PLUGGED-IN BY REQUEST: On-Line Art Show of The Photographs From My Recent Gallery Shows

Friends beyond the Bay Area have been asking to see the photographs in my recent one-person show, "Catching the Sun," and the pieces Ken Baker chose for the recent show he juried, especially since there was some new work they hadn't seen before.  So here goes (in no particular order):

 

"Tram Man" 

This is a photograph I took during a 2007 trip David and I  made around Oregon, of the newish aerial tram line between Portland's South Waterfront district and the OHSU campus.  I was drawn to the confluence of angles and lines that cause you to question the perspective, and the various yellow-greens and blue-greys and the glow of reflected sunlight.  The title can refer to the singular pedestrian or the anatomical likeness of the tram supports.  I chose this image to be used for the printed material for "Catching The Sun."

"Elevated A"

I took this photograph on a stay in Chicago in 2007, while doing some consulting for the Kellogg Foundation. As a native New Yorker, I'd always looked down on the Second City, and on this first of many subsequent trips I fell in love with the muscular physicality of the place and its buildings and structures.  I was drawn to how simple AND complex, and how gritty AND elegant this elevated train station structure was, and the blushes of color in the light on the almost-monochromatic surfaces.

"Crimson Stride"

This is the earliest work in the show--from my second visit in 2002 to two of my favorite places--Lisbon and Portugal. By then the country was modernizing quickly, but still had a feeling of a place left behind in its history, almost like a Mediterranean Vienna.  I've always been attracted to taking pictures of people using public places, and the black-and-white, marble mosaic pavements in Lisbon were the perfect background, and the strong Iberian sun and shadow the perfect context.  You may notice these particular mosaics also bear an anatomical likeness...

"Metal Man"

Taken on a visit to Minneapolis in 2007 this was shot in the interior of an old flour mill.  I loved the subtle differences in and relationships between the light and shade, the materials and textures, and the shapes and scales, as well as the reflected light in the darkened industrial interior. And yes, another anatomical likeness...

 

 "Arcs, Lines, + Grains"

This image is from that same 2007 Twin Cities site visit, and was taken along the St. Paul waterfront.  What pulled me in was the monolithic grain silos, the juxtaposition of structural lines and arcs and those formed by shadow, and the how the beam angles amplify the foreshortening between the silos, waterfront, and bridge.

 "L.A. Rising"

This photo was taken at the new wing of the L.A. County Museum of Art in 2008 when I started a longt-erm TOD planning project in L.A. for Metro and CalTrans. The main circulation path is a series of metal pavilions connected by outdoor stairs and escalators; and the escalators and terraces and palms; and the drama of the sun, shadow, and vanishing point seemed so quintessentially L.A. 

 "Autumn Rust"

This piece and the next were taken in Seattle in 2008, when I started a year-long, light-rail planning project there.  They were both shot in the late afternoon in Olympic Park, a multi-level, sculpture space built on a remediated waterfront brownfield.  I was caught by the firey, setting sun etching the shadow of the plum tree into the Serra sculpture.

"Urban Divide"

I seem to have an affinity for shooting chairs in public places in the afternoon sun; I'm drawn to the shadows the chairs cast, but also the patterns, placements, and combinations that the chairs  were left in by their last occupants when the sun was higher and temperature warmer.

"Mayne Stairs"

This interior shot was taken on one of the upper floors of the brand-new, Thom Mayne-designed Cooper Union academic building in New York in 2009. It was great fun to move around and through, and shoot all of the planes, materials, angles, turns, and surfaces, and the interior partitions lit from within were great to work with at night.    

 

"City Views"

These three images were taken during walks along the newish High Line in New York in 2009.  In this one, I was taken with how people were gathered in a small amphitheatre area, mesmerized by watching traffic and pedestrians.

 

"Coming Soon"

This was taken inside one of the old warehouses that open onto the High Line that are being renovated into upscale lofts, hotels, condos, and shops.  It kind of captured for me this really palpable zeitgeist I was feeling of everything being  in the midst being rebuilt, and redone, and re-branded.

 

"Night Security"

I was drawn to the dramatic light and color and perspective in this night scene, as well as the isolation of the spotlit security guard necessary in this stage set of a park that's locked up at night.

