Saint Ethan --- Days 14/158. 159. 160

Walks: deYoung Museum (2), AMC Kabuki

Distances: 5 miles daily

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

So, it was decided, after 30 years, that Ethan Hunt/Tom Cruise should be canonized in his (perhaps) last Mission Impossible movie.  Ciwt was perfectly fine with them both being regular people.  Plus the elevation took much of the fun out of the ongoing, preposterous capers the Mission Impossible franchise has been dazzling us with all these years.  Still, if you are prepared to sit for three hours plus previews, Ciwt says go.  Go to watch and acknowledge Tom Cruise, a true classic movie star once again throwing, actually risking, his entire being into consummately entertaining his audience.

Modern? No Thank You --- Day 14/157 & 157

Walk: SFMOMA, Hood

Distance: 5 miles, 3 gloomy SF summer miles

Konstantin Makovsky, The Russian Bride's Attire, 1889 Oil on canvas, 9.16 ' x 12.25'

So, a small group of San Francisco visitors requested a tour of SFMOMA, our modern art museum, and Ciwt was hired for the occasion.  Yesterday was the day, and perhaps you can imagine her surprise when she learned a few minutes into the tour that not one of them knew the first thing about modern art. She changed her presentation and we had fun, but it reminded her that modern is absolutely not for everybody.  

Certainly not 19th century painter Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1913).  Makovsky was the star student at both Russian Imperial academies he attended, but dropped out without a diploma when he was forced to paint styles and subject matter that didn't feature the historical greatness of Russia.  Instead he founded the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions that was exclusively dedicated to and precisely rendered Russian subject matter.

The enormous The Russian Bride's Attire at the Legion of Honor here is a marvelous example of his work from then on.  On any given day you can count on a number of visitors standing before it  transfixed by its cornucopia of rich visual sensatons. 

It's the third in a series of  partly historical, partly imaginative recreations of a well-known incident from the early Romanov dynasty: the taking of a bride by Czar Alexis I.  In short, when it was time for 18 year old Alexis to marry he was given six beautiful girls to choose from and chose Eufemia, someone other than the bride in this painting. Almost immediately his first choice displayed symptoms that raised fears of epilepsy which would have made her an unsuitable czarina, and she and her father were banished to Siberia. Alexis was then persuaded to marry Maria, the bride in this painting. The 'persuader' was one of Alexis's advisors who was 1. having an affair with Maria’s sister, 2. the enemy of Eufemia’s father and 3. is suspected of possibly poisoning her. (Hmmm!) 

In this life-size painting we see young Maria whose future has been chosen for her, dressed in white and looking pale with a girl, probably her sister, at her feet. The richly colorful outfits, elaborately carved boxes and furniture, and grand carpet give a warm, festive first impression.  But, spending more time with the paining, the moods portrayed become enigmatic, ranging from shyness, reluctance, sadness, glumness or even depression. Makovsky tended to be vague in all his paintings of facial expressions, but happiness, merriment, excitement are certainly absent here.

So how did Makovsky's refusal to 'go modern' work out for him?  Well, he turned out to be richly rewarded for his single-minded dedication to the very French academic tradition Parisian art students were finding increasingly stifling. He became one of the most avidly collected and highly paid Russian artists of his time. This until his death when - ironically - his traditionally horse-drawn carriage was hit by a modern electric tram.

Memorial Day 2025 --- Day 14/156

Walk: Presidio

Distance: 5 miles

 

100% Me --- Days 14/147-155

Walks: Museums, Hood

Distances: 4 miles average

Nope

So it has taken Ciwt quite a while to catch on and kept her away from CIWT in the digesting.  First there was some hair loss.  But there are products to disguise that.  Then came bruises if she even lightly tapped against something.  Oh well, it will go away. But one kept following another until her skin was never 100%. 

And, after a while, a lot of things weren't.  She was able to finally purchase her '100%' home but immediately fell and broke her wrist while moving in.  That followed by a series of trips to medical offices for a variety of issues.  You get the pattern.

Through all these and many 'less than 100% Me' situations, Ciwt continued her lifelong  mindset: "Oh, when this is over, I'll be back to 100%."  As things progressed (see above), she'd still think "I can't have this because I still have that." And get on her case because she should be 100%.

Until, finally, finally she has realized, 100% Me doesn't exist.  Or, as Gilda Radner said, "There's always something." And it isn't just about health things. She doesn't have 100% energy, direction, purpose, character, temperment, enchantment with her new home, yoga sessions, love of driving or reading The New Yorker or most books these days.  She doesn't make CIWT entries every day, the list is nearly endless.

Ciwt is slowly realizing her image of 100% can (and needs to be!) redefined. Basically 100% has always been out of the question.  While she's been 100% Ciwt since birth, she's always been a person so, like everybody, never 100%.  She looks forward to more enjoyable/realistic times now that she's getting off her illusory 100% Me case.

Now on to preparing two Good Enough art tours in the week ahead....

Tell Me When to Laugh --- Days 14/144, 45 & 46

 Walk: Hood; deYoung Museum; Vogue Theater (The Ballad of Wallis Island)

Distance: 4 miles; 6 miles; 1.6 miles

Whenever Ciwt goes to a movie billed as a comedy she wonders whether it will be her type of humor.  She didn't crack a smile at the ho-hum 'comedy' The Ballad of Wallis Island.  So either it just wasn't funny or wasn't Ciwt's type of funny so she missed all the punch lines.  

Hello CIWT World --- Days 14 141-143

Walks: Hood

Distances: 3.75 miles average

Hello, loyal readers.  Happy May.  Ciwt is thinking of you and just waiting for ideas to show up.  

