some, is not the way I choose to teach the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. As the late great John Lennon said "Whatever gets you through the night, it's alright, it's alright". So although I still burn the pretty, pretty menorah at Hanukkah,Channukah or is it Chanukah, and stuff my face with potato latkes, you won't find me at temple on Friday night.
Still, I didn't find it the least bit difficult to illustrate a book called "The First Gift". It was a sweet Christmas story about a boy, a dog and the meaning of love, and comes with an incredible musical score. I enjoyed working with the highly talented author/ composer and had fun painting Baby Jesus and a bunch of angels. The above illus. is part of the cover art.

Ahhhh...The sea in Seattle

The "sea" in Seattle is quite fitting because there is water everywhere around the city...salty, fresh, brackish, you name it, they got it. Our family's recent vacation trip started off at Sea-Tac airport on a bittersweet note. My husband's sister was to meet us at the airport. They had not seen each other in 13 years. He didn't recognize her at first., but our daughter insisted that a grey haired woman sitting by the baggage carousel was her, and she was right. We were all alot older!! Fish always tastes best when eaten in sight of seagulls and sunset over the bay, and the first night's feast was no exception. The second day we headed for a local park where we tried hard to memorize the names of the new and old family members who came out to welcome us. Day three, we headed up to the San Juan islands for whale watching. We took a ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor to catch a small boat and hopefully view the orcas at play. I panicked at the last minute and ran up 3 steep blocks into town to the local general store. I wanted to purchase Dramamine for seasickness and almost missed the boat. I had read 1 too many horror stories of mass vomiting on the online reviews. Note to self...stay away from reviews..remember, happy satisfied customers rarely take the time to post. Anyway, the trip was fabulous and barf free. The whales frolicked freely and the captain said it was one of the best trips ever. Once on dry land we headed for the ice creme shop which had about 86 delicious flavors. Wish we could of spent more time in Friday Harbor but we had to catch the ferry back along with all the other tourists. On Tuesday I looked up an old friend from Oregon College of Art. We had moved to NY together to attend the illustrious Art Students League. She had recently married and moved to a sweet little bungalow high up on a hill in the "green city". We fortified ourselves with breakfast at a "swedish" themed place. The pancakes were piled high with raspberries, blueberries and loganberries. The bacon was thick and Canadian style. Next we all headed south to Tacoma to visit the Glass Museum. I especially hoped to view the work of Dale Chihuly, a world famous glass artist. We walked across the "bridge of glass" where the walls and ceiling were filled with at least 50 0f his creations. Inside we witnessed 2 artists in a tall metal cone shaped studio demonstrating their technique. One of the most interesting galleries was the one where the glass artists took drawings by children and interpreted them in blown glass. The results were wonderful and probably knocked the high and mighty artists and critics down a notch or two off their lofty intellectual peaks. The stuff in the gift shop was outrageously beautiful and outrageouly priced, but Laurel managed to snag a (blown glass) slug for a friend. Seattle is the home of Starbucks and there are coffee-shops on every corner, so we headed off for some serious coffee before parting ways. Next stop was our simple motel in Tacoma to rest up before our trip to Mt. Rainier the next day. One of the few things I didn't like about the area was the insane urban sprawl in the areas outside the city of Seattle. It was the wild wild west all over again. But can a Mexican food lover like me really complain about 5 brands of Mexi fast food within 2 miles? We settled on a Vietnamese Pho place for a delicious and cheap dinner. The Asian influence is everywhere and you especially see it in the architecture. They aren't stuck in the past with sad imitations of our colonial bsckgound as you see in the east. Alot of the buildings are a pleasing mix of Asian and a warm and friendly modern style which I found refreshing. Anyway, the weather was clear the next day and we almost drove off the mountain road more than once on our way up to the Paradise side of the Mt. Rainier National Park. Sadly, we only had a day there, so we took a short hike to some lakes snapping away like crazy people with our brand new camera. The first place we stopped once outside the park had some tacky souvenirs and some sad looking pie, but down the road we hit pay dirt. Home made raspberry cobbler and blackberry pie with some more of that great brew. Another night at the motel and then off to eat dim sum in Seattle's Chinatown. A little shopping there and then we moved on to the infamous historic Pike Place Market. I had forgotten how cool the place was. There were some amusing street performers. One in particular involving a few enormous hula hoops, a harmonica, and the balancing of a guitar on the guys chin. Really. From the market we went back to Charlie's sister for a little rest up. Laurel had been craving the tasty Dungeness crab since his sisters last visit when she showed up at our place with a bunch of the stuff, so we soon left for some serious seafood eatin at the Crab Pot..on the water of course. They covered our outdoor table with butcher paper and threw down a mess o seafood... Corn, sausage, Alaskan crab, Dungeness, mussels,red potatos, clams, shrimp. and the best ever sourdough bread...nothing was safe from our tiny forks and hammers. For once we were too full for dessert. The last full day we made our way to the aquarium to be awed and amazed by the colorful and weird creatures. I can now cross "petting a starfish" off my bucket list. Illegally crouching behind a bunch of children, I was a few feet away from the color- changing octopus at mealtime. Sadly, things went downhill on the way home. We were seated on the 5 hour flight in the last row by the bathroom. Everyone on the flight "went" at least twice, slamming the door as they left. I couldn't turn my little overhead air nozzle quite high enough to cover the fact that it was "number 2 " again! Panic at the long term parking lot when we couldn't find the ticket, only to eventually realize that the credit card we had inserted 8 days previous told them everything they wanted to know about us. We re-inserted it, it spit out our receipt and we were on our way home.
Although Seattle's not really rainy in the summer, I'm adding my illustration entitled "Raining Cats and Dogs".

