Blog No. 72: Stephen Pace, Coconut Curry, If They Should Come For Us

May 13, 2022

At her young age, Amanda Gorman is a force to be reckoned with and already a national treasure.

three things we love

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Painter Stephen Pace

*Unloading at Duryeea's Pier #2*, 1988, Oil on canvas, 60-1/2h x 84-1/2w in

*Lobster Boat at Dawn*, 1982, Oil on canvas, 42h x 70w in

*Pulling Lobster Traps*, 1989, Oil on canvas, 48 1/2" x 72 1/2"

I first saw painter Stephen Pace's work at the Dowling Walsh Gallery, a wonderful gallery in the heart of Rockland, Maine. Although Pace started as an abstract expressionist in the 1950s, it is his seemingly simple, zen-like figurative paintings that capture the essence of Maine for me. Beginning in the early 60's, his subject matter switched as he started painting the every day life of the coast of Maine: lobstermen, boats, seagulls, the sea...I share some of my favorite images here. You can see more of his work by visiting the gallery in person, through their website and/or by watching this film about him on vimeo.

Coconut Curry with Tofu

Although I live alone, I do like to eat well and during the pandemic, as I found myself craving certain foods that I would usually get in a restaurant, I started to cook more for myself. And as a result of one of my absolute favorite restaurants in NYC (AbcV), I also realized that meat does not always have to be the center of a dish.
Here is a recipe I made last night for the first time from a Melissa Clark recipe on the New York Times cooking app. Surprisingly, even in my local small town Maine grocery story, I was able to find fish sauce, curry paste and unsweetened coconut milk...

COCONUT RED CURRY WITH TOFU
Serves Four
(I made it with green curry paste instead).

INGREDIENTS
14 ounces extra-firm tofu
1 tablespoon peanut or safflower oil
1-inch ginger root, peeled and minced
2 shallots or 1 small onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Thai chile or 2 serrano peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro stems
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
½ teaspoon sea salt, more to taste
3 tablespoons prepared red curry paste (or green)
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 cup snow peas
Basil and/or cilantro leaves, for garnish
Brown or white rice, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS
Cut tofu into 1-inch slabs and lay it out on a baking sheet lined with paper towel. Cover with another layer of paper towel and place another baking sheet or something similar on top to press the moisture out. Let sit for 20 minutes. Cut into 1-inch cubes.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ginger, shallots, garlic, chile and cilantro stems, and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté until golden brown and tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt. Stir in curry paste and cook 2 minutes. Pour in coconut milk, scraping up any curry paste with a wooden spoon. Add fish sauce, lime zest and juice. Add tofu cubes and snow peas. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly and the snow peas are tender, 7 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste and add more salt and/or fish sauce if needed.
Serve warm with brown rice. Sprinkle with torn basil and/or cilantro leaves on top.

If They Should Come For Us

Poet, writer, filmmaker and creator of the web series Brown Girls

If They Should Come for Us
By Fatimah Asghar

these are my people & I find
them on the street & shadow
through any wild all wild
my people my people
a dance of strangers in my blood
the old woman’s sari dissolving to wind
bindi a new moon on her forehead
I claim her my kin & sew
the star of her to my breast
the toddler dangling from stroller
hair a fountain of dandelion seed
at the bakery I claim them too
the sikh uncle at the airport
who apologizes for the pat
down the muslim man who abandons
his car at the traffic light drops
to his knees at the call of the azan
& the muslim man who sips
good whiskey at the start of maghrib
the lone khala at the park
pairing her kurta with crocs
my people my people I can’t be lost
when I see you my compass
is brown & gold & blood
my compass a muslim teenager
snapback & high-tops gracing
the subway platform
mashallah I claim them all
my country is made
in my people’s image
if they come for you they
come for me too in the dead
of winter a flock of
aunties step out on the sand
their dupattas turn to ocean
a colony of uncles grind their palms
& a thousand jasmines bell the air
my people I follow you like constellations
we hear the glass smashing the street
& the nights opening their dark
our names this country’s wood
for the fire my people my people
the long years we’ve survived the long
years yet to come I see you map
my sky the light your lantern long
ahead & I follow I follow
Source: Poetry (March 2017)

Charity of the Week:
World Central Kitchen

Feed refugees. Click image to donate to Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen.

Painting of the Week

Landscape with Tree, Village and Moons mixed media on canvas 60” x 80” $8500

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow created the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 71: Wise Quotes, Film The Last Tepui, Eurovision Song Contest

May 7, 2022

Pam Smilow Tree of Life Series I and II: Day and Night , mixed media on paper 60” x 22” each, $4000

three things we love

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Wise Indigenous Quotes

From the website inspiringquotes.com, here are a few wise proverbs from indigenous people world-wide:

The roots of all things are holding hands. When they cut down a tree in the jungle, a star falls from the sky. — Lacandón proverb

We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. — Aboriginal Australian proverb

Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins. — Cheyenne

Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts. — Hopi proverb

Where there is true hospitality, not many words are needed. — Arapaho proverb

The Last Tepui

Biologist Dr. Bruce Means and Climber Alex Honnold

Alex Honnold hanging from a tepui in Guyana

Many carnivorous plants are found at the summit of the tepui

I always knew I wanted to be an artist ever since I was little but second choice would have been a journalist. After seeing the film The Last Tepui, I now am reconsidering. This biologist, Bruce Means, might just have the coolest job around although I could do without the spiders and snakes. I watched this mind-blowing Nat Geo film the other night him while staying at my new friends Dede and Scott's beautiful little house deep in the woods of Otisfield, Maine. The Last Tepui is the story of an 2021 expedition into the very remote and untouched region of condensed sandstone mesas, known as tepui ("islands in the sky") that rise out of the jungle between Guyana, Venezuela and Brazil. The purpose of the trip was for Means to carry out his last field study in the area (he was eighty at the time of the film) with an expert climbing team (including Alex Honnold of Free Solo fame, National Geographic explorer Mark Synnott Venezuelan Federico Pisani and an intrepid team of photographers and local Akawayo guides). The Last Tepui documents their exciting, extreme journey and climb into this unbelievably biodiverse, untouched region in search of undiscovered species of frogs, snakes, spiders, etc. Thrilling is an understatement, even from the quiet of our living rooms...Couldn't recommend this film more highly. Here is a link to the trailer and film itself.

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is a big deal in Europe. This year it kicks off on May 10th in Turin, Italy. The competition begins with 40 countries, with two semi-finals on 10 May and 12 May and then reducing to 26 groups for the grand final on 14 May. Systur, the Icelandic entry consisting of three sisters (and their brother on drums) is something that caught my eye (ear) with their song Með Hækkandi Sól. So did the upbeat song Trenulețul (The Little Train) sung by the Moldavian folk punk band Zdob și Zdub and folk musicians the Advahov Brothers. To have a taste of other current entries, click here for a sampler with songs from around the world
And if you are really interested, here are past winners of the Eurovision Contest 1956-2021.

Charity of the Week:
Unicef

Products of the Week

Mother’s Day is rapidly approaching…Let’s not forget to celebrate our moms…

Animal Giclee Prints (100+images) by Pam Smilow and Gert Mathiesen, 8” x 10”, $150 Framed

Blog No. 70: Long Lost Family, Insurrection, Songs in French

April 30, 2022

Pam Smilow Maine Series: Red Lobster Shack mixed media on canvas 60” x 40” $7500

three things we love

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Long Lost Family

Stolen child Tyler Graf reuinited with his Chilean birth mother

The reality show Long Lost Family is a television series in the United States and England, although versions of it are popular in other countries as well. Each episode follows the story of two adults who have been adopted (or have given up a child for adoption) in search of their birth parents (or long lost children). It is a caring, sensitive show hosted by two adoptees themselves and it makes you realize how important and essential to our core it is to know where we come from.

