work in Progress

This is a piece in progress. It's part of my Artforum Excavation Series. I have cut small rectangles out of the disco ball painting on the cover of an Artorum magazine. I am now in the process of turning a page into a cut spiral and pulling it through each rectangle on the cover. It's a time intensive process and it takes me about five hours to pull through ten pages. The piece is less than half done. Some of the pages spiral out to about eight feet long! The spiral section should be very full by the time I'm finished. As you can see, I'm only pulling spirals through the bottom third pf the disco ball. I like the way the spirals cascade to the floor! You can see the piece on my desk as I work on it.

Sunday Bike Ride

We went on a bike ride. The day was bright with a crisp wind, like one of those transitional days that have a residue of Winter bite in the air but with a joyous Spring light. We went East on 25th Street and over the overpass to Cezar Chavez, North on Illinois to China Basin, then West on Townsend. We had lunch at Atlas Cafe. I want to know where that guy got his orange crocheted-hat!

Corrections!

I just want to let folks know that the photos and my comments do not match up on my first blog. I am still learning!!!

This photo is of me and Albert in Florence last Christmas. My image is doubled in a mirror and Albert is facing me and wearing a fedora. We are about to catch a train to Rome. We're having coffee in a cafe that is trying hard to be American hip.

Random Photos in the Mission District in San Francisco

I am, at this moment, sitting in the dark. I have turned off my lights in observance of the "black-out" event to stave off global warming.Sadly, when I looked out the window I observed that most of my neighbors still have their lights on. Is it that I live in an ethnic neighborhood that is predominantly Hispanic? Nope. I noticed that all the yuppies who live in Bernal Heights have their lights on too. Apparently the event worked better in Sidney, Australia last year.

So.... I have a blog. I'm am now indoctrinated in the blogosphere. What to write about? Actually, what I think I want to write about is my amazing neighborhood. I've seen it all, including someone getting shot right in front of my house two weeks ago. The place is plagued with problems, nevertheless, I revel in it's eccentricities. I have been doing watercolors of the supermarket carts that them homeless people in my neighborhood carry around and thought this might be a good place to post them. People often leave furniture and mattresses in the streets (I have some interesting photos of those. In fact, I love the texture of the neighborhood, the poster-covered walls, the peeling paint, the odd detritus spewed about. Visually, you can't beat this neighborhood. Oh, I forgot to say where it is. It's the Mission district, 25th and Shotwell Street in San Francisco.

Ok. To illustrate how great my neighborhood is, here are a few photos that were taken during a typical afternoon when we walked a few blocks down to get chinese food. You can see me in the photo on the right holding my camera up to take a picutre in the mirror.














Nextdoor to the restaurant is this beautiful window. Inside, people are playing cards:


This is a new bar:



















Then, on are way home we run into a procession of people bearing poles with a draped blanket and singing:












The Mission district in cloaked in the inexplicable encounter, the odd juxtoposition, and glimpses of the visual sublime.