good energy

It’s true I have to have a J O B.

And I am fortunate that one of my J O B’s  is with an exceptional company.

Often employer and employee put their best foot forward at the beginning. Both want to impress. But it’s been months now and my outlook towards my employer keeps growing positively. I am not just an employee, I’m a coworker working in an environment of mutual respect. Everyone is energetic, positive, and friendly, and they are a diverse population from around the world.

And my energy has made a gradual shift. Is it the vitamins, progesterone cream, exercise, sleep, music?

Whatever it is it’s a nice change.

I am really really fortunate.

My life is damn good. I truly have so much to be grateful for and I smile often.

another great day

Yesterday part staycation part LA vacation.

We started by meeting a group of Romanian cyclists at Fiesta Island. As we rode there the drizzle turned to rain.

After riding home, cleaning up, and eating lunch we headed up to LA for my friend Gale Antokal’s reception at Couturier Gallery.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to see her work live and of course her and her husband.

We were graciously invited to the galleries owner’s home after for dinner which was delicious and we had time to talk and meet some very interesting people.

Thank you Gale and Darrel!

While we were in LA and on our drive home I talked about how much I really love LA and we both played with the notion of moving up there.

This morning while making the bed I thought about this prospect. What would be the advantage of living there? It wouldn’t really help my art career, that ship has sailed. The move from emerging artist to established reserved for the young, those recently graduating from art programs. There is all the museums, art galleries, and energy, which I can easily get during one to two day trips.

And although I do not in the least feel “old” the fact is I am not young and my own energy is just not what it used to be. It’s good, but it needs more recovery. San Diego is far from a horrible place to be. We’ll stay and visit LA. And since moving  always has costs involved, maybe I can save up to buy one of Gale's pieces.

perfection, overrated?

My teeth felt so good as I drove home from the dental cleaning.

And in my mind I saw perfect movie star teeth.

And at that moment I remembered how my teeth really looked and I knew there was nothing about me that is perfect.

Except maybe my imperfections.

we could learn from Los Angeles

Exhibition catalogues are something I enjoy collecting and reading. I have a stack which need to be read and have made a commitment to getting back to this stack.

This commitment has me just finishing The Broad Contemporary Art Museum at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008, published on the occasion of it’s opening.

The essay by Michael Gloven speaks of this space as a place for the Broad Collection to be available to the public, but as we now know, a new museum in downtown LA will house this collect.

The essay by Lynn Zelevansky was the most enjoyable delving into the history of modern and contemporary art at LACMA. In reading this I found a couple of programs that could be used here in San Diego. At the beginning of LACMA’s contemporary art history those involved understood the importance of keeping the artists graduating from the art schools throughout LA in Los Angeles, and one of the programs they implemented to help was to establish a Young Talent Award.  In exchange for a work of art the artist was given a grant and an exhibit. A rental gallery promoting regional artists was also established. There were other circumstances and programs which contributed to artist being supported and thereby staying in Los Angeles. And now it seems LA has surpassed NYC and San Francisco as an art capital.

It is very disheartening to have heard while reading this extensive history of a vibrant art community that our Mayor wants to take our percent for art program money and put it into the cities general fund.

San Diego lagged far behind cities of comparable size in a percent for public art program. It was not until 2004 that policy #900-11was adopted by the city and just six years later it is already being threatened.

The fear tactics being used is no surprise, it seems the tool of choice by politicians.

And I wonder why people cannot see through the tactic of fear into the benefit of a healthy well supported art community.

fear of butchering

The region I inhabit is a simmering stew of cultural diversity which sometimes I seem to be an outsider looking into. I often miss out on what sounds like very interesting conversations and posts on Facebook.

I have many friends who speak more than one language and working at IKEA I come across many many many more, speaking many different languages. Having grown up in a bilingual country I wonder why I am not. I know it is my fear of butchering the language and insulting those who speak it. I already butcher my native tongue of English, therefore I need to let go of this fear which paralyses me from learning.

I  really want to learn Spanish, and yesterday I spoke to two of my coworkers who’s native language is Spanish. They were very kind and reassuring and had a great a suggestion to learning their language.

Go to the library and check out Spanish Children’s books.

They gave me other ideas and said they would be happy to help me. There is no reason  why I cannot do this. There is no reason to be fearful. I just have to put in the work and do it.

And I ask for forgiveness now for any butchering of this language I do.

from grey to green

Today we had rain, not like last Thursday when there was periods of heavy downpours and lightning.

Today was a consistent Vancouver grey drizzle.

Today our bamboo bows so I can walk under, look up and soak in green.