Who has never / never needs / delights / finds / promises.

Who wears / weight /others /spillage.

We start now / one hopes for these days.

Garment
wood, paint, collage

SF+SONOMA part IV - golden gate bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most photographed structures in the world so I was totally impressed by the photo my tm took (whose real name is Susan Medo) while i was driving and eating turkey-jerky. The cable swinging up into the fog is 3' in diameter and with suspender cables and accessories, weighs 24,500 tons. The color is "international orange" and if you want to paint your bedroom in it here's the formula to take to Home Depot: CMYK: C= Cyan: 0%, M =Magenta:69%, Y =Yellow:100%, K = Black:6%

SF+SONOMA part III - architecture

One of the most enjoyable things of SF+SONOMA was the lack of a plan other than knowing I'd have a place to sleep each night. Everyday filled up quickly with good food, good friends and good architecture!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

STRYKER WINERY
Geyserville
Nielsen Schuh Architects

I loved the Stryker winery and its combination of concrete, glass, and terra cotta. This structure won an award back in 2002 and was designed by Nielsen Schuh Architects. http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/bts/archives/wineries/Styker/overview.asp

CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM

San Francisco

Daniel Liebskind

After sampling goods at the Ferry's Market and downing a hoppy beer at a historic beatnik bar called "Vesuvius" my travelmate (tm) and I made our way back to the SFMOMA parking ramp, as we cut through one block, the Contemporary Jewish Museum by Daniel Liebeskind (under construction)appeared! It's been written up in just about every design publication possible. http://www.jmsf.org/
The appearance resembles the Walker Art Center's new addition by Herzog & DeMeuron.

DEYOUNG MUSEUM

San Francisco

Herzog & DeMeuron

In Golden Gate Park we visited the new DeYoung museum (recommended by Kathy but had no idea it was an H&DM project) & fortunately, tm figured out that the 9th fl observation tower was free! So we went up and the view sweeps your breath away with 360 degrees of seamless glass. To the left is a picture of the perforated copper skin that clads the entire building.

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/de_young.html

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

San Francisco

Renzo Piano + Landscape Architecture by Maya Lin

This is a huge $429M project that will be the most green museum in the country. The rooftop will be a living layer of native California plants. Completion will take another year and Maya Lin has been invited to do 2 landscape art/architecture installations.

http://www.calacademy.org/geninfo/newsroom/releases/2007/Architecture_update.php

SF+SONOMA part II - photos

PHOTOS FROM SONOMA COUNTY
http://www.flickr.com/gp/19321129@N00/17w87t

SF+SONOMA part I - Alexander Valley

It's hard to assemble words for the San Francisco and Sonoma County excursion. It was a trip for the senses in every way. In Sonoma county there are two primary colors, a vibrant deep green paired with sun-soaked yellow. The colors don't ever blend but they do touch against each other, everywhere, on all sides. The silence and brilliance of the stars shooting and shining over the Alexander Valley made me feel quite humble and emphasized my place as a spinning speck on earth. I slept and awoke to rows and rows of grapevines on sloped hills. I ate sandwiches, heavy, folded in white paper. In the mornings, when i was senseless and still seeing in black and white, I remembered that there was coffee and then I saw brown. Then, I held hot coffee and wanted a pastry, rasberries, i began to see red too....the days images build; olive trees on the side of the road, wine swirling up sides of thin glass, sand still in my nose from the beach, a dog who drinks beer, I saw everything I could see.

SF+SONOMA - 555 Clayton

Koi Fish

As part of my Anniversary-That-Wasn't-Present from M, I'm taking a Silkscreening class at the UCSD campus. Tonight was our first round of printing so I used one of my favorite subjects - a koi fish from Balboa Park. You used to be able to get up close to the Koi in the main reflection pond but the park officials roped it all off a couple months ago. Now the next best place to see Koi is at the Japanese Garden ($3 admission) or for a heftier admission and more crowds, the San Diego Zoo. There's also some Koi in a small pond at a house in the Kensington Neighborhood which I stumbled on pretty randomly 6 months ago. I probably couldn't find it again.

change - observe ten loops and you'll see...

If you can't see this flash movie click here

my favorite feist

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YZZ1Gd5qjc4

two plugs for minneapolis!

Plug No. 1: A friend has reduced the price on her mod downtown minneapolis loft. Designed by Julie Snow, this place has postcard views of the skyline, a sleek siematic kitchen and great location on the riverfront. For more info checkout: http://www.malindalaunert.com/506



Plug No. 2: If you're in Minneapolis and looking for something out-of-the-ordinary to do go see and hear Doug Little and one of his two groups Charanga Tropical and Seven Steps to Havana. . Charanga Tropical is an ensemble of strings, piano, percussion and brass doing original and standard latin/cuban jazz. Seven Steps is more of a traditional jazz ensemble and much of the music by both is composed by Doug Little. His groups are doing double time this weekend performing 4 shows in 2 days!

