Watering can

Begun as simply an abstract, but ended up looking to me like a little tin watering can.

(The center shape looks kind of white here on screen; in reality it is the same hue as its surroundings, just a lighter value thereof.)

Rumi is really too cute. He always has this sort of impish look. His eyes have still not fully normalized, by the way.

I continue to recover from my cold and my back injury. I have had very low energy but am going to try to get into the studio tonight, if only briefly.

...And a few pics from India. Here I am leaving the lovely public bathroom in Munnar. Of course I'd rather avoid these sort of...fragrant...places, but there really is usually no alternative. (And men simply urinate on the street wherever and whenever they feel like it.) When I've asked Indian women I know for advice, they all say the same thing: Just don't go. Now, that's excellent advice in theory...but how does one follow it in practice? Indian women must be born with iron bladders.

(By the way, notice Che Guevara there. Che is everywhere.)

Restless sky near Munnar (the area that Scots historically found to their liking in India).

A couple of hardworking ladies (near Munnar).

A colorful temple (near Munnar). To me, this already looks like a pastel!

$115.00 - Watering can (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Roman ruin (and I'm in ruins)

Done before India. Unrelated to India. Them's the breaks.

He's mine, all mine!

We got home night before last and today I woke up with a head cold and sore throat. It doesn't help that it is again (still?) very cold and snowy, and I have to go out in it to do some errands. I'm procrastinating by blogging, you see.

I just have to kvetch some. Don't read the following if you don't want to hear my personal pity party:

The trip home was utterly miserable. Beyond miserable. In order to get home, the following was required, sequentially:

1 hour taxi to Hyderabad airport

3 hours wait in Hyderabad airport

9.5 hours flight to Frankfurt

3 hours wait in Frankfurt airport

plus 1 hour delay

plus 1 more hour delay in plane on tarmac

9.5 hours flight to Denver

1.5 hours wait in Denver airport, including new extra-belligerent security measures

1.5 hours bus to Boulder station

taxi ride to house

I am sooooo wrecked. To make matters worse, I injured my back in India about a week before we left, what apparently may be a "torn annulus" (a disc problem). Sitting hurts it, a lot. Do you think I had to do any sitting on the journey home?! I went to a doctor in India a few days before leaving, concerned because I was going to have to sit so much to get back to the U.S., and he pretty much steepled his fingers, looked thoughtful, and then asked me what I was going to do about it.

Right.

(He did prescribe me a muscle relaxant, one of which I tried the day before we left to see if it would help. It put me into such an awful state--like what I've read as a bad drug trip--near-hallucinations, depression, and lethargy--that the minute I got my head straight again, I promptly threw the rest into the trash.)

The final flight (Denver to Frankfurt) had to be the worst ever in my long history of flying. We were of course in "sardine class," and to my great horror, not one, not two, but three (bad luck comes in threes, no?) toddlers were seated directly behind us. Imagine three toddlers on their very worst, loudest behavior...for nine and a half hours. I had earplugs in and then special earphones over that, to absolutely no avail. Due to the delay in Frankfurt, I finished my last book (note to self: never let that happen again) and all the magazines on the plane were in German. (Oh, and did I mention that the man in front of me was very large and with his seat reclined, I didn't even have room to put my tray table down. Oh, and that Delhi belly had finally caught up to me about 3 days before we left.) Oh well, I thought, make the best of it, watch whatever stupid movies are available on my little individual movie screen on the seat back in front of me. Fifteen minutes into my first movie, both my screen and The Husband's (next to me) died. On the entire plane, only ours died. Every seat on the flight was full. The flight attendant did everything he could but could not revive our screens. "It's just plain cruel," he acknowledged sympathetically, and later presented us each with a small bottle of in-flight red wine, each housed, sausage-like, in one of those horrible synthetic navy-blue airline socks. It was quite surreal.

I'm very glad to be home and with my fur babies again. If I go brave the outside now to go walk them and then go to the store to restock their dog food, perhaps they'll pay me back by keeping me warm the rest of the day.

$115.00 - Roman ruin (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Eating in India

As usual, the colors are more vibrant in this pastel than on the screen. Done two days ago from nicely ripened memories of the island.

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Here in Hyderabad, there's an interesting (and slightly alarming) situation going on: politically, certain groups are trying to split the state into two. So there's a lot of protesting going on all over the city, and even worse, they are declaring frequent bandhs. Apparently, this is when the protesting group(s) declare a sort of siege on the city, in which anyone out on the roads on a bandh day is fair game for harassment or even violence. So who goes out on these days? Well, pretty much everyone who has to work or go to an appointment or has an emergency, etc.--i.e., most of the population. This leads to a "safety in numbers" kind of risk. There is talk of an indefinite bandh beginning this Wednesday, to last until the protestors' demands are met. If that lasts more than a couple of days, we will be on the roads (en route to and from the airport several times, as we are leaving Hyderabad for Jaipur tonight for New Year's) during the bandh. Wish me luck!

