Spring at Ya Po Ah

Yesterday April 22,  nine residents of Ya Po Ah  took a trip to the coast on a beautiful clear day, leaving at 8:30 and arriving  back to Ya Po Ah at 7 o’clock.It was earth day and we enjoyed the scenic beauty of the coastal ride stopping at places to walk the beaches in the brisk wind but invigorating to feel.

  I am not writing to describe the trip but  to to tell of several acts of kindness that happened during the day. While looking at the pirate sailing  ships in Newport one of the people lost her phone and was retracing her trip to the restaurant  when a man came up  to our bus, that has Ya Po Ah on the side , and asked if anyone lost a phone .He found it at the rest stop and someone must have told him where we were going. Since he was heading in the same direction he looked and found us and the phone was given to the women who was very grateful to him. How about that for synchronicity.  One of the ladies on our trip likes to cook and she made egg rolls for all of us us to eat. When at the beach we help the ones with walkers to cross difficult  parts.These and other acts of kindness happen every day and I feel good to be witness to these acts even if it is a simple,  good day. I am learning by living in a city of many people how important it is in a community to be aware of everyone for even though we are strangers to most, that smile on the street as we pass indicates we are connected. 

There are all types of people living at Ya Po Ah, many different personalities, those I would not come in contact with if I was living somewhere else. I watch and observe and strangely see the imperfections and idiosyncrasies  and the beautify  in the people of Ya Po Ah and I like them for their uniqueness. I must say that for a crazy person myself I, one that would rather be alone and away from society,  have found friendship and enjoyment in the different people that have befriended me.. Older people have had many experiences and over come difficult situations . painful childhoods, marital  abuse, alcoholism. traumas etc., from all walks of life. These are not ordinary people they are extraordinary  people. Ya Po Ah is a microcosm  of the macrocosm  of the outside world. There is a small food store, hair dresser, exercise and TV room, dining room. stage and all are used for movie night, bingo, card playing, computer golf, meetings of various subjects.There are the smokers and jokers, dog walkers,  group walkers and gardeners. Almost everyone has met  in the elevators, only two for over two hundred people. Apartments are small and if you can get out you go out. So I haven’t made as many paintings as when I lived alone. Now I learn to relate to people. I also have nature in the back yard. On my last walk up Skinners Butte I watched the eagle sitting on the nest through the camera lens of a birder, many come to see the eagles, and I watched the vultures fly through the trees, and they are big birds. From the 14th floor I watch the birds soar on the currents  above the butte. Yesterday I rode my bike along the river  and waded into the water at what I call my swimming hole. It was very cold. Being a warm day many people were at the park, all glad  to be in the sunshine. 

coast

Ya Po Ah on left

coast

Ya Po Ah driveway

Ya Po Ah in distance

Ya Po Ah on left background

Ya Po Ah in background right

the swimming hole

eighty two years young

me in front of one of my abstracts 2012

I am proud to say I made it to 82 and I am thankful for all the good years I have lived and I plan to enjoy all the days I have left to live. My vacation life continues with good health, wonderful friends, loving family, time to do anything I want, no financial troubles, living in a beautiful environment. I don’t know why I have been so blessed. I do appreciate everything and everyone that has been a part of my life and learning experiences. I know many wonderful people that have enriched my life, and I appreciate an environment that has inspired my many paintings. My talent has enabled me to see the world in it’t physical glorious form and to be in awe of its creation. 

I found all the Birthday wishes to me on Facebook  and I thank everyone. 

Something is breaking down on my computer and I have lost some programs, like I can’t load  my photos from my camera. Doug  and Christina will be out in June for Lucy’s graduation from the University of Oregon and Doug will fix the computer  or get me a new one. I have started to paint again and just finished a geometric one. Happiness is doing what you love. 

