PIZZA-Roman thin crust pizza

Rome is known for its typical pizza--a very thin crust pizza, typically with a red sauce and a few more ingredients.  We find that there are "blanco" pizzas widely available too with no red sauce but a skim of olive oil plus toppings. Pizza supposedly originated in Naples.  We will be going next week so I will report in.  

Now that I have confessed my enjoyment of potato pizza which I usually get as take-away, I thought I would riff a bit on the typical pizza we get when we go in to eat in a pizza restaurant.  We had some great stuff at Pizzeria Ostiense last night and fortunately I remembered to take a photo before it was all gone.

Ostiense is a neighborhood near us, just south of Testaccio on the other side of the river from where we live.  It is a trendy place for artists and especially street artists and we were there for a gallery opening last night.  After filling our eyes with art--pizza.

Pizzeria Ostiense is a basic place which has seating or take away.  So busy last evening--maybe because Friday but I think they have many customers usually.  The three pizza makers were in front by the window--3 beefy guys working as fast as they could.  They have another kitchen for other food but we were not placed to see it as well as the pizza fellows.

Our photos show the very thin crust which is typical and preferred here.  I watched the oldest pizza master carefully stretch the dough on the marble slab they use for prep, then they put on the red sauce or olive oil then anything else.  They have wide wooden paddles that slip under the pizza, then twist around to slide it into the oven at head height.  The pizzas are so thin, it takes a very short time to bake.

Our two pizzas were ready in about 15 minutes from time of order.  Here they are:  one marguerita with red sauce and fresh buffalo mozzarella, one Ostiense special with white non-sauce, peas and sausage.  They will put on whatever you want though.

Ostiense special

Thin crust on the white pizza

Marguerita with buffalo mozzarella

By the time we got here we were so hungry that we were ready to gnaw our hands so the pizza did not last long.  Then, down the street to Gelateria La Romana--another post one of these days.

ART CHALLENGE - 5th of 5 postings

This 5-day Art Challenge has been good for me, letting me review my move from 2D to 3D work. I've had a great time with it. The only fly in the ointment is, I haven't come up with any easy answers to the age-old question, what do I think I'm doing? With art-making, that is.

I seem to be moving back to 2D work, for reasons of convenience when traveling, and also to ease pressure on my somewhat damaged joints and tendons. But these aren't reasons - they're in the nature of sidestepping, a matter of work-arounds. 

Here's the top of my 3D work to date:

Dancers, the best statement I could make in glass with the materials and tools I had to work with at the time. Photo by Pete Duvall, Anything Photographic.

These are the waxes for the Dancers. Ah, how complicated and fun, to figure out how to make these female forms. You can see they derive from the Torsos below. Just add the rest of the body and the head, and hey, how about some clothes? 

Well, the depth of the kiln meant that once I allowed for the reservoir holding the glass, then a fill-tube, and the head, also the plaster of the mold, and a layer of sand and kiln-shelf and an inch of space at the bottom, there wasn't any room for the legs. I swirled the skirts to give the idea of movement in space. The waxes is a snapshot that I took in the studio before casting.

Torsos, cast in Bullseye glass. Beautiful bubbles! On the right, wiped with dark paint. I was delighted to have made them, and couldn't have gotten this far without the Washington Glass School guys.

Babies, in porcelain. Creepy, said several people, but not to my eye. I began by intending to add individual heads, for instance a different flower for each, but ended thinking they're fine as is. All different, too, though cast from the same mold. 

The advantages here include light weight and opacity, and possibly they're less fragile than glass. My mold-making skill, such as it is, got a workout with these babies. More porcelain might be in my future. To make them I was able to use the DC facilities of Novie Trump, now working at Flux Studios in Jerome AZ. And now we've moved, ourselves, and are living in Rome as I write this. 

