MORE STARS THAN SKY

from storybook Spencer Teetop learns to Dance

A WATER COLOR

brush to the water cup. then to choose a color which touches the paper and takes a direction before calling on another color to sit beside or rest at a distance - to come then another laceing around inbetween or above. An image begins. Then... it’s not what I thought I saw after all.

when I reach my destination.

la fin. I am happy. I hold it out and look at it for a long time.

Then a touch here and oui-non another touch.

A water color

Spring Art Show

The American Cathedral

23 avenue George V

Sunday 1 until 5:30

Monday Evening from 6 until 9

PLACES ON THE OTHER SIDE

click on image and then "diaporama" upper left

For The Spring Art Show 2011, I have chosen a series of recent water colors entitled «places on the other side». Very much in tune with my first abstract work in the early 1970s, they seemed to come to life spontaniously. All I did was hold the brush. A very nice one at that. The saleswoman at Dubois Beaux Arts hipnotized me when she held it up and claimed “This is the finest brush in the world.“ and passed it to me as I passed her my credit card.

Is it the other side of the rainbow? The planet? Reality?

I don’t know. It ain’t here. One can only go there by the images my brush created.

ELYSEE MONTMARTRE

The historic music hall, Elysee Montmartre was devistated by fire Tuesday morning with over one hundred firefighters called to extinguish the blaze that filled the neighborhood with smoke.

Older than The Moulin Rouge, and birth of The French Can, it was designed by Gustave Eiffel early in the nineteenth century It was in the mist of renovation. It stands just down the street and around the corner from my studio and is dear to nous Montmartois and high on the list of hip hop concerts for the last two decades.

Yesterday afternoon at four o'clock there was a gathering of mourners - at least a thousand or so-from old-timers to spiked haired rap stars and of course camera crews. It was very sad- a wonder I thought how people can love a place.

IT'S SPRING!

THE WHITE GODDESS

"There is something about the moon that makes you want to wonder", I wrote, to began an essay in a writing class when I was nineteen. Professor Butterworth had given us an assignment to attempt "a stream of consciousness" style. I succeeded and was asked to read it to the class.

The day when man set foot on the Alka Selzer in the sky, my wonder-lust was punctured. Not so for my roommate who thought it to be a fitting date to offer her virginity to the guy down the hall. This way, she thought, I'll never forget the date.

The moon has always been with me and I with her. When full and round, I sigh . The first thumb nail - Instant hope.

This fall the Harvest moon was gigantic as it posed on the trees next to the dome Sacre Coeur. I pointed it out to the Sri Lankan boys working in the souvenir shop at the bottom of the hill. One ran with his camera-phone to catch a photo. I asked him what he was planning to do with it.

"Send it to my wife back home." He smiled.

"Doesn't she have the same one?" I inquired.

"Yes." he replied, still smiling.

That was the answer.

"About the first of the night when I had slept my first sleep, I awaked with sudden fear and saw the moon shining bright and seeming as though she leaped out of the sea." Apulius's Golden Ass

I picked up a book at a Rummage sale last Saturday. The White Goddess by Robert Graves.

It is extraordinary and from it I took the title of this post and retitled the above water color.

I found Graves' writing nourishing and magical . Makes me feel in love,

but, don't tell Claudio even when the moon is full.

COLLAGE recent water colors

THERE IS A SEASON turn turn

Café de la Paix Warm and Cozy

Bûcherie de la Paix Cold and friendly

There was a time when I braved the bitter cold and painted outside in mid-winter without even thinking about it. And there were days in March when the wind blew so fiercely, my easel fell

a dozen times or more. I trudged on like the mailmen of yesteryear.

Now, I sit happily painting my dream seen water-colors as if that alone is why I was put on this

Earth.

LE BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU EST ARRI...STOP THE MUSIC

"A little Banana..."

"NON."

Stop the music! Wait a second!

I just heard that the Beaujolais Nouveau is not ready.

The third Thursday in November is the offciel date to celebrate since I can remember. When Les Halles was still a hole in the ground and I was doing odd jobs at Mother Earth's on the rue des Lombards,( not the first American restaurant in Paris, but the grooviest),

The wine distributor for Mother's, let me sample it the day before the official designated date.

I still remember his blue overalls, white hair, and red face as he as he unveiled the bottle from

under his jacket - nearly a capital crime.

The festival has since grown to a world wide sensation. some restaurants in New York had it delivered via the Concord - so to be the first.

This year, a vineyard announced that because June was quite cold, the harvest was late. They advised their customers to wait until it's really ready.

What next?

Parties are scheduled in all the cafés in Montmartre just the same and the folk will drink the recently harvested wine

green as it is.