Nina and Alma

I'm pretty predictable, with choices, when I visit the Terra Cotta Coffee House in Alfred. It's either a medium latte in a ceramic mug, or a dark roast in a ceramic mug with room for milk, or a fill-up of my travel mug with room for milk. One of the baristas (baristi?), an art student, is often at the counter and she'll ask "latte or coffee?" Carol, Barb, and I stopped for supper the other day and I left my name with the person taking the order. When my order was called, "my" barista heard my name and noted that she hadn't known my name. I asked her over at the condiments counter what her name was and she flirtatiously wouldn't say. OK. I'm going to call you something different each time I see you and you'll have to figure out why I'm calling you that. So far ...

Three days ago, she was Nina because Nina Katchadourian has just joined the stable at Pace Gallery. Quite an honor and you can click on Nina K's name above for an article from Art News or you can go to her website to see some of her stuff. She had a show at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College some years ago and I dragged the family over from my sister's where we were visiting for Thanksgiving.

Yesterday, she was Alma because of Alma Thomas, an African American artist who does the most gorgeous colorful abstract paintings. She was not particularly well-known but had a show in 2016 organized by the Tang Teaching Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem. There's a lovely painting by her at the Smithsonian American Art Museum that I got to see again this past summer when ALA was in Washington.

Hmm. Maybe it's a Tang thing ... but I'm not likely to go there (to Tang orange drink, that is) at the Terra Cotta. The Tang Museum also had a Sister Corita Kent show. Tomorrow, maybe Corita.