A Mother in Art --- Days 14/137-140

Walks: Hood and Short

Distances: 2.5 miles average

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, Mother, ca. 1895, o/c

When she saw it this morning Ciwt was completely enchanted by this painting by the Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla commemorating his wife and the birth of their youngest daughter, Elena.  

How perfect that it showed up on Mother's Day.  Happy Mother's Day to all (grand, great grand) mothers around the world. 

Power Suits 2025 --- Days 14/135 & 136

Walks: Housebound with 😷😷

Distances: n/a

Well, darn, once again Ciwt wasn't 'able to make' (read 'invited to'): fashion's biggest night, The Met Gala.  Of course she went right to the pictures, and remembered her 20 year old self in NYC nervously dressing for her first post college job interviews. Imagine if she (or her boyfriend) had shown up in one of these 'power suits!'  

Colman Domingo in a Valentino by Alessandro Michele zoot suit at the Met Gala

Teyana Taylor co-created by her and Black Panther costume designer Ruth E Carter

Ooops..Sabrina Taylor in (sort of) Louis Vuitton

 

Same Flight/Different Landing --- Day 14/134

 Walk: T Joe's

Distance: 2.5 miles

Jimmy Butler

So, one of the things Ciwt admires about many elite athletes is their ability to stay focused on winning right to the very last buzzer - no matter how harrowing the circumstances.  A few of her favorite examples are Joe Montana calmly surveying the field for a receiver with less than ten seconds on the clock, and Rafa Nadal throwing himself entirely into every shot after hours of playing.  

And last night, the aging Golden State Warriors winning game 7 of the playoffs.  Throughout the series there were the inevitable newspaper headlines about how unfair the refs were to the Warriors or how brutally guarded Curry was by the Rockets or how punishing their schedule was with all the plane rides.  Poor, poor Warriors.

But, as always,  the players themselves were having none of it. The best of them are not looking for excuses or handouts.  They know winning is up to them and they take full responsibility for - actually seem to look forward to -  the challenge.  When some reporter started down the 'terrible schedule' road with Jimmy Butler the other day, he brushed him off completely:  

“We’ll be all right. I’m 35, I can’t remember how old Steph is, Dray is 35, too. Everybody’s got to travel the same distance. Ain’t like we’re going to go around the world and land in Houston and they got only a five minute flight to Houston. They’ve got to travel just like we’ve got to travel.”

She also Loves! die hard fans - no matter what the team.  Last night's game was out of town and televised.  But  lots of Warriors fans weren't sitting at home watching it.  Instead they came to the stadium, set themselves up in their portable chairs, and cheered for their team.  Wonder if the closed circuit tv worked in reverse so the players could see their fans supporting them.  Probably some people were sending iPhone videos.   

Post-Tour Clean Up --- Days 14/130-133

Walks: Legion of Honor

Distances: 2.5 miles

Joseph Baumhauer (maker), Commode, mid 18th C, Bloodwood, Kingwood marquetry, marble top, gilt bronze mounts
  

So, preparing for for a recent tour of the Legion of Honor Museum, Ciwt got reacquainted with some of her favorite works - this French Rococo style commode for one. Ciwt is not a fan of the Rococo paintings  (to her too light and silly) that dominated the walls of Louis XIV's (1643-1715)  Versailles Palace, but she loves how Rococo's curvy openess, lightness and sense of movement works with some of the fashionable furniture of that era. 

This commode's easy gracefulness was a remarkably difficult achievement even for the supremely talented cabinet maker Joseph Baumhauer.  For openers the woods used needed to be imported from South America and were some of the most expensive, dense and difficult to work with using the hand tools of the day.  The green marble that complements the wood tones needed to be sought and then also imported, shaped and carved along the rim to its high level of refinement.  In all the commode demanded more than a thousand man hours.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the commode's gilt bronzing, known as ormolu, which blends with the wood tones and complements the gracefulness of the commode without tipping over into garishness. Ormolu is a highly skilled, intensive - and dangerous - process where shaped bronze surface is coated with a mixture of ground gold and mercury and heated over an open fire.  This work so close to intense heat was known to be perilous at the time, but sadly, it wasn't discoverd until years later that the noxious mercury fumes could be and often were fatal.  (Legislation around 1830 outlawed the use of mercury, and electro-plating - a safer, cheaper process began in the mid 19th century).

When this piece was produced, commodes were just being introduced and sought after by the French upper classes eager to outfit their homes in the new fashionable style.  Because of the materials used and the, literally, thousands of man hours necessary for such high quality pieces, they were also the only ones who could afford the cost of such works.  But gradually and thankfully because of their usefulness for attractive storage, and with increasing and less expensive methods of  producing of furniture, commodes made their way from royal and aristocratic homes to homes like Ciwt's and yours.  Where we call chests of drawers or bureaus.

Risky Business --- Days 14/126 - 129

Walks: Legion of Honor x 3

Distances: 3 miles x 3

So Ciwt's private art tours business is among the world's least hazardous.  The possible perils include things like:

1. Totally zoning out and not remembering any titles, artists, art facts.  So far so good on that.

2. Not establishing good communication with her clients.  This usually happens when someone brings a (grand)child(ren) with iPhone(s).  And yes it has happened several times to Ciwt.

3. Unexpected rehanging of works Ciwt has included in her tour.

Well, hazard 3 has happened.  Ciwt is booked to give a tour of an entire museum this weekend.  She's done it many times before and has a general plan she usually follows.  To confirm that all was a-ok, she went to the museum in question a couple of days ago.  And 😧😬😮😨😱  

Important works (to Ciwt's tour) have been removed; Unimportant works (to Ciwt's tour) have been taken out of storage and put on the walls.  The chronology of every room is completely different.  So, pardon Ciwt while she reorders her understanding of the museum's collection - so well that she can present it in a couple of days.  Suddenly such risky business....