11/10/18


Kate, Varun and I have decided to get together when we can over a series of dinners to continue the spirit of this class. It will be different -- we have all since graduated, and Tony has retired from teaching. But it felt important to continue to make drawings and to have them be a visual record of our thoughts. Also, as Robin says, it is important to continue to hold within ourselves and practice what makes us human, even when our values are tested and our (democratic) institutions unwind.

Our first dinner will be this Wednesday, which I am hosting at my place. (Varun is in India, but he will join us when he returns to Berkeley.) I have never been a cook; there has never been enough time to learn, and besides I never wanted to come anywhere close to becoming the trope of a 'domesticated woman.' But lately I have been trying to make more of an effort, because dinner is sometimes the best time to see friends when we're all working full time. I will probably make spaghetti, which is one of my favorite things to eat anyways. And there will be lots of wine.

I used pastel and marker over a painting that a distant relative, Ruthe, had started (above). Several of her old canvasses were given to me last weekend from out of a garage in Lafayette to recycle in this way. Working on these canvasses will give me less control over the subject; I also feel closer to Ruthe by continuing her half finished paintings. As I sit in my apartment with all of the windows tightly closed because of the air pollution from the fires, a poem from a recent copy of the New Yorker (below) feels like the right backdrop for my mood. This feels like the right place to start again.




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