"Mimickry of Nature"

This older photograph from 2003 wasn't in "Catching The Sun;" but along with "Arcs, Lines, + Grains" and "Urban Divide," it was chosen by The San Francisco Chronicle art critic Ken Baker to be included in the show he juried. 

P.S.  While these shows are over, you can still purchase framed photographs at Awaken's on-line store; we're also talking about another show for summer!  I'm also working on  a San Francisco gallery show, and etsy and cafepress sites--I'll keep you posted!  

A GOOD HOMEMADE BAGEL ("and from a deli-owner that's a rave...")

Over the holidays I decided to try my hand at making home-made, whole-wheat bagels. My recent New York City sojourn was the impetus: having regular access to real bagels made we want to see if I could re-create them at home in San Francisco, where pretty much all we have are typical, 21st-century, American pseudo-bagels that are fist-sized and spongey.  I wanted to see if I could create the small, dense, chewy authentic bagels I remember fondly from the Sunday brunches of my New York youth.  And I wanted to see if I could do it with whole-wheat flour.

With a little experimentation, trial-and-error (the first batch resembled pretzels more than bagels), and tweaking of recipes, I think I crafted apretty good version in terms of taste, consistency, density, and look.  And people, including other native New Yorkers seemed to agree.  The multi-step process of kneading, proofing, boiling, and baking was more fun than hard.  I'll definitely be doing them again, and a couple of people have expressed interest in learning, so I may host some sort of bagel-making get-together-cum-workshop!  Especially if there's real interest...

Of course, it being me, Project Bagel steamrolled from there to include making home-made soy cream cheeses, home-made whitefish salad, home-made braunschweiger (liverwurst), and home-brined pickled onions and kosher-style dill pickles.  And of course I had to include two old favorite go-alongs: home-cured gravlax and home-made chopped liver.  I'll post the bagel and other recipes soon.

It was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  "And from a deli owner, that's a rave!"  Anyone know where that's from?

SPILLING THE BEANS + A QUICK MAGAZINE RANT

Carbs of Color: My dear friend Dena's mention in her great food blog about a recent post of mine made me realize that, in typical fashion, when I talked about our "non-white food diet" (i.e. whole foods and grains as much as possible, processed foods and 'white' carbs as little as possible), I alluded to the increasingly well-known health benefits, but neglected to mention the equally important personal reason was, as time went by, whenever I ate processed carbs, I would fall into a "carb coma," feeling tired and sluggish after meals. Now, even with whole grains and less processed carbs, I try to limit grains and starches at breakfast and lunch, since feeling a little sleepy after dinner is actually a good thing :-P And yes, that does mean no white potatoes, too.


Ecumenical Beans: To follow up that explanation and requests, here's another legume meal that we love: Black Bean Soup over brown rice (often called Moors and Christians in Latin America) and Braised Broccoli Rabe. The little egghead-y touch we love is the Chinese fermented black beans or sauce I add--I kinda love the idea of black beans and black beans--and it adds a nice salty/smokiness.


Soaking the dried beans overnight results in an approximately 45 minute cooking time the next day: I brown sliced turkey bacon in hot olive oil in a hot pot; saute large-diced onions, carrots, and celery until soft; stir in diced green pepper, sliced cremini mushrooms, minced garlic, and ginger, fermented black beans or sauce, sage, and bay leaves; stir in some diced tomatoes or tomato paste and red wine; add the drained black beans and stock to cover; bring to a boil and lower to a simmer until the beans are tender; adjust the salt and pepper added at each stage. Serve with parsley and lemon wedges over brown rice.


Slice off any tough parts of broccoli rabe stems. Heat olive oil in a hot pan; add sliced garlic, ginger, and hot pepper flakes; add broccoli rabe (no need to dry from rinsing) and salt and pepper and cook until tender; squeeze some lemon and serve.


The Ultimate Food City???: Dena's post also reminded me about March's Saveur, a magazine I usually love because of the great way the focus on the food of a place and culture in each issue. But this cover story focused on L.A. as the "ultimate food city," and waxed poetic about their pizza, farmers' markets, Asian cuisines, and local food. Um, at the risk of offending you Angelenos, NOT. I admit I have a strange love-hate relationship with Lala-land, but compared to San Francisco, New York, smaller places like Portland (OR and ME) and many, many other places, there is good, innovative food, but definitely not the best and not even a place incubating new trends or tastes (unless you count 80's Wolfgang Puck pizzas as a good thing)--and how can anything be local when you have to drive thirty miles of seven-lane highways just to get to dinner?