Following is a piece that rather expresses my feelings about myself just now. Isn't that odd? It's a couple - three years old, but still says something intrinsic, with its friendly smile, erect head, snappy horns, pink nose... Uh wait, I don't have a pink nose. Hm, no rectangular irises. But I'm friendly, usually.

Friend Goat, a linoleum cut with colored pencil. 2D work is certainly its own reward. Now I'm exclusively drawing and painting, as working studios are not available to me. Rediscovering the joys of portability and perspective, and easy sketching. Watercolor isn't easy, but I'm working on it. Forward, as we say. Onward.

Winter Monday in our Neighborhood in Rome

Shredded potato pizza

Southern Trastevere, near Ponte Testaccio

from Julianne 

(Photos too, this time.  Unfortunately, you can tell by the quality.)

Sunny but cold today; a Monday in February. But we are aware of terrible storms in the US so we do not complain about 40 degrees and sunny. Well, we don't complain very much or very loudly.

So today a stroll or passagiata through our neighborhood.  My photo non-skills being what they are, I had a second stroll with our visiting friend Donna Ellefson.  A further pleasure of our stay is that friends come to visit.

We live in a quiet residential area not too far from Trastevere Train Station but out of the usual areas known by tourists.  It is a visual mix but a very convenient and comfortable neighborhood full of us and other Romans.  Not many foreigners but people are very nice to us despite our stumbles with Italian.  North of us--Trastevere just the other side (inside) of the original Roman city wall; older, more attuned to tourists and American college students. East of us--the Tiber River and Testaccio, a great area with an excellent public market and ruins of the ancient Roman port and warehouse district. West of us--Monteverdi, an upscale residential area with Roman villas and modern apartments.  We really enjoy where we live--we feel like we struck it lucky in our neighborhood and our apartment.

Our Piazza
The Piazza of our area and the main north-south street are named after Ettori Rolli.  He was a physician and botanist in Rome in the 1800's.  Many streets in our general area are named after Italians who contributed in the arts and sciences, reflecting patriotism after Italian unification in 1871. There does not seem to be any other particular geographical connection with him.  He was a palm-tree specialist and there are only pines and ginkos here.  The piazza is a block down from our building and where we wait for the bus.  It is the center of most of our economic life too--groceries, flowers, coffee, lunch, bank.  Today too, carrying on our economic life.

Today, like most nice days, Bar Willy on the NW corner of the piazza was filled with retired neighbors having their morning coffee and chat.  Today everyone is in their down jackets but many are still having coffee outside.  I usually see groups of men here--today too.  Eight men came in all together and completely filled the tiny shop. But couples and single women too. I love their coffee.  It is a regular brand--Caffe Gima--but seems even better here than other places.  They have a variety of pastries in the morning including kosher coronettos (the Italian version of croissants).  The atmosphere is red plastic tables and chairs--not your fantasy of an Italian coffee shop but the social interactions and food exceed the fantasy.  The people who usually work there and are probably the owners, appear East Asian to me but are speaking only Italian with each other and the customers.  Everyone knows each other including us who can barely converse.

A few doors down the rosticceria had their chickens ready early and some of their pizzas out on the counter too for people who wanted a slice to eat now or take home.  I love their potato pizza and it was first out today. I thought it was onion when I ordered it the first time but now look forward to something I had never heard of before--shredded potato pizza.  It seems to be thin crust (typical Roman) + olive oil + shredded potatos.  About 8x12" for 1.5 euros. The servers, probably owners, appear to be East Asian here too.  Definitely only serving Italian food though.

Donna pushed at the culinary envelope by ordering potato pizza, which she also loves but also--shredded zucchini pizza.  We think of Donna as our foodie friend and here we see this in action.  The zucchini is good too but gone before a photo could be taken.

