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Bonjour de Paris...
Auto-correct strikes again!
Leslie's text: "I really enjoyed the vegetarian men (nem)."
Chers Amis,
So tonight Leslie and I went to an art show that featured the work of Carole Benzaken. http://www.carolebenzaken.net/ Her work was an interesting combination of panels depicting everyday scenes such as waterfronts, or high-rise buildings, but each panel was cut in such a way that only portions of the scene was visible. Each panel stretched the length of five storeys inside the building. The installation took place in the stairwell of two different buildings. Each panel was doubled over and hung from the railing of the fifth floor stretching down to the ground floor making them the length of 10 floors. There was also a video which followed a similar idea in that the images were not complete. In fact they were reflections on water so as the waves moved, the images became distorted and were constantly changing. Often images that one would expect to see as being horizontal, such as ducks swimming on a pond, were shown as vertical in the video which further distorted the form. We were made aware of her show from bassist Jeff Littleton who knew her twenty some years ago when she was working in L.A. Jeff contacted us to let us know that we should be sure to see her work and we were glad that we did. As an added bonus as we made our way back home, we found a Chinese Restaurant that we liked not far from Gare du Nord. As far as restaurants go, we have pretty much anything we would want right in our neighbourhood, except a good Chinese place. And when I say good Chinese I mean a no frills, wear jeans and a T-shirt but really great food. Our friend Carol Penn, who has been to Paris many times, taught us this trick; when looking for a restaurant in Paris get off the main streets, walk down a side street and within a few blocks you will come across a really great restaurant. So far it's worked for us!
In February we had a similar experience when we met some artists from Barcelona who were exhibiting some of their work at the Grand Palais Ephémère in Paris. https://peinturealeau.com/ They happened to come to one of our concerts after which we had a chance to get to know them a little bit. By the end of our conversation, we were invited to their show. In case anyone is interested you can find them here: Victoria Rodrigo Gimeno www.victoriarodrigogimeno.com , Cinta F. Agell www.agellgaleria.com , Esperanza Garcia Canari www.esperanzagarcia.biz With over 500 artists represented in this exhibit, there was no way to see every thing that was on display. We only had one afternoon to spend there and it would have easily taken two days to see everything. One of the advantages of living in our neighbourhood is that we are constantly seeing new works of art on display in the windows of the many small galleries that we pass as we are running errands. When we lived in Laguna Beach, I was always struck by how many beautiful things I would see as I drove around town. There was usually a glimpse of the ocean or a garden in the front yard of someone's home. I think that this is not unusual no matter where one lives, as long as we pay attention.
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