Gayle Brennan Spencer – sending random thoughts to and from South Austin
Oaxaca. The colors. The skies. Constant celebrations. The flavors. The people. Blooms bursting forth. Ever-present protests. And incredibly comfortable climate during the months when El Norte can be cold and dreary.
Always welcoming.
Continue reading “Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Hasta la proxima”
Above: Guava mole with shrimp and battered cauliflower at Levadura de Olla
Thalía Barrios Garcia is young, 27 years old, yet she has worked her way from a small Oaxacan village to own two widely acclaimed restaurants in the historic center of the state capital. One, Cocina de Humo, is intimate, providing a chance to observe traditional methods of cooking, but you need to make a reservation in advance. So we tried her Levadura de Olla instead.
Tomatoes. The gorgeous display of heirloom tomatoes immediately announces produce is important here. And a woman kept busy flipping fresh tortillas you know are made the ancient way, from dried corn boiled down with ash, nixtamal.
Continue reading “Postcards from Oaxaca, Mexico: Restaurant Alphabet Vol. II from Le to Tacos”
Above: “Living Means Learning to Appreciate Your Mother Nude,”* Rosemarie Trockel, photograph pasted onto a three-dimensional scene, 2001
A young woman lies on the floor absorbed in viewing a group of slides. She looks relaxed, her ankles are crossed, and she is wearing only underwear and a sweater. So domestic and secure does the scene seem, that catching sight of the woman like this seems strangely voyeuristic…. the photograph of the young woman seems to come alive in the mind’s eye…. one’s own life…is rooted in the sexuality of another human being.*
“Rosemarie Trockel,” Museum fur Moderne Kunst (MMK) catalogue for retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work from the 1970s through 2022
Happy Mother’s Day? (Or perhaps the title of the artwork above does not automatically qualify it as appropriate for the day?)
Wandering through Frankfurt’s modern art museum, MMK, I kept finding myself checking and checking the labels. Could these really all be created by the same artist? Yes.
Continue reading “Postcard from Frankfurt, Germany: Belated greetings via Trockel’s art”
Postcards from Barton Springs 