{Trick or Treat}

Given the choice I almost always opt for “treat.”  This Halloween I am indulging my sweet tooth with red velvet cupcakes from The Cupcake Company, a boutique bakery operating out of a small bay-windowed shop in Kensington.  Their cupcakes, draped in delicious frosting, are some of the loveliest I’ve ever seen.  Check out their new storefront window, all dressed up with edibles in the holiday’s spooky spirit.

Happy Halloween!

{Degas Takes The Stage}

'The Dance Lesson', by Edgar Degas, c. 1879.
(National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon)

Poised in front of two large opaque glass doors, ticket collectors scan patrons’ tickets, allowing them entrance into Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement at the Royal Academy of Arts.  The doors swing open, into an octagonal room, where an oversized tufted brown leather ottoman, centred in the room, invites attendees to sit before the stage and watch dancers’ shadows spin in arabesque, high along the back wall.  Per the museum’s docent, this shadow “puppetry” mimics a technique that Degas practiced in his own studio in order to study and understand light, form, and movement.  Displayed on an adjacent wall, a map of the gallery depicts the exhibit’s progression.  Viewers, armed with their gallery guides as playbills, are ushered “backstage”.

Immediately, Edgar Degas, famous for his impressionistic depictions of ballet dancers, greets viewers as a life-sized black and white photographic portrait where he stands looking stoically at the camera – an ironic introduction given that Degas’s strength in imagery lied in his ability to capture what photography could not – moments of dancers in advanced and strenuous positions.

While Degas’s finished paintings and pastels draw crowds to his ‘stages,’ preliminary sketches of the dancers pirouette around them paying tribute to the artist’s special attention to line and form, as well as to his precise artistic process.  Joined with the artist’s works, television screens illuminate throughout the rooms, playing roughly filmed images of dancers.  Degas briefly experimented with photography using the emerging medium to develop his own techniques in displaying movement.

The final room of the exhibition, a dark theatrical space with rows of benches arranged in front of a large screen, plays a looped 30-second black and white film, Ceux de Chez Nous (c. 1914-15) by the documentary director Sacha Guitry, of Edgar Degas as an old man walking down the street in Paris.  Here, the artist becomes (moving) art – another ironic note.

Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement proves to be more than an exhibition about an artist and his subject, but rather an exhibition of evolution, full of clever curatorial jokes.  As viewers walk through the exhibition space, from the ‘stage’ to the ‘cinema’, this impressionistic exhibition becomes one of postmodernism, using the audience to reinforce the idea that motion is inherent in all of Degas’s works, as well as in art as a whole.  And with that, the curators wink.

Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement, on until 11 December 2011, has been curated by Richard Kendall, Curator at Large, The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, USA; Jill DeVonyar, independent curator; and Ann Dumas, Exhibition Curator, Royal Academy of Arts.

'Two Dancers on the Stage', by Edgar Degas, c. 1874.
(The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London)

{It Takes A Giant To Wear Pink}

October has long been dubbed Breast Cancer Awareness Month (both in the U.S. and in the U.K.) and has generated great awareness as well as huge proceeds towards research for its treatment and elimination.  Each year, walkers take to the streets for The Cure, while fashion retailers promote their prettiest pink merchandise, with portions of their proceeds benefitting the cause – noble efforts made for better lives.

This Sunday, while watching American football via my slingbox, I noticed that the New York Giants donned a different hue.  Along with their royal blue jerseys and helmets, they ran, rushed, and tackled with determination wearing shockingly hot pink knee socks, gloves, armbands, and ribbons.  Along with The American Cancer Society, the NFL is promoting A Crucial Catch – a campaign encouraging annual breast cancer screenings, by wearing pink during games in October.  The NFL’s and Giants’ whole-hearted efforts in advocating for prevention tickled me pink as breast cancer is an issue that transcends gender groups and affects all people.  Go teams!

{Fall Fever}

“Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies.”

~Tom Hanks, as Joe Fox in You’ve Got Mail

Around my neighborhood, the leaves are just beginning to turn from green to yellow.  Children, wearing navy, woolen blazers with matching brimmed hats, re-inhabit the local red double-decker buses.  My local wine store has switched out their window display from roses to reds.  Fall is in the air!  And with that there is the prospect of stepping into a “new year,” which I suppose is due to all those years of conditioning for going back to school.  Despite London’s current weather, a record high of 80 degrees, I feel that fall excitement – maybe even more so since I am once again entering the world of academia as a student at “uni.”  Infected with that fall bug, here are a few academic essentials that I am toting with me to that eminent first day of class…

1.  Longchamp Le pliage bag – the perfect size for a few notebooks and a small laptop.  And it's water resistant.

2.  Super slim mid-year calendar book – a calendar that starts in August instead of January – how brilliant! 

3.  Retro multi-colored pen and Stabilo Boss highlighter – at the risk of looking like Elle Woods, I couldn’t resist these ones in pink and purple.

4.  Smythson mini jotter – a bespoke, pocket-sized notebook, perfect for taking down notes on the go – or in a museum.  I just love the array of colors and fun titles, like "OMG!" and "Tickled Pink".

5.  Stylish thermos – perfect for that needed AM caffeine kick-start. (I found this one at a local camping shop.)