I knew this would happen

As predicted, as 2012 marches along I know I am going to keep thinking of pieces I should have done or the 2011 Project. This morning I was enjoying the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park and realized I missed this. I did a fortune cookie piece (see above). Legend is the cookies were invented at the Japanese Tea Garden. I need to do some piece about the garden anyway, even if 2011 is over.

August 4, 2011 – Psychedahlia

You know it’s August when you see me at Dahlia Dell next to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Every year I take the same photos over and over. I can’t resist. The psychedelic dahlia dell delights me, it’s psychedahliac experience. If you haven’t gone yet, it’s time to take a little trip.

June 23, 2011 – The Conservatory

Add the Conservatory of Flowers to my list of favorite places in San Francisco. It was designed and modeled (on a smaller scale) after the greenhouses in Kew Gardens in London. Which is one of my favorite places in London. I always enjoy a good Victorian glass house.

This started back when I was about 10. San Francisco’s Conservatory was designed by the firm Lord & Burnham & Co. They also designed a similar structure for a Frederick Law Olmsted park in Buffalo. My grandfather worked at the one in Buffalo. I always remember those Sunday afternoon/early evening visits after the building was closed to the public. To this day, I kind of feel I should be entitled the same privilege here in San Francisco. Don’t they know my grandfather used to work in one of these?

I have read various histories about the Conservatory and there is some debate as to which facts are accurate. I will stick to the story I like best. In 1878 the building was ordered by local millionaire James Lick for his garden. Built to order in component parts, it was shipped from Great Britain. While the pieces were being shipped Mr. Lick expired. His widow had no interest in a white elephant of glass and wood. She generously donated it to the City for the new Golden Gate Park. The Conservatory is well built. It survived earthquakes in 1906 and 1989. Legend has it that the only damage in 1906 was the loss of three panes of glass. Afterwards the plants were brought outside and the building served as a makeshift hospital.

There may be some debate as to the older history of the Conservatory. I was here in December 1995 and remember what happened then. We had a very intense, windy storm blow in. Hundreds of big trees were toppled in Golden Gate Park and the Conservatory suffered some serious damage. The storm was blamed, but the biggest culprit was the City and a culture of neglect and corruption when it came to maintenance. In the aftermath of the storm local politicians including the mayor held the Conservatory hostage. They threatened to tear the Conservatory down. Fortunately the building was saved and restored after it was rolled into one of our massive bond issues. The politicians behaved as ugly as they always do, but luckily we got to keep this gem.

I walk around the Conservatory a few times every week, but only go inside a couple of times a year. I prefer those visits for the dampest and coldest winter days when I need a dose of the tropics.

February 13, 2011 – Magnolias

Magnolias are one of the pleasures of San Francisco’s non-winter winter. It’s February and they are peaking in Golden Gate Park. The arboretum is full of them. This is the time of the year when the air is clear and we get that postcard blue sky that, when you paint it, well, looks fake. It’s a short month and brief season. The rain is on the way back and petals will really fall this week.

I am not one to usually paint flowers, as I did today’s painting I began to wonder if I was channeling some past-life energy as a china painter. It also might explain my aversion to that room full of Dresden porcelain at the Legion of Honor.

January 27, 2011 – Fortune Cookie

Today I reached blindly into one of the collage boxes today and pulled out a postcard from San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden. Perfect as our “winter” is fooling us again with a warm 66° sunny day. Pink blossoms are already popping out on trees all around town.

One of our local mythologies is about the invention of the fortune cookie. It was invented sometime after 1890 at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. Apparently influenced by a similar confection in Japan. History and the timing of inventions often can be a bit muddled. And there is the irony that a dessert invented at a Japanese Tea Garden became a staple of American Chinese restaurants. Details aside, in the U.S., the fortune cookie surely got its start here in San Francisco.

I have a habit of hanging onto those fortunes. They get buried in the recesses of my wallet, find themselves between the pages of books and scattered in a messy desk drawer. If we hang on to the fortunes they come true, right?

January 5, 2011 – Panhandle Deconstructed

I like to get a decent walk in every day, weather permitting. I haven’t owned a car in 25 years. One of the truly “European” features of San Francisco is the ability to live well here without a car. On some days running around doing errands, etc. will get my walk in. Other days I walk to and around Golden Gate Park. I am a few blocks from the Panhandle so I quickly can be in the “park zone.” My walk varies but I do have a standard route. Out on the paths along Oak Street back on the north side of the Panhandle along Fell. I turn around at the Conservatory of Flowers. According to Google Maps the walking distance is 3.4 miles and should take 1 hour and 9 minutes. I have long legs and do it in just under an hour, if I don’t make any stops.

For today’s piece I deconstructed the map of my standard walk into 16 parts, each approximately one inch square.