Some 20,000 children were adopted by foreign couples during the Augusto Pinochet era (1973-1990) and Chile's Court of Appeals says at least 8,000 of those are suspicious cases (although some fear that number is much higher). One of these cases is that of Houston firefighter Tyler Graf, who always wondered why he was given up by his birth mother. With the help of a nonprofit, Nos Buscamos, he went in search of his past. Watch his moving story here. ABC News did a feature on these stolen children if you would like to read more

Insurrection

Just in case you have any doubt of what we are up against in the United States of America these days, the New York Times compiled a video of exactly what went on on January 6th, 2021, minute by minute. We have all seen tidbits of this, but I realized how I myself only saw pieces of the story and this comprehension footage, although terrifying, is worth watching to get the full picture.

And now, when you are totally depressed, watch this! Self described Christian, straight, white, married, suburban mom, Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow leads the way with this inspirational speech she made a week or so ago on the floor of the Michigan state senate. We just need to engage and fight like her...Hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen...we will not let hate win."

Songs in French

You probably know by now that I am a sap. In honor of Macron's win over the far right, white supremacist, racist, anti-semitic Marine Le Pen, here are some of my favorite songs sung in French that bring me back to the year I spent in Aix-en-Provence in 1976-1977. Nothing like music to evoke those memories...and bring you right back.

GEORGE MOUSTAKI singing Ma Solitude and Ce Soir Mon Amour.

The Quebecois group BEAU DOMMAGE singing Motel Mon Repos.

JACQUES BREL singing Ne Me Quitte Pas and Marieke

EDITH PIAF singing Je Ne Regrette Rien

GRAEME ALLRIGHT singing Il Faut Que Je M'En Aille.

GEORGES BRASSENS singing Les Copains D'Abord

Charity of the Week:
Unicef

Products of the Week

Mother’s Day is rapidly approaching…Let’s not forget to celebrate our moms…

Blog No. 69: Faith Ringgold, Robin Williams, NY Times Best Books

April 23, 2022

No, this is not the Caribbean. It is Round Pond, Maine on a beautiful sunny day in April…Photo taken by my daughter Morgan Mathiesen.

three things we love

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Faith Ringgold

Click image to hear Ringgold read her beloved children’s book Tar Beach

One of the Flying Home Series Mosaics at the 125th Street Subway Station

Artist Faith Ringgold’s life’s work is being celebrated right now at the New Museum in downtown Manhattan through June 5, 2022. I look forward to seeing it when I am back in New York. I was first introduced to Ringgold's work through her children's book Tar Beach, which I enjoyed with my daughter many moons ago. Most known for her amazing story quilts, I have always admired her for her versatility and the fact that her art and her life are seamlessly intertwined. She is unabashedly herself and doesn't feel the need to stick to the confines of the "art world." I share her approach. Her humanity comes through in the way she combines her art with her politics, with her role as mother and teacher, through paint, sewing, illustrating, writing, and sculpting. Quoting from the website of the New Museum, "Ringgold has drawn from both personal autobiography and collective histories to both document her life as an artist and mother and to amplify the struggles for social justice and equity. From creating some of the most indelible artworks of the civil rights era to challenging accepted hierarchies of art versus craft through her experimental story quilts, Faith Ringgold has produced a body of work that bears witness to the complexity of the American experience."

Robin Williams

Robin Williams (1951-2014)was one of the greatest entertainers of all time, beloved throughout the world, until he met his untimely death by suicide in 2014. The recently released documentary Robin's Wish, tells the story of his illness and clears up myths of his final days. Robin did commit suicide but it was not a result of depression. In fact, he had lewy body disease, a degenerative brain disorder similar to alzheimer's, which went undiagnosed. It wasn't until after his death that an autopsy revealed how far along the levy body disease had taken over his brain.

Robin Williams was a true national treasure and I love to revisit his movies from time to time. Here are links to some of my favorites: Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poet's Society and Good Will Hunting.

NYTimes Best Books

Why read? photo courtesy of Forbes Magazine/ Getty

The New York Times asked their readers what book they considered the best book in the last 125 years. Here is the list they published on December 28, 2021. What books would you put on the list?...Place your choice in the comment section below.

Charity of the Week:
Unicef

Products of the Week

Mother’s Day is rapidly approaching…Let’s not forget to celebrate our moms…

Blog No. 68: Ann Lamott Birthday Thoughts, Amazon Unionizes, The Temptations

April 16, 2022

Pam Smilow Midnight mixed media on canvas 52” x 80” $8500

three things we love

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Ann LaMott Thoughts

Ann Lamott's Thoughts on her 68th Birthday:

"I am going to be 68 in six days, if I live that long. I’m optimistic. Mostly.
God, what a world. What a heartbreaking, terrifying freak show. It is completely ruining my birthday plans. I was going to celebrate how age and the grace of myopia have given me the perspective that almost everything sorts itself out in the end. That good will and decency and charity and love always eventually conspire to bring light into the darkest corners. That the crucifixion looked like a big win for the Romans.
But turning 68 means you weren’t born yesterday. Turning 68 means you’ve seen what you’ve seen—Ukraine, Sandy Hook, the permafrost…Marjorie Taylor Greene. By 68, you have seen dear friends literally ravaged by cancer, lost children, unspeakable losses. The midterms are coming up. My mind is slipping. My dog died.
Really, to use the theological terms, it is just too frigging much.
And regrettably, by 68, one is both seriously uninterested in a vigorous debate on the existence of evil, or even worse, a pep talk.
So what does that leave? Glad you asked: the answer is simple. A few very best friends with whom you can share your truth. That’s the main thing. By 68, you know that the whole system of our lives works because we are not all nuts on the same day. You call someone and tell them that you hate everyone and all of life, and they will be glad you called. They felt that way three days and you helped them pull out of it by making them laugh or a cup of tea. You took them for a walk, or to Target.
Also, besides our friends, getting outside and looking up and around changes us: remember, you can trap bees on the bottom of Mason jars with a bit of honey and without a lid, because they don’t look up. They just walk around bitterly bumping into the glass walls. That is SO me. All they have to do is look up and fly away. So we look up. In 68 years, I have never seen a boring sky. I have never felt blasé about the moon, or birdsong, or paper whites.
It is a crazy drunken clown college outside our windows now, almost too much beauty and renewal to take in. The world is warming up.
Well, how does us appreciating spring help the people of Ukraine? If we believe in chaos theory, and the butterfly effect, that the flapping of a Monarch’s wings near my home can lead to a weather change in Tokyo, then maybe noticing beauty—flapping our wings with amazement—changes things in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It means goodness is quantum. Even to help the small world helps. Even prayer, which seems to do nothing. Everything is connected.
But quantum is perhaps a little esoteric in our current condition. (Well, mine: I’m sure you’re just fine.) I think infinitely less esoteric stuff at 68. Probably best to have both feet on the ground, ogle the daffodils, take a sack of canned good over to the food pantry, and pick up trash. This helps our insides enormously.
So Sunday I will celebrate the absolutely astonishing miracle that I, specifically, was even born. As Fredrick Buechner wrote, “The grace of God means something like, “Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you.” I will celebrate that I have shelter and friends and warm socks and feet to put in them, and that God or Gus found a way to turn the madness and shame of my addiction into grace, I’ll shake my head with wonder, which I do more and more as I age, at all the beauty that is left and all that still works after so much has been taken away. So celebrate with me. Step outside and let your mouth drop open. Feed the poor with me, locally or, if you want to buy me something, make a donation to UNICEF. My party will not be the same without you."--Ann Lamott

Amazon Unionizes

Two best friends succeed in forming the first Amazon Union in Staten Island.

