Risa Blogs

I will be closing down this blog, relocating it

2012-02-14T20:54:00.000-08:00

My blog posts will continue on DWARL, another blog I have been publishing on blogger.

This is a link to my dwarl blog

Quintessential California, a Santa Monica Sunset

2012-02-03T16:33:00.000-08:00

It is a local custom where people go to the embankment of Santa Monica near sunset and watch the sun as it sinks over the ocean. The park atop the embankment was fairly crowded with dusk walker and sunset gazers. It is a magical time of the day, it is nice to see so many people out looking at the setting sun as though bidding it goodnight. It is exceptionally easy to go along the park pathway on a bicycle and enjoy the ocean breezes as well as the setting sun.

Today I enter my 55th year of life on this sweet planet

2012-01-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

How sweet the world and its' nature and its'seasons and weather that endlessly amuses us humans who live on the planet for a short while during this episode which we call LIFE. The seasons turn, year after year, so a person sees the endless opera of nature and feels the sensations of summers and winters and dawn and dusk, in seemingly endless succession. The world it does not change but we humans who experience life at all its stages and it's repeating season, we change.

Today on my 54th birthday the day dawned so sweetly, with lilacs and pink rays of light strewn about the sky as it lightened up slowly into day. A gentle dawn, delicate and so lovely. Now at morning, the light is stark and very bright and starting its climb through the spectra to be soon, the harsh light on the afternoon.

As befits a birthday I have joy and happiness and bask in the good greetings for a happy day from friends all over the world and so very far away. When I am in a happy mood I wax poetic and write bad poetry, as well you can see in this post, which is a morning toast to a day that starts a new era in my life.

No matter the struggles of my life in the moment, I get a days break from the strife and the stress and celebrate the anniversary of my birth when I arrived alive and took my first breaths of the sweet air of the earth.

Of all things in life I like nature the best, this is indeed a fine planet.

That's so LA

2012-01-16T17:41:00.000-08:00

Freeway Interchange - Streets in the sky - Red, White and Blue tinged concrete.

A reporting of an photo taken some time ago. In the past 6 months I have not been through this interchange on the Harbor Freeway, I have been spending my time closer to the coast.

Same city but worlds apart, the life that surround the two photos in this post.

Angels Flight up to Bunker Hill top

2012-01-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, while running an errand in downtown Los Angeles, I finally took the funicular up Bunker Hill. As I read the news today I see they have closed in "for maintenance". What a pity, it certainly is a convenient way to get up Bunker hill, which is quite steep. Here are some photos I took of the jaunt in this rickety old rail car. As quaint as this historic relic is, I cannot support the City throwing good money after bad, the whole thing should be ripped up and replaced a modern funicular.

Bronzes are great outside

2012-01-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

This pair of bronzes is outside getting a nice natural patina from the weather and elements, and they look great in this photograph silhouetted against the sky. The photo is shot from an angle to give the illusion that the statues are large, which they are not -- the man stands a mere 3 ft tall and the bronze of the woman is less than that -- although in scale with the man.

Bonfire of the Vanities, Los Angeles 2011-2012

2012-01-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

I read the news and watch TV and it seems that there is a bonfire of the vanities afoot with the arson of many cars, the quintessential vanity of this city.

I wonder who it could be and why they are they burning cars. It could be tourists in town for the holidays or it could be someone disgruntled and fed up and very angry.

There is a lot of anger out there, subdued for the most part but still palpable, largely connected to the economic conditions that are making life very harsh for some people.

Signed into YouTube

2011-12-28T06:45:00.000-08:00

Yes I know, a little late in the schedule of "everyone is already doing that, but I had not been moved by any music on that website before yesterday when I started to listen to Vivaldi. I have heard this music before of course but simply not paid attention to it with precision. That changed, now I am listening closely to his 4 works about the seasons.

As the new calendar year approaches I give thought to works of art I may create in the coming year and 4 works of art about the seasons comes to mind - inspired by Vivaldi, so t this end i have signed up on YouTube to create a playlist of these 4 works. I will play them over again many times until I know the music and it will move my paintbrush ...

Lets see if this link will work to take me directly to the source of Vivaldi inspiration

Sculpture garden

2011-12-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

My sculpture garden is a place I often sit and ponder the meaning of life and what to do with the rest of mine.

Sculpture Garden at 5840 in 2011

And now that I mention my sculpture garden I am posting a photo of it and I opened a web page for the sculpture garden on this blog.

Here, a link to the Sculpture Garden page where you can see this pic on the left larger as well as other photos I have taken in the garden.

Torso-esque

2011-12-26T17:06:00.000-08:00

A bronze photographed in a composition with a golden clay scroll.

In my studio. Los Angeles.

Photo Art, Birds with a view of the Santa Monica Pier

2011-12-25T14:16:00.000-08:00

Same picture, just worked the color values a bit in the top pictures to try draw out a more interesting image.

A beautiful day

2011-12-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

It rained all through the day today and it was so lovely. The sun is setting now and yet more lovely life giving is rain is promised for tomorrow. I forgot what I was going to write, I went to take a photo instead and prep it for publication, so here is the photo.

Rain, finally it rains in LA

2011-11-19T19:47:00.001-08:00

I can hear it falling now, after I stood outside amidst the first few drops that fell so sparingly for the longest while. Now I can hear the rain start up as the water lavishes itself on the leaves and grasses outside and it softly transmits the sounds of each drop gently landing. Tentative the rain is now, barely falling, as though teasing the earth with its coming replenishment of life giving water.

The rains replenish me too, I have to say I thrive when the rains fall, as they so sparingly do here in the LA basin. My writing flows with earnest effort of being Dickensian in style but it never quite gets there, even in the inspiring rains. Still, I love when the rains start to fall after days with the water rich dark clouds hovering in the skies above and not letting loose their life giving waters. Days and days it seems I have watched the sky hold back its rains while the clouds floated on by, saving up the rains for some place inland.

Now its our time, here at the coast to have the lands soaked a bit by the rains. I am sure this was once stretches of wild grasses because when the rains fall, grasses of all kinds spring up and all winter long it grows with alacrity. And so the rains fall now, timidly afore a promised storm. Tomorrow afternoon is when the precise weather predictors say the rains will fall in earnest, and you know, i think I might just go for a cycle ride in the rain tomorrow afternoon, in the falling rain ...

Invisible sculpture made in clay

2011-11-14T08:24:00.001-08:00

This is a series of sculptures I am working on that examines how to make sculptures blend with the background and almost disappear. The concept behind this series of black and white works is that there are so many people, all blending onto the background and becoming invisible ...

Photography comes into play as well, in making the images of traditional sculpture pop into the current timeline of contemporary art.

