A Wedding & Burning Man

Dear friends and family,

Our meeting with Obama made Leah Garchik's column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Our thanks to my friend since childhood, Deborah Hoffman for alerting Leah, and to Leah Garchik for her accurate reporting of the events.

Woke up after a great sleep in our London hotel. I was a little worried after waking up at 10:30 pm, wide awake and totally confused about whether it was 10:30 in the morning or evening. Did manage to get back to a great sleep after typing away on the email. Good thing Don is a champion sleeper.

Spent the morning answering emails and actually doing some work. Kiki Smith is having a show or series of shows in Europe which include her tapestries, so a lot of writing back and forth between her studio, the different venues, shipping, details on the pieces.

Hopped on the tube, where Don looked around and said, "Hmmmm…they look like my distant relations… pale, fleshy and yearning for some sunshine."

Not too pale, and I won't comment on the fleshy.

Took the tube to the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace; an amazing show from the Queen's collection of many Holbeins and Durers. As Don said, "If you're going to see someone's art collection, you might as well go to the richest person in the world." Amazing to be able to put your nose right up to the Holbeins and see the stray hairs, e.g. here on Hans of Antwerp. The museum guards were remarkably tolerant.

This amazing sketch is painted, incredible mastery of the brush. A study by Durer for a woodcut.

Some of the work was commissioned by the Queen's illustrious ancestors, some gifted, and some simply confiscated on the death or execution of some out-of-favor subject. It all adds up to quite a collection.

Chuck told us that one can tell that Durer did not cut his own wood blocks or engravings as so much crosshatching is used, a painstaking method of achieving a shadow in an engraving (as the lines are not cut, the engraver cuts the small spaces between the lines). After seeing these prints, I don't know how you could talk or pay anybody to cut in this minute detail. Whoever cut these was clearly a master and clearly loved cutting the marks. It reminds me of the stories of the Emperor of China's seamstresses going blind embroidering his and other aristocrats' court costumes. I felt like I could damage my eyes just looking at the detail on these prints.

St. Jerome in his study.

A detail from St. Jerome. In real life this section of the print is about 2 inches wide.

Left the Gallery, passed by Buckingham Palace, and unbidden, there popped into my head a ditty by E.E. White, which my mother used to read to us:

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace

Christopher Robin went down with Alice

Alice is marrying one of the guards

A soldier's life is terribly hard

said Alice

That's all I remember, and it goes on, the sergeant is in charge of their socks, etc. So cute. Freezing walk to Covent Garden.

Had a wonderful meal at Polpo, billed as Venetian style cichetti. It's on Maiden Lane near Covent Garden. I had a Negroni and Don had the lovely young waitress make him his own version of a Spritz: white wine, Campari, juice of half a lime and some bitters.

Also had some spicy chili prawns, salads, arancini, the works. We got a call from our dear French friend, Annie Salt: Jonathan was flying into London on his way to Croydon. He wanted to meet up with us. At the end of the meal we got a call from Jonathan; he was at the bar in our hotel.

Rushed back. So good to see him.

Telling Jonathan about our meeting with Obama; how friendly and open he was, especially in contrast to how harsh, aggressive and dominating the secret service were. Jonathan commented that in England the guards would be firm, but polite. He said American officials are always rude and shouting. He thought it was their military training. How did we develop into such rude and arrogant people (some of us)?

Jonathan also told us that he had given Annie a Salt family signet ring just like this (generations old), which she had lost for 3 and a half years. She had put in "a safe place", which I can tell you from experience is a dangerous thing to do. They searched everywhere to no avail. Then one day he saw a glint of something when maintaining a fixture near their swimming pool. He emptied it out and there was the ring. I'm not at all counting on such a thing happening, but it's always possible.

Received this lovely quote from Chris S. (not my old boyfriend, the husband of Candida).

I read this passage about a coveted and precious ring that the owner was reflecting on:

"I may have coveted it all my life and I do love it, but as I hold it up to the sunshine and watch it sparkle I wish that it was somehow back on my mother’s hand. Destiny can be about realising that what we love most are people and the things that make them happy. Without the people their things are just things…"

Yes, we are not our things. We are all something much, much more than that.

Now on a train to Lyme Regis -- why? Not sure, exactly. Something about wanting to take some long walks in the beautiful British countryside. Something about going South where the weather might be a little better. Something about the name of the place; Jane Austen had some of her characters visit there, also it's on the Jurassic Coast, another intriguing name. Something about finding a great looking B&B there. We will let you know.

