Goodbyes

Millbury, Massachusetts

When you leave a beautiful place and people you love, goodbyes are never easy. It helps when you are going back to more people you love and places that are home for you. That eases things a bit. That, and not having to live out of a suitcase, being able to sleep in your own bed and living 2 miles from your favorite burrito place.

Near Cambridge, Massachusetts

"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes.

A farewell is before you can meet again.

And meeting again

after a moment or a lifetime is certain

for those who are friends."

~Richard Bach

Have a beautiful day!

ICA Boston

I believe it was 2007 when I first saw a picture of the new ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) building on Boston Harbor designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. It looked so cool I made it my mission to get there at some point. I put it on my invisible "to do" list for when I finally got back to Boston.

The day before my trip ended, we made it. I am sorry I didn't get a good distance shot but you can find one on their website HERE, and click "slideshow" if you are interested. Just go to the left-hand sidebar.

What made the visit even more worthwhile was an exhibit by Krzysztof Wodiczko called "...Out of here: The Veterans Project." In the installation, you actually sit in a large dark room with projected windows, high on the walls ... hearing the sounds of war around you and occasionally the projected windows "break" from shots and mortar fire ... you hear screams and see a helicopter fly by. If you go with it, you can completely immerse yourself in the experience. It was pretty intense and definitely worth a visit. The exhibition, along with some related works run until March 28, 2010. To see more you can also go to Art 21.

Words from the Walk on the Hassenfeld Harbor (above photo)

Emily Dickinson: A Meditation

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us -don't tell!

They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a grog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

Bedford, New Hampshire

I am so lucky to have friends that I hold dear, live all across this country. Obviously, the problem with that is in missing them!

Stephen and Jennifer had moved their family to Bedford, New Hampshire, a little over an hour from my friend Dawn in Millbury, MA. They'd just had a baby in 1999 when I saw them last and now they had two more that I had only seen in Christmas cards and Facebook photos. After more than a decade, I finally saw my friends.

It's funny how much time can go by and within a moment you realize Einstein was right about time, (time being relative and all that) and that time doesn't exist between true friends.

And they make my heart smile.

"Today, my heart hold all my beloveds close

despite the distance between us.

Today, my heart is full of connections,

alive with the knowledge of the tender web

which holds us all in its embrace."

~Julia Cameron

from Transitions

Stephen and Jennifer's home

I didn't get many pictures there because frankly, we were so busy eating and talking and catching up!

I don't know who's house this is, but somehow I think the photo looks like it was taken a hundred years ago.

"Think where man's glory most begins and ends,

And say my glory was I had such friends."

~Yeats

Painting the Sky

I have a few more photos of my trip back East to blog but I had to pause and share this with you.

Today was glorious.

Driving home from the farmers market today, the view of the Hollywood sign on the hills was crystal clear and the air was cool and fresh. It was like a reward. After all the clouds and rain and showing up to art class with my jeans wet to the knees ... this.

It was as if Maxfield Parrish painted it.

"The world is but a canvas to the imagination."

~Thoreau

Millbury, Massachusetts

I took the Greyhound from Port Authority in Manhattan to South Station Boston. For only 23 bucks I was going to see one of my best friends. Quite the bargain, eh? I met Dawn in my first acting class in L.A. We hit it off immediately and when she told me she was a Sagittarius, I said "Of course you are! The best sign!" All Sag's think this. Ask any one of us and we'll tell you!

She is one of those friends I have laughed with so hard I've started crying and cried so hard I laughed. We've shared our love of acting, Philadelphia Story, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. We drove across country together in 1999, singing songs from the 70s and 80s at top volume, windows down, with our hot pink nails and jazz hands feeling the cold air out the windows of her moving truck as we drove over the Rocky Mountains.

Now, 11 years later, I was in her home town . Two archer girls standing on a bridge in 20 degree weather, watching the ducks go by. And when the ducks beneath the bridge started to fly under us, creating these beautiful silhouettes, in unison, we gasped.

"You must understand the whole of life,

not just one little part of it.

That is why you must read,

that is why you must look at the skies,

that is why you must sing,

and dance

and write poems,

and suffer, and understand,

for all that is life."

~Krishnamurti

Shopping for a cause and UNICEF

This is such a wonderful idea! You have probably heard all about it

but because they are no longer accepting beautiful hand-made items ... it's time to shop!

All the proceeds are going to

Doctors Without Borders.

You buy hand-knit scarves and hats, dolls, photography and art, teddy bears, onesies, tutus ...

O.K. you get the idea.

Shop for a very important cause.

Just go to their Etsy Shop!

OR...

if you aren't a shopper

or don't need to buy any gifts...

just give.

UNICEF urgently appeals for aid for Haiti following devastating earthquake :: U.S. Fund for UNICEF - UNICEF USA

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Thanks,

Blessings and Light,

Lucinda

A day in Brooklyn

I took the A train South to Lafayette Sreet in Brooklyn to meet my friend Lisa Russell. Lisa and I met a hundred years ago. High School to be more specific. We were at cheerleading camp (no one believes this now of two artsy geeks!) and got into trouble when Lisa snuck into my dorm room. She was the enemy, you see. We were from cross town rival schools.

