Center Gallery Show of David Herbst

Please join me at the Center Gallery located in the Katonah Art Center on 6/5/10 from 4-7pm

David Herbst is an abstract expressionist painter who lives and works in Bedford New York. He studied at Cooper Union, NYU and Hunter College. He studied with both Tony Smith and Ad Reinhardt. He was a high school art teacher in the New York City Public Schools from 1963 until he retired in 1988 due to a life altering disability.

With his mobility and communications skills taken from him, David now sees art as a way of expressing himself. His paintings are done in acrylic and often incorporate collage. Although he is disabled, through his mastery of color relations, shape and form, his work is more than a way of expressing himself. David combines the stylistic legacy of his teachers with the formal inventiveness of Roy Lichtenstein s collages to carry forward a tradition that he learnt early in his career.

His artwork has been reviewed in several publications and received the first place prize at the Katonah Beaux Art Exhibition in 2009.

Really, you want me to drive to Michigan...this sunday????

okay, its not really Michigan but it may as well be...my kid has a double header, baseball in some town 80 miles from here which entails crossing a river over a skinny bridge, driving up a windy road that looks like Pacific Coast Highway to a dusty baseball field where hopefully the boys will not get mercied by boys that are 12 years old and 6 feet tall....yes go 30 miles north of here, like last weekend at 8:30 in the morning and the boys got mercied 23 to 2 and 12 to 1...YIKES!!! only good news...i picked up some sun and got to stop at a great craft shop....seriously you give me the name of ONE...all i need is one professional baseball player that is from suburban westchester and i might think that there is a possibility that driving 160 miles on a Sunday might be worth it...but really these kids are short, cute and nice...but short and not going to the pros...i know it is so nice to think they might...but really where is the motivation...they have fancy cars, nice homes, mostly go to private school...in fact most of them have iphones.....really the major leagues...i think not...but it is my pleasure to watch them play ball...i yell and scream encouragingly...i focus and actually keep track of pitch counts and know what 'protect the plate' and other silly saying means...but really 160 miles on a Sunday for a U12 ball game...i think not.

Happy Earth Day, Mother Earth...

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why not say no

i'm not ready to drop the NO thing...the more people i talk to the more i realize folks just don't say NO and then just belly ache about the consequences....why suffer...know when to say NO...how can you be the best you if everything you are doing is out of quilt and insecurity...who is benefiting...while the people who have convinced you that it is in your best interest to say YES to them...you can't say NO to your kids...they are not your friends..they will benefit from learning boundaries and the art of NO you can't have this, do that, go there...but NO...you say YES...do, go, have...yikes it all leads to over indulged kids...who are nasty and spoiled and un- appreciative since you never say NO...your kids will love you even if you say NO and your friends will respect you if  you say NO...and frankly if they don't then as the old adage goes they are not really your friends...

The Freedom of NO

I just read a simple tweet ( @TheDaringWoman) that mentioned saying NO...so many people just refuse to say no...i take it as a personal affront...seriously who can't say no and why does it bother me so much that they wont. I don't like to have to say no...i feel like i am letting someone down...i figured why say NO just cram one more thing into my day...i'll try to say yes and rearrange my day to accommodate...but saying NO is just so much more rewarding and liberating...there is a thrill do accomplishing a great deal in your day...eight trips across 287...a trip to the Dr....blood test...food...and a dinner date...BUT...saying NO is great...i value my time...i give plenty and saying NO shows the respect i have for myself...i am self centered but not selfish...saying NO is much more about me than anything else...but why does it irk my when someone else says yes..."i will drive"..."i will chaperon"..."i will...i will...i will"...what are they thinking...no one can do it other than 'me'...'i' need to be involved involved in EVERYTHING...'i' have nothing better to do...get a life...say yes once in a while...but respect yourself and so NO...and if you say yes...please, please don't complain about everything you have to do...i am too self centered to be bothered by your self created troubles...but when you crash and burn i will be there to get you a cup of coffee and give you a break...xox. lbw

