Tag: art

Angels we have seen on high

Back in November of 2006, I explained the origin of the angels that adorn The Compound every Christmas. Over the years, these paper angels have been cut out, colored, painted, and otherwise gussied up by friends, family, and me. The book they come from, A Christmas Angel Collection, is a little pricier than in the old days when I bought several, because it’s out of print now. The drawings are based on famous paintings from centuries past.

I store them flat in an angel tin, and every year, it’s Tim’s job to take them out, fix them so they’ll stand, and put them on the molding over our living room and dining room windows. And it’s our job not to turn on the ceiling fan in the dining room, because that sends angels a’flyin’.

You can see the angels by clicking here.

Fashion for all time

I have a print over The Compound fireplace of an original work done by my friend Geof. It’s titled “If Louis Had Been King of Egypt,” and it depicts the architecture of the Pyramids meshed with characteristics of the lavish Palace of Versailles. Back in June, I was given a sketch that I think will make a good companion piece for it. The second artist titled his work “The Cherished Hour.”

Recently, as I’ve trudged through the massive task of taking care of things I’ve neglected since October 2007, I found the new (to me) sketch where I’d carefully put it away. As of today, it’s matted and framed. I won’t detail all the ways this piece appeals to me so as not to influence your perceptions. I’m sorry the lighting is so bad, but I was attempting to keep the flash from bouncing off the glass.

You can click that, of course, to make it bigger, and click it again to make it HUGE. But I’d particularly like to draw your attention to a detail in the bottom left corner (below, and also clickable for better viewing). “The Cherished Hour” was sketched in November 2000, long before LJ Runway Monday came along. Some of you may remember a certain design of mine that received MUCH derision from the judges. What I’m wondering: Is it possible that an infamous resident of Versailles actually said, in kindness to the fashion-deprived, “Let them have capes?”

Checking in

Back in June, I talked about a print I ordered from Jon Armstrong’s Etsy shop. I got it almost immediately after I ordered it–that Jon is efficient as well as brilliant and talented–but it went into the pile of “I’ll take care of this later” stuff.

Later came, and I took it to have it matted and framed. It looks so fantastic with the glass mosaic piece done by another gifted artist, Rachael Walker.

Like this:


If the mat looks crooked to you, it’s an illusion caused by the slant of the windowsill in the photograph. It’s a beautiful piece and I’m very pleased with its frame and mat.

The kitchen is between my office and the dining room, but this is what I see in the dining room whenever I turn to the right:

Rachael’s and Jon’s creations are next to two of Tim’s paintings. The cabinet was custom-made for us by a craftsman in the Heights who I don’t think is there anymore. The box on top of the cabinet was a gift from James, and holds all kinds of little treasures (including the tiny braid Tim sent me from New York the first time he cut off all his long hair). On the upper right is an edge of one of five collages done by my friend Geof depicting the fall of Troy. They were Steve’s, and after he died, Geof gave them to me. The border at the ceiling was hand-stamped by Tom when we painted the room back in 1997.

I certainly know talented people.

Some of the other things on the “later” list that I’ve been trying to do, in addition to helping develop a couple of TJB book ideas to send to our editor, include:

’cause some of it can be shown in photos

LJ Runway Monday, Final Collection, Part 1

On the most recent episode of Bravo’s Project Runway, contestants were sent home from New York to work on their final collections. Among their assignments: Include a wedding dress as part of the collection. Style guru Tim Gunn visited the designers in their homes, then they were brought back to Manhattan to face one new elimination challenge before Fashion Week: Design a bridesmaid’s dress to go with their wedding dress.

LJ Runway Monday producer Heidi Gunn decided there was no need for the Runway Monday designers to spend our time on a bridesmaid’s dress, since all of us are showing final collections. Although she was unable to personally visit each of us as we worked on our final designs, she did send her Fashion Ambassador to check on us. Who could possibly know more about fashion than our producer and judges?

Click here to find out.

Button Sunday

As I headed back to Houston after my trip to the Southeast, I decided to take the northern route because I wanted to see… BUTTONS!