The cool moist night air of my country road, with only the sound of the crickets chirping, is a perfect ending to a crazy day in the city. In the hot daylight hours, I'm delighted by my rural lane's colorful succession of weeds and wildflowers. Although they may be invasive, I love the heavy perfume of the wild thorny roses. Today's drive down my tar and gravel road in the 80 degree weather inspired this Japanese style haiku ...
Wheels roll over tar.
Pop, pop, pop like bubble wrap
The road is melting.
Robert Frost, when speaking of roads said, "I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference." Although some say this poem is about regret, others interpret it as an ode to individualism and non- conformity. These are traits which most artists hold near and dear. After all, great art is not only about technique..I find that boring. Great art must also express that which is unique to you. Wow, there must be a catchphrase in there involving technique and unique..as I'm laying in bed tonight with the windows wide open I'll mull that one over.

Monkey Arrested for Mayhem

As I've stated before, one of my non-art jobs is as a one on one to an autistic 6 year old child in a special ed classroom. We've been on a Curious George marathon this week in preparation for a special event at a bookstore. Everyone is familiar with little mischief makin monkey George and his caretaker, the man in the yellow hat. The man consistently leaves George on his own somewhere and chaos ensues. But in the end, all is forgiven. Why, my fellow employees and I ask, has the man in the yellow hat never been brought before child protective services or maybe the ASPCA? Or perhaps the Food and Game Adminis. for illegal possession and smuggling of a wild animal into the country. Of course, for the same reason that Jack of beanstalk fame was not arrested for stealing, and the Emperor was not charged with public nudity. You've got to forgive us. There are 35 books in the series and we read at least half of them. He's cute but not that cute!! I found much worse while doing my online research on the authors H.A. and Margaret Rey... a parody where "the man" takes George into a pawnshop. George picks up a weapon, stabs the man, and ends up in jail (again) for murder. You've probably heard about how the illustrator/author couple H.A. and Margaret Rey , originally Germans, met and married while living in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. I guess that's where they first got acquainted with monkeys..They moved to Paris after honeymooning there..not a bad life so far. They fled on bicycles the morning of June 13, 1940 , as the Germans entered the city, taking only some clothing and their manuscripts and sketches. Have you ever fantasized about what you would grab if you had to leave in a hurry. Thank goodness for flash drives...Eventually they ended up in that hipster haven, Greenwich Village, NYC. Margaret lived until 90, donating millions to charity in her final hometown, Cambridge, Boston. Oddly enough, she taught creative writing at Brandeis Univ., the school my own little mischief maker is attending now. Although she studied painting and photography at the famous Bauhaus school in Germany, she ended doing the writing and her husband did the pics...just goes to show that kids don't really care about fantastic and sophisticated illustrations. A good story that has that something special is a hard thing to teach. But even in this age of commercial and mass produced licensed characters, I hope a good tale can still make it's way to the surface! (illustration at top was only one of mine I could find that vaguely fit the post..imagine the bunny gone bad..maybe he met George in juvie..hope they were both rehabilatated.)