Other Businesses we patronize 
There are an abundance of good food choices--an organic market selling artisanal everything from cheese to bread to meat to fruits and vegs.  Bakery for bread and pizza. Gelateria--taking their vacation right now.  Pastcceria selling fabulous hot chocolate these days in addition to coffee, pastries and light lunches (but not bread). Salumiere. Butchers (one kosher).  Ravioli and pasta store (kosher).  Hardware store--all the electric adapters we could need (many!). Housewares stores--commonly referred to as "Chinese stores" but some run by Bangladeshis.  Flower stand. Supermarkets--they kind of hide these in the basements in back of apartment buildings but with persistence we found the closest one. No computer stores. No phone stores.

There are other businesses--clothing, shoes, furniture, kitchen and bathroom fixtures.  Most of these seem to cater to high end customers.  We have not needed to shop in these stores.

Every Sunday morning the entire 2-3 miles of Via Ettore Rolli and Via Porta Porteunese become a giant street market with everything from antiques to socks.  We buy all our socks there but have not needed any antiques.

Another delight of the area is the abundance of excellent cafes and restaurants.  The range is from fairly upscale, destination restaurants to local Roman cuisine to coffee and sandwich bars.  We have not managed to try them all yet but so far have had no bad meals.

Back to today
Outside in the sun, parents with small children were using the play equipment today--and do most days.  Today they are so bundled in puffy coats they roll down the slide.  After school, older children will be here and also playing soccer in the open space.  Teens are here in the early evenings but also hang out at the nearby McDonalds.  (Yes, really.)

Although the piazza is very paved and modern, we have a ruin to remind us we are in a 2500 year old city.  I have no idea what it is and do not know how to figure it out.  The medallion on top indicates renaissance but there is no coat of arms to decipher. Some of the lower stone and brickwork look considerably earlier.  Then there is a 20th C. metal door set into the side.  What can it be?  Really, all over Rome bits of ancient buildings are re-used like this.  No doubt there is some sort of city office which keeps track of all the tiny ruins.  This one is fenced off and obviously protected but not big enough for a sign.  My Italian does not rise to the level of contacting a city office to allay my curiosity.

Near the ruin, the elderly women congregate daily in the morning while it is in the sun.  There are usually about 10-15 of them, some in wheelchairs.  They usually chat for an hour or so and then go home.  Maybe in summer the schedule would be different to take advantage of the shade which covers the area from about 1:30.

Dog walkers abound most times of the day.  Some of our homeless have dogs too, well cared for.

Interactions are pleasant with everyone chatting easily with everyone.  People in fur coats and homeless individuals chat while their dogs are sniffing around.  Teens and youth seem to have no edge at all and do not seem intimidating to anyone.

Pleasant vibes all around, day and night.

Fountain
There is a fountain in our piazza too but it does not have any water flow, at least at this season.  Sadly, this might be the ugliest fountain in a city with beautiful fountains.  It has 4 clear bowls, probably expected to have water flowing from one to the other.  Each bowl has its own hue of algae; only 3 have floating soccer balls.  It is so high that the balls can't be retrieved but somehow, one bowl never captures a ball.  The lights in the pavement, intended to shine up on the flowing water in the clear bowls have not been turned on that I have seen.  Some fountain has to be the worst, so I guess it is our luck.

Architecture
Architecturally, too, we do not fit the fantasy of graceful ancient buildings or Renaissance Palazzo. This area was originally built in the early 20th C. to house railway and other workers; before that it was empty ground used for wood-chopping and charcoal-making.  One of the predominant architectural styles here is of the early 20 C. derived from the Arts and Crafts movement.  It is a style I really like and I enjoy looking at the curved facades and courtyards.  One facade dates a building to the "VII Year of the Fascist Era." (That puts it about 1927-28.)  Other development in the 1970's brought the architecture of those years--we live in one of those buildings.  There is the standard 1970's visual emphasis on brick, balconies on the outside, no courtyards.  A very few new buildings build in the 2000's --white stucco--round out the mix. In all the buildings there is emphasis on greenery in courtyards, balconies, penthouses. Thus, around our piazza we have all three eras represented.  Elsewhere in Rome are Renaissance and Baroque palaces; here, we are outside the city walls and outside the area used during ancient Roman and Renaissance times.

