NCECA + new art

Hello all!

THB and DB are traveling again! Not far, just to Sacramento and back. Chasing art...ceramics mostly! Rather than bore you followers with tons of text, THB will bore you with tons of pictures, especially while THB gets used to doing a daily blog again. At the end of the travel pics are some more personal updates: medical status, a few twin pics, some construction across the street from the loft pics, etc.

Big bus for about 25 of us; two of our friends, RR and AR, have flights cancelled from Miami and miss the tour. We were hoping to reconnect from past NCECAs. Also on the tour is JS, someone we had met once over a lunch with a common friend in March 2020...two long Covid years later....maybe it was just THB being THB: the bus driver took the most convoluted routes possible between stops. What do these guys from Sacramento know about the East Bay? Nada

Day 1: NCECA, Berkeley to Sacramento Hyatt Regency

outside Dome, Peter Voulkos studio, less than a 2 miles from the loft

huge mural just inside door

PV (Peter Voulkos) paintings

PV Bronzes

clay

Litho by PV

Early Jun Kaneko; Jun found PV and they became friends

PV became great guitarist and "friends" with David Crosby (top). It is not easy to be friends with David - listen to 70 over 70 Crosby podcast

This guy came to work as a grad student with PV, he's still in studio 40+ years later

Marilyn Levine was an earlier studio mate of PV

An early visitor: Goro Suzuji. PV traded for a Goro chair. See DB and THB's at Museum of Craft and Design

Maybe Dale Chihuly

PV's daughter explains she is long-time tango enthusiast

Stephen De Staebler: Tour visits his house and 

studio in the Berkeley hills. He died in 2011; his second

wife of 18 years,Danae Mattes, also an artist, gives us the tour

Note the fish with the large yellow "tumor"

Next stop: Trax Gallery, home to Bob Brady and Sandy Simon: featured  are work by Bob (DB and THB have many pieces of both), Claudia Tarantino, Bill Abright (also a couple), Stan Welsh, Mary Alison Lucas (DB and THB have a great piece of hers at the beach)

Bob's latest, purchased by SAS and CYS

Mary Alison

Bill Abright

Claudia (we are hoping she will repair our Richard Shaw)

Next stop: Nancy Selvin Studio, 5 blocks from Trax (we should have walked)

DB talking to ? He uses 3D printer to generate his new work

Nancy's work

Next stop: Jeffrey Spahn house and gallery (Jeffrey in white shirt), across street from Nancy (we walk!)    

Jose Sierra work, very unusual construction 

Early Bob Brady

Next stop: Richmond Art Center this time the bus driver refuses to use HOV lane

Photograph by Val Kai of intersection 1/2 mile from Loft

Lauren Ari exhibit - we are considering a piece by her...can you guess which one

Twin Sisters: Lauren's mom has a twin sister

Lauren

Next stop: Epperson Gallery in Crockett, next door to the Tat Gallery

Richard Notkin piece, DJT profile!

THB buys one of a series: porcelain Tablet by James Aarons

Next stop: dinner at Bella Siena, not very memorable

chilly on the water behind restaurant 

Department of Medicine: 

1. THB goes for his every-other-year exercise-stress-echo test to find out if his heart needs more attention. This is standard post-op stuff for those having received a stent. Something new this time: the prep for the stress test means getting a PCR test. Stanford Health built a new facility right down the road from the loft  and THB decided to ride his bike to the drive-thru test center. Timing is also good  for joining the NCECA Collectors Tour in 5 days. Test result: no Covid virus detected (i.e., negative). PHEW!!

Good news: there was no sign of Covid-19 antibodies

2. Necrotizing Myositis Status: More good news for THB on the Covid front. Evulsheld (a combination of two human monoclonal antibodies), used to prevent COVID-19, is now more widely available. Thus THB can go back to getting the Rituximab infusions (in early April) and subsequently get Evulshed to provide protection from Covid-19 if the infustions wipe out the vaccine shots (THB has now got his 2nd booster, this time Moderna).  In meantime, THB will continue with and increased dose of Methotrexate and optimistically discontinue the Metho after receivng Evulsheld. TMI! Short version: there is another weapon against Covid for those afflicted with auto-immune illnesses. Why did THB say this the first time?

