It’s great to have an excuse to go to San Francisco!
First Golden Gate Selfie!
Today I dropped off the painting I’m donating to the Imagine Bus Project‘s “Finding Your Wings Benefit” at their offices in the Presidio. I got to meet Katy Schwager (administrative assistant) and Sandra Legler (program director) – both really lovely people and big fans of “Take It Go Flying”! I even managed to persuade them to take a group photo (using a pop tart tripod). How lucky are they to get to work in the Presidio! I am stunned by how beautiful it is there and I was happy to traipse about the neighborhood down to Crissy Field (where I got sand between my toes) and over to the Golden Gate bridge (where I took my first bridge selfie – despite having lived in the Bay Area since ’97). A really beautiful day!
Pausing in a Presido pasture.
Dropping Take It Go Flying with Katy and Sandra at the Imagine Bus Project office.
Period Presidio buildings make for fantastic office spaces and art galleries – and the view!
Exotic fuchsia berries.
Barbed wire and chain link line the road between the YMCA and the Palace of Fine Art.
Crissy Field.
Beyond the field are waterfront views of the Golden Gate.
And views of Alcatraz!
Which brings me to the whole idea about the Imagine Bus Project – it supports art for incarcerated youth, with the belief that art (seeing it and making it) has the power to tap into what is important to one’s self, one’s soul. It helps you to find your voice and communicate. It has the potential to heal, to redirect and even save lives. So even though artists (who are notoriously just trying to get by) get hit up all the time to donate their work to many worthy charities, this one feels pretty close to my heart. Why not share the very thing that has been so good to me with those who could use it the most?
Feeling grateful for art, for what it’s given to me and where it continues to take me.
For more background on the inspiration and process of this painting as well as information about the event please refer to an earlier post, back when it’s working title was Training Wings (click here).