Opening Image

The exhibition is installed, the lighting to be finished sometime today. FINDING CHINATOWN opens tomorrow.

Hanging an exhibition is a difficult task. I have curated and know how challenging those walls can be and I am so relieved that Craig Krull, my gallerist, has such an amazing eye. Knowing his gallery, the flow, the space and most important, what he likes, Craig's choices for placement are making me form new observations about my work, liking what I see.

The best example: the opening photograph, hanging on the wall opposite the front door of the gallery, "Mannequins At Central Plaza," Los Angeles Downtown Chinatown.

Not one I would have picked for the show, Craig and Kellen Prather, Assistant Director at CKG saw this published in the

Los Angeles' Department of Cultural Affairs 2011 Asian & Pacific Islander American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide. They loved it and Craig feels it is a strong opening statement. I would previously have disagreed but now that it is up, I can see how this image plays with the mixed ideas about the "Chinatowns" for it speaks to tourism and the way in which so many view these different places in our oft-fading city centers (downtown is quiet although the Chinatown Business District is doing some terrific events to make it more active; artists and galleries have moved in and out; and the old Cantonese family shops are closing). It speaks to a history that seems also to fade however is in fact, simply adapting with the times and spreading out throughout the community. But best, it also speaks to my art and how I capture an interest in what used to be an "exotic" place and show it for what it is: all-American in its goal of providing many paths for the myriad people and cultures that make up our heritage to pass through and join together.

Yesterday, preparing a small vitrine for the exhibition, I searched in my closet for several pieces of clothing brought back in the l930's from China by my grandfather, a specialist then (I am only NOW just discovering!) in "Far Eastern" business. Among them: black silk pajamas, hand sewn and now, barely holding together. As I now view the "Mannequins" photo, taken several years ago, I find it fascinating how from the 1930's to the present, our approach and understanding of immigration to North America has changed so radically yet at the same time, vacillates between understanding and welcoming and pushing back. If the Americas would only become more aware of the strength of immigration, spoken most wonderfully some years ago by a Federal justice swearing in almost 2,000 new citizens (my friend among them) who told the new Americans, to badly paraphrase: "When you come here, you do not give up who you are or where for it is exactly that difference and experience that strengthens America, the new and the old, forming an ever stronger bond."