I am Alive

2011-11-10T22:10:00.001-08:00

Long story but the net result of this week's activities and incidents is that I am alive. And well, I am in fact, alive and well.

Addendum added in early January 2102 - perhaps not as well as I had thought, there are some lingering issues caused by working too hard. Still, art has been made and nothing can change that.

Los Angeles City Lights

2011-11-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

Lights on Broadway. That used to be a saying that spoke about theater, that once upon a time, used to be acted out in plays on stages in theaters on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.

What is left of that golden glittering ra of Broadway are the city street lights, which I photographed earlier this week.

Endless Summer in Los Angeles

2011-11-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today was a strangely warm day -- the Santa Ana winds were blowing they say but I did not feel or see the winds when I was near the coast - just the strange heat - balmy it was all day and into the evening - quite warm, unexpectedly so.

Will it be an endless summer again or will the chill return by Friday as the weather people predict?

There have been some warm days and nights this autumn, not only today but in recent weeks, quite a bit more warm than it usually is at this time of the year.

Ambiance in a gallery at LACMA

2011-10-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

In the gallery of the museum, living people twixt the ancient arts.

Went to LACMA to see their collection of European arts.

2011-10-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

This was in the first gallery I stepped into. It is my reflection in a mirror that is hundreds of years old and there is the reflection is a spectacular painted canvas that is on the opposite wall in the gallery.

I spend several hours feasting my eyes on paintings of Europe from the 17th century and other eras.

We are allowed to take photos inside the museum but not with a flash, so its a bit challenging to take photos but I took some for a catalogue I a building up of photos of paintings in museums so I can see them for painting skills references when I eventually get into my painting studio and settle in to paint for a while.

There are a great many sculptures in the LACMA European art permanent collection, and I enjoyed seeing those too. I took many photos and this morning, this one stuck my eye and I converted the image into thoroughly modern art. It is an ancient Roman sculpture, set resplendently into an alcove on the museum gallery floor. For my art of the ancient, I manipulated the color values of the pixels, all the visual data is already contained in the file created when the camera shutter was clicked.

Staples Center during a weekday & Figueroa Boulevard

2011-10-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles downtown during the day has surprising very little car traffic and in recent years the taxi fleet seems to have grown quite a lot. My picture captures the essence of a typical weekday in LA where no private cars are visible at all on Figueroa.

Figueroa Boulevard is a wide street that runs from the LA Coliseum to Staples Center, just a few miles separate the two sports entertainment centers. Of course "Fig" (that is whats we call this street) actually runs for tens of miles in a north-south direction all the way down to the harbor, but it is the downtown stretch between Coliseum and Staples that is set to undergo a transformation.

On the drawing board for Fig are more friendly pedestrian walkways, sidewalks, bike lanes and any number of new retail and restaurants along the stretch from Coliseum, past USC up to Staples and beyond, to the culture center of downtown. There is even talk of a street car for the area.

As ever, with planning for downtown, the planners do their planning in air-conditioned offices and travel the area in air conditioned cars and the heat bearing down on the area is never felt by them so they don't plan for any shade. Not only is there heat from perpetual sunshine, but the heat from the tar and concrete heated by the sunshine radiates up so walking along fig is quite like being in an oven, getting baked from both sides. It all looks delightful, such as in photographs like the one in this post -- unless one is there in person and gets to feel what its like to "live and bake in LA".

A bit north of Staples Center are the downtown highrises that reflect reflect the sunshine, so Fig is a street for real baking in LA with the trifecta heat of sun from above, heat from tar and concrete and the uber hot spots reflected off the tall buildings.

Still, all that said, it looks lovely in the photos ...

Occupy Los Angeles protesters in the rain

2011-10-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I went past city hall and shot some photos of the protesters camped on the back lawn of city hall.

Sculptures on the Getty steps

2011-10-05T00:22:00.000-07:00

I went to the Getty to see the new show about Los Angeles art from the 20th century, which was underwhelming to me, but I did find the placement of these two statues at the entry steps up to the Getty to be curious - I am not sure of the placement of these statues was intentional by the Getty curators, but I am quite certain it is not what the sculptors of either of these statues had in mind about placement of their works.

Los Angeles street scenes

2011-09-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

The view from a bicycle seat, on the left is Grand Avenue, riding towards the high rise sector.

I was not looking at the camera as I rode along clicking the shutter - my focus was on safety and whatever photos came from this jaunt in the traffic lane were happenstance - the photo on the left is a happy happenstance, its rather a good photo.

The photo below is Broadway, a major bus thoroughfare, where perhaps they will again be a streetcar. It was early in the morning, the street gets lively with people as the day wears on.

This one of 2 bicycles I have, this one is the klunker which is safe to take downtown and lock up and be reasonably sure it be there when I return to it.

The photo is included here to give a better sense of where the photos in this post were taken from.

For my safety I did time my riding in traffic lane between red lights - I certainly do not recommend that bikes ride in traffic lanes during early morning rush hour.

Sometime the sky is just magnificent

2011-09-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

The sky over Chino

I went to Chino with a friend to see some art and before we went into the galley I noticed the sky with the sun setting and giving a glow to the parking lot. This place is a 2 hours drive inland from the coast, in the foothills.

Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive & my reflection

2011-09-12T00:42:00.000-07:00

The windows at the Dior store. So dainty, so delightful, so Dior.

Rodeo Drive, as seen from the seat of a bicycle. There was actually a lot of traffic when I cycled down Rodeo Drive last week. I timed the lights to criss-cross-cycle the boulevard while taking photographs.

Today in Beverly Hills, 911 memorial unveiled

2011-09-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

2011-09-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

In memory of the events of September 11, 2001

Marina del Rey Bike Path

2011-09-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

Tourist photographs

2011-08-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

What is the Los Angeles equivalent tourist shot to this one of me in San Francisco with their antique street car?

The Hollywood Sign is not accessible, the Hollywood studios too grand and tall to create a nice tourist shot, so I wonder, what is the one place in Los Angeles that captures the perfect tourist photograph?

Los Angeles Coliseum

2011-08-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

The Coliseum in Los Angeles is in Exposition Park. It is an historic site and is a large poured in place concrete mass, but in earthquake territory, it has developed some issues.

Still, it is a landmark of major significance ...

Learning New Languages

2011-08-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I learned there is a language I didn't realize existed -- Starbuxian, or, coffee talk

I went to one yesterday and ordered a regular coffee in a medium cup, the young man said "huh", I repeated my request for a cup of coffee and he listened intently and when he understood my request, he informed me what the proper starbuxian language is

"grande drip" is the translation for "a cup of coffee"

This is the Summer of my Discontent

2011-08-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

I had my winter of discontent in 1989. And a good 10 years after that.

