Good Eats


This cookbook is gold! My friend had recommended the test kitchen cookbooks to me so when I saw this at the library I decided to give it a whirl. My counter is stuffed full of cookbooks that are just too time intensive to be realistic at this point. Basically I've got about 20 minutes while the boys watch silly symphonies on Youtube to throw everything together for dinner. I must have cooked about 12 recipes in the two weeks I had the book and as the ultimate barometer of greatness I even managed to make some decent granola from their recipe and I am a notorious granola burner. Huzzah for healthy meals that can be made in a half hour!

Paper Built


Here's a great interview with one of my favorite architects Shigeru Ban. He discusses his involvement with designing disaster relief shelters out of paper tubes and the architecture of basic necessities. I love his seemingly simplistic ideology for creating spaces yet he achieves such beauty with basic geometries and forms.

Imprint


Tonight as I was browsing through the NYTimes art section I thought about the people who have had a significant impact on my artwork and my willingness to pursue art making as a career of some sort. The first person who really helped me to develop my art into a more thoughtful and meaningful pursuit was my printmaking Professor Phyllis McGibbon. I remember halfway through my intro to printmaking semester I realized the satisfaction that comes from communicating some part of yourself through the work you create. And I've continued to be motivated by the A- she gave me in the class, with the instructions that I could do a little more. Art making can be such an arbitrary and open-ended process, one in which I often err on the side of brevity, that I've tried to evaluate my work in terms of her admonition to take it one step further.

Mamasita




My mother has always been my biggest supporter and source of inspiration. Her eternal optimism and sense of humor always lift me up and renew me. Having her help with my kidos is wonderful but mainly I love having her here to talk to and watch a good British drama with.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow


My mom's been in town for the past week keeping me company, hence the lack of posting, and last night I took advantage of the budget-friendly-free-hair-cut courtesy of my madre. We decided to play it safe with a shoulder length look in the event that a post cut trip to Dollar Cuts was necessary I wouldn't be forced into a Mia Farrow Rosemary's Baby cut. Anywho my new length has filled me with images of 90's nostalgia, basically a combo of Winona Ryder in Mermaids and Hillary Clinton during Bill's first term. After finding this image of Hillary I may take that trip to Dollar Cuts after all or simply embrace a conservative political wife hair cut for a while.

Crossing to Safety


After Jane Eyre, this book is my favorite of my book club reads. The story follows the friendship of two couples, from the birth of their first children through death. There's a nice banal realism to the characters, who are simply dealing with the day to day struggles of marriage, family, career, etc. and yet the author embeds these struggles with dignity and hope.

A Tree House


My magazine of choice for inspiration these days is Dwell. Oh how I long to be one of the former hedge fund managers, dotcom CEO's, architecture dept. chairs, etc. who display their beautiful, modern, unique, never ostentatious homes. I also love the kid friendly vibe that seeps through most of the homes they showcase. My current must have for a future dream home is a house suspend in, cantilevered into, or jutting up against the trees. I love the idea of living in a tree house and the childlike possibilities that it allows for, a swing in the house or a fire pole leading the back yard, why not!

A Good Laugh


Tonight I'm feeling inspired by the joy of watching and making fun of lame movies with my other half, El Camerono. If we find a movie lacking we always feel free to talk throughout the whole thing (in the privacy of our home viewings mind you, I know my proper movie theatre etiquette) which usually ends up making the film quite an enjoyable watch. Ah, the small pleasures of life!

Art Matters


I'm happy to report that my inspiration for today is derived from an actual discussion I participated in versus my norm of just reading a quick online article. Tonight I attended a panel discussion about critical dialogue (and the lack thereof) in the Spokane arts community. It was held at the Saranac Art Projects, a non-profit artists co-op which I just became a member of last year. It was helpful for me to get some insight into the local press and their constraints in covering the arts in any meaningful way (essentially people who read the paper aren't interested in an in depth art discussion which is fair enough). What I took away from the discussion was a desire to set up a network of peers who can give me their honest opinions of projects that I'm working on, and it's encouraging to know that these peers do actually exist in Spokane if I just spend the time to weed them out and actually put forth the invitation.

