It was a good last few days for San Diego, and for our neighborhood.
On Thursday evening we visited Wes Bruce's new art installation, "Structures Poetry Humans," at the Lux in Encinitas. "Structures Poetry Humans" represents Wes' efforts over the past year, funded in part by a grant he received from the San Diego Foundation, an organization that is investing emerging artists here in San Diego. Wes is an artist here at Make Good, lives in the neighborhood, and we enthusastically encourage you to visit his installation, at the Lux now through December. Wanting folks to have easy access, Wes lobbied for admission to the installation the remainder of its days there to be free (how cool is that?). Also make sure and check out the website that documents his efforts, http://www.structurespoetryhumans.com/. Take time to click through the photos, posted daily over the last year. It's a wonderful look at our environment in and around the San Diego region, through Wes' eyes, and became part of the installation at the Lux.
Then last night we attended the album release show by The Tree Ring, with music off their new album, Brushbloom (you can listen to a couple of tracks here: http://music.treeringmusic.com/). The Tree Ring is also a recipient of a grant from the San Diego Foundation, and the album was largely inspired by San Diego's natural landscape. Some members of the Tree Ring live in our neighborhood, which for us makes their work take on something of a more personal nature. This album became a collaborative effort with Camarada, a beautiful addition to the Tree Ring's sound. On a tasty sidenote, The Shivers, out of New york, opened for the Tree Ring last night. They're a wonderfully soulful duo who lit up the stage, and were a brilliant way to kickoff off the night at the Birch Theatre.
Whether the work of these artists is your personal cup of tea or not, there's much we can learn from them.
They are masterfully using the medium of art to push us all forward, by exploring the ideas of story, meaning and place. And with that, they're lighting a path toward what it means to be fully human. Being among us here in our neighborhood, we feel an even deeper connection to the things that seem to be influencing these artists and their work, which makes their efforts even sweeter to participate in.
You, people of San Diego, possess talent, passion and promise. We hope the work by Wes and The Tree Ring inspire you as much as it has us on this fine Sunday morning.
Now, go create.