Yesterday it occurred to me that it is now my Summer of Discontent.
A good next 10 years would make a welcome change.

I will write more about this topic, but for now, all I am doing is noting that I have decided this is my Summer of discontent.
________________

11/08/11 - 11/10/11
The upshot of the summer of my discontent, manifesting. Manifested. I am alive to tell the tale, a tale I will not tell right now, but it is 3 months since I wrote this post. It is over now, the discontent and all that lead up to it. Summer too is over, autumn has passed as well, and the cool of winter with its blessed rains has come at last.

Day of Reckoning

2011-08-05T02:11:00.000-07:00

I will not be at the computer when day breaks on Friday 8/5/11, but from the looks of things in financial markets in the overnight hours it seems that this is a day that will go down in history as a "day of reckoning".

How did so much go so wrong from the economy that Hamilton imagined and created to the day of reckoning hundreds of years later?

Too many financial vehicles, devices, instruments and so on?

This portrait of Hamilton is on the 10 dollar note, it gives pause for thought. There will be time aplenty to pause I imagine, in the coming weeks and months as the shambles the money people have created gets sorted out.

Who is the Hamilton of this era? Who can fathom the way ahead?

Update: S&P downgraded America's credit for the first time ever. The other 2 rating agencies are not following S&P though.

Writing on the wall in a government building

2011-07-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Gold leaf inside a rotunda dome at Los Angeles City Hall.

Writings on the walls in government buildings intrigue me.

Only after after I took the photograph and cropped the image was I able to read the main message left by past generations.I was only able to read the writing on this wall (so to speak, its a dome) down at City Hall

I was at City Hall this past week attending a seminar put on by Councilman Garcetti - it was called "government 101" where they explained the unique governance mechanism that run this city.

The writing reads:
"Masters of education hold in their hands the future of the world"

Google+ is looking good

2011-07-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

This is a screenshot from the album with my post pic.

I have made one post and uploaded only one of these pics directly to g+, the other 5 pics seem to be a google selection of the from my several picasa albums. I like their selection. It does not look random to me.

Actually, its like a curated show of 6 photographs (midst hundreds of pics), which I found after I made a post and uploaded a photo directly to g+

I am blogging about this, its a loop, a cyber loop --- kinda nice. Good selection there Google, thank you.

update: On reviewing this post I see I need to make clear that the figurative bronze sculptures I photographed were created by Robert Graham - they stand at the Los Angeles Coliseum. I admire the bronze work of this late artist, a sculptor who I worked for and learned a great deal about bronze casting from.

Revisiting a place in Los Angeles that resonates to me

2011-07-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

I never tire of taking photos of these bronzes by Maestro Robert Graham. I saw them first at the opening of the Olympic Games in 1984. The sculptor of these works is a great influence on my own bronze art. He is no longer with us, but his art lives on.

These are the gateway sculptures to the world famous Los Angeles Coliseum, where I went today.

Getting around Los Angeles without a car

2011-07-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

Relaxing on the bus as it careens down the Harbor Freeway and the driver takes care of the driving. We have to pay extra for the freeway bus which is OK, they are nice buses, a bit like limousines.

The bicycle is carried in the rack in front of a bus, so its a fun way to get around Los Angeles.

This post has pics of me from this year, 2011.

There I am in the mirror, cycling through Culver City where the late afternoon breezes off the Pacific Ocean flow through the center of the city.

Alongside the Ballona Creek bike path - a country ride in the middle of the city. This bike path cuts through the southern side of Culver City and some of the landscaping alongside the bike path is very lovely.

Taking the bike to the bus in the middle of the Harbor Freeway, the loudest bus stop in the world I imagine. This is outside the elevator to the top of the freeway where the bus lanes stop.

I have to effuse over Google again

2011-07-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

This time I effuse over changes to gmail. I am using their new format by choosing it as my theme. It is great.

Finally I am able to sort through and file my emails, place them where I can find them. It is also clearer to read mail, I am not sure how they did that but it makes a world of difference. Even the way I can now scrol through emails seem to involve less mouse work. All in all, its great. Bravo, and thank you Google.

Bonfire at the beach

2011-07-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

Nearby there is a beach with fire pits.

People go there with woods of all kinds and have bonfires, enjoy the sunsets,picnic,party, socialize.

Dockweiler Beach is the name of the place. I went there a few weeks ago, these are photos from that day

Bonfire of the Vanities it is not. Quite the opposite I think, everyone laid back, relaxed and mellow.

Californian indeed, as casual as can be.

I saw Google+ last Tuesday

2011-07-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am not signed on there but I saw it the day it began (when it became visible to some of us in the public). I clicked over to a screen about it, and then passed on by. News broke later in the day about what Google+ is, and since then, many essays by technolphiles about it are all over the web.

Bravo Google! From the looks of things you may have created a sound network management platform. Facebook is nice and all, but it is really geared for college socializing and in the 2 months I have been using facebook I have found it clumsy, inconsistent and menu options for things like photo album management buried deeply in obscure places. Their face recognition and photo tagging is also alarming - but it makes sense they would focus on faces at facebook, but that is just not something of interest to me.

On facebook I am "friends" with people I went to school with, was friends with when a young adult in Johannesburg, and had lost touch with almost everyone. Facebook has been a delightful trip down memory lane after 3 decades. I have located family members too, and have thought of writing things only for my family to see. Like introducing family members to one another. I pondered how to "fb message" just my family group, considered asking a question how to do that and stopped right there. It is likely impossible, facebook philosophy seems to lean towards no privacy, no discretion, nothing adult about that place. Great place to plan a college party (or stage a revolution), but I can't see much of interest to me on facebook on that website. Facebook has "notes" but that portion of their website seems distant from the rest of it and most of my circle on fb do not use notes, so I have been posting "status links" to a few blog posts on this blog.

Same with twitter, sure I tweet every now and again, but with all tweets harnessed by The Library of Congress, that's a bit disconcerting.

So, I am at the outskirts of social networking use, for which I cannot currently find much use, but engage in because it seems currently requisite for people in the arts to do so. I was starting to think the end of the internet had been reach and then along comes the cyber cavalry in the form of Google+.

Google has been my lifeline in the craziness of failed sites like AOL, which cavalierly lost my e-mail archive and didn't seem to give a hoot, but wanted to charge me a fee for them to look for my lost data. Gmail has given me a sound and reliable place to use email, but with the lost archives from AOL, lost of my contacts are unknown to me. Google voice enabled me to use the telephone again, something AT&T made nearly impossible with their excessive fees for so much that used to be readily available on a telephone. Again, I am able to store contacts on the very nice database for contacts on GV and trust they will stay intact. Unlike my old contact database that got lost on desktop computers that ceased to function through hardware and/or software glitches.

