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…

Artnotes: Surprise

 

Stimigliano, RI Italia

Gondola Lamp  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  9.5 x 13"   24 x 32cm  375.00  “How did you get all those lemons?  My tree doesn’t have any,” a neighbor kibitzed.   Yellowjackets  --those pesky stingers ate the mites off of my trees and now the lemons are ripening.  Sometimes a bad thing can be a good thing.  For example, mosquitoes protecting the rain forests and wetlands:  poor dears didn’t do enough, and Hadrian’s Villa was built anyway; the Suez and Panama canals continue to flow.  And now we’re genetically modifying mosquitoes.  I can somehow see a frightening result:  who said it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature?  In Stimigliano    Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 10 x 18"  25 x 45cm  450.00 Lately, I’ve been making lithographs using household materials (aluminum foil and coca cola).  It’s an imprecise science for me, and enjoyable as such.  I loved printmaking when I was in art school, but because there were so many chemical mixes and processes involved, my practice fell by the wayside away from school. Contrary to the “ideal” of printmaking (that is, making identical perfect pictures), for me there is an added dimension:  unpredictability, surprise, genius.   A less than perfect plate introduces a ghost in front of the town hall.  My muse has the possibility of hopping into the picture.  Lithographs:  Tree, Commune, Flowers    Laurie Fox Pessemier 6 x 4"  15 x 10cm  75.00 I like that about life, in general.  A friend wrote recently about how she took a class, and it wasn’t what she expected, but BETTER.  After we get through the initial shock of things not being what we expect, we are fresh and open to outrageous enjoyment. Giuseppe's Peppers   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 16 x 9.5"  40 x 25 cm  450.00    My trip to Corsica was that way.  I sputtered and groused – but in the end it was more wonderful than I had imagined.  I did come away with a cold, that led to a cough.  It kept me inside, working on art.  There was much hanging around our apartment this week.  We expected a delivery of two easy chairs on Monday They are wonderful chairs, sorely needed, as I have been reading in a reclining position for ages.  Harika used to like that I’d lay next to her on the bed and read, but now that she’s not there, it’s just weird.  With these chairs, I sit up and read, and can even throw a leg over the arm, Napoleon style. Fall Weeds    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  19.5 x 12"  48 x 30cm  450.00 I love how the universe works. And when we get lemons, we’ll make Limocello! The Orange Tree  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  10 x 10"  25 x 25cm  350.00 INVITING All Artists to present their Work:  Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary Rome 8PM ; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles  11AM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85625088767?pwd=WldKRk9VbUVITWtRS0FFK2JwdGEwQT09 Meeting ID: 856 2508 8767 Passcode: 887182