Me, Mam, and Three Aunties.

My mother has been known to flit about the country (and other countries) ISO good art. I have had the extraordinary privilege of learning how to look at paintings by watching her look at paintings. She was herself a very accomplished visual artist but her eyesight is wanting and she never drew or painted after I was about ten as best I remember. She also loves drawings and some sculpture, but my devotion to photography and architecture is a sort of grandchild to her love of the broad and beautiful brush. My brother took our visual education and incorporated his own love of the Shakeresque reverence for function to become one of the best landscape architects I have ever seen. We are truly her children. There is a quickening pulse that anyone who knows how to "read" art gets in front of some pieces, or on a particular patch of land, or in a perfectly-proportioned room that we owe her. It is a very pure joy.

She taught me many other things. I know how to cook because she made me sort and clean dried pinto beans and stood behind me as we refried them. I know a well-made piece of clothing because she made me a black watch plaid shirt with mother of pearl snaps and a yoke with the prettiest collar a girl ever had. She taught us how to iron. From the smallest piece to the largest. She grew Shirley poppies in our garden because I loved their papery frivolity.

She taught me to recognize quality. And beauty.

So she decided to come to DC and drag one of my aunties, a distinguished artist in her own right, to come see the Gauguin exhibit at the National Gallery. It drove my poor auntie Papier to distraction. "Utterly unorgnized." But the show was deemed worthy and we met up after to catch up and enjoy each other.

Painting by Mario Andres Robinson

I herded them to Locolat for baguettes which the Belgian owner, Neil, has flown in from France, and an almond truffle and then we hit up the Morton Fine Art Gallery next door as well as their PopUp Project gallery just down the street. Phenomenal.

After that we headed off to dinner at Radius, one of my favorite DC restaurants, which features a tightly-edited wine list to accompany a spectacular menu focused on local seasonal ingredients and a shockingly creative but always honest technique. We were there for three hours and I got to see two of my other favorite aunties: La Tia and La Lizzie who joined us to feast on springy splendor and a whole lot of green. (I highly recommend the pickled veg. Carrots, potatoes, and ramps (I think) in a sweet-tangy brine that turns everything a gaudy, Gauguin pink and tastes like a summer sunset.)