So, to me, Google+ that ties in with the various other reliable Google product ranges is a light at the end of the tunnel. I am sure google knows that I e-mail people who are not my friends, my pals, my confidants - people in various places and circles who have no need to know my secrets or what I ate for lunch. Sometimes I wrote terse letters, to the point, to people I really don't want to stay in touch with. I am sure anyone in business does much the same.

The light at the end of the tunnel of cyber-madness shines brightly in Googledom. From the essays the technophile journalists have written I can see that a calm and reliable version of "social networks" lies ahead. Just in time too, I was pondering how to establish a contacts database and where to do it. I am going to take a wild leap of faith and enter the data in either Google Gmail or Google Voice and actually spend the time to see how the two services transfer data between them.

Google IS the cyber cavalry - They made sense of search engines and with the brilliant innovator of that at the helm, I am confident they will make sense of the social networking and get beyond the 120 and 420 character limit.

Update July 7, 2011
News breaks about how G+ will be available for business later on in the year. Great, amazing, they understand the differences between personal and business. Who knows, with light at the ed of the tunnel I may brand myself and my arts after all. 2 months ago I made a facebook page for my arts, its OK I suppose, I felt compelled to have such a page, but it doesn't excite me. G+ for biz, now that is an exciting development that I look forward to.

Bicycled from Santa Monice through Venice

2011-06-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

This famous binocular building is on Main Street, not far from Abbot Kinney Boulevard which I photographed as well. As you can see, riding down the middle of the street on a bicycle yields quite the vista of the street.

After the pleasant bike ride from Santa Monica down through Abbot Kinney Boulevard I decided to stop in and visit my old friend Mr. Frogman who lives in the area. I had not seen Tim at all in the past 8 years and he looks wonderfully happy and is wildly successful. People the world over collect his fabulous frogs. I took some pics of him - here you can see me in his mirror taking the pics - I have many pics of Tim in the past, some of the old pics show him working on his sculptures - its a hobby of mine to take pics of artists at work, Now, Tim is still working, creating wonderful new sculptures but he is also enjoying the fruits of his labor. He builds vehicles that are truly amazing.

This is my QR code

2011-06-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

Yes I have been coded. Well, my website to be specific.

They say you can scan this code with your phone and be directed to my website dianerisasher.com

So, this is my code.

Feels a bit odd to be coded, through self codation since I went out of my way to find a code generator and code get my QR Code.

One of my plum trees has ripening plums

2011-06-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

I don't own much in this life, but I do own those ripening plums. I get great joy from watching the blossom buds, the blossoms in full flower and now finally plums. Still green, dangling off the lowest branches ripening a little more each day.

Have to admit that seeing those plum buds made me want to spend my money buying water to shower the fruitful plum tree with. The one plum tree bearing fruits is a scraggly one, almost ignored it completely until I saw the plum buds, now I lavish it with water, its still not my favourite plum tree, but now it gets as much water as my fave tree gets.

I got the trees for free, they grew from branches I once stuck in the soil, on a day when it seemed like a good idea to plant plum tree branches.

Neighborhood squirrels are also keeping their eye on the ripening plums -- I see small squirrels most everyday doing a plum survey and then they scamper on ...

A slideshow from the Culver City Art Walk 2011

2011-06-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

That is me in the last photo as I ponder the art of the masonry in the most amazing gallery.

Hollywood sign in the distance over the creek in Culver City

2011-06-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

Rains in Sausalito

2011-06-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

After going over the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco, got caught in a sweet gentle rain in Sausalito which I found to be quite a beautiful sight and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Compared to the harsh light of Los Angeles, the gentle gray skies and lush vegetation was pleasing to see.

Went to San Francisco to finish up the mural painting

2011-05-31T23:07:00.000-07:00

Detail of a mural painting I worked on last week when I went to San Francisco. This visit to the City by the Bay, I had a chance to ride a bicycle over the Golden Gate bridge. Life echoes art ?

Over the long weekend, I had a chance to ride a bicycle over the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

Its very noisy, reminded me of being at the bus stop in the center of a freeway in LA, the noise of cars rushing by.

The Golden Gate is a freeway, albeit with a most excellent bicycle path, its still a very noisy freeway place

Bye Oprah - fare well & thanks for the entertainment over the past 25 years

2011-05-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

I watched the very last Opera show this afternoon and took pictures of the TV.

This is a photo of the TV screen, when they faded to changing scenes.

Thanks for leaving a forwarding address, its so Oprah of you ;)

Here is a drawing I made for Oprah (which I have yet to give to her) while watching her show about the school she built on the highveld for the children of the highveld. This is actually a detail from that drawing. This is the Ndebele style of composition. Ndebele art being the art of the Highveld.

Went to art shows at Bergamot Station in santa Monica

2011-05-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Taking discreet pictures from outside the gallery -- this was early in the evening before the crowds arrived. The art in this gallery is assemblages on the shelves built into the gallery wall.

Track 16, on the opposite side of the station from the gallery showing the assemblages. Track 16 has the red car and neon signs as works of art.

Have bicycle, can get anywhere in LA with my camera. Thats me posing on the red car in the gallery at Track 16.

Went to Otis 2011 graduates show

2011-05-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Fascinating evening, interesting artwork and people viewing this show. Some pics from the evening.

Otis President speaking, everyone listening

Rick and me

Marco

I attended classes at Otis Parsons, it is one of the places I studied sculpture. It was at MacArthur Park then, now the campus is a short bicycle ride away from where I live.

Hello to my facebook friends

2011-05-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

I signed on there this morning, and experimented with a few facebook features including a link to this blog. So Howzit! Here I post about life drudgery in Los Angeles, and monologue about this and that with pictures to illustrate the monologues. My middle name is Risa, which you probably don't know since I didn't use my middle name for the first 45 years of life.

Anyway, my fine art work can be seen at my website

I don't know how facebook works exactly and I am a bit nervous about disclosure & privacy there. Thing is that I live in the thick of it in Los Angeles and its wild out here, it IS the wild west ...

DS

Selection from my stainless steel miniature collection

2011-05-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

Titles of the miniature sculptures (left to right)
Original torso - Hearts - Lot's Wife - Adam - Eve - Slick Torso - Yin Yang
you can more stainless on my website

Obama killed Osama

2011-05-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

It was announced on TV tonight. Speculation announced it before the president spoke, then Obama spoke and said it straight away. After that TV cut away to show crowds outside the white house in jubilation at the death of Osama.

It has been 18 years since the WTC was bombed in 1993. Many of those dancing in jubilation outside the white house gates don't look to be much older than 18. They don't stop their jubilation to think of how long it has taken to bring justice to this one man named Osama and they don't know how the world was before 1993, 1998 and 2001, the three key Osama strikes.

