Before there was IMAX ... --- Days 15/130 - 133

Walk: Tuesday errands

Distance: 4 miles

Frederick Edwin Church, (1826-1900), Rainy Season in the Tropics, 1866, @4.7' x 7', oil on canvas,
FAM deYoung Museum, San Francisco

The landscape painter Thomas Cole ( 1801-1848)  wrote of his pupil, Frederick Edwin Church, that Church had "..the finest eye for drawing in the world."  Since Cole was the founder of the renowned Hudson River School of landscape painting*, this was supreme praise.  Indeed Church deserved to be set apart even from the most talented landscape artists for his abundance of rare talents: a business mind, a world traveler's adventuring energy, a scientist's vision of nature and the empressario showmanship of a P.T. Barnum. 

By his mid-30's Church was the most famous American artist commercially and artistically.  Not by accident.  His sublime, heroic landscapes with technically accurate renderings of flora, fauna and atmospheric effects astounded audiences eager for visions of exotic, faraway landscapes.  Church's travels ranged from New York State, to the Arctic and the Andes where he would make preparatory sketches.  Returning to his studios on the Hudson River and 10th Avenue New York City, he built them up to a heady combination of religious awe, scientific inquisitiveness and lively fascination.  

Then, with a few of his largest and most spectacular canvases, such as Rainy Season in the Tropics above, he put on well advertised single painting exhibitions in New York and Europe.  Thousands of people would line up around the block and pay an entry fee to see the painting.  The huge work's frame would be sitting on a stage floor draped in a curtain as the audience sat on benches sometimes using opera glasses to get a close view.  When the overhead light from the skylights was just right, Church dramatically pulled the curtain back to instant and well deserved astonishment and immediate sale.  

*An outgrowth of the Romantic movement, the Hudson River school was the first native school of painting in the United States; it was strongly nationalistic both in its proud celebration of the natural beauty of the American landscape and in the desire of its artists to become independent of European schools of painting.

Here Comes the Sun, Part 2 --- Day 15/129

Walk: Monday Errands

Distance: 3.5 miles 

Well, well, look what we have in Ciwt's sunroom now!  Such good carpentry work!  Ciwt's cats will be thrilled.   Stay tuned for progress....

Much! Nicer than Ciwt Expected!

Paint Drying

Catching Up with Art --- Days 15/121-128

Walks: Hood, Presidio, SF Ballet, Opera Plaza Cinema

Average: 4 miles

So, Ciwt was finally released from the pop up UPS and home contractor hub her condo has become and was able to walk to two first class productions.

San Francisco Ballet 'Mere Mortals'

As Ciwt readers can see above, SF Ballet's entirely original production Mere Mortals is not your (great) grandmother's classic ballet. It's an acquired taste for many.  Minor ballet maven Ciwt herself had to see it three times to appreciate it. The first time she was utterly repelled, the second a little more forgiving and this third time finally able to be stunningly appreciative of all aspects of the production.  

Starting with the dancing which is utterly nonstop and perfectly coordinated footfall by football, high leap by high leap, head nod by head nod often with the entire company on stage. Just extraordinary dancing. The (frightening) stark costumes are a perfect compliment to the dance 'plot' as well as the combination symphony/electronic music.  Unlike Ciwt's slow take, Mere Mortals was an immediate classic for the young, techie, AI-creating members of the audience.  So much so that the Ballet mounted an unscheduled repeat performance which was immediately sold out.  And so, in spite of 'grandmother' holdouts, art forms continue to evolve with the times.

Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in The Christophers

But not all artists evolve as the great Ian McKellen demonstrates so perfectly in his role of a passe 80's bad boy artist who now hides out with his unfinished canvases in his two London townhouses.  He is everything Ciwt remembers from McKellen's Acting Shakespeare, a traveling  one-man show of Shakespearean monologues interspersed with theatrical anecdotes devised and performed by Ian McKellen in, yes, the 1980's.  Except he just might be even better in The Christophers.  

It must be quite a challenge to act with McKellen, and Michaela was totally equal to it  Her steadfast  erudite presence is a perfect foil to McKellen's bombastic verbosity.  And the entire movie is full of humorous, witty truisms about the art world, being an artist, the price of art.  Ciwt only wishes she could have a copy of Ed Soloman's script for The Christophers so she could catch up with some of the clever King's English dialogue that flew by her..

