Dramatic Views Between Rain Storms

I snuck in a brisk walk this morning between heavy rainstorms in SoCal. Lots of other hill walkers had the same idea, but I didn't run into my pals Richard and Maria Harris. I think they usually go a bit later.

The air was cool, fresh and spring-like; the clouds were dancing:

 Looking up toward the top of Signal Hill from the midway point below

Looking from the top of Signal Hill toward the ocean, port, and downtown Long Beach

And Life Goes On...

I'm pleased to have been asked to contribute work to an upcoming group exhibition at Golden West College Fine Art Gallery. The show will include a wide variety of print media and visual styles by ten Southern California artists including Roxanne Sexauer, my former excellent teacher and one of my favorite SoCal printmaking artists.

You all are invited to the opening:

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 3rd, 7-9 p.m.

Golden West College Fine Art Gallery

Golden West College

15744 Goldenwest Street

Huntington Beach, CA  92647

call 714-895-8772 for more information

Announcing: Mid City Studio Tour 2011

Time for our biennial event! YOU are invited to my studio and 16 others in Long Beach on the weekend of June 4th and 5th. A rare opportunity to see the private work spaces of artists working in a variety of mediums. Save the date. More details to come!

He Meant It As A Compliment So I'll Take It That Way

I was doing my regular walk on Signal Hill the other day, when on a long downhill slope I crossed paths with three teenage boys.  They were doing a complicated, fast paced two step run up the hill. I yelled, "Wow! You are very impressive!" One of them replied, "Thanks! But I think YOU are impressive, walking at your age!"

Swapmeet Roundup

Joe's been having a good time at the swap these last couple of weekends. Here are a few of the goodies he's brought home:

 A series of ARTFORUM magazines from the 1980's. What fun to review some recent art history!

 A pair of cast iron crowned frogs. These guys look like they think they rule the world.

 An old, graciously shaped teapot

A stunning traditional still life painting. No wonder flowers are a favorite subject matter.

Hello! I'm Back!

Zoom-Zoom!

All is well here, just terribly busy with the beginning of school and what seem like a million other things.  I've been racing around this last week and not feeling the least bit "blog creative." I'll be back tomorrow with some new stuff...

The International Printing Museum

I'd heard from many enthusiastic people about the International Printing Museum in Torrance but hadn't yet made a trip of my own.  Yesterday, I did. What an impressive place!

Located in an industrial park, there is plenty of room for all the vintage presses and cases of typeface. 

Many of the presses, no longer produced, are still in good running order.

This is an old fashioned newspaper printing press.

This operator is typing on an old linotype machine which sets rows of type.

Here, the crowd is watching the press operator print on a letterpress.

The International Printing Museum is open on Saturdays from 10 to 4. Tours are given to guests and you can also nose around on your own. There are many, many fascinating things to see. 

Last fall, the new Book Arts Institute moved in to one of the building on site. The Institute sponsors many excellent montly programs on printing, bookbinding, papermaking, and more. Yesterday's program was a collagraph demonstration by artist Sandy Cvar.

One Final Plug for Hot Springs, Arkansas

Hot Springs is named for the natural springs of the area. These springs inspired Bath House Row, built in the early 1900's, which provided bathing areas, massages, and other health related services to many, including the most popular movie stars of the era who flew in for vacations. Beautifully renovated today, Bath House Row is a wonderful place to visit in Hot Springs.

While in Arkansas for the holidays, we visited Buckstaff Bath House for two hours of warm, natural springs soaking, steaming, and massages. Buckstaff is one of the few remaining active Baths; the other historic buildings along the avenue are museums, hotels, and more modern spas. In operation without break since 1910, Buckstaff still has it's original plumbing, tubs, and elegant marble floors and walls. It is a beautifully maintained piece of history.

And.... we got "TV Parking!" (A term applied to that uncanny ability of all characters in TV shows and movies to always find parking spots in front of their destinations.)

Funny Animal Voiceovers

I think you'll enjoy this segment from the BBC. Just click on the picture.

Art for All Purposes

My artist niece, Susan Stromquist, is completing a post-baccalaureate year at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The Printmaking Department there goes all out each holiday season with a show and sale, and here are some of Susan's creative finds there: 

 An original screenprinted card by alias Dunno

Another original screenprinted card by alias Dunno

a screenprinted card by alias Dunno

an original screenprinted card by M. Knabelsdorf

It's Good to Be Home! And More...

How nice to be home again! Joe is good, Sophie is good, life in SoCal is good.

And to inspire a creative new year for us all, my last post for 2010 is a great quote from my favorite art critic, Roberta Smith, in today's NY Times:

"Paintings, like poetry or music, are essential nutrients that help people sustain healthy lives. They're not recreational pleasure or sidelines. They are tools that help us grasp the diversity of the world and its history, and explore the emotional capacities with which we navigate that world. They illuminate, they humble, they nurture, they inspire. They teach us to use our eyes and to know ourselves by knowing others."
            

