Marshmallows

In the holly jolly spirit and armed with the holiday issue of Taste of Home, I decided to tackle homemade marshmallows. I only started chronicling the process on day two, so I don't have pictures of being hunched over the candy thermometer waiting for it to read 240 degrees (which is soft ball stage...which means nothing to me but that's what the magazine said.) Nor do I have pictures of my mixer whipping the ingredients into the best looking fluff I've ever seen. I didn't know something that delicious looking could come out of my kitchen. But, I do have pictures of day two.



The delicious-looking fluff was poured into a foil lined pan to sit overnight. The tin foil was coated with butter for easy removal. Then I used a cooking spray coated pizza cutter to make little cubes. This is just before I cut apart the last row.



Here's the decoration stage at which time Bryan joined me. We were a little over zealous with the chocolate and cherry chocolate at first and backed off to create the drizzled marshmallows in the foreground. The overly dunked marshmallows were eaten shortly after this picture was taken.



And here are the marshmallows doing their job in our cocoa.



And here is the view while we drank our cocoa. Ho Ho Ho indeed.

Rhythm of Life

My friend Jessica had her final art show on December 12. She called her show "Rhythm of Life" and I wish I had a video of Jessica's artist's talk because she said some really profound things that make viewing the art that much better.
My favorite quote from her talk:
"The blank canvas knows me better than anyone."

In lieu of a video, I'll put some excerpts from her artist's statement:

"My artwork is centered on my faith, which is the core of my life. I express a passion for life; it affirms a truth I find in nature and life itself."

"I like the freedom of expressing oneself with abstract thoughts, but using concrete feelings, thus, I feel compelled to act out on what evokes those feelings through my works of art. Early practitioners of expressionism and abstraction wanted art to become more like music; I share this view, and as such, I paint to a personal rhythm conveying the suggestion of the “rhythm of life” as I see it."

"I love the way paint moves on the canvas and how one color unites with another. Using strong brush strokes, higher energy and vivid colors, I express emotions that have moved me. The scale of the pieces is necessary to articulate the overwhelming power of these emotions and the natural world around us. Paint goes from edge-to-edge continuing beyond the border, leaving you with a sense of never ending possibilities that are before us. Trusting in a higher power is paramount in the conceptual process that goes beyond feelings, thoughts and experiences. In every painting I reveal my life and the lives around me…The Rhythm of Life."









These were some of my favorites. They depicted the four seasons and stood well over seven feet high. Challenge: decide which season is which. Jessica never did tell us which was which - how abstract!







I repeat: "The scale of the pieces is necessary to articulate the overwhelming power of these emotions and the natural world around us."









The whole show was beautiful and knowing all the work that went into it made me appreciate it even more.

It was also fun to see my friends again!



If you'd like to see the show for yourself and you're in Fargo, go to the NDSU Memorial Union Gallery. It will be up through January.