Tour Moment --- Days 15/7172 & 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 with all three of us so that we would all arrive at the exact tree the photographer would be 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

Amaryllis Trivia --- Day 15/56

Walk: Nope, storms continue.  But yoga to the rescue

Distance: n/a

💖

Before the power went out on this stormy day Ciwt learned a few fact about her amaryllis plants.

           Amaryllis belladonna is a native of the Western Cape region of South Africa. 

              Amaryllis means to sparkle in Greek.

            In nature, amaryllis bloom in spring or summer, but are commonly forced into early bloom for                the holidays.

            The U.S. imports more than 10 million amaryllis bulbs every year, mainly from Holland and                    South Africa.

• Plant breeders have developed more than 600 named varieties
• Amaryllis reproduce by growing "daughter" bulbs next to the "mother" bulbs.
• It takes three to five years for a daughter bulb to reach a marketable size.
• You can grow amaryllis from seed, but it can take up to six years for them to reach maturity and produce flowers.
• Amaryllis are tender perennials; most are hardy outdoors only in zones 9 to 11.
• Properly cared for, an amaryllis plant can live for 75 years!
• Amaryllis make dramatic and long-lasting cut flowers.
• The genus Hippeastrum has yielded several substances with medically useful properties, one of which has shown promise as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
• The plants were first brought to Europe from South America and became all the rage, associate with weatth and very prestigious in the Victorian age. 
• The origins of amaryllis trace back to Ancient Greece, where the flower was celebrated in myths and poetry. According to legend, the amaryllis plant was named after a shepherdess who pierced her heart with a golden arrow to win her beloved’s affection, her blood giving rise to the flower.  

Note to Homebodies --- Days 15/54 & 55

Walks: Not a chance, big, blowy back to back storms

Distances: n/a (but yoga)

"That's what books are for...To travel without moving and inch."

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Ciwt would add "videos" to Lahiri's quote.  As a lifelong essential non-traveler, Ciwt has gone far with these two stay at home substitutes.  

In this seemingly travel crazy world, it isn't easy being a nontourist.  Actually that's the easy part; admitting it is the hard part.  Looking down at homebodies goes way back. The Catholic Saint, Augustine (354-430 AD), apparently said "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” And just yesterday our SF Chronicle had a front page article on the travel 'empressario' Rick Steves extolling the never ending benefits of travel and calling it the 'true fountain of life.'  Implicit in that for sensitive nontravelers is the message "and those who don't do it are chumps." 

It started young with Ciwt.  Her family went to Florida for spring vacation every year, and every year, though she could barely write, she would pen her will.  (She can't remember the valuables she had to bequeath - maybe her china dog collection).  Every moment on the low flying planes those days through snowstorms then thunder storms was terror for her.   

And really travel has never gotten better for her since then.  There's the disruption, the anxiety, the airplanes 😨, the homestickness, the concern about her cats (used to be dogs) - oh yeah, and the sights.  Every once in a while there is an occasion or art viewing experience (eg, the astounding Shchukin art collection in Paris) or old friends and homes to visit.  But in many ways she feels she is always traveling right at home.  Besides the books, videos and movies that show her places that interest her, San Francisco - with its history, museums, vast cultural resources and all the international communities and travelers that make her walks alive with different architecture and passersby speaking foreign languages - has expanded her horizons immeasurably.  

If any CIWT readers are also anxious travelers/homebodies, take heart.  You are not alone.  Please continue tending to the parts of life that nourish you - art, books, music, food, learning, animals, nature, whatever is your personal fountain of youth - right at home.