3. Remember the pic of THB's finger from a recent post:

That turns out to be Raynaud's, where the way to treat this disease is by dressing warmer. Hmmmm....in meantime, apparently in conjunction with other auto-immune illnesses, it lops of 3 years of THB's average remaining lifetime. Really? Time to start wearing gloves with the tops of the fingers - of the gloves - cut off, warmer socks, and maybe something to cover the ears (oops, this last is because THB suffers from cold ears). And, as DB remembered, THB's mom also had Raynaud's, so maybe it is genetic. 

Department of Twins: Why do the twins now make special requests to sleep-over at the loft?

A table in the sun for breakfast, enjoying Arizmendi, sharing hot chocolate and pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins

Department of Art: The loft "kitchen" floor gets an upgrade. Surrounding three sides of the kitchen island is a floorcloth by Patricia Dreher (local artist with a work-live studio near Riva Cucina, about 2 miles from the loft).

back

left

right 

back

Department of Construction: Sherwin-Williams

Sherwin-Williams project has morphed intoTHE EMERY

And around the corner on Halleck another old building is undergoing major reconstruction

Department of Destruction: 

Miscellani

 Department of Signs:

Say What? 

Department of Finance: Remember when THB send out the fraud alert. Now it's made the NYT Fraud is Flourishing

Department of Medicine: THB washed the cars. It was semi-cold out and this is what happened when he finished up, maybe 1/2 hour all told working on the cars

                                                                Washed the blood right out of that middle finger

                                                        After about 15 minutes, everything back to normal

THB gets his 4th shot, this time Moderna

                                                   

Department of Travel:

THB gets ok from Hawaii to skip quarantine

Department of Twins

February 2022

                            Twins get a tour of the Elkhorn Slough, departing from the Moss Landing Harbor

                                                     

  

    

                                                THB sees his future: taking the twins out on a 3 person kayak

                                            Sandy doesn't need headphones, she can hear the TV whistling

Future Hairdressers prepping the blindfolded client

Tilden Park March 2022

C is for Carousel

C is for Chocolate

Not Tilden, twins in rock climbing gear and dresses

After a sleep-over, the twins take a walk to Arizmendi and share a hot  chocolate and each have a pumpkin-chocolate chip muffin

Sherwin Williams March 2022

Pacific Grove March 2022

Sunrises Feb 2022

THB and DB go across the Bay to see Loft Art + odds and ends

THB's dad would be 100 years old today. If Hank Murta Adams had done a bust of Bert in cast glass, this is what he would look like! Maybe without the jug on top...
 

DB and THB worked for many years and were friends with Ted Cohen, a fabled Bay Area exhibition designer and craft collector. A few years ago, Ted asked if he could use our Loft art collection in a show at the SF Museum of Craft and Design. Of course we said yes. Now, the show is up and you followers can get a view of some of the pieces in our collection. Unfortunately, Ted passed away recently at the age of 93 and thus did not get to see the selections he made displayed in the show. 

Ted Cohen

Up through June 5

 THB and DB

E&J

 

Twin Pic of the Week: C, without fear, attacking a climbing wall...she's 4 and has already scaled higher heights than the other members of her extended family. 

Department of Travel: THB and DB cancelled their trip to Baja on a Lindblad Cruise. We lost faith in Lindblad after they made several changes to the cruise dates and forgot to tell their travel department. Imagine being in Loreto, Mexico, airport without seat assignments and no flights out for several days. Instead we'll be doing a collectors' tour associated with the NCECA show in Sacramento for 5 days and a week on the Big Island mostly snorkeling and relaxing. 

Movie Review CODA (streaming on Apple+). A nice small coming-of-age film of a family consisting of deaf parents and a son in his 20s, also deaf, and the 17 year-old sister who is not deaf and ends up being the interpreter for her family as they struggle with the decline of their fishing business. 

Book Review

The Oregon Trail, A New American Journey, Rinker Buck (paperback, pub’d 2015): A guy in his 60s and his brother make a trip from Missouri to Oregon in a covered wagon pulled by three mules, following the “Oregon” Trail (not really just one set of ruts, more like a wide swath with lots of options). As the author puts it near the end of the book: I know a great deal more now about a seminal time in my country’s history [1830s to 1860]. But, mostly I had indulged in a wonderful summer of romance and grit. It's quite the tale, interspersed with stories and recollections of his father, a big figure in life and in the author's life. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED