Category Archives: inspiration

Happy Holidays: Inspired by a Shopping Cart Tree

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Shopping Cart Tree by Artist Anthony Schmitt, Santa Monica, CA, 2010

Chanukah came right after Thanksgiving this year, and I felt compelled to visit my grown kids in Venice, CA, to celebrate both holidays—especially magnetized by my grandbaby of fifteen months, already a jokester in her own right.

On one of my walks near the beach, I became captivated by the Shopping Cart Tree at Edgemar, itself a site with a storied past. Named for its proximity to the ocean (mar in Spanish), it was once the home of an ice plant, then an egg hatchery. The current arts center, built by Frank Gehry using the original structure, housed the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMOA) at its inception.

My first fascination with the tree was the message it seemed to impart about how commerce defines Christmas. Yet the tree appeared so pretty and delicate taken as a whole. It was a brilliant dichotomy, indeed—expressed in an almost three-story-high tree made of 86 full-sized, coated steel shopping carts. (Ever try to wrangle one that’s got a recalcitrant wheel? Acgh! Urgh! They’re unwieldy, heavy, and bulky.) Continue reading →

Vessel for the Bigger Picture

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Central Park, early November © 2009 by Jan Mundo

A vessel for the bigger picture. In essence, that life is my destiny and I can’t seem to help it. It’s not always understood. Not at all. I come from a family of trees. Now do you see what I mean? I am connected to their presence, their spirit, their aesthetic DNA sensibility, their patience, resilience, and how I feel around them. Like people in families, they are similar within their group or species. Yet each is so different and diverse. Continue reading →

I Carry the Country Within Me

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After living on a Farm in Tennessee (my version of Isak Dinesen’s, “I lived on a farm in Africa”), and walking the dirt, chert, gravel, and asphalted roads day after day, year after year—falling in my share of puddles along the way—learned their crooks, dips, and turns, and became accustomed to walking in the dark. Of course, it was much easier when we got flashlights, but even they were no guarantee on very dark nights. I witnessed the stages of the oak trees and their leaves from sprout, to bud, to leafing out, and then their turning and their fall. These were the trees through which we carved out our roads that connected us to each other and to the outside world. Continue reading →