Tim drove down from Oneonta, NY to pick up the two litho stones that we've had for a number of years. We showed him around since he hadn't been here for quite a while. It was good to see him and we had a nice visit. (See next entry)]]> I called Simon and asked if he was available to come over for a couple of hours because Tim Sheesley was coming to pick up his Litho Stones. Because they are rather heavy I thought Tim could use Simon's help. So Simon came over, the stones were moved, and he went home.]]> Geri Wilboutt (I am not sure of the spelling for her last name because I could not read my handwriting.) came by to canvas for Antonio Delgado, Karen Smythe, Didi Barrett. Coincidentally I had gotten home from canvassing for the same people. This was the first time I had done this. I had to go to Karen Smythe's campaign office in Hyde Park to get my instructions. It didn't start out all that smoothly since it took me a while to find the office. I was given a special app for my phone which had on it the list of addresses and people that I was supposed to talk to. Also on that app was a place to indicate whether they were home or not, as well as rating their responses for voting for these candidates. There was also a place for notes for each person which I took full advantage of. I started out from the office and immediately couldn't find the first address, but soonish I did. I went to a couple of addresses before I decided I should go back home to get my asthma spray since I needed it and couldn't concentrate on what I was doing with the possibility of an asthma attack looming, So I restarted and managed to visit about half the people on my list before I pooped out. The app also has the capability of letting campaign headquarters know who I had seen. The experience was reasonably interesting, but I am not sure accomplished very much.]]> It's 10:52 am, and since Simon gets here at 10, we haven't accomplished that much yet. So far he has done his regular morning chores, including making coffee, which I'm drinking right now. Clearly we are also working right now on this site. Our plans for today are not settled, but I did ask Simon to throw away the bat that died in my Dutch Barn Studio. The reason I am waiting for that to be done until after lunch is because that's when animal control opens.]]> Referencing Mary Ping's talk and dinner at Vassar College.]]> Maria cleaned the house.]]> Simon stopped at the supermarket on the way here to get some stuff we needed. When he got here he first did his regular chores. The three of us (Catherine, Me, and Simon) spent a few hours cleaning out my closet. I kept putting off doing this because I hate doing this. Cathy (Murphy) is at the beginning of working out a new idea for a new painting and needed transparent garbage bags full of clothes and figured we would be ditching some of my clothes from the closet. Simon sharpened some pencils before we had lunch. After lunch Simon Vacuumed my studio in the Dutch Barn and removed the plastic coverings. Emily Harvey is coming over on Sunday and I plan on showing her the studio. When that was done we got to work here on the site.]]> Maria came to clean.]]> Darren and Jean worked in the garden.]]> In 1996 I completed a commission, "Four Houses" at Rockland Community College. Emily was on the committee for choosing the work and was teaching art history at that time at Rockland. She has lately been in communication with me about damage that the work has sustained. The damage seemed to be both plant incursion and weather related. A few years ago the college and arts counsel did some repairs on the sculptures, it seems that the repairs were not very good. Now the work needs to be better repaired or taken down. Neither the college nor the arts counsel has any funds for the repairs. I told Emily I would ask the foundation grants person at Vassar if he might have any leads for funding. Emily was up in Red Oaks Mill to buy a computer. She had also wanted to visit the Vassar Campus ( where she had gone to school.) She had not been to the campus for quite some time. I invited them to come visit while they were so close. So they did and amongst other things we discussed the possible future of "Four Houses".]]> Simon came to work.]]> These three young women came to canvas for Delgado for congress. I had done the same thing the week before.]]> Tim came over to install the brace on my new sculpture to correct some warpage and to keep it from warping anymore.]]> Jose and Junior came over to install the carpeting on the prop stairs that Catherine (Murphy) is going to use for a painting.]]> Simon did various things while he was here.]]> Darren came to work in the garden for the last time this winter. In mid November he, Jean and Aliyah are going to the Philippines. The plan is for Darren to stay a month and for Jean and Aliyah to stay longer. While here he planted bulbs and cut down dead plants.]]> Simon did a number of things that day, he ( and Darren) moved the table from the patio into the garage. He vacuumed in my Dutch Barn Studio because I thought i was expecting business company the next day, but it turned out to be the next week. He also used the leaf blower to blow the leaves off the patio. There was some other stuff, but I can't remember at this point what they might have been.]]> Maria had gotten home from vacation on Thursday. She got to JFK at 6 o'clock and didn't get home until 12 midnight, because of the bad snow storm we had that evening. She had gone to Aruba for a couple of weeks. She was very tan and said she had a terrific time.]]> After he did his regular stuff, Simon and I went over to school to make a box for Cathy's (Murphy) new drawing. While Simon was finishing the box I went off to Adam's Fairacre Farms to do some shopping. We ate lunch soon after returning (we had gotten sandwiches at Adams.) And then Simon shoveled a path up to Cathy's studio.]]