my life is so hard.

Weeks worth of packing, crammed into about 10 days--and i'm finding it difficult to start the first box. I want those neatly labeled boxes that are easy to unpack--but likely, I'll have those cluttered "I don't know what's in there" boxes. At times like this, I wish I had a Samantha.

Here's something beautiful to look at by DC-based artist Sylvia Snowden--one of my favorite living artists. I first fell for her work about a decade ago--it was "Malik, Farewell 'Til We Meet Again" at the Corcoran Gallery. I lost track of time, but it had to have taken me more than an hour to get through that two-room exhibit. You know when you're at a museum and you see folks standing there glaring into a piece of art as if waiting for it to talk to them? I always think they're full of it. But Sylvia's work is glare-worthy to me...it talks to me and tells a story. One that is thick and paste-like and multi-dimensional. In "Malik," Sylvia remembers her son who was killed in a shooting when he was 18. She displays his belongings mostly, covered in goopy paint, arranged together to represent stages of his life--and I remember wanting to touch his high chair, squeeze his basketball, and try on his sneakers.