Art

by Jim Dickens  San Francisco February 2025

I have a very low Art IQ.  We have virtually no art in our house just pictures stirring happy memories.  However friends and family are trying to help.

After returning from England, several days later we jetted to San Francisco to see our son Chris and his wife / our new daughter Sophie.  Last time we visited in October, Lori and I stopped by the deYoung museum in Golden Gate park and enjoyed learning bits and pieces.  Sophie planned a treat for us this visit.

Sophie, Chris, Lori and I visited the San Francisco Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum on a fine clear day.   The museum itself is architected beautifully with powerful Rodin sculpted bronzes that will appeal to even my art IQ.  Then I ran across a painting that struck my fancy, a Canaletto.  I thought about why I liked it and concluded I liked the precision and busy detail.  The accurate perspective and the correct golden hour lighting and shadowing on a bustling Venice canal scene really struck me.  I think I’ve moved from very low to low.  Thank you Sophie.

(Canaletto Link so no picture here for legal reasons) https://www.famsf.org/artworks/venice-the-grand-canal-looking-east-with-santa-maria-della-salute

To help us update our new house, our talented friend Angela guided us.  As she did she suggested she could provide us with two paintings.  Angela has been an accomplished painter for many years and sold many of her creations.  While we were in San Francisco Angela finished the two pieces. 

Over the family room mantle is a post impression of the Selway River in Idaho, an unsullied watershed I fished with two of my best friends.  In the dining room is an abstract, Rings of Love, with rings linked for each member of our family.  I find both striking, decorative and stirring happy memories.  Thank you Angela.

So there is now art in our spartan home.  Lori and I aren’t good with knick knacks.  Maybe February is a turning point.