Reply All Sucks

Really you want me to play on your team but shouted out to the entire distribution list that i dropped out!! seriously where did you come from...Reply All is the most passive aggressive form of communication. First off on a practical note it crams up my email and i really don't care what most people have to say on why and why not this that or the other thing...do you really need to let everybody know that your kid was invited to sally or jonny's birthday party but has chosen a better offer...really like we care...to date i have simply found Reply All just annoying...last week however the Reply All was directed at me...I said i would join the a woman's sports team at my club...i made this decision back in the fall...a lifetime ago...before i knew what works and my high school and middle school kids would have for me on their spring agenda (subject for another post) and what would be going on with work...so now it comes down to it...commitment time, pick which matches you can play in...i give it a great deal of thought...including the fact that blackberry communication is strictly prohibited...i cant play if i can't blackberry...just a fact of my life...so i send a lovely note to the sender, and only the sender...thanking her for the efforts, saying that i have lots going on and simply to much to jungle to commit and that the commitment is making my anxious...blah, blah, blah...what i was expecting at a minimum was a polite 'thank you anyway' and on a good day i thought some acknowledgment of understanding (since the person on the other end of the email is enough older that i thought she might get where i am in my lift) Instead i became of victim of the Reply All...she sends a note to the entire distribution list telling everyone that i have dropped out and now they need some heroes to make up for my absence...Now frankly on a practical note they needed heroes before...and had i played i would have been one of the heroes...but now i am just  chopped liver and new heroes are needed...so why are the other folks on the distribution list not being taken to task they were not stepping up to fill the open spots...why not a replay all about each person...why me...well i am doing a Reply All to you mrs. sender...i don't like your reply all...it was mean and unnecessary...you hurt my feelings and as a leader myself i would never treat my potential members that way in front of other members...we don't want to be afraid of you we want to play with you and have you champion us...thanks for the Reply All and please keep me on your distribution list!!!

Picking Nursery School...OYYYYY

It started way back when...when i needed to pick a nursery school...yikes you would have thought my decision has something to do with anything....I was working full time...which was a crime to some. Although now i have decided that my stance is simply...thanks to the feminist movement woman have a right to choose...to stay home, to work outside the home or to figure out some other situation that works...so for me at that point...15 years ago i was working...full time, traveling, having fun working and watching my little crazy hair Einstein boy do funny baby tricks....and when my husband and I got board of this we were either having or going to fantastic dinner parties, the intimate way to meet and hang with other new suburbanites...yikes i am yawing just trying to recall all the fun we had at those parties... i actually by no twist of fate just simple ok that will be fine ism wound up living in the same sleepy, non-descript town i grew up in...but did not go to school in...yes i went to private school even though my parents were paying ridiculous taxes for what was and still is touted as one of the best school districts in the country...which i now do myself...yes taxes and tuition for both our boys...So back to nursery school...ooyyyyy the input i got which i never asked for...do they have lunch, is there an extended day, do they get homework...seriosuly homework...oh and you must get Fran and Flo and Mary or else little Einstein might not get the most out of his experience...what experience...all the kid wanted to do was get out of the house, away from the nanny and find a 2.5 year old girl to flirt with...now that is an experience...not to mention that my little nursery school also offered tot shabott...so every few Fridays i got to come to school, eat some challah and light the candles...nursery schools and day camps...they are all within 5 degrees of each other or would no longer exist...so experience or not i picked the one where i knew a couple of people, felt like i was someones mother and moved right along...

Seriously, get on board because the rules are for real

With a college and graduate degree replace by certificates moms find themselves in the suburbs trying to navigate a landscape more dangerous than the desert without water. You innocently put your kid in a stroller and find yourself trying to keep up with a vaporous unknown...The Suburban Rules...They are unwritten, held close by each new crop of transplants, vary slightly from town to town and deeply regarded...dare to break them and you will be up against the wrath of the alpha mom. The rules affect you, your family, your kids, your nanny and all the decisions you never thought you would need to make. These rules are not brand specific, it is a category issues...once established in suburbia woman are looking for boundaries and throw up the rules to make themselves feel better while keeping the newbies at bay and deciding who gets to play and who is on the bench and who frankly needs to go back to the minor league for some practice.

20 years in the same small suburban town and i have been on all sides of the rules. Slightly irreverent and never mean I am somewhat perversely fascinated with the machinations of what woman sitting at the coffee shop devise in an effort to promote themselves and their offspring. The rules are about social currency, the affect every decision you make, whether you know it or not and the faithful will use them as a guideline to scrutinize everything about you and your family.

No soap radio

...or in my case...no blackberry because when i was going through a pile of my watercolor paintings a bar of soap fell and landed on my storm LCD...i actually went to pick up the bar of soap first because it is from the Presents For Purpose inventory and i wanted to make sure it was okay...only to notice the deep spider like cracks weaving themselves through my touch screen...i have to say i put in a claim...quick and easy...and my new device is supposed to arrive by tuesday....

so happy that spring is in the air...i was really hoping to play some golf this weekend but given the fact that our course has been under water for about a month now i don't think really golf will happen 'til next week...oh and it is going to rain again. I have taken the past few weeks to really crank out the artwork...so happy that i am getting into my grove...i have even been turning down dinner plans to hang at home with my hubby and work on my projects. I am working on textures for backgrounds and trees...anyway back to the weekend...tennis, tennis, baseball...and next week both of my wonderful boys go back to school...ah i will really be able to work.

In the meantime do some good and dont forget about autism awareness month - you can visit www.presentsforpurpose.com and help support autism speaks with our wonderful bracelet by ekdesigns