More Art, More Family, More Projects

It's been a lovely couple of weeks. I don't think I've absorbed this much art in a month ever. 

I've been a member of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for a while, mostly because I really enjoy the special exhibitions at the de Young and Legion of Honor. I've been wanting to see an annual   exhibit, Bouquets to Art, for a number of years, and I finally got the perfect opportunity. I played a bit of hooky on my way to a conference last Sunday morning and spent a few hours at the museum seeing some pieces from the permanent collection interpreted by floral designers.  

It was better than I expected, both the flower arrangements, and the permanent collection, which I felt like I hadn't really spent enough time with before. Some of the arrangements weren't particularly imaginative (I guess there's not much you can do with a painting of cherry blossoms in a ginger jar), but others were. I also took in another well-received show while I was there, "Botticelli to Braque," an exhibit from the National Gallery of Scotland. It was a great way to "fill the well" before the conference. 

View from the Grand Hyatt, San Francisco

The conference went very well. It's one of my favorite - a lot of really nice people. One woman I've known for a few years remarked at lunch that she "needed her Suzanne time" - I thought that was so sweet. The best part was Mark coming for a few days! We had fun hanging out during the show and in the evenings. The last night we met Katrin for dinner, which made it even more special. 

It was a long week, though. It was my own fault, but I had made plans to run early networking events every morning, so I didn't have time get to the gym. Also, sleeping through the night is but an elusive memory for me these days. It took a few days to recover.

But that didn't stop me from enjoying another art-filled day in the City. Felicia and I went to see a costume exhibit from the Brooklyn Museum on view at the Legion of Honor on Saturday. We also wandered through the permanent collection and around the grounds a bit after lunch. It was the first time she'd been there, which was nice. It had rained (yay!) the night before, so when the sky cleared we had beautiful views of the bay, Golden Gate Bridge, and Land's End. It was great to get my Felicia time in.

I didn't plan for it, which maybe helped, but today was one of the more productive days I've had for a while. I got up early and went to church - I had really been missing it, and it was a lovely, inspiring service.  I made a quick trip to the garden store on my way home, and so was able to finish putting in the starts in the raised bed. M has become quite the drip irrigation master. I'm hoping this will allow us to have lots of veggies without raising our water rates too much.



We've been talking about getting a Japanese maple for months now, to put between the stock tanks on the patio. While I was at the garden store, I saw one I liked. I mentioned that to M when I got home and he decided it was time. Off he went. Waiting for him to return, I weeded the front year, read more of the book I'm enjoying, Helen of Troy by Margaret George and vacuumed my car, which needed it, and did some other cleaning odd and ends.

The transplanted maple looks absolutely fantastic - exactly what the space needed. I hope it thrives. He also got a dwarf orange tree that he planted back by the peach trees. We spent an hour or so sitting on the deck as evening came on, admiring our handiwork while the birds flitted about as they do. 

Another project I haven't had much to do with yet, but I'm very excited about: after a decade of languishing in the garage covered with Costco items and patio storage, M has unearthed the Chevelle for renovation. He's been hard at work pulling out the interior and getting it read for repairs. 

I've volunteered to help with installing the new carpeting, upholstery, and headliner, when it comes time. It may take a while, but he's making great progress. We're both very excited about driving it around again. I remember how fun it was to turn heads as we drove around in barely mufflered style.

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Other misc. medical notes - feel free to stop reading now if it's TMI: I have new dental crown.  I've had some low-grade pain in my upper back for a while, so had it Xrayed - it's a compression, so I had my first bone-density test a couple of weeks ago. It felt very Star Trek to lay there fully clothed while the white plastic "arm" with the spotlight scanned me from above. I've also decided to try to deal with the hot flashes that wake me up at night with prescription hormones. They've been playing havoc with my sleep and I'm desperate to make them stop. Ah, aging. Hope to feel rested enough to get to the gym tomorrow, it's been too long.

Weekends

A couple of weekends ago I spent a half a day learning a little more about the art of letterpress. I love how this type of printing creates a texture in the paper. I think it's had a bit or a resurgence in popularity, but it's not something that can really scale. Letterpress printers like this aren't made anymore, apparently. 

Furniture holding the printing elements in place.

Workshop leader Eric Johnson of Iota Press pulls the cover off of the press

The finished "book cover."

I didn't get a picture of it, but the last piece of equipment we used was a paper cutter, also purchased from the local museum. We took turns effortlessly slicing 1/8" strips from a phone book. That was surprisingly fun. 

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It was Don's birthday last weekend, so we headed up the coast to help celebrate. Lots of good food as always, and the company of good friends in the form of Caitlin, Sean, Mary, and Tom. 

