Month: May 2004

Los Angeles County
Banning (Phineas) Senior High
Address:
1527 Lakme Ave.
Wilmington, CA
90744-1526
Phone Number: (310) 549-7500

Map it!

Statistics for Banning (phineas) Senior High:
School District: Los Angeles Unified
County: Los Angeles
Low Grade: 09
High Grade: 12
Locale: Large Central City
Charter: No
Magnet: Yes
Title 1 School: Yes
Title 1 School Wide: Yes
Number of Students: 3190
Number of Teachers: 99.99
Teacher to Student Percent: 24.00
Male: 1636
Female: 1554
Native American: 8
Asian: 127
Black: 250
Hispanic: 2716
White: 89
Number of Students Receiving Free Lunch: 1911
Number of Students Receiving Reduced Lunch: 167
Migrant Students: 5

My family had moved half way through my high school years (second half of the 10th grade). Banning is where I graduated. When I was a student there were many more white students. There was also a good number of Samoan and South Pacific Islanders. The ratio of African American students was higher. The ration of Latino students was lower. And, there were less students overall. One high school friend I’m still in touch with. He’s also an artist, naturally.

more images of lectures in Miami, FL

This afternoon was lecture by Chuck Close who is exhibiting his prints at Miami Art Museum. A show of prints is certainly easier to mount than paintings, especially with insurance values for a travelling show, but this is something he envisioned many years ago. Most of the time once an edition has been run the master plates get destroyed but, Close kept all of his because the process of making art has always been important to him. He said he only paints about three paintings per year now. They are very labor intensive and he needs his assistants to assist him throughout the process. He takes his own photos using a 20 x 24 polaroid camera.

Because he’s in a wheelchair after his spinal blood clot, his studio has a slot built into the floor that allows his paintings to be rotated and, raised and lowered into the floor so that the position where he paints remains the same, only the painting moves. This is because he grids the photos he works from and transfers the information to his canvas. Obviously, it is not the same as drawing a straight line, for instance, but a series of tonalities that then represents what we identify as a line.

His quest was to create a work in which every square inch was equal in value to every other square inch. He’s worked over thirty years at it so, we assume he’s reached a level of perfection that transcends the process. If you took a digital image and look at each pixel you’d see something like his paintings are constructed although, he began this search before computer images were seen by most except some computer geeks.

Anyway, you can see I’m thinking about art tonight…

Greek pottery and sculpture was my initial inspiration for a series of drawings done some years ago. I was in Tampa, FL for an opening and decided to visit the Tampa Museum in some of my spare time. I hadn’t noticed until that trip the color relationships in the classical pottery of the Greeks: black figures on red clay, white figures on black, and black figures on natural (tan colored) pottery. You could actually call this a painting because I used a brush, not a pencil or pen.

I started off working with images of (contemporary) construction workers in drawings that looked like Greek pottery. Then I worked on a few related to the slave experience. I didn’t do that many drawings but, I like them in some ways.

I actually used the oxide colored mud I had collected in Minnesota on my very first trip there for the background. I love the red-oxide color and have used it for several projects. I still have a bucket full of it.

I’m a basketball lover. I love the game, always have. I probably got it from my father and aunt. Yes, my family used to play ball in church leagues. My uncle that died last summer told me if there was a WNBA when they were younger, my aunt that I visited during Christmas would have easily been a star player. One thing that I DO remember about those games was walking into the men’s locker room and getting that manscent that just knocked me for a loop. It is still memorable but, not in a bas way. It was just something very profound on my young mind that I never forgot. I was probably between six and eight years old.

Anyway tonight, the Miami Heat came through in a must win game against the NBA’s top team for season wins this year. It was an amazing game even though I watched it on TV. If they win a game in Indiana on Saturday I think it will be a definitive game for a team that was a laughing stock only last year. It’s NOT fair because Alonzo Mourning had to retire due to illness but, the team was built around him and he was gone, not playing his second year in a row. Now, it’s all about the Heat being the head turning team in this year’s playoffs.

Feel the HEAT!: 2004 Playoffs

Here are two pics of my kitchen/ cooking area. Yesterday I cooked skinless chicken breast marinated in tamari sauce garnished with onion and spices, fresh green beans (with diced onions and garlic, olive oil) and, a baked sweet potatoe. Dessert was a fruit bar with vanilla ice cream. I only ate about half of what I cooked because I’ve been pretty inactive and when I’m less active, I eat less. I thought food consumption should be based on metabolism, not that most people eat three meals per day. I’ve only been eating once per day since classes ended, ending my hunger with fruit (dried & fresh), yogurt and other things like leftovers. I have eaten breakfast a few mornings so, I have eaten two meals in a single day several times. I’m not going hungry by any means. I eat well all the time. The only time in my life I went hungry was when I was in college away from home with no stores nearby campus. That didn’t last long but, I lost 15 lbs. in 6 months. I hated that college. Anyway, here’s a view of my dinner preparations.

Yes, dear! You provoked a response. Here is a pic of me when I was about 2 yrs. old, a pic I took of my mom in 1959, my mom and dad (and me) in 1968. I’ve seen pics of Lena Horne and my mom from the 30s & 40s that makes them look like they were sisters. Both of them beautiful women.
Continue reading “Mommybabou provokes another response…”

Because of all my handsome friends I decided to attempt a new selfpic. I honestly don’t think this image is worth it but, it’s acceptable. I don’t often take pics of myself. Maybe I would try it more often but, I’m not into looking at myself. I have little problem with my self-image. I don’t like being in front of a camera that much.

Hollywood Art & Culture Center (FL) had an opening this weekend. They are one of my site’s sponsors. The show was two photographers, one of which I worked with at Broward Community College. Teresa is very meticulous and does very sensual work. Her photos and videos were set off from the large open space somewhat because they included some sexual content. If her work was the standard from inclusion of sexuality in art, she shows the way for what sex is about. It was about relationships, motherhood, and human sexuality as a general subject, although she used a female to invoke the latter. I want to write a larger article about her exhibition.

There are two major art collectors in this photo. We know each other and they have a really nice collection. I’ve been in their home and seen it myself when I worked for MoCA.

Last night I went to a gay house party and took a friend I met on IRC some years ago. He’s gained some weight since I last saw him in person, even though we don’t live far apart. We have talked on the phone for years yet I have seen him in years. It was good to go out with him again, something I’ve asked him to do many times.

While at the party a handsome guy walked up to me and reintroduced himself. I was shocked as it was a guy I went out with a couple times back about eight years ago. He looks different now. I last called him three years ago right after his mother’s death. He’s always been super nice, as well as his mother and sister, who I had talked on the phone with a few times. I never understood why we hadn’t seem to connect more than we did because he seemed so right. He used to work in the airport control tower, a very stressful job with difficult hours, and I know that had something to do with it. Anyway, his eyes lit up when he saw me last night. That was special. He promised to call me. I’ve lost his phone number and his phone is unlisted.