QUICK FOOD POST: LENTILS, CROQUETTES, and BREAKFAST SAMMIES

After seeing an article that referred to some actor's "weird, no-white food diet," I felt like I wanted to show some of the ways we've been trying to eliminate as much processing as possible in our diet, and focusing on whole food and grains, and combos of ingredients and cooking that help us better access nutrients. And my dear friend Dena and other friends exploring gluten-free diets got me thinking about how much we like beans and legumes. So here's a dinner and breakfast from a recent weekend:


Braised Lentils
I browned turkey bacon and turkey kielbasa in hot olive oil; and added cut celery, carrots, leeks, and red onion, and salt and pepper and cooked until softened; and stirred in garlic, bay leaves, sage, and thyme; and added sliced mustard and turnip greens and kale to wilt, and then lentils, chicken stock, red wine, and water to cover, and brought to a boil and simmered for about 30 minutes until lentils were tender. We had it over barley, followed by an arugula and spinach salad.


Whole-Wheat/Yoghurt Biscuits
I mixed 1 cup whole-wheat flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and salt and pepper in the food processor; thoroughly mixed in 2 tablespoons cut-up, cold butter, and mixed in 1/2 cup Greek yoghurt until the dough gathered together. I kneaded it briefly, and formed the dough into 4 1/2 thick circles and baked on parchment paper in a 450' oven for 10 minutes.

I didn't add cheese, shallots, or chives to the dough because I was using in breakfast sandwiches: I sliced the biscuits in half and melted muenster on them, and added spinach, caramelized onions, turkey bacon, and a fried egg to each.

Sweet Potato Croquettes
I mashed sweet potatoes boiled until tender with grated asiago, pinches of nutmeg and sage, salt and pepper, an egg, and enough whole-wheat flour to form croquettes; coated them with panko crumbs, and pan fried them in hot olive oil until browned.


I'm sure I'll have new recipe and menu ideas after finishing Michael Pollan's Food Rules; it's next up on my nightstand. In the meantime, any good-food-choice strategies you use? Or gluten-free ideas I can pass along to friends?

QUICK POSTS: YOGA TOES + THE PLOT THICKENS + 18 PANCHAN!

YOGA TOES: I'm feeling very grateful for yoga this week. We take a regular restorative hatha yoga class, and I am constantly amazed at how such a gentle practice challenges, strengthens, centers, and opens me. It's a great class: people are serious and committed but low-key, and there's no jockeying for a spot and no 'yoga' clothing. One man brings lemons from his tree, and I've brought lemon bars and lemon shortbread made from them to share, and people came to see my "Catching The Sun" show, but the class is too small to be cliquish. And I love our teacher Erin, who really thinks about and explains the poses, how we progress through them, why we are doing them, how they should feel, and how we can ease or extend them. And I really appreciate taking the class with David: as something to share, and also for the place I am for the yoga.

But my feet get cold in class (this is NOT bikram!) and I've seen some special yoga socks--anyone have recommendations???


THE PLOT THICKENS: Week Two at the community garden plot. I know you can barely see the little lettuce and greens sprouts, but I get a certain frisson...from germinating frisée. And one of the fun things about lettuces is how fast they sprout. I'm glad these older seeds are still viable, and I'm very happy with my cage and screen: when I've stopped by the birds have been voraciously partaking of the garden buffet in other plots, and my seeds have been undisturbed by them or our heavy rains (but nicely damp).


18 PANCHAN: I love, love, love Korean food, and one of the ways I judge Korean restaurants is by the quality and generosity of panchan, the little tastes that come with and are incorporated into every meal. Our favorite place in the Bay Area is Ohgane in Oakland, and I just had to share this quick pic of...18 panchan! That's the most I've ever been served anywhere, including there, and every single one--including the scary little fishies--was the tastiest, freshest morsel of goodness!

IN MEMORY OF SAILOR

Our dearest friends are going through one of the hardest things I can imagine: not just losing your best canine friend, but also having had to make the decision of when it was best for him to go. And our hearts are with them.

Sailor was an amazingly sweet and beautiful dog, especially because it was clear he had such a hard life before he was lucky enough to be adopted by, and Dena and Russell were lucky enough to find him six years ago.

