Welcome

Use the tabs at the top to navigate between art types; scroll down for general blog - photos, notes, rants, and miscellaneous finds (you really, really, need to watch the Muppets video posted Aug 26th). Drop me a line and let me know what you think, or if you are interested in a piece. Or you can visit another Sadie Rosenthal, or another.

And for you true Fraggle freaks (I love you one and all), here’s a prime Cantus clip (one of my favorites of his, actually) -

Portraits

For some reason, I think - both because I was getting a little bored doing what I know how to do well and needed a challenge; and because I’m somewhat masochistic - I decided a while ago to do a couple of portraits.  An absolutely gorgeous friend of mine sat for some photos back in January, and I’ve been working on two 2′x3′ oils from that shoot for a bit.  It’s been interesting and challenging, frustrating and… and I’ve walked away from them for a bit, come back etc…  Just spent some good time on one of them today something really shifted.  There are still some drawing problems - the face is still too wide, and not quite long enough, but something came alive in the eyes today (and even though I’m still having problems with the lips, she is starting to smile…).

Abu Ghraib Article

I haven’t had time to go out and see the new documentary, but I strongly recommend you read this article in last week’s New Yorker.  It’s a really nuanced, interesting piece.

Sacred Harp Singing

I don’t have a tv, so the only time I see anything is when I travel. When I was in Albany for the mural I saw this incredible documentary on sacred harp singing. It’s an old, southern, a capella church singing style, and it’s just incredible. The website has more music on it than the preview for the documentary does, so go listen (as well as watch). Turns out there are local groups all over the country…

Karski 2

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while but kept forgetting… Tom Wood, one of the authors of the book on Jan Karski sent me a video clip of an interview with Karski from 1996:

Mural - Day 5

Ok, obviously not writing this post last Thursday.  I can’t believe it’s been a week!  Thursday was a long day of gilding and cleanup.  Since we were (unfortunately) working with the wall white, which was, as Aviva put it so well, dark clear, it took 4 or 5 coats to actually clean up anything…  And the gilding - it looks really beautiful done - that’s what I’m focusing on…  Wow I don’t think I’m going to plan on gilding that much any time soon - it looks great, but a lot of work.

I have so many photos to go through and put online, it’s going to take until early next week - I got back in town mid-afternoon last Friday, was out of town for a staff retreat in NOHO Monday through Wednesday, am in town today, and heading up to EC/IF for Rachel and Marcelo’s contemplative retreat tomorrow.  Aviva just sent me another batch - great shots, including the room put back together with all the furniture in place - I wish I had time to post them now, but if I’m getting any sleep tonight I’ve got to get offline - so - early next week the rest of the photos will be up.

Mural - Day 4

Yesterday (day 4) was incredible - the havdallah candle came to life and is almost finished, the hamsah totally came together, we finished the flames (at least the ones drawn in, I’m thinking there might need to be one or two more up top), the heron went in (and is one of my favorite parts now), and the tree of life is coming along - still having some problems trying to get it to settle down - I designed it as a papercut, which made lots of sense on paper, but on the wall it’s been fighting me a little bit….  Today (day 5) is my last working day so I’m off to to touch ups, layer in more layers on the really transparent colors, and try to get the gilding to work (wasn’t going great yesterday, hopefully we can get it to come together today).  Don’t know if I’ll be able to post again before I’m back in NYC tomorrow, but I’ll have lots of pics to post then… 

Beautiful sliver of a moon out as I drove in early this morning; walked into the sanctuary - it was pitch black out and only the ner tamid was lit - it’s been a crazy race to get this done in five days, but it was a really still, pure, holy moment.  I feel so incredibly blessed to be doing this work and to be doing it in sacred space.  Sending love and blessings out to everybody who has written with support and enthusiasm - thank you all.  The sun is starting to rise - pale pinks and blues are starting to show over the trees - I’m off to paint

Day 3!

Hard to believe, but Tuesday is over, day three is down, two days left to paint up a storm!  It’s going great - I don’t think I could have asked for things to go any more smoothly.  The tree is now in, the hamsa has a second coat, more of the flames are in (and more that were in yesterday have second, or third coats, or detailing), the letters are getting cleaned up, and the havdallah candle is really coming together. 

Had to quit early tonight because one of the other groups is using the communal space, but that’s ok, I’m getting a little fried, we’re making good time, I can deal with cutting out a little early tonight

Aviva just sent me some pictures from yesterday, they’re now live on Flickr.  Off to go scavange up some food for dinner!

Mural - Day 2

OMG!  Does life get any better than this?!?!?  Spending all day painting a huge mural - this is so much fun I really don’t have any words to describe it!!!  wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! (so much for that professional artist voice eh?)  wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! 

Today I’ve had help from the amazing Jackie, a couple of lovely Israeli students who stopped by (unplanned) and a great student Yael, many thanks for all those extra hands!  So we’ve got the hamsa sketched in with a first coat of paint, a second coat on about half the text, the background finished for the tree of life, the tree and heron sketched in and the trunk and branches painted (first coat), and the havdallah candle about 1/2 painted in for a first coat.  I’m hoping this pace holds up, but we’re making really good time right now. 

