moon city

Night fills the ocean of sky and the moon floats like a creature. Shadows and lights glamorize a regular city of concrete and windows making it easier to imagine another city.

Downtown Long Beach. Collage from magazine scraps.

Clean

Clean,
originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I know the feeling. The need to clear up things so one can move forward. I like that she made something special out of a chore.

Wedding Cakery

Back porch of an exquisite caterer that creates the kind of wedding cakes that get photographed for magazines. We used to peek in through the front window, ooh and aahhh, sigh and dream of happy endings. Don't remember the name of the shop so the Wedding Cakery is just my title for the sketch. In my imagination, I see her married to an architect, with a 5 year old pixy daughter, maybe they own the orange tabby that sunbathes on the carport below. With cats it's usually the other way around. They own people.

South of Mission Area, San Francisco

Sacramento to San Francisco

Sketches from the Greyhound bus, along the 80, looking north towards hills and mostly open land. The bottom sketch is between Sacramento and Davis. An egret flew into the sketch before Pinole, before we head south towards Berkeley.




Sometimes waiting for what comes next isn't so bad when having fun sketching.

Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay. Pleasant little sand dunes with grasses adding texture and movement. Quiet weekday. Almost feels like a private beach. The weather can change its mind quickly so it's prudent to bring something warm.

State of Mind

Some people hide very little, no masks. This person was in a gentle state of mind, beautiful.

Tortilla Flats

Bus stop at Bryant and 16th. Mexican food or go left for blowfish (poisonous fugu) sushi. South of Mission Area, San Francisco.

Chia Cat

Why not a chia cat. They like to sit in the sun and that lovely dense fur would make a soft bed for potting soil and perhaps some white and purple alyssium.


Balloon lips. March madness. Daylight saving. I had a lazy plan to plant seeds for an all white garden but the exterior of the house is due to be painted and it would get trampled on. I'll have to plant the garden in my mind.

Chocolade

A packet of cocoa from a buffet breakfast in the Netherlands. My friend said people sprinkle it on everything, egg, meat, fruit. The blue and white packet is the width of a finger. Odd souvenir but most things were made in China or the USA and this wasn't.

City at Night

San Francisco nights feel interesting. Must be the ocean, fog, old Victorian buildings, all the people that have walked the streets. Beatniks, jazz and blues on Fillmore, writers, artists, actors and those who recognize creative energies. Reality tends to be more beige but one is free to paint colors.

Obsession

Sorry for being away so long. Remodeling my kitchen and balcony room has kept me from spending time on my computer. Another month before life and work can resume.

One nice thing came out of a recent case of identity theft. Someone probably got my credit card through an online purchase and made several small charges. I wound up with a man's pocket watch (which I need to return) and the NY Times. May decide to keep the Sunday delivery. The Sunday edition had an article on Kusama, an artist from the 60's whose art seems to have improved with age. In her eyes I saw Salvador Dali. Salvador Dali and William Blake, my first serious art show at Barnsdall Park. At 16, I wondered what had to be inside a man to paint those images. Dali's eyes, passion, madness, fire. Could Van Gogh have painted without his.

At this moment, my contractor has his head in the attic above the kitchen directing his worker. His cabinet maker is beginning to install my beautiful honey maple cabints, simple Shaker style. This is my current passion. Soon, a stainless steel countertop, floor tiles that remind me of sand, river rocks, marble veins. A few more weeks before life has order. Necessary repairs in an old house.

Sketching and reading in the evenings. Enjoying Daniel Silva's books about Gabriel Allon, art restorer and assassin, more for the historical (past and present) settings, people, neverending nightmares brought about in the name of God, politics, money, control. I don't have that in me so I have to read about it. Good and evil are not easily separated.

Perhaps the world would be more peaceful with more artists. We look for beauty everywhere.

I've collaged the front and inside cover of a new sketch journal with images of Kusama's work to remind me that madness can create beauty.