During the height of the pandemic, we all talked about celebrating essential workers who stayed on the job and serviced us--the grocery store workers, the bus drivers, the nurses, online warehouse employees--people who provided critical services when we needed them most. Christian Smalls, a Staten Island assistant manager at Amazon, became very concerned that Amazon wasn't doing nearly enough to protect workers from Covid-19, whether on personal protection equipment or social distancing. He decided to lead a walkout in March 2020. It got him fired the next day under the guise of his violating social distancing himself. State attorney general Leticia James accused Amazon of unlawfully firing Smalls for speaking out on safety issues...

Long story short, this unlikely pair went up against Jeff Bezos, huge sums of money and a campaign of union busting and misinformation and they won! Listen to Amy Goodman's interview with the pair--two ordinary citizens who stuck their neck out and won. Watch this movement--the New York Times thinks it is ushering in a new era.
Many of us rely on Amazon, and these two union founders have vowed this is just the beginning of protecting Amazon workers rights across the country.

The Temptations

Owen Williams, the only surviving original member of the Temptations.

I am not usually big on musicals but saw Ain't Too Proud, the story and love letter to the Temptations when it made its start at the Berkeley Rep a few years ago pre-Covid. I loved it! It has finished its run in New York but now goes on tour to many cities around the country. Check out the schedule to see if it is coming to a city near you. I highly recommend it as it weaves the drama of their lives into their incredible music and dance! Here is a preview of the show. And if you want to be uplifted, listen to this playlist of all their greatest hits. And for those who want to go deeper into the history of these motown wonders of the 60's, here is a documentary about all the original leads.

Charity of the Week:
Amazon Labor Union

Products of the Week

Blog No. 67: Boycott Koch, Langston Hughes 3 Short Poems, Trude's Orange Cake

April 8, 2022

Another photo from Maine, taken with my Iphone 12.

three things we love

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Boycott Koch

Koch Industries, one of the biggest multinational conglomerates in the world, is refusing to leave Russia. What can we do about it?

We don't hear much about BOYCOTTS these days. But they are effective tools if enough people do them. So if Koch Industries is insisting on staying in Russia, then if ever there was a time to boycott them, it is now (we had many reasons before the war in Ukraine to do so too). They are makers of a lot of products that we use in every day life under the umbrella Georgia Pacific. DON'T BUY:
Brawny
Angel Soft
Mardi Gras
Quilted Northern
Dixie
Sparkle and
Vanity Fair.
Please take a look at this complete list and think twice before purchasing these products. Spread the word.

When I was a kid, we didn't eat grapes and lettuce from 1965-1970 because we were BOYCOTTING companies that exploited farmworkers. Founded by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong The United Farmworkers organized a successful nationwide fight against these growers and were finally able to unionize. To read more about the UFW story, click here. And here is a short video history about the five year Delano Grape Boycott.

In the words of Cesar Chavez, "we don't need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation."

Langston Hughes
3 Short Poems

American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist

As for Langston Hughes by Terrance Hayes Courtesy BOMB Magazine and Terrance Hayes

Three short poems
by Langston Hughes
(1901-1967)

DREAMS
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

THE DREAM KEEPER
Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

I, TOO
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

Trude's Orange Cake

Trude’s Passover Orange Cake

I always forget about this cake until Passover rolls around but I should remember it all year because it is delicious no matter what occasion and it is gluten free.
Passover is my favorite holiday hands down. It has deep significance for anyone who treasures freedom and democracy and it is particularly apt this year when we are under such threat. If you have never been to a seder, get yourself invited to one. You won't regret it...

Trude and Max Victor were friends of my mom's back in Heilbronn, Germany. They are the reason we moved to Usonia, the cooperative Frank Lloyd Wright community where I grew up. They were such lovely, cultured people who were definitely role models for me. In fact, I have modeled my life in many ways around the way they lived theirs. Aside from so many things, Trude was an amazing cook. Here's to her and one of my favorite recipes!

Ingredients
2 large navel oranges
6 eggs
1 and a half cups grated almonds
one cup sugar
1 teasp. baking powder
pinch salt

Boil the oranges whole (organic would be good) in water to cover for 30 minutes or so.
Let it cool for a while, and then process the whole oranges in a food processor.
Beat the whole eggs and then add the rest of the ingredients.

Bake in a greased form (I use a round springform- but I don't think you have to) at 400 degrees for one hour or maybe a bit shorter.
Let it cool.
Served with confectionary sugar on top. Yum...

Charity of the Week:
United Farmworkers Union

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow Tree of Life Series mixed media on paper 60” x 22” private collection

*Blog No. 66: Prince Mapp, Eagle's Nest, Peter Ralston Photography

April 1, 2022

three things we love

Many of the images above and below are clickable and lead to further information…

Prince Mapp

Meet Prince Mapp. I got to know him through my daughter, who works alongside him for the crime reporting app Citizen. Growing up poor in South Jamaica Queens, Prince started "hustling" in the street when he was eleven. He made one very bad decision as a teenager that cost him big time (as well as someone else's life). He spent 18 years doing time in various upstate prisons including SingSing and Clinton. This is his compelling story, told by him through this youtube video, as he walks us through his life. Prince credits Harry Belafonte and Hudson Link for his college degree--an organization that provides higher education opportunities to incarcerated people in New York State as well as reentry and support resources upon their release. If ever there is an argument for rehabilitation, it is here. Prince spends most of his time now spreading love and speaking to young men like him, in hopes of preventing them from making the same mistakes he did. I was so struck by his story, which in a way is the story of so many people growing up poor and black in America, struggling to make ends meet and to belong, wherever they might find it. It compelled me to paint a portrait of him and write this piece for my blog.

Eagle's Nest

Thanks to my friend, nature lover par excellence Tina Carro, I am cancelling Netflix, shutting down Hulu, unsubscribing from HBOMax. Who needs it since she has turned me on to a site with webcams, a myriad of webcams. There you can watch bald eagles feathering their nests, feeding their babies, standing up, sitting down, flying in, flying out. This is armchair science at its best. Check out this camera from Pennsylvania Farm Country and if you get sick of that one, click here to see other bird nests and other animal webcams across the country. Makes me want to become a biologist and it certainly puts our human superiority complex in major doubt to see them so up close and personal...

Peter Ralston Photography

Peter and Terri Ralston in their gallery in Rockport, Maine

I had the good fortune of spending an hour and a half with the photographer Peter Ralston in his gallery in Rockport, Maine the other day. I sought him out because his photography is outstanding and I have long been an admirer, ever since I discovered his work many years ago in Rockport Harbor. You may recognize his name and work as his photos often show up in Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American newsletter.
What a wonderful spirit the man has--Ralston is a true storyteller in his photos and in his writing--and it reminds me again and again that if you live your passion, it comes through loud and clear to those around you and is contagious. He has Maine is in his bones, ever since he was introduced to the state by his Pennsylvania next door neighbors, Betsy and Andy Wyeth, who encouraged him "go deeper" with his work and spend the summer with them in Cushing, Maine. Forty years later, here he remains, one of the most celebrated Maine photographers, documenting his adopted state and the people, animals, nature and light that inhabit it.

Like me, Peter likes to share the things he loves--contact him through the gallery if you want to see and read his weekly newsletter called "Images from Maine." And better yet, visit his gallery in person in Rockport, Maine, or check out the myriad of wonderful photos available for viewing and purchase on his website . There are so many images that I love that are not included here...