It’s just such a joy to be painting all day - I haven’t had this since I graduated and wow have I missed it.  And there’s just something so much freaking fun about painting a mural - having a whole wall (actually two and a half walls, but who is counting?) to play with!  Off to rest these weary bones, more tomorrow

Mural - Day 1

So incredibly happy and excited to have completed day one of the mural here in sunny Albany (sunny, but cold).  Aviva and her husband have been lovely hosts (I’m typing this on their computer after they fed me a great, home-cooked meal); Aviva, Jackie and I spent the day in the sanctuary getting supplies set up, getting about 80% of the drawing done, and getting started on the painting!!  Definitely happy with how much progress we made today.

The color for the flames was interesting - I ordered this dark burgundy, but it’s closer to a fuschia… turns out that one coat of that with one coat of a light orange over it gives a great effect.  I wish we’d done that with the text (shalom salaam peace - if not now, when?) but we started with an orange, so I’m going to see how it looks tomorrow with an orangy yellow over top.  When the letters and flames are done, both will get gold leafing…

I can’t believe that with all this prep time we’re finally painting - so much fun!!!  Wheeee :)  I will take pics starting tomorrow and hopefully post them soon (they’re putting me up in a hotel after tonight so I don’t know what my computer access will be, will post the pics when I get back to NYC if I can’t post sooner…).  Wish me luck!! 

And - completely unrelated - looks like the cherry blossoms are in full swing  down in DC - still wondering if I can’t manage to get down there for a day - I missed them last year….

USSC - DP in TX

You have to read this.  Absolutely unbelievable - the weirdness of Bush technically having to oppose an execution in TX notwithstanding, this Court is just crazy.

At issue was whether the state had to give in to a demand by the president that the prisoner be allowed new hearings and sentencing.

Bush made that demand reluctantly, after an international court concluded Jose Ernesto Medellin was improperly denied access to his consulate before his original prosecution — a violation of a treaty signed by the United States decades ago. [emphasis mine]

It was a 6:3 vote with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the majority “saying that the international court’s ruling “is not domestic law,” - so sorry, didn’t realize we weren’t to be held to the standards of treaties we’ve signed.  Ooops!  And what a shocker of a lineup - Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito vs. Bryeyer, Souter and Ginsberg - if anybody wonders why the Democrats need to get their bleeping act together and win the Presidency - this would be it - a USSC stacked/whacked all out of proportion.

Hm… here’s a little bit of basic Con law for ya -

The Constitution does not directly give the president the power to enforce the treaties agreed to by the United States.

However, Article VI says that “all treaties made … under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby.”

Oy givalt!  What an idea - the supremacy clause!?!?   Who woulda thunk it?  If you’re interested in this topic, visit IJP for more info.

Albany Mural Updates

It has been a wild ride my friends! I’m a week and a half out of painting my mural at SUNY Albany’s Hillel - excited, nervous, happy - a mix of everything. We just got approval from the building committee, and I ordered the paint today… I kind of can’t believe this is really going to happen, but looks like we’re getting there! Thank you so much to Tobi for thinking of me for this project and to Aviva and Jackie for all your support in this. New pics for project designs are online now, I’ll post final shots once it’s done.

Also, completely unrelated, a great video -

Pears

Ok, I realize this is completely random, but hey - why not? So, my acupuncturist wants me to be eating cooked pears - and if you know me, you know I’ve been getting into cooking the last couple of years, but I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m so proud of myself - last night I made the most fantastic dish (dessert) - quarter the pears, put them in an ovenproof dish, almost cover them with orange juice, add a good amount of honey and some cinnamon - delicious! I think it’s the cinnamon that makes it killer

In other news, still working on the sketches for the mural, I’ll post some photos when they’re a bit further along. Heading up to Northampton next week to do some software installing for work - really glad to be getting out of town, even if just for a day - it’s the mid-winter blahs… And, last bit of news - the new roommate is working out really well, which is such a blessing! And his moving in inspired me to hit BB&B and spruce up the apt a little bit - nice!

Oh - and this is so wrong, but if you haven’t seen it yet - Numa Numa Yei with the best of them! He made a followup, but it’s just not as funny.

Killing Time (don’t you hate that phrase?)

It’s been an interesting day - I’m getting really close on some important things - both getting podcasting set up for work, and getting some key sketches done for the mural - but I feel like I’m taking one step forward and - not so much two steps back as pause, pause, hold my breath, pause - work again.

Frustrating! Right now there are 5 main elements to the mural - a havdalah candle, a hamsa, a tree, light/fire, and a phoenix. There will be additional detailing and work between the elements tying them together (and some text), but that’s the basics. I’ve finished sketches of the havdalah candle and I’m really happy with them. I’ve got a few sketches of the hamsa detailing done and I’ve got a couple that are pretty close, but nothing that’s exactly right yet.

