Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Work and other forms of art


I am sitting in front of the big window doing my work, while listening to my daughter at the end of the table, talking to her coworkers and bosses on an external relations video conferencing call, updating them on the million-dollars in sponsorships she has brought in since their last meeting. She impresses the heck out of me! Who is this accomplished hardworking woman, rattling off fundraising successes while also making sure to thank colleagues who helped make introductions or who otherwise facilitated her wins? I can see why they promoted her from assistant to coordinator to manager in less than three years, and agreed to let her work remotely from Boston while her love is in grad school there. I'd want to keep this one on my team too.


As you've probably gathered, our girl is with us now, our coworker for the week. Her guy and their sweet puppy Munch also spent the weekend here, mostly watching Olympics and vociferously cheering with us. We all have our favorite athletes and events. The twenty somethings packed up their summer apartment on Saturday and my husband helped them cart all their things here, one of their way stations for the month of August before they both head back to Boston for the fall. The photo is of Munch and his paw-rents posing with his doggy school graduation certificate. Apparently, when treats were involved, he crushed his Saturday morning puppy training classes in the park. As his other grandmother said when she saw the picture, "Munch's parents are button-poppin' proud." 

My daughter's sweetheart is now upstate with his mom for a spell, along with one half of their summer belongings, and puppy Munch, too, as my girl will be traveling soon—if her PCR test for covid comes back negative that is. She was lying on the couch watching track and field on Sunday eve when a text came in from a friend she'd had dinner with ten days ago. The friend, though fully vaccinated, had just tested positive for Covid. She had no symptoms, but was doing the responsible thing and contract tracing everyone, after being contact traced herself. My daughter left the house at once to go to City MD for both a rapid test and a PCR test. The line of people waiting to do the same on a Sunday night was around the block—strong first-hand evidence of the Delta variant making itself known. 

Our girl's rapid test was negative, so was her boyfriend's. But we are all now quarantined inside waiting for the results of the more reliable second test. I trust it too will be negative, but if it isn't, our girl will have to miss the bachelorette party in Miami this weekend and the cross country trip with her former college roommate next week. As ambivalent as I have professed to be about these plans, I don't want her to have to miss out on these passages with friends.


Okay, back to work. I’m editing a fantastic proposal about a seminal American artist whose name was somehow not well known. Not unrelated, one of my daughter's high school friends is now living and painting in Spain, and she is a huge talent. That’s a piece she's currently working on, that my girl was rhapsodizing over on Instagram. The artist is Tuere Lawton. I want to do my part to ensure that the world knows her name, because I honestly believe she will be a seminal American artist too.

 
This morning, she posted on IG that since she needed to eat this month, she was having a studio sale, I jumped at the chance to buy one of her art pieces. I would have bought one of her paintings, but those went as soon as she posted them. So I bought this beautiful graphite study she did of a man on a horse. She's flying to New York City next week to see her mom, and will deliver the framed drawing to me then. I hope it’s the first of many of her works I will buy in years to come. Artists need sponsors, which makes me wish I were fabulously wealthy and could be a silent benefactor of many of them. I think of two of my cousins, the walls of whose homes are covered with vibrant original canvasses and breathtaking one-of-a-kind pieces. Like that.

Last thing: Simone Biles won broze in the beam event final this morning. I was up at 4:50 AM, watching it live. She looked steady, and most of all joyful. She did a beautiful routine, though it's degree of difficultly was downgraded when she switched out her usual crazy-hard double twisting double tuck dismount—known as "the Biles," one of four skills named after her, that only she has ever done in competition—in favor of a simpler double pike dismount, which requires flips instead of twists. The two Chinese gymnasts therefore ended up with higher degree of difficulty routines, and they performed beautifully, too, taking gold and silver. But every member of the American women's artistic gymnastics team is going home with a medal, or two, or three. This Olympic team is one for the history books. I can't wait for the feel-good movie about how it went down.


12 comments:

  1. I heard today that she said she is prouder of this medal than any others.

    I hope your daughter's test comes back negative. my state, Texas, and Florida account for a full third of the new infections. yay us. and as a result our idiot governor signed an executive order outlawing mask and vaccination mandates by private businesses. you can request but you can't deny entry to the maskless and unvaccinated. there was a notice on the local chat board on FB by the county emergency management department that the delta variant has made its way to our county. and of course the idiot residents here don't think they need to get vaccinated.

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  2. Yours is the third family I know of this week that is in quarantine. This Delta Variant is ruthless. I hope everyone's tests come back negative and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
    The painting is beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's on your wall.
    Simone Biles is a role model of strength and knowing her boundaries. I applaud her in every way.
    Stay safe and careful there.

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  3. Good grief. I'm now starting to wonder if we've lost our minds moving in the time of the Delta variant. It doesn't matter, we're going, but I so wish Utah was not on the route. Here's hoping you're all negative.
    If you can discuss it, what made the friend get tested? Are people getting routinely tested now in New York? I wonder should I get tested. We're double masking again, which is really uncomfortable since it's back in the 100s. Aaaargh.

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    1. Allison, she got tested because someone she'd been with the day before she saw my daughter, called and told her she'd tested positive.

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  4. With the Delta variant, it seems like we are back to square one except it is worse because so many think it is over and done so are traveling, not masking etc. Hospitals are full again. We may want it to be over but it is worse than ever.

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  5. I saw Simone on the beam yesterday. A lot of gymnastics is terrifying to watch, especially the beam work. So pleased that she felt able to compete again and glad that she didn't push herself to do something she felt dangerous for her!

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  6. PS Hope that none of you get the virus.

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  7. I hope all of your tests come back negative, again. Our esteemed (read moronic) leader has decided that there should be no more quaratines and no more contact tracing, except for high risk people. Of course numbers are starting to climb again.

    Enjoy your time with your daughter. The photos are lovely.

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  8. Tuere's works is amazing! I wish her much luck in her life- she already has the talent.
    I don't think I could ever work with someone across the table making work calls. How do you do it? You must have an astounding ability to concentrate.
    Now. May your daughter's test come back negative and may she be safe on her journey. This is all so very difficult on all of us. As much as we have learned, there is still so much we do not know about this virus. Our worries here are centered on the grandchildren. Do they go back to school or do their parents home school them? How do you know that you are making the right choice?
    We can't. And learning to live with that is what, I suppose, we have to do.
    Stay well, dear friend.

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  9. ¡Guau! Wow! Tuere Lawton's painting. I went to her website to see more.
    Love the drawing of hers that you chose.

    Sweet triple portrait of your daughter, Munch, and your daughter's beloved, reminding me how dear our animal companions are to us.

    Blogging is an art form I have come to treasure. I see each blog in this blogging community as a work of art.

    I find it sobering to awaken to the fact that COVID is not going away anytime soon. We've entered a new era.

    Thank you for the comment at my blog in which you mentioned Maire Kurrick. I eventually found her under the name Maire Jaanus. So many rich connections.

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  10. That's a beautiful painting -- and the graphite study is wonderful, too. You will be glad you made this purchase! (I know you are already.) I hope everything works out for your daughter. I'm sure it will. Meanwhile I'm glad you're spending some time with her and congrats to Munch for his certificate! (Olga is the same way -- she is HIGHLY motivated by treats!)

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