Silo

Not an eyeball!

Ceiling

Not Peter's studio!

Old Paint

Like a flag

NYC Ballet

The ceiling of the David H. Koch Theater is very sparkly

A much needed diversion, we went to see the NYC Ballet last night. Lisa received three tickets from her boss and invited us to join her. It was a great night.

Cleaning One Painting at a Time

Oy! Be gone evil soot!

Peter cleaning and thinking of the days he used to paint

All clean -- one down, hundreds more to go!

While we wait for the insurance company to get back to us, we have started the daunting task of cleaning all of the paintings stored in the studio. Once cleaned, we're moving them into the house until the studio itself can be cleaned. We have discovered a wonderful product for removing soot, the chemical sponge. It's very good until it's full and then it makes a mess.

Soot Webs, Who Knew!

After the smoke cleared, we could see that the studio was covered in these black web formations. At first we couldn't believe there were so many spider webs in there, but we have since learned that soot forms webs, who knew! They come off fairly easily, but leave oily smudgy stains behind. Time to bring in the professionals.

Studio Disaster

A film of gritty, oil dust covers everything in the studio

We will never forget this last Saturday, February 19th, 2011. A tree fell and took down the power lines on our road. It was a cold and windy day and with no hope of the power company showing up soon, Peter lit the kerosene heater in the basement of his studio to keep the pipes from freezing.

A couple of hours later, I went to check on the heater and when I opened the studio door, black, oily smoke had filled the building and bellowed out the open door. I called for Peter and we opened all of the windows. Our nostrils and the creases in our skin were filled with black dust. Our clothes smelled like kerosene and were gray and smudged.

When the air cleared, we could see the damage. Everything in the studio, every nook and cranny of which there are many, everything was and is still covered with a film of gritty, oily dust. It's overwhelming.

Before the Sunrise

Peter's morning meeting, 6:41 am

After some debate, we crawled out of our warm bed to go photograph the sunrise this morning, actually the pre-sunrise. It was hard getting up, I'm not much of a morning person, but I know that it is always worth the effort.

Peter usually visits this favorite field at sunset when the warm light of the setting sun lights up the distant trees and field. He wondered what it would look like with a pre-dawn sky behind it. This morning, we were not disappointed.

White Manna

Looking through glass brick

Greasy burgers today at White Manna in Hackensack, NJ. A great experience I don't need to enjoy again or at least any time soon!

Snowy Branches

I was trying to catch the sparkle of the snow in the sunlight, but ultimately this reminded me of one of Mondrian's tree abstractions. A little bit.

Soda and Sun

At lunch yesterday, the sun backlit these colored plastic glasses full of soda -- so beautiful.