Now that Spring is finally here, I've been taking coffee breaks in my favorite location, the great outdoors. I grew up in the suburbs not too far from NYC, but I'm a country girl at heart. It's easier on us starving artists here..less temptations for spending money, although now that there's online shopping, I guess that doesn't hold quite so true. Yesterday, I finished my Trader Joe's Dark Sumatra and ran around with a bottle of ink and a sketch book, hoping one of my 2 cats would hold still for a quick line brush painting. They weren't very cooperative. I hope to tune up my gesture drawing skills this summer. I used to be quite good at those in the old days when I was studying at Art Students League. Figure drawing class was on of my favorites..but I digress..As I sipped my coffee I was lucky to spy a pileated woodpecker across the river doing some serious damage to a tree (think Woody Woodpecker, cartoon big, with a dramatic thatch of red on top of the head) It sounded like someone was pounding a nail into wood after drinking 25 cans of Red Bull. I mentally started making a list of some of the sounds, good and bad, which I've experienced in my little hideaway in the woods. Here's what I've come up with so far,...owls maniacally hooting in the dark of night, screeching hawks riding the currents overhead, peeper frogs in the muck across the river, ciciadas in the heat of summer, startled ducks quacking(yeah, they really do),the river ice breaking up in the spring, a hummingbird buzzing in your ear, ATVs and dirt-bikes, chain saws, unidentified animals squealing in the middle of the night, endlessly barking dogs, rifles being sighted, and last but not least, my favorite "sound" of all....silence.

Pippi, Piggle Wiggle and the Witch Family

What were your favorite chapter books as a child? My hero when I was growing up was the original cool red-head, Pippi Longstocking. Her dad was out at sea. He had left her at the Villa Villekulla with a chest full of gold, a monkey and a horse. She made her own rules and had incredible adventures with the traditional kids next store...Tommy and Annika. And then there were those three miniature drifters; Pod, the dad, Homily, the mom, and their daughter Arriety; the stars of the "Borrowers" series. The tiny Victorian family made clever use of all sorts of discarded human objects. You could call them the original recyclers! They traveled afield, aloft and a- float, adapting to many perilous situations and harrowing close calls. Way before he was discovered by Hollywood, I also had "Stuart Little", that dignified and confident little mouse. I never questioned the fact that his parents were human. The end of his story was not tied up with a neat little bow. Stuart bravely set out in search of his beloved friend, the bird, Margalo. "As he peered ahead into the great land that stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction." Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was another great read. The magical old lady was once married to a pirate. Perhaps it was Pippi's father. The illustrations by Hilary Knight, who also did the fantastic "Eloise", are full of life. In fact, the pen and ink illustrations by Edward Ardizzone were what drew me to "The Witch Family" by Eleanor Estes. Upon scanning through the facts for this post, I learned that Ms. Estes is said to have begun her writing career while bedridden with tuberculosis. Pippi L. was created by Astrid Lindgren to entertain her daughter who was recovering from pneumonia. Many a great writer and artist has started their journeys of the imagination while bedridden. Still, I'm wishing good health to all my followers, with a healthy dose of magic and rule breaking thrown in for the artist in you.

Cosplay cause we can.

OK, my daughter L. turned out all weird (in a good way) and artsy like me..no surprise there. So now I know what cosplay is; do you? Let me try to explain. It's kinda like a huge rock concert was for my generation...like Woodstock for nerds. (Hey, I declare 2010 the year of the nerd!!) L. is counting down the days to the next big event; Anime Boston. Should be about 18,000 kids and adults attending. Some will be there just to gawk, but most will be dressed as their favorite game or anime characters (anime is a an animated cartoon version of manga, popular illustrated novels originating in Japan.) For instance, you might dress up as Link from the Legend of Zelda..or, for the serious attendees, something more obscure. My daughter actually started a club at her college and got some serious funding towards costumes and hotel rooms!! Cosplay has been a good thing for her. She's now extremely talented at sewing costumes and building props. She got some costume commissions and earned a little cash. Last summer we silk-screened some tees together. We're working up more designs and she's going to try and sell them at one of the events this summer. And to top it all off, it led to her current major of East Asian studies. She can now speak and write Japanese. You never know where a hobby will lead you.

