Abstractions & Voyage

Abstractions & Voyage

Georgia O’Keeffe, Series I—No. I, 1918. Oil on composition board, 19 3/4 × 16 in. (50.2 × 40.6 cm). Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Purchase with assistance from the Anne Burnett Tandy Accessions Fund 1995.8. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Pierre and I are en route to Chicago. We will take the train tomorrow and we have reserved a “roomette”, that is a sleeping car for two with all meals included.  It is our 2oth anniversary and as we  both have work to do in Chicago (see the announcement for Pierre Joris’ reading at the end of the post) we decided that 40 hours of confinement —that is if there are no delays— will be  ideal to enjoy…or test our relationship!
More recipes and food reports will come soon. Meanwhile I am leaving you with a poem I wrote after a very inspiring visit to the Georgia O’Keefe: Abstraction show at the Whitney Museum. The piece was written using some titles of the paintings and a few lines from the Sarabeth’s advertisement brochure I had picked up at the coat check and used as a note pad. I read it at the Bowery Poetry Club on Sunday and you can read and hear it below. Voilà for now and off to the windy city!

Click here to hear the recording

January 7th, 2010 —
For & W/ Georgia O’Keeffe
By Nicole Peyrafitte

Inside a clam shell
In the evening
Clam shell again
Painted and pungent
Red Black & Night

Black place #1
Black place #2
Black place #3

A wonderful redefinition
Of yellow sweet peas
An impressive wave
In the pool
In the woods
In lake George
Pink & green

Alligator pears
Shipped to Alaska
Red & pink
Ballet skirt or
Electric light
We will not be responsible
For black abstraction

At the rodeo
Music pink & blue #2
On Wednesdays only
A train
At night
In the desert
Black white & blues

The touchstone; a portrait
Or jack in the pulpit
A piece of wood
Sandwiches, snacks, pastries, muffins
Coffee and desserts
All above the clouds in 1963
Special
Very special

Special #8
Special #12
Special #17

A tent door
At night
Everything she created
Blue & green
Though pelvis series
Red & yellow
Watch for the opening
My last door
Black door
With red
Yolk like
Ever morphing feelings
Cosmic walk
On
An
Untitled red wave
Eggshell abstraction with
Circle

———————————————————————————

For your information:
Pierre Joris’ reading in Chicago :
Chi Reading
Fri Jan 29 5:30pm

map

Joan Flasch Artists Book Center on the SAIC ‘campus,’
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
37 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL –
(312) 899-5170

En Route!

En Route!

Fear Factor by Nicole Peyrafitte (Nov 3rd 2004)Fear Factor Nov. 3, 2004 painting by N.P
(part of the Angoulème performance)

I really miss writing the blog regularly but a couple of deadlines have kept me totally busy. One of them is the preparation of the performance with Pierre Joris & Miles Joris-Peyrafitte that will happen this coming Thursday in Angoulême (France). No Thanksgiving for us! We are off tomorrow and below is the info about the show in case you are around this area. This is my first trip to the Poitou-Charente region and I am looking forward to discover their food specialties and have some of the delicious Pineau des Charentes — a mix of wine and cognac. It will be my pleasure to report if I have any time to do so. But right after, I am off to the Pyrenees for more work on Augustus Saint Gaudens.  I am leaving you with a few posts from last year, and please do dig into the archives and the categories.

Cabbage: a Winner for the Winter! (I)

A Winner for the Winter (II) : Cabbage Roll

Preview Recording & Thanksgiving

Angoulême Performance

Thursday November 25th 2:30Pm
L’art, L’éducation et le politique
Colloque International, Angoulême
Salle Nemo

Description of the show:

A multimedia performance of texts, videos, music, paintings commenting the “years of lead” (2000-2008) in the USA  and examining the relation beetween art, politic & education.  Pierre Joris, Nicole Peyrafitte & Miles Joris-Peyrafitte propose individual and communal attempts at resisting & criticizing the “Pax Americana.”

Back!

Back!

Aspet gardens-Saint Gaudens National Historic Site

What I miss most when I travel is cooking my own food. During my trip to Boston, Springfield (MA) & Cornish (NH) nothing I hate was memorable, though all very decent. The highlight was definitely a vegetable chowder and a lobster roll at the Windsor (VT) train station.  The focus on my trip was not food at all, but more research on Augustus Saint Gaudens (1848-1907). My first involvement with the American sculptor began in 2005 when I was commissioned to create a multimedia performance for the 2007 hundredth anniversary of his death. Augustus Saint Gaudens and I share common Gascon origins. Augustus’ father, Bernard St-Gaudens, was born in Aspet (French Pyrenees) in 1816 —the  village of Aspet is next to my hometown. Bernard St-Gaudens (they spelled their names differently) was a shoemaker, he left Aspet very young, moved to Salies du Salat, Carcassonne, Paris, London and settled in Ireland where he married Mary McGuiness in 1841. Together and with their 6 month old  son Augustus, they emigrated to the USA in 1848. There is currently a show at the Metropolitan Museum on the museum collection of the artist. Anyhow I will not get into details now, but I will leave you with the photograph of a funny article that I found in the archives at the Rauner Special Collections at Dartmouth. More soon!

