Join me, San Francisco area friends, for the opening of my first West Coast solo show at the new Rooted cafe & wine bar in downtown Walnut Creek, CA.
These nine works celebrate the landscape of northern California from sea to mountains, from lush to dry seasons. The title ‘a fragile paradise’ comes from a poem about California by Denise Levertov, who, along with me and this show, shares roots in both Massachusetts and northern California. Her poem below help to express the tension of a landscape that is so beautiful and yet so fragile due to human harm:
Public opening, 4-5pm, private reception, 5-6pm. RSVP for the private reception or just stop by!
“In California: Morning, Evening, Late January
Pale, then enkindled,
light
advancing,
emblazoning
summits of palm and pine,
the dew
lingering,
scripture of
scintillas.
Soon the roar
of mowers
cropping the already short
grass of lawns,
men with long-nozzled
cylinders of pesticide
poking at weeds,
at moss in cracks of cement,
and louder roar
of helicopters off to spray
vineyards where braceros try
to hold their breath,
and in the distance, bulldozers, excavators,
babel of destructive construction.
Banded by deep
oakshadow, airy
shadow of eucalyptus,
miner’s lettuce,
tender, untasted,
and other grass, unmown,
luxuriant,
no green more brilliant.
Fragile paradise.
. . . .
At day’s end the whole sky,
vast, unstinting, flooded with transparent
mauve,
tint of wisteria,
cloudless
over the malls, the industrial parks,
the homes with the lights going on,
the homeless arranging their bundles.
. . . .
Who can utter
the poignance of all that is constantly
threatened, invaded, expended
and constantly
nevertheless
persists in beauty,
tranquil as this young moon
just risen and slowly
drinking light
from the vanished sun.
Who can utter
the praise of such generosity
or the shame?”