Art Foraging - The Latest Catch

Art foraging on the web...sometimes remarkable; always eclectic.

ENCINITAS, CA (AP).- The "Surfing Madonna" appeared just before Easter weekend and has been stirring a soulful debate in this Southern California beach town ever since. The striking mosaic of the Virgin of Guadalupe riding a wave was affixed to a wall under a train bridge by artists disguised as construction workers in April. It technically is graffiti that should be removed under the law. But the surfing Madonna's beauty is drawing a mass following, and even city officials who say she must go acknowledge they too have been taken by her. They have spent thousands to hire an art conservation agency to find the best way to remove her without causing damage to the art.  entire story here

 I recently discovered the work of Argentine artist Raquel Forner (April 22, 1902 – June 10, 1988), who mixed expressionist and surrealism to create her works. There isn't much biographical information on her other than this wikipedia entry, which mentions her artistic interest in the Spanish Civil War (she spent time in Spain) and in depictions of strong female images. 

(this, to me, is reminiscent of De Chirico)

And because I have a few friends who are R. Crumb fans (Susan, Joe?), here are a few images of his I discovered while art surfing recently. Enjoy!

The Official R. Crumb Website 

(worth the visit!) 

For you Brits (or world travelers) lucky enough to access it - the Tate Movie Project, because who doesn't love animation?  :-)

Mellow Yellow Monday

I visited Santa Barbara, California this summer to spend time with my daughter and daughter-in-law. There is an annual Summer Solstice Parade there; one of the biggest in the country. It was such a blast!  Here we have a Mellow Yellow Bird Lady atop a float with The Chesire Cat. Could that mean that she is "sitting in the catbird seat" ?  What do you think?

 

Mellow Yellow Monday

Victory against Prop 8!

 

Huffington Post:  Prop 8 Overturned

This is no stock photo! It's my daughter and daughter-in-law who were married at City Hall, San Francisco in October of 2008, during that small window before Prop 8 passed. Their marriage is considered legal because of its timing, their marriage is considered legal in California but the ruling today can only strengthen their union. This is such a victory for California's LGBTQ community and a step-forward toward a national awareness of this issue as being unconstitutional; not just in California but in all fifty states. A small step, but a victory, none-the-less!

Watery Wednesday

I recently visited my daughter and daughter-in-law who live in the Santa Barbara area, where the latter is a graduate student at UCSB. On July 1, my birthday, we went to Goleta Beach, where I took these photos. I hope you enjoy them!

 Goleta Recreational Pier

On Geleta Pier, a pigeon tries to turn the faucet on??  ;-)

Getting ready to order at The Beachside Restaurant

Check out Watery Wednesday for water-related photo submissions from all over this great planet,

which is, after all, mostly water. Let's make an extra effort to take care of our Mother Earth!

Peace, love and all groovy things,

Pagan Sphinx

Ruby Tuesday Goes to the Summer Solstice Parade

I was in the Santa Barbara area visiting my daughter and daughter-in-law who live in Goleta and we attended the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Celebration. This year the theme was" carnival" and the was lots and lots of rubies everywhere.

Enjoy and happy Ruby Tuesday, which is hosted by Mary. Every week, participants submit photos that contain a little or a lot or very mixed hues of ruby red. Check it out!

Walking Down Castro (among other places)

In spite of the humid, sticky, hot weather in the Northeast, it's good to be home!  In Santa Barbara I needed a light sweater at times, in San Francisco I had to buy a jacket and a pashmina scrarf. At home right now, as little as possible!

Speaking of "as little as possible", I have a ditty about the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco. Walking down Castro, we saw a man walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk, wearing nothing but a sailor hat and cowboy boots. Gasp! Even the locals were impressed!  I fought the urge to take his photo. After all, he was obviously working on his tan, in his neighborhood and minding his own business, right? Not to mention that he gave me a sideways glance that sorta-kinda said "I dare ya".  ;-)

The story continues with WP and I running a quick errand and going back up Castro to the corner where the bar Twin Peaks is. As you will see in the photo, there is this little area with outdoor seating across from the bar, right where the trolley cars turn around.

I leave Wayne at the table, talking to his daughter, go inside Twin Peaks for a glass of wine and leave it outside with him while I return to the bar to use the women's room. I return to what turns out to be a mini-hullaballoo:  my glass of wine has been confiscated and returned to the bar and I am asked to consume it inside the bar. The patrons next to us, obviously regulars, apologized for the inconvenience, while expressing concern over the bar potentially losing its license to service alcohol. Hmmmm...a person can walk up Castro stark naked and The Pagan Sphinx almost gets arrested for bringing her wine outside!  Gotta love San Francisco! And we did and do!

 

The four days in Frisco were a total blast. A few more photos follow; samplings from the Mission, North Beach, Fillmore Jazz Festival and Japantown.

