art – Clara Hsu

Edge of the Canvas

When I was a child I learned to color within the line. The line is the boundary that must be observed. It is true in life too. When I step out of line I invariably violate someone, some things, some laws. The funny thing is that it is also most exhilarating to go beyond what is comfortable, expected, and even respected.

In the creative process there is no line and the canvas has no edge. There is no comfort zone but a determination to move forward. Among all the yes, I’ve done it’s there has to be many more, no, but there’s more.

The challenge is finding ways to break the line and keep breaking it.

“Can you go past your dreams to the pure light of dreaming?” James Broughton.

Theodor Adorno

A note from G. P. Skratz:

Hey, kids! Finish this audacious little dictum by Theodor Adorno:

The greatness of works of art lies solely in:

a) their ability to see the world fresh, as if for the first time.
b) their capacity to manifest the world sketched by ideology.
c) their power to let those things be seen with ideology conceals.
d) their fidelity to marxist-leninist thought.
e) their ability to mimic the effects of opium.
f) their invitation to serenely survey the improbable majesty of existence.
g) __________________________.

I went for the Wikipedia on Theodor Adorno and found more. The following quote was particularly thrilling:

“Adorno’s idea of society as a self-regulating system, from which one must escape (but from which nobody can escape). For him it was existent, but inhuman.”

Somehow it reminded me of George Orwell’s 1984. Adorno was not talking about some imagined society but our very own, and those who try to escape are the ones who yearn for humanity.

The Poet’s Gallery

2005. The gallery space was formerly a butcher shop located right across the street from North Beach Pizza. As I walked into the gallery, Philip Hackett was sitting at a table conducting business. Artists wanted to schedule show time, poets wanted to sell their books, the installer needed a final nod on the display. When we finally had a moment together, he pointed at the front corner of the gallery and asked me to make a display there.

“What would you like?” I asked.

“The Chinese instruments from Clarion. You can also display your books. I’ll sell them for you.”

I didn’t have a book so I decided to make one. I printed the pages out and hand bounded them with ribbons. Philip was pleased. He told me about the upcoming North Beach Poetry Festival and invited me to read at the gallery.

The festival was a most impressive event with a packed audience from morning until well into the afternoon. It was a bonanza for the art community. But it was also too good a thing for San Francisco. Money was always tight, and in 2007 the gallery space was taken back by its owner. The setback didn’t stop Philip. He now produces regular readings as well as art shows in twenty cafes around North Beach, calling himself The King of Poetry.

Credits: PH Images