On The Road

If you happen to be in or near San Francisco, there are only a few more weeks left to catch the Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson exhibition at SFMOMA. It’s up until February 24th and it’s one of the better traveling exhibitions that this particular museum has put on in a long time. Go!

Don’t fret though. If you happen to be on or near the East Coast, New York City specifically, the same exhibition will be hosted at MoMA’s P.S.1 Contemporary in the spring from April 20th to June 30th.

There have been quite a few people running in and out of my life lately. Some of them from out of town, others from out of the country. Two in particular, one from somewhere around London and the other from a place called Rio de Janeiro had me hopping around The City and showing off some of her best vantage points.

I love having people visit. Unfortuately, since I live out of my car, I can’t play as much hostess as I would like to, but I do my best. While they were in San Francisco I took my friends to one of my favorite bars in The City, Tosca, where we had lovely Lemon Drops and a made-up drink without a name. We went to galleries, museums, bookstores and did a lot of street hiking. And through all of this was placed conversation about place and identity, habits and culture (which I didn’t think Americans had), and a lot of silent contemplation.

That is the beauty about travel. Being confronted with one’s own culture. If you think about it, there is so much that we do daily out of habit that is marked as different to someone from somewhere else, that we don’t even notice it. Some of them are little things …

Like double-dipping.

Who would have thought double-dipping being a no-no would be something that seemed uniquely American and differed from culture to culture? But hey, it is and does.

One afternoon we were sitting in a taqueria chewing on our yummy burritos, each with their own stash of chips and a group of little containers of each kind of house salsa spread across the table. Pico di Gallo, Salsa Verde, the other green kind made from avacados, and a hot red one.

I told my friends that the salsa was for everyone, and they eagerly dipped, at the same time mentioning how strange it was that the other Americans they had eaten with didn’t seem comfortable in sharing food and dipping sauces. It seems that us US Americans are germaphobes. (I say US Americans because, as I was politely reminded by my friend from Rio, she’s an American too and then Canadians and Mexicans are also North Americans … well, you get the picture). I replied that most US Americans will share dipping sauces, but that it is double-dipping that is looked down upon. What, is double-dipping? they both looked at me inquisitively. It was then that I realized that I had been asked a cultural question about being American. It felt odd.

So I explained about dipping a chip, munching it, then dipping it again.

We wouldn’t think twice about that, they both said, from opposite hemispheres of the world.

Because the US is made up of so many different cultures and has absorbed many of the traditions of these cultures, it’s really hard to find something that is culturally American. But there you go. Double-dipping. I like learning these things about my culture, such as it is, and as weird as it is sometimes.

Oh, and by the way, here’s a tip if you travel to France - when eating in a group, and a large cheese plate is placed on the table, never cut off the point of a triangle of brie.

One of the hardest hit pages on artist-at-large.com is the list of Downtown San Francisco Galleries that are open late on the First Thursday of every month. I tend to not pay too much attention to the passage of time, but notice when looking at my web stats that First Thursday is on the week’s agenda.

Also this week ascross the bay in Emeryville, the 21st Annual Emeryville Exhibition is opening tomorrow night (Friday, October 5th). The reception is from 6 - 9 pm, and this year the location is 5885 Hollis Street, EmeryStation East, Emeryville (corner of Hollis and Powell Streets).

Afterwards, head over to the First Friday Art Walk event, held in Oakland. There are shuttle buses that can cart you around so you can leave your car and join the artwalk crowd.

San Francisco Open Studios start this weekend and end on the 4th of November. Every weekend for the next month, artists in different neighborhoods will open their doors for you to come in and see their work. The opening is this Sunday, October 7th from 4pm - 7pm at SomArts Gallery at 934 Brannan Street

I’ve been wanting to do a little story about the Golden Gate Bridge for years now, but frankly, I’m terrified of walking out onto the span. I love looking at her from a distance. I love being on land beneath her looking up at her. I love all of her moods as well as her stability.

But I’m terrified of walking across her.

You can read about my little experience in getting the above photo in the little story I wrote.