Far Out. Far In.

Your inside is out and your outside is in.

-J. Lennon

The auspicious lotus from the Huntington Library collection.

I'm not all that crazy about winter but we've turned the corner and I'm so glad. The days are getting longer which will continue from now till June 21st after which they start to shorten again. The way in is the way out. Who said that? Can you tell me?

Beautiful Science at the Huntington.

The world in a tiny tree.

A window in a fence. Isn't that great?

The last thing I did in 2012 was pay a visit to one of my favorite cultural institutions, The Huntington (Library, Art Collection, and Gardens). What a treat and how fortunate we are in L.A to have such a treasure. I hadn't been since they opened the newly expanded Japanese garden and completely rebuilt the teahouse. " The teahouse, called Seifu-an (the Arbor of Pure Breeze), was donated to The Huntington by the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. Built in Kyoto in the 1960s, it made a return trip to Japan for restoration in 2010. Kyoto-based architect and craftsman Yoshiaki Nakamura (whose father built the original structure) oversaw the restoration. The restored teahouse was then shipped back to San Marino and painstakingly reassembled here under the tutelage of Nakamura and other expert craftsmen who had traveled from Kyoto for the project. " 

I'm taking you to tea. Walk through the sliding panels.

Here we are.

And here is where we imagine ourselves to be.

The previous owners of my own house were Japanese American and I feel they imbued the place with that spirit. The house is also imbued with cold when it's cold just like a traditional Japanese house. But I love all things Japanese. Well, let's make that a number of things Japanese. So from Japan to China, actually Taiwan for lunch after the Huntington. It's a little place not far from the Huntington in Arcadia. Din Tai Fung: voted best Chinese restaurant 2012 by L.A. Times readers.

The Japanese Garden continued. Here we see the future through the past.

The to-go bag from Din Tai Fung.

Goodbye old man 2012 and hello baby 2013. The way out is the way in. That's a labyrinth and that was my start of the new year. 

Here it is, the labyrinth in my neighborhood..

And here is the labyrinth in the Chartres Cathedral, same design.

 It's taken me nearly 10 years to at last pay a visit to the Peace Awareness Labyrinth which happens to be 20 minute walk from my house. It's behind the old Busby Berkeley house on Adams which now houses the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Read all about it if you care to, all I know is that they very kindly allowed us access to the gardens and labyrinth and left us alone. How nice, awful nice. Really quite paradise and the song went on forever. (apologies to D. Bowie)

Early Music

Early December 2012. 

This is Royce Hall , the symbol of UCLA

This is the Powell Library. It faces Royce Hall. Note the illuminated clerestory filled with early voices.

There's a new collaboration: Will I. Am with Brittany Spears called "Scream and Shout". Is that really new? I guess. I haven't heard it but December 1st I sat in the Rotunda at the Powell Library, UCLA and heard people singing. I mean singing, no vocoders, without microphones, not even a musical instrument and it was quite wonderful. I'll tell you what else was wonderful: the Powell Library. That's not new. It's been wonderful since 1929 when it opened.

At the end of the performance a little audience participation involving Perrier bottles lead by this fellow.

Upon closer inspection I felt I saw Maya influence in the tile. Could that be?

Elisabeth Le Guin on the right, a founding member of Philharmonia Baroque.

Now here you get a better sense of the space. The dome is 45 feet high.

These are the windows throwing off light that you see in  my exterior shot  (above).

In typical southern California fashion the architecture of UCLA is a mish mash of styles but the Powell Library and Royce Hall are dominated by a Northern Italian Romanesque influence. Yes, you'll find Byzantine and Spanish Moorish notes but it all really blends quite nicely and fittingly. The Architects, George W. Kelham and David Allison got the Italian vibe from the L.A. basin and that became their guiding principle. You may know our climate here is Mediterranean like Italy and there are so many natural vistas throughout the state that could easily stand in for the Italian peninsula.

I stayed long enough to see the space cleared of chairs and people and took a few more shots.

I wandered across the hall to the main reading room.

I thought this was pretty special. The dome in the main reading room is decorated with  antique printer's marks.
This is a diagram showing some of the marks.

Like many blogposts this one is a kind of failure. I can't reproduce the experience of hearing marvelous voices filling the acoustically brilliant rotunda and I've only got a cursory selection of photos to share with you. But the Powell Library has been included on lists of the most beautiful college libraries in the world so you can find of photographs of it elsewhere. And just for your information the program listing for the night's entertainment:

 

UCLA Early Music Ensemble and Contempo Flux:

'Ad Te Levavi'

Saturday, December 1

6 p.m.

