Hope A 2/27/15 Hope A 2/27/15

March Desktop Calendar

It's March! Click image to set as your desktop!

A digital collage for your desktop! Blossoms are coming, even for all of you in the northeast.

Click on the image to download it!

Hope A 2/12/15 Hope A 2/12/15

Mortality Check-In

Today I was telling an out-of-town friend about The Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland and a stranger overheard and asked if that is what we were talking about. He agreed it is a place to explore and not in most guidebooks. I have only recently discovered it. It is located near the entrance to the Mountain View Cemetery at the end of Piedmont Ave. There is a coffee shop nearby that makes their own peppermint patties. Often, after a cup of coffee and some chocolate, we wander up the street to explore the cemetery.

There is always something we haven't seen. We were there a few days ago and were diverted from our intended path by a pair of mourners. The cemetery is also used as a neighborhood park, a place to jog, stroll, fly a kite and take a date so the mourners were a rare sighting. We walked around the backside of a building that seemed too imposing to be open to the public. But after tugging on a door, we discovered its long, labyrinth halls, with marble skylights and eerie piano music piped in over speakers . We went up one flight of stairs but somehow were on the third floor. Some of the windows were covered with violet colored glass, casting a rose light in the halls. There were multiple glass skylights and marble, reflecting light. The bathrooms had sinks like small fountains, and tile floors. And they were open--a rarity. Though I am not sure I could ever find it again.

As we were on our way there, our friend mentioned a fountain at the top of the hill. I guess we have something to look for next time.

If you want more photos of a cemetery I loved to explore, check out these photos about Cimiereo Monumentale in Milan.

Hope A 2/2/15 Hope A 2/2/15

February Desktop Calendar

Here you go! February's Calendar for your computer desktop.

Hope A 1/28/15 Hope A 1/28/15

diRosa Museum Visit

My dad examines the art car in the main gallery

My Dad flew from Tennessee to visit last week. As it was his first visit to see me in the Bay Area, he went along with any idea I had. When I was learning to drive I remember that my Dad would let me play whatever music I wanted to listen to. He even would try to hum along and get into it. It is very sweet to know my Dad would sit through hours of Ned's Atomic Dustbin and the Pixes AND let me drive.

Lucky for my dad, I was a little more considerate of his tastes. However, I was interested in visiting the diRosa in Napa, not sure what to expect or what my dad would think of a modern art collection. You have to get a tour to see most of the work but we spend a little bit in a gallery, took a walk to the sculpture meadow, and toured the house. There is a site-specific video installation of the changing light through a stained glass window at Chartres. It was the second time in a week I spend a few minutes contemplating a part of that cathedral, a coincidence that was not lost on me. (Chartres is also home to a large labyrinth I had recently learned about).

Oakland friends who like conceptual art: this collection is packed with lovely discoveries. The owner passed away a few years ago, leaving his collection open to the public. And if you have an Oakland library card, you can see it for free. I will let the photos explain the rest. There are paintings, sculpture and conceptual work, and enough of it has a sacred, quiet, contemplative feeling that made it feel a little like its own church of art. Go. And take me back.

The front gallery, open without a tour guide, has a smoke ring machine you can operate

the bottle chapel.  we may have snuck back after the tour to sit inside. — the bottle chapel. we may have snuck back after the tour to sit inside.

Hope A 1/12/15 Hope A 1/12/15

Desktop Calendar

For two years, around the first of the month, I would be excited to go to Gennine's blog and download a free desktop calendar. It would satisfy both my need to have reminders for dates and deadlines and also answer the dilemma of what image to use on my desktop. She closes shop for two months around the holidays and my computer keeps a November calendar well into January,

I have had a little more free time in the new year and I have been experimenting with the papers and ink on my desk, and my recently repaired sewing machine (um, I had the needle in backwards for a year). I like the idea of drawing but rarely the result from observation and notation, and I have liked to incorporate collage into my notebooks. Some of the things I like walk a line dangerously close to scrapbooking but a few days ago I realized I could make my own desktop calendar. And I can share it with you. It might take me a few months to get the glitches out but here we go. Click on the link below to set as your desktop calendar.

Download the image from here . I had to save it to my desktop as a file before I could set it as the image but I am working on that.

Hope A 1/9/15 Hope A 1/9/15

Wintertime Views Out the Window

Oh, the quiet of January as I unpack hastily assembled boxes, and take stock of what I have. I bound myself a new datebook, filled in my calendar, and started making my workspace, well, workable. When I was at Penland this summer, I was lucky to convince a few amazing folks to trade their work for a year of letterpress postcards. Erin Curry printed on silk and Georgina Trevino, took a break from her jewelry design to try out some etchings and traded me one mint green lovely. Also, Constance Metcalf gave me a panel of handmade paper, inspired by a process shown to me by Amy Jacobs. All together, my windows are little fancied up. Also, with some help, I finally hung a lamp over my desk so I can see what I am doing at night.

January (in California) is great for walking. Andy discovered a sci-fi themed cafe near out house with coffee and 5 or 6 pinball machines. There's lots I want to do but it is nice to take a walk every day too, and see what is out there.

etching by erin curry on silk on the left, panel of paper by constance on the right

light over the work table! small victories 2015!

Hope A 12/31/14 Hope A 12/31/14

Resolutions and Goals Revisited

You might not remember this, but a year ago I thought I might loose my job along with all of my friends so I thought, I could step up, take on more responsibility for a little while in exchange for paying off some debt and helping a bunch of great people to keep their jobs.]

You may or may not also remember that the "temporary" position was less temporary than I wanted and all the time spent in that position was doomed really from the start, undermined by stronger forces. Which was ok with me. Until I did it again, agreed to temporarily take on more than I really wanted to for some idealistic kind of greater good. And in exchange for a scholarship.

At least two people have told me in the past weeks that I need to be better at saying no.

I thought I was getting better at setting boundaries, but i am just behind the curve. And, in both positions, I learned a lot, gained a lot and now they are both over.

So i'm resting my sore feet, sleeping in for a few more days, and starting on a new list for 2015. I did a lot of what I wanted to in 2014, even if I didn't make it to Rome. I like to give myself some reasonable goals, a few that will take some work, and something to raise the bar.

I'm happy not to be in credit card debt, to have a little savings, to be writing letters in the mornings, to have had a really wonderful reading experience in Oakland in December and to have seen both my parents and my sister. As for the postcard show, well, that is coming up but I can't say any more yet. But you should start sending them back if you've been procrastinating.

I won't promise to post more in the new year because, well, I like to write a good story with my photos and if I don't take the time to write, well I'm not going to worry about rushing it.

Ok, take care. See you next year.

2014! from a card from Ink Meets Paper, a letter writers best stationery friend

Hope A 12/31/14 Hope A 12/31/14

More from the Desktop

The first datebook I ever made for myself was really just a tall journal with blank pages. Each page was a list. Once I ran out of room on one page, I would transfer the parts of the list that had yet to be completed and crossed off, and that still seemed important, and started again until I finished the next page. I did have a lot of deadlines, so it worked well. I like lists a lot. i subdivide lists into other lists. But the chance to reevaluate is important. To cut loose what is unnecessary, to re-prioritize. This might be what is so appealing about the idea of a new year. I know that January 1st is an arbitrary date to choose to start over, and check in, but it works for me, as I stay in a little more, have a little more slow time, and anyway my other favorite time to do this--my birthday--is nearly 6 months away from January 1st. So here are more things I saw this year that I wanted to share, other things people made that are inspiring and important and beautiful.