Transportation
We use buses mostly and are getting quite adept at finding our way.  Apps plus Google maps make getting around so easy.  I have always been so good at reading maps--no longer a needed skill.  Our area is served by several buses and Tram #8--which gets us to the central Trastevere or "Centro Storico" with dispatch. From there-anywhere.  We have come to love Tram #3, also quite near;  it passes the Colosseum, aqueducts, Porto Maggiore and many bits of the original city walls.  The B line of the subway is not that far but it is so dark and underground we use it rarely. The city trains on the other hand we find entertaining and use them when feasible.  Best way to get to the Vatican or Ostia Antica.  The stations are a bit shabby but architecturally delightful--early 20th C, again.

Other infrastructure
Rome apparently has a reputation for being poorly managed and dirty.  It is not that obvious from our perspective --but we have been living in Washington, DC which has struggled to achieve average. Roads and streets are in great shape--paved every 6 months.  After the market every Sunday, big crews of city workers clean like mad so we are sparkling every Monday.  Recycling is a big thing with 5 big bins every block or so, picked up weekly or more often.  Buses and trams are new and well cared for.  Service is frequent and pretty reliable given traffic.  The water here is abundant, clean and delicious--"Good for Babies."  Air pollution is enough of a problem that there are car-free days now and again.  The banks of the river are unpleasantly trashy; we can't tell if the water is polluted.  But they are developing walking trails and walking bridges in our area so maybe the trash thing will get resolved one of these days.  The city is also safe. Pickpockets are the biggest problem most are likely to face; personal violent crime is rare.

Economics
It appears to me that the economic downturn has affected the area.  Most buildings have several units for sale and they appear to be lingering on the market.  Prices are not usually given but one half-basement, 1 bedroom unit is listed for E170,000, down from 190,000 a few months ago. Visual emphasis, even of very nice buildings, seems to be on interiors and courtyards but there are many buildings with much graffiti.  In the US I would think of this as a symptom of economic downturn but that does not necessarily hold in Europe, maybe not here.  We have a regular homeless population of about 8-10 individuals who frequent the non-paved, non-modernized section of our piazza during the daytime; completely non-threatening folks and well groomed.  (Even Italian homeless are well turned out in keeping with cultural norms, it seems.)  The stats say there is 13% unemployment overall in Italy; people say young Italians have moved to other areas of EU to find work.  We do see many young and middle age professionals at lunch around the area.  Most of the storefronts on the ground floors are occupied by what seem to be thriving businesses.  Professional services seem to be on first floors and living units above that. While we have a homeless few, most here appear to be fairly well off.  Lots of fur coats a few weeks ago when it was really cold.  Children dressed very well. Thus, a mixed area, we guess.  But everyone was out enjoying the sun today.

Dedication of a garden
Finally, today, after our grocery run, we were crossing our piazza towards home only to find a ceremony naming one section of the piazza after a famous Italian fashionista who died in about 2002. Flowers were planted, military honor guard, speeches, tv camera--all there to name the garden after Fernanda Gattinoni.  She designed clothing for famous stars--Katherine Hepburn, Gina Lollobrigida. We can't deduce why this place and time in particular and what else she may have done to be so honored.  The police honor guard were so fashionable that we speculated that she designed their uniforms. It is like the ruin--a mystery.

Tortellini with prosciutto, cheese and garlic tonight.
A nice quiet winter Monday in Rome.  That's our neighborhood.

A photo stroll

Bar Willy with neighbors gathering

Our "go-to" spot for potato pizza 

Playground with view of 1970's buildings

Via Ettore Rolli with 1920's buildings

Our "ruin" with the women's chat group

Our flower seller with the first herbs of spring

Fountain with shades of algae in bowls

Balcony in our building (not ours)

Stunningly fashionable police at dedication

ART CHALLENGE - 4th of 5 posts

Art Challenge, day 4. I'm reviewing my art production over the last 12 years, trying to tease out the common strands for my future in art. I've gotten up to the point where I started working in glass. 

