Aloha

Life is grand on Maui...ukulele players, beach scenes and yes some art to appreciate.

View from lounge chair just before slipping into the Jacuzzi.  That's the island of Lanai in the distance.

Poke, the 200 lb. pig wadinginto the ocean.   The photo was taken by the Cesere Brothers, John and Dan.  They grew up playing in the surf off the coast of Maine and made a pact to stick together, live on an island and pursue a career that would allow them to continue to explore the oceans that they love.  They have been doing this on Maui for over 20 years, working full time as professional underwater photographers.  Here's to John and Dan....and of course Poke...living their dreams!

"African Sonata" by Vladimir Kush who was born in Russia in 1965 is a Surrealist painter who now lives in the U.S. with galleries in Maui, Laguna, and Las Vegas.  It's nice to appreciate fellow Tuba players.

Taj and Jade appreciating Maui Shaved Ice...along with the photographer.

Substitutions for guns for self protection.



Great singer, great smile, at the Hula Grill on the Beach, Joshua P. Kahula.  Thank you Joshua for a wonderful afternoon.



A Day in L.A.

On this rainy morning I kept dry in Disney Hall listening to the rehearsal of the L.A. Phil. conducted by Ludovic Morlot.  This French Conductor led the orchestra in a works by a French composer, Heni Dutilleux born in 1916.  He wrote "The Shadows of Time" in 1997.  The program states:  "Dutilleux's music often presents a sensuousness of texture - a colorful garden of sounds so delicately cultivated that he often brings to mind a latter-day Ravel."  The Shadows of Time is a somber meditation on loss relating to the 50 year remembrance of those lost in World War II.  He was especially moved by Anne Frank's diary and the deportation by the Nazis to concentration cams of an entire orphanage of Jewish children.

Next the orchestra played the Victorious Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.  It is always inspiring and chilling to hear this great works....certainly Beethoven at his best.  The final works was Mozart's Piano Concerto N. 25 with Emanuel Ax.  Ax played easily and confidently and after a run through he worked with the conductor and orchestra to get the sound he wanted.  Then they played much of it all again.  Outstanding!

The afternoon brought the sun and a walk to Grand Park to sit and enjoy the fountain and views. 

Then it was a stroll down Hill Street to the Grand Central Market for a Kabob lunch and a check on the renovation in progress.  Finally, I walked across the street and road the Angels' Flight funicular railway up Bunker Hill to Grand Avenue and back to Disney to get my car.  We do live in an amazing city.

Wednesday at Santa Monica Beach

It was a cloudy but warm day at the beach so I sat outside at Back on the Beach restaurant and enjoyed my veggie omelet, potatoes, and cranberry scone while I read the L.A. Times and watched the skaters, bicycles, and birds go by.  I then walked down to the waters edge and marveled in the graceful pelicans flying in formation while fishing.  Then a happy looking seal popped up out of the water and swam by.

The Annenberg Beach House has many attractions including an art gallery where I enjoyed the works of Doni Silver Simons, painter, Melinda Smith Altshuler who works with translucency and light, Julia Schwartz, painter, Aleve Mei Loh, painter, sculptor and filmmaker, and Airom Bleicher an Australian bush-raised and educated artist living in L.A.

Gun Violence Prevention: a Leadership Training on Saturday at U.S.C.

As a part of President and Mrs. Obama's day of service commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. and the Presidential Inauguration, I attended a training called Days of Dialogue at U.S.C. on the 19th.  We were oriented on the issue of gun violence and ways to lead dialogue in our communities.  I learned several interesting statistics.  One is that every day, there are 35 homicides and 46 suicides by gun in this country.  It is estimated that if a gun would not have been present, 90% of the suicides could have been prevented.  More than half of the youth who committed suicide with a gun obtained the gun from their home, usually a parent's gun.  Over 1.69 million kids age 18 and under are living in households with loaded and unlocked firearms.

I also learned that 7 of the top ten states with the strongest gun laws have the lowest gun death rates.  These include Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and California.  The other three states with the lowest fun death rates are Minnesota, Iowa and Maine.

A Day at the Getty Center, January 17

The Getty Center is a great place to bring your newspaper, have coffee outside and wonder at the beauty of the Brentwood hills, the views from down town LA to Catalina Island.  Oh, by the way they have some pretty interesting art too.

Surrealism and Latin America is one of the exhibits.  Three European artists - Wolfgang Paalen, Alice Rahon and Eva Sulzer- left Paris in 1939 for Mexico City and joined a group of surrealist artist who lived there in the 1940's.  "Farewell to Surrealism:  The Dyn Circle in Mexico" explores Dyn and its influence in surrealist circles.  Many were drawn to the pre-Columbian era of Mexico and the findings from archaeological expeditions.  "Dyn painters merged imagery from physics, mathematics, geology, and archaeology with motifs from pre-Columbian and Pacific Northwest native objects to create works of visual abstraction."

Eva Sulzer, Alice Rahon and Wolfgang Paalen a day in the garden enjoying the exile from Europe during the War years of the 1940's.  They were haunted by the war, inspired by science and seduced  by archaeological discoveries. 
They made the transition from Surrealism to abstract expressionism.

People dressed as dogs for a Fiesta by Carlos Merida

Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance is another exhibit at the Getty.  "During the first half of the fourteenth century, the city of Florence witnessed rapid civic and church growth and was home to revolutionary painters."  The exhibit focused on manuscript illumination and panel paintings.

