Seeing [Rowing, art]
Mar. 27th, 2017 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterSaturday morning I met M over at the BAP to pick up oars and drive to the Open Water Rowing Center and practice the race course for the OWRC Regatta in two weeks. We were lucky to have S as our course guide. He's half of the Old Man Double and used to sail, so he knows a thing or two about precision navigating.
Our race course will be entirely within Richardson Bay, which is well sheltered compared to other parts of the Bay. Even so, there's a lot of open space to cover, which means lots of room to accidentally steer a very wide course. I guess a couple years ago S wrote a short novel explaining how to effectively steer the race course, and after reading it last Thursday evening I became even more convinced that a practice run would be incredibly helpful.
And it was. I wish I'd had a bit more time to take some pictures, but we were focused on getting the work done. The OWRC's dock is nestled in in a lovely little part of Sausalito - I guess you can check the webcam to see for yourself! The weather was absolutely beautiful and clear, which enabled us to see all of the landmarks and channel markers. It was useful to get the sightseeing aspect out of the way so we can focus while we race. Some of the open-water skiffs stored at the OWRC were cool, too, so I will aim to take photos when we go back for the regatta in 2 weeks.
-
From there, I hightailed over to the lab to take food away from the crickets, then headed in to San Francisco to meet up with a friend at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
It's challenging for me to try to simultaneously catch up with someone and also gaze at art, but I'm glad to have had a chance to distractedly check out SFMOMA because I probably wouldn't have gone for a visit on my own otherwise. It's a small enough museum that one can visit everything in a single trip, but it's on the larger end of my preferred range of art museum sizes. I also spend enough time at contemporary art museums to find it kind of odd to just look at stuff that's mostly already comfortably within the established artistic canon. I guess I like the sense of freshness and dialogue that comes from viewing very new work, in lieu of just having my eyes land on Duchamp's sideways urinal or Warhol's prints.
I did, however, like William Allan's aesthetic, particularly his landscape paintings of the Sea of Cortez and Deception Pass. In person, it's easy to get lost in their vibrant luminosity. There were a number of other works spread throughout the museum that exhibited similar extreme levels of meticulous painting and drawing, which is interesting as a common element.
Two examples include Lesende (Reader), by Gerhard Richter and Wall Drawing 1247, by Sol LeWitt.
This image tickled my funny bone the most. It reminded me of Stella Marr.
Our race course will be entirely within Richardson Bay, which is well sheltered compared to other parts of the Bay. Even so, there's a lot of open space to cover, which means lots of room to accidentally steer a very wide course. I guess a couple years ago S wrote a short novel explaining how to effectively steer the race course, and after reading it last Thursday evening I became even more convinced that a practice run would be incredibly helpful.
And it was. I wish I'd had a bit more time to take some pictures, but we were focused on getting the work done. The OWRC's dock is nestled in in a lovely little part of Sausalito - I guess you can check the webcam to see for yourself! The weather was absolutely beautiful and clear, which enabled us to see all of the landmarks and channel markers. It was useful to get the sightseeing aspect out of the way so we can focus while we race. Some of the open-water skiffs stored at the OWRC were cool, too, so I will aim to take photos when we go back for the regatta in 2 weeks.
-
From there, I hightailed over to the lab to take food away from the crickets, then headed in to San Francisco to meet up with a friend at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
It's challenging for me to try to simultaneously catch up with someone and also gaze at art, but I'm glad to have had a chance to distractedly check out SFMOMA because I probably wouldn't have gone for a visit on my own otherwise. It's a small enough museum that one can visit everything in a single trip, but it's on the larger end of my preferred range of art museum sizes. I also spend enough time at contemporary art museums to find it kind of odd to just look at stuff that's mostly already comfortably within the established artistic canon. I guess I like the sense of freshness and dialogue that comes from viewing very new work, in lieu of just having my eyes land on Duchamp's sideways urinal or Warhol's prints.
I did, however, like William Allan's aesthetic, particularly his landscape paintings of the Sea of Cortez and Deception Pass. In person, it's easy to get lost in their vibrant luminosity. There were a number of other works spread throughout the museum that exhibited similar extreme levels of meticulous painting and drawing, which is interesting as a common element.
Two examples include Lesende (Reader), by Gerhard Richter and Wall Drawing 1247, by Sol LeWitt.
This image tickled my funny bone the most. It reminded me of Stella Marr.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-03-29 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-30 11:15 pm (UTC)I hadn't heard of William Allan before, either - I believe his stuff was part of some kind of California artist showcase exhibit.