Here is a little piece I made for Newsday today. It is about the corrupt way the political parties in New York go about fund raising, making the argument that campaigns should be exclusively funded by the public. This would have the effect of leveling the financial playing field for new candidates and cut out the lobbies/special interests whose directives cost the state much more than financing the candidates ever could. I'm not sure I agree completely, but it gave me a chance to put an elephant and donkey to work, feeding from the public trough. Look for it this Monday, should you be in the NY metro region.

A classic Art in New York day today. We caught Hellenistic, Cypriote, Minoan and Roman sculpture. We also visited and analyzed the ritual art of Africa, South America and Australia. Checking in with a scholar on Aboriginal bark painting I got word that the figure in the example we examined was-likely-made from "power points" which are derivative of stars and--in fact--the bird/god is seen in x-ray. When such a creature vomits, a part of creation is made. Most strange, and surprising too. By the end of the day, we finally got to the Met's roof sculpture garden where they are presently cultivating a crop of Jeff Koons creations. Here's a shot of the gang giving a shout-out to the L-dawg, who couldn't be there as she found the depictions of Eve too offensive to revisit. Click on the photo to download the big-un. Word.

Finished the lawn work and took minute or two to smell the roses. Well, sketch them anyway. This tree seems to get green late in the season. I'm not sure what sort it is, but it gives edible berries.

The sketch is pretty quick and interrupted too. Just as I was getting into this, Julia threw the binders on as she needed to be dropped at one of her myriad end-of-year events. Sigh, the life of a parent. The tree is much taller than my pad and getting quite full with foliage. At this rate, the berries can't be far behind. I'm a big advocate of life studies, even if your end works have nothing to do with such efforts.

Tried some new-ish materials on this drawing. A plate finish Strathmore drawing pad along with a Pitt charcoal pencil (Medium). Normally, I use a toothier paper and general's charcoal pencils. Pitt's product seems a little stronger than General's, which helps me out a lot as I'm pretty heavy handed and tend to break pencils wholesale. Wouldn't mind giving this combination a spin at figure drawing.

Well, the spring has sprung, the grass has ris, and we wonder where the birdies is. Just a quick shot of Val working in the garden. This little area adjacent to the building has been given to us to do whatever we'd like to with it. We opted for a garden. Having spent all these years cooped up in NY apartments, it is nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air. We had coffee here this morning and tried to figure out what sort of flowers we'd like to grow. By the fence, we've planted Canna Lilies (not yet up) along with hydrangea, azalea and hosta. I put down the little pathway. Originally, I had placed the large red stones where I stepped from the center of the gate. being over 6'2" , I underestimated the length of Val's gait, so she had to bunny-hop from stone to stone. I put in a fix and placed a smaller brick between each of the larger stones. Hard to believe, last year this space was nothing but weeds and dirt. The large square shape by Val wasn't even visible. The barbecue is used pretty often over the summer, we intend to fire it up next weekend.

After the SJU student show on Friday, I had to run off and see my daughter's final performance with her high school chamber choir. Julia is in the back on the right. Don't they sound beau-t-ful? The tune is by Mozart and is: Requiem-Lacrimosa. I had posted three songs, but it took a year and a day to load, even with a cable modem. Enjoy!

Sorry for the long stretch without an update, but the end of the semester is always a bear. The St. John's student exhibition opened a couple of days ago and I was on hand to take a few photos of the proceedings. True to form, Parvez, the gallery director, got the show up in record time with the help of a few of the faculty and some of the student workers. I dropped in Thursday to give a hand, but most of the heavy lifting had already been done. I know it has been said every year, but objectively, these shows just continue to improve each year. I've posted a gallery with more images to my .mac account. You can visit by clicking on this link.