Tag: Art

Exploring the Manet & Morisot Exhibit: A Rainy-Day Adventure

What do you do on a rainy afternoon when your house is not inhabitable? While remodeling is going on in our house, we have moved out, renting a house in Mount Hermon. When in town we stay in our camper although hanging out in the camper in our driveway in pouring rain isn’t inviting. So, what do we do? We head to the museum.

Today it’s the Manet & Morisot exhibit at the Legion of Honor. We paid for the audio tour which was well worth the price. I must say that I was not familiar with Morisot, so this was a real opportunity to learn about two of the most influential artists of the age of Impressionism.

The New York Times has this to say:

They were close friends who corresponded often and went to the same soirées, passionate advocates for each other’s art, and eventually siblings-in-law (when Morisot, then in her 30s and facing financial precarity after her father’s death, married Manet’s brother Eugène in an arrangement supported by both families).

As we toured the exhibit, I found myself just as interested in watching people as the artwork. I recall a time when cameras were forbidden in such exhibits, and here people are using their phones to document the work. It’s almost as if the camera-phone has become an essential tool for appreciating art. I became fascinated with the idea of trying to capture the feeling for the experience; people looking at art. Somehow just snapping photos of people looking at art seemed static, so I challenged myself to try to capture images that had a bit of an emotional impact, introducing a sense of motion.

By the end of the exhibit, I had gained respect for Morisot’s work and her view of the world, contrasted with Manet’s.

The exhibit is up through March 1, 2026. It’s well worth seeing if you have the opportunity.

Botticelli

Our adventures today take us to the Botticelli exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. It’s 45 minute drive from our house across two bridges, The Richmond-San Rafael and the Golden Gate. We had the windshield wipers going most of the way with wet drizzly weather. The towers of the Golden Gate Bridge were lost in fog. I was thinking it would make a wonderful moody photo, but something for the mind’s eye, since I was driving.

Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance (1445 – 1510). Born as Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi he was better known as Sandro Botticelli.

The exhibit is all about drawings. I was surprised to learn that these drawings were studies in preparation for creating larger finished pieces. Needless to say, the drawings are exquisite, using a variety of media on specially prepared paper, not simply sketches that a modern-day artist might make. Some of the drawings were created by other artists working in Botticelli’s workshop, or other artists of the time such as Fra Filippo Lippi.

We picked up our reserved headsets when we entered the museum, and the guided tour was quite educational. Many of the drawings were created using tempera, a medium that consists of egg yolk mixed with pigment. This is a very fast drying media which requires application with many thin layers. We spent an hour and a half in the exhibit taking our time. After viewing the exhibit, we headed to the museum cafe, where we shared the Classic Onion Soup Gratince and the Roasted Beet Salad. Quite delicious and pricey, although we were not surprised with the price given the location.

Upon exiting the museum we were met with rays of sun and blue sky. We stopped to admire Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker and then took a walk around Lands End to get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. More photos are available in an online gallery.

de Young Open 2023

Today we made a visit to the de Young museum to see the Open 2023 exhibit. This exhibit celebrates the vision of Bay Area artists. There are 883 works on view created by artists who live in the nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay. I was one of the 7,766 artists that submitted artwork, although my work was not selected. The piece I entered, Boulders, Alabama Hills, is available in my art store. I was curious to see what works had been selected. With an online web gallery, we were able use our phones to read about a few select pieces.

The first piece that caught my attention was piece #9, entitled Hollow by James Shefik, a piece based on a thumb push puppet. Here’s an excerpt from the artist’s statement:

My original intent was for the puppet to represent America’s continued slide into authoritarianism. The sculpture’s puppet character was made apparent by George Floyd’s murder and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests that spread worldwide. The Robert E. Lee puppet, when collapsed, reflected the fate of many of the monuments that had been raised in America in the past 120 years.

Of course, visiting an art exhibit is also about watching people, so I took a few images to document the event including some long exposures to introduce some intentional camera motion. I was clearly being watched while taking this photo. I’m calling the photo the watcher.

Here’s Joann photographing piece #694 entitled Name that Tune: H___ on the R____ by Ellen Reintjes. Ellen says:

Singing this traditional western song while viewing the painting will hopefully bring a smile to your face as the puns come alive.

We arrived at the museum about 11 a.m., spent an hour or so exploring the exhibit, took a break for lunch and returned to continue. It would be overwhelming to try and read about every piece but taking a few small bites about selected pieces made the experience quite enjoyable. The exhibit goes through January 7, so if you are interested in viewing this exhibit, time is of the essence.

No Spectators

“No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” is an exhibit currently running at the Oakland Museum of California in Oakland. The exhibit runs through February 16, 2020.

Treve with one of the Burning Man art pieces.

Burning Man had its origins in 1986 when Larry Harvey and Jerry James built a human effigy and burned it on a San Francisco beach. The fire drew a crowd of 35 people. Since then the event has moved to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where it now draws over 70,000 people from all over the world.

An entire city rises out of the dust of the desert and provides a canvas for experimental art installations. Some of those art pieces along with a glimpse of the history and culture of Burning Man are on exhibit. Burning Man is governed by ten principles: Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-reliance, Radical Self-expression, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Leaving No Trace, Participation, and Immediacy.

  • Burning Man fashion
  • Ten Principles
  • Burning Man art

Having not been to Burning Man, I found the exhibit quite enlightening; I recommend it to anybody with an interest in culture, art and creativity.

The ultimate goal of Burning Man is to encourage the culture of creativity. -Marian Goodell

  • Burning Man temple
  • Burning Man art
  • Burning Man art

You can view more photos from the Oakland Museum exhibit here. Burning Man now has a network to facilitate and extend the culture that originates with the Burning Man event into the larger world.