Rauner Special Collections Dartmouth

ASG studio-Saint Gaudens National Historic Site- Cornish NHAdams memorial head-Saint Gaudens National Historic Site- Cornish NHAspet-Saint Gaudens National Historic Site- Cornish NHShaw Memorial-Saint Gaudens National Historic SiteSaint Gaudens National Historic Site- Cornish NHSaint Gaudens National Historic Site- Cornish NHSaint Gaudens National Historic Site- Cornish NHDiana in ASG studio Aspet-Saint Gaudens National Historic Site

Sax, Soup, Poetry & Voice

Sax, Soup, Poetry & Voice

SaxSoupPoetryVoice

THE DVD IS  OUT!
On November 7, 2007, Joe Girardullo, Pierre Joris & myself had molto fun presenting Sax, Soup, Poetry & Voice a multimedia performance at the The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy N.Y. The original description of the show was:

A Harvest Celebration with multimedia artist Nicole Peyrafitte, saxophonist Joe Giardullo & poet Pierre Joris. The trio will celebrate, harvest, and gather together non linear momentum through their music, poetry, voice, visuals and yes, a soup! Nicole, who recently moved to Brooklyn, will cook an “Inner-State” soup that will be shared with the audience.

The quality of this recording is stunning. They made us look and sound really good! & you ou can almost taste the “Inner State Soup!”

This DVD series is not a commercial venture and The Sanctuary for Independent Media is eager to have it distributed widely. For that reason we offer it through Ta’wil Productions store for a modest $5 to cover shipping and handling. Spread the word & the DVD!

Please view video sample here

This DVD is part of a prestigious series (see below), however at this point we are only able to offer our DVD.
Our deepest thanks to the producers, crew & volunteers of the Sanctuary.

A Message from The Sanctuary of Independent Media:

Free Jazz from the Sanctuary Launched!
A 13-part series of jazz performance videos featuring some of the world’s most talented improvisers, recorded live in concert at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, is now available online–just click the links below! Each show is (or soon will be) available on DVD; details are available under each band entry.

The Free Jazz from the Sanctuary series will soon be available for non-commercial broadcast distribution.
Contact us
for more information!

The Thirteenth Assembly
(Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone)
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
(Kahil El’Zabar, Ernest Dawkins, Corey Wilkes)
Fay Victor Ensemble
(Ken Filiano, Anders Nilsson, Michael TA Thompson, Fay Victor)
From Between Trio
(Michel Doneda, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jack Wright)
Michael Vlatkovich Quartet
(Christopher Garcia, Jonathan Golove, David Mott, Michael Vlatkovich)
Sax Soup Poetry and Voice
(Joe Giardullo, Pierre Joris, Nicole Peyrafitte)
Trio Tarana
(Sam Bardfeld, Ravish Momin, Brian Prunka)
The Ras Ensemble
(Clif Jackson, Dave Miller, Ras Moshe, Tor Yochai Snyder)
William Hooker
Empty Cage Quartet
(Ivan Johnson, Paul Kikuchi, Jason Mears, Kris Tiner)
Weasel Walter Trio
(Peter Evans, Mary Halvorson, Weasel Walter)
Splatto Festival Chorus
(Dave Barrett, Michael Bisio, Ed Mann, Todd Reynolds)
Amiri Baraka and Rob Brown

Free Jazz from the Sanctuary is a co-production of NY Media Alliance and the Arts Department at Rensselaer, made possible in part with support from the NYS Council on the Arts and the NYS Music Fund, established by the NYS Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers.

Photographs of the show: Sax, Soup, Poetry & Voice  by Jon Flanders (11/07/07)

Return of the Rabbit

Return of the Rabbit

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I love to rearrange leftovers. I learned this skill from my grandfather who was a master at making a splendid dish with a week’s worth of leftovers. Do you remember the Quick Apple Rabbit last week? I had frozen the leftovers and I served them last night with fresh green peas. It worked very well though it became a different dish. The apple taste got a bit lost but the  popping texture of the delicious fresh peas with the complex cream sauce  made up of for it.

Fresh Green Peas

I would highly recommend the double boiler technique to reheat delicate  dishes or sauces —it works great for mash potatoes, gravy, hollandaise, chocolate sauce. A double boiler is a double-decker sauce pan: the upper container fits tightly into a lower one filled with water. Make sure your lower container has always enough water. Whatever  is in the upper deck will be warmed up by steam and not by a direct flame. This is a more gentle method as you will have better control and it can also be used to keep things warm while you are having your cocktails. I  should mention here that I do not have a microwave and use this technique all the time.


Double boiler

Recipe:
Shell your fresh peas.
In a skillet melt 2 tablespoons of butter with a dash of oil, add the peas, lower the  heat and cover for about 6 minutes — that will depend on how big or mature your peas are.  Make sure they are not over cooked.
Once they are cooked add the to your rabbit, taste and adjust seasoning. I did add a generous “round” of fresh ground pepper.

And speaking of peas, here is my pea drawing from last year in homage of my friend “Petit Pois”:

Petit Pois
From the series "Many Body": Petit Pois