From my previous entry I have established that I have a dangerous, cereal stalker in Paris. Like a perverted Trix rabbit, he bounces out and takes shots of me as I’m sketching statues of interest.

It makes him happy, or at least fulfills a compulsion, and  he doesn’t get in between me and my sketchbook like other tourist do. Seriously… in this exact situation I have been asked, “What’cha drawin’?”

Note for other artists: Notice earphones, you can listen to music to drown out the crowd, or just plug the tip into your pocket, even if your listening to pocket lint, you can fain deafness.

What I find unsettling about my stalker is his speed in which he can snap a photo without me seeing him.

Sometimes I catch him if there are enough mirrors….and lights.

Sometimes, I pose for him, like here when we ran across the original, Arlequin by René de Saint-Marceaux.

Which I’ve always known as “Chaz” our lamp at home.

All good art at one time or another should be in lamp form. I think that if Michelangelo would have made The Pieta table lamp he really could have made a name for himself.

I look like Moldy McOldy pants here, but the snow started falling outside while we were in the restaurant in the Musée d’Orsay and I realized that it has been years since I’ve seen snow fall.

In the Pompidou I answered the age old question of every girl friend I have ever known. “Yes, that dress does, in fact make you look fat.”

Lunching at LaDurée by far the best omelet I have ever had.  Black truffle omelet c’est trés bon. I think Ken liked his as well, I can’t tell……..

Although what Ken is not so sure of is the extremely packed cafes at lunch.

Lunch with our new friend Edmonde in a more gentile environment.

Ken with Edmonde.

We started our day with going to Notre Dame. We then stood in queue for three months to walk 9 trillion steps to the top, which I complained about for Ken’s amusement. Ken says I speak in hyperboles, but he’s always wrong. It actually wasn’t so bad, I like to get all my nagging in before noon so it frees up my day.

I don’t know if Ken’s fear of heights or his vertigo brought on this giggle fit… but it was highly entertaining.

Although some spaces were quite snug… it was fun for the whole family.  Though I wouldn’t bring children up there, unless your tired of them and want to Alley-Oupp them over the edge.

The view of the roof tops of Paris was quite beautiful. And one could appreciate it for about ten minutes..then…well, it’s a lot of stairs to climb. And with my short attention span coupled with my determination to get my 5 Euro’s worth. We did what any ADD creative would do…we goofed off. I pinched a steeple. It’s an old trick but an effective one.

I’m pretty much a one trick pony. I stuck my finger in a gargoyle’s mouth.

Ken got in on the action and patted the gargoyle.

I know it’s impossible to tell,  but the fourth gargoyle is me.

Mental note: Lots of gargoyles, don’t have sandwiches in your pocket.

Then we went to see a bell, it was big, and bronze and… anyway we got to go through this door to see it and it gave Ken a chance to play Hobbit.

If you can see it, Sacré Coeur is the dome on the horizon line. Ken and I both looked at it and said, “Yes Please.” So down we went.

On the way down the 9 trillion hyperbolistic steps we often found ourselves alone. To further humiliate ourselves even more…here is Ken being Quazi Moto.

That seemed a bit cliché so we decided to play secret agent man with the other unknowing or nonparticipating visitors.

Sad….really…

I’m almost 40… still acting like an idiot.

When God closes a window he opens a door…. I’m in Notre Dame… open the God Dame door!

Obligatory action shots

I felt just like Tom Cruise in that spy movie… except I’m a better actor. But that’s not saying much, the stone block beside me is a better actor. But that’s between me and Tom.

Arriving at Sacré Coeur…

Arriving ON Sacré Coeur.

Getting into places I’m not supposed to be.

Ken informed me that spies don’t laugh.

After all of our horsing about, oh, and by the way the Basilica was magnificent, we walked down to catch a cab back to the Rive Gouche. Ken stopped me and said, “Squat down and let me set this camera on your head to steady it so I can take a picture.”  Sean Rush, International Artist, Luxury Interior Designer, Di-pod.

When there were no cabs to be found, we decided the next adventure should be the Metro! Easy as pie…but when you don’t know…an ADVENTURE!

We should be medicated.

Sean and Ken over a very cold and very windy River Seine the day we arrived in Paris.

