Omelet with mushrooms

The Renwick Gallery has become one of my favorite DC destinations, and the current installation of "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man" is every bit as exciting as "Wonder" for the gallery's reopening in 2015-2016.

As an art teacher I emphasized the fine motor skill of paper folding and the transformations from two to three dimensions that this basic action could create. FoldHaus pushes the limits of size and kinetic movement, and I wish I could have beamed my former students into the exhibit with me.

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Imagine walking into Stone Moth Canyon

At the far end of the trail you pass beyond a ridge and can no longer see or hear any signs of the city. No houses, no traffic noise, not even the tinkle of the popsicle truck. Thankfully, no litter.  Just the trail and the volcanic basalt, and the markings. The canyon has a low, continuous hum. Bending low, you realize it is the sound of small bees.

Imagine the petroglyphs scratched into the black basalt are symbols of moths. Hundreds, thousands of moths marking the boulders. You would have to climb in and around the stones to spy moths on every side, even on the top to be viewed from high on the ridge. What do the moth symbols mean? Who made them? Why?

We can only guess at the meanings of the petroglyphs in Albuquerque's magical National Petroglyph Monument. We can only be open to the wonder and the connection to those artists of so long ago. Are there moths painted deep inside caves? Are there moths in the art of indigenous peoples of Africa, Australia, even the polar regions?

Thank you to the moth-makers whose images I edited onto the basalt of the canyon. They seemed like images across millennia. Here are a couple sites that intrigued me as I went on this imaginary hike:

• Capturing Similarities in Rock Art
• Rock Art Database

The petroglyphs below were made 400 to 700  years ago. Most were made by Native Americans, but a few were made by early Spanish settlers in the area. They are very young compared to the estimate of 20,000 years old for the Lascaux cave paintings.

This one is my favorite. It seems to tell a tall tale of long-billed birds eating lizards and snakes. A person with big feet walked through the story!

When I see the hand symbols my thought is always, "I am. I make."

Keep making.

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Signs are up at the water walk

Stopped over at the Environmental Ed.  Center to check on the water walk signs. Sure I was procrastinating going to Walmart for Swiffer Wet and Swiffer Dry, Tide, and t.p., but still, I wanted to know if the signs would be up for my granddaughter's arrival.

The messages are clear, if brief. The design is cohesive and child-friendly. I like that many of the photos were taken at the site.  I continue to hope for a future phase to include a kiosk with more detailed explanations for adult visitors.

Sometime this fall a big guy named Herbie will be installed.

And yes, I forgot the Swiffer Dry. But I got three $1.00 mums for the balcony pots.


© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Screened porch painter's fantasy

Whitney

"I know that woman," I thought approaching the large painting of people on a screened porch. The woman looking in from outside on the far right was the lady I'd met before, but where?

Sheldon

Hirshhorn

The Woolly Mammoth and I were celebrating Black Friday with ever so many New Yorkers. in the "Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney's Collection" exhibit. The last time we'd seen the woman was at the Hirshhorn in D.C., but I knew her from way back at the Sheldon Art Museum in Lincoln where she was acquired in 1962.

All that time it never occurred to me the artist Fairfield Porter might be a man. The Sheldon's painting seemed a descendant of Mary Cassatt to me with my inaccurate assumption. Various online sources tonight explain Fairfield was the brother of photographer Eliot Porter. The Woolly Mammoth and I shared an amazing Eliot Porter exhibit at the Amon Carter. The sources cite Vuillard and Bonnard as influences on Fairfield Porter, two of my favorites. I also see some Diebenkorn. Life is good. Art is fine. I'm so grateful to have a son who likes to visit art museums with his mom. 

AND how cool would it be to paint family portraits on a screened porch after a breakfast of hashed browns, scrambled eggs, polish sausage, and strong coffee in the chilly morning?

© 2013-2016 Nancy L. Ruder

Going to Tom Thumb with your inner artists

Walk through the automatic doors. You have a list. You have a vision. Your selections will weave, wave, fold into detailed entrees, casseroles, and lunchbox leftovers for the week ahead. Fish transform into swans. Tiny Lego figures climb infinite staircases to unload your dishwasher.

Shamble through the automatic doors. Go back and get a cart. Load up with containers of hummus, pimento cheese spread, mint chocolate chip, Greek yogurt, a Rubbermaid spatula, and a can of pink cake frosting. Grab a roll of masking tape in the checkout lane.

Take a plastic shopping basket. Peer through jars of jams and roasted red peppers. Pick up saran wrap and foil. Linger in the candy aisle.

Run in.Grab a loaf of French bread, an economy block of Swiss, five pounds of potatoes, and box of Bandaids.

