Six degrees of separation. . .

I've never been to the Academy Awards and doubt that I will ever get there, but it's fun to know that someone close to your family was not only there on Sunday night but actually played a part in the winning of one of the Oscars!

That's my "surrogate son-in-law", Jon Ostrin, holding John Legend's "Oscar", just won as "Best Original Song" for Legend's and Common's incredibly moving song, "Glory".  Jon is the husband of daughter Andrea's half sister (and my "surrogate daughter")  Allison, and works as Legend's personal
sound engineer.  So he was backstage overseeing the sound system as Legend ad Common brought the audience to its feet with their stirring rendition of the song they wrote for the movie "Selma" about that historic march.

Jon has traveled the world with JL, as he calls him, this past year.  He was on the bridge with him in Selma, they've been all over Europe, been to Australia and Korea.  I know, because I play "Words With Friends" with Jon on a regular basis and every once in a while I will text him and say "Where are you, Jon?"  iPhones don't differentiate about continents.  We take turns winning and losing, whether he's in Korea or back in the USA.

Jon posted this photo on his Facebook page with the caption, "I've got the best gig!".    Sure looks like it, Jon.

I'm back in the animal kingdom. . . .

I think I've found my niche in the art world.  Michaelangelo painted ceilings.  Andy Warhol painted soup cans. I paint animals.  Mostly dogs and cats with a bird or two thrown in here and there.

My newest art class at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens is taught by a wonderful artist named Mai Yap, who is determined to get me to slow down when I paint.  This session I am dutifully trying to master the art of going slow, paying attention to details, stop turning out three canvases to everyone else in the class's one.  I marvel at my very talented classmates ability to spend weeks on perfecting one leaf.  As my friend Paul likes to say, "Patience is not Joan's strong suit."

Max Binder

Last week my niece Vicki called me with a sob in her voice that her beloved dog, Max, had just passed away and would I paint his portrait for her and her husband Larry.  Max's photo arrived via e-mail and I started sketching right away. With class coming on Thursday, I knew I would have to tell Mai that patience will have to wait for a week.  I've got to paint Max.  And paint I did, with my classmates marveling once again that I started and finished in the 3 hour session.

Below are just a few of my "animal kingdom".  What can I tell you.  I can't help it.  I love animals.
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Louie Ostrin

Apollo Sotelo

Leo Pantine-Parrish

J.W. Rosenblatt

Layla Anker

Newman

Jake & Zoey Anker

Punim

Charcoal of Bodhi Ostrin

The Anhinga

Max Ceglia (done with palette knife)

Wasabi Spector (done with a palate knife)

Canine art at the Beaux Arts Festival

I made my annual visit to the Beaux Arts Festival at the University of Miami yesterday.  As usual, the art was very interesting.  Some great, some not so great.  It was a gorgeous day, not too hot, and the UM campus was thronged with visitors, both two-legged and four-legged.

After a while, and after munching one of my much loved arepas, plus pigging out on frozen rasberry yogurt on a stick,  dipped in melted chocolate,
 and then rolled in sprinkles and chopped peanuts, (ok, I'm starting my diet today), I became absolutely fascinated with the dogs who were absolutely every where you looked.  Miami loves dogs.  Big, small and in-between.

So pardon me for not photographing the painted art this year.  I just couldn't resist these cuties.

Fly safely, my loved ones. . .

My great-grandson Grayson is on his first plane ride with his Mommy and Daddy as I write this.  I pray that it is a safe and happy journey.  Grayson is a beautiful, happy little boy.  He is also autistic.

His parents, my grandson Adam and his awesome wife, Amy, were very worried how he would react to his first flight.  I'd like to share with you how they planned for this adventure.

On the plane!

 Here is what Adam posted about the experience so far:

Grayson's first flight flight update #4. On the plane. Goody bags we made for people around us. Already received such good feedback. People are so accepting when you are open about your situation.

Thoughts on the New Year. . .

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. . . "                     Robert Browning

If I had the opportunity to meet the revered British poet who wrote those words, my response, I am afraid, would be "Bullshit, Mr. B.  You don't know what you are talking about." 

I'm allowed to write this from my perch as an octogenarian and a half, because I am one of the lucky healthy ones.  There is nothing wonderful or happy about seeing your loved ones, the people you grew up with, the people you shared your life with, become ill and pass away.

While I have much to be thankful for in this New Year. . a wonderful loving daughter, my very dear grandson Adam, his wife Amy, my beautiful great-grandson Grayson, and my remarkable big sister Fran, . . I am still dealing with the loss of my oldest and dearest friend Judy, in mid-December.

Back in high school in my hometown of Mt. Vernon, just a 35 minute train ride into New York City, we were part of "our crowd". . .the so called "popular Jewish girls" (as opposed to the equally popular Christian girls.)  Political correctness had not yet arrived in the 1940's.   Judy and I literally grew up together.  We lived in the same apartment house.  Walked to school together every day. (Only nerds took the bus.) Went to Syracuse University together.  And actually introduced each other to our first husbands!  More importantly, even though we've lived many states apart for decades, we've stayed bff's. . best friends forever.