These are buttons collected by Bill Clinton, forty-second president of the United States, during his presidential campaigns. They’re on display at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, which was my destination and the reason I spent a night in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Will you see what I saw?

A little like collaborating again

Wednesday night was fun. After getting a ton of stuff done around The Compound during the day, I drove out to Green Acres and watched Project Runway with Tim. That wasn’t why I went; I’d have had fun watching it with Tom, too.

However, Greg Herren recently mentioned a silent auction in Denver to benefit the National Stonewall Democrats. They were looking for donations, including books signed by the authors, or art (paintings or prints)–I mean, come on! Democrats? Signed books? Art? I was ALL OVER THAT.

Tim and I decided to send them a signed hardcover of Three Fortunes in One Cookie. This novel remains so dear to me, and I love donating it to a group I support. Phillip, the protagonist, is an artist, and his character is truly a collaboration between Tim and me. I thought it might be interesting if we sweetened the donation by painting some little canvases (3 x 5 inches) in a way that expressed some facet of Phillip from each of our perspectives.

There’s nothing similar about the art that Tim and I create. Yet without planning it, even though our styles are so different, when we finished our paintings, I see them as a natural progression of Phillip’s style. Mine would have been painted by an adolescent Phillip; Tim’s, by Phillip in his twenties.

Your heart never forgets your favorite characters.

click here for a look

Pride Month

It’s Pride Month, that time of year when I try to avoid blogs that bemoan the inclusiveness of Pride parades because the media tends to focus on the “outrageous,” even though the media does that during any event, happy or sad.

I, personally, celebrate it all: the leather men, the drag queens, the boys with their glitter-dusted bodies in square cuts, the politicians, the church floats, PFLAG, the AIDS organizations, the sponsors tossing freebies to advertise their products, the bands, the cheerleaders, the dykes on bikes, the cops on horseback, the transgendered, even the spectators who drink too much and trash the streets and block my view or snatch my beads out of the air in front of me. Houston’s parade will be this weekend, and because of my annoying back, I’m already fretting over the logistics of getting there and figuring out how to sit and manage to see and photograph everything.

In honor of the month, let’s check out some handsome men visiting an art gallery.

completely suitable for work

Pigeon feather

This is in response to a challenge I accepted from Mark G. Harris.

I wrote a post called the Secrets of Tim
(a title I stole from the Secret of NIMH,
a movie I didn’t happen to see–
I need to stop writing parenthetically)

I extolled the talents of my Gemini friend–
his novels, his singing, his playing violin,
the life he lures from seeds planted in soil,
his muted rainbows on canvas in oil

I mourned a painting once lost to the sky
Then a secret I found set my heart free to fly
If you’re finding this doggerel to be a bit dim
I suggest you check out The Secrets of Tim

And on that Friday evening in New Orleans…

The Saints and Sinners kickoff party was at the W Hotel courtyard on Friday evening. That afternoon, I had to run some errands, including buying a hairbrush or two at Wal-Mart, since that was something I forgot to pack. Thanks to Greg’s excellent directions, I got to Wal-Mart with no problem. I think ALL cities should have roads that dead-end into the parking lots of mega stores like Wal-Mart, Costco, etc. It’s very handy. Cities, take note: My personal preferences would be Target, the Container Store, and Michael’s. Oh, and Walgreen’s, since I spend half my life there anyway.

But back to New Orleans. Since gallivanting through the city on foot wasn’t in the cards this trip, I decided to drive to the W Hotel from Wal-Mart. Of course, I’d failed to get directions back, but Mark G. Harris led me to the hotel by cell phone. Or he tried. I was being very stressed out and uncooperative. Yet he managed not to click his phone shut and blow me off. See why I say the G is for Galahad?

Once in the courtyard, I flopped down on a comfy bench and did very little mingling. Between MGH and FARB, liquid refreshment was kept in front of me (Coca Cola, because I was high enough on pain meds all weekend–‘Nathan, did I really meet you, or just hallucinate it?).

I didn’t get a swag bag, but I did get some photos, and I offer them to you now.

crazy woman with Nikon alert