Waiting to be picked up by a passerby. Had to pull over to photograph these discards.
Different Discards
Tag: artwork
How Do You Like Your Toast?
How do you feel about toast?
Although I’ve burned toast on occasion this Duolit Toaster does a magnificent job, really toasting the bread properly. A milestone birthday gift from my friend Vincie. It’s almost eighteen years ago, oh my. It has served me well and is still going strong. I should have polished it for the photo.
What a vehicle for butter, Toast is! How do you like your toast? Jam?Jelly? Honey? Cheese? Avocado?
My granddaughter Anna’s artwork on the mug, at least a decade since it was given to me.
Here’s my sister’s Old School toaster in NYC from a blog post six years ago
Can you find one like my sister’s toaster in the museum collection? A toaster collection at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine Florida
Did you know there a song about toast? My SIL James sent this Heywood Banks Toast, Yeah Toast Song which has had millions of views on YouTube.
Sidewalk Chalk on Tricycle Tires Abstract Art
Last week as I sat sipping a coffee, I watched some creative kids create some abstract art. One kid was driving the tricycle and the other facing backwards, held a thick sidewalk chalk to a rear tricycle tire as they raced in circles.
Here’s the resulting artwork!
hopefully you’ll get a better sense of their method with the photo’s cropped version
Artist Bill Pfahl’s Paintings in Ohio
Looking around the walls of Mark and Erika’s home, I see several paintings by Pittsburgh artist William Pfahl.
He has a painting on the wall of the Pittsburgh Mayor’s Office, too.
Here is the latest addition to their collection of Bill Pfahl’s art.
St. Boniface on Northside where Anna, Michael and Jack were baptized 
Immaculate Heart of Mary – Mark and Erika’s Wedding.
August 17, 2002. Polish Hill 
Central Catholic High School- Mark class of ’94
View from the Quad
Here’s a photo I took at Bill’s art show in Sharpsburg.
And here is he is painting the 16th Street Bridge
Bill was part of the People at Work Show at Panza Gallery July 2018
Here is his palette
thanks Bill for commemorating the important Pittsburgh landmarks that mean so much to Mark and Erika and their children.
A Bodhi Wind Original
Here is my friend Vincie in my living room, holding a Bodhi Wind original portrait painted in 1965, She had just picked it up from the framer’s where Jennifer Panza had helped her select the frame and matting. Vincie brought it in and we unwrapped it so I could admire the framed portrait. I’d gone with her to help get it framed, weeks ago.
It’s a really good story.
Five years ago last April, I posted about the Extraordinary Art of Bodhi Wind
In that post I wrote about my friend Steve reading an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette by Joe Smydo about what to do with the artwork of an artist who had passed away. When he read the article, he kept asking me if my friend Vincie knew Bodhi Wind since he’d graduated from her alma mater, Perry High School. After a couple of weeks of him asking if I had checked with Vincie if she knew Bodhi Wind, I finally remembered to ask her. “Vincie, Steve has been on my case to ask you if you knew a Bodhi Wind who graduated from Perry High School who was an actor in LA”.
Steve had mentioned the murals Bodhi Wind painted for the Robert Altman film 3 Women No, she didn’t know him.
(Here is a NYTimes article about The Man Who Painted Robert Altman’s 3 Women by Jennifer Dunning. )
So a few days later the three of us are in the car and it comes up again.
Steve is determined. Asks Vincie himself. Turns out I messed up by asking about an actor when I should have inquired about an artist.
When we got home, Steve got on the computer upstairs and called Vincie to come and read the article. And there was the missing clue. Bodhi Wind had changed his name. For more information it said to contact his mother Mrs. Kuklis. Vincie said, yes, she knew him. Yes, Vincie and Charles (Chip) Kuklis not only went to High School at Perry together but they were classmates in elementary school. Steve was insistent that she must have known him and not only did she know him but they were very good friends in elementary school, too.
This past August, Vincie and her friend Maribeth were attending their 50th Perry High School Reunion. Over the reunion weekend, the two of them went to visit Mrs. Kuklis at her home. Her granddaughter helped show them her Uncle’s artwork but before they looked at the work, they sat in the living room. Vincie said that Chip had painted her portrait when they were in high school. Mrs. Kuklis said “I have it.”