This is my, “Damn it’s cold in Paris” face.  Notice there is no one behind us at the Louvre… there’s a reason.

Still cold….still vacant. It was a bit late to go in…so we went back to the hotel and would start the day anew demain.

Damn morning…Damn rain…Damn Ken and his camera…this is a photo of me before my morning café au lait.

Then obviously after…my partner of six years strongly suggests that I don’t have any human interaction before my morning coffee. But what does he know.

Ken and I standing in front of a Richard Serra near Avenue des Champs-Elysées.  We consider ourselves Serra-holics with no desire to recover.  We’re also Andy Goldsworthy-addics.

The Musée Rodin

Enjoying Rodin.

I’m in the garden of the Musée Rodin. Ken said, “Stand in front of that dome, let me take your picture.”

I said, “Why?”

He said, “Because it’s gilded and beautiful.”

I said, “If we take a picture with every damn gilded dome in Paris we’ll be here for a year.”

He said, “Stand in front of the the damn dome.”

I fell out laughing. This is our relationship and exactly why we have lasted six years.

This is exactly why I love Paris…We were picking up some peones for a luncheon at a friend’s house and this is the corner flower shop. J’adore this and everything in it!

When I walk around a corner, there is Ken with a camera. Click. Then he walks away.

At this point I didn’t know I had a Louvre stalker. I would have whispered something to security. “Psst. Monsieur sécurité homme…see that man in the blue argyle cashmere sweater? I think he wants to kill me. You should call your other sécurité hommes and question him. Yes him, with the kind face, the expensive camera and corduroys. I fear for my life and the innocent people around me.”

This time I had the camera and surprised him with an impromptu photo. “Click”

This photo made a large amount of French people laugh when we were taking it. So though I’m completely incomprehensible because my French is très mauvais… I’m still funny, which feeds my sink-drain-like ego so it makes me feel soooo good. For like a minute.

My stalker was stealing paparazzi shots of me sketching one of Michelangelo’s Slaves.

My stalker shooting from afar.

Now when Ken showed me this photo on the computer, he had at least fifty shots of me doing this sketch. Understand, it was Sunday and the Louvre was quite full. But I swear I had no idea he was there, I thought he was seeing another exhibit.  He told me after, that he stood behind the other scuptures and wouldn’t cross in the path of my sight line because it would disturb me. That means, he went back out the door to the main hall, up the stairs, across the top of the Italian sculpture salon, down the stairwell and back into the room to get the photo prior to this one. I called him a knuckle head. And he said, “But I didn’t want to disturb you.”  This is also a reason why we have lasted six years. He is the kindest man I have ever known.

Been in Palm Beach working on a lovely project since June… of coarse have been so busy that I have not had time to blog about it. But I have made a promise to myself to attempt, ( how vague is that) to blog more so it doesn’t build up to an enormous chore. Once I get back to the states I will catch up on all that….

But now….enough about me alone…let’s talk about

Sean and Ken’s Euroexcursion!

Back story,

My absolutely better half, ask anyone who knows us, Kenneth Huff (www.kennethahuff.com) was contacted this past September to launch and exhibit a large number of his pieces at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria. Ars Electronica is the leading new media museum in the world and in 2009 Linz will be the cultural capital of Europe. In January, Ars will be launching their new museum that is just being completed on the Danube River. Within the museum is an extraordinary new projection gallery, “Deep Space”. Ken has been asked to exhibit in and launch Deep Space, with a series of events to follow. So.. to make a long story..even longer……we were invited to Linz to explore the new space, tour the facility, meet the director and subsequently christen the projection gallery with Ken’s images, which was Deeply Fabulous

Oh, and afterwords we planned on celebrating our sixth year anniversary of Ken’s patience with me, in Paris. He deserves it.

Sean and Ken

The night we arrived in Linz….. they were overwhelmed with an infestation of Babies blowing Bubbles and forgot to turn the heat on in the city. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It was Bouncing Baby Bubble Bedlam.

Ken standing in front of the soon to be completed, Ars Electronica Museum. It sits on the bank of the Danube River and as you can tell is a very contemporary building in an otherwise more traditional Austrian architectural environment.

