Who Is Hans Hofmann?

HE WAS A GERMAN- BORN ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST PAINTER.

MY TEACHER SAYS I PAINT LIKE HE DID.

I AM NOT SURE I AGREE.

ONE THING WE ALL AGREED ON IN CLASS TODAY --

IT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TALK ABOUT PAINTING IN WORDS.

HERE IS HANS HOFMANN'S WORK.

Here is some of mine:

More Paintings...

My teacher tells me that it's about time I get a website for my paintings.

First you have to frame them.

Then you have to have someone who knows what she's doing photograph them. Then you have to have a web designer capture the viewer's imagination with a dazzling website.

I might do it, but then again, I might not. It's all very very expensive and hard to justify when you aren't selling any work.

But I do the painting for the love of it, and that's what matters most.

What Baseball Team Will He Root For?

Of course he's cute.  He's a baby. But not just any baby, he is my grandson Ronen, who officially turns three months old today, May 12th.

How did that three months slip away so fast?

Here he is rooting for his father's favorite baseball team.

Ronen doesn't know it, but he's got a long history of Yankee's to contend with in this family: his uncle Noah, his aunt Lindsay, his grandfather Richard, his great grandfather, Rick, and yes, his G-ma (me) too. At one point, his mother (Jocelyn) was a huge fan -- she used to wear her Yankees cap to high school in Massachusetts where there were a ton of Red Sox fans. She also had a huge stand up poster of Derek Jeter in cardboard standing front and center in her bedroom in the old days too. Alas, these days it looks like she might be switching allegiance!

But all of the rest of us are going to keep trying to persuade little Ronen to be a New York fan.

What do you the chances of us winning him over are, considering his father (Evan) will probably be taking him to Fenway before he turns one year old!

Well anyway we'll love you no matter what team you like, little Ronen.

Happy Happy Three-Month Birthday Ronen! You have made so many people so happy already!

Love, G-Ma Claudia xo

Lessons I Learn From My Dog

Poco springs to life at the littlest thing: a ball, a stick, a leaf, a morsel or crumb of bread that happens to fall to the floor.

She knows without knowing that spring is here, because -- finally -- that cold white stuff is gone. In its place is soft green grass. Now she can bullet and back and forth across the yard just to get to the other side, or, to get the treat she's been promised.

What she reminds me over and over again is how, in every single moment, there is something to marvel at and rejoice in, especially now that spring has arrived.

The daffodils.

The soon-to-be blooming magnolia.

The sturdy old maple trees, budding new leaves.

The woodpecker -- actually a pair of them -- knocking against said maple tree.

Poco teaches a simple lesson, that is, enjoy everything. So why is it I forget it so often?

Thank you Poco -- you are such a great puppy!!