Besides my fur babies and friends, I am really missing good chocolate, and the ability to simply walk out one's front door and take a nice healthy mellow walk. The pollution in much of India--air, water, noise, litter--is so horrendous that it is a wonder the entire subcontinent does not simply implode. I have always savored the irony, too, of the fact that Indians everywhere are wonderfully clean and groomed and wearing spotless clothes, perfectly ironed...while daily traversing some of the dirtiest streets in the world.

Speaking of clothing, there is a marked decline in people wearing Indian-styled clothing (e.g., salwaar kameez and saris) since we were last in India about six years ago. I am bummed to see this happen. For me one of the most marvelous things about India is looking at all the women like bright, sparkling multicolored gems amidst the dust. Last time we were here, I wore salwaar kameez myself to avoid being stared at too much; this time, I didn't bother, and I fit in better in my usual clothing. I feel that within just a handful more generations, the sari will be relegated to the role of the symbolic, like kimono in Japan, donned only for the most formal occasions and self-consciously at that. It is also much harder to find tailors working in holes-in-the-wall, whipping up shirts and salwaars at a moment's notice (we are actually looking for this service while we're here).

As part of our trip to India this time, we decided we would do a bit of "medical tourism." The Husband is out getting his broken crown (tooth) repaired as I write this, for about a thousand dollars less than the U.S. price. (I've never personally experienced dentistry in India, so can't vouch for it.) I had forgotten some medication which in the U.S. costs around four hundred dollars a month (without insurance), and here cost me two dollars. We also went to go get our eyes checked, as we were overdue. The fewest savings occurred here: the exam was perhaps only ten or twenty dollars less than in the U.S., and I am finally caving in to wearing progressive lenses (oy! I'm old!) for the first time. The price is exactly what was quoted to me in the U.S., so zero savings there.

I always gain weight, perversely, when in India. The food is carbohydrate-rich and everything is cooked in ghee (clarified butter)...and delicious. I'm always careful however to eat at only-vegetarian places with a good reputation, to avoid Delhi belly. We're vegetarians anyway, and India is the only place we can travel around without spending hours just trying to track down a vegetarian meal.

Below is a video of me trying golgappa for the first time. The Husband's mother (world's best cook) stuffs a fried empty ball with a spiced potato mixture, then you have to pour in some spiced water and quickly shove the whole thing into your mouth. If successful, no liquid will leak out of your mouth and you'll achieve a loud crunch.

There's a short video of a mahout feeding an elephant. Notice the similarity to me eating golgappa.

There's also a video of me trying nangu for the first time. I'm still not exactly sure what those things are or what you'd call them. I can't believe the seller wasn't cutting his fingers off. The guy holding the little frond "boat" is our taxi driver, and The Husband was taking the video. You can see from my expression whether I liked it.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Whew

Currently in Hyderabad (India), at The Husband's parents' house (see photo below). It's been quite a whirlwind up 'till now, and much as I've wanted to blog, electricity, internet service and my laptop have not managed to coincide until now. We were in Bangalore (glorious weather), Kochi (hottest, most humid weather I have ever tried to move or breathe in), and then the most incredible experience on the island of Bangaram, part of the Lakshadweep archipelago. On Bangaram, we underwent a complete electronics detox: no phones, computers, wireless, TV...it was great. Just fabulous snorkeling, gentle sweating in hammocks (a large palm frond barely missed me, falling from high above), precisely when I was looking up and thinking Those could fall and hit someone. Then two days in and near Munnar, a rather cold, foggy experience, not to my tastes (Scots settled there at one time; that gives you an idea of the climate), and finally on to Hyderabad.

I've managed to do almost no art. It seems we are continually in a vehicle, or planning itineraries, or trying to find internet to check email, or falling into bed exhausted from being too many hours in a vehicle. The couple of times I have tried to do some pastels, various things have happened: ants come running to swarm over the pastel sticks (perhaps they taste good?); there is not enough light indoors to see properly (and during the day, we're too busy trying to get from one place to another to do any painting); there is no surface to put everything on and my back protests from leaning over on the floor.

