JANE SMITHERS - my mother keeps creating, and i keep learning . . .

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my mother returned from africa,

and shared these pictures with me.

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i don't know how to describe it,

but i am constantly fascinated by her.

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she paints oils with a palette knife,

and taught herself,

now showing in galleries everywhere.

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she sketches and watercolors some of the most beautiful images

in her journals

i've ever seen.

it's like glimpsing someone's inner eye,

her flash of insight into WHY this,

not THAT.

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then she shows me these:

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photography?

now she's into photography!

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seriously?

did she POSE THEM LIKE THAT?

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this woman has always been about re-invention.

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the artist's studio : jane smithers paints here

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this is the studio.

it's on the grounds of the house,

and where maman paints.

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inside,

large palette knife canvases,

vintage posters,

antique painter's smocks.

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when she travels,

she watercolors.

i'm trying to get her to start a tumblr

on her journals.

for obvious reasons :

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so much creation

under that little red roof.

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THE MALBA MUSEUM OF ART, KARIN, and lunch along the river . . .

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on our one down day,

we hit the malba museum of art in buenos aires

to see their collection of latin american art.

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lovely space,

nice pieces,

but not quite the impact of a MOMA or even a GETTY.

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i dare say,

the art we found OUTSIDE on the street

while meeting up with karin

was more our speed.

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then off to the puerto madero area of the city,

a mini "sydney waterfront"

across from all the historic districts:

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italian food on the water on a perfect day?

approved.

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today, mars leaves retrograde, and ross bleckner comes home . . .

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which apparently,

in the words of ophelia chong,

means "no more paddling upstream".

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it's been from

December 20th, 2009 to March 10th, 2010

a relatively short time,

but one i think we've ALL felt strongly.

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not sure why, but this news reminded me of the work of ross bleckner.

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tim and i love his oils,

the sense of light and movement,

the elegaic stillness even in the rush of bird-wings and chandeliers.

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his hypnotic canvases pull from aids memorials, high school trophies, cell reproduction,

love, loss, and longing,

the three universal "L's"

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i am ready for things to start happening with more united effort.

i am ready for frustrations to be let go, and to move ahead more agressively.

i want loved ones who are estranged to untangle and return.

i want friends who are lost to remember the map back.

i want to be reminded of the positive, and be given help in sharing it.

i want us all to remember this, from ross :

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JENNY HOLZER IS STALKING MY ASS :

who wouldn't?

you might ask,

and i'd be flattered.

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but for those of you unfamiliar with ms. holzer's oeuvre,

she is a master wordsmith,

who puts her insight and wit about our culture,

into (normally) solid objects,

as if wit is trapped in bronze or stone.

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sometimes they are installations that project light,

sometimes they are cut into marble,

i, personally,

would kill for any of her work in bronze:

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you may notice i've been a long long time fan.

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recently, she has begun to twitter.

amazing.

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just sporadic bursts of art,

delivered to your account.

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she is the only person i follow on my mobile device,

and her words coming to me,

randomly,

suddenly,

have become startlingly prophetic.

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right when i was disappointed that someone i cared about was not living up to their end of the friendship, i received:

YOU CAN'T EXPECT PEOPLE TO BE SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT.

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fine.

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when at a consulting job,

where things were winding down and i was feeling a little redundant,

this poster was being hung behind me in a cubicle:

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and holzer txts me:

A STRONG SENSE OF DUTY IMPRISONS YOU.

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gee.  thanks.

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when unreasonably angry last week:

MURDER HAS ITS SEXUAL SIDE

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uh. huh.

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when procrastinating about a difficult phone call:

BELIEVING IN REBIRTH IS THE SAME AS ADMITTING DEFEAT

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bitch.

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i'm beginning to think she's following me.

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rodin on the quad -

first,

i really wanted to use the word "quad" in a sentence.

second,

thanks to my friend sara gavigan,

i got to be a guest lecturer at ucla.

how about that.

me.

shaping the impressionable minds of america's future.

or something.

anyhoo.

i went to the campus and did the whole

"share your experience and give advice" thing,

but ran into this while walking 

from parking structure nine to building "named after someone dead and rich".

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I KNOW, RIGHT?

a large, bronze, naked, headless and armless rodin sculpture.

and no one seemed to have claimed it yet,

so i just wheeled that puppy on home.

a statue is a terrible thing to waste.

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i SO would have taken the serra as well,

but that fucker is heavy.

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