> Simon stopped on his way over at the supermarket to get some waters. Then he did his regular stuff. We spent the morning in Cathy's (Murphy) studio figuring out sizes for new paintings and helping her set up for a new drawing ( slippers in a box ). Then we had lunch and now we are sitting in front of you.]]> On September 13, I received an email from Tyler Flatt. In the email he told me that he works for Tiffany's and manages the artwork program. He said that they were interested in the possibility of buying some work from me and/or commissioning a new work for either their upcoming stores in Hong Kong and/or Beijing. Included in his email were images of some of my folded plywood sculptures as well as a plywood drawing on linen. We had arranged for him to do a studio visit. That morning I picked him up at the train station and brought him to our house. We had coffee and pastries, before looking at the work in the studios. The visit went well, as far as i could tell. At the end of the visit he said he needed to discuss the work with executives from the company. He had an uber car pick him up so he could go directly from here to a new store they had just opened in White Plains, NY.]]> Marge came with her crew to clean all the windows in the house and in the cottage, and the outside of Alec's apartment. Marge who I think now is the owner of AAAA Robert Walker still keeps it's original name. They also cleaned out all the gutters on the house and on my studio building. Rodney got here much later than the rest of the crew. As always they did a terrific job.]]> Simon got here a bit later than usual, because I asked him to pick up a maintenance cartridge for my printer. It turned out we had to order it online, which we just did about 30 seconds ago. After doing his usual chores, we set up my laptop and worked on uploading images from my camera and my phone. As well as uploading a small amount of recorded messages from my phone. By that time it was lunch time. We are now back entering data on the chronicle site.]]> Tim came over to re-measure the last sculpture we made (Angled) so that we get the measurements correct for the one we are about to start (Tipped). He also had to re-show me how to put the brace on Angled so it wouldn't warp.]]> November 30 - December 1 --------- Friday morning Benjamin went to Davis and Langdale to pick up the works of mine that they had in the gallery. They are closing, probably at the end of December. He came up here with the work. We had lunch and then Ben and I went to the Hessel Museum at Bard to see The Conditions of Being Art: Pat Hearn Gallery and American Fine Arts, Co. (1983-2004). Cathy (Murphy) was supposed to com with us but she had a terrible chest cold so stayed home. My responses to the exhibition were somewhat complicated. It was the kind of exhibit one is supposed to like. It had historical Importance, some very good artists and was the result of two gallery dealers that were willing to put out difficult work. But, from the first few minutes in the museum the exhibition put me in a bad mood. It felt too much like a research project, like the study of history. This was, in my viewpoint a result of the exhibition itself and some of the work. Too many long explicative wall labels. Though the labels were needed. I could have been interested in much of the work in the show if there wasn't so much of it. There was something relentless about the exhibition. Much of the work seemed pedantic to me. I lost patience. ----- Ben and I next went to Rhinebeck to get a birthday present for Helen Lang . I bought two Yotam Ottolenghi cookbooks, Plenty and Plenty more.nWe had about an hour after we got back to the house before we had to leave for the Formosa restaurant for Helen's Birthday dinner. Cathy was hoping that staying home all day would help her feel better for dinner. It didn't but she went anyway(see in Groups, Formosa restaurant, November 30, 2018). The next day Ben did more work for us. He photographed and enlarged some pages from John Yau's book on Thomas Nozkowski. Cathy is reading from the book at a tribute to John Yau at Poets House this coming Saturday. Except for meals Ben and I worked on my book, Haircuts, Self Portraits, 1988-2018. I am designing it in InDesign, a program that Ben knows much better than I do.]]> We worked on the book of Catherine's working drawing for a Christmas present.]]> In the afternoon I went to school for a going away party for Joanna DePasquale who is changing jobs. Then I got to the Art Department meeting about half way through.]]> I was getting nervous that one of my Christmas presents for Cathy (Murphy) was going to get here on time. It was a book of her working drawings that I was having printed by the online publishers Artifact Uprising. The FedX man delivered that package - I was very glad to see him.]]> Micky and Gabrielle met us at our house, then we headed out to Miso in Hyde Park for dinner (see entry same date: Groups, Miso Japanese Restaurant.)]]> After his usual morning chores Simon worked with Cathy ordering some things online for me for Christmas. After lunch Simon and I worked on the book of Cathy's (Murphy) Working Drawings, that I am putting together for her for Christmas.]]> The guy from Adams delivered our Christmas tree and wreath.]]> Peter came over to pick up a powerpoint presentation I put together on Rene Huererra's Senior Project work. There was a department meeting that afternoon and Peter was going to talk about Rene's work because I couldn't go to the meeting.]]> I had called Tim and asked him if he could come over and help us put up the giant wreath on the barn (my studio).]]> We spent most of the day putting up the Christmas tree.]]> Jeff delivered 3 new stretchers for Catherine's (Murphy) paintings.]]> The man from Fedex delivered one of the presents that Cathy ordered me for Christmas.]]> Christmas Dinner, see same entry 4 of 4 for details.]]>