Oscars, Boo Hoo --- Days 15/776, 77, 78

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4.5 miles

The Oscars are tomorrow, 4:00 San Francisco time. Usually at this time of year movie buff Ciwt is madly catching up on any movies/performances she missed so she can have her choices and watch the Oscars with interest.  By usually, she mean decades, so she's feeling a fairly major sadness this year.  She skipped a lot of the entries, is not particularly rooting for any of the nominees and feels discouraged the likely Best Picture winner is a ripped from the headlines yell fest.  The sadness has been coming all year as one movie after another was of no interest.  She knows many other buffs must be feeling the same; but next year has begun and hope abides.

Hopping Down The Trail --- Days 15/74 & 75

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4.5 miles

 Ciwt's neighbors and local wonderful flower shop remind her Easter is hopping along.

Tour Moment --- Days 15/71, 72 & 73

Walks: Hood, Presidio

Distances: 4 miles average

So Ciwt has been pretty preoccupied getting her art client engaged.  A while ago he contacted her through her art tour web site.  Contacted her twice actually because Ciwt often gets at least 15 spam responses daily and tends to just delete them.  

His persistence paid off, Ciwt's heart immediately melted and she went into pre-tour action like never before.  First there were extensive emails, then a Zoom meeting with Ciwt's client and his photographer, and, as final prep, a walkthrough to ensure all proposal participants would all arrive at the exact tree the photographer was hiding behind at the appointed time.

And yesterday, at 3:00 pm, it worked!  Ciwt's client got down on his knees in front of his darling and probably completely shocked girlfriend and proposed.  It appeared he had been as thoughtful with his proposal as he had been with the lead up and setting because he stayed on his knee speaking to her for quite a while.  Ciwt couldn't see the girlfriend/becoming fiancee's face but her body seemed to soften with each moment and Ciwt assumes she was melting into tears.  Certainly Ciwt was!  It was one of the most heatwarming moments in Ciwt's life.

A darling young couple committing to each other in life's future journey. In our apparently chaotic world here was this simple, profound, love and hope filled moment. 

But really, a picture says it all - and more: 

Two Bloodlines, Same Ruthless Demands --- Day 15/70

Walk: AMC Kabuki

Distance: 4.5 Miles

So, Ciwt's main go to movie theater is the AMC Kabuki located in Japantown which contains Kabuki Springs and Spa, not too far from the renowned Asian Art Museum, and overall there is a significant Japanese population in San Francisco.  For all these reasons Ciwt has felt a bit out of it because she knows virtually nothing about kabuki, the art form.

As of today and thanks to the exquisite and riveting movie, Kokuho, she is feeling much better about this limited knowledge.  Turns out nobody, even in Japan, knows much about Kabuki theater- or ever has since its beginnings in Kyoto, 1603.   It's a very secretive art form with distinct and protected bloodlines and hierarchy.  And, as presented by Sang-il Lee, the director, after a book by Shuich Yoshida, kabuki has many ruthless similarities to yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Kabuki's violence is sado-masochistic rather than direct.  It is  more psychologically complex and certainly more graceful, lushly costumed and exacting in physical training.  Yet in both the yakuza and kabuki worlds the most subtle shifts or small deviations from tradition can be matters of life or death.

Ciwt went to Kokuho only knowing it had very high Rotten Tomatoes ratings and has been seen by over one million people in Japan.  Her assumption was that the movie would be too stylized and formal to hold her and she'd probably leave sometime before the three hour running time.  Instead she was spellbound from beginning to end by the visual poetry of costumes and makeup, intense acting and dancing by truly gorgeous performers, the exacting Kabuki art form itself and, yes, the violence on many levels. Kokuho is a deeply human, penetrating, heartrending, sometimes shocking reflection on what art, performance, and absolute greatness really means.

