Happy Holidays.. now stop shopping and start resting.

www.IMAGINE PEACE.com

Losing oneself in a Box

The De Young Museum is finally getting it's identity game ON. With various transitions and a few small commissions with big names since it's inception, they've hit the nail on the nose with a very handsome, well displayed and generous Louise Nevelson show in tandem with an eclectic and very SF friendly Besser collection of African beadwork, kitschy tea pots, and graphite drawings. I've always loved visiting the museum in Golden Gate Park, blessed with the futuristic 70s Herzog and De Meuron design with its decadent narrow angles, fern and slate stone landscaping, and Blade Runneresque overhang... but yesterday, on their Tuesday free day, I happily encountered two exhibitions that made me look just as deeply at their art works. There's a new trend in San Francisco exhibition design marrying their education department into the show. A video discussing the artist and interviews is usually on display to supplement the shows which is great. Louise Nevelson, in said video, with her trademark heavy lashes, vivid style and jewelry can be seen talking confidently about her sculptural artwork alongside testimonials by Jessica Stockholder about form, color and how they can transform one another. She used found objects or everyday discarded things in her “assemblages” or assemblies, one of which was three stories high:

”When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."

Bros Stay Warm

International NO Music Day

It would be great to continue this to No Cellphone Day, No Computer Day, No Car Day, No Complaining Day, No Eating Meat Day, No Bad Thoughts Day, No Drinking Alcohol Day, No Gossip Day, No TV Day, and perhaps even better to name it something more proactive like Try Something You've Always Wanted To Do Day, Talk Dirty To Your Lover Day, Draw Something Day, Write a Letter and Mail It Today, Call a Family Member Day, Buy Flowers Day, Park Day, Watercolor Day, Write a Grant for a Public Sculpture Day, Make Dinner for a Friend Day, Volunteer at the Pet Orphanage Day, Beach Clean Up Day, Eat Something You've Never Tried Day, Travel to a Certain District of Town You've Never Been to Day, Play an Instrument for an Hour or So Day, Read an Entire Book Day, Donate to a Charity Any Way You Can Day, Play Tennis Day, Wear Something Night Wear Daytime Day And See How It Makes You Feel Day... etc. Setting limitations is good to make you think differently. Have a good day.

The City as Social Museum

I'm ready to commit to you San Francisco, and get to the bottom of why your public is not engaging in ART. Whether it be at SFMoMa, Headlands, private gallery or non-profit, in the park, at the ocean, in the mountains.. I am going to invite YOU to participate because I know you have it and you want it.

Museums have always been instruments of power, but in San Francisco we are almost waiting for something to happen there. But let us question the role of the museum within the rigid operating system of art. Is it possible to counteract the hectic, superficial nature of short-lived exhibitions and encourage delights of deceleration and depth, or collect contemporary art without merely amassing objects that will soon be forgotten when the zeitgeist changes?

Can the museum bear witness to time by preserving a common history for itself and its public? It is now time to nominate for Bay Area Now at YBCA and the SECA nominees from the SFMoMa will be announced soon. When was the last time either of these awards really took risks or got you excited about Bay Area artists? They have either been too little too late or is this mirror of the best of the Bay Area disappointing in itself? Should we just start macrameting and becoming sommeliers?

Instead of espousing the myth of the museum as a neutral venue of pure being, let's collect transience. Let's collaborate with diverse artists to execute new works and pursue works in progress. Let's reference place and continuity, content and experience, and in-depth contact with the public. This exceptionally open framework appeals to artists; with the museum as their active partner, they accept and enjoy a greater responsibility within the public sphere. I will do my best to do my part. Gathering my nuts for the Winter. Bring it San Francisco. This is a call to arms.

Morrissey and the Quality of Accident

I had no idea he played at the Fillmore in SF not too long ago.. and I heard that he was wonderful, even more so than when he began his first solo career. I went to the Bona Drag and Kill Uncle tour, saw him in a chapel, (we proved our fanaticism and won our tix into that show, where Morrissey signed my jeans), and even went shopping with him and Gary Day at Horton Plaza in San Diego and basically, ended up talking about homelessness in America. We bootlegged our own xerox copies of tix to go to his big arena shows. We found out where his hotel was and strewn gladiolas all over their tour buses. That euphoria.. I know it's inside locked in age and the stakes are higher but it's still there. We never googled him, or read about him in the Sun, he never made the cover of Vogue. He is ultimately a hero of MINE.