Glass, my darling! Glass, often with concrete and metals, occupying me for years. Trying this, trying that. Taking advice, thankful for help, trying to find my own voice. 

The guys at The Washington Glass School did their best for me with space, advice, patience - what a bunch of champs! Even though, the more I tried, the farther I seemed to get from what I had in mind, whatever it was. 

I did a long series of dresses, figures in dresses, dresses for walls, dresses in panels, free-standing dresses. This one (above) is made from plate glass, concrete, and plaster. It's coherent because each element has a frilly portion. But for me, what about dresses? Seems retro - I never wear dresses. Nothing to work through as regards my femininity. But could this be denial? Kept puzzling about this. Kept making dresses.

Bricolage, remember that term? It means taking bits that come your way by chance, and finding in them larger meaningful patterns. Ooh, this piece, Back-to-Back, was a one-off surprise! There's a smiling face inside the bubble, if you look down from the top. I loved this, although my imagination is not actually surreal, as it turns out.

Birds, another long series. Dozens of birds. At first, I refused to call them "birds," instead calling them "bird-forms" because of course they don't refer to any specific bird species. Some of them look more like bats. But, the idea of flying, soaring, going up and beyond, that was what I was after.

In between these more sculptural attempts, I made a lot of stabs at little gift dishes, bowls, necklaces, and similar functional objects. I made a big bowl for a baptismal font, for a church in McLean, Virginia (someone else made the stand). These gestures worked out pretty well, overall. Functional is not my middle name, though. I like sculpture.

Still searching around for a voice, trying this and that. Here is a large panel based on 19-century Japanese kimono designs re-published by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Stencil and glass enamel on plate glass, with frit between the layers coming out darker than I preferred. It begins to look like I'm just playing around, like I'm not serious. I thought these were beautiful, but I thought, you know, if I want to paint, I can paint. Really. A. Lot. Easier.

Wildflowers. Step into abstraction just a tiny bit. Tempered glass bits, borosilicate rods, oil paint, concrete with a copper sleeve inside for the glass. Fun to figure out, also needing many trials. I love working in 3 dimensions. 

Picking up one of these bases with my thumb inside the copper sleeve, I wrenched a tendon in my wrist. Pain, shots, pain, surgery, and it'll never be the same. So what do I think about that? Is this a warning shot from my body, demanding I ease off on heavy lifting? 

My tendency has been to assume that if I ask it to do something, my body will respond. I've hurt myself before, notably drywalling my cottage in Seattle, but my body has always healed. Must I now admit to a need for carefulness? 

ART CHALLENGE - 3rd of 5 posts

I had to skip a day in this reposting project - yesterday was just too much! 

We went to the Villa Giulia, Rome's museum of Etruscan objects. The Etruscans preceded the Romans in Italy. They were strong from the 9th to the 3rd centuries BC, but had the misfortune to be Rome's neighbors as Rome was flexing expansionist muscles. Etruscan statuary and objects of daily life now fill the Villa Giulia. There's too much to see in one trip, so we staggered out after a few hours looking for lunch (it was 3 pm), into a downpour and a dearth of public transit. 

We walked all the way down to Piazza Venezia (pausing for pasta at a reasonable place by Piazza Popolo), and took a bus home, heavy rain still coming out of the sky as we splashed inside. Our compensation, a delicious supper of lemon chicken made by Julianne under the supervision of Donna Ellefson (our houseguest for 2 lovely weeks), and a couple glasses of wine. 

Thus no Art Challenge yesterday. Here it is today, a continuing survey and consideration of my own trajectory in art. 