Such a pity that Osama had such an effect on creating the war conditions that currently exist - the silent persistent war that continues to shape the world we now live in.

All the world watched the British Royals be married

2011-04-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

Catherine married William, the son of Diana and Charles, who wed 30 years ago. That wedding I did not watch but Kate and Will be wed, that I watched on my 20th Century TV set and took photos of the screen.

The last moments Catherine was unmarried, before the nuptial ceremony. This is a capture of the TV fade between scenes.

It was a photographer's ensemble, and here, another TV screen capture of the photographers whose splendid photos will fill the web now and into the future.

A moving image, of the newlyweds in their grand carriage, between church and castle.

So sweet.

The new Broad Museum Plans looks like Page Museum

2011-04-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

When I saw the plans for the new Eli Broad museum planned for Grand Avenue I was struck by how much the plans resemble the Page Museum on Wilshire Boulevard. The Page is on the same grounds as the world famous LACMA - both are museums that the County of Los Angeles provides.

SIMILARITIES IN DESIGN

Parking garage under the structure.
Lattice style roofing.
Angular stairway entrances.
Storage for museum holdings and offices of museum workers exceeding display space.
Almost exact front elevation profile.

I had visited the Page Museum a few weeks before the Broad museum design was unveiled so I had the photograph of the front of the Page Museum which I used to create the montage illustrating this post. The Page museum holds natural history artifacts and displays, the Broad Museum is being built to the art collection and art lending foundation of LA's billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad.

All that said, my reaction to this design with the notable similarities is to the initial design presentation, which can change dramatically and the finished building may be completely different.

Scenes from bicycle ride from Los Angeles to Culver City

2011-04-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

Photography in Los Angeles

2011-04-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Whatever is said about Los Angeles, it certainly is a city with spectacular opportunities for photography. The photo above is from the Culral district in downtown Los Angeles.

One from the suburbia in Culver City - street art of a different kind

These are 2 photographs from my vast archives of Photos in LA, many more photos can be seen at my blog dwarl

What if Mount Fuji erupts?

2011-04-12T02:23:00.000-07:00

This is what I have been pondering, so I have started doing some research on the internet, which I will record in this blog. Mount Fiji is how some publications spell the name of the volcano, which scientists hace classified as "active". Apparently, Mount Fuji erupted 304 years ago, in 1707. 5 years ago National geographic published an essay saying the volcano erupts every 300 years. In starting a research project when data is plentiful, I usually draw up a timeline, and so what follows is a timeline I am working on with data and dates gleaned from the web.

April 11, 2011 - 6.0+ Earthquakes on Honshu
March 15, 2011 - 6.1 Earthquake at Shizuoka (very near Mt Fuji)
March 13, 2011 - Shinmoedake volcano on Kyushu erupts
March 11, 2011 - 9.0 Earthquake east of Honshu
January 19, 2011 - Shinmoedake Volcano erupts on Kyushu
March 3, 1933 - 8.1 Showa Sanriku earthquake
December 16,1707 - Mount Fuji on Honshu Erupts
October 26, 1707 - 8.0 Earthquake on Honshu
This website has a list of earthquakes in Japan going back centuries

This an impressionist style of painting I created on a mural in San Francisco of the famous great wave painting. At the time I painted it I remarked to myself how he shape of the wave is the same shape as Mount Fuji. The shape in the wave though, is the shape of the mountain as it might have appeared before the eruption. My impression is of a painting by an artist who lived in the 18th century and was born 1/2 a century after Mount Fiji erupted.

A lullaby that is so sweet to my ears - Tula Tula

2011-04-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have found myself singing this song of late, it comes from a place in my memory that is so sweet and comforting. It is a lullaby from the land of my birth and it was sung to me when I was a child. It is so sweet a song, so calming, so pleasant to the ear and warming for the heart. If this is the first time you hear it, I hope you enjoy it.

Been doing some work on my website

2011-03-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

I have revamped the front page of my DRS website

Palm plant down in rain and winds

2011-03-20T19:12:00.000-07:00

These palms just fell outside my house. I took this pic before cutting off the leaves and clearing the fallen palms from the roadway and gutter. I am not sure if I am responsible for doing this but I did it anyway - did not want the gutter to block up and cause a mini dam here. Its all off the street now.

Update 3/27/11: It finally stopped raining the fallen palms are off the sidewalk now - took a while without a chainsaw. I tried a hand saw, no go. I tried an angle grinder, that was a bad idea - that could easily have burned and sparked a flame, so I didn't angle grind much. What did work was a machete. I had one from years ago when I had to clear some of these same type of palm plants. The machete was in the back yard, rusting away, so I took a sharpening stone to it and got the edge all cleaned up and sharp and it didn't take too long to cut the fallen plants off and pull them away from the sidewalk. Terrific exercise, my gosh, and a few blisters and small cuts and the task is accomplished. These things are heavy.

Went out on the bicycle this afternoon, visited Culver City

2011-03-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

The Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Oceans

2011-03-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

This Pacific Ocean is odd ... it pretends to be all calm and placid, just it isn't ... its also so huge an ocean.

I painted the waves of the Pacific from life, in Northern California, near Pacific Grove.

I did not paint a series of paintings of the ocean, just this one canvas, 20" x 20". The foreground waves are what I saw, but the waves rolling in from the background I made up, there aren't there in the placid pacific.

-----------------------------------

I know the Atlantic Ocean better, from where it comes off Antarctica, its very cold, but very clean water. In my youth I spend a great deal of time at the shore of the Atlantic in Cape Town. Oh to breathe that sweet clean air of the Cape ... but I digress.

The point I am making with this blog post is that the oceans are different, the nature of their waves not quite the same.

I saw the Atlantic off the East cost of America it looks quite different -- I hope I get a chance to see the Atlantic off Eastern America some more, i think I would enjoy that.

How to make money

2011-03-10T14:04:00.001-08:00

Chip by chip, moment by moment, and then it starts to take shape and money is made.

Looking up in Los Angeles, the wonderful high rise towers of downtown

2011-03-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

California Art Council monthly meeting held at LMU in Westchester

2011-03-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

I stopped by the monthly meeting of California Arts Council and was the only public there to listen to the public meeting. I usually don't mind being the only "public" but I felt awkward at the meeting today. I felt they wanted to discuss possible Nominees to the Council (whom the Governor would nominate and the State Senate approves), and that my being there listening was an imposition on the Arts Council. I left early as a courtesy to this esteemed council.

Their meeting is scheduled to run from 11 am to 5 pm, and they have public comment slated for 4: 30 pm, and the agenda lists a strict 2 minute lime limit. I had wanted to speak about the Council's role in regard to California Civil Code 986.

