already there

Bad day

Running late on the first day of testing,

I arrive at school where the staff is locked out since the secretary is sick. Stressing

Hurriedly, I prep tests before the teachers arrive:

There are changes to the schedule and

Missing materials and proctors. Flexibility.

My boss tells me there was a BIG mistake in the budget. Compassion. 

Cuts, cuts, cuts. Fear.

I improvise an poorly-prepared lesson. Regret.

Tired and headached, 

I collaborate to prepare a meeting (which should have been done days before)

And our third presenter arrives winded. No parking. 

I discover a wellspring of unsourced anger.

There is no bad day, only challenged moments met with grace or not.

There is no bad day, when you start the day contented not for what you’d like

But for what you have,

And are given in the evening a brushed lavender sunset and reflective conversation with friends.

©  2011 Hector V. Lee

Pulp Fashion

Yoriko, Xavier, Kalin and I went to see Pulp Fashion The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave at the Legion of Honor. The Belgian artist takes inspiration from European paintings and costumes in museums recreate these dresses on paper by painting, creasing, pleating, and weaving it. The result is a work not quite fashion or painting but something wholly other. It is paper dolls and (mostly) dresses all grown up (maybe that is why most of the visitors were women). She simplified the patterns she saw on fabric to get the spirit of the fabric rather than copy the exact detail. It was fascinating how she manipulated the paper to look like fabric. The use of lens cleaner paper to look like chiffon, transparent fabric was amazing. 

Dragonfly, Pear, Carnation, and Insect

While visiting my parents, our discussion turned on the recent death of Elizabeth Taylor. We commented on her glamorous life, her seven husbands, he diamond rings, her beauty (and violet eyes), her fame, wealth and a snippet of a story of a Mexican boy who had asked her and Richard Burton to be his godparents.

My mom summarily commented, “And she was never happy,” while I don’t know how she became an authority on Liz Taylor’s contentment.

Desiree asked, “And what is the secret to happiness?”

“It depends. In each of us there is something that makes us happy. What may make one person happy may not make the next person happy. It is our responsibility to find it. The secret is to find yours.”

My mother is on to something. Could it be that a window is opening?

Dragonfly, Pear, Carnation, and Insect by Joris Hoefnagel

© 1999 J. Paul Getty Trust

The Getty Center

The Getty Center opened in Los Angeles in 1997. I have been wanting to go to this museum for a while, so the return trip was an opportunity to visit Sean and see the venue. It is a spectacular museum by Richard Meier of largely European Art lies on 750 acres in the San Monica Mountains. It is wonderfully designed with surprises as you walk the grounds. I only wish I had brought sunglasses as the white building was blinding in the LA sun.

 A Rembrandt

 The temptation of St. Anthony. He is on the left.

 I had forgotten how mystical l El Greco's painting are.

 A view of downtown LA.