Two years ago, their vet told them the unimaginable: that Sailor was very sick and probably only had weeks or months to live. And yet, two years later he was still here in body and spirit . But it was clear he was incredibly frail, his quality of life was gone, and almost all of things he enjoyed in life were in the past. And Dena and Russell had to decide to say goodbye out of love and compassion. He had blossomed and loved living with them, but it was so clear that they made the right decision at the right time.

I am so grateful to them and him to have been included in his life, and that we got to see him happy after his move north and recently to say goodbye.

Some of the sweet and funny ways I will always remember Sailor:


Breathing heavily from playing fetch and fighting off sleepy eyes...


On alert for strange human behavior...


Doleful...


And sleeping soundly on the floor (and on the sofa, and on the bed...)

...LOSING THE FEELING IN OUR EXTREMITIES...

No, not a post about cross-country skiing, but our recent adventures with absinthe. You know, that anise-flavored, wormwood-derived drink that supposedly made madmen of Wilde, Rimbaud, Verlaine, et al (wait--does its moniker as the "the green fairy" have a different meaning? :-P ).

After my recent photography opening, we went with Donna and Dan to Flora, a hip spot with a great room, food, drinks, and staff in a restored Deco building in Uptown Oakland.  As we toasted at the bar, I noticed this beautiful, Art Nouveau absinthe "fountain," and long story short, with just one drink shared amongst us four we ended up with numb arms and legs.  Did you know that absinthe can be up to 74% alcohol?  I swear even smelling the drink made me intoxicated...

But it was tasty and fun, with a special presentation and equipment, including ice water, a fountain, sugar, and a filigreed sugar spoon, as you can see in this quick vid I shot at Flora:

P.S.  Do you know what makes absinthe a spirit and not a liqueur?

QFP: ACTUAL PIX FROM THE OPENING OF MY SHOW

Cortt, the great owner of Awaken Cafe, took some fotos at the very beginning of the opening of my photography show at Awaken on February 5th, and just forwarded them to me:

Thanks again to everyone who came out that night and those who sent long distance good wishes (and siblings!). This first one-person show, and my first juried show were both big steps for me, and your support meant everything.

ANOTHER QFP: KATE KENDELL HONORED (AND HANGING AT THE CITY CLUB)

Last night, David and I went to help celebrate Kate Kendell, NCLR's amazing executive director, being honored by the San Francisco League of Women Voters as one of their 2010 "Women Who Could Be President."

As you probably know, Kate has led NCLR in its seminal work advocating for LGBT civil rights and equality. As usual, she made everyone teary-eyed when she spoke. And afterwards, Kate and David tried to convince a skeptical group of the merits of "The Office," and I pointed out that it's not cringe-inducing for her because she works at NCLR with so many great people like my dear friend Dena.

And since the gala was at the City Club, I got to pause and appreciate the Deco beauty of the lobby and club--it's one of my favorite spots in San Francisco. Kate and I were talking about how it's classically San Francisco: this old, WASPY, men's business club that's now led and used by members who are women or LGBT or people of color.

THE OPENING OF MY ONE-MAN PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW!

So how ironic is it that my first one-man photography show was just unveiled, and I forgot to take any pics at the opening reception?! I had every intention, but then peeps started arriving, it got crowded, and...I forgot.

But it was great! I got great support from friends and colleagues, David invited friends and patients, other artists and art lovers and hipsters from the First Friday ArtWalk came by, live jazz was played and classic r&b was spun, wine was downed and cupcakes nibbled, and one piece was purchased and three pieces are tagged for consideration.

There are ten pieces in "Chasing the Sun," including new work from New York, and the show is up at Awaken Cafe in downtown Oakland through March 3rd. Please stop by and take a look at the show; Awaken is a great cafe with great people, food, and drink. For more background on the show and my inspirations, or if you aren't in the Bay Area, take a look at the show website and my photography website. Let me know if you have any questions or are interested in any pieces.

P.S. You may have noticed that this blog was on a not-so-brief "hiatus," as they say in TVland: post-Prop 8 doldrums, and then work and life, got in the way; but there have been lots great things happening in my work, life, and art--like this show of my photographs--so I'm determined that I'll be blogging regularly again. You may notice that I may try to do it more often and more briefly just to get info, events, and images (and food!) out there. Let me know what you think (or if I'm forgetting something I promised to post...)!