Leslie is so beautiful! You can read her blog and gawk at her gorgeous, supersaturated photos, her glamorous lipstick smile, and decide right there that you like this woman. And you should. Leslie has a heart of gold and is one of the warmest and sincere people I’ve met.
What surprises me most is that we didn’t do this sooner. On Saturday, we met in the city. We had planned to go to Chinatown, a complete whim, until I discovered that the Cartoon Art Museum was exhibiting The Art and Flair of Mary Blair for one last day. It was a no brainer! And a total success, too; the show blew us away.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Mary Blair, think back to the evocative, graphic success of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, or the colorful geometric patterns within It’s a Small World theme show at Disney, where Blair worked as concept designer in the 40s and 50s, pushing the animation envelope as hard as Walt would let her. Blair also painted many of the vintage Golden Books we grew up loving and now treasure for their simple, evocative graphic brilliance.
Well, we strolled at a snail’s pace through the small exhibit, poring over little gouache abstractions, picking our favorites and annoying the museum clerk by not taking pictures of the exhibit. SEE?:
In the museum store afterwards, I picked up a copy of Free Style Scraps: Silhouette, and balked at the price under my breath while Leslie negotiated the another book’s price with the clerk. When finished, she told me that if I didn’t buy the book, I should follow my instincts and pursue whatever my silhouette obsession another way. Which made me smile. The world abounds with inspiration.
Toodling back down Market for coffee, and later for cream puffs (the world’s best!), we iced the cake with another hour of gib-gab over boys and blogs and puppy dog tails, nodding to the simulataneous phone calls from our loved ones, all too soon.
But we’ll be at this again! Pinkie swear.
