Judy – Page 61 – Dear Liza

Learning Something New

Dear Liza,

This week is the last week of school for you and your cousins, and end-of-the-year parties are in person and fun. For me, that means making cake.

I wish I could be in Salinas to make one for you. That’s not possible for now, but I got to learn something new anyway. Kestrel asked for a chocolate cake topped with strawberries. She also loves mushrooms (not real mushrooms on the cake, however).

Auntie Bridgett suggested I create a large mushroom out of sliced strawberries. That was half of a great idea, but I knew that sliced strawberries would bleed red juice all over the cake and make a mess. Grandpa Nelson suggested coating the slices with sugar, which was, again, half of a good idea.

Not sugar, but…. what? Ask the Internet! The solution is melted chocolate. Just put a layer of chocolate chips on a plate in the microwave for about 40 seconds, some careful knife-work, a few minutes in the fridge, and you have juice-proof slices.

Some frosting and piping tubes made the stem and frills, then I laid the chocolate-sealed strawberry slices like shingles until I had mushroom type shape. Some chopped chocolate chips made the forest floor. It maybe could be a tree, and that’s okay, too.

At Kestrel’s Promotion Picnic, the cake was revealed, appreciated, and eaten all up.

Nice work if you can get it, as they say.

Love,

Grandma Judy

An Almost-Summer Walkabout

Dear Liza,

Before the rain this past weekend, we had four wonderful days of sun. Grandpa Nelson and I were able to get out for a long walk. After lunch at Zach’s we headed south through the Richmond neighborhood.

The peonies in Southeast Portland this year are absolutely stunning, and this group in a planter along Lincoln are pure sunny pink and and as big as a dinner plate.

As we were noticing all the blooms, I was stopped in my tracks by this piece of chalk art on a driveway. No one was around to ask about the artist, so we just enjoyed it, photographed it, and moved along.

The next piece of art was less colorful but charming, even so. Someone with less art experience had tried to paint a cat hiding in the high grass, failed, and expressed their disappointment.

Further along, these tall lupines graced the parkway, framed perfectly by a 1920s bungalow and willow tree.

As we were walking, Grandpa Nelson asked, “when you run out of things to write about, will we have to move?” I told him that in five years of writing blogs, Portland hasn’t let me down yet. I think we’re safe.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Art Like Tinkertoys

Dear Liza,

There are all kinds of art. Painting, sculpture, singing, writing, acting, architecture. All of these consist mainly of a set of skills combined with a desire to explore or show the world in a certain way.

I am not particularly good at any of them. I can draw a cat that looks like a cat if I have to, but it isn’t my strong point.

And, I’m realizing, that doesn’t preclude me from being an artist. Just like so much of what I enjoy in the world are combinations of things, the way images are arranged or layered, can be a work of art.

This is where collage, mosaic, and assemblage come in. The arrangement and layering of paper, images, and objects as a work of art that explores the way the artist sees the world.

To me, it feels more like playing with tinker-toys. I find bits I can manipulate and put them together to make something pleasing to my eye that says, well, whatever I want it to say. And, for want of a better word, I will call it art.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Not Done With the Rain Yet

Dear Liza,

We have had a record-setting wet spring, and it’s not done yet!

After a few days of sun last week, when we went for walks and saw lots of flowers, we had a weekend of rain, wind, and even thunderstorms.

The Rose Festival -opening-Starlight Parade went on as scheduled after three years of being canceled for Covid, but it went on without us. We just couldn’t muster the energy to bundle up and take a bus downtown to stand in the rain for a few hours. The Parade was televised so we didn’t miss it, but it would have been more fun to be THERE. Darn old rain, anyway.

My garden seems to be enjoying the rain. The Dahlias are up and blooming, and the radishes are getting tall and peppery. No squash or carrots yet, but they aren’t as quick as radishes.

We are promised sun this week, and even really warm temperatures. Keep your fingers crossed, but keep your boots handy.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The Fourth Wall

Dear Liza,

There is a really cool new place for coffee, drinks, and snacks just down Hawthorne. It is a movie-themed cafe called The Fourth Wall.

This is a cafe where you can get coffee drinks, cider, and even wine. For sustenance, there are some pastries, all sorts of cereal ( for your inner 8 year old’s breakfast) and ….. popcorn!

There is also a huge screen where cartoons and movies of all sorts are running. All day, everyday.

There is a calendar out front to let you know what is happening when, so you don’t miss the Lord of the Rings Trivia night or the meet up for Magic The Gathering. This looks like a good place to hang with like-minded weirdos!

Inside is delightful Blue, who gets your goodies and makes sure you are happy with the movies.

When we were visiting, Blue was just finishing up hosting a birthday party, and The Incredibles was showing. That was fine with us; we love Pixar!

But there is a schedule, and Sunday mornings are for cartoons. The one for today was The Owl House, one of Cousin Kestrel’s favorites. A few girls came in and settled in to watch, as well. It is about a girl named Luz who finds herself kidnapped to a magic world, and decides to stay. It is funny and true and full of cool monsters.

We settled in with a Crater Lake Root Beer, a hot chai latte, a Cabernet sauvignon, and two bowls of popcorn to enjoy the show.

I can see us spending many happy hours noshing, drinking, and watching movies at Fourth Wall. Hooray!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Vegetable Garden Progress

Dear Liza,

This past week has been a combination of showers and sun, and the garden is definitely loving it.