She moved to New York more than a decade ago and now lives in Brooklyn where she edits the documentaries she shoots in Africa. She is quite the adventurer. Last year she went to the Congo by her self! For me, Brooklyn by subway is an adventure! (I don't know why subways freak me out a little) But, come to think of it, it's all an adventure.

If you are interested in checking out what Lisa does you can check out her blog. She has done some amazing work. Her films are about various subjects including women's health and obstetric fistula.

On that note, let's get back to our fun in Brooklyn! Loved this first shot of the "pistachio" building! Most of these shots are about color which is pretty appropriate for this artsy and unique place. I loved it there.

This is in Lisa's place, the poster is for the film she has been working on, Myth of the Motherland.

We ended our day with a 2 for 1 wine special and four hours of conversation in a booth at Maggie May's. I think that's what it was called. Hmm. Well, Maggie something's. I can't remember. I will blame it on the 2 for 1 special!

"I see my path,

but I don't know where it leads.

Not knowing where I'm going

is what inspires me to travel it."

~Rasalia de Castro

Inspiration at the Met

After walking through Central Park I had big plans. I would hit up the Metropolitan, have lunch, see some art, head to the Frick (which was having a drawing exhibition that looked great) and would make it back to my friend's apartment in time to meet up before we would all head to see the Broadway Musical, "Next To Normal." All of this, then of course, dinner.

It's the artistic equivalent to your eyes being bigger than your stomach. One can only do so much. And, frankly, at the Met there is already so much! You can't possibly do it all or even a fraction of it all, so you just have to surrender to it and enjoy being in the largest art museum in the Western World (it says so on a plaque in the lobby) and enjoy the amazing variety of what is offered up on an artistic silver platter. Everything you could ask for ...

Here is an example of the beautiful variety of art ...

Tiffany Window

Saint Francis by Federico Barocci 16th Century

This (below) was a piece from a fantastic exhibit called "American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915." The painting is called "Making a Train" by Seymour Joseph Guy. I loved all the history in this exhibit and obviously I love art, so I ended up being in there for at least an hour and a half to two hours in my own little world with audio guide and notebook in tow!

Detail of a Caravaggio ... I mean, seriously.

Of course, I never made it to the Frick. These were taken after dark, making my way through the Greek and Roman Wing on my way out. It was so beautifully lit and people were just sitting and sketching and enjoying each other and the amazing art. I however, was clipping along at a near gallop to get to coat check and in a cab so I could make it to the theatre.

I'd been at the Met for over five and a half hours.

The play, Next to Normal, by the way, was fantastic. It was so emotional I was gulping for air, doing the ugly cry and trying not to do one of those huge gasping inhales. You know, when you are holding your breath and trying to hold it all in? (I did that in a huge Catholic Church at my friend Caroline's wedding. It echoed. It wasn't pretty.)

Next time, I will make it to the Frick.

Central Park in Snow

One morning, just a few days into my vacation, I woke up and decided that this was my day to walk up through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum. What I didn't know, leaving my friend Larry's apartment, was that it had snowed the night before and there was a soft blanket of white in Central Park.

I walked through the park with a huge grin on my cold and slightly numbed face, following my breath as it lead the way. I took pictures and watched kids trying out their skills on the ice rink. I walked past monuments and bronze sculptures with snow at their feet, past quiet fountains and the pond, covered in ice and snow with canoes resting on the shore of the boathouse. Quiet. Magical.

I love New York.

The color of springtime

is in the flowers,

the color of winter

is in the imagination.

~Ward Elliot Hour

If you can ...

bundle up and take a walk.

Enjoy the season.

Feel the cool air on your cheeks

and see the leafless trees as sculptures.

Kandinsky. Guggenheim. New York.

Amazing.

I as I began to walk up the winding ramp at the Guggenheim ... it was overwhelming. This is what I had been waiting for. I entered the "High Gallery" at the beginning of the circular incline with six of Kandinky's masterpieces and I was overcome. I actually started to weep! (Not the ugly cry but a steady stream of tears.) I was actually there. I had made it. After a seriously crazy year, I had survived and had made it to Kandinsky at the Guggenheim.

I actually made it to the exhibit twice while I was staying in Manhattan. What a gift! My favorite artist, a retrospective of his work to celebrate the Guggenheim's 50th anniversary. Seeing so many works together was incredible. Pieces that normally hang in Paris, Munich, New York and private collections, hung side by side. The farther up the spiral of this Frank Lloyd Wright building the more in love I became. Some of these paintings, so filled with music and color you want to swim in them. I could stare for hours into one of his paintings!

I wish I could have included photos of some of the lesser known pieces but I would have gotten thrown out, so this was the best I could do! Go HERE to see more pieces.

Every work of art is the child of its time;

each period produces an art of its own,

which cannot be repeated.

~Wassily Kandinsky

"The true work of art is born from the 'artist':

a mysterious, enigmatic, and mystical creation.

It detaches itself from him, it acquires an autonomous life,

becomes a personality, an independent subject,

animated with a spiritual breath,

the living subject of a real existence of being."

~Kandinsky

Every man who steeps himself

in the spiritual possibilities of his heart

is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid

which will someday reach to heaven.

~Wassily Kandinsky

(More picture of my East Coast adventure to come!)