Thursday, November 14, 2013

Day 12: Carpinteria to Los Angeles and back to Carpinteria

Day 12: Carpinteria to Los Angeles and back to Carpinteria



While visiting Blake’s cousin Shawn and his family in Carpinteria, we decided to pop into Los Angeles for part of a day and see the James Turrell exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Of the three major exhibitions of James Turrell’s work assembled across the country last summer (at the Guggenheim in New York, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) it was the one at LACMA that we were most interested in experiencing. LACMA’s exhibition was the most comprehensive survey of Turrell’s work, and it didn’t disappoint.

Speaking of disappointing - apologies to our dear friends in L.A. for not stopping-in. We decided on our visit to Carpinteria and L.A. very late in the trip and knew that we would only have just enough time in L.A. for the Turrell show (and you’ll understand that we had to give the art all the time it required). We promise to visit again, especially as Sarah got a good vibe there, much to our surprise.


Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Photo by Blake.



No photographs adequately represent the amazing subtlety of a corner projection work such as Afrum (White), 1966 on the left or the immersive nature of Breathing Light, 2013 on the right (image credits for these works are on the LACMA webpage linked below). One just has to get to the work and stay with it. Although the exhibition wasn’t organized strictly chronologically, one could get some insight into Turrell’s process and into ways the work has changed over almost 50 years. We were glad to have spent some time in one of Turrell’s Skyspaces in San Francisco and then experience this magnificent exhibition in L.A. These pictures are from LACMA’s website http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/james-turrell-retrospective.


Sarah at LACMA. Photo by Blake.


Sam really liked Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass. He took a lot of time walking all the way around it and under it from both directions. When one kid’s favorite work of art is by Michael Heizer and the other kid’s is by Sol LeWItt, things might just be ok with the world. Photo by Blake.


Sam thought it was cool that his Dad had seen the monolithic 340-ton rock being relocated from the mountains to the museum last year. When we got home, Blake showed him pictures like this one from March 2012. Sam seemed to appreciate the engineering feat that was required to transport the rock. Photo by Blake.


After LACMA, we headed back up the coast to Carpinteria and met Alexis and Emerson for a lovely sushi dinner. Photo by Blake.



Kenny, Sam, Alexis, and Emerson at Sushi Teri. We hadn’t seen Shawn and Alexis in a few years, and hadn’t yet met Emerson. It was great spending a bit of time with them. They waited until we arrived to reveal that Alexis was expecting, and they welcomed a new boy to the family last month! Photos by Blake.




Fun in the back yard with happy kids and regal Rhodesian Ridgebacks Bodi and Shona. Photos by Blake.


Shawn relaxing after a long day at work. Blake and Shawn were born in Norfolk, Virginia and spent their early childhood there. Now, the rest of their families are back East and in the Midwest while Shawn and Blake represent in the West. It was good to see these guys – we always feel like we can just pick up where we left off, regardless of the extended time since we’ve seen them. Photo by Blake.


Late-day sun on the mountains east of Carpinteria. Photo by Blake

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