BOOKS: A Series (1)

BOOKS: A Series (1)

A series exploring items of interest….relating in some way…to the book as object, concept, sculpture, artwork or idea.

Such as “Flights of Fancy or Imaginary Scraps” by Charles Carrick, in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.  I saw it at the De Young Museum.

Amazing stuff.   Charles Carrick was a British printmaker who wrote “Poems: Serious, Humorous and Satirical,” published in 1870, and compiled a book of 216 drawings with poems and commentary. Unrequited love….was the inspiration.

Flights of Fancy indeed.  Explore more Imaginary Scraps here.

Enjoy. May your imagination soar.

“Up North: A Very Short Travelogue”

“Up North: A Very Short Travelogue”

A recent adventure traveling from Southern to Northern California…SoCal to NoCal, and back again,  reveals gems of landscape, cuisine, and most compellingly, relationship.

On the road…Highway 5 offers up vistas. You know you are on a journey. Traveling. Journeying. Voyaging. In movement.

Our heaven away from home…in Larkspur, CA…in Marin County. Right on the (canal) water. The peacefulness of this water…and its feathered inhabitants.

Morning time with flying friends….a view from the end of the pier…enlarged.

Looks like a silvery moon, but this is the reflection of the bright morning sun, cloud and sky…in the water. The flow, shine and shimmer of water brings peace to the soul.  I won’t soon forget this.

Bustling Clement Street in San Francisco’s Richmond District yields up delightful and delicious Asian eateries…like Burma Superstar , which offers the exotic and stimulating tea leaf salad.

Dancing in with the Keith Haring sculpture,  in Golden Gate Park, on the grounds of the De Young Museum.

The decorative painter’s favorite, the “gilded” room in the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum, in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park.

The beautiful walk up the hill to the Legion, overlooking the Bay near Land’s End, is an old stomping ground, and doesn’t disappoint.

The walk holds floral pops of color amidst brush and bramble.

After a magnificent six days, including two of driving, we arrived back safe and sound to Santa Monica, in time for yet another magnificent sunset.

The sky changes colors moment by moment…

The fading panorama of sunset colors and dark clouds are set off dramatically bu street lights which set nearby palm trees aglow. This is Southern California, after all.

California, place of dreams, traffic, light, fire and stars. North or  South, you shower us with your magic. Best of all is the work we are privileged to do here, and the people and relationships that make it all worthwhile. Thank you!

Reconnecting to Our Joy…In Praise of Sitting

Time out of Time…Reconnecting to Our JOY

As artists, entrepreneurs, solo-preneurs, and art-preneurs, we have the tendency to either procrastinate, or work until we drop. To avoid a decision or an issue, or to wrestle and wrastle and wreak havoc upon our brains and our senses until we do or do not find an answer, or a solution.

But can we think to much?

Perhaps what we tend to forget, is that our work  is creative, and inspired by the imagination. I have found that when dealing with imagination lock down,  brain drain, or creative blocks, one of the best things I can do is get the heck out of there.

By “there”, I mean the circular pattern created by going over and over the same issue to no avail, the overload that can happen with too much input, or the standstill that fear, resistance, aggravation or frustration can create.

When this happens, I have learned that if I can get myself the heck out of “there” and back into my joy, to the central passion that brought me into my endeavor in the first place, I can move through the challenges at hand with that much more grace,, joy, and fun, to say nothing of success.

Chihuly in yellow...ain't we got fun...

I betake myself to the source,  inspiration central: the Art Museum. Blessed to live and work near The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The De Young and The Legion of Honor, in their magnificent natural locations, are a constant, offering up continual visual fare.  But here’s the thing: when I go to The Art Museum,  I rarely look at the “ART”, though fascinating, provocative, and inspiring art there is to be found.

Crushed Cans Creation

When I go to The Art Museum, (aka, The Art “Muse”),  I betake myself to the cafe, or the sculpture garden, or the patio, or the bench, and I sit.

I sit, often with eyes closed (nobody cares), and let my  mind simply drain away, basking in the warmth of absolute nothingness.  It’s a ready, set,  stop  kind of experience,  and when it can be achieved, it feels cleansing, rejuvenating,  divine. To  sit without anything required, even for a short time, can permit  the mind to unwind and  allow  insights, ideas and inspirations to reach the lizard  brain and break the gridlock.

Just to sit...

It can be difficult to allow oneself to do this, to take this “break”, but even a limited time of it can yield wonders. Give it a try. Find your own “inspiration central”, and go there for a time out of time. Just sit. Ask nothing of the experience. You stand to gain everything.