One thing of interest is that I did learn the arts council seems to favor arts education with arts as an avocation since they seem to oppose using arts funding for vocational training. I thought that was interesting. Focus seems to be on grants and arts orgs, not about capitalism in the arts. They had a guest speaker who spoke at length about arts education and he rather scoffed at the idea children should learn math when learning arts makes them so happy. I did not take note of the guest speaker's name, which is just as well.

All in all, it seems the focus of today's meeting is the establishment of the council for the coming year. They elected a Chair, and voted to postpone voting for the vice chair until the new Governor's nominees were on board. A lot of names were dropped at the 2 hours of the meeting I listened to. Some names I recognized - male artists, the art stars, and a lot of names I did not recognize, including some who are probably celebrities.

I should add to this post that I often attend meetings of boards, councils and governmental bodies to observe and learn democratic processes, so my attending today's meeting (which is a convenient 15 minute bicycle ride away) is part of my ongoing interest in, and study of, the processes of democracy in the United States of America. Today there was a double interest because it technically involves the arts.

Time for a new blank page or a whole new book?

2011-02-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

I took this photo a some years ago, of a blank open book photographed against the husk of a fallen palm tree leaf.

When you turn over a page on a blank new book, you go from a blank page to another blank page.

Comes a time when a person hast o change the entire book to get to something fresh. I wonder how a new book with many blank pages would look photographed against fresh fallen snow.

Ballona Creek Bike Path

2011-02-01T19:55:00.000-08:00

There is a bike path alongside Ballona Creek in Los Angeles that I ride to get to Culver City. The other day I took my camera on the ride with me and I extended my ride home to go along the creek up to Lincoln Boulevard.

I stopped to take photos of the wildlife in the creek and caught the sunlight in the reeds that grow in the creek.

I got off the bike path. took the Lincoln Street bridge. It was mid afternoon and though I had intended to ride all the way to the beach the sun was too strong and I was riding directly into it. Early morning is probably a better time to ride to the beach.

Finished reading Oliver Twist

2011-01-28T14:07:00.000-08:00

Dickens would I think, have written the second book of Oliver Twist had he lived long along to revisit his earlier novels.

Oliver Twist inherits 1000 pounds, and assuredly the estate of Mr. Brownlow who adopted him, so Dickens informs us as he quickly wraps of the fate of his characters in the last chapter of his novel.

Oliver would have grown to be a wise, benevolent young gentleman and would have had life experiences Dickens would have delighted in telling us about. He would have had his choice of debutants in England, or would have chosen a good hearted, earnest, young, beautiful women to be his life love. I like to think Oliver would have ventured to the new world and lived happily ever after contributing to the structure of the United States and would have been a benefactor of the arts and theaters.

Bronze is so beauteous

2011-01-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

This is a lovely bronze I made and sold many years ago

I see something very interesting online

2011-01-25T04:50:00.000-08:00

VIPartFair, an online only exhibition, starring some of the gallery greats. It emulates a show, with a start and end date, and has a wonderful interface through which to view the art.

I am planning a show myself, starting on March 20th and have thought my show should be online too. If I do manage to get a show online, it won't be anywhere near as marvelous as the VIPartfair website is, but I think this show online establishes online showing and sales as being the way to go with distributing art.

Posthumous publishing

2011-01-25T03:12:00.000-08:00

An idea has just occurred to me while editing a post I am drafting, that I could schedule publication of that post at any time in the future. The thought occurs that I could draft any number of posts and schedule them to publish in years long after my lifetime.

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-01-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

I was born south of the equator in the summer time and now I am in the north, where it is winter in January.

My gift to me is sharing my art with you.

here is a link to my half built website that will eventually be filled out with all the art I have made and serve as a catalog of all the arts that I have created.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum gardens with sculptures by Graham

2011-01-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

Exposition Park, Los Angeles, Coliseum sculptures by Robert Graham.

On Grand Avenue, PhotoART of the built world

2011-01-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after the press conference at the corner of Grand Avenue and 1st Street, I walked along Grand Avenue to take more photographs of the spectacular buildings of Bunker Hill. This is one from yesterday - I had returned to this precise location to take this exact photograph. I had taken pics here before but they were not quite right so I returned to photograph it again.

Press conference to unveil the design of Broad Museum on Grand Avenue

2011-01-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

I went to this press conference. It was an amazing confluence of art and politics with celebrities and law officers, movers and shakers and it was held inside the Wal Disney Hall, designed by Frank Gehry, who was there, watching the presentation of the concept for the Eli Broad's new Museum.

I shot the photo of my shadow on the concrete outside the Gehry building before the press conference & this photo of the press, before the presentation got underway. It was a high energy moment in Los Angeles.

Residencies and fellowships

2011-01-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

I am looking at some opportunities for artists that encourage and support creativity and the making of art.

Kohlner Artist Residency is a 6 month opportunity to create works in "Pottery, Iron and Brass Foundries, and Enamel Shop" - that sounds rather like heaven insofar as materials a sculptor could wish to have access to.

After the rains in Los Angeles, rainbows

2010-12-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

and after the rainbow, a double rainbow!

What deluge of rain in Los Angeles the past week. It was harsh on people and structures but the vegetation and plants seem to have loved it. The greenery is flourishing ....

An interesting journey on a bicycle

2010-12-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

From Beverly Hills to Exposition Park. It is actually a down slope on this journey and Pico Boulevard which I went along to travel east is basically a flat street most of the way, it is like riding a bicycle in Amsterdam, it is that flat along Pico. This is about 10 - miles, I went slowly and enjoyed the ambiance in the diverse communities of Los Angeles I cycled through - it took me 2 hours to get from start to destination.

Statues in my studio - Stainless Steel and painted clay

2010-12-12T18:12:00.001-08:00

Now where was I with the oil painting?

2010-11-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

Going through some pics of art in process I came upon this collage of oil paintings I started 3 years ago - free-form renditions of the famous federal buildings. So much has happened in my personal life the past few years I had set this project aside as I contended with life and circumstances. There are 7 small canvases started on this series of paintings of detailed buildings - these are studies for larger paintings I have yet to paint - although tell you true, the finished artwork might not be painting, or may not be only painting but will probably involve the sculptural arts.

Year end is always a good time to look back at art work made during the year (and previous years, as in the case of these money paintings) and to decide on direction going forward into the coming year. Below is pic of an oil painting in progress, as it was one day, some years ago ...

Finally back at work in my studio

2010-11-16T23:32:00.000-08:00

What with travel to and from San Francisco to paint the mural, work in my own studio has lagged behind a bit. I was just out there sorting through a myriad of projects in process and sorting out what works are complete and need to go to the photography studio.

So after a bit of a cleanup last night and this morning I took photos of the painting studio as is today, with all the unfinished paintings on the wall and easel.

