SF Day 4: Yoga Tree, Osha Thai, and MoMA

Day 4 started out fairly slowly to allow myself some recuperation time. I never really got used to the three hour time difference so when I normally would be waking up in Charleston at 10am, I was actually waking up at 7am in San Francisco. So for the first time in my life I was waking up and going to sleep at "normal" hours (perhaps I've just always been running in SF terms?). Therefore, by the time San Francisco 10am rolled around and I had already showered and had my complimentary breakfast (I think they put crack in their coffee) I was ready to roam the city. I decided, upon a friend's recommendation, that I should visit the Yoga Tree, a popular yoga studio chain in SF. I took a 10:35 Anusara class with K K Ledford, who was this tiny, far-out lady. She talked to us about this month's planetary alignment, and how all energies will be amplified. So make sure you're not channeling any negative energy this month- good energies only! Anyway, the class itself was very good and I managed, for the first time, to do an actual handstand.

I then ventured forth to the Osha Thai restaurant on 2nd street to meet Steve and Vanessa, his girlfriend. Now I must say I've never been at at restaurant where the service was this intent on serving us. I was actually surprised that they didn't try to spoon feed us our meals! At one point Vanessa got up and while she was gone a waitress actually came over to the table and re-folded her napkin while Steve and I sat silently starting with astonishment. My guess was that they were either really bored or their regional manager was visiting and they needed to get a good review. Anyway, the food was spectacular (yes Steve, I still think our local Taste of Thai is just as good) and they had these really cool elephant sculptures all over the place.

My last endeavor of the day was to go to the San Francisco MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). It was open late on Thursdays so I ended up staying there till about 9:30pm. The special exhibit that was going on at the time was the Steins collection which housed a lot of Picasso and Matisse. Now, I have seen a lot of Picasso and Matisse but it was interesting to see some of their not-so-famous work. Because photography was not allowed I did some sketches instead. The rest of the museum was filled with the fairly standard collection of Modern artists, which was also nice to see. (Sorry for the bad photo quality, there was no flash allowed)

^This one was called "Lick and Lather" by Janine Antoni. One bust was made of chocolate, which she re- sculpted by licking and the other of soap which she re-sculpted by lathering. More on Antoni and her work here.

^Vija Clemins. I love the intimacy and pencil detail in her drawings. This was beautiful to see in person. More on Clemins here.

^Stuart Davis.

^Piet Mondrian. This was another piece that was very interesting to see up close. Although I am not the biggest fan of his non-representational style, what I learned was that even though everything appears to be straight and rigid, all of his brushstrokes are wavy and curved.

^Philip Guston.

My favorite piece I think was one by Picasso during his Rose Period. It is a 1905 oil painting on cardboard titled "Seated Nude." This is the work I did some sketches of and it looks like this:

Except in person the colors look more like this:

Updates and Business:

As the semester is winding down, stress levels and productivity are increasing for me. Being fair-skinned, or as some affectionately refer to it as "pasty," I tend to burn easily. I am also not a big fan of heat and temperatures over 80 degrees. Either way, I ended up getting both heat-stroke and badly burnt this past Sunday playing Ultimate Frisbee on the beach. I had quite an interesting reaction to these (other than being fatigued, nauseated, dizzy, and over all feverish) : my forehead turned lobster-red and became rather swolen. You can imagine the wonderful looks I got all week! Luckily the redness and swelling has subsided and today I look almost normal with the exception of the bridge of my nose (which is still swollen and makes me look like a Na'vi from Avatar). Moral of this story: wear sunblock and drink ridiculous amounts of water. All of this happened, of course, just in time for final exam week (Hurray!).

Despite the recent set-backs I finished a new painting today. I also put together a small collection of poems (will post here soon). Photos will be taken of all recent work (paintings and drawings) and will be posted soon as well.

In other news, I have started to put together a preliminary itinerary for San Francisco and have selected travel dates and hotel location (Yay!). I have also started the Holy Cow Yoga Challenge this week for the second year in a row. I am a big advocate and fan of yoga and have been practicing for almost two years now. Its really helping me relax and recenter in this time of chaos. Lastly, I have started gathering a list of projects that I will be undertaking over the summer involving a lot of art but also some performance art (poi, fire poi, aerial dance, and various other things).

So hang in there and new work will be posted soon! Namaste!