Thursday, December 30, 2021
Textile Fun at the SF Asian Art Museum
I was delighted to spend this afternoon at the Asian exploring Weaving Stories, an exhibition of textiles from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
The textures and colors were GREAT!
There were multiple videos screening which showed the complex techniques used to make the different fabrics... There's a lot of work in pattern design, yarn-making, dyeing, loop preparations, resist-applications... It's all fantastic to see. There is some amazingly gorgeous work, and it's great to see videos of the artisans who have these wild skills.
I dress very plainly, but I appreciate the technical and creative brilliance that went into these fabrics.
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Sarah Bernhardt painting and details by Jules Bastien-Lepage
The mastery required to create these fabric textures really impresses me! (At the Legion of Honor.)
Favorite Octagonal Ceiling
Also at the Legion of Honor. And so many people look at the objects in the gallery below it without looking up...
Elaborate, Dark Room
I went to the Legion of Honor, and decided to take a low light exposure image of this room that is so elaborate, it must add curlicues to the dreams of everyone who spends time in it... The windows on either side are mirrored, so it feels quite unreal.
Monday, December 27, 2021
Leonard P Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (and a friend) (21 December)
It's a very wide, cable-stayed bridge, and I like the wishbone towers.
Quaker Martyr (20 December)
The Puritans in Boston used to execute Quakers. The tradition of escaping religious persecution to engage in religious persecution is... remarkable. (Mary Dyer has a Wikipedia page, if you want to know how that went down.)
Gallery (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) (19 December)
While contemporary art is my thing (and I went to the museum dedicated to that first!), I also visited the Museum of Fine Arts (shown here), and enjoyed multiple contemporary shows, including one on quilts, which were GREAT. The collection covers a broad span of time!
Boston Library Reading Room (17 December)
The sky cleared up, and the temperature dropped, and I went out on a tour of Boston, and wandered around on my own afterward. This is one of the least elaborate rooms in the Boston Public Library, but I like its scale.
Boston Under Dark Clouds (16 December)
I went to Boston for {good reasons} it got down to TWENTY DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, and I was prepared!
It was my first trip out of the SF Bay Area since the pandemic began. It... was a good trip! I had a good time.
I have a ton of photos, but I'll try to just post one for each day I was there. This photo is representative of the weather as I looked toward Boston from Cambridge over the Charles River. It was dark, but the clouds were well arranged!
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Monday, December 13, 2021
Streetcar 1056 in service
Lookin' good, Kansas City!
I was pleasantly surprised to spot this on Market Street - I've never seen this streetcar out before! (Its page at streetcar.org says it is undergoing repairs.)
Other favorite things at the Asian today
The last time I took my parents with me to SF's Asian Art Museum (also known as, 'The Asian'), my father said something like, 'it's all too much to take in during one day!' Of course it is - that's why I'm a member! :D
I won't link to all of these items, but the standout super-new item in the center top is Five Bodhi Leaves by Kay Sekimachi, 2021. (Its similarly lovely companion work, Two Bodhi Leaves is in the collection online, but this one isn't.). The rest of the collage is lovely textile work (left and right), and the great Moon Jar Alcove in the Korean wing, which is becoming a favorite spot.
Jayashree Chakravarty's Personal Space (at the Asian)
This is an amazing piece to experience up close! This is a small collage with two details of Jayashree Chakravarty's installation Personal Space. (If you click the link, you can see the artist speaking about her work and showing her layering approach, which is really helpful to see to understand.). It has depth, texture, abstract and representational drawings, translucency, interesting play of light and shadow... The more you look, the more you find!
Gorgeous suspended sculptures (detail) at the Asian Art Museum
(Collage showing partial light/shadows on small parts of these two sculptural installations, not the entire work, which you'll really want to see in person! GO!)
One of these installations I've visited repeatedly, and the other is new to me!
Lia Jianhua's Collected Letters (left) is a long time favorite; Afruz Amighi's My House, My Tomb (right) is new to me and on the right. If you follow the link, you'll get to see a video of Amighi's other work, and hear her discuss it. It's a great installation, and I love the story behind it.
Antique gold tones at the Asian Art Museum
Antique gold is a lovely, almond-milk-latte color, and is lovely as the background in so many antique silk paintings. I've used brown kraft and toned paper as a background for art before, but it hasn't been as lovely as this color... I've also watched the videos at the Asian on how to prepare silk for painting, and it's too much work for me to start! But I will think over whether there is room in my barely-extant painting practice to use antique gold... (Toned paper doesn't come in pads, and none are exactly the color I'm looking for, but I think I can manage it...)
Special standouts in this collage of gorgeousness are:
Upper right corner: Autumn Mountain by Chen Jialing, 1990. This doesn't have a gold base, but fits nicely with the other landscape/nature paintings. It is also completely contemporary in feeling in a way I really like. The use of reds is just outstanding.
Lower left corner: Cloudy Peaks at Dawn in Spring by Li Huayi, 1999. I love the falls, and the form of the tree in the foreground. It's just magnificent. I spent some time just standing in the alcove, appreciating it. It is a lovely use of monochrome, and a really skilled use of tones.
(Yes, you can search the SF Asian Art Museum's collection online if you have details! That's how I got to these links - I photograph the interpretive signs so I can find things again.)
Industrial building, dressed up so nicely
(I believe the mural is by Reyes, Revok, and Steel, based on a photo caption here. I'd link to their websites, but the domains are inactive.)
GlowSF at the Pacific Stock Exchange
It was funny to watch the confusion of drivers, stuck in traffic, as the Pacific Stock Exchange building pulsed and moved with lights...
(Look how well they illustrated the columns! This is SO COOL! This is just a still image; of course the entire film/animation was so much better...)
GlowSF at the Hyatt Regency
GlowSF was amazing! I loved it. It was worth braving the cold to see the animated films projected so carefully onto buildings downtown, using the shapes of the buildings so precisely... It must have taken a very long time to program.
Yes, the Panasonic projectors were ENORMOUS and amazing and I want one, even though I am too boring to put them to good use.
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