I think it is close to 3 months I have not been into this studio and settled in for some dedicated work sessions. But that will change as the year ends - I can finish up all these paintings by years end if I work like the Dickens on them. With that thought in mind I took this photo of the corner with the paintings in progress ...

I also found a number of canvases for oil painting with a the base wash of paint on them and the paint set up for a year or thereabouts. Paintings I started and then set aside as I dealt with life and various other things that I do instead of engaging in my art creation. These are basically blank canvases and I think I will be having an intense creative spurt at years end this year. I love blank canvases - they could be anything, the paint could be laid on them in countless ways and the paintings can be of anything -- the potential of blank canvases is thrilling.

But I think I should finish the paintings I have already started before I start in on one of the blanks. Who knows though, the blanks could also get painted on before the year 2010 draws to an end.

I should also add that I am doing quite a bit of work in my sculpture garden, but that is subject of another post that I will author soon.

The mural mostly completed

2010-11-12T16:47:00.000-08:00

It has taken quite a while but overall this mural is about done.

Here you go, a photo of the muralist and the mural.

I have been going to and fro from Los Angeles to San Francisco for the past 2 months and working on this mural painting while I was in San Francisco, which is where the mural is and what it is about.

A thousand new photographs this past month.

2010-11-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

I recently got a new memory card for the camera that holds 4GB of picture data so October was a photo filled month for me.

Photography enchants me and is my longest running art, albeit non professionally - it is my hobby so I derive great pleasure from photography and no stress about it at all.

I have photographs around Los Angeles and San Francisco, and from the plane between the two cities.

A huge library of photography of buildings & places & life on the west coast in 2010.

The Freeways and the Bay, and places in-between.

I spotted a celebrity with my camera lens today

2010-10-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Lohan on her way out of the courtroom this morning. The courtroom is a few steps away from where the tree went missing. I waited a while and this is the only photograph I got of the celebrity as she was getting into her car after walking through a tunnel of paparazzi which the policemen were keeping at bay. I was off to the side and was surprised she looked in my direction.

I made photoart with this photograph.

Needs work but its interesting.

My creativity is tickled by possibilities of this sort of photoart. Also posted at Demotix.

A tree has gone missing in Beverly Hills

2010-10-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

Not any tree, but one that was planted to honor an ex Mayor of the City, who got the civic center modernized in the most delightful way.

I am on the case of the missing tree. A tree honors life and extends it, so a tree planted in honor of someone is a valuable tree, it can't just disappear. They left the plaque though, and thats where I come in - its a bronze plaque I created in 1997.

I am in search of the tree that was planted and intend to see it restored, somehow.

Update:

I met with a fireman today and learned what has happened to the tree.

The plaque is still where I installed it. Seems there are plans afoot for using this corner garden in Beverly Hills for something else.

I have to write a letter, it will be a difficult one to compose.

It is just the plaque alone in the garden today. I took this picture on the morning of 10/22/2010.

Alabaster - translucent stone - I carved a piece of it

2010-10-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is a stone carving with sunlight shining through it.

The tools I used to carve it and stone chipped off are part of the picture.

I have added images of this work of art to its page on my portfolio website.

Also, I published pictures of my 2nd carving - Shades of Eve.

Updated my website

2010-10-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

Did a lot of work on my portfolio website, got the current projects section good order and opened a page all the about San Francisco Mural I am currently working on.

Fabulous sunset in Los Angeles

2010-09-30T01:13:00.000-07:00

The red in the clouds stretched on overhead creating a superb pattern over the sky.

Toward the East, there were rainbows in the distance - double rainbows and flashes of lightening. That was over inland Los Angeles and you could see the rains falling
(didn't have my cam on me to capture that, but I rushed home and onto the roof and got some fabulous photos of the sky)

It was an amazing experience this sunset this night

The hottest day on record in Los Angeles

2010-09-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Dusk has settled in and its cooling down a bit after a day that was a scorcher, they say the hottest on record.

There was no wind, nary a breeze, the air sat hot and heavy over the basin today. Even now, the heat lingers while the cooling breezes of the Pacific ocean are in abeyance, as they have been all day long.

The hottest day after the coolest summer ever. Climate is changing, it is not comfortable, but I suppose it is something we will get used to. We did, after all, know that our lifestyles would change climate, and so it has, rapid changes now.

To illustrate this post, a picture of the sun taken on a winters day on Venice beach taken by me on 1/1/09.

On the art note. its quite difficult to now contemplate the light airy style of the impressionists and how they painted 110 years ago, when they were active between the years of 1860 and 1890. In their world the air was clean, cars had not yet been invented you see. Nor had planes taken off, the telephone and electricity not part of the world of the famous impressionists.

It is very good that I am painting this mural in a city reputed to be greatly foggy, but tell you true, in the 12 days I have spend in San Francisco, it has had blue skies, with only occasional cloud bank. I did though see a most spectacular sunrise there, it was yellow and orange and glowed as I have only seen sunset do up here in the Northern Hemisphere. As you can see from this image, it has blue skies, much like the skies have been blue most of the time I have been in SF. An anomaly perhaps? All the same, I am to be there again, perhaps the famous fog will roll in and settle down, then I can include it in the mural in a more accurate manner which would naturally occur if I see this fabulous fog.

The mural painting is progressing, it was slow to start on the first day or so, and then I got my painting groove on and roughed in this base coat of the Palace of Fine Arts. I am to return to San Francisco soon and paint in other elements. My patron think 6 days of painting aught do it, and perhaps so, but those would be 6 very long days indeed - a paintathon with scarce any breaks to sleep and rejuvenate. Perhaps that is a good approach, a deadline, a rapid pace to catch and hold, and to paint with verve.

The Impressionists

2010-09-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

I am being commissioned to paint a mural of San Francisco in San Francisco, in the style of the impressionists. To wit I am making a study of the impressionists. My patron took me to the de Young Museum in SF to see an exhibition of their work, and now I am watching a BBC series on these very same group of men. Don't get me wrong, I am of course very familiar with the work of The Impressionists, but I never before had a reason to delve into their style (and by default the men who made the famous paintings) as I am now doing.

At the de Young exhibition I noticed painting by a Frederick Bazille, a man whose work I don't recall seeing before, or if I did, I paid no attention to it but now I am intrigued. Turns out he was a financier of a sort, of his peers, the young impressionists until he died in the Franco-Prussian war when he was merely 29 years of age. In recalling his painting I saw at the exhibition, his work has instantly become favourite of mine. His painting of the artists studio struck me when I saw it, I was intrigued without even knowing the back story -- of him, his family wealth and how he captured images and portraits of them, in the context of which he knew them - he painted the young impressionists as champions and indeed, in the 100 or more years since their time, they are the champions of the painting arts, their canvases now selling for many millions and all highly acclaimed.

