Several years ago I began my Blue Award to the person in our area that has done the most for art during the year. This year it goes to Gov. Beverly Perdue. On her way out of office she saw to it that the Polk property, adjoining the N.C. Museum of Art, was transferred from the Department of Cultural Resources to the museum’s foundation. In this way, the foundation will be in charge of developing the property, holding land leases on all the development into perpetuity, with all funds going for the support of the N.C. Museum of Art.
Q. Several years ago, I read about the soy-sauce remedy in The People’s Pharmacy. Luckily, we always have large quantities of soy sauce in the house.
Collaboration is a generous act; two or more artists work together leaving their personal egos behind and create a new work of art that blends their ideas into a new depth. This collaboration was the brainchild of photographer and teacher Barbara Tyroler, who floated it to five of her colleagues whose work she deeply respects and who show regularly at Frank Gallery.
Q. I don’t have restless leg syndrome (RLS) or nighttime leg cramps. Rather, I have “restless foot,” sometimes in the right foot, sometimes in the left. I can actually feel the energy building up in my foot when it comes on. After about a minute, the energy is so great I MUST move the affected foot.
I do enjoy sauntering through woods and my wife would say I’m a good feeder (a healthy appetite), but my body is far from perfect, for sure.
Like many women, I adore chocolate. So much that Petey keeps a giant Hershey bar in a glass box with a small hammer attached, in case he’s in the line of fire when I experience a chocolate emergency.
Two exhibitions, about collectors and their collections, the “Contemporary Art Collection of Jason Rubell” and “The Cone Sisters and Matisse,” are currently at the Nasher Museum of Art. Among the many messages in these exhibitions is that art collectors come in many variations. There are those rich enough to buy the top of the line, like a Monet or Picasso, and those who buy young unknowns trying out new ideas. Some are mature women, like Etta Cone, who bought the developing Matisse, and then there is the teenager Jason Rubell (born 1969).
Q. I have acne, and it seems that every time I eat anything with sugar, I break out. It also seems that milk makes me break out. Is this all in my head, or does diet make a difference for complexion?
Dan Buettner is an author who has been traveling the world in recent years studying the areas where people live the longest. Here are nine ways he has found for living longer: Be active, have a purpose for getting up each day, kick back and relax to relieve stress, stop eating when you are 80 percent full, eat less meat, drink in moderation, have faith, develop loving relationships, and build a social network.
My mother’s Christmas cookies are like the TARDIS on the BBC sci-fi series “Dr. Who.” The doctor travels both time and space in a contraption that from the outside looks like an old-fashioned British police box.
Cher Shaffer, a 70-year-old from western North Carolina is an Outsider Artist of a different stripe; she is white and female. African-Americans outnumber white Americans in the genre we call Outsider Art; women are almost non-existent. Outsider artists are those who are self-taught and draw upon their life stories, their religion and popular culture to make highly personal objects.
Q. I was rushed to the emergency department a few weeks ago because of low sodium. I have always been careful to eat a healthy diet low in salt. I’ve also made it a habit to drink a lot of water to stay well hydrated.
It is on a Sunday afternoon as I sit to write this column. I have just returned from a long walk of around 40 minutes or so. Felt good. A fast walker I am not, but I’m steady and keep moving at a pretty constant pace. I love to walk outside, especially this time of year with the approach of winter. The briskness in the air is invigorating, but to be honest, I walk when there is snow on the ground and the temperature is 30 degrees, and I walk when the sun is zapping its hot rays on me. I just have always enjoyed the feeling of my body in motion.
A special anniversary, a coupon for a free second entree and two friends who consider it one of their go-to Italian places got me into Cary’s Carrabba’s Italian Grill for the first time.
Everybody in our family except our sofa-sized dog, Riker, loves broccoli (the nutty pup does love blueberries, though). When The Kid started eating solid food, steamed broccoli was a huge hit.