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Last Night Walk

My stepfather is stronger and my mother is well again. The holidays were happy - family, togetherness. I fly home tomorrow.

Now, a last walk around the Village. It's warm, wet from a long rain. Once again, the quiet of the night is soothing. I feel a sense of timelessness. I think good things can happen: that the world will find peace, that people will chose kindness, and that aging parents can somehow live happily ever after.

Fabulous Light Show

Each Christmas season, the acres of tall pines, gardens, and trails of Garven Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs are decorated with millions (quite literally) of colorful lights and opened for public viewing after nightfall. Walt, Mary, Susan and I had our turn this evening,  and it was even more amazing than we expected. A light drizzle enhanced the sense of other worldliness. Here are a few pics:

Susan, Mary, and Walt Stromquist

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. And may the new year bring health and happiness to all.

Never Say Never

I thought I'd never visit another mall again, much less visit one on the last Sunday afternoon before Christmas, but here I am at the Hot Springs Mall at 1:24 p.m....

Karyn, Arayo, The Road and The Camera

I mentioned my cousin, Karyn, in the recent Family Update post. She has been traveling since July with Arayo, her adorable Newfie, in a Subaru full of camping equipment and her laptop. From home on Bainbridge Island, Washington, she headed across the top of the US, up through Newfoundland, then south along the east coast, swinging through Mississippi to New Orleans and then up to Hot Springs last week. She and Arayo camped or stayed with friends along the way.

On this trip, Karyn has met many of her good friends in person for the first time. Newf owners have a close and vibrant online network through which they discuss their dogs, their interests, their lives. Close relationships evolve between people living huge distances apart. The starting point, of course, is the common love of Newfoundland dogs.

The bumper sticker on Karyn's car features a Newfie

Now she's on the road again - up to see a good friend in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and then to Kansas for Christmas with family. From there, perhaps down to Texas. She's had a great experience these last months of travel and if you'd like to read more about it, you can read her blog, Arayosride.blogspot.com.

A Surreal Experience

Perhaps I should have sensed Tuesday's flight to Hot Springs would be unlike others when the pilot came into the cabin before takeoff to effusively say, "I love you all!"

He then went into the cockpit, I went back to my reading, the plane took off and things proceeded normally until my seatmate asked me, "Are you going home?" I said, "No. I'm visiting my parents. How about you?"

He said, "I'm returning home after having reconstructive surgery on my scrotum sac. They only do that in California."

"Oh!" I said.

"Actually," he said, "I had to have three surgeries before it took."

"Oh!" I said.

"First, they used skin from my left thigh and then they took skin from my right thigh."

I didn't want to know where the skin came from for the third attempt. "Are you looking forward to getting home?" I asked.

"I sure am!" he replied.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

I'm really enjoying Patti's Smith's new autobiography, Just Kids. And it won a big literary award today.

Would Love to Catch This Concert

The musical ensemble Pandemonium will play squonkaphones, instruments made from drain pipes, as well as tubes, bottles, whirly toys and traffic cones at UCLA this weekend. Bet it will be great! Remember the dance troup Stomp? Pandemonium is a related performance group.

A Big Football Day

We slouched around all afternoon and evening watching football. It was fun! But I fell asleep toward the end and missed out on who won the last game.

Easy to find out online: Tom Brady was the hero of the day for the Patriots, who beat the Steelers.

I wish American politics were less like a football game and more like leadership.

An Art Filled Weekend

On Saturday, Judy Chan and I attended the talk and workshop (see earlier posts for more details) given by Amy Uyeki and Aiko Uyeki at the Japanese American National Museum on the Senryu poet, Shizue Harada. The event was terrific and Judy and I were both inspired to write Senryu on a regular basis. Here is the poem I wrote during the workshop:

                                         Possum family
                                         We discover in our house
                                         All nine through cat door.


(I confess I exaggerated the facts - there were only two possums in the house - for dramatic effect. But in my defense, at no time during the workshop did anyone address the issue of poetic truthfulness.)

Not Welcome There, 1996

oil on paper

Judy Chan

Two of Judy's large drawings are part of the Museum's collection. One of them is in the current exhibit. What a thrill to see the piece and to be with the artist while viewing it.

Wood Landscape, 2010

carved wood

Fred Rose

On Saturday night, Joe and I went to the opening of Fred Rose's excellent wood sculpture exhibition at Chez Shaw Gallery in Long Beach. We got to chat with Fred and a lot of other friends there.

Driven Into Paradise (detail), 2010

oil on canvas on panel

Siobhan McClure

We are looking forward to another great art show opening from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, November 20th at the Richard Heller Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. Siobhan McClure's beautiful narrative paintings will fill the gallery. You are invited!