Meandering in Los Angeles

Do many people read blogs anymore? With Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more, it seems that more people are about short messages than thoughtful ruminations. This sculpture is my newest piece, "Male and Female". It's carved Utah Alabaster.

I went to Beverly Hills today to check out the gallery situation there. On Rodeo Dr. I passed store after store, huge spaces with arrangements of purses, shoes, clothing, glassware, purses, shoes, purses, shoes, ... Lladro had lovely offerings and Gallerie Michael offered a variety of well known artists at sale prices due to them being in the process of moving up the street. Alexander Renoir, grandson or great-grandson of August, paints with palette knife a colorful stream of scenes reminiscent of Van Gogh, with a splash of Monet and the elder Renoir. What moved me very tenderly were a couple of ink drawings by Mary Cassatt. She was so amazing in her ability to capture the sweet emotions of children and their mothers and other caregivers.

So many tourists were walking the streets, speaking in a multitude of languages. So many were taking photos of each other at street corners, in front of famous shops, on the roots of the huge trees growing in the park. Only here and there did folk actually walk into stores empty except for the salespeople and obligatory security person there for "loss prevention". Many of the restaurants were busy and here and there an occasional shopper could be spied.

I stopped and ordered a coffee from a Chocolate and Cafe place. I sat beside a window decorated with fat little characters fashioned from paper and chocolate. As I was taking in the passersby, a woman approached me, asking me to buy her food. I asked if she would prefer to buy it herself and gave her the few dollar bills that were in my wallet. Someone I love very much once told me to always give to those who come to you directly and ask. When the Universe makes a direct request, give. When he told me that, I felt the rightness of it at the time and thus gave the money to the woman without any hesitation. And felt the rightness of it. While still sitting there, a woman walked up, holding a white Bichon Frise (?) in her arms. I reached out and the dog licked my hand very sweetly. She was waiting for her daughter and grand-daughter to purchase some items in the chocolate store. She leaned against the signal post and I wanted to paint her in her patience and love. I asked if I could take her photo and use her image for a painting but suddenly there were so many people walking past I couldn't get a good shot and then her family joined her after I'd only been able to get one photo and not a very good one. I think I'll just paint them from memory and see how it goes...