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Well, Rose and Pearl got me out today….they convinced me I wanted to go to Coney Island. They even got me on a ride (just one!) We went on one like a ship and it swings…know which one? Rose got us sitting at the very last seat, the one where you are practically upside down when it hits one side of the arc of the swing…Pearl was clinging to my leg and weeping…Rose was practically leaping into the force of gravity with a look of ecstacy which frightened me way more than the ride (although it was scary for my old self). We had our swimsuits on under our clothes and though they tried they could not make me go under water at the beach. I just couldn’t-wouldn’t do it. It was a nice outing. We stopped in the Russian Stores and bought some sweets..Yum…
Rose was not allowed to board the bus, because she was too young to travel alone according to Greyhound rules. You must be 15 according to the rules, which I have just reread. Although last night they were told you must be 16. So she is home here in Brooklyn, feeling like things never go right for her.
Brenda is off with Rose and Pearl to Columbus Circle tonight. They took the B train to the end which is also the southern tip of Central Park. There is a great book store there as well as a favorite paper goods store. Shepherd is wandering around the apartment looking for something to do. The three little girls are in the tub finding thier adventure there for now. The neighbor downstairs has his radio cranked all the way up in retaliation for our kids noisiness a half hour ago. I was playing guitar while the kids were running and hollering up and down the hallway. I was sitting at a totally messy kitchen table after dinner getting a little guitar playing in. The sun is beginning to set and the buildings outside the window have the slanted light glow I love so much. I eventually will get up and go to the kitchen and bring it back to a sense of cleaness and order. We have just sixteen days left in Brooklyn and we will be back in Michigan. I have a deep sadness about this which is sitting right next to a feeling of a significant next chapter in our life just about to begin.
Yesterday Rose, Pearl and I went back to the Green Onion in Caroll Gardens Brooklyn at the request of Shelly the store owner who was nearly sold out of Sock Monsters. Rose and I dumped out her latest creations on the already crowded counter along side of the cash register and Shelly pick out her favorites. She ended up buying $127.00 worth of monsters and after some conversation about living in New York and what it may be like for us to move back to Michigan we were back out on the street. It had turned colder and begun to rain so we ducked into a coffee house to have some lunch and celebrate another Sock Monster victory. Caroll Gardens is very styish, and loaded with cool shops of all kinds and hip little resteraunts. Most of the buildings along Smith street are only three stories high so it feels more intimate and cozy like parts of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side in Manhattan. I really enjoy these outings with Rose and Pearl. It is so cool to see them getting along so well together. As we rode the train back to our neighborhood they were looking through the pictures they had been taking with the digatal camera and gigling (Pearl had bought a pair of shades with her share of the recent earnings that cranked up her personal cool facter a few notches) and I just enjoyed seeing them carry on enjoying each other’s company. Our New York adventure this past year has been an amazing year for our family that has brought us into contact with so many amazing people and potent experiences.
We are looking forward to moving back to GR…..especially the kids. They are so looking forward to it - it is almost scary. The hard part of it is -we have approximately 3 weeks before we move. This is an eternity to children. As a woman who has been over 3 weeks late twice in pregnancy, I know I can handle it. But can I handle 4 kids obsessed with moving and wanting to be there already? (Grace and Rain don’t exactly have a clue….. although Grace has a bit of a grasp). Rose and Pearl suggested today that we walk, yes they want me their old mother to take them there on foot! When I said that was impossible, they started campaigning for bicycling! They said it would be worth all the trouble and pain, just so they wouldn’t be stuck here waiting, at least they would be on their way. So any ideas on how to deal with this? Let me know….You New Yorkers, we love you - the kids just miss their friends……brenda
This painting is titled Link. Perhaps the title has to do with the way the shapes and lines in this piece seem to be interwoven together and connected as if this were what one was seeing under a high power microscope of some kind of organic tissue structure. I have continued to enjoy looking at this painting for the way the particles appear to float inside the picture plane. The layering and suggestion of depth seem to reflect something of what my life feels like, several pulsing layers coexisting with each other, the different aspects of my life that interlock with one another to create the pulsing web that is my life. Painting is a mysterious thing the way it comunicates to us without sound and in complete stillness and yet if you are quiet before a painting like this one it is as if it begins to dance and hum in a very real way. Jacques Deval has said that “God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved birds and invented cages” and I would say that when I take time to look into Brenda’s paintings the cage door swings open again.
making it through the day
shellac brown mystery
puzzles with many missing pieces
the frayed end of a rope
clouds pink and grey
an old book never read
a torn piece of paper
a scrape on her knee
hair that doesn’t know the comb
a bath tub draining
oatmeal left in the pan
two cigerette butts
an acorn cap whistle
broken crayons stripped bare
buttered toast left to get cold
checking the time
looking over my shoulder
a pine cone
The Beerhorst Family Spring Art Show has come and gone. The highlite was being able to sit around the kitchen table with our friends Ivona and Summer and just talk with no one in a hurry to go any where sunday afternoon. There is something magical about getting the house all cleaned up with art carefully arranged on the walls and then a few friends over and some food to nibble on. Our shows always come with a fair amount of fretting about whether anyone will actually come and will we sell anything but we are allways rewarded in some way in the midst of it some where. Following the creative trail as it twists and turns and then sharing your creations with what friends can find the time to come across our threshold, this is again the place we made possilbe this past week end. And now it is monday morning and time to do the laundry.