My sister Jennifer and her two boys drove me from the wilds of the North State (does the rest of California know that those of us living past Mendocino have a different name for our state?) to the airport in San Francisco. Jen and her family live nearby so I had a day with them and was also able to visit my son who lives in Santo Cruz. The delight of the journey begins.
I flew out of the new terminal two at SFO. It is a step in to a new age. Gorgeous, technologically driven and yet the priceless art SFO is famous for was present in an extensive collection of gorgeously crafted silver from many eras. I flew Virgin America. From the moment I stepped in to the plane softly lit with purple and pink I felt transported to some magical place. Huh? Air travel with some glamour? Yes. This was a different ride. It is quite wonderful to have a screen in front of me with menu selections that I can enter at any time and have brought to me. As many times as I wish. No waiting for the cart to travel down the aisle. This airline is doing many things in a different way. I enjoyed traveling with them.
Washington DC. A must visit place. As americans we travel all over the earth. I hope those who love to travel also come here. This city is simply magnificent. I have been gifted to a stay at an unbelievably wonderful and stunningly unique place near Dupont Circle. It is called The Mansion on O Street. Many Thanks to Ted Spero and H for your generosity. You have truly created a one of a kind experience. My life is greatly enriched because of you. To Karen for offering this connection: I love you!
My dear adopted mother Frannie has traveled here with me. We have been waiting for Travis to arrive with the show. He is currently 30 miles away from us. A few days behind schedule. But all is safe and good. He has adventures to share from his drive across the country. While waiting for Travis yesterday Fran and I decided to sightsee. We toured the National Galleries, east and west, soaking up, inhaling, feeling so much marvellous art. Highlights include the tunnel of moving lights which connect the two galleries. Whoever thought this installation up was inspired. We walked the moving sidewalk three times and each time found it a thrill. I could not help but bounce myself with a light run back and forth on the sidewalk and leap off the end. Lunch by the waterfall installation came as close to the rapids of the south fork of the Trinity River as I will ever know in an urban environment. I could put my face up close and imagine I was near the steep falls I love to visit every summer, the drops of water popping, the motion rapid and white. Once again I am thrilled by the power of art to create a change in emotions, feelings, sensation. Then of course the visiting Capitoline Venus in the rotunda, oh her lips! How can hard marble appear so soft? It is her first time out of Rome. Gabriel Metsu created an opportunity for my time travel in to another place. Walking through the intimate rooms filled with his quite ordinary and yet sweet everyday life images grabbed from a time so long ago filled me with the sensation of being in another world. Nam June Paik offered a retreat, an opportunity to embrace stillness, reflection. Frannie had a vision while in the tower with this installation of the Walking In Love spiral filling the space. Of course we had to sit and watch the gentle motion of a Calder swirling over all. Huge chunks of metal in graceful air ballet. I am inspired by the visions these artists possess. And then there was the "5 plates of steel and two rods" sculpture standing in exquisite balance below the Calder. I soaked up to full saturation a dizzying array of magnificent art. YUMMY!
A trip across the mall to the National Museum of the American Indian created an interesting balance point to the galleries. The most beautiful circle executed in stone and copper sits at the bottom of the rotunda at the center of this gorgeous building. I sat on the highly polished stone bench leaning up against the rough hewn stone back gazing up at the four directions created within the skylight in the ceiling. Max, a young boy from Tennessee asked me what I was doing. He then quizzed me about why I am in DC. He closed his eyes when I described the Walking In Love spiral and then asked enough questions to fill his imagination with a vision. He smiled with amazement and said he would love to see it. Was he an angel? I do not know. He brought me encouragement. I stood in the center of the circle while children ran around, adoring parents took endless photos of them in their delight. Of all the moving experiences created within this museum I was most enthralled with a wall full of arrowheads mounted in a flowing manner. I can't do it justice with words. It moved, like water, through various sizes, shapes, all arranged as water motion, yet rendered with rough stone crafted from hundreds to thousands of years ago out of many types of rock. Fran and I ate lunch by the 'river' created next to the cafe which serves foods of indiginous people. It was fabulous!
Just when we thought we were too exhausted to go any further we wandered through the Botanical Gardens. I felt the call to float across the lawns, my butterfly wings delighted by the blue globe thistles, orchids, water gardens and green. Frannie refused to wade in the fountain though her dogs were barking furiously. "It's just not dignified,"she told me. I wonder if we could all do with a tiny bit less dignity and a little more fun? She tells me that she stood in the fountain in her dream last night. I am so glad!
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