"Walking curiosity"

Right after I posted the link to my first lecture in Chicago in a couple of weeks (less!), I got the poster for my second, more public talk. Fun. Today was the last of my doctor's appointments and somehow I pumped out two apps, one before and one after. Earlier this week, a new doctor told me that I am a walking curiosity because of this new but probably permanent condition. It isn't grave (though the doctors in Korea had me in the most fear I have ever had about my health) but I have used it as a big wake-up call to make changes and take better care of myself.

On a last-minute whim sent by a former student, I visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to see Xu Bing's phoenixes. Apt, because a lot of the changes I am making are very much in the vein of a rising phoenix (though I am still a bit in the phase where I burn everything down to make way for something new that I may not even be able to imagine).

Then I saw a dear former teacher/close confidante, rushed in and out of an art show, and rushed home because I am tired and didn't want to be on my feet any longer (I spent and hour walking around in the cold today to kill time between dates). This is after I decided to turn my solo show this fall at the Morgan into a two-person exhibit, with the bright and hardworking Kristen Martincic. We met last summer at Penland when each of us was teaching and she sent many students my way to buy the hanji we had produced in Cleveland. I love her work, want to see more in person, and think that our work would speak well with each other. She is also a Cleveland-area native and her themes right now are water, pools, and these transparent blues that she prints that I look at every night before I go to bed.

I should go to bed now. Packing will have to wait for morning! I'll be glad to fly back but this was a good trip, second opinions and all.