Here Comes the Sun --- Days 15/111-120

Walks: Mission, Lands End, GG Park, Presidio, Hood, Basically all over SF with visiting friend

Distances: 4.5 miles average

So, you know those old timey back porches that are now enclosed in updated older homes?  Well, Ciwt has one and, not knowing what to do with it, inadvertently gave it to her cats.  She put a couple of nice cabinets in it to hide their jumbo cat boxes, two covered chairs for them to jump all over and shred with their claws and a nice round table where they could jump up and enjoy the charming view of Ciwt's garden and the sun which pours in all morning and afternoon.

Then, a while ago, Ciwt finally realized She wanted that sun, view and sounds of the many adorable birds that fly around it. So she hired a local contractor, came up with a plan for a window seat for her in rugged enough fabric to withstand cat claws (hopefully) and attractive but less space consuming new cabinets for the cat boxes.

Today, probably to the consternaton of her cats who like everything to stay exactly the same, she cleared the room.  She now calls it her sunroom, and tomorrow a carpenter will begin filling it with Ciwt's new furniture.    

Stay tuned....

"Too Beautiful" --- Days 15/107 -110

Walks: Hood and Presidio

Distances: 4 miles average

Claude Monet, The Grand Canal, Venice, 1908, o/c

Countless people have viewed and loved Claude Monet's water lilies paintings since the early 1900's. But few know that the revered works may never have been painted or made public if Monet had not taken a trip to Venice in 1908.  He was 68 years old at the time and in the spiritual and artistic doldrums. He'd begun a few waterlilies paintings but, after struggling to get them right, still had no confidence in them and doubts about his remaining painting abilities.  Although Monet had rejected the idea for years, his wife, Alice, finally persuaded him that a trip together to Venice would be restorative for both of them.  Even then, Monet agreed to only three weeks in that city he felt had been commercialized by fellow artists who had portrayed it "too beautifully" to be real.

But when he actually saw it, it was love at first sight.  He picked certain locations and buildings, set up his easel daily, and painted them repeatedly until he felt he had truly captured the shimmery atmosphere of each chosen site.  At the end of ten weeks, he and Alice couldn't extend their stay any longer, so he said a reluctant farewell with every intention of returning.  

Sadly, Alice died shortly after their stay, and, very much in her honor and with her in mind, he completed several more canvases based on memories and postcards.  Then, his deep belief in his artistic talents restored, he painted the most beautiful of all of his waterlily paintings until his death at age 86.

Claude Monet, Water Lilies, ca. 1914–17, oil on canvas


The deYoung Museum's Monet and Venice Exhibition is in San Francisco until July 26

2.5 Hours in Space --- Days 15/105 & 106

Walks: Hood and AMC Sundance

Distances: 4.5 average

Ciwt was so in need of a getaway today, she went to a kids' movie.  Not intentionally because Project Hail Mary has super high ratings from both critics and audience.  Maybe because most are now animated or horror movies, one with an actual known actor talking to himself or a 'real' alien while whirling in zero gravity seems like an adult movie.  Not so for Ciwt.  Project Hail Mary is mostly music, visuals, sound effects, pratfalls and just enough "Awww" for 'ET' fans.  She would have left if it weren't for the irresistable Ryan Gosling.  

Just so you know in case you go with high expectations...

Easter Egg Hunt --- Days 15/99-104

Walks: Hood

Distances: 3.75 Average

Happy Easter

 

A is For Architecture --- Days 15/92-98

Walks: Hood and deYoung Museum

Average: 4.5 miles 

Has Ciwt told you that she got a D- on her one and only Architecture paper in college?  If so, you can imagine how she felt when she accepted a last minute request to give a tour of our deYoung Museum and then learned her client was an architect and wanted a tour that focused on the museum building.  There was more:  this architect once worked for the very firm that designed the building she had agreed to present.  😲

She had presented details about the building many times but just among many things on her tours.  NOT to an architect who had worked for the designing firm, lived near it and was friends with its name principals.  In other words, someone who would know whether or not what she was saying was exactly accurate and what she may be omitting.  What could Ciwt/D- do but camp out at the deYoung and on her computer learning all she could, prepare her tour and hope?

The day and the architect arrived yesterday. He smiled when Ciwt told him she'd googled him and invited him to speak up at any time while she presented what she knew about the building and how it had functioned for her as an art viewer and tour giver.  (She did not mention her D-).   

 He turned out to be easy, kind and personable.   Ciwt would like to think he gave her an A for her tour.