adolf dietrich finds his inspiration

modern-day vanitas, by richard phillips

the current show at the swiss institute in NY, 'painting and misappropriation,' shares the works of 20th century swiss naive artist adolf dietrich alongside massive contemporary paintings by richard phillips. i like dietrich because of his taxidermied-bird-inspired vanitas drawings

peaks

peaks as an island, above. peaks on a boat, by way of andy rosen, below. 

lifestyle no homework

whole buncha things been going on.

we got an inflatable bubble fort and a carrom board

and a kitten

then on friday, as we were about to close up the rose, there was a big thud. immediate thought: some painting fell down. then i looked out the window and saw that a crew of rude crows had driven the neighborhood hawk to fly into the window- hard. it was splayed out for quite a while...

and eventually hopped a bit to continue to sit. we called every wildlife-knowledgeable person we knew, then decided to sit it out as well, as hawk seemed badly injured (drops of blood, bone sticking out from its breast) and we didn't want to further injure it nor face the talon wrath ourselves. 2 hours later, it flew away, after a very intense while spent looking into a hurt hawks eyes. godspeed my dear.

wenham cemetery

whilst driving home on rt. 1A after visiting LVQ on the farm, i stopped at a spot i've been eyeing for a while: the wenham cemetery. it's right across from a lovely pond, near lots of gorgeous land preserves (one of which still had some fiddleheads lurking), and en route to glorious crane beach. i mostly looked at the very oldest stones, admiring winged skulls and memento mori references...
the semantic contrast between "here lies buried" and "sacred to the memory of" came about at a time when bodies might not occupy a grave (due to, among other things, foreign wars or being lost at sea) and when memory and mourning increased in importance alongside the physical burial site.
one of the chaps mowing the lawn pointed out this stone, commemorating someone that died in 1838 due, in some part, to "the" railroad:
several stones were obituaries/resumes of sorts, listing schools and superlatives:


an ode to the rural cemetery:

and right at the entrance, a blanket memorial for those unnamed:

rest well, birdo

anna artaker's work with death masks and 3d makes me want to hop on a plane to vienna to see her stuff.