A Conversation with Ann Weber: Enough, Not Enough Sometime not so long after this magazine had been launched, I remember a conversation I had with Ann Weber. I knew her work, but if we’d actually met, the word acquaintance would suffice. The conversation began well, and quickly became quite friendly. In recollection, I was surprised by its warmth and can remember feeling emboldened. Before long a proposal was put forth—by whom, I don’t recall, but I suspect it was Ann. “Why don’t we begin a series of dinners with artists? We’d each invite two or three artists. It could be at my studio ... Oct 15, 2017, 22497 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, 3708 reads

Mother: 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 her surgery, ... Mar 18, 2023, 2992 reads

Interview: Godfrey Reggio: A Call for Another Way of Living Photos of Godfrey Reggio - R. Whittkaer One Friday morning I happened to tune in to KQED’s morning program Forum where an interview with Phillip Glass and Godfrey Reggio was underway. They were in town for a weekend showing at Davies Symphony Hall of Reggio’s Qatsi Trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. Phillip Glass, along with his ensemble, would be performing the music he had composed for the films.          Koyaanisqatsi left a deep impression on me when I’d first seen it in 1983, as did Powaqqatsi, which came out five ... Feb 18, 2006, 57541 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, 2121 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, 31444 reads

This Larger Thing in the World: A Conversation with Mildred Howard I met Mildred Howard at her Berkeley home and studio on a Friday morning, the day she takes off from a very busy schedule divided between her on-going work as an artist and her duties as the director of the Alice Waters "Edible Schoolyard" at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley. I interviewed her for issue #3 of works & conversations. We began talking about gardens in general.—Richard Whittaker ​Mildred Howard: I especially love vernacular gardens. There’s something about them. works:  Yes. The gardens of regular folks. ... Jan 28, 2000, 132270 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, 9153 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, 11698 reads

Following Taya: 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 assured me.       Taya ... Sep 22, 2011, 48756 reads