New Mexico-based painter and photographer bloomgal64 sent me an email note a few days ago with these words in the subject line: “An Italian ybonesy.” At first I panicked. Oh no! Some Italian has absconded with my nom de plume and now I will spend the rest of my blogging life explaining, “No, no, you see, I’m the American ybonesy…”
But as I read bloomgal’s message and clicked on the link in Flickr it was pointing me to, I saw that what she wanted me to see was an Italian artist who, at first blush, bloomgal mistook for moi.
¡Qué complimento! (I don’t know how to say “compliment” in español ni italiano, so I hope I’ve not picked a false cognate, which I once did when I went on and on to my Spanish boarding ladies about “preservativos” in foods, not realizing that “preservativos” meant “condoms” in Spanish.)
Check out the work by the artist known as ushnetwork. He is whimsical, political, and wonderful. He has done portraits of young maidens, Madonna of the Milk, Charles Bronson, Condi Rice, Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, and many more. (I wonder if I can talk him into doing a Portrait of ybonesy?)
And, bloomgal, if you read this, Thanks for making my day!!
If you are diligent about using preservitos, you will never be embarrasado. My face was even redder than it had previously been when I learned I had told someone I was with child.
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Ain’t that the truth! If you use condoms, you’ll never end up pregnant…er, um, well, at least 90-some percent of the time.
And your mistake reminds me of a time I was with a group of academics in Cuba (this right after Clinton was elected president the first time and briefly opened up travel from Miami to Havana). We’d been drinking Cuban rum at one of the rum processing factories (we were studying the economy) and one of the American men leaned across the table and said, “Estoy curioso…,” by way of opening a question with the standard “I’m curious…”. Except, “curioso” in Spanish means “funny,” and so with a tumblerful of rum in me before noon and the prospect of this academic telling the Cubans that he was funny, I started laughing. Which then triggered an attack of inappropropriate giggling…and, well, that was that.
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bloomgal64 “JUST” took up painting!!!
WOW! WOW! WOW! What’s for sale?
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ybonesy, I can totally see the similarities in style between you and ushnet. Something about the lips and eyes. Maybe the shapes of the faces.
I also checked out bloomgal64’s work and favorited some of her paintings. Really nice work. A budding painter, too. I hope others check out her link!
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You have a doppleganger.
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Ah, the shadow without a shadow. Interesting, leslie. I wonder if we all have one somewhere in the world?
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This cracked me up, “Oh no! Some Italian has absconded with my nom de plume and now I will spend the rest of my blogging life explaining, “No, no, you see, I’m the American ybonesy…”
I do see a few stylistic similarities to some of the art you’ve shown here.
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I like that, leslie.
Yes, can you believe bloomgal is a new painter? She’s great!
Thanks, amuirin. You know who else he reminded me of, just ever so slightly? Roz Chast from The New Yorker magazine.
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Oh my gosh – you guys are helping my jitters. I have my very first show coming up. I’ll be taking part in the next Black Market Goods show. It’s a one night only art event October 20th at the Princess Jeanne Shopping Center in Albuquerque. Sort of like the radio-station-in-a-van approach. Saves on gallery fees and rejection and silly stuff like that.
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bloomgal, it’s exciting that you will be in an upcoming art show. Thanks for letting us know. And be sure to put a little blurb about it on your Flickr site with the poster or one of your pieces. People can then blog about the art show.
Rein Nomm (nomm de photo on Flickr) has some good examples of ways to announce your shows. We did a link to him a while back at:
Fluid Moments Show (LINK).
And Congrats! Come back and let us know how the show goes!
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Very funny, very very funny, but not so funny as to make me forget to ask:
So what did they say? Did they react at all?
It reminds me of the GI, home after months and months of the foul-mouthed companionship of his fellow soldiers, afraid he would slip up at the dinner table and ask his mother to pass the fucking butter.
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Well, they broke out laughing, of course. And then they asked what I was talking about. And I remember using my fingers to try to show what preservatives were, like these little things floating around in the juice of jarred pickles or something. (I must have picked up whatever jarred thing was in front of me and pointed to it and made my little gestures.) And then the college-aged daughter of one of the women explained to me what I’d just said. The three sisters (my boarding ladies) all watched my face as the daughter did the explaining. My eyes must have gotten big, and then we all exploded in laughter together.
That soldier — sounds like something I would do.
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That kind of emotional pay off always works so well in writing.
I’m reading Murray Kempton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Kempton
lately, writing in the 1950s about the 1930s leftists and it’s good stuff, but it’s so intellectual and earnest, too. The emotional pay off always registers.
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