Spring in the City --- Days 139, etc, etc

Walk: Hood

Distance: 4 miles

                    Common symptoms of mild allergies are:

• Runny nose

• Nasal congestion

• Sneezing

• Itchy eyes 

• Tiredness

• 
  

Here Comes the Sun, Part 3 --- Days 136-138

Walks: Cold Windy Hood

Distance Average: 3.5 miles

Waiting for cushion, more pillows and hammer and hook for painting.

The Etruscans, Who? --- Days 15/134 & 135

Walks: small Hood

Distances: 2 miles (back to cold and windy)

After decades of of steeping herself in art viewing and art history, Ciwt can usually file her first encounters with art works somewhere near other remembered works.  Not so with the Etruscan art in the Legion of Honor's current landmark exhibition, The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy.*

It turns out Ciwt is not alone in being entirely new to the Etruscan civilization, art and culture.  Our history books and art museums have kept us well versed on the civilzations that surrounded Etruria - Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Rome - but virtually dismissed the brillliant civilization that once controlled almost the entire peninsula we now call Italy.

The Etruscans were the first Western Mediterraneum 'superpower,' and. along side the Greeks, developed the fisrt true cities of Europe.  If you look closely at the map above you'll see that Rome was just one of many present day Italian towns (Pisa, Florence, Siena) within BC Etruscan territory.  As Rome grew into the Roman Empire, much of its organizational, technical, religious and artistic strength rested on the teachings it absorbed from the Etruscans.  Roman numerals, the alphabet, aquaducts, intersecting networks of roads, advanced metalwork, temple and house engineering, tools, weapons, ceramic painting techniques, ritual banquets and gladiator contests, rights of inheritance, all these and more were invented or developed by the Etruscans.  Try to imagine the Italian Renaissance without those elements.

In view of this high level of culture and vast territory, Ciwt wondered how the Etruscans came to be essentially vanished from the history books.  Turns out there were two main factors at play: their city-state organization and the common language they shared.  Each city-state was so evolved and guarded, the territory as a whole did not develop a common militia and were ripe for conquest one by one.  The Etruscan language was common throughout its lands, however it was utterly unique and incomprehensible to outsiders.  As a result, all of its written culture and history disappeared as it was absorbed by Rome.

What remains of the Etruscans are the objects painted or placed in its tombs, which they considered intermediate resting places for the deceased until they went on the afterlife. And these tomb objects tell us much about the Etruscan people.  Many tombs are extremely opulent indicating that Etruscan trade of their natural resources - particularly gold, tin, silver and other metals - with other Mediterranean cultures made them staggeringly wealthy.  The treasures in a woman's tomb shown in the Legion of Honor exhibition is rife with luxury, one of a kind objects and tells us their women were held in high regard.  This is reinforced by paintings and sculptures which show women side by side in equal partnership with men.  The people in the art works are gentle, calm, happy (instead of the more bellicose and removed early Greek and Roman figures), and you get a sense that there was a long period of happy living and a joie de vivre mixed with some humor throughout much of the Etruscan peoples.

Or, this is what Ciwt thought. Below are just a few of the art objects that appealed to Ciwt along with her decidely unprofessional signacge. Hopefully you can get to the Legion and choose your own favorites in The Etruscans: From the  Heart of Ancient Italy exhibition. 

But first, a word about Renee Dreyfus.

Renee Dreyfus, George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Curator in Charge, Ancient Art.

Thirty years ago Renee Dreyfus began dreaming of removing the complex and fascinating Etruscan culture from the shadows of of the Greeks and Romans and giving it a proper introduction.  This was twenty years after she began her curatorship of Ancient Art at the Fine Arts Museums and, with many significant and rare acquisitions, grew a small, spotty collection into a highly regarded and active department.  During her tenure at the museum, Dreyfus has organized over 20 exhibitions exploring the ancient Mediterranean civilizations, including the 1979 Treasures of Tutankhamun, its 2009 sequel, Tutankhamun, Last Supper in Pompeii: From the Table to the Grave, Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharoahs among others.  These types of exhibitions require supreme connoisseurship and, often even more, delicate international diplomacy.  Only a curator in the highest regard would be trusted to bring objects from the Vatican and other highly guarded European museums to the United States for the first time.  One such treasure was hand carried from an Italian town by the mayor herself.  Such is Renee Dreyfus's respect and stature throughout the world of antiquity arts,

Tomb wall and ceiling painting

Etruscan, "Happy" Seal

Etruscan, Married Couple Tomb Figures, ceramic

Etruscan, Bronze Pot with Etching and Handle Doing Yoga Backbend

Velovis (Mercury), Etruscan, Viterbo, Monterazzano, 1st C AD, bronze

Youth with Horse, Etruscan, Bronze, 375-350 BC

Charming Etruscan Bronze Tomb Objects

Etruscan, Charming Banquet Waiter with Tray

Etruscan, Seated Boy, Bronze

Etruscan, Bowl with Deer Head Handles, @ 7th C BC, Bucchero, a distinctly black, burnished ceramic, fired with very little oxygen so that is black clear through.  often considered the signature ceramic fabric of the Etruscans. 

*The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy.  San Francisco Museum of the Legion of Honor, May 2 - September 20, 2026

** https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/etruscans-heart-ancient-italy

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

Ever wonder what people did for visual entertainment before movies?  The landscape painter, Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900) had one answer.

The landscape artist 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 propped 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 Coel 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.

Playing in Traffic --- Day 15/91

Walk: de Young Museum

Distance: 6 miles

Dancing in the Headlights @Will Nicholls, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

See the whole Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit

Wildlife Photographer of the Year --- Day 15/90

Walk: West Portal

Distance: 1.5 miles

Flying Rodent, winner of  London's Natural History Museum's, Nuveen People’s Choice Award 2026. ©Josef Stefan / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

See the whole exhibit

The Country Cottage --- Days 15/87, 88 & 89

Walks: Hood/Presidio

Average: 3.75 miles (always + a little yoga, pt)

So spring weather comes and Ciwt's mind goes to the country cottage (she doesn't have).  But somehow, no matter how environmentally terrific they are, she's not sure she would enjoy these modern versions.  Then there's the matter of the insurance company's reaction.

Still interesting to see architects at work on new building ideas with ancient materials (thatch, reeds, grass, earth).

Soaring --- Days 15/82-86

Walks:  Hood, Dentist for two crown$, SF Opera House

Average: 4 miles

Ballerina and San Francisco City Hall dome during intermission of delightful Don Quixote.

Attention Please --- Days 15/80 & 81

Walks: Hood

Distances: Average 3.5

So, Ciwt missed the Oscars Red Carpet.  But she did notice some pretty distinct outfit choices over the Oscars' years.

Demi Moore

1989: Biker shorts and bustier

2026: Covered in feathers

Gwyneth Paltrow

1999: Little girl pretty in pink

2026: Ciwt is Speechless

Misses:

Oh, They're Tonight? --- Day 15/79

Walk: Hood

Distance: 5 miles

Okay, Ciwt actually does have some favorites she is rooting for when she watches:

Best Picture: Sinners

Best Supporting Actor: Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value”

Best Original Screenplay: Sinners

Best International Feature:  Sentimental Value (but she didn't see It was Just an Accident)

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.