Apparently 90° angles are hard to come by these days in Austria. This dynamic building is encased in a glass exoskeleton that has full RGB led lights embedded into it, so it glows, changes colors and blinks on command. I WANT ONE!

The Ars Electronica Musem also has at least two stories below the Danube which lends to the surprise of its internal space development. Here, the right hand side of the museum is more administrative, with a clever amphitheater quality roof.

Ken and Daniela Kuka, curator of Deep Space, on the roof looking back towards the main building.

Construction on the interior main core of Ars Electronica.

This is the not yet completed, but still very exciting Deep Space projection gallery. The projections can be placed on the wall behind me as well as on the floor on which I’m standing. By the way the wall is 9 meters tall by 16 meters across. Get the picture….THE BIG PICTURE.

Ken and Daniela.

This is a tiny portion of Deep Space, and fabulously a tiny portion of one of Ken’s pieces. The amount of detail that can be seen and the resolution is amazing. These were also the first images to be projected on the walls. Ken literally christened Deep Space.

They were working on the alignment of the four projectors that show the work, and of course, one went down. But you still get the big idea. P.S. that’s me at the bottom.

———————————————————– ~O’>•

Now the rest of this blog is just going to be goofy vacation photographs, so the informative and creative portion on this show is now over. Bring in the clowns….

Boys will be Boys

Why can’t I understand anyone?

Ken desecrating the home of Mozart by showing like Mozart himself, Ken also has a nose.

You have to watch out for those Austrian Blizzards, they can sneak up on you. Here I am standing in snow.

Directly across from the Ars Electronica New Media Museum is the Lentos Kunstmuseum. It is covered in glass printed with its name… everywhere.

This is Ken and me looking up at the underneath of the museum. You definitely won’t forget where you are.

The wheels on the bus go rund und rund, and we are going to Postlingburg, which has a beautiful church which you can see above in the fourth image of this blog post. It’s the tiny dual steeples on the far distant hillside.

We rode a bus!

Church at Postlingburg

So is it sacrilegious that when I saw this, all I could think of was… That would make a nice bed canopy. I could take off the bottom and turn it into a settee, then put the top over a bed then put harlequin masks on the figures and feathers on their heads like Masquerade. Now THAT would be nice.

Over Linz

So I was walking down to Linz, when…

I made a new friend. I think his name was Schmellmyfinger…but my German is pretty choppy.

And then there was this clown!

Ken being forced into vacation photo.

I swear this flower was NOT stolen from that tree!

I have no idea what I was doing….but I look very guilty.

I very much liked the Crazed Bird King.

Does the foot of this wobbly man walking a child look strange to any one else but me?

This isn’t a shabby place to have a town. Beautiful skies, rolling green hills, winding river with Alps in the distance….Hmmm not bad at all.

Linz skyline.

I know it’s beautiful, but the Italian painter in me says, why didn’t they finish painting the ceiling? Less white more figures.

Angels in the architecture.

And demain I”ll wake up in Paris…. Bon Nuit!

We actually finished on the 23 of June, but I haven’t had time to blog about it.

I just couldn’t be happier with our new view of The Luna Garden in this little slice of Savannah. We came in under schedule, under budget, and overly enthusiastic. This makes my morning coffee a bit better and my early evenings a bit more glowy. And at night it just becomes magic.

The contractor and glass company I would highly recommend

Don Tyler Construction……912-691-2704

Atterberry Glass Company.912-964-7937

Look at all that sunshine coming in…Do the sunshine dance!!! boop boop walla walla boop boop…. woooo!

Rubble. Dirty, dusty, garden killing rubble. We loathe rubble. Any one who has ever done a major rehab knows what I mean. Rubble… hate it….get it out!

Gone! And now it begins the “construction” rather than “destruction” portion of this project. Yippy !!!! I’m already having my morning coffee thinking about having my morning coffee in front of our new garden window. mmmmm coffee’s good.

Oh, P. with an S. chaser.. Got a drive-by compliment today from our neighbors that live on the next block. Haven’t met them yet. Very sweet. And apparently the hubby is x-F.B.I. good to know. Also when I walked out my front door this morning a lovely French woman was walking her dog. She asked me, “Why is this place so beautiful?” I smiled for about an hour.