Love,

Era and Don

Dear friends and family,

First of all, thanks to all of you who have written a response. What incredible friends and family. You are loved (if not by us, by someone). Joking, you're loved by us.

Got this wonderful photo by Ms. O, who we usually bring along with us on our trips, as, apart from her other manifold charms, she has a knack for capturing pictures that no one else seems to get: Don swimming in the Venice canal, Don up to his knees in Romanian potholes, Don and Era in a gypsy cart. This time Ms. O managed to get a photo of Obama in the White House! with Don doing his impression of George W, the 1st. Obama found it very amusing.

The next morning we met Joann Moser, one of the curators at the Smithsonian, at the National Portrait Gallery for a tour of the Nam June Paik show and to see the Chuck Close Obama tapestries installed there. The tapestries, which usually look so huge, looked a normal size on the museum walls. The Nam June Paik exhibition was very well installed; we spoke about how it could so easily have been overwhelming. Also a great little piece by a San Francisco artist, whose name I can't remember, naturally, his impression of a miniature Smithsonian. I have a feeling Inez and Andrew gave me a catalog of his work at one time. Joann took us to a wonderful Burmese restaurant for lunch for a delicious ginger salad. We had had a quick dinner with Chuck, Sienna, Thais (correct spelling) and Joann at the train station the evening before, right after the White House, where Chuck and crew ate efficiently and hurried off to catch a train back to NY. Manny was driving the precious signed prints back.

Obama tapestries hanging at the Smithsonian for President's Day, with Joann and Don.

On Joann's recommendation, we took a cab out to the Katzen to see our friend Andrea Way's retrospective at the American University. We greeted Jack Rasmussen in the hallway as he was rushing to make a dental appointment. After seeing Joann's quite beautiful show of incredibly detailed work, we caught the train to NY, where we were able to plug in and start receiving all your emails. I have to admit I did receive some during our lunch with Joann. How rude.

One of the pen and ink and mixed media pieces from Andrea Way's retrospective.

10 minutes before we were to arrive in Penn Station, the strangest thing happened. I was standing in the train aisle with my suitcase when my rings, my 2 wedding rings, fell off my finger. It felt as if they were literally sucked off my ring finger. I dropped to the floor and very quickly found what I think of as my Squeak ring, as it was inspired by Squeak and Gary's wedding rings, a wide gold band with white and black jade dots embedded in it, only mine has additional green dots in it. But my mother's even wider and chunkier gold band, which my father had made for my mother, could not be found. We had about half the people in the train cabin, all the people on our side of the train looking, many with their iPhone flashlights on and it was just nowhere to be found. It's probably one of the physical objects I most valued. Both Don and I felt like someone (my parents ?) was trying to send me a message - maybe Don't get too pleased with yourself. As my ex-boyfriend (when I was 19 years old) Chris wrote: "The Dalai Lama, Brad Pitt and now Obama. There will be no living with you." Well, I'm still here on Planet Earth, in the physical universe and living this incredibly wonderful and sometimes not so wonderful life.

Don gave up looking before I did (he was afraid the train would pull away), and I followed him off the train and up the escalator. As we reached the top of the escalator, I realized I didn't have my cell phone. We searched our possessions and Don looked at his app which shows the cell phone's location. "It's still on the train." I ran down one escalator, but then had to run down an Up escalator, as I couldn't find the way down to the train. Found a couple of the same people in our compartment. Now I was back looking for my cell phone. I must have seemed like a crazy person. One level-headed woman offered to call my cell phone, and when I couldn't remember my number, we called Don's cell. "He's got your cell phone." "You've got my cell phone?" "Yes, get off the train. It's leaving in 30 seconds." At least I didn't break a leg running down that Up escalator.

When we checked into our hotel the man at the front desk asked, "So how was your day?" "Real highs and real lows. Got a hug from Obama yesterday and just lost my mother's wedding ring today." "Oh."

In NY for a few days, working with Kiki Smith and Chuck Close. How does it get any better?

Kiki, Beka and Don contemplating imagery and possible material for another tapestry.

Kiki working away amidst her sculptures.

Chuck's studio with Manny, large scale prints and tapestries. A row of Obama portraits on the floor. Chuck gave the President a couple of portraits in that "smaller" size.

Some of Chuck's African art and a pillow made for him in Chuck's favorite colors by a friend who was undergoing many hours of dialysis.

