AMak Color

A couple of photos from our wedding reception

Neither Kurt or I are fans of enormous weddings, and that is why we got married on a whim back in September. But, we still owed a wedding reception to our families who, of course, could not make it to our actual wedding after we gave them a 3-day notice. And that is why we spent the last 4 months planning a party. Given that my family lives in Atlanta, we couldn't possibly hold a reception during Chicago's winter - so we patiently waited until the air warmed up again, and picked the date of April 18th.

Truth be told, we did everything kind of backwards. We married, went on a honeymoon all over Arizona, then took a second short trip to Arizona, then spent 10 days in Brazil (2nd honeymoon? Who's counting!...), and then celebrated with a reception. And 2 days after the event, Kurt's guy friends threw him a bachelor party. Yeah. The bachelor party, though, consisted of a gourmet dinner and lots of wine.

Our wedding reception went fantastic. It is a once-in-a-lifetime event when you are in a room full of 100-something people where you are close to everyone - and all of them are fighting for your attention. Kind of weird to think about, that all these people are gathered for YOU. My family and 5 friends flew in from Atlanta, and other friends flew in from California, Boston, Asheville. We rented out a big lofty reception space from our photographer friends Steve and Cher, organized an international meal (which included Lebanese, Indian, and Isralei food), directed bartenders to make mojitos, and hired a wonderful local Latin Jazz sextet - Grupo Cha Cha. The party was superb! Of course, neither Kurt or I even sat down to eat, we ran around the room like maniacs, chatting with every guest, dancing, and trying not to spill red wine on ourselves. My father, who at 71 is an aspiring photographer, chased us around trying to get us to pose for 100+ pictures. And the following day, after a few shots of vodka, my Russian/Ukrainian parents were on the plane headed back to Atlanta. That night, we went out for Bosnian food with my Atlanta friends Dan and Azra (I had no idea that Chicago has quite a few Bosnian restaurants, but I'm not surprised - this city has every culinatry choice under the sun). Bosnian food, by the way, could give you a heart attack, but it is SO delicious! Overall, it was a great weekend.

Here are a few reception shots, courtesy of Steve.

The happy couple:
 

Kurt dancing with my dear friend Caryn:

Life is moving fast

We are now back from Brazil… Wow. What an amazing, fun country, with arguably, some of the happiest people on the planet. A long, extensive Brazil trip report is in the works… and will be posted here within a few weeks (not a year later, I promise!) After spending 10 days and Rio and Paraty without ever wearing long pants or a long-sleeved shirt, I couldn’t allow myself to think that upon my return Chicago I would be possibly forced to get out of my sandals – for sure, summer would have come here by then? But here I am, back in my leather boots, patiently waiting for our Spring to take a warmer turn.
Then after we came back, we temporarily adopted our foster child – a big, energetic Akita, naked Sake. She belongs to a customer of mine who last year commissioned three paintings. He leaves Sake with us every once in a while when he vacations. I am not sure how exactly things went from me selling the guy three paintings to us watching his beast (I sound like a full service artist here!) - but Sake seems to enjoy our home and company, and aside from wanting to eat all the small animals when she walks outside, she is actually quite adorable. And she cleans her face with a paw like a cat, and howls when we come home.

Life is moving fast. On Saturday, we are having our long awaited wedding reception, which we have been planning for a few months now, and I can’t believe that it is finally here. I am very excited about finally celebrating our marriage (however belated the celebration may be) with our families and all the friends. We do everything backwards – first we have a quiet wedding, then take a couple of honeymoons, and then get around to throwing a reception. And after this weekend, my art festival season starts and I go back to my full production mode. So, new paintings, prints, and show schedules will be coming here soon – but until then, I will be raising a few champagne glasses to celebrate love and many friendships. Cheers!

My first (ugly) tile painting

I wanted to share with you a photo of my very first ceramic painting on tile. This is not a very recent accomplishment; I did this little project back in Atlanta in October of '08 at All Fired Up (a little "paint your own pottery" shop). It is a red Chicago Skyline, similar to my small canvas originals, but an ugly one indeed! I have always been interested in painting with underglazes, but discovered that I don't like the process too much. Painting with ceramic underglazes is tricky, and quite different than using regular paints. You can't layer light colors over dark, everything needs at least three solid coats - ugh... Not nearly the same as having artistinc freedom on canvas. Interestingly, though, after playing with tiles more in '09, I discovered that I enjoy screen printing on them. So, once I get some results that look halfway decent, I will be sure to showcase them right here!

On a different note, we're off to Brazil tomorrow. While I am excited about the trip, I am not looking forward to our flight, as it is going to take forever with three connections. We will be visiting the beautiful airports of Dayton, OH, Washington, DC, and Sau Paulo, before we step on Rio's soil. I suppose that is the price we pay for flying for free (we're both using credit card miles for this one). But why is it every time you fly on miles, you are forced to take a million-connection flight?! Isn't it MORE expensive for the airline to put us on several planes? 
(...The first part of my Salta, Argentina trip report will auto-post here while we are gone.)