News comes that a friend far away is dying now I look up and see small flowers appearing in spring grass outside the window and can’t remember their name W.S. Merwin
Tom was an artist, a creator of awesome stage pictures that provoked and delighted audiences around the world, but his most important gift was the love he bestowed on family and friends. He was a great friend: caring, loyal and generous, honest, kind and constant. I will miss him very much. It’s raining in Paris today and the rooftop chorus of mourning doves voices the soundtrack of a somber day.
January at Stinson Beach in Marin County a few miles north of San Francisco. This is winter in Northern California: mild temperatures, mostly clear skies, dry. After heavy December rains prompted a little hope that the drought might end, January came up warm and sunny. Hardly a hardship for a visitor from Paris, but here the drought continues.
Molten silver waves
I’m here to visit friends, people I’ve known and loved for many years, the people who caused me to think hard about leaving San Francisco. I live in Paris now, but I could never leave my friends. And so, this visit.
We’re aging now, moving into that twilight realm which popular culture doesn’t target, and we, conveniently, don’t care. But the sidebar to our confidence in who we are and what we like is the discomfort caused by change. We tell ourselves it’s inevitable, we believe it, but the feeling of being left behind is disorienting, even if we see the world plunging into a dystopian future. Only yesterday it was our world, our music, our culture, and if our place in it wasn’t always secure, these anchors kept us rooted.
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This beach at the foot of Mount Tamalpais has been a special place since close friends came to live here years ago. They brought lively gatherings, great food and wine to the many pleasures of the shore. To breathe the fresh sea air is to be renewed, it clears the dross from the brain, creates space for fresh ideas. The power of the water is a source of wonder and a warning of our weakness. Sinking bare feet into the sand anchors us to the planet until the next wave erases our presence. Only memories remain.
A wise and dear friend of mine invited me to a showing of a film called Legacy by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. https://www.yannarthusbertrandphoto.com Legacy is a compilation of five films and still photographs he has made over the years assembled into a 360 degree immersive projection experience. The images take us from an imagined fiery birth of the earth to the all too real present days of over-population and over-consumption.
It is a spectacular testimony of concern for the planet and its inhabitants, a warning, and a message of hope. It is also the crowning achievement of a brilliant career dedicated to the preservation and rehabilitation of our environment. Arthus-Bertrand’s genius lies in his extraordinarily skillful and artistic aerial and terrestrial photography and videography, but also in his ability to take an idea from concept to fruition. What elevates great visual art to the realm of genius is Arthus-Bertrand’s commitment to the preservation of the planet.
And what translates commitment to action is the Good Planet Foundation that grew out of Arthus-Bertrand’s work. https://www.goodplanet.org/fr/ Legacy was initially an exhibition of still photographs and video, now a projected environment of images and extraordinary music by Armand Amar playing as part of the Jam Capsule program of videos at La Grande Halle of La Villette. https://lavillette.com/programmation/jam-capsule_e882
Paris is, of course, chock full of environmental art but there’s always room for more and Alexander Brinitzer is doing his part. With the approval of M. Sack, the proprietor and cordonnier, Alexander has livened up our little corner of the 15th and put smiles on the faces of our neighbors. At least I think so. It’s very hard to see smiles beneath the masks.
