Tear Continues... --- Days 10/110 &111

Walk: GG Park Pickleball

Distance: 2.5 miles, 90 minutes pickle, yoga stretch

After doing it for her new rug in one room, Ciwt can't stop clearing closets and drawers in all her rooms.

Her cats cower under the bed (which is too heavy for Ciwt to budge.

Back to School --- Day 10/109

Walk: Outside in hood at last

Distance: 6 miles, small yoga

No matter how old Ciwt gets, this time of year always feels like her new school year is about to start.

Are You Sure That's Off-White? --- Day 10/108

Walk: Up and Down Stairs again, finishing touches on new carpet project

Distance: 1 mile (all stairs), small yoga

So, Ciwt's attempts to photogaph her new carpet  

(which is actually a latte-ish off-white shade that eludes her iphone camera) put her in mind of a New York artist who spent much of his career attempting to capture the essence of white.

That would be Robert Ryman (1930-2019) who was known for his abstract, white-on-white paintings.  That's one below on a white wall. 

And here are a few more: 

 

Ryman originally came to New York City from his native Tennessee with the intention of becoming a professional saxaphone player.  To support himself  he took a job as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art and soon became fascinated with the subjects he was guarding.  Specifically his fascination went to exactly how the paintings on the walls had been done.  As he was famously quoted "There is never any question of what to paint, only how to paint."  After quitting his MoMA job, which he held from 1953-1960 in order to be close to painting, he spent the next year working in the Art Division of the New York Public Library.  At some point he began buying a variety of art materials and experimenting with them in his apartment.  This plus ongoing, intense talks with his many artist friends and co-workers, such as Sol LeWitt and Roy Lichtenstein, was his self-styled art education.  

It is difficult not to think of Ryman as a 'monchromist' or a 'minimalist,' but he saw himself as a 'realist' painter because he felt he was only presenting the materials he used at their face value.  Ever an experimenter, the majority of his 'realistic' works feature brushy white on white or off-white paint on a wide variety (to say the least) of surfaces: canvas, linen, steel, aluminum, plexiglas, vinyl, burlap to name a few. No matter how Ryman was categorized, he was prized by numerous galleries, museums, and collectors in the States and abroad throughout his career.  

Ciwt has to wonder if he, like she, went nuts trying to capture his artwork on camera - or if he left the photography to the professionals.

Post Carpet Caper --- Day 10/107

Walk: Into one room, then another, then back, then ...

Distance: Who knows, feels like a lot

Back it all goes after new carpet installed...

New Carpet!!! --- Days 10/105 & 106

Walk: 1. T. Joe's for sustenance, emptying room for carpet continues  2. Carpet Contractors to pay for new carpet

Distance: 1. 2.5 miles  2. 5 miles

Cat (not Ciwt's) reacting to new carpet (not Ciwt's) to sink its claws into 

Almost There and Back --- Days 10/102, 103, 104

Walk: 1. Hood Open Houses 2. Emptying bookcases, file cabinets, ancient stuff 3. GG Park Pickleball, Goodwill to donate all those books from yesterday 

Distance: 2. 4 miles  2. 1 mile 3. 2 miles, 90 minutes pickle

Half the books off the shelves, file cabinets weeded out in office area, tech stuff secured, furniture out except for a table and couch Ciwt can't budge. So Ciwt's back room is almost ready for its first new carpet in 30+ years.  And Ciwt's brain is almost ready to sprong out after sifting through 30+ years of memories.  Many of her contemporaries know exactly what she is writing about here....

Old News --- Day 10/101

Walk: Presidio Pickleball

Distance: 3 miles, a few games of crowded pickle, yoga

So, today Ciwt heard from somebody who had been told by somebody that some author has pronounced that old age does not offcially start until age 90.  Ciwt didn't research that news too extensively; she'll just take it as fact and enjoy the many youthful years she has left.*  

*Until another author proclaims we aren't considered old until we get to 100.

Understated No More --- Days 10/99 & 100

Walk: 1. GG Park Pickleball  2. Hood errands

Distance: 1. 1.3 miles, 2 hours pickle, small yoga   2.  3.5 miles, Yoga

So when it comes to artistic statements about women's uphill battle for 'a place at the table,' Ciwt is more inclined toward something like Viola Frey's huge (almost 9') ceramic sculpture of a power-that-be looking down on a woman's attempt to have her work entered in a museum collection : 

Viola Frey, Man Observing, 1984, glazed earthenware with steel plate

Or, going back a century, some of Mary Cassat's paintings of refined women 'having the audacity' to attend Paris cultural events independently. (See the man with his opera glass focused - probably disapprovingly - on the woman while she herself closely follows the performance on stage).

Mary Cassat, In the Loge, 1878, oil on canvas

But Ciwt's taste is way too tame and understated for many people these days. A show much more to their liking is about to open in San Francisco and a couple of Ciwt's art tour clients are coming to see it.  So, beginning next week Ciwt will be immersing herself (or trying to) in the ultra bold, FEMINIST art of the ultra energetic, strongly driven, Judy Chicago.   Hopefully her valued readers will join her.