sharing art on the street

An artist who lives on my street has been hanging 3-4 art pieces every week for several months on the street level window screens of an apartment building. Some are collage, some drawings and few oil or watercolors. They are meant to be taken by passersby. I have been pausing each time I go by to listen to comments of the folks who stop to look. They are usually positive, sometimes expressing a great deal of appreciation. Most people look and then leave them in place. But, in a day or two, all of the art has been claimed by someone. The artist dates the pieces. Some are new and some are from past years. For those of us who write or paint or do photography with virtually no hope of making a sale, it seems like this sharing is a viable and sensible way of getting “recognition” for your work---and for clearing out your house!

inspiration to passion

The “artists’ book” is art that is realized in the form of a book. There are major collections of these works and the Pacific Center for the Book Arts mounts a significant exhibition every three years at the San Francisco Public Library’s Main branch. The passion and devotion of artists for their special area of work was so apparent last Saturday at a walk-through with the artists. From concept to completion of a final work may take months, even years. The central medium of the art ranged from non-traditional book forms, including photography, collage, hand-made paper to more traditional art forms of printing and the plastic arts. As each artist discussed their work, I thought of how we are called to a “passion”. In sports, dance, writing, in caring for family & loved ones, or for preserving a cultural heritage ─ what inspiration takes an individual from interest to passion?

I did not take any photos at the exhibition, but thought in this time of the World Cup, the passion of so many of my neighbors seems to be soccer and this photo might do to represent it..

lost in the sunlight

Are we given dusk to see what would be lost in brilliant sunlight? Do the smudgy, darker days of our lives sometimes have a greater clarity than those full of sun? Or, is it that the gloaming slows us for night?  Night followed by dawn. And, then it all repeats in a slightly different variation. Life, I guess.  (However, I did get a chance to use “gloaming”…which was the word that came to me when I took the picture.)