I think that once you’ve seen one of Al Farrow’s mosaic sculptures you’ll never quite forget it. That was why on my visit to the deYoung Museum in San Francisco last August I suddenly found myself experiencing a strange feeling of deja vu; it took me a few minutes to realize why. His intricate pieces are both jarring and thought-provoking, […]
Although the iconic notion of a lighthouse is a lonely structure standing straight and tall on the rocks, dashed by the raging sea, lighthouses actually come in many shapes and sizes. Most US lighthouses these days are either completely automated or else they’ve been done away with altogether. I feel quite lucky I’ve been able to visit a few of […]
All of the photos in the current collection are held in five old-fashioned self-adhesive “magnetic” albums, with acetate covers intended to protect the photographs. Even though we now know these types of albums are actually destructive to prints (especially those in color), they are still being sold in stores. Pictures stored in them tend to become brittle and discolored and, […]
You may have noticed by now that I really enjoy shooting photos while traveling — as in, literally going down the road (or track, as the case may be). Sometimes my favorites of these shots aren’t especially good photography, but I don’t mind too much because they manage to capture some memorable or transient detail that otherwise might have been […]
Seen in the deYoung Museum in San Francisco, August 2022.
I first learned about the artist Chiura Obata (1885-1975) during my visit to Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum back in September 2018. I shared some images from that visit more recently, in October 2020, showing some of his drawings and other pieces (including the one above) that particularly impressed me. So I was very happy to discover Moonlight, a large piece […]
Franklin Simmons (1839-1913), Penelope, 1896, Marble Gift of the Daughters of Penelope, an International Hellenic Women’s Organization, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Fransisco on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Daughters’ founding by Alexandra Apostolides in San Francisco on November 16, 1929. The donation in honor of Hellenism was made possible by the vision of Mrs. […]