A Second Snow Storm: Life Inside

 

Snow began to fall in the late afternoon last Sunday and was not done until Wednesday not long after noon.  

Another heavy snowfall is forecast for today, Sunday, to continue intermittently this week.

 

 

Nobody out there except the heroes of the Republic, trying to help

 

 

 

Abe Lincoln, the Good Samaritan, 1943, oil on canvas board. 

Horace Pippin, 1888-1946, American. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia

 

 

We are not so used to snowstorms any more. 

 

 

 

Interior Life

At first a lot of anxious looking out of windows as the snow mounts

 

 

 

Apt. 6F, #27, flashe and acrylic on canvas, 2017.

Matt Bollinger, American born 1980.  Photo from the website of the Zürcher Gallery, NY/Paris

 

 

 

 

Self Portrait (Reflection), 2011, oil on panel. 

Paul Metrinko, American born 1986.  Promised gift to the Woodmere Museum of Art, Philadelphia

 

 

 

 

The Curtain,  1974, plaster, glass, wood and fabric

George Segal,  1924-2000, American. The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington

 

 

 

Portrait of Paul Éluard, 1925, frottage with black chalk and graphite on wove paper

Max Ernst, American born Germany, 1891 – 1976.  Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

 

 

After a bit, the plants are left in peace on their winter window ledges and everyone draws into the interior of the house

 

 

 

 

 

 

Covid-19 has acclimatized everyone to restricted movement but not to the immobility of heavy snow.

 

 

A certain lethargy descends

 

 

 

Laurette in a Green Robe, Black Background, 1916, oil on canvas. 

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, French.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Duncan Grant with a Cold, c. 1918, oil on plywood.  Vanessa Bell, 1879-1969, British.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. 

 Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf, lived with and painted with Duncan Grant, briefly her lover, for many years

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Armchair, oil on plywood panel, 1923. 

Guy Pene du Bois, 1884-1958, American.  The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

Tensions among family members which can be heard from the street if you live on a little Philly street

 

 

 

Young Couple, 1913, lithograph. 

Emil Nolde, 1867-1956, German.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

DSC00168_edited-1

No darling, thank heavens I can’t remember a wife,  2006; packaging tape on Plexiglas with light box.  

 Mark Khaisman, born 1958.  Delaware Art Musuem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visits from close neighbours and family despite Covid restrictions

 

 

 

Married Children of Joseph and Sarah Robson Lea with their Children, 1843, silhouettes, cut paper mounted on paper with details drawn in graphite, white chalk and pen and black and brown inks and brown wash.

Augustin Amant Constant Fidele Edouart, 1789-1861, French.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

The painter came to Philadelphia from France and made at least 350 portraits of citizens of the city.

 

 

 

 

The Visitor, 1881, soft ground etching, aquatint, etching and drypoint. 

Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926, American. ?National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

Card Players, 2006, chromogenic transparency in lightbox. 

Jeff Wall, Canadian born 1946.

This is a staged allusion to Cezanne’s Card Players

 

 

 

Long, lazy breakfasts 

 

 

 

DSC00100_edited-2

 Breakfast, 1920, oil on canvas

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954; French. Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

People making music en famille

 

 

 

Interior, 1916, oil on beaverboard. 

Edwin Walter Dickinson, 1891-1978, American.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Egg Beater, V, 1930, oil on canvas. 

Stuart Davis, 1892-1964, American.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Serious comfort food 

 

 

 

Chicken Soup (Book), 2020, ? oil on canvas.  5 of several tableaux since published in book form.

Liang Zhao (no other details).  2020 Certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

 

 

 

 A sampler of a few Ethiopian maximum comfort foods

 

4 essential ingredients:

1. Injera made from the cereal, tef eragrostis. A slightly acrid taste.

2. Spiced, clarified butter.  Butter is brought to the boil with ginger, garlic, red onion, fenugreek, white cumin, cardamom seeds, oregano, turmeric and sacred basil.  The foaming milk solids are removed. The butter, removed from the heat is strained through the finest sieve once the spices have settled.

3. Berbere: one of at least three gradients of red spice; flavoured with herbs and spices whose presence in Ethiopia speaks to a trade of a thousand years or more with India via the Arabian littoral and thanks to the sailors of Arabian dhows.

4. Coffee (arabica) of which there are scores of varieties. 

 

This combination of food, eaten by hand – the fingers to be minimally touched except by  the injera – is addictive. 

 

Ethiopians do not generally eat dessert even if the Italians left the sweet taste of rich, creamy cakes and pastries among urbanites.  And creme caramel.  All kinds of fruit are widely available. 

And honey, including outstanding medicinal honeys and the white honey of Tigre.

 

Here a communal meat dish.