Not Your Grandmother's Ballet --- Days 15/65 - 68

Walk: SF Opera House (SF Ballet: Blake Work)

Distance: 4.5 miles

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVWJ67rDYkt/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY_sstCbxQA

Artist, Dye and Yarn --- Days 15/63 & 64

Walks: Hood

Distance: 3.75 miles

If you are interested in art, color, wise, fascinating and talented people, have 28:30 minutes and access to YouTube, Ciwt strongly encourages you to spend time with Sheila Hicks and some of her world renowned fiber art. Sheila Hicks: We're Crying for Softness Those last three words are very rarely used because fiber art receives little attention in the art and museums world. This because of the centuries long association of it with 'women's work; craft' all deemed lesser. But, from her very beginnnings in art studies Hicks' unique talent, creativity, daring have been recognized by teachers, fellow students, gallery and museum personnel. All without Hicks even trying; she was just trying to learn her craft while others took it upon themselves to open doors for her.

That was a long time ago; she's 90 now and continuing to be honored at prestigious exhibitions (for instance her current show at SFMOMA). Just as her art explorations are always fresh so is her openness to life's surprises. As she says of herself "I will find the nice side of wherever I happen to be." “I don’t want to go do something I know how to do. I want to go do something I don’t know how to do,” she has said. “I don’t want a legacy. I just want to have fun while I’m here.” 

Hepworth, Wakefeild 

Horst Festival, Belgium

Baoli, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Pigment Sticks, Paris 

Venice Bennal

Sheila Hicks: We're Crying for Softness

Every Moment Special --- Day 15/62

Walk: SF Presidio

Distance: 4 miles

Suzanne Jackson (b. 1944) , 2019. Photograph by Tim Doyon. Courtesy Ortuzar Projects.

Something strange happens when you look at Suzanne Jackson's works.  The image is right there on the canvas, paper or whatever medium it is affixed to, you can see it clearly, but the sense you get when looking is that it is just momentary and on its way to disappearing.  Like a beautiful dawn or splendid sunset.  You see it, but with the mixture of elation at the spectacle and sad sense it is momentary.  Jackson has captured that, pure light gelling into an intimate, tender, heartfelt but fleeting moment.  

Jackson's is the art of special moments. There is a poetic purity there.  No artifice. You are not entirely sure of what you are looking at, but you know it to be true. Here is what Ciwt means: 

Suzanne Jackson, Blooming, 1984, oil on canvas

It's the combined mystery of nature (which Jackson has been close friends with from her childhood in the innocent Bay Area and Alaska days), of dance (which she as trained in and did on stage), of stage setting (which she learned at Yale and taught), of poetry (which she writes) and of lifelong loving connection with people. Somewhere in her artistic intuition she has assimulated these plus post-Watts LA, the first black female art gallery owner, Angela Davis, costume design and found vibrant, mesmerizing places for them in her art*.

Suzanne Jackson, Hers and His, 2018, acrylic, cotton, scenic bogus paper & wood, 86" x 67"

* Her solo exhibition is at SFMOMA for a few more days and then travels to the Walker in Minneapolis.

All Modern Again --- Days 15/57-61

Walks: Hood, SFMOMA

Distance Average: 3.5 miles

So, modern art maven and tour giver Ciwt returned to SFMOMA today after a pretty long absence. No way around it, there was nothing really calling her there.  With a few spectacular exceptions by Matisse, Magritte, Diego Rivera, Calder and Rothko, and various photographers,  the feeling was getting decidely ho hum, even old fashioned.  

Imagine her surprise and delight when she found virtually the entire museum had been rehung and updated.  Newly acquired works, ones that have been in storage and as well as some in their usual places have been thought through and hung in informative, stimulating, fresh ways.

If you follow art, live in or visit the Bay Area but have been ignoring SFMOMA like Ciwt, she thinks put it back on your viewing list.  And, if you are new to modern art, you are likely to encounter many works and much signage that will kindle your interest.  

Ciwt was particularly drawn to SFMOMA's exhibitions of two women having their first solo shows at the museum.  The first, Suzanne Jackson, somehow captures Ciwt's favorite friend, Light!  Her works all have an inner glow that seems to eminate directly from the timeless beauty of nature.  And Jackson's heartfelt appreciation of it. 

Suzanne Jackson, Passages, 1978, 12' long, acrylic wash, gesson and graphite on canvas

The second artist, Sheila Hicks, works with fiber, a medium Ciwt resonates with, which she dyes with special mix colors, twists, hangs, wraps and otherwise artistically manipulates into wholly original forms, small and huge. 

Sheila Hicks, new work, SFMOMA installation. 2026