Sunday, January 09, 2022

Artnotes: The Best Wish

 

1/8/22 Roccamalatina, MO Italia
Hyacinths in a Winter Pot   Laurie Fox Pessemier 15 x 9.5"   33 x 24cm 
 Acrylic/canvas 450.00
I woke up this morning thinking about laughing.   With laughing, one can’t be angry or unhappy. 
On our walk today, we laughed at Arturo, the dog, trying desperately to behave while his owner talked to us.  It’s about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 celsius) and dogs are so energized by brisk weather.  I laughed at our five Christmas cards, mailed as early as the 11 December, that just we received today.   It’s orthodox Christmas, after all.  
Colored Lithographs "Shells"  Laurie Fox Pessemier   5.5 x 7"  14 x 18cm  50.00 each
We’re sworn off hospitality until March or so.   This last bout of illness was no laughing matter.   We’ll have to make do with the foibles of the itinerant salesman who show up demonstrating how those stretch pants might fit around my hips.  Ali sold me red underpants today.

It is hard to laugh without the unexpected behavior of someone outside the little circle of Blair and I.   Harika was always good for a laugh, chasing butterflies on her hind legs, or jumping from the top of the bed to catch bats in the night at Hemlock Lodge. 
Cauliflower and Onions  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 16 x 16"  40 x 40 cm 550.00
My father and mother, Foxie and Shorty, were really fun loving.  How could you not laugh with names like professional gamblers?  I think of my father using a megaphone to ask someone to pass the bread at our impossibly long dining table at Hemlock Lodge.   Or the time Foxie and Blair were  trying to pull the dining room table apart to insert the leaf and the two of them fell on the floor when it burst apart.  Side splitting.   I used to call Foxie every day, just for about 5 minutes, until we found something to laugh about.  Ok, bye.

Shorty knew jokes, and could ask anybody the most personal question while smiling.  She was famous for April Fool’s jokes, and one year put a For Sale sign out in front of her boss’s house.
Colored Lithographs "Shells"  Laurie Fox Pessemier   5.5 x 7"  14 x 18cm  50.00 each
Our relationship started with laughter, when Blair spilled his miso soup into his lap at Aiya’s restaurant in 1979.  He could laugh at himself, as can I, and I knew right away he was the man for me.  We nearly expired with laughter, when I tripped and dropped a large plate of beans all over the dining room floor when his Grandmother and Marion showed up at our house unexpectedly.   They beat a quick retreat. 
Before the Bloom    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  10.5 x 13"  27 x 33cm  450.00  
 
I could always tell when the relaxation of a vacation kicked in:  I could hear myself laughing.  Laughing, it feels so good.    I hope I can find more laughs.  Larry emailed us jokes today about snow.  He emails us jokes nearly every day.

My crowning 2022 resolution:   TO LAUGH at myself, at life, the good, the bad….Laughing will make it all better.  Maybe it’s the best wish of all…



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