what spring break?

While the temps still hover around freezing, I wonder where spring is hiding. We had a fleeting visit from our MICA art student during the first half of her spring break, yet it filled my well like nothing else can.

Just before Daisy returned from Baltimore, Maine got dumped again with raw beauty.

The birds don’t care, they’ve been flocking our feeder with a springy frenzy.

Before heading to the airport, I returned this book, about a young recruit in the 10th Mountain Division, in which my dad served during WW2. It would have been his 93rd birthday on March 9.

Soon enough, our bird landed and we were out walking the shores of Peaks Island, Braun smiles all around!

We enjoyed five days of island time, hearing stories, catching up, eating well. On our way to Boston, we visited the Portland Museum of Art’s Biennial in another storm.

Mainly to make sure Daisy saw Daniel Minter’s incredible installation, A Distant Holla. Please don’t miss it!

It deserves multiple visits of looking and discovering meanings layered into carved spaces.

A Distant Holla by Daniel Minter

Daisy’s other favorite was the Wabanaki  birchbark canoe by David Moses Bridges and Steve Cayard. Stunning.

Pleased to find my Seven Days of Daisy next to Daniel Minter’s book in the PMA shop!

The sun was shining by the time we arrived at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

We made tracks for our destination: Klimt and Schiele: Drawn. There’s something infinitely intimate about a drawing…the artist’s hand, of course, but also the marks unmade, the aged paper, stains of time and matter.

This one by Gustav Klimt is so simple yet so arresting.

I discovered they both died in 1918, of the Spanish flu, but Klimt was 28 years older than fellow Austrian, Egon Schiele.

Everything about this portrait by Schiele feels so right.

We couldn’t resist detouring through Phantasmagoria, lured by the red velvet curtains and spooky projections that offered entertainment prior to cinema. Daisy felt like she was in a Twin Peaks dream.

We found our way to a fantastic exhibit of Dutch artist, M. C. Escher’s. What a draftsman!

His trippy perspectives and tessellations filled our eyeballs to the brim.

We came across a short film of Picasso painting on glass. I could be hypnotized by this.

In a gallery of Kahlo and Her Circle, I glimpsed a few seconds of old footage of Frida sketching, a total revelation to see her in action. I later drew from a photo I took of a single frame that resonates with me still. Even an icon begins with a blank page.

We checked in at the Revere Hotel, where we’ve stayed many times. The latest remodel is super heavy on the theme.

We dropped Daisy off in the morning with friends driving to see the Yayoi Kusama show at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The miles we will go for art!

On our way back to Maine, Marty and I saw a gorgeous Georgia O’Keefe show at the Peabody Essex Museum. Look, an early painting of hers that shows her interest in fashion! The exhibit pairs her work with her clothing, much of it designed and sewn by her.

Seeing this painting next to a pair of her scalloped edged shoes said it all. She lived, wore, and created her world.

We enjoyed the energy of some field trip kids running through XYZT, a digital landscape of light and movement.

Once we were home, I sketched a young Georgia, whose persona was strikingly cultivated by her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. I’m simpatico with her love of pattern.

And in honor of Schiele, I drew Daisy, a memory of lines and shadows.

With her in Toronto, we returned to work. I’m deep into the next season of posters for Portland Stage Company. The deadline beckons me back to the drawing table, as the Season Launch is coming right up on April 2!

I will be there! Did you get tickets?