I've had a bee in my creative bonnet to make some buttons and shawl pins for my knitted creations, so Mom helped me get the pieces started. I used some of my cookie and biscuit cutters for the basic shapes as well as some tools that Mom had. It was so nice so be in the studio with her, working on our respective projects. 

M and I took Rex to Alder Creek for a walk. On our way down, we met a guy coming up the road who had been trying to photography a brown shrike, which apparently is extremely rare in these parts. We observed how the road to the beach is becoming even more overgrown. The Velella were on the beach in abundance, in various states of colorful desiccation.

The picture before the official birthday portrait. 

Another creative thing I have been actively pursuing over the last few years: taking macro photos of flora. I've spared my Flickr feed, but I have started an album finally. I may have to start a separate one of Rex's nose and small flora. He hates having his picture taken, but when I point my camera at something on the ground, you can be sure he wants to sniff it.

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I've been putting off packing today, though I'm off early tomorrow for a conference in San Francisco which starts on Monday. (Mark will be coming - yay! A fun first for us sibs.) Instead, M and I started a project we had hoped to finish in just one day, a raised garden bed, made mostly of straw bales. We had seen this in a garden last year. Alas, we were thwarted by math - the soil sellers didn't calculate the amount we needed properly, so we weren't able to fill in the bed today. Despite that, we got pretty far along in the project, including getting herb and veggie starts. We'll focus on beans, zucchini, kale, a pepper and a pumpkin. Maybe fill in with some flowers if we have room.

Boston and Back

M and I had a great week in Boston. We flew into town on the 14th, several weeks after "Snowmageddon" thank goodness. The roads were clear and the T was running. Mom and Don made it really easy for us, picking up Rex the night before we left. 

The conference hotel was the Marriott Copley Place - a very convenient location and connected to the convention center and shopping mall by a series of sky bridges. While the snow wasn't really an issue, it was quite cold, so it was great to be able to walk around and get meals without suffering too much. We westerners didn't really have the right shoes. 

On Sunday we met Kamala at the Isabella Gardner Museum for lunch and a chamber music concert, the Aizuri Quartet with a featured second cello performer for the final piece. 

 It was an interesting performance space, a tall square with just one row of seats per side on the top three floors. We had to lean on the railing and peer down to see the performers, so I ended up watching people across the way, the way they listened - so I guess we audience members became part of the performance.

The museum was beautiful and had a very eclectic, almost quirky collection. It was the 25th anniversary of the high art heist at the Gardner, so it was in the local news quite a bit. We were there on a Sunday so it closed a little early. We definitely didn't have enough time to see the rest of the museum.  Sargent's enormous El Jaleo was a highlight for me. 

The conference went well. It was wonderful having M with me. He had historic and snowy adventures during the day, and then we'd get dinner together in the evenings. He did catch a cold, unfortunately, which I also picked up. Luckily, it was slow moving.

The evening that the conference ended, I wandered out into Copley Square before M had returned from his touring that day. Trinity Church was closed, but the Public Library was open. I got there just in time for a tour! I hadn't realized how much art it contained. I've become a fan of tours. I never would have got as much out of just wandering around.



On Saturday, after moving to a different hotel, M and I split up - he went to see the USS Constitution, which I took in on my last visit. I planned to wander around Trinity Church, then do the Museum of Fine Art, which M had already done. But when I got to the church a little after 10am, I saw that there was an organ recital scheduled for 12:15! So hopped on the T, did the MFA for a little more than an hour, then took the T back to Trinity for the concert. I love how his feet danced over the pedals. It's a lovely space, and I had time to take in the church during the music. It smelled good, too.

After the concert, I went back to the MFA for lunch and another tour, highlights of the European art collection that culminated in a room full of Impressionists. The music piled on - during the tour, we took in a Sonic Blossom performance. I really liked how many of the rooms combined different types of art - fine art on the walls and furniture and other applied arts of the time period in the center of the room.

After the museum, I met Kamala and Eliza for a drink near Eliza's new office. We rendezvoused with M for dinner in the Faneuil Hall area.

On our last morning in Boston, I walked around for a little while, hoping to take in a few sights. I did see the place where the Tea Party happened, and wandered along the edge of the Chinatown neighborhood. After about an hour, the snow and chill got to me. And I was a little worried about getting lost. Boston is not the grid that New York is, that's for sure.

We met up with Kamala, Sam, and his new girlfriend Tiffany for lunch at Legal Seafood. It was a lovely way to end our visit. 

It's great mixing family and history and art and music with business. I'm very fortunate. Here's the Flickr album with more photos.

We got home late Saturday night. On Sunday I drove up to Gualala to meet Mom for lunch and pick up Rex. We missed him so much! He was sad to leave Grandma and Grandpa, however. Almost two weeks later we're finally feeling almost healthy. Funny how the cold really hung on.