So thanks friends for remembering me on my birthday.

our wedding 1961

Doug age one and a half and puppy Husky

My mom and me

I love hugging 2017

Pine Cone Hat, Halloween party

last picture taken of Charlie and me. 2007

Functions at Ya Po Ah, etc.

carnival outfits

There are many events that the residents of Ya Po Ah organize for all that want to attend or  participate in.  Except for when I am with Chris all my socializing is with the people here at Ya Po Ah Every two months there is a birthday party  in the dining entertainment area and last Friday  was a Carnival birthday party. There were games and I had the face painting table. This was my first time at face painting and I did have a few faces and arms to practice on.  All of us in charge of games were dressed up in costumes After the games everyone enjoyed ice cream sundaes.  I never dreamed I would be living in a situation like this. It is perfect for me  and I have met  interesting  and like minded people, Back in Maine I loved Back Cove and everything I needed was there now it is the same, my surroundings are beautiful and I can ride my bike or walk to everything I need. 

I do spend too much time on the computer. It is so easy to look up anything I want to know about and I listen to talks on you tube. The news I get from listening to Democracy Now or PBS.  The world seems to be in a state of madness but  I believe underneath  or behind the scenes  great things are being invented and the green movement is coming into being and it will happen as soon as the greedy ones die off or change their course. It is great to see the young people become active on gun control. They are fighting against money and power, two steps forward, one step back,.If you want to see what we are moving toward look up biomimicry,  the bioneers  and levitation inventions.There is lots of info on you tube. Keep the thoughts positive. 

I  also want to express my thoughts on the gender issues. I believe humanity is coming to a male female balance. The male power, aggression, dominance  has been going on for thousands of years. The power over women has been their natural way, so now it is pointed out to men this is not acceptable behavior. and to treat all living things with respect. Many famous people have been abusive but should they be condemned for everything , when they have  produced great art or great whatever. Are we going to say Kennedy was not a good President, should we destroy Picasso’s paintings. There are a lot  of nasty people that have done great things, and I don’t condone their moral behavior, Morals again are different in other times and cultures..Should statues and buildings be destroyed now, because when they were made , years ago , it  was a different time, beliefs were different. Human for all their failures and faults are  remarkable beings that have created great civilizations, great art, great thinkers, inventors, etc. I am in awe at what humans have accomplished. This is the age of  technology, other civilizations  were great for things we  can’t figure out how they did what they did. We are not better, Everything happens when it should whatever time, past or future. Everything is alive and all life is amazing. We are living in a time of great change and I find it very exciting, because I believe we are moving toward a wonderful age of peace and harmony.

carnival   photo taken with funny hats

Spring is coming

rosemary in flower

helleborus

whitch hazel

For Valentine's Day

When I was a little girl I loved the different holidays, Christmas being my favorite as it is to this day. . In those days  my mother made most of my cloths. I did not have a lot , school cloths, (back then I wore skirts and dresses to school,) play cloths and best cloths for church and get togethers with relatives on holidays. For Easter I was given new cloths and I enjoyed seeing everyone dressed up with hats and gloves. Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas were feast days. I have always loved good food. Halloween was fun to get dressed up and go trick and treat. For Valentine’s day all the children in my class in grammar school would bring valentine cards and we would put them into a decorated box.and then draw them out one by one. I can remember putting my favorite ones into a scrap book. My grammar school had 8 rooms one for each grade. and the valentine box was a tradition every year. 

After art school I had a job as a greeting card designer.  As a little girl I drew animals dressed as people, and real animals like deer, rabbits and such and I liked fairies and little people so I have always liked cards and illustrated children books.

Here is a short history of Valentine’s Day. . St Valentine  was a priest from Rome in the third century AD. He secretly married soldiers,. Marriage for soldiers  was forbidden  by  Emperor Claudius. Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death.There, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter and when he was taken to be killed on 14 February he sent her a love letter signed "from your Valentine".

The Romans had a festival called Lupercalia in the middle of February - officially the start of their springtime.t's thought that as part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box. They'd be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they'd get married.

Later on, the church wanted to turn this festival into a Christian celebration and decided to use it to remember St Valentine too.Gradually, St Valentine's name started to be used by people to express their feelings to those they loved. 

I have a great collection of Christmas cards that I have saved through  the years and every Christmas I hang them  on ribbons  taped to doors and other places.I can’t remember getting Valentines after grammar school  so I decided to look them up on the computer and found every kind imaginable. I am celebrating  Valentine’s day this year, printing out on my computer some of the beautiful, cute and funny cards I found. 

