Genetically Engineered Chicken:   It occurred to me one day, as I grabbed a package of chicken from a freezer bin, at a Key Foods supermarket in New York City, that this headless mass of flesh was kind of a lie. What had once been, like myself, a living breathing creature, capable of feeling pleasure and pain, was now a slickly packaged and labeled product—so remote that I could avoid any pangs of guilt about eating it. That was a relief. On the other hand, I suspected that there was a dark underbelly to the ease out of which that relief sprang. I felt that this reliance on convenience, ... May 3, 2023, 1475 reads

A Conversation with Pat Benincasa: A Geometry of the Heart Pavi Mehta brought artist Pat Benincasa to my attention. She suggested we have a conversation, the three of us. Then she told me a stunning back story, I looked at Benincasa's work on her website and that settled it. The following conversation took place on February 17, 2020. It will appear in works & conversations #38. - Richard Whittaker works:  At the age of 16, you’d been drinking and went out and laid down at night in the middle of a busy street. I mean you could have died there. Pat Benincasa:  Yes. I was a teenager, drunk—feeling all ... Feb 17, 2020, 10732 reads

What Do Gardens Mean?: From works & conversations #3 – The Garden As Art  - photos, r. whittaker Can the garden be used as a fine art medium? My own encounter with the question was accidental. It happened only because, just before tossing another piece of junk mail into a recycling bin, I noticed the words “University of Chicago Press” and hesitated. On closer inspection, I saw it was a list of publications and, in thumbing through it, I found one title so appealing – What Do Gardens Mean? by Stephanie Ross – that I ordered it.     ... Jul 25, 2021, 4728 reads

A Conversation with Gareth Hill: Reflections of a Jungian Analyst Throughout my rather late entry into the world of psychotherapy in the San Francisco East Bay (it being a second career for me), I heard so many of my colleagues speak with respect for, and love of, Gareth Hill, the Jungian analyst and senior member of my local professional affiliation, The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley. So I considered myself fortunate to be paired with him as my consultant when I participated in TPI’s Supervision Study Program from 2013 to 2015. I was Gareth’s last consultee as he retired from being a therapist and consultant in 2015. ... Jan 10, 2015, 11191 reads

Mother: photo - Sanju Baral Sept. 2015 A couple months ago, my mother underwent a small surgery in her stomach. Before her hospitalization, Shaoli, my best friend from high school, also a doctor in that hospital, messaged me "Do not worry" and that she would be there for my mother. True. My sleepless nights on the opposite side of the Pacific could contribute little. And I definitely wasn't planning to fly over half of the globe to visit Mother; the following two weeks on my Google Calendar were already filled up with my normal busy-ness. On the following day of ... Mar 18, 2023, 3587 reads

A Conversation with Craig Downer & Elyse Gardner: The Plight of the Wild Horses On an overcast Sunday morning I drove across the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge to meet wildlife biologist Craig Downer at the Tiburon Baptist Church. The service had just ended and Craig met me with his friend Elyse Gardner who joined us in a conversation about the plight of wild horses in the western U.S. As we talked, I found Downer to be a quiet, thoughtful man, but it wasn't long before I could sense the depth of his feeling about his subject. I soon learned that Elyse shared his passion for these beautiful animals. Both have an ongoing and deep commitment to ... Aug 30, 2011, 28373 reads

The Secret of Bayou Teche: photo - r. whittaker Jerome untied the pirogue and picked his way out a few feet from the banks of the Atchafalaya. The morning sun reflected off the river and a solitary black nutrea rat skimmed waters creating a wide, silvery wake. It had been a long time since Jerome had crossed these waters, almost eight years, when he was ten. As he eased upstream near the bank of the slow moving river, he was careful not to disturb Dewey Hebert’s trotlines. Jerome knew that they were Dewey’s by the distinctive knotting on the low-lying branches from which they ... Apr 28, 2004, 2678 reads

Interview with Photographer Elaine Ling: Remote Wonders Elaine Ling was born in Hong Kong in 1946. At the age of nine, her family moved to Canada. She came to my attention when I got a note inviting me to a lecture she giving in San Francisco. Two of her photos were attached and caught my attention immediately. A quick Google search led me to her website where I was able to look at many more of her photos. No question, a portfolio of her work would be perfect for the upcoming issue of works & conversations. Often, pieces of each new issue fall together more from serendipity, than design. Discovering Elaine Ling's ... Jun 27, 2011, 33562 reads

A Conversation with Dr. Ann Petru: A Doctor for Life photo - r. whittaker Ann Petru is my neighbor. I don’t recall when I learned she’s Ann Petru, MD. Even then, all I learned is that she worked at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The other things I knew were that she put effort into our annual neighborhood party and was the keeper of the neighborhood email list. Oh, and from time to time, she invited the neighbors to drop by and take some succulents she’d thinned out from her front yard.      And there was an email each year from Ann telling of her participation in an AIDs ... Sep 24, 2017, 12840 reads

Following Taya: photo: r. whittaker As many readers of this magazine will know, Taya Doro Mitchell is unusual. [see issue #16] What readers won't know is that, at the age of 74, Taya left East Oakland and moved to a small agricultural community on the Rio Grande in New Mexico. It wasn't that Taya was tired of her practice of decorating the new bullet holes in her windows from nighttime activities in her neighborhood. She had lived there a long time and wasn't afraid, she told me, even coming home late at night-which was typical. And she was content with solitude, she ... Sep 22, 2011, 50163 reads