Bryant Austin Interview : Crossing Over “Would you like to join me in Monterey to interview Bryant Austin?” Anne Veh asked me . “Are you serious?” I answered. A couple of years earlier, I’d met Austin at an exhibit of his remarkable photographs at Electric Works Gallery in San Francisco and I’d wanted to interview him then. What would it be like swimming right next to whales? How did that come about? There had to be so many things worth hearing about. But circumstances prevented an interview at that time, so I jumped at Anne’s invitation. A few weeks later we met at the Museum of ... Jan 20, 2014, 61277 reads

Interview: Americ Azevedo: The Truth Demands To Be Lived Americ Azevedo sat in a college classroom with about 15 students. It was a meditation class and he was the instructor. A few years later, there were 603 students in that same class. It was held in one of the largest lecture halls on the UC Berkeley campus.      Although a philosopher, author and lecturer on peace and conflict studies, Azevedo has never been defined by categories. Serendipitously he became the acting CEO of a company in a field for which he had no formal training. As a professor, he's taught an unlikely mix of university classes: ... Feb 11, 2013, 57635 reads

Interview: Quincy Troupe: A Poet's Journey I'd already met and interviewed artist Mildred Howard when she told me about her friend, the poet Quincy Troupe. You ought to interview him, she said. Well, maybe we could do that together, I suggested. Mildred is one of those people, full of life and engagement, and it didn't take a lot of insight to know it would be a great plus to have her involved. Mildred liked the idea and some weeks later, I got a call from her. "Quincy is in San Francisco. Let's do the interview!" The timing clicked and Mildred and I headed over to a hotel near Chinatown to meet ... Apr 2, 2002, 56318 reads

Interview: Godfrey Reggio: A Call for Another Way of Living Photos of Godfrey Reggio - R. Whittkaer One Friday morning I happened to tune in to KQED’s morning program Forum where an interview with Phillip Glass and Godfrey Reggio was underway. They were in town for a weekend showing at Davies Symphony Hall of Reggio’s Qatsi Trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. Phillip Glass, along with his ensemble, would be performing the music he had composed for the films.          Koyaanisqatsi left a deep impression on me when I’d first seen it in 1983, as did Powaqqatsi, which came out five ... Feb 18, 2006, 56125 reads

Karma Kitchen, A Taste of the New Counter-Culture: Richard Whittaker It was my first time at Karma Kitchen's new place, A Taste of the Himalayas, in Berkeley. I was ready for the upbeat atmosphere, the heady energy set free by a group of strangers experiencing a small holiday from business as usual. The holiday comes thanks to an unusual inversion. The key moment comes after all the courses have been served, after seconds even, after the smiles, the good cheer and all the attentiveness of the waiters. That's when the bill is presented-amount due $0.00. There's a note with this bill: your meal has been paid for by someone ... Sep 8, 2011, 55747 reads

Rolling Art in LA: The Hood Gallery Browsing the Yahoo listserv LAculturenet, I ran across the following: "The owner of the Hood Gallery is Per Huttner, a Swedish artist currently living in Paris." The post came from Jane Polkinghorn, co-director and driver of The Hood Gallery. The Hood Gallery, it turns out, is a 1990 Camaro two-door hatchback.      Polkinghorn is an Australian artist from Sydney who met Huttner at an art residency in Santa Monica. When Huttner left to live in Paris, she took over the gallery on one condition: if she paid the insurance, she could drive the gallery around.  ... Aug 2, 2003, 55128 reads

Interview with SaÏd Nuseibeh: The Bond of Mystical Beauty One afternoon I got a call from DeWitt Cheng - there was some interesting work at the Scott Nichols Gallery—photography by Saïd Nuseibeh. A few days later I went over to see for myself. DeWitt was right. Nichols was there and I asked him how to contact the photographer. He picked up a phone, dialed a number and handed me the receiver. A week later I found myself standing outside Nuseibeh’s front door high in the inner Sunset District of San Francisco. It was foggy and there was a chill in the air. We'd already met a couple of days earlier ... Aug 1, 2005, 54780 reads

Conversation: Emmanuel Vaughn-Lee: Deep Water   Most of us in the west take clean water for granted. And generally we're equally asleep to the profound role water plays in our lives. In an interview with Sam Bower of greenmuseum.org [issue #18] I brought up the question of water. He mused, "If you think of what we are, I mean we're made up of cells and each little cell contains a drop of seawater. In some ways, all the little creatures that emerged from the seas found each other, bound together and found a way of collaborating and sharing the recipe over and over with helpful modifications, and here we are ... Jun 13, 2011, 52823 reads

Paintings of Robin Rome:   These two little paintings jumped out at me at an exhibit at the Berkeley Art Center. For me, the cloudlike Godzilla (Gozira) figure immediately evoked dire visitations of global climate change. But at 12" x 12" inches, the two paintings charm, and the scale makes them seem harmless. It's as if the threat of climate-induced disasters are off in the distance, as in a children's book. Maybe this allows one to be drawn in. And perhaps it's only later that the thought arises: Fukushima. Weren't those nuclear reactors with their meltdowns producing ... Oct 12, 2011, 52687 reads

Interview: Richard Berger: A Conversation with an Elusive Genius At the time of this interview in1997, Richard Berger was a senior faculty member at the San Francisco Art Institute where he had chaired the sculpture department for over twenty years. Although he was the recipient of the Adeline Kent Award in 2004, he was one of those remarkable artists who should have been far more widely known. When I asked other Bay Area artists if they knew Richard Berger, the response was usually some variation on a theme: "Oh, yes. He's a genius!"        I began our interview by asking Berger how he was currently working. ... Aug 6, 2000, 51130 reads