Postcards in the Air : October 2023

Friday, October 27, 2023

WORDS COME ROUND AGAIN

It doesn't feel like fall yet in San Francisco.

Davenport. When was the last time you heard someone refer to a couch or sofa as a Davenport? The name originally came from Cheshire, England, and was used by a furniture manufacturing family in New England for their expensive, fancy settees, divans, chaise longues, or chesterfields. Maybe if you came from that area back East, you are more familiar with the word Davenport. Recently I have only heard Davenport as a name for a place or person, not something to lounge on.

I received an email inviting me to the International Calligraphy Conference next summer which will take place in Davenport, Iowa. I was curious why that town in the middle of the country in the middle of summer had been selected. I was curious about the name Davenport too. I remembered hearing it used in my childhood, but rarely since. I discovered the conference was dedicated to the work of Father Edward Catich, a monk from St. Ambrose University, who wrote a book entitled The Origin of the Serif (only a calligrapher would write a book on a small mark which has major significance in letter design. Amazon offers the paperback version of this book for $130 -- a collector's item, for sure.) But I digress from the word Davenport. Last night as we sat down to watch the first episode of the original Miss Marple series on PBS, I smiled when I saw the name of one of the leads, Jack Davenport, an English actor. I also discovered that there are twelve towns in the United States called Davenport. There is a lake in Minnesota and also a mountain peak in New Mexico with the name. The first Davenport to arrive in the U.S. was Lancelot Davenport. Now that's a name to remember. Davenport seems to be everywhere I look.

Practicing more layered letters with Neuland font, which is sans-serif

Recently as we drove along Highway 1 which hugs the Pacific Coast, we passed the town of Davenport, which calls itself Whale City. Davenport is only a couple of short blocks long and easy to drive by, but it is a good place to watch whales as they migrate through Monterey Bay. Nearby Shark Fin Beach offers plenty of places to explore, though because of the cliffs towering over the beach, checking tides before walking down the beach paths would be a good idea.

This morning I opened an email from the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco and found that Matthew Davenport, author of The Longest Minute, would be speaking about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Another Davenport!

Letter formed with serifs

I mention these examples of a word that pops up repeatedly for a short time because I also find that true of themes in books that I read. For example, earlier in the year I finished Amor Towles' book, The Lincoln Highway, which takes place during the Great Depression. I also read The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, about the Black woman who was the original librarian for the J.P. Morgan Library, and The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson, both books are based during that time period. The era between the two world wars fascinates me because so many of our ideals and beliefs about America are reflected in the cultural, economic, and political events that occurred from the Great Influenza of 1918 to the beginning of World War II and they continue to echo in the present day.

I don't intentionally seek out books set in the time period between the two world wars, yet I just finished West With Giraffes by Lynda Reynolds, based on a true story of transporting two giraffes across the country. I picked West With Giraffes because a friend writes essays about rhinos in Africa, which has nothing to do with the subject of West With Giraffes except they are both about African animals and their interactions with human beings.

This theme of personal development during a long trip resonates with me. America the Beautiful? by Blythe Roberson tells about her venture alone into our National Parks and the unsettling history she discovers behind one of the best things about America. The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts, describes how Annie Wilkins rides a horse across the U.S. to reach the Pacific Coast and what she discovers about mid-century America.

My question here at the end: Why is it that when something is noticed, its appearance multiplies? I just got an email that Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carry, is out with a new book called, America Fantastica, and whether it is a good book or not (read the NYTimes review), it follows alongside a fictional character in search of himself by traveling across America.

Check out Davenport, California:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g32282-Davenport_California-Vacations.html

Check out the course offerings at the International Calligraphy Conference:

https://www.calligraphyconference.org

Tim O'Brien's latest book:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/books/review/tim-obrien-america-fantastica.html

Interesting online magazine to read:

https://defendernetwork.com/e-editions-2021-live_migrated/

Thursday, October 19, 2023

MAKING MARKS

A mural in Capitola with some lettering fonts used by graffiti artists

Some weeks I find it hard to sit down and write. World events get in the way. Yet, I also know what value and calmness I receive when I write my thoughts or draw what I see around me. I think about the calligraphy classes I have taken and the meditative quality they create from concentrating on one task. Maybe today is a good day to work with my hands. A moment of solitude.

