The cure for boredom is...curiosity. But there's no cure for curiosity

This yawning man by Brueghel is absolutely... contagious, yes, almost. Beautifully done for sure.

While looking for quotes on boredom recently (to make our Facebook profile as un-boring as possible, without being primitive, bien sur!) I found many good ones, but one jumped at me right now & you will understand why if you read the posts below.

"Probably the difference between man and monkeys is that monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination" (Lin Yutang).

On blindness

Until today I was blind. Or rather: my inner eye, that of my imagination, was functioning properly but it, too, needs help to perform even greater miracles.

So when today my laptop finally died & I switched to my friend's top-notch computer.... oh boy, what a difference that made for my work.

Size matters, so do colors, sharpness, space. Everything became more...intuitive (yes, this buzzword is absolutely correct!)

I feel like I can do great things...

Out of fashion monkeys

Imagine Botticelli painted monkeys. Would they become famous, just because Botticelli also painted Primavera?

Ok, yes, I am being stupid, I know, but please let me relax!

Still, at least you say "Botticelli" and the majority of us will have a mental image come right up, whereas if I say "Pisanello"_____________...

I thought so!

Too bad, for besides these bunch of happy monkeys he left behind some very interesting paintings & drawings.

To be savoured, really.

Maybe once after we've glanced at & discussed all the hype shows & artists in town, country & in the world.

Monkeys rule!

Learned monkeys: Art Chicago is coming & we are customizing our jewelry accordingly

It might quite be that my passion for monkeys predates my love of art. So putting these 2 things together is a pleasure twice increased.

Or more, since the two delightful monkeys below (Chardin) are being made into jewels for a special occasion - Art Chicago, our supposedly world-class art fair (this year, alas, it will be a bit sad for me, since my favorite Parisian gallery will not attend) opening coming Friday.

The antique dealer-monkey & the artist-monkey.

Things have become tougher these days: we are all copycats (first) and monkeys (second).

Still, creating something special for a (less) special occasion is a refreshing exercise.

I shall carry on with flowers and fruit and trees! But no Primavera!

Time to go to work now making 'less pretty pretty things' as I say, referring to that old theory of mine about 'easy', 'unproblematic' things just not being 'me'.
This time in France and especially in Italy I had a chance to revisit many museums, churches with the artworks that I know very well. And it was interesting to see how some of my impressions have radically changed over the years, partly due to the nature of work that I do now.
Still, you wouldn't catch me standing in front of Botticelli's La Primavera even for 1 minute, whereas his Adorazione dei Magi in the very same Uffizi's room had me grounded there in respectful silence for about 20 minutes.
'Less pretty pretty things'!!!!
Here we go again!

See what I mean? Compare and contrast!

'Compare and contrast' is an old used & abused technique in teaching foreign languages, but I find it good (or bad, it depends) for pretty much everything else, too!

So to follow up on what I was just saying about 'sitting pretty' but maybe feeling less 'white/WASP-ish' (or let's be honest: maybe not feeling white at all... I have become the color of Brazil, mixed!) let me show you some pictures.

My Sao Paulo apartment was very nice, so no exotic photos there.

But Rio... oh my, sweet Rio.

No washer or drier, so the pelouche (teddy bears and such) of a younger girl are in a bucket on the rooftop, together with jeans & towels.

View from my window? A nice hotel/restaurant but pay attention to the prostitutes on the left side.

My dear friends from my dear Lapa.

Rio de Janeiro. I will come back!

Sitting pretty (but working hard!)

Above - Henri Lebasque - someone I was not at all familiar with - more research to be done!


Below - my actual study. Finally a bay window with a gorgeous view over the Lake Michigan, sailing boats and the beautiful red sun rising from the water (if only I wake up at 5.30am!)

So that's where my flowery creations are being born. Getting so much engrossed in my work at least made me forget the sense of uneasiness about living in such a gorgeous home. I really felt very much out of my cultural (and economical) milieu coming back to Chicago. After certain places I stayed at in Rio de Janeiro this is a cultural shock for me. Somehow I feel it was easier for me to 'camouflage' myself as a 'carioca' there rather than fit right in here as a good WASP girl.

On lust and cravings....Symbols are everywhere!

It's really easy to be a truly happy workaholic: you just have to be in love with what you do.

I am, and when I am not obliged to do something else & I can create my bijoux, I don't want to stop.

Still, my creative nature just doesn't want to be disciplined at all - right now I have 8 pieces commissioned that I need to work on, instead I got under the spell of...flowers, yes, strangely enough, I feel like spring should be coming sooner, I want intense smells, lots of sun, colors... And since it's not happening tomorrow, I am going to give nature a hand (Mother Nature, that is).

So I am totally mesmerized by the flowers, gardens, trees, bouquets, grass...Doing lots of research and then free-choosing and creating.

It feels beautiful.

Happy researcher meets an unskilled but enthusiastic artisan!

P.S. the photo with a new-born rabbit (born on St. Valentine's!) is because rabbit is a symbol of... think of Playboy, ok?

Windows on the World

Record time of absence from the bloggosphere, but life goes on.

Actually, more things 'really' happen, less time we find to be able to document them, or, maybe, write about the 'nothingness', the little things of no big importance.

So many things happened during last time I was here...And just because you are never sure how it's gonna end, let's presume that whatever happened, all these changes, are for the better. Smile and carry on. And mine is not a fake smile!

From country to country, to another continent:

London-Paris-Italy (pretty much all over the place, except my beloved South, alas!)-and back to ... Chicago, my kind of town after a 2 year absence.

New windows on the world?

Well, not that this particular trip(s) widened my horizons that much, but the views from my bedroom window(s) are partly new.

And yet easily recognized by everyone.

The civic pride of Florence and the Chicago Cubs!