North Carolina Museum of Art: You Are Here

On our vacation, between Charleston and the Outer Banks, we stopped by Raleigh for a couple of days to visit family. While there we went and saw the show You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences at the North Carolina Museum of Art and holy crap you guys, was this show ever a humdinger. Amazing work. Huge names. Immersive and interactive stuff that was fun for the whole family. And a piece I've been wanting to experience since 2015 (see bottom-most image). Check it out!

Above: one of my top favorite things in a show full of favorites was this roomful of shadows by Anila Quayyum Agha. So exquisitely beautiful.

People line up for hours to go inside Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Rooms, but here you could poke your head into a mini one after only waiting for about five minutes. And it was every bit as transporting as you hoped it would be.

Olafur Eliasson

Bill Viola

Olafur Eliasson

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Soo Sunny Park

Ragnar Kjartansson

Jim Campbell

Janet Cardiff. I tried to go see this piece, Forty Part Motet, when it as at Fort Mason here in San Francisco on my 39th birthday back in 2015. Everyone was raving about it at the time, but it was a mob scene and I couldn't manage to get a ticket. Imagine my surprise and delight, then, to just randomly stumble upon it here. Experiencing it, you do indeed see what all the hype was about. Each one of those speakers (and there are 40 of them all around the room in a giant oval) plays the recorded voice of a single individual singer in the Salisbury Cathedral Choir as they perform a piece of choral church music in Latin. As you move about the room you here the particular voice of the one singer who's speaker you happen to be closest to, blending with the overall song, of course, and yet still utterly distinct, as if they were standing right next to you and singing in your ear. It's a marvelous thing.

Color Poem #52

the enormous beetle
was a shade of yellow
you almost never see

a rare milky greenish
gold pale but intense
bright and not bright

midway between the
flesh of a banana and
its just under-ripe peel

The Secret Art of Being a Parent - Cover!

I am pretty far beyond excited to show you the cover of my next book: The Secret Art of Being a Parent! Featuring design and illustration by the inimitable Rachel Harrell, it's an absolute stunner, I must say. The book comes out next Spring from Chronicle Books and, rest assured, you will hear much more about it from me between now and then! In the meantime, though, enjoy this fab cover!

Charleston

The first week of our vacation was spent in Charleston, South Carolina, where we stayed on an adorable houseboat (!!). The city was just as charming as we'd been lead to hope it would be and, though it was hot, we had a great time marching around and soaking it in.

Rays and Octopus

We just got back from vacation and the first thing I have to show you are these drawings of sea creatures from the South Carolina Aquarium. When Bill urged me to pack the art supplies I wasn't sure about the space and weight they would take up, but that afternoon all painting together on the house boat (much more about the house boat tomorrow) was a sheer delight. Not to mention how endearing happy-looking rays and the smart-looking octopus were.