This one almost got away from us. Originally scheduled on a Thursday morning, we discovered the museum opens late on Thursdays so we moved our visit to Tuesday. But the driver/docent developed sniffles and only the two of us who were planning to go by train/ferry on a crisp winter day made the trip. Also, with no RSVP, I felt someone had to show up in case there was anyone we didn’t know about (there wasn’t).
The artist’s early abstract expressionism was commercially very successful. Abstract in the sense you could tell the subject was a dog or a toddler, her canvasses featured heavy impasto and were sought by NYC and L.A. galleries and collectors. After the birth of her child, the artist’s style began to change to something more like Picasso’s, whom she admired. Her work became biographical, as Picasso’s is, and she developed her own distinctive visual style, as Picasso did. But large faces are hard to live with, and collectors planning to display in a residential setting were not attracted. Nevertheless, she kept painting, divorcing, marrying, traveling and seeking spiritually.
There were many self-portraits, and Dianne noticed one with the artist wearing a similar jacket and a wild 1960s hat, so she asked for this shot. Dianne knew how to get to the glass elevator that rises on an angle to reach Salesforce Park where we walked the length on our way to the museum. I had some fun posing in front of the gold curtain by the 1960’s exhibit.
Mary Rose picked me up at Orlando airport on Sunday morning, the day after my birthday. I had flown all night, more than 2,700 miles, so that I could meet Lily’s “parents” before they left on a cruise with several other of Mary Rose’s friends. About a month earlier, MR realized that she wanted all the dogs to be cared for but she could manage only three and there were four who needed looking after, so she sent an Email invitation to several siblings. I was the one who said yes and spent about $1,000 on r/t air tickets for the chance to spend two weeks at The Villages at Lily’s residence, with the use of a golf cart thrown in. Peggy sweetened the pot with a birthday gift of $500 to defray some of the costs, and the folks whose house and dog I was taking care of said they would offer some payment.
Lily got lots of walks: morning, afternoon, and I was surprised to discover I needed a flashlight at night because there are no street lights! She would get an early outing, breakfast, then a long walk, often all the way around the lake.
Alex’s lexographer husband said, “I think she’s fascinating and full of excitement and love and she has a hairy joie de vivre. She is untrammeled in her enthusiasms, which is nice. Nobody’s interested in a jaded dog. She is also kind of a pain in the tuchus because of those untrammeled enthusiasms.” I looked it up and enthusiasm can be countable or uncountable. Apparently, he can count her enthusiasms, which include squirrels, tennis balls and untrammeled barking.