ART CHALLENGE, DAY 3. I took the Glass Lovers Weekend at The Washington Glass School in 2006. Ooh, glass! These early pieces have good elements, but mainly I was learning how to work around errors. None of these pieces was made at WGS, though my tiny dresses became sculptures thanks to their suggestions and help.

The fate of my first slumped piece. it's an Elizabethan-style robe about 24" high, made at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle in an early stroke of blind luck. I didn't know enough to use museum gel to fasten it to the stand, and, back in DC, gallery floor cleaners tried to move it. Happily, they had insurance, but I was bummed!

From a workshop at Bullseye Glass Company in Portland. This is based on a drawing I had made in DC. The glass powder came out very sandpapery, and it collects dust, but I still like it, despite its anatomical issues.

After a lost-wax workshop at Pratt in Seattle, taught by the late and much-lamented Susan Balshor, I made some tiny dresses in my condo kitchen. Back in DC, the WGS guys help me imagine how to display them, and this was the first to sell, thanks to a plug from Lenny Campello.

I was thinking, I better learn how to work with glass colors. How better than flamework? I started making beads in my garage, just me and the mosquitoes. In the winter, me and 35 degrees. Work 20 minutes, go defrost 20 minutes, back to work, back to defrost, repeat as possible. This was clearly not my cup of tea. I also realized I'm not by temperament a jewelry-maker - all those tiny beads all over the floor! But I started experimenting, and this Clown is my most amusing outcome.

Onward in glass, as Art Challenge Day 4 looks at developing skill and so forth. Glass has been often frustrating for me, with my limited but developing skill set, but there have been moments of delight and real pleasure with it, too.

ART CHALLENGE - 2nd of 5 days

I'm re-posting my response to Facebook's Art Challenge here on our blog, so my friends not on FB can see the pictures too. Also so I can add more pictures. Yay! Then, a reconsideration of what I think I'm doing with art-making will have some basis in the work, not just be so theoretical.

These pictures for CHALLENGE DAY 2 are all about what medium to use for what. Colored pencil, pastel, oil, acrylic, watercolor... paper, board, canvas... do I like one better than another? Is one more expressive than the rest? Well, of course, the answer is obvious: they're all fine, and it really depends on 1) what you have to hand, 2) how you feel on the day, 3) how much time you have, and your circumstances.

So each of these pictures illustrates a different medium...

Pastel pencil on colored paper. 19th-century natural-light Galerie d'anatomic comparatif, in the Jardin des plantes, Paris. Standing for hours, with people brshing by, narrow aisles, curious children. This guy is their sample of homo sapiens sapiens. A complete skeleton, but after this much I went on to other creatures, turtles, birds, prehistoric fishes. A great museum!

Here's another pencil sketch, done on the same trip, in the Place des Vosges on a beautiful sunny day. 

First pencil, then pen, then color. I thought how loving this couple was - sitting bent over pushed into each other. Then it turned out they were playing with a cell phone, in the very early days of cell phones. Oh well.

Oil pastel on board. On 8th Street SE in DC, what used to be the offices of the Shakespeare Theater. Burgeoning with energy as I saw it. Now they've moved, but they have the picture.

And here's another oil pastel, based on a woman picking out a fish at the Maine Street SW Fish Market. Oh, it took her forever! I had plenty of time for a sketch of her, for sketching the fish, the whole thing, before she ever moved. The oil pastel is based on the pencil sketch.

Acrylic on canvas. Neptune in his fountain, in front of the Congressional Library in DC. What a great sculpture! Such attitude!

And here are a couple more acrylics, both on canvas, as I experimented with the medium, learning its advantages and limitations:

 A small picture based on a Japanese wood-block print, but brought into the present day with our green plastic lawn chair. I was playing with edges, outlining the forms of the chair and the woman.

Little boats at Daingerfield Island marina in Alexandria, VA. It was winter. It was cold. The boats were empty, waiting for spring. 

Oil painting on canvas, my last. With charcoal. On the left, a little pot that Julianne made years ago, and also two small vases from Judith Henchy. It was fun to do.

