Give Me Space --- Day 10/118

Walk: Golden Gate Park pickleball  

Distance: 1.8 miles, 90 minutes pickleball

Waiting for a Pickleball Court on Weekends

Welcome to Pickleball articles abound in newspapers and magazines these days.  And, yes, Pickleball can be a great game to play, giving people an oppportunity to exercise even with some minor physical limitations (or major years).  It also enhances social connectivity between peers and members of different age, gender and cultural groups, keeps people active with something to look forward to and avoiding isolation.  

However, to receive all those benefits, you need to get on a court, and limited court space is becoming a concern everywhere pickleball is played.  Ciwt wishes all those articles would mention this, maybe encourage the 'powers that be' to provide more pickleball courts in locations that are suitable for both players and non-players who don't want the noise or commotion that comes with this popular game.

The Stunning Dinner Undertaking --- Day 10/116 & 117

Walk:  1. No, catch up phone calls with family and friends 2. Monday errands

Distance: 1. n/a, yoga  2. 2.5 miles, yoga

Judy Chicago, Eleanor of Acquitane, three test plates for The Dinner Party Project, 1975-78, China paint on porcelain

As is often the case, the art lover/inquirer/'expert' Ciwt wishes she was taking her annual Fall trip to New York, in this instance to go the Brooklyn Museum's installation of Judy Chicago's iconic The Dinner Party. Widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork, it was begun in 1974, completed in 1979 with the help of hundreds of collaborators and toured to 16 venues in six countries on three continents where it was viewed by 15 million people.  It began to suffer from the wear and tear of constant traveling (as well as the media slings and arrows of art and other critics) and was retired to storage for decades.  Since 2007 it has been on permanent exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.

The Dinner Party is a complex work composed of many skillfully executed parts, each of which is celebrates historically important women as well as traditionally female accomplishments such as weaving, china painting, embroidery and sewing.  

There are six woven Entry Banners welcoming visitors to The Dinner Party.  The principal component of the installation is a massive ceremonial banquet arranged in the shape of an open triangle - a symbol of equality - with a total of thirty nine Place Settings.  Some of the 'guests' include: Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf,  Sappho, Saint Bridget, Elizabeth I, Sacajawea, Sojourner Truth. The work rests on the tiled Heritage Floor inscribed in gold luster with the names of 999 other mythical and historical women of achievement. There are seven Heritage Panels which are hand-colored photo and text collages portraying the lives of the women whose names are on the floor.  Finally there are Acknowledgment Panels that depict the 129 members of the creative and administrative team that worked on The Dinner Party.

Ciwt is not sure how she will react to it, but she would like to see it in person - and be in New York!

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974-79, ceramic, porcelain, textile, 48' each side

Blue Heron, Green Pond --- Day 10/115

Walk: Presidio Pickleball courts

Distance: 2.5 miles, 1 Hour pickle

On the way to Golden Gate Park Pickleball courts. (See the heron?)  Makes Ciwt yearn for all those peaceful small lakes back in the Midwest.

Cookies for a Sharp Cookie --- Day 10/114

Walk: No, trapped by wet carpets after cleaning.  But good opportunity to read .

Distance: n/a

Chicago Sans Politics and Special --- Day 10/112 & 113

Walk: 1. de Young Museum: Judy Chicago Retrospective Press Preview 2. de Young Museum Judy Chicago personal walk through

Distance: 1. 7.2 miles  2. 6.2 miles

So, Judy Chicago, artist, politics aside.  That's is a very big aside for an artist who has worked on 'projects' that are virtually synonomous with politics her entire 60 year career.  But there are many interesting things to know about this super energized, talented and courageous woman.

1. Her artistic 'projects'  and therefore imagery include: Death (hers and species'), the Holocaust, Male Power, Birth, Feminism, Minimalism, Pyrotechnics.

2. She is 'outspokenly' passionate and direct about her 'projects.'  For instance, here is one of her 'male power' paintings: 

3. But she is not a hot head.  She puts at least six years of research into each of her topics, including reading widely, sketching, in-depth preliminary studies, prototypes in a variety of materials.   Her personal, prepatory notebooks are extensive and thorough: 

4. Ciwt thinks her color palette is nice to look at even though Chicago (nee Cohen) has been heavily criticized for it since graduating from art school 60 years ago. ('They' feel her colors should be more earthy, strong, male, or something).

Rainbow Pickett, 1965/2021, Matthews polyurethane paint on stainless steel

5. She went to auto body school to learn welding and other techniques in the 1960's and was the only woman in the school.  This is one of the car hoods she painted back then.  Again, not taken seriously by the critics at the time.  Teenage boy car lover Ciwt would have loved it even then!

Birth Hood, 1965/2011, sprayed automotive lacquer on car hood

6. She was also the only woman in her training when she received her certification in pyrotechnics.

7. She carefully tailors her medium to her feeling about each of her 'projects.' For instance, some of the pieces in her 'death and extinction project' are cast in patinated bronze while her 'birth project' works are needlepoint - stitched by supportive volunteer needleworkers all over the world. 

Birth Trinity: Needlepoint #1, 1983

8. She has never been motivated by money and says she married one of the only other people who isn't either.  They have survived together (he is a photographer) doing whatever calls to them for 36 years.

9.  One thing she has done for money is write: art reviews, articles, books.  So she incorporates her writing in many of her works. 

Virginia Woolf, from Reincarnation Triptych, 1973, sprayed acrylic on canvas

10. The deYoung Museum's retrospective is her first.  People have asked her if she is angry that it has taken 60 years for such a show.  She answers that she feels privileged to have been able to create in her studio all these years.  

11. She was very moved by and appreciative of her retrospective.  She came in person to the press preview and 'surprised herself' by bursting into quiet tears from time to time when speaking or answering press questions.

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.