The 2011 Project is a work by San Francisco artist Tofu. Each day in 2011 he created a 4”x4” mixed media piece. The finished project was made up of 365 smaller mixed media pieces. In 2013 the individual pieces will be distributed to project supporters. The project also acted as sketchbook for new ideas, which continue to be incorporated into new work For more information please visit 2011project.com
The year is nearly half over and today is the beginning of summer. In honor of summer and to celebrate National Pollinator Week today is the day for a honey bee portrait. Where would we be without our bees (and hummingbirds, butterflies, bats, et al)?
This piece is also featured on a print/poster available from Society6.
The series of pieces for 2011 Project are including ones based on specific colors. Technically white is not a color, but I feel it needs it’s own piece as well. It was a bit challenging to determine the right way for me to express white. I could go with the blank canvas or similar minimalist approach. Then there is always the single, faint line of graphite on the piece of white tissue paper. “Sublime,” some of the gallerati might even exclaim. I so roll my eyes when it comes to that sort of silliness. Yesterday I visited the Botanical Garden in Berkeley and had my in inspiration
It was a hot, sunny day up in the Berkeley Hills. The Matilija Poppies were dazzling the way they captured the sunlight. When the sun catches the petals they appear to float like intense bright, pieces of tissue paper (how ironic) in front of a green background. Matilija Poppies have the largest flowers of any native Californian plant. If you think about it, it makes sense that a white flower would really have to put on quite the show to attract pollinators in California. Only the biggest and brightest white would do.
Matilija Poppies are the floral equivalent of bright white bed sheets floating in the breeze on a line of clean laundry. They are the perfect way to express the color white.
Sadly, the word “diva” has become so overused that it is beginning to lose it’s meaning. But the film of the same name lives up to its title. The other night I was surprised to learn that a friend, who knows his French movies, had never heard of, let alone seen Diva. It’s one of the greatest films of all time and I am rather astonished to realize it has already been 30 years since it was first released.
Diva was the directorial debut for French director Jean-Jacques Beineix. It starred Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez and Frédéric Andréi. The film is visually beautiful and has one of the best soundtracks of all time. I have listened to the soundtrack hundreds of times. It includes an Aria from Alfredo Catalnai’s opera La Wally. Catalani is a relatively unknown Italian composer and his operas remain fairly obscure. His most well known contribution to music may be the aria used in the film.
Diva had a steady showing on the second-run theatre circuit in the 1980’s. As many of those old theatres have closed up, it’s sad that films like this don’t get shown very often. They become overwhelmed and lost in the in the thousands of titles available from services like Netflix. There was something to say for the curatorial approach that certain art house theatres took back then. It’s sad too, because like many films, Diva has less of an impact on the small screen.
If I still haven’t convinced you yet to seek out Diva, just watch the trailer…
What if volcanoes spewed glitter instead of lava? The world would certainly be a more dazzling and glamorous place.
I realized the 2011 Project needed a piece dedicated specifically to glitter. It’s not quite lava, but glitter deserves to be categorized a “dangerous” art supply. It has a special way of getting into everything. You can be reminded days later that you were working with glitter. Little flecks of it are always showing up here and there. It’s no wonder that glitter has recently replaced the pie-in-the-face when “greeting” politicians. They can always clean up after a pie, but glitter will keep appearing for a while, reminding them that they got glittered.
Another piece about pie, but don’t we all want a second piece of piece of pie? This time I used reproductions of vintage fruity wallpaper as well as an image of one of my great grandmother’s pie recipes in her own hand. It’s just about time to make her strawberry glazed pie. It was one of her favorites (and mine too).
As I worked on today’s piece for the 2011 Project the image of the blueberry pie morphed into a Pie in the Sky. This made me curious. I wondered where this expression came from. It turns out it is a line in the chorus from the song The Preacher and the Slave written by Joe Hill in 1911.
And the Starvation Army, they play,
And they sing and they clap and they pray,
Till they get all your coin on the drum,
Then they tell you when you're on the bum
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die
The song was written as a parody of the sort of hymns sung by the Salvation Army. The full lyrics are here. Joe Hill was a Swedish-born, American labor leader and songwriter. He was framed and then executed by the State of Utah in 1915. Not surprisingly, my America education never taught me about Joe Hill or his legacy. Rather, I learned about him when I was an exchange student in Sweden.
After all these years, I still go back to the same image every time I walk through Civic Center Plaza. Under the pollarded trees I always am ready for Donald Sutherland to pop out with his scary face from the end of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I have friends who really object to those alien-looking trees. Personally I can’t imagine Civic Center without them. I like them.
The real jewel of Civic Center is San Francisco’s City Hall. I love having an excuse to go inside. The best word to describe it is grand. When you step under the dome you know you are in one of the greatest civic buildings in the West. I know some Europeans can be a tad dismissive, I’ve heard Brits make snide remarks like, “When you have St. Paul’s…” Uh yeah, but for the Western U.S. it’s pretty darn good. And unlike the grand edifices of London, we actually are happy to have you walk around and have a look. No matter which of the grand buildings you visit in London, you’ll always encounter some pompous old curmudgeon who confuses being a docent with a being a member of the WWII Home Guard.
Aside from City Hall itself, Civic Center is a place that it seems many San Franciscans really dislike. They still complain about the Old Main Library being converted to the Asian Art Museum (I like it actually). And yes, the new(er) Main Library is not quite perfect, but I like it as well. I appreciate how the contemporary façade compliments the other Beaux-Arts architecture around the plaza. Visually it is a good urban space. The plaza also acts as the perfect stage set for the mob. Oh the mobs and the memories….
Civic Center might also be a bit haunted. It sits on top of the old City Cemetery. That is the same cemetery that was relocated to what is now Lincoln Park. When the golf course and Legion of Honor were constructed, the cemetery was once again relocated down the Peninsula. The headstones were moved and most of the human remains were moved. But in both cases, quite a few graves were left behind.
Today is Wednesday — it is usually my day to visit Civic Center. I always check the steps of the library book sale and find some good collage fodder for $1. The next stop is the farmer’s market. Nectarines are in season and they are about to head into the oven and meet some brown sugar for dessert tonight.
