Anatol Kovarsky

Anatol Kovarsky was a cartoonist for the New Yorker back in the 50s. My parents had this book of his and I can remember looking through it often. I was fascinated by his drawings and the delicate intricacy of his line.He drew people from all over the world and what he brought out in his cartoons was how we all are the same. From the same family. I like the way these people are self contained and at the same time out there.

Annie Oakley, 1860-1926, was a great favorite of one of my sister's. Annie was a heroine, and the subject of a t.v. show back in the 1950s. She may have been one of the first woman superstars of American popular culture. How far does a personality reach into our lives...?

Mid-1950s, we are at the grocery store with my mother shopping. Nothing seems out of the ordinary until a voice comes over the store intercom,

"Will Annie Oakley's mother please come to the office and pick her up?"

After hearing this announcement a couple of times, my mother turns around and notices one child is missing! Heading over to the office we find my sister there, waiting to be claimed.

Winter fun...

There is part of campus, that I walk through most days on my way to work, where the ground is sunken in and can get swampy. After the snow melted and then froze again, students began using it as an impromptu ice rink.

This girl was practicing hockey moves and had a contemplative and meditative air about her. Her movements had a quiet rhythm to them...

Another piece of home...

This is an old Japanese print that hung in my grandparents' house. I remember it from way back and feel fortunate to have it now (well no one else wanted it...). It gives me a strong connection with my family and my past.

I like the parrot passing by. That was one of those things, you know, that at the time you just have to have, and then later wonder why. There were two, believe it or not; one had a fatal accident...

Home away from home

I love being at home. Being a Cancer, (ie: crabby), I guess that all fits. Over the kitchen sink is mounted a serving plater that belonged to my grandmother. It is an old blue transfer pattern piece that has a larger idyllic country scene, ringed with flowers on the border. When I do the dishes or make dinner I love looking at, so I know it well. This small part is my home away from home.

Evening light

Evening light while walking home from work yesterday...

I love the contrast between the light and dark, and again the lace of the tree branches...

Work...

Here is a shot of my desk at work. Does it look like I'm busy? Library work used to be such that you always had a lot to do. Now with most things being done electronically there is less and less to do. So, I've developed the art of "looking" like I have a fair amount to do. That stack of books on the right, I can't even remember what I was doing with them. Now they say, "Whoa, she has real work to get done!"

Chicago photos

Harry Callahan, born in Detroit in 1912, and died in 1999, taught photography at the Art Institute. Here is one of his Chicago photos, from the early 1950s. It's one of my very favorite photos; peaceful and ethereal.

See, Harry Callahan for more.

Puzzeling situation...

We do puzzles at work. Not for work, but at work; to build team work, because we're a team; to bond !? (we're with each other 90% of our lives!); mostly to take a break from the computer and our "real" work.


There are different puzzle protocols; some say you shouldn't look at the picture, it's cheating;some say you should do the frame first; there are those who just dive in and start putting pieces together; there are the strategists who plot out what part we need to work on first; then there is sorting the pieces, by color, shape.

On March 3rd we will have a new department head starting. He's been told that we do puzzles, but will he remember? And, now he has the job, where as back then, at the interview, he might say anything to make a good impression. So, we are a little apprehensive about the future of the doing puzzles.

In the bleak midwinter

Walking home form work yesterday I snapped a few shots of the midwinter day. The sky, a flat gray, hovers low over my head.



I love the way the tree branches look against the sky; like lace or veins; delicate, yet they are strong, heavy wood.


Winter can be hard; this one surely has been. Still, I delight in the beauty of the starkness.

Valentines Wishes

A few years ago I really got into making collages with ladies fashion plates from the 1800s. This lovely lady is one I did, adding butterfly wings; which was sort of a big thing then. I hope you like her!

Work

I work in a research library and over the years I've seen tons of interesting books and images come across my desk. Here is a photo that was on the cover of a book about women and WWII. I love the contrast between the apparent ease and contentment these women seem to have while working, and the protective masks they are wearing. You can "see" the girl on the left smiling through her mask.

Muddling toward bloggdom...

Blogs are where people write...I however, am not a writer, but a looker. I am a veritable visual glutton. The beauty of everything that surrounds us, even the ugly things are interesting to look at. Some people read while they eat lunch; I find something I want to look at and start eating and indulging my sense of sight in the acquired photo, drawing, design, whatever it may be.

I love to look and with the availability of online resources I find myself on hooked on one visually exciting thing or another. It could be looking at old tintype photos from the 1840s, to the folds of clothing painted in Northern Renaissance paintings, to the Rockabilly styles of the 1950s and early 1960s, to a cartoonist I remember looking at as a young child.

With that being said, I will be sharing that with you and much more.

Eyes