Directed by Elisabeth Le Guin, Joshua Fishbein, and Gloria Cheng, these two ensembles will unite to present early music by Hildegard of Bingen, Pérotin, and Guillaume de Machaut, which sonically resembles contemporary works by Frank Ferko and David Lang.

In the center that's Gillian Wilson, curator emerita of the Getty.

 

Now, tell me. What have you been up to?

small works on paper

DSC04494, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

Colorful days of November.

A restaurant in Mexico City I've never been to.

Here's a logical follow up to my last post:

Art Image L.A.


Thanks for visiting.

Gallery X

grimes03, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

From my Gallery X series on view now, right now.

And you're in it again.

You Know the Type.

You know the type.

I drove what is otherwise a healthy walk to the Clark Library. They had an open house on Tuesday which included a lecture on Eric Gill. The Clark houses Eric Gill's library and personal papers and is an unbelievable beautiful place, okay, it's believable, it's just that it's such a surprise given it's location, a modest working class neighborhood. It is in fact basically in my 'hood. It's a shame I didn't stay for the lecture. I bet it was good. You should read the Wikipedia entry on Gill. It will curl you hair. 

The approach to the Clark Library.

This is the back of the Clark  Actually there was a good turn out for the open house. Everyone else is crowded around the buffet. It's that tight cluster of people to the left of the building.

A beautiful autumn evening.

Oh dear. The Clark needs help. Don't we all?

It's nice to see the modernist touches in this place that is otherwise so redolent of  the Renaissance.

Okay, let's go inside, shall we? This is what you see immediately upon entering the front door. You owe it to yourself to click on this image to see it larger.

So I didn't hear the talk and can't speak to it but I will give you a number of snapshots and then you can supply me with your own personal story of Gill Sans Light, Floriated Capitals, or Perpetua Greek. Or tell me about you own neighborhood rare books library housed in an ornately decorated edifice. 

Look at these two! Naked and casual as can be.

Those nudes face this view of one of the library rooms stacked double height with books.

I mean just look at all those books! And this is but a small fraction.

Are those chairs ergonomic?

This is where the lectures are held.

I could be wrong but this painting smacks of Hollywood set work but I suppose that's the sort of mindset you develop when you live here. Everything looks like some kind of Oz.

There were some wonderful sketch books and assorted ephemera from Eric Gill in glass cases lining the central hall of The Clark. And the book shelves had even more, Gill sculptures, books, posters, so much.

?

He's sketching Gothic tracery and thinking type. I just know it.

That shadowy bit  really makes this view.

Love the subtly of this.

Here we really get into Eric's head.

A pictorial diary. Isn't that fun?

This shot and the one above are not the best. I was shooting through glass so that's a challenge.

Here's some of his work in stone.

This caught my eye. Not Gill but isn't this great? The Clark is so rich.

The intercom system at The Clark Library, my final image, along with my usual plea to please leave a comment! And I thank you very much.

Site Seeing

It's so close to going live I'm going to declare this my last blog-post before I announce my revamped website of (mostly) commissioned artworks. So I'm giving you one last little tease with another composite picture. This composite represents one of my most diverse commissions. There were three parts to the commission, one part consists of three works, one part consists of four works, and the third part is a single mural. Actually the set of four works were ready made for the Henderson Village,  the designer bought them finished right out of my studio. The mural and silhouettes are very 19th century which is the look and architectural period of the resort but the four works from my studio while contemporary also fit beautifully as they recall twisted wrought iron associated with rural country life. And I thought it was especially clever of Amelia Handegan to include them to bring the place into the present while maintaining the atmosphere.  Then again the period quilt hung like a painting reminds us that abstraction is nothing new.

Composite of my work at Henderson Village

The little detail of my mural, the boat and the figure on the side, is taken directly from a work by Rufus Porter. His work has the charm and stylization of an itinerant naive folk artist artist but in fact he worked out some very sophisticated ideas of pictorial perspective and published his ideas in Scientific America. Actually he held more than 100 patents for inventions. It's quite fascinating that he was also an itinerant muralist. His works are found throughout New England and he inspired countless followers including me!

What's your inspiration?