Soup Day and Redemption

© Lena Leichtling

My friends Ron and Lena are on an extended trip throughout asia and posted this picture of a Bagan family in Myanmar.

Relations and the general situation in Burma have been improving of late and forgive me if I attribute the thaw to the presence of my wonderful friends in the country.

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I am just unpacking from my show in Del Mar, which was pretty lackluster. Had a lot of interest, just not a lot of people wanting to spend high dollar money right now and I can't say that I blame them. I marshaled on and did my best to turn chicken sh*t into chicken salad. Met a lot of nice folks and who knows what might happen down the road.

Phil from Palm Springs rose up once again and kept it from being a total disaster as did Dennis and Bob. It is strange, objects and art seem to get an old, stale smell on them. Everything bought in the last two weeks sold which just tells me I have to keep getting out there. People can sense"fresh."

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I got a last minute phone call yesterday asking me if I had any interest in doing a show in Santa Barbara this week. Somebody dropped out. I said, "What the hell why not?" So I will spend the next two days unpacking and packing again, unfortunately in the rain. Will be showing at the C.A.L.M. Antiques Show at the Earl Warren Fairgrounds. Anybody in the area should stop by and say hello. I bought an outrageous and very special Georg Jensen tea set that I will be exhibiting. Should be interesting.

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Tonight the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach is having a tribute to harmonica great Little Walter which will include John Mayall and Mark Hummel. I am going with my friend Ricardo from Thailand, who is here trying to put things together after the passing of his mom. Nothing better than the blues on a cold rainy day.

Roy's dad is in the home stretch as well and we send them both our best wishes.

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The talented artist Igor Koutsenko has a broad selection of his wonderful work currently displayed at the Fallbrook Library.

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I have so much to say that I better not say anything until I have time to collect my thoughts and do things properly. I will say bravo to the SCOTUS for shooting down the warrantless GPS constitutionality.

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Tracy gave me this poem to share by the late James Broughton (1913-1999):


This is It
and I am It
and You are It
and so is That
and He is It
and She is It
and It is It
and That is That

O it is This
and it is Thus
and it is Them
and it is Us
and it is Now
and Here It is
and Here We are
so This is It

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My only thought is, is it?

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Had a client tell me that the blog was "much ado about nothing" yesterday. One of the most dismissive reactions I have received to date. She tried to be nice but you could tell there was no traction. Can't please everybody. Maybe I have to step up my game?

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Sheebz says that she is catching lots of errors on the Blast, both spelling and grammar. Spelling I understand as I am a lazy and unorthodox typist. Grammar, I have my doubts. Perhaps she is mistaking some alliterative affectation of mine for mere garden variety ignorance? Let me know...

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I had a friendly intellectual argument with my buddy Ken Seals, who is a longtime outstanding photographer and teacher and just won a major award from a professional photographer's group. We were shooting in the foundry last year and Ken said that it would be improper of me to use this photograph in an exhibition we were having:

Redemption © Robert Sommers

Ken's point was that this was somebody else's work. This is a photograph I took of one of Christopher Pardell's base forms for his bronze sculpture. I call it redemption, the pained look toward heaven and the pierced needles.

I think that this is why I consider myself more artist than photographer. Artists are more comfortable utilizing "found" objects. I love mannikins and puppets and doll parts. I was looking conceptually, Ken was seeing it in a different way entirely. I was taking a picture of the eggs, not the omelet.

It is an interesting argument. At the furthest extension, one would think that those that held this view would never want to photograph buildings or architecture as they are also somebody else's creation.

Seattle Prow © Robert Sommers

Ricardo sends this over:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-92)