Hats, More Hats, Even More Hats --- Days 14/26, 27 & 28

Walks: Presidio and Hood

Distances: 4 miles avg

So, Ciwt found the First Lady's hat so fetching, it reminded her she is quite the hat person herself.  Hat buyer that is.  Over the years she has encountered some she couldn't resist.

And then she found some more,

And even more

And that's not all, but you get the idea.  Not until she gets home does she remember San Francisco's ferocious wind.  So unfortunately they have mostly languished in her closet.  But, since fashion may have entered a hat temporary hat season, maybe she'll step out in hers and hope they don't blow away.

Ceremonies --- Days14/24 & 25

Walks: Presidio (x2) 

Distances: 4.5 miles (x2)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Peasant Wedding,156, oil on board

So today was a day of protocol and ceremony in a very cold, windy Washington, DC.  And it put Ciwt in mind of a more warm and pleasant ceremony painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, 1525-30 - 1569).

Bruegel is perhaps best known as a master of winter scenes, often capturing its harshness,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565, oil on board

so this wedding painting may seem a bit of an anomaly. But, in fact, his works often depict lively urban or rural peasants engaged in everyday activities such as farming, banquets, festivals, dances and games. He revolutionized Flemish paintings by doing this, moving away from traditional themes like portraits and religious scenes.  His complex, dynamic works teem with life and movement and leave us with a vivid representation of 16th-century society in the complex often absurd ways its daily life was actually lived.

Football Widows --- Days 14/22 & 23

Walks: No, Presidio

Distance: n/a, 5.5 miles

Pamela Anderson as Shelley in The Last Showgirl

So, Ciwt's cats have become football widows while Ciwt spends hours watching playoff games as this season heads toward its Super Bowl conclusion. 

But she did take a little time to go to The Last Showgirl.  She never thought she would be drawn to a movie starring Pamela Anderson, so Ciwt she is stunned to realize she would gladly hand the Best Actress Oscar to her.  And equally gladly would she give the unsinkable Jamie Lee Curtis (always great!) the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.  We will see what happens at Oscar time.

And now Ciwt is off to ignore her cats and see what will happen in today's playoff games.   

Old Rules, No --- Day 14/21

 Walk: Hood

Distance: 3 miles

Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864-1957),ink on scroll paper on silk)

So, Ciwt knows little about Asian art, but she did know that older Chinese art is a highly regimented practice judged by how well the artist meets standards of perfection in its various aspects.  Artists study for years calligraphy, brushwork, respectful, near worshipful renderings of nature and formal, polite portrayals of people.  So, imagine her surprise when she encountered the ink panel above by Qi Baishi.

The subject is cleaning his ears!

And then, right across from i,t this man calmly escorting his son or grandson to or from school.  Whether coming or going, have you ever seen a child more unhappy about the school experience?  Or, maybe you have in real life, but not in traditional Chinese art.

Turns out Qi Baishi (one of the several names he used) was as interested in traditional technique and subject matter as this little boy. Basically hardly at all.  After a few years training in the fundamentals of fine brushwork and meticulous detail, he realized he could paint in his own expressive way.  That way he could pursue art as his full-time career instead of dreaming of becoming a professional artist praised by the critics. So he produced art that was personal and expressive, traveling extensively thoughout China and finding mentors here and there.  This was quite something at his time (1864 - 1957) when freedom of artistic individual expression was scorned by critics who refused to acknowledge Qi's work as art.

But, not so his fellow countrypeople.  Qi was and continues to be China's most popular artist, appreciated by viewers from all walks of life.  He often used friends, neighbors, villagers depicting them in various everyday activities.  With real people as models, his subjects are transformed from their traditional solemn appearances into charming, relatable ordinary people.  And the secular (non-art critic) Chinese immediately loved looking at and being amused by themselves in daily activities and moods they could relate to.  Qi became beloved for these and other lively renderings of subjects ranging from plant to animal life (like the doves in the previous CIWT)  And collectors at all levels of art knowledge bought up and his works during his life time and today pay enormous, headline-worthy sums for it.  

So much for critics....

In the Pinks --- Day 14/20

Walk: Small Hood, mostly Marin driving

Distance: 1 mile

Home photos continue because Ciwt is still indentured to arriving and departing deliveries.  Maybe a bit boring for her readers (and some days herself), but it is a nice place to be indentured.