And now I’m sitting here in the computer lab surfing the web randomly trying to get my brain to re-start. I got a couple of good hours of work in on the hamsa and then I just hit a brick wall. I need to get at least one, if not two more done today, before I have to leave the studio for the Romemu fundraiser at Praying with Lior tonight. Given that it’s 3:25 now and the film starts at 7, I need to get kicking if I’m going to finish two more, get food, and get down to Union Square… Be fascinating to see what happens.

Random link for the day - interesting article in the Times about a recent Roma art show in Hungary… Random note for the day - tomorrow night - after a break of only about 25 years, I’m getting violin lessons!! So excited!!

And, just in case you thought I was getting too much done today - here’s something to make you laugh -

moar funny pictures

Mural - SUNY Albany Hillel

Yesterday was kinda crazy - took Amtrak up to Albany to meet with the students and staff at the SUNY Albany Hillel where I’m going to be doing my mural. Also, importantly, to see the space. It was a great process - they students were there for a “back to school bbq” (great veggie burgers btw) so we got to sit around and talk casually, they got to look at the silkscreen sketches I’d done (some posted in Flickr already, more to come as soon as I download them), and I got to see the space in person - as opposed to photos. It’s a fascinatingly odd space - very narrow and tall, and with a moving wall they share it with the campus Christian group - so when I had my back turned all of a sudden there was an other room there with a painting of Christ and lots of crucifixes… Interesting/wierd building!

I had great conversations with the students and I’m starting to be able to see how this could come together - the sketches I’d been doing so far were all with the instructions “bright, colorful, lively” - so there wasn’t a lot of coherence to them… Very excited to finally be able to really get down to work!!

“But so what?”

Life keeps being is stranger than I expect.  I feel like I’m in this very odd period of flux - people are moving in and out of my life at a rate that is really getting strange.  People who I thought were going to be around for a while are (or may soon be) gone, people who I haven’t talked to in years (years!) are showing up again in my life - it’s a very odd time.

Speaking of time - I think this is my favorite quote of the week (in an article about clean vs. dirty pain) -

Surrendering allows the truth to set us free. And how do we surrender? I recently watched television interviews with two actresses, both in their late fifties. Each was asked if she’d found anything good about aging. Both snapped, “No. Nothing. It’s horrible.”

A few days later, I saw Maya Angelou on TV. She said that aging was “great fun” and gleefully described watching her breasts in their “incredible race to see which one will touch my waist first.” “Sure, the body is going,” she said. “But so what?”

I knew there was a reason I like Maya A.

Too True

Ok, I’m trying to stay out of politics at this point (actually, it doesn’t take much effort - it’s such a killjoy who could stand it).  But truth has been spoken - Barak says Hil’s campaign is “depressing“.  No kidding!  The entire Democratic field is depressing - we’re doing such a crappy job we’re just going to hand it right on back to the Republicans (and, I’m using that “we” really loosely - as a lefty who used to be a Democrat and now has no useful alternative so… - what are you gonna do?)

What I find so funny about this is that this is coming from a man who is trying to re-claim the Clinton/Gore ‘92 “man from Hope” campaign (does anybody but me remember that one?).  Even sadder - the Hillary Rodham Clinton of ‘92 - she was such an amazing lefty - if that HRC was running for President, I’d work my tailbone off for her 24/7.  But current, move myself as far to the center/right as I possibly can Hillary Clinton?  Forget about it. 

Interesting world we live in

It’s apparently a week for welcomings, one of my best friends just had her baby, Megan Noel, and my neice just gave birth to Daniel Sky.  Welcome two new souls to the world

So, there’s this really interesting organization I just learned about, the Adisia Project, that works with women who’ve immigrated to Israel from Etheopia, creating incredibly beautiful embroidered mezzuzot.  Take a look, they’re really spectactular.

Also, a really interesting article came across my desk this week, about a Soferet who is creating from nature all her own tools to make a torah so she doesn’t have to gain them by subterfuge (from men who won’t sell to a woman).

World Food Program - Free Rice

When so many things seem wrong with the world, and so much of it too overwhelming to do much about, here’s a simple way to make things a little bit better. Go to http://www.freerice.com - for every correct vocabulary question you answer the site’s sponsors donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. 20 grains doesn’t sound like a lot, but it adds up - here’s what they have to say -

Will the rice I donate make a difference?

The rice you donate makes a huge difference to the person who receives it. According to the United Nations, about 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger-related causes, most of them children. To a mother or father watching a loved child die in their arms from hunger, the rice you donate is more precious than anything in the world.

Who pays for the donated rice?

The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice, these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We commend these companies for their participation at FreeRice.

Military Tributes

However you feel about this war, take a minute out of your day to remember that many families don’t have the luxury we take for granted - having our loved ones here. Blessings and peace to all.

Ok - a p.s. - I’ve have really mixed feelings since I posted this because there’s nothing here about the numbers of Iraqi civilian casualties - but trying to find a reliable number online is… either you don’t know if the source is reliable, or it’s somebody I’d trust but years out of date… So, take it for what it is.