Alex Styrsky: art hot and cool

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I took the train to San Francisco for the opening of an exhibit of mixed-media art by Bay Area artist Alex Styrsky, son of my good friends Pam and Joe. (Pam and I started teaching at Carrollton in Miami  on the same day and have been friends, along with Clark and Joe, ever since.) 

In his artist statement Alex says he is influenced by the Miami colors of his youth and the messy virtuosity of Bay Area Abstraction. I like that his work is large and mostly bright. Using paint, found papers and other materials, Alex coolly works outside the lines.

To see the art in person, go to the First Unitarian Universalist Society, 1187 Franklin St., San Francisco.

Love,

k

Madrigal
52" x 58"

Hodos
(I had to look it up!)
44" x 45"

Blue Medicine
42" x 60"

Leda
40" x 60"

Sunspots
44" x 50"

The Veil
66" x 48"
diptych

Eleuthra
48" x 48"

Alex Styrsky

San Francisco: Strikers on the sidewalk and rigs against the sky

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

I began writing this while waiting for breakfast at Oren's Hummus restaurant in the San Francisco museum/convention area.  I love their French press coffee and potato-eggplant hash with eggs and chicken sausage, and also the yogurt with Muesli, apples and dried fruit.

Two tables down, men are talking business and also the cost of a haircut ($40-$60). Across from them sit three serious guys with name-tag necklaces, possibly among the thousands of anesthesiologists here for a conference. One wears a well-cut suit and tie shoes without socks. 

Outside, people rush on electric scooters — I think they've just been legalized after a fight. Many women wear tidy designer leather backpacks. And across 3rd Street, a man wearing bright emergency orange is hanging from a construction safety rig high against the blue sky. One block down, striking hotel service workers line the sidewalk, marching and banging pots like drums, hooked up to microphones; they plead for higher wages from 7 a.m to 10 p.m. 

Yesterday our LA cousin Judy and I went to a poetry reading in Glen Park, a neighborhood of smallish old houses that (according to the local paper) sell for more than $1.5 million. And this afternoon we will celebrate Christy’s birthday lunch  in a shabby neighborhood cafe where there are more homeless on the sidewalks than patrons inside.  

This is just a bit of San Francisco. There was also great talk and food, a Bay boat tour, and a visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I don’t know if you can tell, but I loved the long weekend with cousins there. 
Love, k

Feeling at home here and also there

Dear Friends,

A sure sign it’s home is that it is good to get back there, and I was glad to be back in Sacramento yesterday afternoon. I had a great visit in San Francisco, and am beginning to feel at home in that city too. Lesley (who spent the SF time with me) and I first met in a Miami writers' group, and we’ve been friends for more than 40 years; we hope to get together at least once a year from now on. Lesley is a musician as well as a poet, and it was new to see the world through her eyes: she told me serious musicians practice five-plus hours a day; she loves Bach, then Mozart (or was it Beethoven?), then someone else, whose name I forget. In addition, she named her favorite poets, and we discussed how art relates to contemporary events. Whew!

Oh, and we walked and shopped and enjoyed great food.

On the train home I read, then napped, then drew buildings as we quickly passed them, using simple lines and shapes before they disappeared from my memory. Then I napped again.

Love,

k

San Francisco Bay from the Bay Bridge yesterday

Talking all the way

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Today was quiet. 

But I forgot to tell you about my less -than-quiet train ride to San Francisco.

Wednesday morning I got on the train and took a seat. Soon a woman took the seat facing me. As the train began to move she started a series of phone calls. Her remarks were encouraging and professional; she seemed to be a counselor or psychologist. After a few minutes she put her phone away and told me she wanted to get her work done quickly because she’d just had “half an edible,”  and wanted to relax. She said she was about 70 and ready to retire. Then we began to talk, and we talked all the way to San Francisco, … Politics, work, writing, living in Silicon Valley… When it was about time to get off, a man sitting across the aisle came over. 

“Excuse me,” he said, “I heard you discussing politics, and I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Richie Greenberg. I’m running for mayor of San Francisco.”  

My new friend immediately pressed him about his relationship with the president, and soon Mr. Greenberg politely said goodbye. Here’s the postcard he gave me (You know this is NOT an endorsement!)

Love,

k

Old friends in a new place

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

The best part of my short San Francisco trip was seeing old friends in a new place. We stayed in a small North Beach hotel (Washington Square Inn) in Little Italy. I mean, really small. My room anyway. But location, location, location … great restaurants (Caffe Sport) and coffee shops (Mario’s) and bakeries (Liguria Bakery) … book stores (City Lights) within walking distance. Although I couldn’t see the bottom of my suitcase in the dim hotel room, I’d stay there again and love it. 

Love, 

k

On the train to SF

My room

Lobby 

Flowers at Fort Mason

City Lights Bookstore

Love this bridge!

San Francisco

Written last night:

Dear Friends, 

I’m not terrified to go to San Francisco anymore. I'm lucky to have friends who know the place well, and they have showed me some of their favorite places in the city. Sunday Mary Kaye and Leigh took me to lunch with a great view at the Beach Chalet; then we saw the Gustav Klimt exhibit at the Legion of Honor, which you may know as the museum where the famous sculpture The Thinker broods in the courtyard. The best thing, though, was laughing and talking together.

Love,

k

You can see the Golden Gate Bridge from the park 

surrounding the Legion of Honor,

This is the neighborhood where I stayed with my friends

Train station people

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

I admire Terry Tempest Williams, and was going to hear her speak at the Presidio (not sure what that is — a park? near the Golden Gate Bridge??) in San Francisco today. But at the last minute I got an email that she’s sick, and the event has been postponed until fall. So I went to the train station a few blocks away from here to cancel my Amtrak ticket.

I love the train station. It’s big and historical. They let dogs in — just not on the trains. So Zing went with me and curled on the floor while I worked with the ticket seller. Then we looked into the big waiting room, with its clock and historical mural. You always see a great mix of people, and today this is what we saw. I leaned against the wall, well behind these young women, to sketch them.

Love,

k