Acrylic, on plywood, a DCAAH project led by Anne Marchand for the fire-ravaged windows of The Eastern Market, in 2007. She's leaning forward at the window smiling at the construction workers repairing the building - that's the idea. But the construction workers couldn't stand the lean - they insisted on making her stand up straight, so she looked off into space with that silly smile. Oh well. I discovered I liked working with acrylic.

Watercolor on paper, I think. Or, is it thinned-down acrylic paint used like a watercolor? Does it have elements of colored pencil? It's almost life-size. Just goes to show - it's all good.

A couple more watercolors, as I was learning to handle the medium. The first is small, looking to overlap forms convincingly. The second is quite large, done in a studio session with a model at the Gage Academy in Seattle, right after I came back from Europe and didn't care. I like its loose playfulness.

And the last medium I feel comfortable with, block cuts. This one, below, is a woodcut done in a class at Smithsonian Associates, based on a news photo of dancers.

So, what to make of all these media? is one preferable? The Art Challenge continues!

by Nancy

ART CHALLENGE, 1st of 5 postings

Is there any reason to make art? Why not just sit around with our wine and our friends and chat or watch tv? What does the art we do, do for us? What's it FOR? Does it mean something in our lives? Why do we do it, what do we want to say? Hm - do we actually have anything to say? IS there anything to say, in the long run? Why are we so BUSY?

These are hard questions for most people who make art, and get all mixed up with making money, impressing people, and justifying our habits. Or maybe it's only hard for me?

Anyway, I've tried to get a handle on this stuff for some time by looking at lots of art, reading about artists' lives, and yes, even trying to read actual philosophy by philosophers (not so easy, folks). Here's yet another way to tackle the issue - the Art Challenge.

The Art Challenge is a thread going around on Facebook, letting artists post images of their work without bowing to the day-to-day of life. No photos of sunsets, supper with friends, or kids, no cat videos, no comments on football, religion, or politics. Just the work, and your comments on it. You have to be invited.

At the end of January my friend Ellen Cornett, a wonderful pastel artist, asked me to join in. Many artists have used this challenge to review their work over time, a fine idea and one that I can follow because I have flash drives with all my images from the beginning of the world, so to speak, in other words from the first pictures of mine to be photographed.

I've been all over the map, in space and in art, and it feels good to look for threads linking my art-making together (if I can find them). Is there any there there?

There, there, don't worry. I've been posting every day, and it soon will be over. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who aren't on Facebook, so I'm reprising my Challenge postings here. Also, I can stick in more pictures. Whee!

At the end of the 5th Challenge I'll try to map out what I think I'm doing with art-making, and what comes next.

CHALLENGE DAY 1. I had a great time going through my thumb-drive archives. I had been painting in oils in Seattle, but by 2004 I was living in Washington DC and trying to find my footing in a new place. Sketching at every opportunity, trying new media. Here are some lively sketches from those times. I have hundreds, these are a few for your amusement.

Girl on the bus in Seattle. People have really original dress in Seattle, or used to, maybe it's more corporate now and we'll have to visit Portland to find weird.

Isn't he a jazz musician in Washington? Hm. I seem to remember a benefit performance at the African American Civil War Museum, for refugees from Katrina. I'm thinking that's him. Julianne remembers the event, too.

Oh, the oompah band in Oslo, Norway. Charming young guys just marching around in the summertime. 2004.

There we were sitting outside a laudromat in Oslo, and I'm sketching. Kitty had left her hat on the bus and was feeling sad. Along came a bus, which stopped - no bus stop anywhere near. The driver leaned out the window with the hat! Go Oslo! These are passersby, 2004.

Jazz Night in Southwest, at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, on I Street SW. Every Friday night. Fish supper. Pretty good time is had by all, and it helped me get comfortable in DC. Still going strong after all these years. This sketch 2003.

By Nancy