One by one, the members of "our crowd" have left us. . there are only three of us left. . me and the Sonnenblick twins, Jean and Muriel.  We are the lucky ones.  We've all had a great life and I'm not complaining.  Just don't think Robert Browning had it quite correct.

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Chihuly's back, and Fairchild's got him. . .

Hard to believe, but it was 2005 when Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden introduced "Art In The Garden" with an exhibition of glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly.  It was Chihuly's first botanical garden installation and Fairchild quadrupled it's membership from that groundbreaking exhibition .

I was still working pretty much full time in those days, but I did find time to volunteer at Fairchild for the very first time as a once-a-week guide in the Garden's Conservatory, telling visitors about the Chihuly glass exhibited in that building. These days I'm a tram guide on Friday mornings, doing tours at 10, 11 and 12 noon, and once again I am telling guests from all over the world about these unbelievably beautiful sculptures that are all over our 83 acre Garden.

I have two favorite stories about Chihuly.  The first took place about 35 years ago in Aspen, Colorado, during a Miami Ski Club trip.  The ex and I visited one of our favorite art galleries there and saw this large, elegant glass sculpture with a price tag of $1,000 by someone we had never heard of named Dale Chihuly.  I remember laughing and wondering who would spend that much on a piece of glass that wasn't even Tiffany or Steuben.  How wrong we were!  Today a similar piece sells for $30,000 and up.  So much for our artistic eye.

My second favorite story is much more recent, and happened this past November during the installation of the current exhibition at Fairchild.  For the first time the installation has extended into the Garden's Lowlands, an exciting addition for those of us doing tram tours.  The Lowlands consists of 11 man-made lakes dug in the early 1930's and some of them are currently home to 6 alligators and two salt water crocodiles.  (I like to tell people on my tram tours that this is not Disneyland, these are real live animals, and for heaven's sake, don't try to pet them, kiss them, or take your picture with them! You'd be surprised what some people will do.)

As Chihuly's team attempted to install some of his giant bright red and orange glass "Reeds" on the banks of one of the lakes that is very viewable from the tram, the resident gator, obviously not an art lover, took offense at the intrusion.  As fast as the workers installed them and left, the gator was seen climbing up on the bank and use his tail to swat them down! Talk about your art critics.

The exhibition runs through May and it is well worth visiting.  I took a few photos just for fun. The Garden is open on Thursday and Sunday nights for an opportunity to see the sculptures lit, a spectacular sight. If you plan to come on a Friday, let me know ahead of time.  I promise you, I give a helluva good tour!

Happy Channukah. . . Merry Christmas. . .Happy New Year. . .Make it a healthy one!!!!

Blown away. . .my day at the Miami Book Fair



I spent a windy morning yesterday helping to man the WLRN booth at the Miami Book Fair.  It was a (mind) blowing experience.  I arrived at the Fair site in downtown Miami, as per e-mailed instructions, at 9:30am, to meet a young staff member named Dee Diaz, and to quickly realize it was just the two of us wrestling with a zipped up tent stuffed with endless boxes of "stuff".

Our location, as the very first tent Fair-goers encountered, once they passed through the main entrance, was either the best, or the worst, that the Book Fair had to offer.  The best, because we were the first thing they saw as they entered and the last thing they saw as they left.  The worst, because nothing protected us on our north side from the unrelenting north wind.

The boxes of "stuff" turned out to be cd's and dvd's by the likes of Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney (George's aunt, remember her?) and Dinah Shore!  Also lots of Celia Cruz, and for some ungodly reason, a dozen of Il Volo, that young Italian singing group.  Don't laugh, we sold lots of them, at $5 a pop, with all monies going to the station.  More expensive, at $25 each, were the original documentaries done by WLRN through NPR.  These were fascinating and also sold well.



"Honk If You're Weird!"

Then we had books.  Boy did we have books.  With titles I never hear of, but a lot of them sold at $5 each.  We also had give-aways, including the "Honk If You're Weird" bumper sticker I'm holding in the photo.  Not so surprisingly, young people passing by, scooped them up. Please note the green "money apron" I am wearing in the photo.  We were a cash business, Dee and me.  None of that credit card stuff for us.                      

 It was not a pretty day, on and off drizzly, but the Book Fair is amazing.  Once my shift was over I got to walk around and even grab an arepa (my addiction at outdoor events) for lunch.  Couldn't resist buying a book at one of the tents dedicated to kid's books.  Got one about dinosaurs for my great-grandson Grayson, who is a dinosaur aficionado.  If you've never been to the Miami Book Fair, you don't know what you're missing.  Put it on your calendar for next year!
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