We went to see Malia Jensen’s new show at Elizabeth Leach this morning (up until October 29th) with Sidney…he came with us to her show last year (“Homey” at Weiden & Kennedy) and loved the fox lamp and the seal and the giant cockroach…here’s a review of Sidney’s favorites from 2015…
The show at Elizabeth Leach this year, “Ground Effects”, is more somber, more elegant and a bit more spare…but still intriguing in the way Malia has of looking at things and transposing meanings for us. (Currently it’s a real trick to get into the 9th Avenue gallery due to massive construction on both corners, but DO persevere…the show is nice…and then go see the James Lavadour show at PDX Gallery next door if you get a parking space…)
We were going to meet Malia at the gallery but arrived early so as to look at the work. Sidney is about to be three and yet has a way of asking questions that get to the heart of the matter…”what are these, how did she make them, why is there a big hole back here…?”
and so when Malia arrived he asked her…”are these rocks”?
Nope, clay, the last pieces she made in her New York studio and the first pieces she fired in Oregon on her return. She explained her process to R…
and these brilliant, luminous, fragile, motion-filled glass bubbles…
blown in a glass blower’s studio on placed on “cookies” of glass…
and the bronze wolf eating his own tail…NOT made and cast from a mold—it is a one off…Clay and wax over a Styrofoam armature and then cast with the process burning up the Styrofoam chunks, hence the big hole in the back of the head…
And Sidney liked this big hand (take note of this moment…)
So we went for a bite of lunch and some more art chat as well as a fireplug moment and a coffee…
before heading over to Piccolo Park, our play venue for the day
where, though, something was noticed…
“Hey…there’s a hand down here…”
and up here…
and heading home for nap time we discovered hands were everywhere today…
On The Way 
All those hands, and Sydney’s perfect little hands. You can see he is thinking about those modeled hands and his own.
San…maybe we are conditioned to think people that small don’t “think” but hanging out with Sidney shows me that each activity is carefully thought about and inserted into his “system” of the world as he knows it. He makes connections to things all the way back in his memory and often will say “Nana remember the time we…” and it will be something we did before he could talk. Fascinating. Language, visual memory??
What a fun day!! Three years olds are so fun. I have always enjoyed listening to children . Sidney’s growing up,so cute with his hair cut. A little man. 🙂
Sidney day is always the best! Love how you “listen,” to him. And love how he “talks,” to you!