Sunday, January 18, 2009

Art exhibition in the City


Karen disappeared behind a group of people on a guided tour at the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the De Young Museum. Dinah and I were perusing the Asian-inspired gowns when I heard a museum guide explaining something in detail at the same time herding the group closer towards us. Under normal circumstances, I would have joined in sneakily but, I decided not.

Dinah had asked earlier where Karen is. I answered she has probably skipped to another section to avoid this crowd. Moments later, we found her staring at a gown that is supposed to be Saint Laurent's tribute to Vincent Van Gogh - gowns with tops embroidered with metals, beads, sequins, and semiprecious stones that formed sort of like Van Gogh's sunflower paintings. A classic example of wearable art, I thought!

After two hours of drowning ourselves in haute-couture, we decided to break for lunch before we embark to yet another exhibition.

I couldn't help but wonder about Saint Laurent's inspiration for each piece. How about his design process? How many iterations did he work on before arriving at the final one? He was able to make use of organza flowers, satins, velvet, sequins, beads, semiprecious stones, and engraved copper into his pieces! Was he the first one to introduce tuxedo for women?

The ones that caught my attention are: (unfortunately, taking pictures is not allowed inside the exhibition hall, so no pictures) the Belle De Jour dress made for Catherine Deneuve, the knitted white wool wedding dress wrapped with white ribbons that resembles a cocoon, and the coat made from rooster, pheasant and vulture feathers. He was truly one of the most creative designers of the world!

~ral

(The picture above was taken at the De Young Museum in San Francisco during the Maya Lin exhibition which coincided with the YSL exhibition).


Sunday, January 04, 2009

Sleepless in the city

I woke up way too early.
It was 3:52a when I glanced at the alarm clock. The heater was on so it must have been freezing cold inside. We've set it to automatic so that it will only go off when the thermostat registers 36F (approx 2 Celsius) and only at dawn so it would be warm and toasty when we get up.
I decided to pray all over again hoping that it will lull me to sleep. Surprisingly, I was wide awake as if I just had a couple of shots of espresso. This is not a battle that is easy to win, I thought, so I gave up and decided to make this time worthwhile. As I get older, getting over a jet lag seems even harder.
The wood floor was freezing as I walked into the living room. I leafed through last week's magazines to catch up on what's happening in the city and the country. I could sense a mixed feeling of optimism, because of the new administration, and caution because of the shaky economy.

The house was so quiet. It was so quiet I could hear a minute ringing sound, almost deafening. This is so different from where I was two weeks earlier. No more roosters crowing, no more dogs yapping, no more children laughing.
Finally, a faint dark-blue hue started to appear on the horizon. It is almost 7oclock on a saturday morning. I decided to make what would be our first home cooked meal of the year.

~ral

(The photo above was taken around the Embarcadero area of San Francisco.)