 

The vegetarian menu is more extensive than this because meat, traditionally, is eaten only on high holy days and at major rites of passage.

 

 

Photo copied from the web

 

On a circular basket or platter, several layers of the leavened (except in Lent) injera.  Food is eaten by hand, the injera wrapping a mouthful.

 

Starting at one o’clock above and proceeding clockwise:

fresh tomatoes and cabbage; ?diced lightly sauteed beef with hot chile; yoghurt/cheese from which most of the water has been removed mixed with hot pepper; sauteed collard greens; steak tartare; cheese/yoghurt from which most of the water has been removed; mitmita: the hottest gradient of spice, to be eaten with steak tartare; sauteed collard greens; fresh tomatoes; awaze mixed with a little water, vinegar or gin: a gradient of spice which is less hot than mitmita to be eaten with the diced, lightly sauteed beef; beans sauteed with turmeric,

In the center of the dish, beef sauteed in a berbere sauce (‘wot’).

 

 

 

 

dsc00048_edited-1

Bottles and Bowl, 1911, graphite. 

Juan Gris, 1887-1927, Spanish.  National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

 

 

 

Afternoon nap

 

 

 

The Repose, 1908, oil on canvas. 

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Untitled, date unknown, woodcut. 

Mitzi Melnicoff, 1922-72, American.  Woodmere Museum, Philadelphia

 

 

 

Woman with Yellow Hair, 1931, oil on canvas. 

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish.  Solomon R. Guggenheim, NY

 

 

 

 

Fidelma, oil on canvas, 1937. 

Paul Cadmus, 1904-1999, American.  Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington

 

 

 

Big and little screens flickering all day and into the night.  Books also

 

 

DSC00029

Fall with Me for a Million Days (My Sweet Waterfall), 2016, oil on canvas.

Celeste Dupuy-Spencer,  American born 1979.  Whitney Biennial, NY, 2017

 

 

 

 

The Ocean, oil in canvas, 2018. 

Adam Lupton, Canadian born 1987, active the US.  Photo from the artist’s website

 

 

 

 

Lucy Hessel Reading,1913, oil on canvas. 

Edouard Vuillard, 1868-1940, French.  Jewish Museum, NY

 

 

Video games having replaced the charades of distant memory

 

 

 

The Little Theater, wood and glass, painted. 

Salvador Dali, 1904-1989, Spanish.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

Board games still in use and said to be becoming popular again

 

 

 

 

Domino Players, 1943, oil on composition board. 

Horace Pippin, 1888-1946, American.  The Philipps Collection, Washington, DC

 

 

 

Chess, oil on canvas, date unknown. 

Morris Blackburn, 1902-1979, American.  Promised gift to the Woodmere Museum of Art, Philadelphia

 

 

 

Everyone finally comfortable as they are

 

 

 

 

Considering Things, oil and paper collage on canvas, 2017. 

Meg Wolensky, American born 1992.  On exhibit at the Woodmere Museum of Art, Philadelphia in 2017

 

 

 

 

Intimacy, Conte Crayon, 1890. 

Theo Van Rysselberghe, 1862-1926, Belgian.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Folding a Flood, oil on canvas. 2020. 

Adam Lupton, Canadian born 1987 active US. Seen at the Cerberus Gallery, NY in 2020

 

 

 

The Bath, 1951, tempera on composition board. 

Paul Cadmus, 1904-1999, American.  Whitney Museum of (North) American Art

 

 

 

 

Seated Woman Being Served Tea by Standing Companion, 1963, oil on canvas. 

David Hockney, British born 1937.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

More food towards evening.  Comfort Food for big-screen TV watching

 

 

 

Two Cheesburgers, with Everything (Dual Hamburgers), 1962, burlap soaked in plaster, painted with enamel. 

Claes Oldeburg, American born Sweden 1929. MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

dsc00081

A View From the Box, 2016, plaster model cast. 

Christopher Smith, American, born 1958. Woodmere Museum of Art, Philadelphia

 

 

 

 

DSC02518

DSC02519

Angora Cat, 1937-39, oil on canvas. 

Morris Hirshfield, 1872-1946, American born Poland.  MOMA, NY 

 

Defending his couch against all would-be takers

 

 

 

 

Benny and Mary Ellen Andrews, oil on canvas. 

Alice Neel, 1900-1984, American. MOMA, NY

 

 

 

2008, oil on canvas. No other information.  Abdi Farah, American born 1987. Photo from the web.

 

 

 

Until, all blinds closed, everyone falls asleep

 

 

 

Window, 1968, oil paint on canvas.

Gerhardt Richter, German born 1932. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

Until the morning Monday whiteness, the city pristine again,  wakes everyone up…

 

 

 

South Philly in a past snow

 

South Philly in a past snow