black & white

While I was at my parents house in N.C for the holiday , I took some photos of the collections my mom has in her house. She has quite a bit of art, her father was an artist.( I think that little girl in the white dress is my mom) and teacher in New York during theNew Deal and the W.P.A.. And was friends with the likes of Thomas Hart Benton. Who has Jackson Pollack's mentor and teacher.

My grandfather Lawrence Adams or Poppy as I knew him passed away when I was very young 6 or 7. I remember very clearly the day mom got the phone call. It was a sunny day in our kitchen on base in Ft. Benning Georgia. I remember her crying as she slowly slid her back down the wall and I sat with her on kitchen floor not understanding why.

I have only a hand full of memories of Poppy, I used to sit in his lap at his desk and he would draw pictures for me with big a grease pencil, I still love the smell of them and peeling them down is so satisfying. I even have a tattoo on my arm of a secret he told me. Once I showed the smallest spark of creativity my mom, encouraged me, to paint, sculpt, sew, and draw. Though I didn't know him very well, I feel like he has always been along side me.


I took some pictures of his wood block prints, the picture aren't great I need a better camera.




I'm not sure about the titles for these but this one always reminded me of some one swimming in a lake


this is a lino cut I did when I was 12, strange how the compositions are similar



I think we have all felt like this at sometime or another, being stuck in a slump!


These are two Christmas cards that Thomas Hart Benton send my moms family, I believe they are lithograph prints that he did only for his Christmas card, they may be the only one that still exist. I have urged my mom to have the them appraised and insured! She used to keep them in her tee- shirt draw, thankfully a few years ago my dad had them professionally sealed and framed. I wanted to photocopy the hand written note on the inside of the card, but she would not let me break the seal.


This is a self portrait, at age 14. I am wearing my moms wedding veil. I remember the assignment in Mrs. Hammond's 10th grade art class was to do a self portrait showing your heritage. The wedding veil is a traditional Italian wedding veil, similar to what the virgin Mary wears. I made an exact replica of this veil for my sister Meg when she got married.

I'm a quarter Italian on my dad's side. Rocco grew up in the North End of Boston, thats a whole another post, well no thats could be a whole book!