75 and still looking fabulous.  The Golden Gate Bridge from the 2011 Project.

A series of four little paintings (4”x6” each) I did after a day at Kasha-Katuwe (Tent Rocks) in New Mexico.

La Luna, mixed media, reverse collage on plexi, 6”x6”

The effects of last weekend’s annular eclipse still have not worn off.   Going up to the nearly empty shore of Pyramid Lake in the Nevada desert was the perfect place for the event.   Yesterday I was sorting out some of my older work and came across La Luna — one of my reverse collages from an earlier series.  Appropriately there is a little bit of Yma Sumac embedded in the collage.  No desert road trip is complete without Yma.

Fabulous Land, mixed media on canvas, 8”x8”

I can never say enough how important it is to experiment.  A little 4”x4” collage of vintage postcards for the 2011 Project has lead to an ongoing series of postcard collages.  This latest piece is made entirely with postcards from the Fabulous Land (aka California).

Majestic Mandala, mixed media on canvas, 10”x10”, 2012

I’ve often put a few old postage stamps in my mixed media pieces.  Recently I acquired a big bag of old stamps, many of them British and Canadian.  Most of those feature the profile or portrait of Queen Elizabeth. After sixty years, she’s been on a lot of stamps.  Her Majesty has probably been on more stamps than anyone else.  With these new works, I have used stamps in the same ways I used pieces of old maps.  But with stamps, there are crisp borders and perforated edges.  The final result has a feel that harkens back to quilting and other textile arts.  It brings me back to the mapquilts I was creating ten years ago.  More examples can be seen at tofuart.com.

Lunar Map, mixed media on canvas, 10”x10”, 2012

After the all years of using maps in collages, I’ve normally kept things terrestrial.  I do like the space exploration sections you find at the beginning of an old atlas.  They are obviously dated, but have a certain corny charm.  I used them for an outer space piece for the 2011 Project as well as one with moon maps.  But here it is, my first moon map collage.

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” 

- President Barack Obama

California Dreamin’, mixed media on canvas, 24”x24”, 2012

In the past year I have been working on a series of mixed media collages I call postcard deconstructions.  This is the latest one.  Until now I have mostly used vintage postcards from between the 1920’s and 1950’s.  This new piece is later postcards, mostly the 1950’s to 1970’s – colorful, glossy and all California.  There are approximately 1,500 little pieces in all.

California Dreamin’, (detail) mixed media on canvas, 24”x24”, 2012

Put the 2011 Project on your phone.  The 2011 Project website has site has six wallpapers formatted for your iPhone.  Go here to download them all for free.

There are additional images available at tofuart.com.

The other day I was eating lunch.  Across from me sat a woman with an eight inch tall Sutro Tower tattooed on her arm. It is a very cool tattoo.  I’ll add that as one of the options on the if-ever-I-get-a-tattoo list. 

The tattoo got me thinking more about Sutro Tower.  San Francisco has iconic images that are recognized around the world like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Transamerica Pyramid and the row of Victorians on Alamo Square.  Yet, when people visit our City from all over the world, most barely notice Sutro Tower. You won’t find it on many postcards and there are no miniature Sutro Towers for sale in Chinatown. 

For San Franciscans, even if we take it for granted, most of us have a certain love for Sutro Tower.  If anything, the tower lets many of us avoid paying for cable.  With a bit of looking or a visit to any local craft fair, it does not take long to come across products with images of Sutro Tower.  Maybe they should be called staycation souvenirs?  Sutro Tower could be called our “Locals Only” icon.  

Sure, the tower has its detractors, and I have even come across a few fanatics who really hate the tower. But, well, San Franciscans do love to obsess over a cause.  For the rest of us, we’ll just look up and see it peaking through the fog.  And a few of us might secretly suspect the tower has another purpose — as an alien spaceship docking port. 

As for products – get some!  Like many of my fellow citizens, I have at least one t-shirt with our iconic tower.  My favorite t-shirts (shown below) are the ones from Glug, but I only have seen those in kid sizes.  I found some temporary tattoos (shown below) from sflocal.net.  I think I need to place an order. 

Many local artists have used Sutro Tower as a subject.  One my pieces for the 2011 Project is shown below, also Shannon Cope O’Rourke’s cityscape with our tower.  One could easily start a collection based on Sutro Tower art.  You might begin with Michael Wertz’s print and then this appropriately named Sutro Tower – Unlikely Landmark print from Minor Thread.

Nothing says real San Francisco like the Sutro Tower.