Peter considers himself blessed-he survived a death defying illness and is here to live life to the fullest. He considers himself one of the .01 percent and that has nothing to do with economics: 1) Make a living at what you love 2) Have it contain a meaningful aspect that contributes something to the world 3) Do it in a place where you feel that you belong and 4) surround yourself with people you love and who love you. He then cited to me JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan: "Nothing is really work unless you'd rather be doing something else."

Charity of the Week:
HudsonLink.Org

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow Untitled (Floating House Series) mixed media on acrylic 50” x 80” approx. $8500

Blog no. 65: Friendship in Vienna, Mary Oliver Poem, Corey Booker & Ketanji Brown Jackson

March 26, 2022

click image to see all 100+ available animal giclee prints by Pam Smilow and Gert Mathiesen $150 each (framed)

three things we love

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Friendship in Vienna

On my travels through youtube, I came across another film that caught my eye--a made for TV movie that dates back to 1988, featuring Ed Asner again--he always made decent films! This one is about a friendship of two girls in Nazi occupied Austria and it has particular meaning to me because my mom, Edith Kern Smilow, was in Vienna just before this time. She left Germany in 1935 or 1936 to get out of the way of Hitler (she went the wrong way!) and to work in a Maria Montessori school there. But there was a polio outbreak in the school and she returned to Germany, only to leave again in the nick of time in 1938, this time to be a children's nurse in England.

The film is touching story and gives you a very good feel for how occupation and tyranny can happen very quickly. It is my hope that we all put extra effort in protecting our democracy, which is in real danger right now...lest we take it for granted.

Mary Oliver Poem

Image courtesy of the Wordy Feminist on Etsy

Pam Smilow Tree Series I-III, mixed media on paper, 60” x 22” each, $4000 ea.

When I Am Among the Trees
By Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

Corey Booker, Ketanji Brown Jackson

Illustration Courtesy of Louisa Bertman @louisabertman (Instagram)

Courtesy Sarahbeth Maney, Gina Cherelus and the NYTimes

I had planned something else for this column but decided to save it for another time so I could honor Corey Booker's beautiful emotional speech he made on the senate floor during the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Jackson Brown this past week, in stark contrast to the mean-spirited demagoguery of many of his fellow (Republican) senators.
I encourage you to listen to the full version here but if you are pressed for time, you can get the flavor with the short version too. In Booker's words, "I am not going to let someone in the senate steal my joy...Today you are my star. You are my harbinger of hope...You have earned this spot...You are worthy..."

Charity of the Week:
Jose Andres World Central Kitchen

Painting of the Week:

Trying to urge on Spring with this painting called Sunshine… Pam Smilow 50” x 80” mixed media on canvas $8500.

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow created the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog no. 64: Tashi and the Monk Documentary, The Song: One Day, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin

March 18, 2022

Hearbreaking New Yorker Cover by Ana Juan. Courtesy New Yorker Magazine and Ana Juan. @anajuan_art and if you would like to see more of her awesome New Yorker covers, click here.

three things we love

Many of the images above and below are clickable and lead to further information…

Tashi and the Monk

In the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, Buddhist Monk Lobsang Phuntsok created a community for abandoned children called Jhamtse Gatsal: The Garden of Love and Compassion. He himself had been abandoned as a child and vowed that he would help children like him feel loved and wanted. To quote him speaking to his kids: "Everybody kind of give up the hope on us. But in this place, you are welcome and you have opportunity to change, and we will be with you, no matter what. This is a community of love and compassion." Tashi and the Monk documents this amazing place and the fantastic work a single man has done to rescue so many unwanted children...

The Song: One Day

I am not particularly musical--in fact, I am not really good at carrying a tune, but I do love to sing (mostly in the car) and I recognize that singing is very uplifting to the spirit. I remember once, way back when in Cornwall, Connecticut, there used to be a once monthly get together where someone played the guitar and people would come and just sing along. We don't do that much any more and I wish we did. Just before covid struck, I was even thinking of hosting that kind of evening in my studio. Maybe I will do it in the future...

In the meantime, we can all enjoy this match made in heaven that joins my favorite Young@Heart Chorus out of Northampton, Massachusetts (you have to be over 70 to join) as they join the celebrated Chicago's Children's Choir, along with the Hampshire Young People's Chorus, singing the hopeful song ONE DAY by Matisyahu.

Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland

It is International Women's Month and I can't help but think that if women ruled the world, we might just be much better off... A country that stands out in the gender equality category is Finland. It just so happens that one of my oldest friends (from fourth grade)--Sue Gallo--has been living there in Helsinki for the past six years, along with her partner Alyssa, and they are always singing the praises of Sanna Marin, one of the world's youngest prime ministers. And at 37, she leads an all-female coalition government. CNN did a small feature on her recently. And hear Trevor Noah talk about her and offer a good laugh here.

Charity of the Week:
Jose Andres World Central Kitchen

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow mixed media on canvas 50” x 80” approx. $8500 In hopes of summer and better days ahead for the world…

Blog no. 63: Kurt Vonnegut Quotes, W.H. Auden Poem, Frank Matheis on Art

March 12, 2022

three things we love

Many of the images above and below are clickable and lead to further information…

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

My father and I shared a love of Kurt Vonnegut. We read all of his books and then talked about them. I came across these words of wisdom from him recently, as he described a conversation he had had as a young boy and remembered...I thought it worth repeating here.

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.” And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.” And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.” - Kurt Vonnegut

And here are a few more Vonnegut quotes to throw in for good measure...

“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

“Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”

Musée des Beaux Arts

MUSÉE DES BEAUX ARTS
by W.H. Auden

Courtesy New YorkTimes and Elisa Gabbert

About suffering they were never wrong,/
The Old Masters: how well they understood/
Its human position; how it takes place/
While someone else is eating or opening a window/
or just walking dully along;/
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting/
For the miraculous birth, there always must be/
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating/
On a pond at the edge of the wood:/
They never forgot/
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course/
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot/
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse/
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree./

In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away/
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may/
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,/
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone/
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green/
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen/
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,/
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Frank Matheis on Art

I am not a big fan of art critics. In fact, I don't really like reading about art at all. If I buy an art magazine, it is always to just look at the pictures. But then along comes Frank Matheis, German husband of a good friend of mine, who has many accomplishments under his belt in the world of culture: music writing, radio documentaries, and as publisher and editor of thecountryblues.com. He approaches me and tells me he wants to add art writing to his repertoire and could he interview me as his first essay in a new series called In Other Words. I was flattered and of course said yes...I was flattered and of course said yes...

By now, he has written quite a few essays about visual artists and as it turns out, I finally found an art critic I respect...he is down to earth, very observant and intuitive, anything but a snob, and seems to go directly to the crux of a person and his or her art instead of pulling people down. Since his first article, he has written many others and I urge you to check them out here. Most recently, here is a very insightful article about artist Bill Traylor.

Charity of the Week:
Jose Andres World Central Kitchen

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow Darkness mixed media on canvas 20” x 70” approx. $6500

Blog no. 62: Outsider Art Fair, The Sound of Silence, Joanne's Artichoke Squares

March 5, 2022

three things we love

Many of the images above and below are clickable and lead to further information…

Outsider Art Fair

Selene Perez, courtesy Creativity Explored, SF, CA

W. Tucker, courtesy Koelsch Gallery, Houston, Texas

James Castle, courtesy Hirschl & Adler Modern

Oscar Azmitia, courtesy Pure Vision Arts, The Shield Institute

I look forward to going to the Outsider Art Fair every year in New York City and I am happy to report that yesterday I was back there again after a two year Covid hiatus..Although I can't invite you to come along, I can share a video from a past show which will give you a taste of it and the types of art you would see there. .

