I'm not sure how I found out about the Sketchbook Project, but I decided, "Why not?  It might be fun." So, I signed up and got a sketchbook.  Since I like to work in Photoshop, I made my "sketches" in photoshop, putting together various images and layers based on the theme "The View From Up Here"

To me, that theme brought to mind various memories, and ideas.  I always liked being up high.  As long as I was sure I wasn't going over the edge:

 

I also considered whose view it was...

 

Some views were memories...

 

Others were flights of fancy...

 

Some considered what exactly represented up?

 

It was a lot of fun making all the collages and I'm hoping anyone who looks at the sketch book will enjoy looking at as much as I had fun making it. The exhibition will be in several US cities.  Be sure and stop by if you get a chance!

I arrived in Mérida with a reservation at a hotel near the Santa Lucia park, just a few blocks north of the zocalo.  As I trudged up 60th searching for my hotel, I found myself walking more north that I thought it should be.  Just as I was about to turn around and give it another try, I spotted this unusual spot.  Hotel Trinidad Galeria.  The minute I stepped into the lobby, I was enchanted.

 

Lobby - Hotel Trinidad Galeria

Here was an amazing conglomeration of art of all sorts in a spacious, plant filled room.  The whole hotel is a gallery of art and around every corner is a new visual treat.  Before taking a room, I like to have a look.  The tour included a look at the pool.

Pool - Hotel Trinidad Galeria

My room was tucked away from the street noise.  The room charge included breakfast in the morning.

Breakfast on the balcony

Two nice ladies were waiting to fix breakfast for the guests.  Toast, fresh fruit and coffee overlooking the lobby to one side and palms to the other.

Lobby

This hotel was the brainchild of Manolo Rivero, a wealthy art collector who started with one old home in downtown Mérida and added on until the place rambles this way and that, full of art and other collectibles in a wonderful crazy collection.  Before his death, he also had several shows in the galleries in the hotel.  Guests at this hotel have included artist and film director Julian Schnabel, actor Dennis Hopper, the late Joe Glasco and an endless list of Mexican and Latin American artists.

An to think I had a reservation at another hotel!

Spotted in passing...

Yes.  There we are, plain as day. ordering our breakfast at Mañana.  How did I find this photo of myself out on the internet?  After doing a couple of reviews on Trip Advisor, I was cruising around looking at other people's reviews and photos and found that one reviewer had been there the same time as me and I looked at her photos.  Imagine my surprise when I found my friend and myself, ordering our breakfast, in her photo!
I'm sure I'm not the first person this has happened to but it's still a crazy experience!
Mañana really is a nice place for breakfast, by the way.  You can sit at the fancifully painted tables and chairs or the comfy sofa.

Or at the counter windows with bar stools and watch the world stroll by.  (Or zip by in golf carts.) Order at the counter and your delicious food is brought to you.  Great way to start the day in paradise!

Dondurma

Before going to Turkey, I'd read about Orchid Ice Cream and was interested to try it.  They use salep, a  flour milled from the dried tubers of wild orchids as a thickening agent.  This makes for a different treat than we are accustomed to.  I was told that the "real Turkish ice cream" doesn't melt and must be eaten with a knife and fork.  I didn't try this, but the dondurma in Istanbul is interesting enough.
We stopped for a bite to eat in a restaurant in the Sultanamet section of Istanbul and were seated directly behind the ice cream stand out front.

Reaction to entertaining ice cream servers

We got to enjoy seeing the delight on the faces of kids as the servers stirred and stretched the ice cream in long ropes.  The thickening agents cause the ice cream to freeze hard if it is not mixed.  This makes for some pretty good street entertainment as they pull out the ice cream on the mixing paddle in a big glob and stretch it out to impossibly long strings.

After our snack, we went to the other side of the window to have a sample.  The servers are great showmen and getting an ice cream is as fun as eating it.  We pick our flavors and they are scooped into the cone in dainty scoops of chocolate, strawberry, pistachio and other flavors.  Then, the as the server hands you your cone and you reach out, it is suddenly up, down, closer or farther away than where you expect to reach for it.  This goes on for a bit until they finally take pity on the hungry customer and they let you snatch your cone.

