Summer is giving Mark and I time to enjoy cooking together and though we both love it, he especially excels.  He just started a vegan blog as the Irreverent Vegan.  He composes the pithy recipes and I help out with the cooking, ideas, photography and…man, is it hard but someone has to do it…the eating!  We’re hosting a vegan brunch at our house this Sunday morning following the wonderful Ypsilanti-based Shadow Art Fair at the Corner Brewery.

I am fortunate that a typical meal at our house looks like this:

chick(pea) patties and smashed potatoes with mushroom gravy

The lettuce on the burgers and the green beans on the potatoes come from our garden.  Deck and lanterns compliments of our friend Blue at Blue Sky Carpentry.

Within hours I went from hanging out in wonderful, wacky Budapest in clubs like Szimpla Kert:

(…this is where Michael and I spent our last night in Budapest and had to say goodbye to some fantastic new friends, who we’re sure to meet again.  There’s a Halloween trip to NYC afoot!…)

…to my peaceful, breezy life in Michigan.  Here are some scenes from my domestic eden:

gladiolas from my welcome back party hosted by Mark

Juni asleep. Chandelier pillow compliments of Mary Elise Bolam.

laundry time

the beast! (aka Wobbly Bob)

the kitchen window box

And since too much peace in my life is unsettling, I decided that my home studio isn’t arranged quite right, so now I am grappling with this mess:

But thanks to my amazing fellow, there’s a fridge stocked full of my favorite things to fuel me.  I also made sun tea.  Thankfully right now, wherever I am, there is glorious summer!

I am packed and ready to go.  I can’t believe I got all of that stuff into two suitcases and three carry-ons.

save yourself

I have been busy wrapping things up here.  By some miracle I was able to make my video camera work long enough to put all of the footage from shoot #1 on my computer.  Now Nannette and I can continue to work on the video remotely.

Yesterday she and I made vegan chocolate cupcakes to bring to the sending off soiree hosted by David last night.

wee tiny cupcakes!

David's lovely apartment building

the view from his terrace

the sky was lovely last night

Michael and I at the party

We had to say goodbye to Beata today.  She got us these little marzipan critters.  I’m saving mine, but I watched Michael tear the head off of Winnie the Poo rather savagely.I’ve really enjoyed my time here and hope to make it back at some point.  I’ll miss all of the wonderful people I’ve met here.  Szia!  Hello!

I was recently told: when walking around in Budapest, instead of looking down, be sure to look up for all of the beauty that can be found above you. I am paraphrasing, but that was the general gist.  The architecture, statuary, and ornamentation here is amazing and thankfully survived a lot of the wars and bombing that befell other European cities.

Széchenyi Baths

just inside the entrance of Széchenyi Baths

just inside the entrance of Széchenyi Baths

The Opera

the building in which my and Mark's hostel was situated- these courtyards are very typical in Hungarian buildings

ornamentation on an old building now used as artist studios

I like the use of color on these shops in Buda

the entrance to the building that houses David's studio (part of it was on loan to Michael and me while here)

the falling ivy in the courtyard of the studio building

I feel like a mad scientist…perhaps an anthropologist spelunker.

I am really into the work of the artist Mike Peter Smith lately.  Can you guess why?

Friday was a blast and I am just now getting around to posting about it.  Nannette and I went to the Chinese market where I bought many pairs of crazy tights and enjoyed the empty spaces.  We enjoyed a coffee and lemonade at a really compelling cafe, Csendes (meaning silent), and shopped at Retrock.  We worked on the video and made spaghetti in the evening and then went off to the fashion show at Gödör.  It was one of those wild magical days full of serendipity.

Today Beata stopped in to do studio visits.  I am pleased that she likes the two island oil paintings- they will be exhibited here in Budapest a few times in group exhibitions arranged and curated by Beata of residents of the HMC (Hungarian Multicultural Center- International Artist Residency).  We talked for awhile, and hung out on the terrace.

Michael Hilsman

We visited Michael’s studio as well.  He has some amazing new work.

Beata smooching one of Michael's paintings

We grabbed some food and Michael and I had Turkish tea:

On the way home, we walked by an antique book store.  I love the design and imagery on the covers:

Nannette and I have been collaborating on a video piece the last couple of days…

I’m not exactly sure how it will turn out, but it’s been a lot of fun to work on so far.  Props involve a bathtub, oil paint, a rock, the stuffing from a plush pig’s belly, a sharp knife (to procure the pig guts), a gold threaded cloud puppet, one broken video camera, one working video camera, ink- black and shimmery blue.  Here’s a still image from shoot #1.

The clouds have been floating over my bed.  I think they like it near the map drawings…

Nannette forbade me from posting her image, but since Mark wants to know who my new friends here  are, here’s her picture (with a giant breast):

Uh oh.  She’s going to kill me tomorrow…

In the photo, we’re at a place called Gödör, which, in Hungarian, means “hole.”  At some point, the city intended to build an amphitheater here, but never finished it, so a private party created a club out of the hole that the city started to dig out and thus resulted the Gödör.  Here are some photos of this popular hang-out spot:

When Mark was still with me for the first couple of days of my time here, we saw our friend Chris play with his friend’s band inside.

Getting back to tonight, at this point in the evening, we had been to a couple of openings, and decided to indulge in some decadent drinks, so we ended up at (rats I don’t remember the name of it!) some lovely bar.  Here we met friends, and got drinks that looked like this:

a rose-tini

an extra dirty martini (I've never seen this much care put into drinks before!)

You can see our bartender just behind my martini glass.  Just in case you think I’m spending all of my time here partying, here is an image of some work I did today.  I finished (I think) two smallish- to mid-sized island paintings:

In Budapest, even a casual walk down the street to Kaiser market is an adventure.  Here are some of the sights:

a view of the corner just north of my apartment building

a building I pass often- I bet it has hundreds of stories to tell

This particular Kaiser market is just like a regular grocery store, but it is located in this large market hall.  Also housed in the same building is a small flea market and several snack stands, and the like.

the market hall

the flea market, where the propretors are constantly rearranging the display of their wares

stuff galore

Since I tricked you into coming to the market with me, now you can help me carry these heavy bags home- köszönöm! (thanks!)