Stride through the automatic doors. Go straight for the Cheez-Whiz. Reddi Whip, Barbasol, and gogurt. Find Silly String in the birthday party section.

Where is that robust Dutch artist? The bearded guy with the table of pears, beef roasts, sardines, tulips, onions, edam wheels, tall mugs of hoppy beverages, and grapes of every color hanging over the edge in the dimly lit hall, you know him. Where is his hefty debit card?

What was it I came in here to get?


© 2013-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Life Joy Glad Run Go Play in Traffic

Today I followed kids full of life and joy run and play on the new Chisholm Trail mural under Spring Creek Parkway. Nobody had to tell them how to play. No signs, directions, or coaches. No technology devices were required. It was glorious!

"May we be excused?," we asked Dad. "Yes, go play on Cotner," Howie would say. Cotner Boulevard was the nearest busy street. Nowadays Dad would be arrested for child neglect at a minimum. Did we run out into traffic? Of course not, but we knew we had free run of the neighborhood until after the fireflies came out or the mosquitoes got too vicious. Mom went off to spend quality time with Joy and Cascade, while Dad smoked his pipe and read the Lincoln Evening Journal.

Anita Bryant came up in a discussion yesterday when we lacked lemonade to make Arnold Palmers. I went looking for Anita's obituary, but it seems she's still alive. I bet she's rolling in her grave today, anyway. My generation automatically thinks, "it's not just for breakfast any more", when somebody mentions orange juice. We all knew that a "breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine," just as we knew to "buckle up for safety", and that if "everybody won't pitch in to clean up America, it won't be America any more."

For the past month I've been thinking litter thoughts 24/7, with lots of googling trash bags, nitrile gloves, tree loppers, grab sticks, hooks, and nets. Glad that's over! Cheers!

© 2013-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Way back in the before time with Iguana Bob

Had to make a brunch casserole for a departmental staff meeting and it turned out edible, so I'll spare you the details except that I cheated and used store-brand seasoned salad croutons.

Yesterday I took my recyclables to the big collection dumpster in the parking lot of the public library. Behind the dumpster is a small strip mall with this new addition:

Yes, indeedy, pizza acupuncture! I love it! I just wish Iguana Bob could share this discovery with me as he did Wok Bueno so many years ago. Many's the time Bob and I drove around with the top down singing "Wok This Way" and eating peppermint ice cream cones.

Iguana Bob ditched me years ago and drove off into the sunset. Now I hang out with Arlo the Air Quality Armadillo. Arlo needs a car with fins in my opinion... an electric car with fins!

Arlo should not stop for an ice cream cone.

Before what time? Before digital cameras and cable internet. Back when I spent real time making real things, quirky but real. My sons shared our condo with a variety of papier mache lizards, dachsunds, penguins, an owl, a giraffe,a monkey, Ma Chicken, Wally the wall alligator, and some giant insects. AND the kids turned out okay.

Bob's convertible was about the same size as the Smart Cars we used in D.C. last month:

 

© 2013-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

International Raccoon Appreciation Day

Working on a presentation about nocturnal animals for Halloween week.Belatedly learn that today is International Raccoon Appreciation Day. I've been appreciating raccoons for a very long time, but it is good to make it official. Now I just wish I'd gotten up early enough to make special raccoon pancakes. Perhaps that will be my second YouTube effort.

© 2014 Nancy L. Ruder

Reds

Including an Einstein Eisenia Fetida and a hit out of the park.

© 2014 Nancy L. Ruder

Texas Turtle Day

World Turtle Day was a week ago, but we plodded slow and steady to the finish line Tuesday. One art student planted a Lone Star flag on her turtle log.

The background is our triangle rubbing/watercolor resist paper from last week. We added water reflections of clouds and trees, and then floating logs. The preschoolers liked a long line of turtles on a log. The elementary students cut loose, interpreting water, turtles, logs, reflections, lines, and clouds.

A bit of retracto-neck action with folded zigzag--age 8

Lots of reflected clouds--age 9

Three logs, three turtles--age 7

Big darn turtle in the C and O Canal last July

Big cloud reflections at the Heard wetlands

Baby red-eared slider at Oak Point this spring

The five year-olds were curious about World Turtle Day and why people need to help turtles. Keeping it simple I went with:

• Because people sometimes throw bad things in water that makes turtles get tangled up or sick, like plastic or chemicals.
• Because people sometimes find turtles and take them home, then let them go where they can't find the right food.
• Because turtles are totally awesome and were living way before the dinosaurs.

So slowly and steadily wave your turtle flag. No rushing allowed. Here is an opportunity to participate in a citizen science turtle project.

© 2014 Nancy L. Ruder