"Let Them Eat Cake"

If you are like me, you make art museums and art shows a destination and you seek them out when you travel for other reasons. Coffee mugs are my link to the show and the artist...I love coffee and art so I make it a point to visit the gift shop in the hope of adding one more mug to my collection.

Recently a recipe for 5 Minute Chocolate Cake in a mug appeared in my in-box, courtesy of a fellow artist and chocolate lover. Of course I tried it and of course I ate it. My recommendation is to top it with whipped cream and a chocolate kiss. Care for the recipe?

Mix 4 T each of flour and sugar in mug
Add 2 T cocoa + 1 egg and mix thoroughly
Add 3 T each of milk, oil and chocolate chips + splash of vanilla
Mix a lot and place in micro wave on High
Try not to panic as it rises over the top of the mug.
Cool a little and EAT.

My mugs have reminded me of artists and their shows and they are fun to have for friends who share mt love of the brew. Simply query: "Modigliani or van Gogh"? Then pour a cup.



It occurred to me that using my mugs of cake could make for interesting dining conversation. I plan to use them when our small critique group meets at my studio. We can share ideas about the artists and eat chocolate at the same time.

My New Room is In

HoooRay!

Just received word that Room Painting #5, Room With A City View, has been accepted in the American Juried Art Salon's spring show. It was completed about two weeks ago and is part of an ongoing Room Series.

Details and a URL for the on-line exhibition will come later. The Room Series has been one I return to when I just want to have fun and paint something outrageous. Now I am considering an "outrageous summer". Good Idea?

"Gimmick" or Mirror of Our Times

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Recycling into Art

Meet “Daisy”, an “art doll” created from throw away stuff: quilter’s scraps, a champagne cork, a paper towel core, assorted leavings of one sort or another. She came to be in an artist retreat and has been decorating my studio for a time. Daisy is a doll (and I love her) but is she art. Would you put her on a pedestal in hoYOUR home?

Recycling is a hallmark of our age. Should our art reflect this aspect of our times or does doing so “unart” the result.

A similar thought occurred to me as I considered the violin pictured on the April 23 post below. While painting this defined object I felt like I was baking with a cake mix. On the other hand most of us today do bake with mixes. Are our cakes still cakes? Painting the violin was so much fun that if someone had given me a batch of them instead of just one, I would be painting them still. Are having fun and making real art so mutually exclusive?

These are my musings on a sunny Saturday. Thoughts welcome from fellow musers.