Thoughts on Cities

When I was a child, which is really not all that long ago if you are thinking in geological terms, Santa Fe was a small town. It was a town you could walk easily, and would most likely meet several people you knew along the way. Aspen trees still grow in town, but there are far more people living there now.

Indigo City is mostly harmless

Although I wanted nothing more than to get out of the small town atmosphere as a teenager, I was a bit terrified the first time I arrived in San Francisco and saw all the freeway overpasses! A few years ago I made a pilgrimage to New York city to visit its museums, despite my deep undercurrent of fear about the place. Getting around the city on foot and by subway, I was relieved to discover that much of the Big Apple is quite friendly and entirely lacking in menace. People there have dogs, even! Central Park took my breath away with it's treed landscape and 19th c. wrought-iron details.

Given my humble small-town beginnings, I've always thought maybe I wasn't qualified to paint cities. However, I do live in an urban environment. Every day I ride my bike through streets rife with the worst of urban problems. My studio, like that of many other artists, is in one of the grittier parts of Oakland .

Shiny City

After leaving Santa Fe as a teenager, I moved around a bit. I've lived in Paris, Lyon and San Francisco. These places certainly left indelible impressions on me, although each of these cities guard a certain small-townness of it's own. Lyon residents will tell you that while it's thought of as the 2nd largest city in France (unless you ask a Marseillais) the city keeps une taille humaine, a human size. You can stride through Lyon easily, passing through the old town arrondissement to the business center through the passarelles, or hidden walkways between buildings once used by the resistance. San Francisco is a big city on one hand, but also a collection of little burgs on the other. Each area is distinct and small enough that you will run into the same people all the time once you live there.

City Tapestry

Paris, for all it's romance, is probably the toughest city I've had the pleasure to live and work in. It's a great city to visit, but living there is a different story. It's impossible for a builder to construct anything higher than 5 stories inside the city proper, so much of Paris feels intimate and close. In that sense, I was very much reminded of Paris when first I visited Manhattan. Once you get into the immediately surrounding areas you find yourself in the midst of gleaming skyscrapers and shopping behemoths. It's a tale of two cites in one. It's also for this reason that it's nearly impossible to get out of Paris for a weekend without being stuck in traffic for hours.

It's that first environment of life that seems to leave the deepest imprint on artists, I've noticed. No matter where I end up, I will always see colors more brightly, as though under a New Mexican sun. Picasso never got too political in his art until the fascists bombed Guernica. Even Gaugin's exile to exotic lands could not strip his work entirely of the shadow of Catholic symbolism that was so entirely French. And so in every city I will still experience the awe and wonder of a tourist, even if it is San Francisco.

Easter City, view from the Bay Bridge

Cities are different types of landscapes for me. When I see tall buildings, I still think of very tall mountains or trees that were built from glass, steel and concrete. But whereas being out in wild places makes me feel very small, as though nothing I did really mattered all that much in the grand scheme of things, cities tend to bring my attention to the importance of the moment. Cities thrum with a pulse of life in a hurry. The surfaces are more shiny and shapes are clean, geometric.

Maiden Lane, a modern take

When I see a city from afar, I feel as though I could almost hear the buzz of thought hovering around the buildings. All that brain activity and motion seem to give off a hum. Then there is the history of a city, the things she has seen and events that left a mark. Certain parts of London seem to echo with the weight of History. Kung Ming in China, on the other hand, almost felt like visiting a lightweight plastic future (with extremely bad pizza).

In films cities of the future always seem to be all shiny surfaces and flying cars. I believe that most cities will cling to the landmarks that have formed them, no matter what happens. Roman Colosseum and Gothic cathedrals will always command respect.

Maiden Lane in San Francisco is a place to go now if you want to see San Francisco's only building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, or shop for Chanel. In the gold rush days, however, it was a red light district. What a sight it must have been! I like to imagine away all the cars and see instead stage coaches, or picture in my head some saucy ladies milling about in lace-up corsets and petticoats. Or what must it have been like to see nearby Union Square as a rally ground for the Union Army, as it was in 1850? I'm not sure I can even imagine it without the looming shadow of Macy's, but it's fun to try.