Maybe this wasn't the "real dondurma"  but it was delicious and the show was definitely worth the price of admission.

The Color Green

Spring is here and it is a lovely one, this year.  The days are getting longer and warmer and we are seeing the trees flowering in all their beauty and variety.  I don't know when, but green has become one of my dearest friends in the color palate.  I can't say when this happened, or why.  Maybe it's living in Wisconsin so long.  We seem to have six months of winter...

It's cold, you have to shovel, dig out your car, wear many layers of warm clothes that restrict your movement or risk frostbite and other unfortunate maladies.  And there's very little green to be seen anywhere.  Unless you go to the tropical paradise: Boltz conservatory at Olbrich Gardens...

A lovely spot to pretend it's not really winter for a while while you inhale the humid, fragrant aroma of the tropical blooms and listen to the birds as they call out and flit about, bright little jewels themselves.  I like to bring my camera along to remind myself that soon again, it will be green outdoors, with any luck...
The squills are out making a blue carpet in some places and just a small hello in others...

And soon the color green will be all over.  The trees, the shrubs, the flowers and the weeds!

Yay spring!

Just a weed!

Well, it's starting to feel like spring. The days are longer with the additional boost of Daylight savings making it light even later. Signs of spring are beginning to appear: tiny buds, puffy clouds, birdsong. And dandelions. Yes, the scourge of the tastefully manicured lawn is one of the first plants to show it's face in spring. Dandelions don't need any special place to grow.  In fact they are annoyingly hardy and will grow almost anywhere, defying belief with their rugged tenacity.
I spotted these bright smiling faces at the foundation of a house bursting forth from a crack in the cement.
So, is it a weed?   Webster defines a weed as "a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is ususally of vigorous growth, especially one that tends to overgrow or  choke our more desirable plants."  Weed!  Case closed!  Right?
Well... I can remember my grandmother talking about dandelion greens and how healthy they were.   Rebecca Wood notes: "Dandelion greens are one of season’s earliest foodstuffs and one of the finest of spring tonics. Indeed, they are the most nutritious leafy vegetable you can buy."  They are chic now!
They have been used since at least the tenth century Arabian doctors.  They are used for detox helping the gallbladder and the liver remove waste from the body.  Chinese herbalists use parts of the plant to treat ailments including tonsilitis, colds, ulcers and boils.
And Danedlion wine!  It's made from the petals of the flowers with sugar and some lemon juice or other acidic component.
So, nasty weed or useful, helpful plant with positive attributes?
Sounds like an issue of real estate.  Location, location, location!

The Eternal Question...

Yesterday, I went to Milwaukee with my friend Dianne, who is a painter, to drop off some of her work at a gallery where she shows her work, and to gallery sit.  So, my mind was in art mode when I happened to look out the window from my third floor apartment.  From there I spotted Marilyn Monroe's dress swaying in the breeze.  Of course, that's not realy what it was.  It was just a large piece of plastic, probably a drop cloth wrapped around a fire escape and tied in place.  So, I had to wonder:  "Is it Art?"I was inclined to think, that yes, it was.  The ribbon at the "waist" and the flags calling attention to this impromptu assemblage all attested to the possibility an art student in the neighborhood with an active imagination.

On the other hand maybe it was just a "Todd's house" kind of marker.  "Go around the back and toss a pebble up to the window by the fire escape where there's a piece of plastic hanging on the fire escape.  I'll come around and let you in."
I mean, is it art when the person in the small South American town who makes chicha hangs out a little red plastic bag as a flag  so customers know where the find chicha?
Anyway, I got out my trusty camera and snapped a  couple of shots.

 Ethereal Plastic Gown

When we arrived, we pulled out our electronic gear, Dianne to share vacation photos off her phone and me to show the gallery artists the hunk of plastic/Ethereal Plastic Gown.  They agreed that this was art if there was intent behind the installation, leaving it open to intrepretation.  The eternal queston. Just how wide do we throw the net?   I'd like to think it's art.  It spoke to me.