Flower Power

Went and saw the show Flower Power at the Asian Art Museum the other day. I ran out of time and didn't get to check out the whole thing, but what I did see was delightful. Particularly the large-scale paper flower work of my pal Tiffanie Turner (above). And here are few other things I enjoyed:

Lee Mingwei

Ayomi Yoshida

Color Poem #25

I just got in the mail a pink pantsuit
of the color often called raspberry
that is unlike any raspberry ever
known to humankind rather it’s
just about the color of peonies
not the pale pink ones or the
lavender pink ones or the
electric coral ones but
the bright pink ones with
just the slightest hint of blue
under the surface almost the color
we used to call in my nineteen eighties
jewel-toned
girlhood
fuchsia

The Big Book Sale 2017

The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library Big Book Sale at Fort Mason remains one of my very favorite days of the year. This was the first year we took Mabel! The first year she was old enough, and enough of a reader, to do it. We hit the kids section first and then just put her in a shopping cart with a load of books (see bottom photo of this post) and she happily rolled and read while Bill and I browsed.  New this year was a display of vintage Chronicle Books, where I spotted the illusive 1980s C-and-B-forming-a-stack-of-books logo. We came away with 49 books for $89 -- one of our best hauls yet!

The Upper West Side

We went on a whirlwind trip to New York the other weekend so I could film a class for Sketchbook Skool (based on How Art Can Make You Happy, with real hair and makeup and a teleprompter and everything - it comes out in December and, never fear, I'll be regaling you with many more details soon). We stayed on the Upper West Side where none of us had ever spent much time before and took the chance to explore its streets and treats and bookstores, ramble through Central Park, and wind up out by Hudson River. An most excellent time was had by all.

Four Bras

Here's a drawing of bras I made a little while ago.

Richard Meyhew at SFMOMA

I came around a corner in SFMOMA on my way to some other gallery and was stopped dead in my tracks by this newly-hung trio of paintings by Richard Mayhew. I stood there staring and grinning like an idiot for quite a while. I cannot get over how much I adore them. I wasn't previously familiar with Mayhew's work. How? Why not?! How did I not know about these things that fit one hundred percent perfectly into the art receptors in my brain?! Well now I know, and am on a quest to find more. Word on the street is there's a purple tree of his hanging somewhere at the De Young - a pilgrimage may be in order.

Color Poem #24

am making a series
of new things on
colored paper

colors used so far are
two shades of bright pink
a clear bright yellow
pastel green dark green
a greeny turquoise blue

colors to use next are
pale yellow red dark purple
light pink dark rose
bright orange neon yellow
neon coral and school bus

The Fine Art of Paper Flowers

I went to another great book party the other night, this one for my friend Tiffanie Turner's brand new volume The Fine Art of Paper Flowers at Rare Device. The book is absolutely amazing and gorgeous. The amount of love and work and fine craftsmanship that clearly went into this thing is just phenomenal. The party was hopping. And, as is always the case at this venerable SF creative hub, I bumped into loads of lovely people and pals and acquaintances.

top 2 photos: mine
3rd: Sonya Philip
4th: Rare Device

Near Misses Throughout History

I find this piece by artist Michael Penderson super duper inspiring. If I was going to be a street artist or an installation artist, this is exactly the sort of thing I'd aspire to make. And it's also a darn fine piece of short writing. First discovered via the always fine Colossal.

Lamp

The 13th-Century Persian poet Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī wrote something that is generally translated into English as:

"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."

I think about this quotation a lot.

Edvard Munch, Between the Clock and the Bed

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the Edvard Munch show at SFMOMA. I wonder if there is any other artist who's name is so well known, and yet with so little of their work generally known or seen by the museum-going public?