Losing a Friend

River of Mud by Jane Grossenbacher
©Jane Grossenbacher

A wonderful photographer and my dear friend for many years, Jane Grossenbacher, passed away Tuesday, September 16th. She had been fighting ovarian cancer for three years.

Jane inspired and motivated me to keep working during my own illness. We often passed each other coming from and going to our chemo treatments. She always greeted me with her beautiful, warm smile and an encouraging, hopeful hug.

Jane was a great artist and had a wonderful life.

A beautiful exhibit of her photography, mostly photogravures, opened September 12th at The Gallery on Potrero Avenue. If you have a chance, please stop by The Gallery and witness Jane's amazing work.

More info on the exhibit here:
http://baartquake.blogspot.com/2008/09/jane-grossenbacher-retrospective.html

The Gallery at 323 Potrero Avenue
(between 16th and 17th Streets, in San Francisco)
Open weekends 1pm - 5pm
Sept 12 - Oct 19, 2008

The Wild West at the Beach

In 1902 Buffalo Bill brought his famous Wild West show to San Francisco. There exists a fairly well known photograph of Buffalo Bill and 100 Indians, mounted on horseback, stretched out along Ocean Beach below the Cliff House. Earlier this month Seattle artist, Thom Ross installed his recreation of that spectacular image. Ross lined up over 100, bigger than life-size, brightly painted plywood cutouts of Indian worriers and Buffalo Bill himself, in the sand right on Ocean Beach. It certainly was a sight to behold and fun to photograph.

You can see more photos here.

Photo: ©2008 David W. Sumner