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50th Anniversary of Apollo 11. Mission Control.

Back in early May 2019 I attended an all-day conference held at Stanford University, and so I went up the day before to have a relaxing meal and get a good night sleep. That evening I was lucky to find a restaurant right across the street from the hotel in Palo Alto, CA called Siam Fine Thai Cuisine. As usual, I took my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, which I used while I slowly sipped my beer and ate my pad Thai with tofu. There were folks sitting to my left next to the window, and they became that evening’s practice in the Sketch Club app. When the owners saw what I was doing, they got curious. I showed them the piece, and they liked it enough to express interest in obtaining a copy. Check back to see an image of the wall hanging at Siam Fine Thai Cuisine. Here’s the piece:
Incidentally, the conference was called iRelaunch. It was a valuable experience, and I highly recommend it for people who’ve had to step away from their profession(s) briefly for one reason or another. Click here for more information about the iRelaunch Conferences and Carol Fishman Cohen:
One relatively comical take away from the conference was this drawing in Paper 53. A panelist suggested that it’s important to get dressed and to make yourself presentable everyday while you are in the job-search mode…even if it generally takes long for you to look natural (anywhere)!

Sausalito Sidewalk Bench: iPad drawing in Sketch Club done on a bench in front of a shop in Sausalito

Cohousing is for the Birds: iPad painting in Sketch Club of a birdhouse on the grounds of Green Grove Cohousing

Diane Leafe Christian on Sociocracy: iPad Sketch in Sketch Club during a talk at the 2019 Cohousing Conference in Portland, OR
Under the Merced Water Tower on McKee Rd. Done on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using Sketch Club and iColorama apps after a bicycle ride. See other water tower views here.
Can’t really put these in the Trump gallery, so here they are by themselves.
tār (تار)
The tār is a traditional Persian stringed instrument. As a matter of fact, the word tār means “string” in Persian and is also related to dotar, sitar, setar, and guitar. It was my dear friend, Sirous, who introduced me to the tār and other traditional Persian instruments, when we were both graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. Sirous beautifully plays the tār, setar, daf, kamanche, tonbak, and probably others. Over the years, I’ve met a few of Sirous’ musician friends and had the pleasure of seeing them perform in both informal and formal settings. Many of these performances included the rendering aloud in Persian of the poetry of Hafiz, Rumi, and others. One of Sirous’ musician friends, who stood out not only because of his natural height, but also because of his prominent role in the revitalization of traditional Persian music, was Mohammad-Rezā Lotfi, about whom I’ve already illustroblogged. Take a look at this short, homemade video of Lotfi sitting on the floor playing tar among friends in a cozy setting. I just love the structure and shape of the Persian Tār, especially the tuning pegs!

21 Guitars, A Benefit Auction for the Merced Symphony
I’m one of 21 contributing visual and performing artists in one of this year’s fundraisers for the Merced Symphony, and my entry is the above image, which I did on an iPad Pro using an
Apple Pencil and the Sketch Club and iColorama apps. I had it printed on 24″ X 24″ canvas, 1.5″ bordered, solid color wrap through Bay Photo.


The tipping point was this Washington Post article; however, I can’t tell you how long I’ve been bothered by those who think they can hide their hypocracies behind their “pro-life” signs, especially when it comes to this idiotic wall!
But “pro-life?” Give me a break!