In looking now to select a label for this post I have to say that I see the impressions in light of Dickens, and the time he lived, which was just before the impressionists (but that is neither here nor there, its just an impression). I shall create a new label for this post and entitle it "inspiration" - a label I could write at length under because so many artists of the past whose works I have studied inspire me. But afore I digress, I will channel my writing back to the job at hand, that of absorbing impressionists and their style and ways with the paints.

In the BBC rendition of the impressionists, Monet speaks often of shades of gray -- as I myself has done the past week to my patron, because as I saw the light and color in SF, I saw so many shades of gray in the fast changing light and colors of the city.

"An investor in a joint stock company" these are the words of the actor portraying Monet ... "painting" the actor says "oh we did a bit". These lines are in response to a journalist interviewing Monet about the first independent exhibition - which was an idea of Bazille, afore he went off and enlisted to fight in the war in which he died.

1874, Boulevard de Capucines, in a photographers studio which was rented to the painters group, the exhibition that changed the art of painting from that time on until today, and probably well beyond too.

Apparently, it cost a franc to get in to see the exhibition, this fact revealed in a reading of a newspaper critique, which also describes the paintings as "rough work". Opening day 175 visitors, and a month later, the end of the show, 54 visitors to the exhibition. The actor playing the aged Monet seems upset at this number of people paying to see his work - but I can't imagine the painters themselves were disappointed at so many people seeing their work for the first time. Bad critiques abounded and it was said that they were "declaring war on beauty".

But fact is, people paid to see their work, critics wrote about it --- that show launched a mega million dollar trade in their paintings -- surely the painters knew this, had a sense of it, thrived on it all? I like to imagine they did, they would have to have known or else they would all have quit there and then but they didn't, now did they?

Cezanne, also a wealthy heir? Zola wrote about an artist in an aristocratic wealthy family and it was about Cezanne?

My gosh, it makes sudden sense how the impressionists started a movement and painted so many canvases lavished with thick coverings of paints! They had money!.!.! and they were European Gentlemen.

So their touch on the canvas was light - the paint gently applied.

San Francisco

2010-09-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

I just spend 6 days in San Francisco doing research for a mural I am commissioned to paint there -- of San Francisco,in San Francisco.

It was so delightful to have time away from LA and to be in city where so many people walk. I walked for so many miles, it was delightful.

Architecture of SF is splendidly delightful in a unique way, and I studied it as I walked around taking in the colors of the city. The timbre of the architecture, the sky and the famous fog, the visual tone of the town - certain famous landmarks, all this I absorbed as I walked and pondered the pattern of the mural I am to paint there. An exciting project that has begun and will last a month or more.

Little did I suspect that San Francisco would be my 2010 arscapade, but it is and so I will blog more about it as I spend more time there and get set in on painting the mural. I am in LA now, back at my studio and computer with a small photographic library to review as I prepare drawings for the painting. And I am so very glad to see that LA is overcast this morning and cool - a day out and about in the basin lies before me and it being cool is well appreciated. Before I set out I thought to blog a bit and post my first photo of SF, which I took last night as the plane took off. This photo shows the gentle colors of the sky and how the sun shines through between patches of fog, which on the ground, is a dazzling spectacle of color and light. It is remarkable how different the light is between LA and SF - cities not so far away and yet worlds apart.

Los Angeles new Eli Broad Museum

2010-08-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Red dot marks the spot this new museum tower will be located.

Political machinations are progressing at a rapid pace to allow for the building of a new museum for the Broad collection. It will add a new high rise to the skyline of Los Angeles along Grand Avenue. In my photo you can see the existing high rises and on the far right, the Disney Hall designed by Frank Gehry.

The art of Diane Risa Sher

2010-07-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

The art of Diane Risa Sher

Click the link above to view my portfolio website. It is coming along, slowly but surely as I add images of all the arts I have made.

An interlude: Road Trip 2 hours north of Los Angeles

2010-07-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

Went on a photo safari to the Santa Ynez Valley, just north of Los Angeles. There are vineyards and rolling hills and tasting rooms to sip on the fruit of the vine.

And now, after a refreshing trip away, I am going to tackle my art portfolio website and see if I can't that filled up with images of the many arts I have made and maybe I can make a store to sell some of it so I can fund my next artscapade and go make more art. My recent switch to a new computer should enable me to settle down now and plug away at added pages and pages of art that I have photographed and have to index and publish to the web.

Switched over to Chrome Browser

2010-06-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I mentioned that I am using a new computer, I am, it is a month old now and I have been doing a bit of a battle with it and transfer of data and so on. I had been using internet explorer as my web browser but I found it irksome sometimes and I wasn't going back to firefox because their updates seemed to glitch my old computer and today I finally downloaded CHROME and am using it now. This blog post is to see how it handles while blogging -- if less time consuming (which it appears to be) I will probably blog more often.

So far so good. Not sure why I waited so long to use chrome, it seems to be a very nice and easy way to get to the web -- I also like that it doesn't clutter my screen and leaves most of the screen open for seeing more of websites. Nice.

My sculpture garden

2010-06-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

Looking so lovely with early summer boganvillea, a bronze and a stainless steel sculpture on display. The stainless steel sculpture is 9 ft tall including the 5 ft base. The bronze is 2ft tall on 6 ft base. This Los Angeles sculpture garden can be seen by appointment - call 310-570-2787

Abbot Kinney -- First Friday - June 2010

2010-06-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

At the bronze casting foundry this week, I took photos

2010-03-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

The crucible containing molten metal fresh out the gas fired oven. It glows and its hot even at a distance - I zoomed in with the camera to capture this picture.

While I was at the foundry [to conclude the patination on my Treasure Chest] I went searching for the bronze bits I need for my next paintings and I found 7 pounds worth of the sort of bronze that I need.

Very exciting. Its about time I made some art again - I have been on art-intermission the past 6 months.

Its like that sometimes. Takes time to think about what art to make, and how to do it.

I like making art that contains a puzzle of some kind - something to think about.

I am going to blend sculpture and painting works I am going to start making soon - about the Bronse Spills -- well, I could blog about what this art will be or I can just go make it now and take pictures after its done.

In my studio in the next weeks I will create a collection of paintings that I have been conceptualizing for the past years or so. The combination and blending of genres ...

Changes afoot

2010-03-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Been very busy preparing to host a show of my art in my studio in April. yesterday I went to a foundry in Burbank to finalize the patina on a bronze I had cast there and I arrived early enough to see a bronze pour and took some photographs. Ah, the sight & smell of molten metal in the morning! - burning bright in its heated liquid state. Stirs the creative juices it does ...

Also, I picked up some more bronse spills, parts for art I will create and display at my April show.