Locke, California

Locke, acrylic on paper, 12”x9”

The small town of Locke, California is now a National Historic District with a fascinating history.  Located in the Sacramento Delta, the town was settled in 1915 by Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans at a time when discriminatory California law did not allow Asians to own land.  The original land was leased from George Locke.  More about the town’s history can be found here.

I have visited Locke a few times and it demands to be photographed, and, as you can see by yesterday’s project, painted.

Home Land Security

I never tire of exploring the California Coast including the repurposed military bases in or adjacent to San Francisco.   Most have been transformed into parks.  I have a longstanding fascination with the abandoned bunkers and gun batteries.  They are like concrete “ruins” from a time when they were needed to give us a sense of safety and security.  Our world is far from peaceful and feels less and less safe, but the gun batteries that once protected the Bay Area now are basically obsolete.

Today was one of those perfect sunny San Francisco days, the Golden Gate Bridge looked fantastic and tourists were snapping pictures of the view from atop Fort Winfield Scott.  But for us, it was time to see what was hidden beneath the concrete. 

The For-Site Foundation has brought together artists for a site-specific installation titled Home Land Security.  As they describe it:

“Home Land Security brings together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name.”

The work is installed in 5 buildings and we began with one of the most powerful and disturbing pieces – 2487 a sound piece by Luz María Sánchez.  Ducking my head to enter a dark passageway where a row of speakers randomly announce the names of 2487 people those who perished crossing the boarder between Mexico and the United States.  You can experience the piece on the website diaspora2487.org.

Mandana Moghaddam’s video piece Exodus was the next work to confront us. The heavy doors are open to reveal a screen where we see footage of the anonymous, lost luggage of refugees.

Tirtzah Bassel and Michelle Pred explore the theatre that is airport security.  Bassel offers an installation of a temporary mural using duct tape as the artistic medium while Pred’s installation is almost lovely until you think about it — the circle made up of hundreds of small objects confiscate in the name of security.

The project website covers all the installations in detail with many photos, etc.  Or ideally, you will be able to visit for yourself before December 18, 2016.

And you too can contemplate just how “safe” we all are…

Helen’s Postcards

A new book of vintage postcards 

If you know my work, you know I love old postcards.  Well, I have some that I can never cut up for art projects because they are family heirlooms.  It’s unusual to have an intact scrapbook filled with nearly 400 postcards sent to one person a century ago.  That scrapbook belonged to my great grandmother.

In 1907 she was 13, the oldest of ten children, and had to leave school to help support her large family. As a young woman, she held a number of different jobs and her circle of friends grew.  She kept in touch with friends and family through postcards.  One hundred years ago, one of the fastest and cheapest ways to communicate was to send a postcard.  You could send quick messages, a happy birthday, corny jokes, make plans and even flirt.  At the time, young people were using postcards very much like email and texting is used today.

Now I am turning that scrapbook into a book called Helen’s Postcards.  Anyone who enjoys old postcards will obviously appreciate the book.  The book will also be a document of the lives of young, working class women in the 1910’s.  It will offer a glimpse into the world of Polish and German immigrants in Buffalo, New York.  It has the stories of young men going off to war, some matchmaking and even a hint of romance.  And some of the postcards are just plain funny.

The finished book will be full color, soft cover and about 65-70 pages.  The book will contain images of many of the best postcards.  The messages written on the backs of some of the postcards will be transcribed and annotated with stories and background about my grandmother and her friends and family

The only way to make the book affordable and accessible is to print many copies at once.  I have started a Kickstarter campaign with that will guarantee every supporter gets a copy Helen’s Postcards.  When you support the campaign and pre-order the book, you will be helping to finance the entire project and will allow for an even larger printing.  Your generosity can help make Helen’s Postcards happen.

You can learn a little more about the project at helenspostcards.com

Here is the link for the Kickstarter campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/176235615/helens-postcards

   

The Map of San Francisco – 10 Years Later

10 years ago this summer my living room was a mess. A large canvas (50”x40”) was on the easel. The floor was a sea of small bits of map. I was in the middle of creating a new map of San Francisco.

I had decided to render the City in a detailed map where each city block would be represented by a piece of map from someplace else. I wanted the piece to reflect the immigrant nature of our City. To that effect, certain places dominate various parts of the map. For example there are a lot of pieces of China in Chinatown, the Mission contains pieces of Latin America, Bayview has pieces of the U.S. South. True to San Francisco, there are pieces of all sorts of places throughout the map. There are also hidden little messages. For example, the block where the Transamerica Pyramid stands is represented by Cairo. And if you’re a serious history buff, you’ll know where to look for a piece of Sydney to represent the notorious Sydney Ducks.

In 2001, when I was in the middle of this piece, I realized that I never would have undertaken the task had I truly understood the amount of effort that would be involved. Often when I am the most pleased with my results, they are the pieces that that end up being far more involved and a greater challenge than I had anticipated.