Outsider art or Art Brut is a term that translates as 'raw art', originally invented by the French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art such as graffiti or naïve art which is made outside the academic tradition of fine art. It encompasses a wide range of artists from those that are self-taught, artists with disabilities, child art, art of the mentally insane, folk art, primitive art--in short, art that exists outside the mainstream academic art world and is often made out of a compulsion to create rather than a commercial motive.

I have been a long time fan and proponent of community organizations that support artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I remember the first time I was walking in downtown Oakland and came across a supermarket size space of people hard at work. The studio seemed to have everything: a ceramics area, people doing embroidery, printmaking, painting, sewing, working with wood and making the most beautiful of things. It literally brought tears to my eyes when I found out what I was looking at: a group of people with disabilities of all types, normally people the society would consider throwaways, engaging in the most productive of ways, creating beautiful art and giving meaning to their lives... Every community should have a place like this!

Places like Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California and ArTech Collective in New York afford these "outsider" artists a venue to practice their art, while providing them with a variety of art supplies and support, enabling them to realize their full potential as practicing artists.

Sound of Silence

Simon and Garfunkel Concert in Central Park, 1981, NYC

My friend Eileen shared this story about Art Garfunkel (of Simon and Garfunkel fame) and his blind friend Sanford Greenberg, revealing the origins of the song The Sound of Silence. The touching story reveals what a deep special bond the two had and reminds us that we all have the capability of impacting the life of others in a very meaningful and everlasting way.

And while we are at it, here are three of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs: The Only Living Boy in New York, Kathy's Song and A Heart in New York and the full Simon and Garfunkel Central Park Concert from 1981.

Joanne's Famous Artichoke Squares

I think of this recipe as a Thanksgiving one since our family's festivities around that holiday always began with hot mulled cider and these delicious artichoke squares made by one of my favorite cousins--Joanne Kahn. At a time when we are finally resuming gatherings, I thought this would be a good time to share this hors d'oeuvres recipe with you. I guarantee this one will be a hit, no matter what time of year you serve it....

ARTICHOKE SQUARES:

INGREDIENTS
2 small jars of artichoke hearts in oil, drained
1 small sautéed onion
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
4 eggs
1/2 pound grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4/ teaspoon salt
pinch chopped oregano
pinch chopped parsley or flakes
small cooked onion

INSTRUCTIONS
chop up artichoke hearts
Beat the eggs
Combine all ingredients together

Spread mixture into a greased square 9 inch pan
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes
Cut into squares and serve.

Charity of the Week:
Jose Andres World Central Kitchen

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow Mandala Series: No War mixed media on canvas 54” x 54” $7500

Blog no. 61: Paul Farmer, A Little Comic Relief, Wilfred Owen

February 26, 2022

three things we love

These subway shelter images really hit home to me. Thinking of my mother, who ran a day care center in London during the Blitz.

How to Help Ukraine & Talk to Children about the war

Thanks to Daneen Akers and Valarie Kaur of the book Holy Troublemakers Unconventional Saints.

And an excellent resource on how to talk to children here.

Note: Clicking on the photos in this blog will often lead to further links to explore.

Humanitarian Paul Farmer (1959-2022)

I usually don't post obituaries here because my blog is all about uplifting spirits but Paul Farmer was truly one of the greats, if not the greatest, in the field of health equity and social justice--and his life serves as an inspiration to us all. Paul Farmer died unexpectedly in his sleep this week of cardiac arrest at the young age of 62. The world has literally lost a savior.

Founder of the Boston-based global non-profit Partners in Health with a list of impressive accomplishments, impeccable credentials and projects a mile long, Paul Farmer was renowned for providing health care to millions of impoverished people throughout the world, beginning with his work in Haiti. Partners in Health currently has projects continuing in Haiti, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Peru, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Russia, and the Navajo Nation.
If you are interested in learning more about this true humanitarian and his organization's work focusing on delivering the highest quality of health care while addressing the critical social and systemic forces causing inequities, writer Tracy Kidder's book about him entitled "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World" is a good place to start. And his story is also told in the documentary Bending the Arc.

Above all, Farmer will be remembered as an extraordinary human who inspired others with his selfless work. Information below to donate to his non profit Partners in Health.

A Little Comic Relief

The joy of Mark Morris L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato

And now for a little comic relief (God knows I need it!) and a little uplift sandwiched in between two columns of sadness..

7 year old Drew Barrymore on the Johnny Carson Show

a song from everyone's favorite P.S. 22 Chorus

and a simply exquisite excerpt from Mark Morris' L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato (to be performed again at BAM at the end of March)

Wildred Owen Poem

To quote Jane Potter, author of Wilfred Owen: An Illustrated Life, "...Owen is the “Poet of Pity,” whose realistic portrayals of war gave voice to the soldier wounded, captured, or killed—not just in the Great War but in every war since, so great is the evocative power of his work. Although he saw only five poems published during his lifetime, Owen left behind a wealth of letters and poetry that together form a powerful legacy."

Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Charity of the Week:
Paul Farmer's Partners In Health

Painting of the Week

Blog no. 60: Naadam Cashmere, Political Activist Connie Hogarth, Spinach Chickpea Casserole

February 19, 2022

Gert Mathiesen/Pam Smilow Animal Series: Daisy Elephant 8” x 10” mixed media giclee print $150

three things we love

Naadam Cashmere Sweaters

This is the unbelievable story of Matt and Diederik, a group of Mongolian goat herders and a sweater company called NAADAM. I own two of their $75 pure cashmere sweaters and I can't recommend them enough.. .It is almost too hard to believe how this company came about, but even if it this story is only half true, it is a great story!

Two guys, Matt Scanlan and Diederik Rijsemus, college buddies, looking for an adventure end up in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia and run into some locals, Bodio and Ishee. They become instant friends and end up traveling with them back to their families, nomadic goat herders in the middle of the Gobi Desert. The rest I will leave to this great video, which tells the tale much better than I ever could. I guarantee you, it is worth the four minutes and it will leave you wanting more (watch this second video too to see the service projects they are doing for that community). And don't be surprised if afterwards, you find yourself on your way to buying one of their $75 great cashmere sweaters.

Connie Hogarth, Activist

Connie with her good friends Pete and Toshi Seeger

If you want an example of a life worth living at the service of humanity, you don't have to go any further than peace and social justice activist Connie Hogarth (1926-2022), who died peacefully in her sleep last Friday at the ripe old age of 95. The world has lost a true warrior.

I was lucky enough to have known Connie for most of my life, since 1968 when she co-chaired the local campaign office of Gene McCarthy alongside my dad Mel Smilow. I was also a frequent visitor in Connie's home (she was the mom of one of my good high school friends), where she welcomed me with open arms, taught me a few cooking tricks along the way and inspired me with her boundless loving energy, enveloping everyone who stepped through her door figuratively and literally. She was open, caring and always on the go fighting the good fight: against the Vietnam War, trying to shut down Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, fighting for immigrant rights, against racism and the death penalty to name just a few of her causes. I don't think there was a day that went by where she sat idle, as illustrated in this beautiful montage of her life.

Amy Goodman, another one of our national heroes, wrote this tribute to Connie on Democracy Now, fitting that it was on Valentine's Day....

And here is an interview with her that goes back to 1996, as it appeared in the New York Times...

Connie was a true and pure gift to us all and if there is one message that comes from her life, it is to inspire all of us to keep on walking forward, fighting for peace and justice and never ever giving up.

