When I was a kid, there was no shortage of new Easter dresses, patent leather Mary Janes with short white socks, and frilly bonnets to mark the holiday. Think pastel pink, yellow, and green linen with delicately embroidered details. Oh, and there were Easter speeches, …
It turns out that this year’s color is peach fuzz. We at ODB have always liked this range of colors- peach, salmon, rose, blush… You can see it throughout our website. Unlike oranges, peaches come in a rainbow of flavors. What’s your favorite? Everything’s been …
I’ve come to realize that it’s almost impossible for me the let holidays go by and not celebrate in some form or fashion. My heart beats a little faster when considering what to do for fun. Although I don’t know my family connections with Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day makes me smile.
The showcase of green everywhere excites me. The idea of fairytales, rainbows, and pots of gold go hand in hand with our celebration of Irish culture, special foods, music, dancing and drinking. And who doesn’t like a parade? I’ve had the opportunity to visit both Ireland and Northern Ireland, so when Saint Patrick’s Day rolls around, I reminisce with fondness of my time spent on the Emerald Isle.
The most traditional dish of all is corn beef and cabbage. It’s iconic. The middle photo above is salmon and greens, an alternative to the beef.
Lighter dishes included broccoli, and a shrimp boil with corn and potatoes.
Who can resist a ‘Pot of Gold’ and minted chocolate cookies?
Chocolate cupcakes with silken chocolate mousse and mint cookies.
Our visit to Ireland and Northern Ireland in November, 2017.
Traversing the sea shore.
Everything green! Cheers!
I went to the Emerald Isle fifteen years ago and had the time of my life. From tasty Irish salmon, lamb, and every kind of potato dish to stone circles, castles, and peat. We started in Dublin and spent a couple of weeks exploring seaside …
Each visit to New York has always included popping into a sweet shop for a little bit of chocolate, pastry or cookie. So much so that I’ve contemplated writing a little black book on sweets alone in NYC. Some desserts trend so much that there …
Last spring, I was honored to be an artist in residence in the Pullman neighborhood in our beautiful city of Chicago. I initially had made plans to map the many blocks around my space as I considered the ravages of the built environment in the Midwest with a longstanding project on “Utopia/Dystopia.”
Pullman is a historic labor epicenter and the weight of its history was not lost on me. On my very first day in the residency’s lovely rooms, I shifted my focus from utopian concepts to the idea of leisure. What is the significance of leisure for some of us? Every program I lead in my administrator’s life is outward-facing, and now I was inviting myself to look in.
Light streaming in with bits of dust floating in the waves, I sat and read. I rested. I wrote. I made art.
And I sang. I filled the room with my voice, sometimes wobbly, oftentimes stretched, and always joyful. I sang the words on the page of my books, sang while I painted, and sang as I danced. It was beautiful.
At moments, I found myself where we all do: knowing what we want but incapable of grasping it. I knew how a particular song went but sometimes my voice failed me. I would follow Stevie’s voice until I climbed out of my range; it was like running after someone as they sprinted farther out of reach. When my voice hit a false note, I grimaced… or laughed. Ahhhh!
Elusive.
As I constructed offerings/pieces out of blank to-do lists, I sang, recognizing that writing it down doesn’t necessarily make it so. A bitter truth for someone who has written a list every day since learning how to write.
I was reminded recently of this period in my life as I looked at a work, “Spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition, “Africa & Byzantium.” This work is a 6th-7th century Coptic spell on papyrus and a part of Yale’s Beinecke Library on loan to the show that closed yesterday.
I found it captivating.
The Beinecke Library describes it: “This papyrus records two different spells. The upper text is a spell to obtain a beautiful singing voice. The petitioner is instructed to prepare special ink so as to inscribe a chalice with powerful signs. Next, the petitioner is told to procure a divination bowl and an offering, and recite a prayer to “Harmozel, the great ruler.” The conclusion of the prayer invokes the power of the Holy Trinity: “Yea, yea, for I adjure you by the left hand of the Father, I adjure you by the head of the Son, I adjure you by the hair of the Holy Spirit.” Harmozel is depicted as a winged angel; his trumpet emits strings of Coptic letters as he blows.”
What a thought! A beautiful voice is made manifest by concocting an ink, inscribing signs on a vessel, placing an offering, reciting a spell (in song?) as a prayer to the Holy Trinity, all in service to what? Beauty? Enchantment? Encantation? Love? I don’t know but I like thinking about it.
