someday is now

I can only tell you a few key things about what my family did this weekend:

• Date night: dinner and a dance concert.
• Sister date: the girls walked uptown on their own, twenty dollars from Dan tucked into a pocket-in-a-wallet-in-a-bag, to see Charlie Chaplin's City Lights at the independent cinema while Dan led a workshop a couple of blocks away.  My mind is a bit blown by this information and by the swelled chests around here. So much pride about the independence.
• Dishes done, supper made, happy family to greet me on my return from a weekend away...

Pittsburgh. With these beautiful people! We went to see Someday Is Now: the Art of Corita Kent at the Warhol Museum, but of course the whole trip was an adventure, inspiring and meandering.  (The adventure really began as we drove there Friday night; we spotted what might have been light pillars in the sky and pulled off onto a dark country road to get out and watch the magic. It was very very cold...and so worth the stop.)

Pittsburgh - especially in the snow - was so colorful and photogenic.  We wandered alleys, noticing textures and color, old architecture and...Christmas decorations? Eliza, looking at my photos, commented on all the words I took pictures of, which is fitting.  Kent used words she found on signage, packaging and advertisements as source material for her powerful silkscreen images. 

So, the snafu of the trip, and the reason our overnight turned blissfully into a weekend, was that minutes after we arrived at the museum, the power went out and we were ushered back into the snow. We had already decided that we were probably staying another night, and this sealed it. After catching our breath from the disappointment and worry over not getting to see the show, we relaxed into an evening of incredible Thai food and talking, talking, talking.

Shut out. So sad...

I have to say that my favorite part was walking with  my friends in the snow, laughing, noticing, delighting over the wealth of eye candy that was old Allegheny City's streets. It felt somehow in the spirit of Someday is Now, this taking time to look and see and wander.

Ah, we were so happy to be the first patrons to enter the Warhol Sunday morning. I think we all secretly worried that we would miss it completely, but it wasn't something we dared say out loud. Sigh of relief. Two hours wasn't enough but it was wonderful: Corita Kent's circus posters and her bright word serigraphs (I don't really know what else to call them, but they are a combination of image and quotes), Warhol's earlier drawings and prints, blotted line drawings and layered tracings.  I was there with two artists, so this was a rich time of exposure and learning for me as they shared observations and knowledge and we talked about what we liked.  And Tokarz and I might have squandered 10 or more minutes giggling in Silver Clouds, standing still as we could, watching the feral mylar balloons careen around us like a herd of drunken cows. It was very unsophisticated and completely awesome. We tore ourselves away to drive out of the city...

...and home. To transition from our little airbnb nest back to the rest of life, hopefully carrying thoughts and connections and kernels of a really joyful forty-eight hours with us.