stormy weather

I believe that is the name of a cocktail, or stormy night, or something. I just got back from a "cocktail party" at Babs' house. I put that in quotes because it wasn't quite a party, though there were cocktails. Babs is one of the 4 co-founders of the studio. She had invited us and the AIRs over at the welcome picnic we had last weekend. It was really nice we just sat around the table and let her mix us drinks. We talked about art, and life, and how they all (the co-founders) met each other back in the day. Babs' work now is mostly these giant text pieces in shorthand. They are really beautiful. She offered to teach us, I think I am going to try. It's all loops and dashes and specific combinations of things that represent sound to make words as a single mark, rather than multiple letters strung together, or maybe just like that, in a very abbreviated way. It is a little confusing to me still, but it is interesting to think about people's reactions to the work. It is only a specific age and class of women that can read shorthand. I can't, women from the era it was used in who did not need to work don't know it and men don't know it. I look at it and I see the marks and the columns, but women who know shorthand, know what she is saying. It's a curious thing, like a totally different language, but not.

I also spent my daytime hours hanging out with Lady J and Schroder. I took them to the summit. I got some better shots of the caves as well as some of us hanging out at the tippy top. We hit Kingston and Saugerties, and I will be getting up early(ish) to go up to Saugerties to check out a sweet swimming hole with them, make a short trip to Woodstock , and who knows what else. I've also got to firm up plans with kfed for next weekend sometime soon. Oh yeah and post those pictures I took for you all on my half day.