Spinach Chickpea Casserole

I wasn't planning on including another recipe this week but had this Sephardic Spinach Casserole at my book club a few days ago made by my friend Joan and it was off the charts delicious--and healthy too! Since I am trying to eat less meat in general, this really is a perfect vegetarian main dish. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

SPANEKH B'JIBEN (Spinach Casserole)
INGREDIENTS
Makes 6-8 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled, trimmed and chopped
2-3 10-ounce boxes frozen spinach, defrosted, or 2 packages fresh
6 ounces Muenster cheese, grated
6 ounces cottage cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 15 1/2-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed (optional)
1/2 teaspoon allspice (optional)
Plain yogurt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-inch by 13-inch glass baking pan, or, for thicker servings, one that is 8-inches by 8-inches square.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, saute onion in the olive oil until slightly brown, add spinach and cook until heated through and spinach juices cook down. Transfer vegetables to a mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly.

Pour into baking pan, smooth out the top and place in oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Bake until lightly brown on top and bottom.
Optional: Serve warm with plain yogurt. Source: Adapted from >Joan Yedid of Cleveland. Watch the documentary Hugs and Knishes about her and her family cooking traditions on a pbs station near you. .

Charity of the Week:
Democracy Now

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow All You Need is Love (Oatmeal) mixed medis on canvas 54” x 54” $7500

blog no. 59: Lasse Hallström's Chocolat, A Few Valentine Love Songs, Our Animal Prints

February 11, 2022

three things we love

Lasse Hallström's Chocolat

The film Chocolat is based on the book by Joanne Harris

Lasse Hallström, Lena Olin, Tora Hallström

I have loved every film Lasse Hallström ever made (Cider House Rules, My Life as a Dog, What is Eating Gilbert Grape to name a few) and somehow the film Chocolat, perhaps my favorite of all, popped into my mind today after not thinking about it for many, many years. I decided to watch it again and I loved it as much as before! I invite you to see this little gem if you haven't already or again if you have--it's a perfect movie to see around Valentine's Day. It is about the pursuit of joy and free spiritedness vs. austerity, religion and tradition in a small village in France, with a love story mixed in, starring an all star cast of Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Lena Olin and Judi Dench.

To my delight, I also discovered that Hallström is currently working on a new film to be released soon about the fascinating artist Hilna af Klint, starring his wife Lena Olin and his daughter Tora. Looking forward to seeing that too!

A Few Valentine Love Songs

Here are a few love songs in honor of Valentine's Day. Sit back, click the images, and enjoy!

Our Animal Series Prints

Fish on Wheels 8” x 10” mixed media giclee print

Butterfly 8” x 10” mixed media giclee print

I thought I would spend this column talking about Gert's and my animal prints--of which we have over a hundred + different images. This collaborative series started when we found this wonderful Mexican bark paper at the original Paper Source store in the River North section of Chicago, back in the late 80s when we rented a studio there for a few months. We liked its rawness and it was small and easy to carry on our many early trips back and forth to California and Europe. We would often work on these small 8" x 10" painting collages on a hotel room floor, literally passing them back and forth and having a lot of fun in the process. Gert would usually start (he had more of an imagination for the fantastical than I did) and then I would add my touches, organize and clean it up a bit. It might go back and forth again. At that time we sold them in sets of twenty only through the Elaine Horwitch Gallery in Scottsdale, Santa Fe, Sedona and Palm Springs (they called it their magic wall). Our collection of animals grew over the years and we now sell them in giclée print form only, as singles as well as in groupings. Here are a few of our favorites. To see the whole collection, click here.

Grazing Cow 8” x 10” mixed media giclee print

Orange Dog 8” x 10”mixed media giclee print

Green-Eared Pig 8” x 10” mixed media giclee print

Grouping on the wall of Valley Variety in Hudson, New York

Amate Paper from the Amate tree, made by hand in Puebla, Mexico

This piece was started by Gert—I can still collaborate and finish it up!

Charity of the Week:
Southern Poverty Law Center

Please donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that has been on the forefront of fighting hate and white supremacy for many years.

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow Maine Floating House Series mixed media on canvas 54” x 54” $7500

blog no. 58: Thich Nhat Hanh, Cauliflower Piccata, Gert Mathiesen: Year of the Tiger

February 5, 2022

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.

How about a Hummingbird Heart print to share your love?

8” x 10” in a black or white frame $150. Will deliver by February 14th.

Click on image to order and please specify black or white frame.

three things we love

Thich Nhat Hanh

Beautiful illustration by Carla Madrigal from the book Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints by Daneen Akers @carlamadrigalembroidery

I like to cite the podcast On Being often for its great interviews with interesting people and last week's conversation was no exception. In memory of the great Thich Nhat Hanh, who died last week in his native country of Vietnam at the age of 95, I share with you an interview Krista Tippett made with this Buddhist monk, teacher, peace activist, author and poet back in 2003, when she attended one of his mindfulness retreats along with a group of police officers and other criminal justice personel in the state of Wisconsin. Someone please pass this on to our police commissioners. Thich Nhat Hanh is known as the "father of mindfulness" and this conversation contains a lot of wisdom on "living peace"--well worth the listen!

Cauliflower Piccata

One of the silver linings for me from the pandemic is that I started cooking more. I used to be the kind of cook that had a small repetoire of things I would cook over and over--turkey burgers, pasta and sauce, salmon, meat loaf, lasagna for special occasions...But my standards weren't cutting it for me anymore--I missed restaurants and I got real sick of my own cooking. So I started looking up recipes for foods that I was craving--and actually following recipes for the first time in my life...and guess what, it worked! And then I decided to splurge on the NY Times Cooking app-- best thing I ever did in the food department. I love all the choices and the recipes are good ones! Since I am trying to eat less meat, here is one I tried the other night that was just plain delicious!

CAULIFLOWER PICCATA
By Hetty McKinnon

Ingredients

1 whole cauliflower, cut into large 2-inch florets
3-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained
1 shallot, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup vegetable stock
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons capers, drained
Zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Parsley, chopped, for garnish
1 lemon, sliced, for serving.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Place the cauliflower florets onto a sheet pan and drizzle with 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
Season with kosher salt and black pepper, and roast for 20 to 30 minutes, until the cauliflower is golden and tender.
Remove from the oven, add the chickpeas, if using, and toss to combine.

Heat a medium skillet to medium-high.
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the shallot, and sauté until soft and fragrant, about one minute.
Add the garlic and cook for one minute longer, stirring constantly to keep from scorching.
Pour the stock into the pan and simmer until reduced by half, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Reduce heat to low, then stir in the butter, capers, lemon zest and juice.
Season with 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and a few turns of black pepper.
Combine sauce with cauliflower and chickpeas and serve over pasta or rice.
Top with parsley and serve with lemon slices (optional).

Gert Mathiesen's Tigers

In honor of the Chinese New Year and since this is the Year of the Tiger, I thought I would share with you some of my late husband Gert Mathiesen's paintings and prints that contain tiger imagery. It was a common theme in his work. The origin is a humorous one: We used to chuckle with the art school teacher Olivia that our daughter Morgan, with two artist parents, would stick to just one image in her elementary art class year after year--the head of her beloved teddy bear Pocahontas. So Gert decided to adopt it and make it his own...turning the teddy bear into his signature tiger...
For a long time I wasn't selling Gert's work--wanting to hold onto it because all of a sudden the endless fountain of his creativity came to a screeching halt upon his death in 2013. I feel differently now. I want to spread it around and share it. Please contact me (or in Denmark, Galleri Liisberg) if you are interested in owning one of his paintings or prints and to check on availability and pricing.