A part of a piece of graffiti in downtown San Francisco

Last Saturday I took part in a class led by Cora Pearl, who is part of a group of five amazing calligraphers each offering a one-day class this month. Their subject, the line, is my favorite design element. Line is the fundamental element before shape, value, color, texture, or contrast. Without lines we have nothing.

Lines across the front of a building

Humans make marks on everything they touch including caves, buildings, canvas, and the sand beneath our feet. We also now make marks in the sky. Last weekend over our heads the Blue Angels performed aerial stunts that mark the sky and follow a long tradition of aerial acrobatics that began with the early barnstorming pilots during the Roaring Twenties of the last century.

Mosaic of jet trails by Bill Slavin

Since moving to San Francisco, I've noticed how many empty storefronts trail along the streets. They have become a venue for graffiti in quantities that I haven't seen since the beginning of this century. Many people then were outraged by the seeming desecration of public spaces and rightly so, yet some of the graffiti artists, such as Banksy, Dondi White, and Lady Pink, became well-known because of their fantastic flourishes on grey concrete walls. Their work exists in museum exhibits now. Many cities adopted the practice of public murals in response. The murals fill the ugly grey walls, with ideas, lines, colors, and honors to citizens of their communities. In the Bay Area, murals proliferate in Oakland, Santa Cruz, San Jose, and Walnut Creek.

on a San Francisco side street

You may or not like the graffiti put up by taggers or you may or may not like the designs made by architects and designers that appear on the outsides of buildings. For me, one of the values of art is to present new ideas in interesting ways that test your comfort zone. Once I take the time to look and try to understand the other person's feelings, ideas, and process, I can decide whether I like what they produced or not.

Layered lettering produced in Coral Pearl's class by Martha Slavin

Check out the TimeOut article about street artists:

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/top-famous-street-artists

Check out the links to these calligraphers:

http://www.corapearlcalligraphy.com

https://yukimiannand.com

https://www.amityparkslettering.com

http://www.lacalligrafia.com/about/ Massimo Polello

https://www.mikegold-letterarts.com

Friday, October 13, 2023

TWO GODS in the BUILDING

Bittersweet became our favorite restaurant in our short time in Aptos. The name conjures up all kinds of feelings about this last year. I think of our move and what changes in a neighborhood over time. People move in and out. Children play, grow, learn to drive and leave. Cars drive into garages, the door closes, and the street returns to the quiet of an adult-filled neighborhood. Bill and I have witnessed and joined the migration from neighborhoods.

One last evening at Bittersweet, Zeus served us. His first name, an unusual one, given to him by his mother so that he would grow up strong, made me laugh. My family's name is Heimdahl, the guardian of the rainbow bridge into Asgard, the Norse mythical home of the gods. With the two of us in the same room that evening two gods existed in harmony together at Bittersweet.

We still spend a lot of time traveling back and forth to the East Bay. Coming back recently and driving down a street, I realized what I missed about living there: overhanging street trees. We are now living in San Francisco, we are surrounded by concrete buildings, and we look down from our windows on a relatively quiet city street with a children's park across the way and see the tops of the well-trimmed street trees that line the block. Not the same feeling as the enveloping canopy of an avenue of stately, old trees, who could if we could talk in the same language, tell me the stories of what they had protected for the last 50 years.

Watercolors aren't working right now,
but this one I saved by using markers on top.

Our new place in the city is different from either the East Bay or Aptos by the sea, but we lucked out in finding a two-block-long street that runs along the channel that separates the rest of San Francisco from Mission Bay and is a walk from the Giants ballpark and the Warriors Chase Center but also runs near other streets where the trolleys, trains, and buses of a busy city clang along their way. The park across the street is called Children's Park and we can hear the happy chatter of little kids playing among the structures of the park. We've noticed many people walking their dogs (pandemic dogs?), bringing them into restaurants and grocery stores, and reminding us of the well-behaved dogs who would sit quietly in a seat at a Paris cafe.