During this time it is written that the city of Florence was reborn.  "The medieval tower houses that dominated the skyline...were soon rivaled and ultimately replaced by the civic and church buildings...Palazzo dei Priori (Palazzo Vecchio), the iconic Duomo...and the many churches including Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella and Santa Maria del Carmine."  These all required sumptuous panel paintings and illuminated manuscripts.

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation has given about 30 photos each to the LACMA and to the Getty Center.  The Getty collection shows portraits of people and flowers.  He lived from 1946 until 1989, dieing of AIDS related illnesses. Below are two self portraits, one in 1985 is an experiment in motion...a double portrait.  "This image suggests a powerful awareness of the transience of life."  The second one is from 1980.  The third photo is of Patti Smith for her first record album. 

My next discovery at the Getty was the Jawlensky paintings from the Long Beach Museum of Art.  Russian born Alexei Jawlensky was a key member of the German avant-garde in the early twentieth century.  These five paintings are a part of Milton Wichner's collection and bequeathed to the Long Beach Museum.

"Helene II" 1915
Jawlensky, Russian, 1864-1941

"Head, G. II" 1917

"Savior's Faces:  Number 10, Last Look" 1919

"Christ" 1920

"Autumn Sound 1918"


VIEWS FROM THE GETTY CENTER

RAND Corp. forum on James Q. Wilson

On Thursday the 17th, I attended a forum at RAND and their Pardee RAND Graduate School on "The Intellectual Life and Legacy of James Q. Wilson."  He died last year after a distinguished career that included board member of the RAND Corporation and it's graduate school.  He was know for his analyses of the nature of bureaucracy.  He was 80 when he died 3/22/2012.  His books included a textbook "Bureaucracy:  What Government Agencies Do and Why they Do It."  He is also famous for teaching the "Broken Window" philosophy of policing.  I attended a RAND forum last fall that discussed this and included Charlie Beck, LAPD Chief, on the panel.  He taught at government at Harvard for 26 years, management and public policy at UCLA for 10 years, public policy at Pepperdine for 9 years, and a senior fellow in political science at Boston College from 2009 until his death.

The panel was introduced by Michael Rich, president of RAND.  He said that the Pardee RAND graduate school has 100 PhD students and 200 faculty members.  The panel members were Pietro Nivola, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, R. Shep Milnick, professor at Boston College, Angela Hawken, Associate Professor of economics and policy analysis a the the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, and Susan L. Marquis, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

The panel discussing his life and works made the following comments:  He worked from the perspective of a regular citizen, asking questions, observing varieties of police behavior.  He took an anthropological approach, observing and avoiding conventional wisdom.  He was a neo conservative in an environment of liberals.  He didn't attack Bureaucracy, it does work when people have clear and manageable tasks.  He was not a theorist...he looked at evidence.  Regarding crime, he supported incarceration, swift and certain sanctions although research shows that it doesn't matter about the severity of the sanctions.

He taught about issues of morality, character and civic virtue and governments role in shaping character.  Regarding the "Broken Window" approach they said it does not mean zero tolerance but instead to focus on what matters and enforce that to achieve an orderly environment.  For policing, he taught that relationships with the community matter and how citizens view the police.

As a teacher he asked deep questions like 'What is Democracy.'  He loved intellectual engagement with students and was available to them.  He was a brilliant lecturer and performer often receiving standing ovations. 

I will be reading more about Dr. Wilson as it seems he was a remarkable man who left an important legacy.

If it's Wednesday, it must be Huntington Gardens

Cousin Rob and I roamed the Huntington Galleries and Gardens. We enjoyed special music in the Chinese gardens. Life has so many gifts. Our challenge is to receive them and let the joy come in.

Otis College of Art and Design

I roamed over to the Otis College on Thursday morning near LAX.  I peered into the Ben Maltz Gallery and appreciated a few paintings by artists sponsored by Homeboy Industries an anti gang program founded by Father Greg Boyle.  "Bridging Homeboy Industries is on display until March 23rd.  Special events are scheduled on Saturday January 26th, February 9th, with Father Greg, February 23rd and March 2nd.  I hope to attend at least one of these.

The artists are Fabian Debora, Alex Kizu, Juan Carlos, and Munoz Hernandez.

Henri Matisse

I  have enjoyed studying the life and works of Henri Matisse, 1869-1954.  Proded by the current exhibit at the New York Metropolitian Museum of 47 of his paintings, I began my research.  I have enjoyed the web sites of several museums that let me view the paintings and learn about Matisse's life.  One delight was the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia where I can stroll the museum and have 360 degree views of each room.  They have two rooms of Matisse's work.  I also learned that a Russian art dealer was buying a lot of paintings in Paris during the early part of the 1900's to sell to his rich customers in Russia.  Some particularily liked Matisse's use of color.  Later after the 1917 revolution, the State confescated the homes and belongings of the rich and put the art in the Puskin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg....both former palaces of the Czar.  I was delighted to see some of these paintings at the L.A. County Museum of Art in 1986 including the gold fish below. 

I presented my research to the class at the V.A. today and they seem to enjoy and appreciate.  I found great short videos on line that I used to show Matisse's works and tell his story.

"Lorette with Cup of Coffee," 1916-17 seen this summer in the Art Institute of Chicago



"The Dance" 1909 to 1910 at the Hermitage Museum



"Goldfish" 1910