Five For Fighting: World

I love this song ... Can you dig it, baby?

"What kind of world do you want?
Think anything
Let's start at the start
Build a masterpiece..."

All My Pretty Crimson!

This is our Japanese Maple -- last night and then today -- notice the leaves down already...  It was so beautiful this year:

View from the front walkway:

And the pear trees that line the backyard -- they are now more toward vermillion:

 

Finally, some leaves I found on my walk yesterday: 

Think these are oak, pin oak and maple.

Music For a Rainy Day: Classical

I love music -- all kinds.  While at home I usually listen to a classical radio station -- we are fortunate to have an excellent one here in the Washington, DC area -- and my classical cd's.  Great to listen to anytime, but especially appreciated on a rainy day to help me get motivated.  Currently located on the sidebar from two of my favorite motivating cd's:

Mozart: 25 Favorites

Masterpiece Collection: Vivaldi

Recurring Themes: American Folk Art

I'm not sure I'll find a definition of "folk art" that I like, much less "American folk art".  But this is what I  mean when I think of American folk art, and what I like...

The two pictures below are both from our family room:

Edward Hicks: The Residence of David Twining

 The above Edward Hicks: The Residence of David Twining, is a giclee print that we bought and had framed after a trip to Cooperstown, NY and the Fenimore Art Museum, where we saw a couple of the artist's versions of Peaceable Kingdom on display. A link to the Fenimore Art Museum is here: http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/   There are apparently four known versions of The Residence of David Twining, and an interesting history can be found in the Lot Notes of Christie's here: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=1421467 (mine is not the version in the Christie's picture).  I would love to go back to Cooperstown and visit the museum again, but until then I have this remembrance to view in my house to help recapture the feeling.

Racing at Broussard's Farm by George Rodrigue

George Rodrigue is a Cajun folklore painter, well known for his Blue Dog paintings.  We visited his gallery in New Orleans about 20 years ago when Cameron was a baby.  They allowed us to take a photo of Cameron, who was sound asleep in his stroller underneath one of the paintings.  I will have to find that photo and add it later.  Anyway, we bought this signed limited edition print, above, at the gallery and had it framed. I especially liked it because of the horses and because of the silhouette of the large tree in the background, as well as the bright colors, which were used in a very limited way -- mostly on the horses and  flags -- and also the way the railing comes in and out of the picture at an angle  (which is not unlike the opening gate in The Residence of David Twining).  You can see more of George Rodrigue's art here: http://www.georgerodrigue.com/rodrigue/art.htm.

Picture book by George Rodrigue: Why is Blue Dog Blue?

My "Blue Dog", Olivia

Here I think have captured Olivia posing with that look in her eyes like Rodrigue's Blue Dog. As a note, I would love to try to paint this someday, although I understand it is difficult to paint black dogs... but maybe since I have not painted anything in years (other than the house) this small fact will not matter, as it would not be expected to look too professional anyway. Maybe it is like cooking, where the love you put into it makes all the difference!...

 

Here are three more images of American folk art that I have collected from my house:

Dinner bell picked up from an antiques store in Luray Virginia (not sure how "antique" it really is, but I like it)

One of two black Labrador dog bookends sitting on the fireplace mantel in our family room -- reminded me of Olivia, who is half Labrador and half Border Collie.

From a book I bought second hand on Rufus Porter, an American painter whose mural paintings I have admired.

Finally, I think that folk art extends to other arts, like literature, and in my definition, I would include some of my favorites: Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle,  Longfellow's "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere", and this poem by Robert Frost:

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Favorite Children's Book Illustrators

Although our children, now 21 and 13,  have gotten past the ages of reading these beautiful picture books, they still have a fond place in my heart. Especially at this time of year, I cannot help thinking of the heart-warming  illustrations from Ox-Cart Man, illustrated by Barbara Cooney, and Flannel Kisses, illustrated by Mari Takabayashi.  So every year at this time, I bring them out and look at them myself, and remember reading both of these, year after year, to the boys.  There was even a  Reading Rainbow episode where they visited Old Sturbridge Village, in Massachusetts (where I remember visiting as a young girl with my friend, Stacy, and our mothers).  In this episode, the book, Ox-Cart Man was read by Lorne Greene  -- you can watch the episode in its entirety here:

Reading Rainbow episode of Ox-Cart Man

Here are my favorite books illustrated by Barbara Cooney:

      photo from Amazon.com

Ox-Cart Man

photo from Amazon.com

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story

 

Miss Rumphius from http://www.barbaracooney.com/

When I think of Flannel Kisses, I think of the year we moved from New Jersey to our house here in Virginia.  The house in New Jersey was a really great house, situated on an acre and a half, partially wooded lot.  It had a gigantic kitchen, light colored wood floors and a grand foyer with TWO large coat closets!  The nursery had 3 large windows that overlooked the valley below and hills beyond, and a Laura Ashley wallpaper border of the nursery rhyme Hickory, Dickory Dock and the Cow Jumping Over the Moon, which my husband, parents and I installed.  Brian and I also made one very large wooden cornice for the windows using the same wallpaper border to cover it.  It was a  bittersweet move to Virginia, because as much as I looked forward to moving to a new and exciting place -- I have always loved visiting DC -- I was going to very much miss our old house, friends and life in New Jersey.  So after looking at about a hundred houses, none of which seemed right, and pretty much overly tired of house hunting, I somehow knew this house would be the one for us.  I then had to leave to go back to NJ to sell the other house.  When I came back 3 months later after the closing, and not really remembering what the new house looked like anymore, I was pleasantly surprised -- there were nice dark wood floors on most of the main level, even in the kitchen -- I had forgotten about that!  Anyway, and this is where Flannel Kisses comes in, because our younger son was at the perfect age for reading that story, I read it a lot, and in it saw our new home -- wooden floors, staircase... and happy family in it.  Nine years later, I still love these dark wood floors -- they are so warm and forgiving to walk on in your bare feet, even in the coldest months...

 These are my two favorite books illustrated by Mari Takabayashi:

Flannel Kisses from http://www.maritakabayashi.com/

Marshmallow Kisses from http://www.maritakabayashi.com/