 Vesuvio Cafe
"We were bon vivantes at Vesuvio"

City Lights Bookstore

Beat Museum

The Womens Building on Valencia and 18th Street, the Mission

Women's Building (detail)

And some museum art, of course...

One of the spider sculptures by the late, great Louise Bourgeous, in the sculpture garden at San Francisco MoMA

Thank you to my friends who took the time to stop by and say hello while I was gone. I'm thinking of you all with affection and looking forward to catching up with your blog posts.


I hope you are all having a good early summer. It's hotter than Hades in the Northeast the last couple of days, and from what I understand, we missed the worse of it. Stay cool.

Some water nudes tomorrow night, I hope. A nymph or two and if I can find a Merman, all the merrier!

Love, peace and all Groovy Things,

Pagan Sphinx

A Letter to Friends

Hi to you, the faithful blog friends of the Slightly Erratic Pagan Sphinx. Now that Bobbie has passed away, I think the regular readers remain Susan, Singing Bear, Dianne, Mac and Jams.The Photo Pholks stop by for the memes but probably don't read the art or personal posts.  Thanks, Beautiful People. 

I'm writing to you briefly from San Francisco, California.  I didn't expect to be here for the last four days of my California trip but it was indeed a nice surprise to be parceled out from Santa Barbara, where I was visiting my daughter and daughter-in-law, and join WP in SF until July 5.  

Today's delights were crepes, fresh orange juice and dark coffee for breakfast and Filmore Jazz off and on all day. 

We are staying in Japan Town, which is very chill, as the San Francisco denizen, Lovely Step-Daughter #1, says.  We met her boyfriend for the first time and we had a genuinely great time out with them last night for dinner, over lots of wine and bustling city-cool restaurant atmosphere. Chill, indeed. Living-wise, I'd much rather San Francisco than New York City. Though I will visit the latter at the Drop of a Hat.

Both states need to get their act together regarding Marriage Equality. It's beyond sad that California rejected the equal marriage law, by popular vote.  Ouch. 

I digress ; sorry.

Listening to the strands of jazz music on Filmore straining up the the sixteenth floor of our hotel in Japantown.  Time to go back down to earth to groove.  :-)

Tomorrow:  San Francisco MoMA and more Filmore Jazz.

Next week:  lots of photos, here at The Pagan Sphinx.

Peace and Love,

Pagan Sphinx

What's Goin On

I have been rather dry on ideas for art posts lately and I do apologize to anyone who comes here just for the art images and their accompanying tidbits. The weather is good now and that means that I'm out there enjoying it and taking lots of photos. Those of you who visit regularly know my fondness for my camera and the occasional good photo it sometimes surprises me with.

I do have two art posts in the works right now:  one feature on the work of Georges Seurat and another in the series A Letter from Vincent. The latter is a mixture of excerpts from the letters of Van Gogh to his brother Theo and corresponding images of the paintings he was working on or those by other painters that fueled Vincent's intensity and passion.

 On June 23rd, I'm leaving for Santa Barbara to visit my daughter (SG1) and her wife, whom I call Beloved. I haven't seen SG1 since August of 2009, so I'm very much looking forward to spending time. I'll be back on July 6, which means I'll be celebrating my 51st birthday in sunny Santa Barbara, as well as the 4th festivities. SG1's Americorp stint will be over for the summer (she's enlisted for another year) and Beloved will have a light class load at UCSB, where she finished the master's portion of her degree and will begin work on the phd part in the fall. All is going according to plan for the happy couple, I'm pleased to say.  :-)

A week or so later, WP and I are leaving for the fairy cottage in Nova Scotia until the end of July. I plan on being home all of August to work on some house projects and enjoy my yard, the river and a few day trips here and there. We may even sneak in a visit to New York City, as there are lots of cool things going on at MoMA.

Peace, love and all groovy things,
Pagan Sphinx

For now, here are two images for you to enjoy - one each from Van Gogh and Seurat. 

Georges Seurat

The Seine at Courbevoie  

c1886

Flower Pot with Chives

It Breaks My Heart

I'm still on vacation! When I'm on vacation, my Lovely Man, WP always makes sure to indulge me in one way or another. Perhaps I'm easy to please, but when it's around 1:00 a.m. and I can't sleep, he senses that and invites me to watch a movie with him. I just love him so. Hold on a minute, I'm now going to interrupt his conference call to give him a hug. :-)

That was early this morning. We watched Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us. I must've been content after seeing Shelly Duval, one of my favorite actresses of that era, because I conked right out until about a half-hour ago. Bliss. To sleep until just after nine when ordinarily The Adorables (my little students) are sitting bleary-eyed before me as I tell them what day it is and what sorts of torture we have in store for them. For some reason, they keep coming back every day anyway. ;-)

This is supposed to be a post-Valentine's Day sort of tribute or ramble, or something. I'm really losing my way here. May I just put it plainly?

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of those mean-spirited, narrow-minded, fear-mongering, twisted people who are the force behind trying to brutally beat into the ground marriage equality in California. They won't do it here in Massachusetts because they wouldn't dare. We'd kick them out on their collective, pointy little ear.