If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. – Leonard Cohen

Borrego Springs

On the evening of January 29 I decided I wanted to check out some of Ricardo Breceda’s sculptures, While Borrego Springs is notable for spring wildflowers in the surrounding desert, it’s also home to a collection of amazing sculptures, called the Metal Sky Art Sculptures. There are more than 130 sculptures here that represent everything from a 350 foot serpent that crosses the road, to dinosaurs and historical figures. I was hoping to find an opportunity to photograph a few of these on this trip. After a quick visit to a few of the sculptures the previous morning, I decided that afternoon or night time might afford some interesting photo opportunities. Our timing was a bit off though since we reached the serpent just as the shadows from the mountains were creeping across the valley floor. We only needed to wait a few minutes for sunset though which lit up the sky with color that seemed appropriate for a fiery serpent.

The sculptures were part of the vision of the late Dennis Avery, heir to the Avery Dennison label fortune and a self-made success on his own. Mr. Avery envisioned ‘free standing art’ on his property, Galleta Meadows Estates,. The steel welded sculptures were created by ‘Perris Jurassic Park’ owner/artist/welder Ricardo Breceda.

The sculptures are spread out around the north end of Borrego Springs. I had to search on-line for a map to help me locate them. They are all easily accessible and there is no fee to view them.

We noticed that bikes seemed to be quite popular in Borrego and I discovered a couple of places you can rent bikes including electric fat-tire bikes you can ride up the some of the sandy dirt roads. There are also tour operators that will take you on an off-road adventure.

You can view more photos here.

Gratitude

In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Art from recycled material at the Albany Bulb, a former landfill site.
Art from recycled material at the Albany Bulb, a former landfill site.

Olmstead Point

“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature’s darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature’s sources never fail.” John Muir – Our National Parks, 1901

Lone tree at Olmstead Point. Yosemite National Park.
Lone tree at Olmstead Point. Yosemite National Park.

Olmstead Point is located in high country of Yosemite National Park. It’s 30.5 miles east of Crane Flat on Highway 120. It is a popular spot to stop and get a sense for the grandeur of the high sierra. There is also a short nature hike here. It is also away from the crowds of Yosemite Valley, although it is only accessible in the summer and fall. In winter Highway 120 closes.  Prints of the photo above are available in my online store.

This stop always brings back memories of the photography workshop I did with Ansel Adams in 1980. It was Ansel’s last Yosemite workshop, and while he was restricted to the lower elevations, The workshop instructors and students made our way to this point.

 

Meow Wolf

Where else can you open the refrigerator and step into a whole new world. Or bang on the ribs of a mastodon to make music. The Meow Wolf Museum in Santa Fe New Mexico is a bit like going down a rabbit hole.

Meow Wolf Museum in Santa Fe
Meow Wolf Museum in Santa Fe
Meow Wolf Museum in Santa Fe
Meow Wolf Museum in Santa Fe

We made a visit to the museum on June 27. We were staying near Santa Fe for a few days, and with the hot weather and the closure of hiking trails due to a high fire hazard we opted to visit the Meow Wolf museum.

The website bills the museum as  an immersive, interactive experiences to transport audiences into fantastic realms; the product of a cooperative of over 200 artists encompassing disciplines of architecture, sculpture, painting, photography and video production, virtual and augmented reality, music and audio engineering, narrative writing, costuming and performance.

Like no other museum experience. We got in for the senior price of $23. Regular admission is $25.

Bishop Tableland Petroglyphs

On the tablelands with Skypanel in the foreground and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background.
Walking across the tablelands
Carson on the tablelands

With family together in Big Pine for a few days we decided to take a hike yesterday, December 22 to explore some of the petroglyphs on the volcanic tablelands near Bishop, California. Much of the tablelands are managed by BLM and and this suited us as a dog-friendly hike since we had three dogs among the six of us. This area is sprinkled with petroglyphs. Some are readily accessible by car, others require some rock scrambling and local knowledge. We visited two sites. I hesitate to say much about the locations since some of these rock art features have been vandalized or ripped off in recent years. A sorry state on the lack of respect we seem to have for the environment, our cultural treasures and our public lands. There is little known about when these artworks were created.  If you wish to find information on the tablelands and the petroglyphs, please contact the Bishop Visitor’s Center.

Holiday Getaway

 

Camping at the Hope Valley Sno Park.
Camping at the Hope Valley Sno Park.

Wednesday, December 20, after working a long day and into the night to keep my clients happy, we pointed our rig to the mountains for a holiday getaway. Part of our plan was to see how our camper performed under winter conditions, camping in a Sno Park for the night. Our drive took us through Sacramento and up highway 50 heading towards Hope Valley, one of our favorite mountain destinations. For many years we’ve visited Sorensen’s Resort in Hope Valley just south of Lake Tahoe; a delightful place to stay any time of year. Along the way we stopped at the Silver Fork Store in Kyburz to buy a Sno Park Permit; a requirement for parking in a designated Sno Park. We bought an annual pass for $25, figuring we may be doing exploring other winter wonderlands this winter.  We had the camper up, snug inside just as it was getting dark and the temperature was starting to drop.  A dinner of hot soup and bread felt good and we turned on the propane heater, and pulled our our books to read. It was snowing lightly as we settled in but it cleared in the night. I got up at 4:30 for a quick rest stop and stepped out into a crystal clear night, with stars shining above and sparking off the snow. The thermometer was recording an outdoor temperature of 10 degrees F and inside the propane heater was keeping the cabin at 50 degrees or so, a temperature that we decided was a bit warm for our winter sleeping bags. In the morning we woke up to a sunny day. Popped the top down and headed for breakfast a Sorensen’s Resort, three miles down the road. After a hearty and delicious breakfast and fresh coffee, we continued our journey down the East Side towards Bishop.