This day is mostly for lovers or those that love one another. Love needs to be expanded, because the word has a narrow meaning when it really encompasses everything. I believe everything is created from love. It is an emotion that can’t be defined only felt. Here are some of the actions that love creates, passion, compassion, respect, forgiveness, surrender, kindness, deep affection, enjoyment, caring, appreciation for. It is action, a force, It is entanglement, It is giving and receiving. Everything needs love or it withers  or even dies. One can also love nature, for its beauty and the peaceful feeling it emanates. So I think we should up grade Valentines’s day and send our love forth. Who knows , it may bring peace to the planet. 

A New Year

Full moon on Jan1 2018

before sunset

Happy New Year. Christmas is over and I have taken down and put away all my decorations. I cut off all the branches of my 7 foot tree and took them out in bags to the compost pile, adding them to the   pile where the  large Christmas trees from Ya Po Ah were thrown. Christmas is well celebrated at Ya Po Ah. Every Christmas season a huge sign with lights is put on top of the 20 story building  that says Peace on Earth.

 Now it is time to get back to painting. The last few days I have been looking through some of my many art books. One is titled What is Art, very well written and the other books I looked at were A Life in Photography Steichen and Masters of the Camera. When I was going to the Museum School in Boston the Museum of Fine arts, which was across the street from the school,  had a photography show called The Family of Man. It was organized by Steichen around 1955. Some photos were very large and gave such an impact on me I never forgot that show.  If only it could be seen again now as it showed  all cultures and races participating in life as we all live it, celebrating  traditions, eating, playing, singing, fighting, loving, as the family of Man. Our needs and desires are the same.

Steichen was a commercial photographer. He photographed many famous people and worked for magazines like Vogue. He had an eye for composition and uniqueness. Here is an interesting story he relates. He spent time in Europe and in 1901 while living in Paris he went to a show of paintings in a small room where the paintings were hung side by side and one above the other. He said he had never seen anything like them and he didn’t know what to make of them. He went back the next day to have another look. There were no visitors in the gallery. The painting were painted by Van Gogh, He could buy one for $ 200.00. None sold. Steichen said now , this was 1962 that the paintings were probably worth two million. In 1990 a Van Gogh sold for 82.5 million. In ten years Van Gogh  painted 900 paintings and made 1000 drawings and accomplished this  body of work with episodes of depression and poor health. Van Gogh was 37 when he died in 1890. Vincent said he wanted to give happiness to people by creating beauty. It took awhile for people to recognize that beauty.

There is always the controversy of commercial art  that one does for money averse to paintings done by painters who were free to paint what they wished. Steichen introduced Stieglitz to most of the painters and sculptors who showed in Stieglitz’s gallery. Stieglitz had money and support from family and friends,  and he believed Steichen as a commercial photographer did so merely for money. This riff broke the friendship of two masters and they did not communicate for years. Great men and women produce great art whatever their circumstances. All the famous artists of the Renaissance before and and after were commissioned  by the church and wealthy merchants. 

Here is another Steichen story. A painter friend was commissioned to paint J P Morgan’s portrait. Morgan didn’t like sitting so Steichen took some photos of the pose for the artist to use as reference. Steichen also took sone candid shots one being this photo that when I saw it I thought the hand held a knife. In reality Morgan’s hand was  firmly grasping the arm of the chair. Over the years people have referred to the insight into Morgan’s real character.

In the What is Art book it was stating that the forms art take are determined by forces within the times that demand appropriate expression.The Gothic cathedral summarized the spiritual aspirations of an age when man lived in terrible times, wars, torture, disease, and poverty. They had their faith witnessed by the soaring forms of the  Cathedrals. that  were indeed mystical feats of engineering. I looked up Chartres on the  internet. Incredibly it was built in 26 years on the site of previous churches  that had burnt down. The towers were still intact from the previous church. I saw and was in Chartres in 1958. It is the most spiritual place I have been in. 

J P Morgan

an enhanced photo of Steichen

a picture is worth a thousand words

My photo of one of the many homeless in Eugene