And I do have some pastel-traveling tragicomedy to share: firstly, security luggage people seem to find a case of pastels under X-ray to be quite dangerous-looking. In two different airports, I've had to unwrap the whole package: triple plastic bags taken off to reveal bubble wrap; bubble wrap peeled off to expose the case itself; unlatch the case to show all the little pieces of color. I explain them as "artists' chalks," which seems to go over best. In one particular airport, in heat and humidity you could swim in, I had to go through this procedure, and realized the hard way that I hadn't fitted the velcro cover part of the case exactly aligned...and guess what happened...yes, they all fell out. Right onto the security x-ray conveyor. In front of a big, angry queue. About two hundred little pieces of pastels (and all their dust), from all their little foam holding places. Not a happy thing.

More to blog later, if possible.

I'm really feeling out of touch and missing art and all of you, my art blogger friends!

This (above) is my favorite of the sketches. A big, friendly Belgian man in the airport (the same one in which all my pastels spilled out in Security.)

With The Husband's parents at their house in Hyderabad.

Magnificent low tide on Bangaram Island. That's The Husband wading.

The Husband enjoys his favorite, paper dosa.

Dinners on the island were a marvelous affair: firewood-cooked gourmet Indian food under the stars and next to the waves. I finally saw phosphorescence, too. It was electric blue. Something I'd always heard about and never actually seen.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Sentinels

Another bitterly cold day today. They say it will get better soon. Fingers crossed.

I'm supposed to be writing a final exam to give my college students tomorrow. Well, I've got all night, right? I first had to blog, because this will likely be my last blog until India. I will blog when possible from there too, so please stay tuned. We leave on Saturday for 3.5 weeks in central and south India.

I usually have absolutely no idea what images may form when I start a pastel. It's always an interesting process to start that way, to try to have no fear of the medium nor fear of wasting materials. It's challenging to try to approach it so fearlessly but I love it when it works.

I have decided to bring pastels on this trip, for the first time. I anticipate a lot of unforeseen possibly tragicomic misadventures (can you say "colored powder explosion in your suitcase"?).

Note tail and leg inside the radiator. This boy likes to stay plenty warm (and camouflaged, to boot).

$115.00 - Sentinels (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

She promised me ice cream

The snow and extreme cold continue. (As I write this, it's 3 degrees F, with a wind chill of -14. I have to leave for work in a few minutes.) I was desperate to do something in bright colors, since around here we're only seeing in monochrome. I had a lot of fun doing this in a completely in-the-moment, deliberately childlike way.

I knew that the foxes and deer in our neighborhood have been getting bolder and bolder... But today I was genuinely shocked to look out the window and see a fox, in broad daylight, taking his sweet time to sniff and stroll around my yard and all the neighbors'. They eat cats around here... (Our Jellyroll never did come back.) I didn't have my camera, but my neighbor/artist/friend Sam has a photo of a couple of them on her roof here.

The deer, too, beautiful though they are, have become more than a nuisance in our neighborhood, eating cherry trees, roses, and garden tomatoes with equal relish. Woe betide the human who takes a casual walk down the sidewalk in fawn season...there's a matriarch who doesn't hesitate to charge you, even with leashed barking dogs at your side. I used to think it was kind of funny...until it happened to me. That's when I realized those things are big. And those shiny black hooves look pretty sharp too.

Must...stay....warm. Must....stay...warm...

$115.00 - She promised me ice cream (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Blogging interruption: Alter ego

People, I've long suspected that little Rumi is a feline alter ego of Bonnie Luria's puppy Cloud. Her December 7 post photo confirms it.

Door under the stairs

Can I just kvetch for a moment and say how snowy and bitterly cold it's been...And how much I hate having to walk dogs in this weather...? Okay, thank you. Now, on to other things...like doors under stairs.

Nothing to do in this cold but stay indoors and admire your own yoga moves on blogs...

$115.00 - Door under the stairs (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Landscape 5

Simple, bold, blue: a beloved triumvirate in my studio.

Rumi, camouflaged.

If it weren't for his collar, I wouldn't have noticed him. (Yes, that's the T.P. that Mr. Innocent Lynx decorated the bathroom with the other day.)

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More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Chefchaouen 6

Since photographing this one, I added a small signature in the bottom right-hand corner, which balances it nicely. How I love these blues! And that swash of school-bus yellow, courtesy of a big bold Diane Townsend pastel. I like the PastelMat for boldness. I ordered more and am still awaiting it.

Rumi update: Ventured out into snow and 17 degrees F today to take Rumi to the kitty ophthalmologist. We now have a big new antiviral pill to try to get down his little gullet once a day.

With two cats in the house under the age of 1, you never know what you're going to wake up to...

And then, oh the innocent faces!...

$115.00 - Chefchaouen 6 (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com