The Individuals’ “Little Boxes”

Stacey Kent’s “Hard Hearted Hannah (Vamp of Savannah)”

George Michael’s “Outside”

Nina Simone’s “Hear Comes The Sun”

Helen Merrill’s “Summertime”

Nancy Sinatra’s “Hard Hearted Hannah”

Today, the poor bastards working for us showed up to find me acting like an idiot with their tools.

I got out of the way and the the men got on with their day. Taking out the wall brick layer by brick layer.

Two layers were removed and hauled out by wheel barrel…

…as Ken slept. The jackhammer gave him a migraine, so off to bed to sleep it off.

I thought it would be fun to share my bliss/trauma with the world, so I’m going to do a “day-by-day” on the project.

Either this is going to be really fun…or a complete and total horror…

If it’s fun…big party kids! If it leans toward the latter, I would appreciate large quantities of illegal narcotics.

We started out by tenting the interior space where the construction is going to take place. We used large canvas drop cloths, that can be totally recycled (I’m thinking drapery). I’m so damn green.

We then lined it with plastic, totally not green (shut up). Laid down blankets on the travertine, plywood, then paper. Then taped that joint up like a crappy John Travolta movie.

Outside wall with no hole.

Outside wall with hole! Riveting huh?!!!!

Inside wall with hole……wait for it…..wait for it….

What light through yonder window breaks? It’s a hole! There’s a damn hole in my house!

When they cut the pilot hole to see what we’re dealing with…we found brick. Three courses deep with an inch of stucco on the inside and out. This may explain my low electric bills…back to being green.

The hole grew to the size of a hobbit.

I reached the camera out the door and snapped a photo. Curiosity, cat…you know the drill.

Dynamic and Emotional Figure Workshop

This workshop, will explore capturing a dynamic and emotional figures and portraits using a subtractive process. Methods for working back into pieces will be discussed and demonstrated. Working in charcoal and conté, this two-day workshop will focus on capturing the immediacy of a live model with a strong sculptural approach.

Material list

2 Lg. kneadable erasers
1 gum eraser (elliptical)
Lg. newsprint
Drawing paper — I like Strathmore smooth to medium drawing paper in 18×24 and 14×17; it has a distinctive bone tone
spray fixative
1 box of soft charcoal (we will use this the most)
1 box of medium charcoal
hard charcoal
drawing board
paper towels or cotton rags

Wear something you don’t mind getting dirty because we’re working with charcoal

See you there!

Doggy door garden gate

In this massive side courtyard stands a hysterical tiny Venus.

sister Victorians on Duffy St.

With all the unrestrained painted ladies that make you squint your eyes… these two are done beautifully

With “Savannah in Detail”, I will document what I find charming and wonderful in the city’s designs and eccentric (I looked up “odd” in the thesaurus) lifestyle, during my daily walks with my mate and my dog.

My Human Monochromes currently are being exhibited at the Jill Celeste Gallery in Atlanta. The exhibition of more than twenty works opened on May 15, 2008 and runs through June 30, 2008.

Visit the Human Monochromes to see more of the body of work.

If you’re thirsty for a wonderful glass of wine and a more wonderfulererer atmosphere to enjoy it in… I suggest The Palate Gallery and Wine Bar in Decatur, GA. This spring, I was introduced to Jill, the owner of Palate, around aperitivo hour, on her enchanting outdoor terrace. After about six hours of laughing and talking with friends, and realizing that I had drank her entire stock dry, we decided to hang a show.

Jill, a well seasoned gallery owner, seaming effortlessly spent the twilight hours seasoning her guests with vino and charm. Sitting on her terrace, I felt more like I was in someone’s home rather than a business. When it got cold in the early May evening, the fireplace was lit and Jill brought out sweatshirts and throws for her guests. The space that this ducky has carved out in the world is nothing less than sublime.
I truly believe this is one of the best ways for a gallery to show art, in a space where you can sit and enjoy it over an evening.

Installation photos

A great evening of good friends, new friends, and a whole lot of martinis.

Rachael McCall and me

Rachael McCall, Dame Joyce Piersanti, a friend of Dorthy’s, Dorthy Burke and me

Ken & I going “green”

Over the next couple of days, I will be bringing my blog online.

Please stand by and beware the rough edges…

—Sean