Future's Past Tree Sculpture - Hayes Valley, San Francisco

This metal sculpture lights up at night in a mesmerizing way, but I was on a daytime visit. Still—looking good! Future's Past was created by Kate Raudenbush and you can see it on Octavia at Hayes, in the green-space across from Smitten Ice Cream (another important cultural landmark).

Miniature Forest for State Parade Float

We made a representation of Connecticut in miniature for Jackson's wagon for the school parade. We focused on Stonington, but also visible is the USS Nautilus, which you can visit at the Submarine Museum in Groton.

Blue trees, Westlake Park, Seattle Washington

If trees were arteries
and newly developed building sites
  were clots
Seattle would be in trouble


Poem #5 - NaPoWriMo

Ring of Fire Eclipse 2012

Last evening's eclipse created crescent-shapes from the sunlight shining through the tree leaves (a pinhole camera effect). The light in the sky was an eerie gray. The next one like this will take place in 2023.

Guy Lewis - Sunrise

Guy Lewis is a woodworker and sculptor from Great Britain. His mixed-media sculpture is entitled "Sunrise." Symmetry, patterns—meditative state. Check out his site for more beautiful work.

Last seen on this site here.

Diablo Taiko plus Bonsai

Summer's almost over but the memories are sweet. Here's an excerpt from Diablo Taiko's performance at the Annual Diablo Japanese-American Summer Festival. I completely pigged out at this festival. I love Japanese food. The udon was really good. I also learned a lot about traditional Japanese flower arranging (Ikenobo ikebana) from master flower-arranger and first-class charmer Hideko Metaxas. This artform is like making very focused sculpture using natural elements.



The bonsai from the Shikishima Bonsai Club were exceptional. Apologies for the low contrast in these photos. Everything was nicely shaded making it hard to light on the fly.

Balmy Alley - San Francisco (and environs nearby)

I had an assignment for a photo class to take 100 shots without worrying about whether they would make "good" shots or not--just take 'em and decide later.

On the day of this assignment, my parents and I started our journey to San Francisco to visit my cousin, who was in a serious car accident this week. She's going to be all right, but she has some long-term healing to do. I thank the car gods for sparing her. Her good spirits were something to behold. Heal quickly, Maria! This was just outside SF General Hospital, which is undergoing construction for a new building.



We were hungry after leaving the hospital, so we stopped for burritos at La Taqueria on 25th & Mission. Do you crave an authentic, fresh and delicious burrito in San Francisco's Mission District? Look no further! I've been going to this place for more than 30 years. Same menu. Absolutely fresh and tasty. Be sure to order avocado for your burrito. It is worth the extra price.

While we were driving along 24th Street, watching all the murals out the car windows, I snapped this, not realizing it was a shop for Mexican wrestling masks. A little blurry (I was in a moving vehicle), but look, a Mexican wrestling-mask store!



Then we passed Balmy Alley and I realized my parents had never visited, so my dad kindly zipped around the block and they drove along slowly through the alley while I hopped out of the car and took some photos. This is the original "Mural Alley" of the Mission District. Now there are hundreds of murals throughout the large neighborhood, but I remember Balmy as being the first where a group of artists totally took over a street and did it up right. Here's a smattering of their work, which is always evolving throughout the years, since the 1980s.










To summarize:
-La Taqueria - at Mission & 25th Streets.
-24th Street murals (all the way down from Mission to Potrero--an incredible array of painted buildings for blocks and blocks).
-Balmy Alley - between 24th and 25th Streets and Treat Ave. and Harrison Street.

Shadow Trees

It's really sunny here. Can you tell?

Woodwork Trees

Guy Lewis sent me this photo of his excellent tree sculpture. He makes really cool guitar boxes too. Working with wood must be very satisfying, and look how beautiful. Thanks, Guy.

Nature Life

Jackson's drawing for our online silly art class. He had to incorporate some already drawn squiggles in his final artwork. The rest of the instructions were done in order and he calls it "Nature Life" (with chubby hamster).

One Leaf - Five Shots

I'm taking an online art class that's fun and easy to fit into my semi-busy schedule. Last week's assignment was to pick an object smaller than a car and take 20 photos of it. Then pick out your favorite five. On my walk in Heather Farm Park, I found this awesome leaf and the rest was easy. Here's my favorite five, which was hard to narrow down since I ended up taking more than 30 shots all together. When you find a good subject, go with it.

Music From A Tree

My friend Audrey posted this on Facebook today and it's worth sharing. The title says it all.



Composer: Diego Stocco

Oakland Art Tree

Spotted last November in downtown Oakland, in a store window across the street from the fabulous Fox Theatre. Always meant to post but just kept putting it off. Made of discarded items, which is a big thing in Oakland.

Symbolic Trees of Cinema - Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton recently showed a trailer for his Alice movie (coming out in 2010) and here it is, featuring a big tree stump/rabbit hole and an older Alice revisiting her childhood haunts. Burton understands the imaginative world of trees from a child's point of view. Remember Sleepy Hollow?

Lil Trees

All twisty. How festive. I'm counting 'em as trees because they have a central stem (or "trunk"). If you don't agree--sue me.

Tree Sculpture - Seattle

This 50-foot tall aluminum tree, created by Roxy Paine, lives in the Olympic Sculpture Park, a once-industrial site that is now a green meadow full of very large, very modern sculpture. You can go right down to the Puget Sound and throw rocks in the water, and take in the majestic view of the surrounding Olympic Mountains. Even on a very overcast day--a lovely place to take a walk (or run, if you're visiting with an excitable six-year-old).

Googly Eyed Tree

I have an urge to put googly eyes on this tree.

I did it! I have the power!

WNYC's Amy Sedaris Craft Challenge

Familiar Trees - "Sunspot"

A pretty music video of Sunspot by Familiar Trees


Familiar Trees - Sunspot from Sébastien Abes on Vimeo.

Symbolic Trees of Cinema - "Pan's Labyrinth" 2006

In Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," Ofelia is living in fascist Spain--a brutal time in Spanish history. Her fantasy world helps her escape. She's given some tasks to prove herself, one of which is to save this dying tree from the creature within that's causing its destruction. Not many film heroines get to save a tree. Hat's off to this fearless little girl.

Badass Trees of Cinema - The Sleepy Hollow Cherry Tree

It's been a while since I saw Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow." I remember looking forward to it because I was hoping a coherent story would be in Tim's grasp, since it's based on a coherent story by Washington Irving. Alas, Burton, true to form, gets it all muddled as usual. Nice set design and costumes, as always.

Here's a fine example of a badass tree of cinema: the cherry tree where Christopher Walken's headless horsemen comes bursting forth like a headless bat out of hell. The tree is a true Tim Burton creation, shaped in the curly-que that he tends to favor. And if I remember correctly, it swallows souls of the headless horseman's victims, so it's got some gruesome shots that I won't spoil here. It's all pretty badass, for a tree.


Johnny Depp basically acts scared through the entire film, but looks good doing it.