Moolah


Let me start by prefacing that I'm not planning on getting a divorce, lest one of the two people I think actually read this blog become distressed (hi mom!), nor am I sufficiently out of debt to the point where I'm actually investing my money, but with that said, this article on salon.com got me thinking about my present apathy toward my personal finances. Every so often Cameron and I sit down and go over our finances and budget, and this usually ends with me feeling dazed with a slight knot in my stomach. Basically there are so many moving parts that it's easier for me to just zone out through most of it. This article acted as a nice wake up call for me to concentrate a bit harder next time and unlike the woman writing the article at least I can say that I do actually know that passwords to all our accounts, so that's a place to start.

Marcela


I'm inspired by my Dad's wife Marcela. Not only has she raised two great kids but she is an accomplished jewelry designer. When we visited Texas last year she showed me around her amazing garage studio which was decked out with some great equipment that she has purchased over the years by selling her work. She also set me straight by noting that the sketchbook I was toting around every day was pretty much empty and suggesting that perhaps I do something to remedy that. After seeing all that she has accomplished and the beautiful work that she was making I finally got my act together somewhat and started engaging in the Spokane Art Community and finding time to make some work here and there. It's always nice to be reminded that it can be done!

Benji


Ugh, my brain is definitely feeling depleted of any shred of inspiration as I just watched one painful hour of television know as 'Shedding for the Wedding'. My morbid curiosity got the better of (as well as my shameful secret interest in bizarre reality tv shows) but uh, that is one hour of my life I will continue to regret having given away to the CW.
Anywho let me think back to better times, earlier in the day when I was thinking more clearly and actually chose to crack open a book. I'm reading Walter Isaacson's bio of Benjamin Franklin which I'm loving so far. The quote of the day was some advice given to Franklin courtesy of one Salem witch hunting Cotton Mather.

He warned, "Let this be a caution to you not always to hold your head so high. Stoop young man, stoop - as you go through this world - and you'll miss many hard thumps."

This quote hit home as I always look back at moments when I've allowed myself to become prideful and realize that first of all I usually sounded like a complete fool and end up feeling like a big jerk, and rightly so. However should you ever find me needing a good dose of humility please remind me of the fact that I voluntarily watched 'Shedding for the Wedding' and that should bring me back down to earth :)

Ladies Night (or Day)


Today is international women's day, who knew? Celebrate with me by viewing this gallery of three thousand years of warrior women, which has yet again caused me to regret not playing powder puff football in high school.

the ultimate lazy-girl



I love plopping into our large (imitation) lovesac at the end of a long day, but alas after a few minutes it requires constant shifting to avoid a neck cramp. Enter the mythical liquid expanded polyurethane-fill in this great Shadow armchair. It looks like the perfect end of the day chair and with neck support to boot! Also I love the honesty in the design of the chair, there's no pretension to dignity, it's the complete embrace of laziness and comfort.

A New Look




Perhaps it's the long cold winter drawing to a close (hopefully!) but I'm feeling the need for change, starting with the old tresses. I'm remembering a hair appointment I had in college where the stylist told me, "Now your friends won't tell you this but your hair is really damaged and you need to cut at least four inches off." Well unfortunately once again my friends aren't telling me but I have a sneaking suspicion that I need a drastic cut so I'm thinking short wavy bob with some old school styling a la coco or this ysl ad.

Eve Arnold


Today I took a trip down to our local independent bookstore Auntie's and was sad to discover a rather pitiful selection of art and photography books. But much to my relief I found a diamond in the rough as I stumbled upon Eve Arnold: In Retrospect. I'd never heard of Arnold before but I knew it was a must buy when I saw this photo of Silvana Mangano at MOMA in 1956.

Something's Fishy


Today my inspiration came from the humble canned anchovy (now no longer relegated by me to a pizza topping for ninja turtles). I had never cooked with the fish before, but tonight I sauteed it with some garlic and white wine and drizzled it over roasted cauliflower and my eyes have been opened to a whole new world of tastiness. The sauce even won over the hardened food critics know as two toddler boys who are quite particular about eating veggies as seldom as possible. I plan on doing an epicurious recipe search for anchovies and incorporating more of the goodness into my life in the near future.

Good Read


I would file this article under fascinating rather than inspirational but it was definitely a good read. Here's a link to the NYTimes Magazine's profile of Lori Berenson, one time MIT student from New York who was imprisoned in Peru in the late 90's for her involvement in a revolutionary movements terrorist plot. She was just released and is raising an 18 month old son in a country where she is pretty much universally despised.

Triple Threat


In Katharina Grosse's show at MASSMOCA she combines painting, sculpture and architecture to create a new hybrid medium, just my cup of tea.