I planted a bunch of seeds; carrots and radishes in parallel rows, pumpkins by the ladder, and zucchini by the trellis. The radishes are up already! I will need to thin them a bit. The carrots should be poking up soon.

I strung up some shiny old cds on string as a ’bird be gone’ and they seem to be working. I love this picture of Momma’s ant figure up on the ladder, guarding the garden! Momma always said that farmers and gardeners were the most superstitious people because they never knew what worked, or why, so they just tried everything!

Of course, all of life isn’t honey, as your Baba Alla says. The Delicata squash seedling got eaten down, like the cucumbers I put in before it. I will cross my fingers for the zucchini.

Auntie Bridgett’s dahlias seem to be happy, however. Their buds are opening as they get taller, and I look forward to lots of dahlias for the table this summer.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Final Touches on Katie’s Garden

Dear Liza,

A few weeks ago, Auntie Katie and her strong, clever friends got together and got the garden at Books with Pictures planted.

There were donated plants that people transplanted from their own property, as well as plants bought from local nurseries. They made sure to get plants that will grow and do well without a lot of taking care of.

There are other things installed, as well. A small stage has been built for performances, and the beginning of a stout fence to make it feel more enclosed. There is also a cool slab cut from a big tree to use as a seat.

With such a great team, everything is coming together.

I look forward to spending some pleasant afternoons in this little piece of paradise.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The Eye of the Beholder

Dear Liza,

The art show we visited at the Portland Art Museum was mostly made up of works in the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. As I wandered through the exhibit and read the notes for these three portraits of the same woman, I was figuring out how to put some pieces in context.

Frida and Diego met the Gelmans when Natasha was an assistant to Diego and then became Frida’s friend. Knowing that Frida and Diego fought about most things, I can imagine that being in their circle was emotionally complicated.
Also, Jacques and Natasha were wealthy, and by buying their art, helped support Diego and Frida.

So these three portraits, all of Natasha Gelman, interested me. The top one (with the lilies) is Natasha as painted by Diego Rivera. He sees her as a glamorous, dreamlike, almost movie-star person. Although it features the lilies he uses in many other paintings, this glamorous woman is very different from the Mexican peasants in his other works.

Natasha’s portrait by Frida Kahlo is more realistic. It focuses on her face and is less glamorous, less “come look at me”, and shows Natasha as a bit sad. It also shows off her expensive mink coat and diamond earrings.

The third portrait of Natasha Gelman is by David Alfaro Sisquieros, an artist who was also in the Mexican Modernist group. It shows her sitting on what could almost be a throne, looking strong and detached. Thinking about how the Mexican Modernism group was working for social equality and economic justice, it makes sense that Sisquieros would see this wealthy woman as a powerful ‘other’.

I like looking at these three very different paintings of the same woman, and thinking about how artists process their world view and emotions into their art.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Visiting Frida and Diego

Dear Liza,

There has been an exhibit at our Portland Art Museum that we have been meaning to get to for months. It is called ‘Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism’. This past Friday, we took the bus downtown for our visit.

Our timing was not the best, sadly. Being nearly the last day of school for local high school kids, field trips were out in force and our normally quiet museum was loud and crowded. The teacher in me loved it and appreciated hearing the kids talk about the art; the retired lady in me just wanted them to go home.

We were introduced to the Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, in a mural being painted by local artists. Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist ( 1907-1954) was just 22 when she married the much older Diego Rivera (1886-1957) for the first time. (Yes, they got married, divorced, the re-married. It’s complicated.)

He was already an established artist and becoming internationally known. She was just starting out and for a few years was known mostly as ‘Diego’s wife’.

But her style was amazing, and she developed as an artist as the couple became more active in social justice causes in Mexico. They fought for political change after the Mexican Revolution, and social change, so workers could be more fairly treated. They used their power for good, as Auntie Bridgett likes to say.

Frida had suffered multiple injuries in a trolley crash as a young girl, and had many surgeries and years in bed trying to get well. She spent much of her time in bed painting on a special easel her father had made.

The exhibit featured lots of photographs of Frida and Diego, placing them at the center of the Mexican Modernism art movement. But for me, Frida is the most fascinating. Her sometimes-painfully honest way of putting her thoughts and feelings on canvas is like therapy, letting her sadness out and coming to terms with her difficult marriage to Diego. Their relationship was a series of changes as they tried to find a way to be with each other while staying true to themselves.

I am glad we got to visit these interesting, talented people.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Pretty Planet

Dear Liza,

The weather is getting nicer here, with just sweaters needed most days. I had to get out for a walk.

Everything is blooming! This chestnut tree is about fifteen feet tall, which means it is just a baby. The pink blossoms stand straight up, about six inches tall, and the bees love them.

Banks of rhododendrons planted in the 1920s line the sidewalks of the Sunnyside and Laurelhurst neighborhoods.

Since it is almost June, the roses that Portland is famous for have started blooming, as well. They look particularly nice when growing a bit wildly by a wonderful old house.

And, of course, it rained a bit while we were out. Not enough to be miserable, just enough to decorate the roses and remind us of what makes this part of the country so lush and green.

I got home, a bit damp, but happy to live on such a pretty planet.

Love,

Grandma Judy