Not only did his mother have the portrait he painted of Vincie in high school, Mrs. Kuklis had set in out on a special chair for Vincie to see, and Mrs. Kuklis asked Vincie if she would like to have it. Oh my!
What a gift!
Vince wth the original portrait of herself, painted by her childhood friend- Bodhi Wind/Chip Kuklis. You can see his signature and the date 1965
Art of the Brick Exhibit is Wow!
Art of the Brick Exhibit is just…Wow! Artist Nathan Sawaya’s Work is amazing. I want to go back and take more time looking and thinking about all his creativity that went into making these artworks. And all from regular LEGO pieces.Thousands of them.
Carnegie Science Center with Michael, Jack and Maura responding to Edvard Munch’s The Scream
One of my favorites (with undulating lights simulating water) was The Swimmer.
Yes, that’s all constructed with LEGO. The piece count is written on each artwork’s label.
It all starts with the single brick
The kids enjoyed building with LEGO at the stations provided on the second floor
a lot of pieces in the Easter Island sculpture Moai
Part of the In Pieces Gallery. LEGO objects in large photographs. Umbrella in this one
I.O.U.Finished Mittens
To my Dear S.I.L. James
Hope you are having a great day today!
Birthday and vacation!!
Your mittens (to accompany the handknit hat) are almost complete. Promise.
Love, your M.I.L.
Ruthie
p.s. Artwork by Addie Cheges
Exploring Homestead
Saturday afternoon in Homestead PA. Just across the Monongahela River.You take the Homestead Grays Bridge.
Annex Cookery has moved across the street into a wonderfully restored building and is now Art Space as well, featuring lots of interesting furniture, sculptures and art. Check out those fun and creative clocks! Delicious coffee will be served in a couple of weeks, once the rest of the chairs are delivered.
David and Judith
Reflection in a Glass Table
Sculpture in the Atrium
Love these creative clocks
Sculptor, Architect, Artist David Lewis
Meet the Mayor of Homestead Betty Esper
Just down the block is Studio AM (available for private events-catering
open Thursday and Sunday- check link for hours and menu)
Retro on 8th sent out the invitations. They have everything from furniture music, books, toys, jewelry, clothing and even a huge mid-century orange ashtray.
Nixon Watch
Giant Ashtray
Meet RetroOn8th Co-Owner Hayley
In the same building as Annex Cookery and Art Space– I got the tour (thanks Daniel)
if you need well lit office space….just $1500 a month- if you’re interested leave a comment below.
and upstairs is a spacious 2stories of fabulous loft apartment to rent……
You can live and work in the same building.
Cloud Arbor by Ned Kahn
North Side Pittsburgh. In front of the Children’s Museum. After a fun day at the museum, before we walk to the car, we like to check out the Cloud Arbor. Jack and Maura were enjoying the cool mist and an unidentified cyclist drove through to cool off. Click to watch Cloud Arbor by Ned Kahn, a video of the mist and the cyclist
Laura and Charles head to the wall to sit down 
Artist Ned Kahn
Waiting for the mist to appear
Artist’s Choice Show Opening at Panza Gallery
Artist’s Choice Show Opening at Panza Gallery in Millvale PA
At Panza Gallery Saturday night. What a crowd!
It’s good to get out. Steve went with me.
I volunteered to photograph the event which was a great way to meet the artists and art appreciators who attended. I am posting just a few now.
Our host Mark Panza
:Paul Anton Verder
Marlene Boas
Gina Judy
Nina Sowiski
Jack Puglisi
Patty Hill
Marian Phillips
A few of the artists with their work
The mayor of Millvale, Vincent Cinski, with his wife, the First Lady of Millvale
Me
Editor-in-Chief
Pittsburgh Local
Rodney Burrell
Meet Rodney Burrell- Editor-in-Chief of LOCAL-Pittsburgh and arts/pgh LOCAL
Meet Brian Crawford The River’s Edge Station Manager “serving the communities along the Allegheny River”
Tony Cavalline and Carol Skinger
Love that purse you got in Wisconsin!
(If I missed anybody’s proper spelling of name, let me know)