check out these found objects! an installation by colombian sculptor doris salcedo for the 2003 istanbul biennale. the piece used more than 1550 wooden chairs tumbled and stacked between two buildings. i am seriously crushed out on her work. the sheer mass of it, for one and then the gorgeous subtle range of color that reads like textile to me. thanks to design sponge the fantastic link to artist doris salcedo this morning. 

my new issue of vogue magazine arrived yesterday, but i didn't get to crack it open until i got home from work at 11 pm. it's amazing what is coming down the runway this spring, i feel like i'm in a time warp, straight back to my junior year of high school! (that would be 1983, but who's counting?) the color combos are especially striking to my eyes -as they have not shown yellow and gray together at all in the years since then. i actually love this particular color combo and am always drawn to it -as evidence i give you this photo, taken last week of my neighbor's hedge. the intense yellow with the smoky gray is really beautiful. i've been walking by it for two years, admiring it's weirdness. no other hedges i've seen are these two plants mixed together, the effect is stunning. a conventional professional landscaper might say it looks messy, but i love it. now, as to the smock tops and bubble skirts on the runway, yuck! is all i have to say. smock tops and dresses look chic on exactly nobody, in my opinion. the bubble skirt, well maybe on teenagers. as is often the case with runway fashion, i am inspired by the colors and textures, yet the shapes do nothing for me. but this hedge? now that gets me going.

it's raining today, at times quite the downpour. sometimes the rain is lovely, but today, not so much. mia and i are completely unmotivated to stir from the apartment. i keep looking out the window, she refuses even that and is just curled up on the couch. you would think being "stuck" inside would inspire at the least, housework getting done. but alas, a great wave of lethargy has drowned all those ambitions. thank goodness for the night job, or this day would be a complete wash.

so the truth is, even though the birds are singing in the trees and  flowers seem to be opening before my very eyes these days, i am nearly glued to my computer screen and my map of athens, greece. studying it and trying to get someone, anyone at a hotel  to email me back about a room. the good, cheap rooms fill up way ahead in the city that never sleeps.  i am stressing about getting that little detail of where i will sleep settled. i'll be in athens for 3 days and nights at the end of my trip in april, just enough time to soak in the ancient history, (including a whole museum of jewelry, people!) check out the up-and-coming contemporary art scene and shop, shop, shop. flea markets and spice shops. blocks of shoe stores all together in a row. open air flower markets. and some serious loafing about at cafes. what is vacation but days and days with drinks at any time and no rules, no lists, no schedule to mind - and one of my favorite things about travelling solo in a foreign country - no conversations (even overheard) you have to engage in, the language flows over and around you like music. when you want to talk, there are interesting choices, different and fresh from those in the everyday routine of work. because both my day job and my night job are people-intensive, i crave a deep rest from the superfical social relationships of customer service. and i've always been very fond of my own company, a good thing for a girl planning on quitting those two jobs and just doing the studio.