Kirsten Gallery

Bird Singing Flowers While Awaiting Spring

Silvie and I recently paid a visit to the Kirsten Gallery in the University District. Richard Kirsten-Daiensai is the main artist featured at the gallery, and his current showing is entitled "Eternal Dreams & Rapture Born from the Heart: New painting from Japan, and 60 years of rare treasures from his personal collection." I think this quote from the gallery's website sums him and his work up better than I could:

"Richard Kirsten Daiensai: Seattle artist, painter, printmaker, sculptor, and Zen Buddhist priest. Daiensai has spent several months each year for the past 49 years wandering through Japan and Korea. All his paintings and prints are done in the quiet and solitude of these retreats, thus creating art that reflects the divine energy that exists in all things. Often, the spiritual quality of his work is tempered with a sense of cosmic joy and warm humor."

His artwork makes me smile, which is exactly what I told him when I met him -- a kind-looking old man, nursing a cold, sitting serenely behind a cluttered desk in the corner of the gallery sorting through the day's mail. I was introduced to his work when I happened upon a used copy of his 2004 book (very appropriately called "Smile"), which is a beautiful collection of short meditations and images from his art. We saw some of these same works at the show, along with many other paintings, mixed-media pieces and sculptures (one of which he invited me to heft in order to feel its weight). Here are a few images, along with their wonderfully expressive titles, all taken from the gallery's website (www.kirstengallery.com/index.htm):

It's Never Too Late to Celebrate, said the Dancing Rabbits, So Let's do it Now

Sage Listening to a Conversation Between a Flower and a Stone

Every Time I See You Flowers Bloom in My Heart

Your Happiness, is My Happiness

Peace,
Joe

New Family Members!

We adopted two cats from Purrfect Pals, a local no-kill kitty shelter. One is a sweet, little, all-black girl we named Precious. The other is a fluffy, handsome young devil named Buford. They both hid themselves in the bedroom upon arrival (he under the bed and she in the closet) but before we knew it, they were exploring the house, finding favorite napping places and toys and the choicest window-seats. They are affectionate and sweet-natured. Also, they've gotten to know Mr. Jingus, and the three of them get along quite well. They fight and they love, like all good kitties should.

Mr. Yellow

Our sweet Mr. Yellow passed away on March 14th. He had developed chronic renal failure, and treatment was complicated by a heart murmur, as well as other problems. Although he was in obvious discomfort and on assisted breathing, his final moments were peaceful. We buried him in the backyard between the cherry trees.

Yellowboy was a constant companion, a wonderful friend and a fluffy love. We are reminded of him everyday and miss him so much.

Here are a few images of the Boy:

St. Pat's Dash

Sunday, March 11th was the St. Pat's Dash. There was a record turnout, with over 15,000 runners, roughly half of whom wore timing chips. It was neat to be running in such a huge crowd, and to race on streets I'm only used to traveling by car. The course was 3.5 miles, from Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is) to Safeco Field (where the Mariners play), and took in the Alaskan Way viaduct with it's attendant views of Elliott Bay and beyond. Well, there was no view because of the clouds and misty rain, but 'twas tons of fun nonetheless. With no expectations except to have a good run, I did just that, finishing just inside the top 3000 at 30:48. Here are the o'fficial results and an article about the race from the Seattle Times (cut & paste):

http://www.onlineraceresults.com/pdf/4964.pdf

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003613530_run12.html

Note that the race was won by 35 year-old Uli Steidl, local running legend who has won the past 8(!!!) Seattle Marathons, 5 consecutive Vancouver Marathons, and has the course record in the Portland Marathon. Oh, and he's pretty good at short-distances, too.

Four Random Pics!

Silvie and Jingus enjoying the snow

Birdie

Jingus and the girl next door (Boochie)

Sil's decoupage project for our friend, Farmer Rich

Mr. Jingus, CPA

This year, I just didn't feel like dealing with the taxes, so I let Mr. Jingus do them. I gave him all the paperwork and a calculator and, after napping on the forms for a couple of hours, he finally got down to business. I know it's probably not recommended to have a pet do the taxes, but he did get us a $16,000 refund. Good boy.

Valentine's Day Dash

Sunday, February 11th was the Love 'em or Leave 'em Valentine's Day Dash 5k at Greenlake. If I hadn't prepaid for it I probably would have skipped it. I had been battling a nasty cold and school work had whittled my training hours down to nil. So, with the expectation bar sufficiently lowered, I was able to surprise myself by finishing under 27 minutes. Here are the results. I finished at #316.