Family Day with Reta

Bill and I always enjoy the bus ride to St Catharines.

The different kinds of light and all the reflections are always fascinating.

We've become friendly with Randy, our driver.

 Randy knows that Bill is an illustrator. When he asked Bill how the job was going Bill told him his new book, Tommy's Angel,  had just been published and showed him the copy he'd brought to show his mother. Randy loved it and then the woman sitting behind Bill asked to see it, then two Brock students had a look. The woman behind Bill said, "Now we've had our morning devotion."

We got underway. The onramp to the Gardiner Expressway makes me feel urban.

Bill and I like to sit up front where we can watch the action.

Lots of snow in St Catharines. 

As usual Bill was drawn to the houses. 

We found Reta in fine form and sporting a new do.

She posed for her close-ups before we went down to lunch. 

Then it was time for wine, movie and conversation. Try and get a word in edgewise in this group!

We finished the day with fish and chips at the Heritage Restaurant -- a family favourite.

Meanwhile, back at MOMA

 After a busy New York morning in the fall of 2012 Bill and I arrived at the Museum of Modern Art hungry. We paid our entrance fee and walked straight past the art to their great cafeteria.

We split this chickpea, beet and mesclun salad

and this delicious sausage and rigatoni pasta dish. We can't look at art on an empty stomach.

 Nice display of bentwood furniture. Must be mostly sixties designs.

We had a good look at this new purchase of de Kooning drawings too.

 That's Bill with an early Alexander Calder mobile; Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, 1939.

The Century of the Child show on the top floor

was both fun and eccentric.

Bill's view from the MOMA escalator. 

We always visit the 4th floor Twentieth Century art galleries. Here's Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907.

 and here, Henri Rouseau's The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897.

We always enjoy the many views from floor to floor created by Yoshio Tanaguchi's renovation.

 Bill and I are new to the work of Christopher Wool. Nice oil on linen painting, Untitled, 2007, over the MOMA members' information desk.

 Deiter Roth had much of his home life videotaped as an art piece in Solo Scenes, 1997-98.

Roth died in 1998.

Keith Haring's long ink drawing, Untitled, 1982 and Jeff Koons' Three Ball 50/50 Tank, 1985 in the Contemporary Galleries.

                            

Senga Nengudi's R.S.V.P.1, 1977, is made of panty hose and sand.

Another Christopher Wool on our way out.  MOMA has been featuring him lately. Hope you enjoyed our little stroll through this gem of a museum.

Reta's 93rd Birthday

 The Burlington Skyway was gloomy and wet when John and I rode over it on our way to St Catharines to celebrate my mother's 93rd birthday.

But things brightened up immediately when we joined the glowing birthday girl for lunch in the dining room of Niagara Gardens Retirement Manor.

Reta is wearing our birthday gift, a brooch made by Toronto jewelry designer, Andrea Nellis.

The food and service in the Niagara Gardens dining room is great and we were soon having our usual good time.

Back in Reta's room, Mom and I discussed some financial matters before John opened the champagne and then we tucked into ginger/saffron cookies from Clafouti and dark chocolate from Ikea.

 We watched Wes Anderson's delightful pre-teen love story, Moonrise Kingdom. It fit our mood perfectly.

When my sister-in-law, Merla, and my sister, Kathy, and her hubbie, Brian arrived we whisked off to a favourite family restaurant, Fortis, for hearty birthday fare. Happy Birthday, Reta!!

36 Bourgeois Drawings

Bill and I came up the escalator at the Museum of Modern Art and were pleased to see this installation of drawings by Louis Bourgeois.  

We weren't familiar with this series -- The Fragile, 2007.

Archival dyes on fabric.

The MOMA website has uploaded a great collection of Bourgeois drawings.