Charity of the Week:
Southern Poverty Law Center

Product of the Week
New Yoga Mats

New ! Yoga Mats—$88. Contact me directly to purchase: pamsmilow@me.com

blog no. 57: Astrophysicist Katie Mack, No-Cal Pancakes, Film: The Tiger Within

January 29, 2022

By the way, don’t miss the film Tiger Within (listed below). So worth watching and a film perfect for our times.

three things we love

Poem by Astrophysicist Katie Mack

Katie Mack’s Astrophysics Lesson. Click on image to hear her lecture FYI I probably understood about 1 percent of.

Click image to see how tiny we are in the universe…

Click here to have Katie read her poem to you or read it yourself below

Disorientation
by Katie Mack

I want to make you dizzy.

I want to make you look up into the sky and comprehend, maybe for the first time, the darkness that lies beyond the evanescent wisp of the atmosphere, the endless depths of the cosmos, a desolation by degrees.

I want the Earth to turn beneath you and knock your balance off, carry you eastward at a thousand miles an hour, into the light, and the dark, and the light again. I want you to watch the Earth rising you up to meet the rays of the morning sun.

I want the sky to stop you dead in your tracks on your walk home tonight, because you happened to glance up and among all the shining pinpricks you recognized one as of the light of an alien world.

I want you to taste the iron in your blood and see its likeness in the rust-red sands on the long dry dunes of Mars, born of the same nebular dust that coalesced random flotsam of stellar debris into rocks, oceans, your own beating heart.

I want to reach into your consciousness and cast it outward, beyond the light of other suns, to expand it like the universe, not encroaching on some envelope of emptiness, but growing larger, unfolding inside itself.

I want you to see your world from four billion miles away, a tiny glint of blue in the sharp white light of an ordinary star in the darkness. I want you to try to make out the boundaries of your nation from that vantage point, and fail.

I want you to feel it, in your bones, in your breath, when two black holes colliding a billion light years away sends a tremor through spacetime that makes every cell in your body stretch, and strain.

I want to make you nurse nostalgia for the stars long dead, the ones that fused your carbon nuclei and the ones whose last thermonuclear death throes outshined the entire galaxy to send a single photon into your eye.

I want you to live forward but see backward, farther and deeper into the past, because in a relativistic universe you don’t have any other choice. I want the stale billion-year-old starlight of a distant galaxy to be your reward.

I want to utterly disorient you and let you navigate back by the stars. I want you to lose yourself, and find it again, not just here, but everywhere, in everything.

I want you to believe that the universe is a vast, random, uncaring place, in which our species, our world, has absolutely no significance. And I want you to believe that the only response is to make our own beauty and meaning and to share it while we can.

I want to make you wonder what is out there. What dreams may come in waves of radiation across the breadth of an endless expanse. What we may know, given time, and what splendors might never, ever reach us.

I want to make it mean something to you. That you are in the cosmos. That you are of the cosmos. That you are born from stardust and to stardust you will return. That you are a way for the universe to be in awe of itself.

No-Cal Pancakes for Breakfast

I always add fruit and a little maple syrup to these pancakes.

Here's a trick I learned from a fellow Weight Watchers member that has been my go to for a no-cal pancake breakfast. It might not be exactly the real thing but pretty close (and you don't think bananas when you eat it). Here is the simple delicious recipe:

Pancakes

Ingredients
1 Banana
2 Eggs
big dash of Cinnamon
splash of Vanilla

Instructions

Beat two eggs together. Mash the banana (the more ripe the better) and mix into the egg mixture. Add vanilla and cinnamon. Spray a skillet with Pam or other 0 Point spray. (or add a bit of oil or butter if you must) Pour batter in. Let it cook on one side. Flip and cook the other side. Serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, yogurt or whatever you choose.

Film: The Tiger Within

I am always on the lookout for interesting things to include on this blog--television shows, recipes, short poems and whatever catches my fancy and my eye for the week. Some of it comes from memory and some of it comes from recent discoveries...

This week I received an email about a virtual showing of a film and my eyes fell on the name Ed Asner. Readers of my blog will know he has been one of my heroes for a long time now. The film is called The Tiger Within, where Asner plays a starring role alongside a brilliant performance by an unknown 14-year old named Margot Josefsohn. And although not totally brand new, I had never heard of this movie. It is especially significant now since it was one of Asner's last roles before he recently passed away...

The word TOUCHING doesn’t begin to do justice to this beautiful gem of a film with a huge heart and even bigger lessons about love and hate, the dangers of ignorance, and possibilities of redemption. Writer Gina Wendkos (she also wrote The Princess Diaries among other films) weaves a story where two diametrically opposed and unlikely people manage to connect and as a result, find a way to heal. Wendkos has a special talent for authentic and sensitive dialogue, making the characters come alive in such poetic ways...

Drop everything and watch it. I got special permission to share this private link with you so you can see this even though it is not publicly available (it was only a five day run at Film at Lincoln Center). The link is as follows:

https://vimeo.com/444445735

Password : Embrace_the_Tiger

And then I would appreciate so much your getting back to me through the comment section or via email or phone, to let me know your thoughts.

My thoughts are that I want to help make this film known to a bigger population of people and perhaps help reach youth that might be flirting with anti-semitism, racism, white supremacy and hate. I think it is such an important film and comes at such a crucial time in our history and I believe it could serve as a tool to fight hatred.

If you want to hear more from the filmmakers themselves, there are several Q & A sessions including this one from the Miami Film Festival in April 2021 and another at the Austin Film Festival from three months ago.

Charity of the Week:
Southern Poverty Law Center

Product of the Week
New Yoga Mats

New ! Yoga Mats—$80. Contact me directly to purchase: pamsmilow@me.com

blog no. 56: Abraham Verghese, Eyes as Big as Plates Collaboration, Hungary and the Nazis

January 22, 2022

I know most of you look to this blog to provide upbeat, inspirational news to counteract all the bad news we are surrounded with these days. And that is definitely my intention. But sometimes I feel compelled to add something that I think is important to share even though it is not a happy story. As in the documentary below which tells the story of the Hungarian Jews during World War II in the words of five survivors.

We in America are on the brink of losing our democracy and I just can't always be silent about that...With the rise of white supremacy and resurgence of anti-Semitism around the world, I think we need to be reminded how fascism can arise much more easily than we think and how it takes the silence of good people to allow it to occur...And as illustrated in the film, look how easily and quickly the Hungarian people turned against their Jewish neighbors. I never thought it could happen here and I hope I am right, but I now definitely have my doubts...

three things we love

Abraham Verghese Cutting for Stone

Physician Author Abraham Verghese (photo courtesy Lithub)

Abraham Verghese Illustration by @emmabaker.art

Sometimes a book just hits you and it stays with you. Abraham Verghese's book Cutting for Stone is one of those books. I read it many many years ago and if you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it. If you have read it, you might be interested in Verghese as a humanitarian--hear one of his Ted Talk's here.

Cutting For Stone is an epic novel that follows the lives of brothers Marion and Shiva Stone, born out of a secretive relationship between an Indian nun and a brash British surgeon in Ethiopia on the brink of revolution. The compassion filled story, based partially on the life of the author himself, is "a family saga that crosses continents and cultures" from Addis Ababa to New York City and ambitiously explores, in the words of NPR's Lynn Neary, the themes of "family, politics, history, culture and love against a backdrop of life in and near hospitals." Verghese, in the true tradition of writer/doctor, gives us a detailed insider look at the workings of the world of medicine and all the human emotions that surround that world.
I not only fell in love with this book but also what I perceive as the deep understanding of humanity and caring of the physician author Abraham Verghese. I have also read his other two books and I recommend them too: The Tennis Partner and My Own Country. Dr. Verghese is currently Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He received a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2016. Verghese recently wrote the foreward to the book When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi which I also plan on reading soon.