Now Two --- Day 14/19

Walk: Hood and West Portal

Distance: 4.5

A Second Flower - with several more on the way!

Ciwt is no expert on Amaryllis plants, but it seems to her the one she receives from her friend each holiday season and is very special. It arrives as nothing more than dried up dirt in a basket with a minute green sprout in the middle. Then Ciwt follows directions to 1. Flood it with water,  2. Do absolutely nothing as it sits and sits and sits and sits and she worries she drowned it, 3. Watch it produce Spectacular flowers when it is ready.

West Dove/East Dove --- Days14/17 & 18

Walks: Hood, Asian Art Museum

Distance:  1.5 miles, 6 miles

So with TV's Shogun on her mind (she's a latecomer to it; one episode left to watch), Ciwt was inspired to visit our outstanding Asian Art Museum today.  

There may have been no Impressionism movement in art or it might have happened at a different time if the Japanese hadn't had the habit of wrapping their Western imports art prints.  Apparently the latter were that commonplace and inexpensive.  But they were the exact opposite in Paris and they hit the world of artists like a bombshell.  Artists like Monet, deGas, Pissarro and others flocked to see them when they arrived, and Monet accumulated a large collection which he displayed in his Giverny dining room and other rooms around his home.  

The artists were astounded and then strongly influenced by the simplified forms, flat perspecitves and open areas of the woodblock prints. By the turn of the nineteen centuries many artists including Matisse and Picasso had integrated their formal linear simplicity into their own art.

Among the most widely known examples is Picasso's Dove of Peace:

Pablo Picasso, Dove of Peace, 1961, lithograph

Which in turn he made more open, simple, and linear from his own 1949 lithograph:

Pablo Picasso, Dove, 1949, lithograph

And which the 1949 Paris Peace Conference chose for its poster:

Picasso's images of the dove became a phenomenon around the world. Between 1949 and the artist's death, he created numerous works, including posters, prints and drawings, which depicted the Dove of Peace. Variations of the image were used for Peace Congresses in Wroclaw, Stockholm, Sheffield, Vienna, Rome and Moscow. Oh, and it should be mentioned, the 'dove' was actually a Milanese pigeon, which had been a gift from his friend (yes) and fellow artist, Matisse.

In a West/East turnaround, the famous and beloved Chinese artists, Qi Baishi, was said to be one who saw the poster.  And..felt he could more authentically capture the aliveness and spirit of the dove.  So, he created his own pen and ink painting which was used for the 1952 Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference in Beijing.  He then went on to produce many more paintings of  doves.

Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1863-1957), Dove of Peace, 1952, Hanging scroll; ink and colors on paper

Qi Baishi, Bird of Peace, ink and color on paper, ca 1950's

Largely through the works of these two important artists, one from the West and the other from the East, since the 1950's the dove has gradually become an international symbol for peace.

'Brutal' Decision --- Day 14/16

Walk: AMC Kabuki (The Brutalist)

Distance: 3.5 miles

Adrien Brody as Laszlo Toth in The Brutalist

So, 'brutal' decision time: would Ciwt recommend The Brutalist?

For an outing, supporting theaters and the movie industry, and a probable Oscar winner performance, by all means yes  Also, the vast majority of critics say "Absolutely; it is a great, epic success!"

But Ciwt the left the theater from The Brutalist on a downer.  There are several threads in the movie, all of which she found depressing or at least off-putting and none tied together to make wholecloth.  Much of the dialogue was spoken so softly with accents that she either couldn't hear or understand it.  The photography seemed to her self-consciously arty and disjointed.  The scenery was cold and overpowering rather than magnificent.  She found every character hard to take in his or her own way .

Bascially nothing drew Ciwt into The Brutalist and held her attention except Adrien Brody's self-possessed acting.  Without him the movie would have just be a collection of  pieces. But he is that compelling, the glue that rivited her.  Which is not to say his character (Laszlo Toth) is likeable or even knowable.  Sympathetic at times certainly, but he shoulders his world alone and doesn't invite others in.  

Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones who play Toth's employer and wife respectively are the second and third acting glue in the movie. But, like Toth, but they are darkly fascinating but only partially fleshed out.

So, back to the question at hand: would Ciwt recommend going to the 3 hour 35 minute (with intermission at half point) The Brutalist?  Ciwt thinks yes - principally to experience Brody's performance and a fine movie making effort overall. Plus it really doesn't feel that long and keeps theaters alive.