Instead of a 55+ community, we have landed in just the opposite. Most of our neighbors are 45 and younger. We watch as parents struggle with bags, strollers, and dog leashes and remember those days. We hear conversations about work and coming events at Golden Gate Park. Once in a while, we notice French among the many different languages spoken around us.

The local grocery store is around the corner and offers organic fruits and vegetables, a butcher's shop, a good deli, and long lines at certain times of the day. Across from the grocer is a wine and cheese shop that serves small plates including various panini with one called Paris, a ham, gruyere, and cornichon pickles concoction on sourdough (the best of San Francisco and Paris). We haven't lived in a city since we lived in Paris and these little shops and our tree-lined street remind me of Rue de Lasteyrie in the 16th Arrondissement.

Our new go-to place is just at the corner. Reveille Cafe offers light fare as well as coffee and tea drinks. We noticed the barista wore a T-shirt with Japanese characters across it. The phrase was in support of Ukraine the barista's homeland. He told us that his dad was Ukrainian and his mother was Israeli. Our mouths dropped open uncertain how to reply. He talked of family in both places. I thought of Zeus and Heimdahl and wished those mythical figures could intervene in both places.

As we sat down for lunch, we felt lucky to be in a place that was safe. We are discovering once again that city life is exciting, bustling, noisy, and overwhelming. Bittersweet in many ways.

Friday, October 6, 2023

EXPLORING

Flowers outside Gail's Bakery in Capitola

We are good explorers. We are also homebodies. We are between homes for now and exploring new places to test what part of the Bay Area we would like to settle in once again. I was born in California, Bill is a transplant from Illinois, and we have been in the Bay Area since college. We know the famous places. We've walked San Francisco, Palo Alto, Carmel, and Oakland many times.

In 1998, we began our first exploration of a new town with our move to Tokyo where Bill went to work and I set out immediately to explore our neighborhood, one block at a time. As I walked the busy streets, I turned around and looked down the street I'd just walked so that I would remember how to get home. Without breadcrumbs to drop, it would be easy to get lost, especially with our move I became illiterate and couldn't read the street signs.

Back in the U.S., exploring is a lot easier for us. When we sat down to dinner at At Water Restaurant next to the San Francisco Port, we let Jordan our server know we were new to the City. He regaled us with a list of all his favorite places and events including the upcoming Cirque du Soleil, which performs in a tent right across the street. He reminded us that this is Fleet Week. We took mental notes of his recommendations because you never know when you will spot something new in a familiar place. As we walked out of the restaurant, we spotted a strange grey-clad ship docked right next to the SF Port entrance. It looked like a spaceship that had landed, though actually, it was a Marine supply ship offering tours. We watched as a group of navy personnel strolled out of the area. Fleet Week had arrived.

Flowers outside the Seabreeze Cafe in Santa Cruz

Local knowledge helped us during our stay in Aptos and directed us to some excellent restaurants and events we would have missed. Santa Cruz, known for its surfing, also hosts a Shakespeare festival in a local park and a skateboard festival. Capitola next door offers an art festival right next to the beach. Caroline's, a thrift shop in Aptos raises money for programs for children with special needs. The store has contributed over $3 million dollars to these vital programs. The shop is a good way to buy a different kind of souvenir after a trip to Aptos. We spent our last night at Bittersweet, our favorite restaurant in Aptos.

Barn near Watsonville

We felt sad about leaving Aptos. We had begun to find the community we look for when we are in a new place. We found good restaurants and friendly, helpful people. The weather was great and everywhere we looked flowers grew in abundance. As we drove around the area, I noticed the barns next to fields on Highway 129 near Watsonville. They have inspired my next watercolor project (once I unpack my essential watercolor supplies).

Next barn to paint

As we drove out Highway 1 to San Francisco, we saw the beginnings of the annual pumpkin festival in Half Moon Bay with cars lined along the road and groups of people wandering among the pumpkins. A sure sign that Autumn is here and new adventures await.