Friday's Art

The light over the table in my hotel room at the Alexis - Seattle.

Best Part of the Day

I'm now in our UK office in Stockley Park (near Heathrow). I'm here to review how we are approaching safety and compliance for our European operations, which is a thrill to finally be doing in my professional, engineering career.

However, the high point of the day was when my sponsor, the Dir of Facilities, asked if I wanted to see some of the art they were considering for the office expansion. He introduced me to Shirley Hudson, who has an art consultancy practice here in the UK.

Shirley had a nice selection of mostly prints in limited editions, including many by Anita Ford, including the one shown above.

I was so excited to see some original art up close and instantly imagined myself in Shirley's job, which reminded me of the resume I wrote for myself over the holidays:

Resume

Laura D. McHugh, PE, MBA

• Ms. McHugh is retired. As such, Ms. McHugh accepts only short-term management consulting projects where she can limit her involvement to activities that genuinely interest her. If art and/or travel to EU countries are involved in any way, your project has a much higher probability of being accepted.
  
  
• Ms. McHugh is only considering opportunities that allow her to work flexible hours, with minimal or no attendance at routine staff meetings. She is very comfortable making interesting and engaging presentations, if required, and is happiest when she can work in the background to provide high quality value-add results that you can integrate into your planning and implementation without continued reliance on her services.

• Ms. McHugh is not interested in reporting to nor supervising anyone. She works best with no supervision and appreciates the opportunity to develop a clearly defined work scope, which is most enjoyable when it is a non-linear, creative process. She enjoys situations where there is continual feedback and collaboration throughout the term of the project.
  
  
• Ms. McHugh’s hourly rate may be higher than what you are accustomed to for senior level consulting. However, you can rest assured that Ms. McHugh is interested only in efficiently completing your project quickly and completely to your satisfaction so that she is available to return to traveling, creating fine art, and moving on to the next interesting gig.

650.743.2791
lauramchugh@mac.com

Trinity College - Dublin, Ireland

Today I travelled from Cork to Dublin. Because of delays in rail service, I didn't get to Dublin until about 4 pm. Luckily, my hotel was right across the street from Trinity College, which was on my list of "must sees." This is the best photo of the day - a porcelain vase in a window, inside one of the oldest gates at the college.


The gate, and the red door.

Architectural Art in Cork Ireland

I'm in Cork on business and staying at a new hotel. The exterior is modern and I don't feel it is attractive. It's important to be curious and open-minded about art, I think. But my judgement intervenes when I drive up to the outside of this place.

However, it is a beautiful and well-appointed facility. There is a full spa, pool, and grounds surrounded by a wildlife refuge. Out the windows are green, gently rolling hills so typical of Ireland, complete with the bleating sheep that have full coats, pregnant for shearing in a few weeks.


This photo shows the FRONT of the hotel, quite unspectacular, and what's up with that big green facia? The whole modern-ness of the building and stark landscaping really distracts from the countryside. But then, maybe that discontinuity is the point - the building definitely does not compete with the natural beauty.

Inside is another story. The reception area is sit-down desks, like when you open a checking account, except that each of the three desks is in it's own private alcove with beautiful mossy green curtains hung back on either side. The rooms are also beautiful and environmentally friendly. You have to put your door key into a slot on the wall just inside for the power to go on. The bathroom is the gem in the room:

European in design, the shower has only a wall, no door. The first shower I had flooded the entire bathroom because I don't think the drain is working properly, so I put a towel across just in case. There are two shower heads, one of the huge rain type, and a second traditional head. Not shown is a huge tub, plenty big enough for two, with two headrests and a waterfall-type water spout on the side.

The glass panel in the shower divides the shower from the rest of the room. This architectural feature is repeated in the bar area of the lobby, where you can see the bottles of Irish whiskey lined up behind the frosted glass.

Viewing Art, Not Quite the Same as Doing Art

Some days, all I can squeeze in is a little bit of viewing art. Doodling during meetings may be too conspicuous and there's no down time between 7:30 when I left the house to vote this morning and 9 pm when I get home tonight.

So, I saw this bit of creativity - living art - and thought it worthy of posting.

The Four Core Value Figs

This is a sketch from a painting I did in 2004. The painting hangs over my fireplace in my family room. Today I was working with how my core values of Ease - Flow - Connection - Fun show up in my artwork and I realized there are four figs and four core values.

So - I will call them the figs of ease, flow, connection and fun.

Art Van

I now have a beautiful used Eurovan to haul art supplies and finished art around in. Yay! I was worried about messing up my beautiful little convertible Beetle. The Eurovan, which was sold to me by a lovely couple, Yula and Luda, in SF at Discount Auto Sales was a real deal and the transaction was actually a pleasure.

They were straight with me about the price, fun to talk to, and Luda and her sister who was visiting from Sacramento even helped me drive the van home. They were a delight to interact with and now we have a good car for hauling the dirty dog around in, a way to go camping, and something I can use to pick up people (and all their luggage!) from the airport.

She's a beauty!