SEVEN STEPS TO HAVANA
http://www.sevenstepstohavana.com

Fri. July 13, noon-1pm
Peavy Plaza, Macy's Music Day, Outdoors and FREE!

Fri, July 13, 8-11pm
Dakota Jazz Club - $10 cover

Sat July 14, 8-11pm
Dakota Jazz Club - $10 cover


Charanga Tropical
http://www.charangatropical.com
Sat, July 14, 6-7:30pm
Alliance Francaise Bastille Day at Jeune Leune - $10 cover

(infatuation)

warehouse, Kettner St.

bus stop ladies

toaster (undone)

Undoing is about getting to the it-ness of an object. It’s a toaster and it serves a function to warm up a carbohydrate square but it is also a system of wires, metal plates and plastic. It collects the bits and pieces of toast over time and eventually every last mechanical surface of the interior becomes coated with crumbs of a certain age. Crumbs of every shade from black to light brown live on long after the toast has been eaten and sent back to the eco-system. Undoing a toaster even has a certain sound to it as the delicate metal ribbon is un-threaded and reverberates off the thin metal plates. It’s a specific toaster-undoing-sound, particular to this make/manufacturer of toaster. I see now that every undoing will have it’s own soundtrack, which I'm looking forward to. The whole toaster assembly was held together by 10 screws. The majority of the structure is accomplished through tiny folded metal tabs and slots. It’s surprising how such little gestures provide so much structural strength. I actually worked up a sweat trying to pry it all apart as deliberately and non-destructively as possible. The toaster parts all have a “look” to them: flat, folded, tabbed, slotted, holed. The electric parts look completely different: flaming red copper wire, winding thick black cord…so true to their functions and their opposite roles of mechanical and electrical. In opposition they bring each other to life, converting current to heat and synchronizing levers to toss toast upwards - although this toaster had become out-of-sync.

Part II – transformation or something that looks like a messed up re-arranged toaster, we’ll see.

a three inch bug

While hiking up the backside of Cowles Mountain and imagining I was serving out some ancient penitence under the heat for the monotonous route I had chosen, I finally reached the summit and as I endeavored never to stray off the main trail again I saw a huge three inch bug land on one of the dry little brush flower boquets. The bug brought back the memory of my Great Uncle's study (which later became my bedroom) and the framed beetles, tarantula and giant flies on the walls. He was an entomologist and in his study he had two metal base cabinets inhabited by trays upon trays of collected and categorised specimens. Above his desk were two overhead shelves packed with reference books on insects, birds, and flowers. The walls were naturally painted an olive green and the floor had a crimson red carpet, it kind of was like being inside a bug. I realize now that he had hoped for me to be a naturalist too. He tried to take me on trips but that stopped after I wandered off and was lost for 3 hours. I remember him giving me little science kits and instead I was drawing all the time. I was going through a portrait phase while I was living with my Great Aunt and Uncle and I was especially intent on drawing celebrities: Steve Martin, Christina Applegate, Whoopi Goldberg, Bea Arthur. Don't ask me why I chose to draw these particular celebrities. After my great aunt died I remember spending a day with my great uncle and his new wife (he remarried at 7o-something) and newly adopted grand-sons whom were very scientific and nature-loving boys. He was out in the yard showing bugs to them and the expresson on my face must have betrayed me because one of my unofficial in-laws said to me in astonished voice "Jennifer, what's wrong?" - how disturbed I looked, I will never know.

This morning, my mother asked me how my "hobby" is going. My heart fell out the car door and onto the road, killed. Since this morning I also read Susan Vreeland's novel "Artemesia" cover-to-cover (kindly loaned to me by my French-friend before selfishly abandoning me for Costa Rica). The intersection of three-inch bug, art-as-hobby-comment, and Artemesia has brought forth the notion that on a certain level I am a disappointment to my uncle and parents. Unless I'm doing flower still-lifes, creativity has been my ticket to alienation with them as it holds little to zero significance in their value-systems. These latent emotions and value disconnections have revealed themselves to be another aspect of the couch project. The de-couching is not a destructive impulse of requital but a de-constructive impulse moved by intuition. When something has been domesticated and then de-valued and cast out, either intentionally or through calculated neglect it's only road back is through transformation.

I'm going to make butter for the 4th of July

After you read this article, you'll want to make butter with me!
BUTTER

Ice Building

Scenes from the new studio that I will be sharing w/seven other artists in North Park. This is temporary for 6 months until it is torn down for condos. As soon as I can acquire some suitable candidates (and find willing friends to help me move them) I will begin the couch deconstructions!