Art, Poetry & Essays • But not necessarily in that order.
Over the years, I’ve seen a number of Mark Rothko paintings. I’ve visited them in museums in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. And as I tried to stand quietly before the paintings, I have often become conscious of the artificial environment—a Rothko hanging next to a Pollock like a guest at a cocktail party—and I […]
I noticed a grasshopper on my paint rag this morning. It posed for a photo. All too often, it is easy to miss moments like this one. Too many times, the mind gets caught up in matters that seem more important than observing life. And as if to send this message home, a butterfly, draped […]
Colleen Quen held her first art exhibit “In the Spirit of Fashion” at the China Brotsky Art Gallery in the Thoreau Center for Sustainability. Her watercolors express an infectious, child like enthusiasm for form and color. The work says what many artists easily forget: art is fun. Madame Quen had lived in an intense production […]
During a long lunch break, I drove from my office in the Presidio to the Legion of Honor in order to see the Initimate Impressionism exhibit. It was one of those magical afternoons in San Francisco. The weather was beautiful and not a shred of fog was in sight. The rugged California coast line looked […]
I’m not generally drawn to realistic painting because if I wanted to look at realistic art, I would look at a photograph. But Jody Mattison’s work at the Epperson Gallery caught me off gaurd. I’m not sure why I’m taken with her paintings, perhaps because the people she paints are ordinary people. They look like people […]