Eyes as Big as Plates Collaboration

My friend, graphic designer and interior designer par excellence Jill Korostoff of JakDesign, has impeccable taste and sends out periodic emails with inspirational tidbits that I always enjoy seeing. I share a recent one with you here that definitely caught my eye...
Finnish artist Riitta Ikonen and Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth are on a journey together focusing on older people; reimagining them as powerful figures from lore and legend. They have titled their project "Eyes as Big as Plates" and in their own words, "this ongoing collaboration started out as a play on characters from Nordic folklore. It has evolved into a continual search for modern human’s belonging to nature. The series is produced in collaboration with retired farmers, fishermen, zoologists, plumbers, opera singers, housewives, artists, academics and ninety year old parachutists. Since 2011 the artist duo has portrayed seniors in Norway, Finland, France, US, UK, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, South Korea, Czech Republic, Japan, Senegal, Outer Hebrides, Tasmania and Greenland.
Each image in the series presents a solitary figure in a landscape, dressed in elements from surroundings that indicate neither time nor place. Here nature acts as both content and context: characters literally inhabit the landscape wearing sculptures they create in collaboration with the artists.
As active participants in our contemporary society, these seniors encourage the rediscovery of a demographic group too often labelled as marginalized or even as a stereotypical cliché. It is in this light that the project aims to generate new perspectives on who we are and where we belong."
The first book Eyes as Big as Plates is sold out. However, you can preorder their second book due to release in 2022 by preordering it from their website here.

Hungary and the Nazis

Hungarian Jews forced to wear Yellow Stars

The Nazis invaded Hungary in March of 1944.

The International Raul Wallenberg Foundation

I grew up with the history of the Holocaust ever present in our household. It is not that my mother, a German Jewish refugee, shoved it down my throat or talked about it all the time, but it was definitely a presence and as I got older, I asked more and more questions of her about that time in her life and the history around it. She told me stories of how her family's furniture factory was destroyed during Kristallnacht and how she had to stop attending school, how some of her so-called friends stopped talking to her, and how her 16 year old life was torn out from under her. She showed me her Jewish star that she was forced to wear on her coat and had saved a piece of schrapnel that rained down on London during the blitz, where she ended up before coming to America. My sister Judy took that piece of bomb to school for show and tell and managed to lose it somewhere on the playground (don't worry, it was okay)...But like many children of survivors of the Shoah, I have always been obsessed with the subject--in search of trying to understand how something like that could happen. Nowadays and very sadly, it seems a lot less far fetched.

I watched the documentary The Last Days on Netflix this past weekend about Hitler's 1944 invasion and occupation of Hungary and the deportation of over 437,000 Hungarian Jews, primarily to Auschwitz. The film tells the story of five Hungarian Jews during this time in their own words. They all believed themselves to be patriotic Hungarians first, much like the German Jews. These survivors all lived to tell their stories, eventually ending up in the United States after being liberated by the Americans from the death camps. One of them, Tom Lantos, even became a U.S. Congressman from the State of California. Amidst all the horror described in the film and I warn you that it contains many graphic and horrific images, there are a few glimmers. Like Swedish architect, diplomat and humanitarian hero Raoul Wallenberg, who single-handedly saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews by renting safe houses for them and issuing them Swedish passports so they could be disguised and flee. (I coincidentally walked by a plaque commemorating him just yesterday on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.) And the message of inspiration comes too from the survivors in the film: Bill Basch, Irene Zisblatt, Renée Firestone, Alice Lok Cahana, Tom Lantos, Dario Gabbai, and Randolph Braham--they did indeed survive against all odds and they have lived to tell their tale. Directed by James Moll and produced by June Beallor and Kenneth Lipper The Last Days came out in 1998 and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature--it has just been remastered and released again in 2021 on Netflix.

Charity of the Week:
Southern Poverty Law Center

Product of the Week
New Yoga Mats

New ! Yoga Mats—contact me for more information…

blog no. 54: Artist Mimmo Paladino, Ways to Reduce Anxiety, Adoptees from China Documentary

January 16, 2022

I think we all need to listen to this right now…

three things we love

Mimmo Paladino

Italian painter, printmaker and sculptor Mimmo Paladino (1948- ) is an artist that I admire a lot. Here is a video about a few of his large scale mixed media prints that take my breath away.

Ways to Reduce Anxiety

Cory Muscara, a mindfulness teacher from Long Island, had this nifty little trick on instagram recently as a way to reduce anxiety and stay in the moment. It's called take five and it is a breathing exercise with your hand and it works...

Another method that works to reduce stress is called square or box breathing, a simple and powerful technique that helps to return your breathing pattern to a relaxed rhythm. It can clear and calm your mind, improving your focus right away.

Step 1: Breathe in counting to four slowly. Feel the air enter your lungs.

Step 2: Hold your breath for 4 seconds. Try to avoid inhaling or exhaling for 4 seconds.

Step 3: Slowly exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds.

Step 4: Repeat steps 1 to 3 until you feel re-centered.

Repeat this exercise as many times as you can. 30 seconds of deep breathing will help you feel more relaxed and in control.

Adoptees from China

I watched a very touching movie on Netflix this week called Found which I recommend to you. It is the story of three teenage girls, born in China, who were given up by their birth parents as newborns and eventually adopted into families in the United States. Through DNA testing with the biotech company 23 and Me, they discover they are cousins and meet for the first time on zoom.

Filmmaker Amanda Lipitz has made a very thought-provoking film about the journey of these three young women, raised in very different surroundings, who bond over a common experience and set out on a journey to find where they come from. This is a personal story for Lipitz--her niece Chloe is one of the three. "When you know where you come from, you can find the peace in your heart."

Charity of the Week:
National Coalition for the Homeless

Painting of the Week

blog no. 54: Artist Mimmo Paladino, Ways to Reduce Anxiety, Adoptees from China Documentary

January 8, 2022

I think we all need to listen to this right now…

three things we love

Mimmo Paladino

Italian painter, printmaker and sculptor Mimmo Paladino (1948- ) is an artist that I admire a lot. Here is a video about a few of his large scale mixed media prints that take my breath away.

Ways to Reduce Anxiety

Adoptees from China

Charity of the Week:
National Coalition for the Homeless

Painting of the Week

blog no. 53: Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Billy Collins, Heather Cox Richardson

January 1, 2022

three things we love

Philip Glass, Glass Pieces

I love dance and I love the music of Philip Glass. My cousin Joanne, a choreographer herself, reminded me recently of Philip Glass's Glass Pieces, an amazing dance piece choreographed by Jerome Robbins and performed for the first time by the New York City Ballet in 1983. I saw it many years ago but it remained vivid in my mind. I am amazed at how wonderful it was to see again, this time only on my computer screen, but totally enjoyable nonetheless...Enjoy!. And for a description of how it is to be a dancer dancing this difficult piece that is reminiscent of Grand Central at rush hour, listen to Russell Jansen's description and that of Justin Peck

Poem by Billy Collins

Introduction to Poetry
BY BILLY COLLINS

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

I feel the same way when someone asks me about my paintings

Heather Cox Richardson, Again

Those who are familiar with my blog know that I have featured historian and Boston College professor Heather Cox Richardson a number of times because I think so highly of her. She is a national treasure--educating us and giving us insight and context to all the ins and outs of our complicated political landscape. This end of the year political chat that she does on facebook regularly is a must listen to anyone who wants a clear, concise description of where we are in the United States today and what we should expect in the next year politically before the midterm elections. By the way, this is not totally depressing...

Charity of the Week: City Harvest

Painting of the Week