A New Leaf: Week 13 Opening

Sailing along. I’m feeling in the groove with how and what I eat and slowly starting to incorporate more inspired recipes. I’ll include them as I find keepers. It was my daughter’s birthday and I turned away the delectable-looking sweets at her celebratory dinner, but I consumed a popover, made at her request, the next morning. The recipe calls for hardly any sugar and I even reduced that amount by a bit. I felt mostly fine but by Monday I had a headache. I experienced pain between my shoulder blades into my lower neck that lasted for the rest of the week. Could it be from the sugar after three months off? The headache part could have been from the dinner eaten out. As delicious as it was, it was stew-like and upon reflection they probably used celery which I find gives me headaches.

But otherwise, this process of healing my gut (because that’s really what links the health in the body) is leading to openings and shifts in other realms. An opening of clarity. An opening of presence practice. An opening of self-worth. And subsequently, an opening of movement in practices long dormant. Getting back to my artist-self. Hallelujah!Starting the watercolor I mentioned the inspiration for in the previous post.I made elissa goodman’s Creamy Watercress, Pea and Mint Soup which was a hit! I had to use green split peas as green peas are on my high histamine list but it was lovely just the same. The fresh mint is a welcome lift.I attended Cecily Brown’s lecture at The MET. So inspiring to hear the inner motivations of a working artist.Here’s a great article whereby New York Times art critic Roberta Smith’s opinion of Brown’s work changed with more exposure to the current show at The MET. The message, as Georgia O’Keeffe liked to iterate, is that we must slow down to really see. A good motto for everything in life.The tent for the MET Gala tonight was ready on Friday when I was there.The leaves have finally popped here in NYC.Our old laundry has been transformed into a lovely light cave of a restaurant. We see it from our kitchen window, and I am warmed by the glowing light at night that greets my dish-washing experience and transforms an old, dark, neglected corner. I love the continuance of the curved ceiling from an earlier extension and the half exposed beams in the new space. I love a work that incorporates a bit of the underpinnings, the bones.

Watercolor is a newer medium for me but I am loving the restraint and a process that feels like I am working in reverse, one that counterintuitively begins with leaving the lightest spaces blank and filling to the dark spaces.

iPhone snaps Beth Horta for Sweet Sabelle.