Clowns and Cleaining

Well, I has a 4 day weekend. Unfortunately, I could no longer ignore the fact that I hadn't really cleaned my house since I don't remember when. So I went into a frenzy for 2 days and was exhausted when it was all over. The woodstove is sooo cozy in winter but it sure creates a lot of dust and dirt. Living in an old house, I don't have much storage space, so I have many "antique" cupboards. My husband and I are big fans of thrift shops, tag sales etc and I've picked up more than my share of "chochtkes". I finally faced the fact that I would have to dust on top of the cupboards and around all the stuff on the shelves. If only it would stay clean for a long, long time I wouldn't mind it, but in a few weeks it will be like it never happened. One of these days I'll do a painting of my favorite little thrift shop and yard sale finds, some of which are pictured here, newly dusted!!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Ok, it's not actually raining. We had THE SNOW DAY today! Yeah!! For some reason, I kept thinking of one of my cute little students singing "it's raining, it's pouring, the old man is boring." (Apologies to my "old man") The 5 and 6 year olds in my classroom come up with the funniest stuff..Who's Santa's other reindeer (besides Rudolph) asked the teacher last December. The only girl in the class answers "Ashley?".I had to take the job assisting a special ed student cause my husband and I were both self-employed and the health insurance payments were more than our mortgage. So you can understand why I eagerly anticipate snow days and faithfully wear my pajamas backwards the night before a storm.(It really works) After school, I come home to my other job hand- painting first day covers for stamp collectors. You would think we live an extravagant lifestyle, but no, we live quite simply and are just trying to survive the recession! So finding time to produce all these paintings and craft projects I have in my head will take precious time. I've sure learned not to procrastinate like I used to. Anyway, I had to have a little fun today, so my husband and I went cross country skiing in the woods near our house. My daughter, who is a downhill skier, can't understand the attraction of it, but for us it's cheap, peaceful, uncrowded and right outside our door. Here's a little picture to illustrate SNOW DAY!!!!!

The Three Little Pigs Got a New House

OK, I'm gonna talk about creativity...it's one thing us individualistic Americans are really good at..rah rah USA. Just read an article about an artist/inventor who built a structure entirely out of mushrooms. Actually, he used the rootlike mass that forms underneath the 'shrooom. It's called a mycelium and the spongy matter is grown in brick shaped molds and used for something called mycotecture! It's nontoxic, fireproof and mold and water resistant..maybe I should be investing in the stuff, if I had any money to invest...It will soon be used as "eco-friendly" packing material. Just when you thought the world was a hopelessly used up dirty mess, you see that people care and there is once again hope for the future!!

I was primarily a childrens book illustrator for many years, with a few years of waitressing thrown in, but I recently had to take a second job working with young kids in order to have health insurance. Having illustrated a series of Mother Goose rhymes as posters, I noticed most of my 5 and 6 year old students had no knowledge of the sweet old lady. I had mindlessly recited many of the poems in my childhood, never questioning their meaning or origin. Some of them were really weird and didn't make much sense, so I recently did a bit of asking around and some online research. Turns out that the "sweet" old lady is thought to have many features attributed to the witches which were hunted in the 1600s. While some of the poem categories feature harmless lullabys, riddles, and educational elements, others contain references to more serious political incidents. For instance, "Ring Around the Rosy" is believed to refer to the bubonic plague. I was shocked to find out that "Mary Mary, Quite Contrary" with her beautiful garden growing is associated with the English Queen Mary the 1st's torture of Protestants!! I hope this information will be filed away somewhere in the back of your mind for use when home on the couch watching Jeopardy,but please don't let it ruin your enjoyment of the poems. One site I visited also mentioned how this "emergent literature" also helps young children develop their language skills and show them the rich possibilities of the literary experience(in simple talk, it encourages reading!!) For anyone interested here's the link to my shop.... http://www.etsy.com/shop/hoddleypoddley

Zumba Madness

Viva Zumba...it's the bestest most fun workout I've had in forever...I find that most artists are good in at least one other area creatively, and dance was my other area. I used to love to dance and took jazz and ballet for years, but kinda gave it up as I got older. I tried all sorts of stuff to stay in shape over the years. Steps, pilates, aerobics, yoga...they were OK but you were kinda counting the minutes til you finished. With Zumba I'm just grinning and shakin and not looking at the clock. Yolanda, my wonderful instructor, calls herself a NewRican...a Puerto Rican American from New York! I sure sleep well at night after one of her classes. Her husband is the only man in class and they move beautifully together. My husband CK used to take jazz dance classes with me when we were young and crazy. Haven't dragged him to Zumba yet...he's got a good sense of rhythm which he expresses better on guitar.

While you were sleeping

Did you ever look out your bedroom window in the middle of the night, onto your yard, which is brightly lit by the full moon. I live in a hemlock forest, with a decent sized river behind the house. I always imagine all the comings and goings of the forest critters while I sleep. Yet when I get up for that drink of water at 3 am and glance out there, I never catch one of them in the act of nibbling my Laurel bushes or cavorting on the lawn. This painting is what I imagine is going on as soon as I turn my back!