It's not all work, though. Some good food was had.

Finishing up breakfast at Peels.

The staff at Peels.

Era, looking pretty pleased at the idea of eating her merluz with cockles and small white beans at Il Buco. Delish.

Chuck looking almost reverent before digging into his octopus.

Japanese at Sobaya. Also very much enjoyed cocktails at Amor y Amargo, a bitters tasting room; and Empellon Cocina, Mexican fusion - sweetbread tacos. Yummy.

Cheers! Love you!

Era and Don

Hi friends and family,

It turns out there were no national emergencies and our meeting at the White House with Chuck Close and President Obama went extremely well.

We were picked up by Chuck, Sienna and Chuck's nurse, Tyice (sp?) at the Willard Hotel (we are not staying there; just meeting there). Then we drove across the street to the White House. There we had to pass thru about 5 different security gates. At the first gate, Tyice was turned away. She couldn't even drive the van onto the grounds. She had not been previously cleared. So Sienna took over and we drove to the next gate, which was maybe 10 yards further. There a guard came out with a German Shepherd and walked a rotation around the van, the Shepherd sniffing it from all angles.

It's really cold in Washington. Chuck passing in front of the Treasury Department and one of the gates.

We passed the dog test and another gate slid down into the road, allowing us to drive thru. At that point we were able to park with a number of other vans and SUVs, some of them with Obama stickers. We got out of the van into the DC cold, where we waited patiently at another gate while the guards checked our credentials once more. We walked down a path next to the Treasury Department and turned into another guardhouse, which then, after more checking of papers, scanning etc, led directly into the White House.

This is the beautiful waiting room.

Chuck and Meaghan, one of the people running the re-election fundraiser campaign.

"Our" room is ready ("The Map Room").

Sienna, Chuck's partner, an excellent photographer and talented artist. We were told in emphatic terms that we were not allowed to photograph the president in the White House.

But we could photograph his tapestry. When Obama walked in he said he thought it was kind of scary to see himself that big.

After unpacking we had a bit of a wait till the great man arrived.

Don enthroned in a replica of a chair once owned by George Washington. They had some of the original chairs in the room; same red damask, slightly faded.

Manny, Chuck's righthand man, and Chuck. Beth, Chuck's other irreplaceable assistant had to hold down the fort in NY and could not be with us at the White House.

After a couple false alarms ("We have movement; he's on his way." It turns out he was moving somewhere else), Obama walked into the room with a few secret service. Famous big smile, he seemed like an old friend. He greeted Chuck, whom he knows, and came over to me. I told him that we were from Oakland. He replied "I love Oakland." Good response, but I bet he says that to all the home towns. I said everybody in Oakland and all of the artists, when I told them I might be seeing Obama, said, "Give him a hug from me. We love Obama." He said, "Well, you better give me a hug, then." So I hugged Obama from all of you (in my mind, everybody who is getting this email) and he hugged me back. Awesome!

He very efficiently signed all the prints he was supposed to sign and all of the tapestry labels. He made a couple cracks about the new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's signature and said Lew is going to have to do something about changing it. Obama has a great signature, by the way, and so does Chuck, so the signatures look great on the prints and on the labels. They don't devalue them, as Obama has joked Jack Lew's signature might do to the currency.

Pretty much of a respectful silence was maintained while Obama was signing. It's difficult for anyone to try to field questions and carry on a conversation while signing a number of pieces which have to be signed perfectly. It was so tempting to pull out an iPhone and snap a photo. Too bad it makes that ostentatious clicking sound.

After signing, I did manage to tell him that we drive a Volt which we power with solar panels. And Don mentioned that we have not filled up in over 2500 miles, which is true. In fact, we have not filled up that car yet. I thanked him for the federal tax credits. He seemed pleased. Don told him that the artists loved him. Manny got a hug, too, something about his grandmother wanting to give Obama a hug. Apparently, this is the path to an Obama hug. Actually, Manny's grandmother wanted him to give Obama a hug and a kiss. Obama said he'd hug him, but declined the kiss. And that was it; he was out the door to his next important meeting or task. We found him to be absolutely charming.

Chuck signing one of the huge prints.

Didn't manage to get a photo of Don with Obama, but did get one of Don cuddling up to Bo, the family dog. This photo taken right after Bo had been licking Don's face. So Don must have some Obama family DNA now.

We may get some photos from the official photographer. I hope so. If so, I'll send some, but probably will not be right away.

Love from DC,

Era and Don