May 26, 2011 — There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills

We never seem to question why gold is gold. Imagine what would happen if 7 billion people started to question why we believe in gold. Gold has more adherents than any of the world’s religions. At times it seems our entire world is built on the belief of the power of a pretty, shiny metal. At this moment gold is priced at US$1,521.80 per ounce.

May 14, 2011 – Egyptian Scrap Sparkle

I like that as the title. It sounds a bit more like the name of a recipe than a piece of art. But when you find stuff at SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Reusable Art Parts) the word ingredient often comes to mind, so the recipe metaphor fits. I actually have not visited SCRAP in a long time, but I still have a lot of stuff — too much stuff. My whole Reverse Collage series back in the 1990’s would have never happened if not for a piece of inspiring Plexiglas I put in the bag at SCRAP. Today, with some gold bits, I recycled an old, tattered little book about Egyptian antiquities that I found at SCRAP nearly 15 years ago.

January 1, 2011 - The Golden Year

Here it is, the first one. Even though I do not intend to install the finished pieces in any particular order, the first one seems weighted. It needs to be extra special, making coming up with an idea for this one even more challenging.

New Year’s Eve and the entire New Year’s weekend were gloomy, cold and gray in San Francisco. At 4:45 pm on New Year’s Eve I was working at my desk. I suddenly noticed the change of color in the light well in front of me. The light was a golden glow. I looked towards the front of the apartment and could see the entire street was glowing. I looked out in the direction of Ocean Beach and saw the entire City bathed in a golden light. This lasted all of ten minutes.

In years past have spent the sunset on New Year’s Eve at Ocean Beach. There a small group of locals participate in the Afro-Brazilian ritual for the Goddess Yemanja. The ten minutes of light made me long to be out at the beach. Even though I didn’t make it out there, the entire City and the coming year now feel blessed.

So, the color for 2011 is gold. It shall be a Golden Year. As I worked on the first piece on New Year’s Day I wanted to include a reflection of time. The image is of an old, gold watch given to me by my Uncle Walter. He would be 100 if he were still with us. I had gone over halfway through the first day of the year without listening to Yma Sumac. Her five octave voice filled the room as I added pieces of a map of Peru to finish the piece.