Look at the happy face on my beautiful kid! How can anyone have the cruel heart to try to take that bond away from my daughter and daughter-in-law? For those of you who do not already know, they were married at San Francisco City Hall back in October, in the hope that Prop 8 would not pass. They currently live at college in Massachusetts, where marriage is legal. The couple, however, plan to move to California for graduate school, so it made sense for them to marry in California. After the passage of Prop 8, however, their union is uncertain. They're preparing themselves for inevitably seeking a domestic partnership instead.

I want to encourage you to visit Thorne's World, where I saw and borrowed this video to share with you. Thorne and her wife are dealing with the same issue as my daughter and daughter-in-law. And please meet Thorne - she'll make you laugh and cry and shake your fists; and you'll love every moment of it. I promise.


And to those people who have taken to wearing such huge boots to trample on the happiness of others: I'm Sick of You. (There's also an Iggy Pop song with the same title, but it was Lou Reed's song I was really thinkin' about.)

Supreme Court Hears Prop 8 Case Thursday

California Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments
in Prop 8 Legal Challenge on March 5

The California Supreme Court announced today that it will hear oral arguments on Thursday, March 5, 2009 in the Proposition 8 legal challenge.

On November 19, 2008, the California Supreme Court agreed to hear the legal challenges to Proposition 8 and set an expedited schedule. Briefing in the case was completed on January 21, 2009.

The California Supreme Court must issue its decisions within 90 days of oral argument.

On January 15, 2009, 43 friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Court to invalidate Prop 8 were filed, arguing that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in California’s Constitution and that the rights of a minority cannot be eliminated by a simple majority vote. The supporters represent the full gamut of California’s and the nation’s civil rights organizations and legal scholars, as well as California legislators, local governments, bar associations, business interests, labor unions, and religious groups.

In May of 2008, the California Supreme Court held that laws that treat people differently based on their sexual orientation violate the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and that same-sex couples have the same fundamental right to marry as other Californians. Proposition 8 eliminated this fundamental right only for same-sex couples. No other initiative has ever successfully changed the California Constitution to take away a right only from a targeted minority group. Proposition 8 passed by a bare majority of 52 percent on November 4.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU filed this challenge on November 5, representing Equality California, whose members include many same-sex couples who married between June 16 and November 4, 2008, and six same-sex couples who want to marry in California. The California Supreme Court has also agreed to hear two other challenges filed on the same day: one filed by the City and County of San Francisco (joined by Santa Clara County and the City of Los Angeles, and subsequently by Los Angeles County and other local governments); and another filed by a private attorney.

Serving as co-counsel on the case with NCLR, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU are the Law Office of David C. Codell, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

The case is Strauss et al. v. Horton et al. (#S168047). Click here for more information.

Good News!

Our family has been agonizing over where SG1 and her wife, The Beloved would wind up living after graduation from Mount Holyoke in May, 2009.

The worries have been many: my daughter and her fiance were married in California just a few days prior to the passage of Prop 8. Her wife, S.W. aka "The Beloved" is a CA citizen who has been studying at Mount Holyoke for four years along-side my daughter. The couple had decided that SG2 will take a one-year break before graduate school to mentally adjust to the challenge of applying to a joint Masters/Phd program. S.W. went ahead and applied to several universities in the state of Calfornia, her first choice being UC-Santa Barbara.

Their marriage is now considered invalid, which presents several challenges, not the least of them is graduate housing for couples as well as health insurance. SG1 is a bipolar individual who can only do well when on the correct medications - especially in light of the path she has chosen of pursuing academics the way she has. We've worried about housing options for our daughter and DIL, about whether SG1 will be able to find employment for a year before enrolling in her own Masters/Phd program.

Today, S.W. , who just returned from a visit to her parents home in Sacramento yesterday, recieved the excellent news that she'd been accepted to UC-Santa Barbara, in the newly created Department of Feminist Studies! The couple is giddy beyond belief. One hurtle has been mastered on the way to their west coast future!

I'm so incredibly happy for S.W. She's a brilliant, loving young woman who adores my daughter and strives to make her happy. I feel very proud and lucky to have her as my daughter-in-law.

There are still more hoops to jump through, though at least they know exactly where they're moving; assuming the university offers S.W. a good package. We're keeping our fingers crossed while awaiting the details.

By the way it's 61ºF / 16ºC, right now. The weather there will suit SG1 very, very well!

My lovely daughter-in-law

A Beautiful Elopement

My daughter and daughter-in-law
October 28, 2008 San Francisco City Hall

View the entire wedding album and leave comments if you'd like; the brides will love it!

Album 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050368&l=6004e&id=10403044
Album 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050371&l=ee098&id=10403044
Album 3: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050372&l=d1a50&id=10403044
Album 4: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050373&l=9aa6c&id=10403044