By Noma Faingold. (March 18, 2026)
Claude Monet of France (1840-1926), the founder of Impressionism and the movement’s most prolific painter, reluctantly visited Venice in October of 1908. At the time, he had grown disenchanted with the way his “Water Lilies” paintings were progressing. His dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, rejected the work, leading Monet to cancel the upcoming show at the Paris gallery and to destroy many of the paintings in the series.
By Noma Faingold. (February 8, 2026)
More than 100 of Northern California’s top floral designers are donating their talents, time and materials to the 42nd annual Bouquets to Art exhibition. Approximately 50,000 people will tour the de Young and Legion of Honor museums to encounter the enhanced galleries during the exhibition fundraiser, March 3-8.
Installation view of Bouquets to Art 2025, Legion of Honor. Photograph by Randy Dodson
By Noma Faingold. (December 24, 2025)
Nail artist Kristen Valdez-Doherty is a maximalist in terms of nail design, which is reflected in the kitschy, crowded décor of her Nails of Modern Art Clement Street studio. She’s surrounded by abstract splashes of bright turquoise, chartreuse, hot pink, shades of purple, along with gold and silver metallic accents. Labubu dolls share shelf space with other whimsical pop culture figurines – from Wednesday Addams to Japanese anime characters. Continue reading
A debate on water, movies & inspiration
By Ari Gold. (October 21, 2025)
Where does inspiration come from? My answer can sound like I read books: Francis Coppola’s “Live Cinema”, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Psychomagic,” Werner Herzog’s “Conquest of the Useless.” But let’s be honest, my lifelong hunt for mentorship can feel like distraction. Continue reading
The United Nations Association Film Festival returns to the Bay Area with another urgent, globally expansive lineup. Running from October 16–26, the 28th edition of UNAFF brings 60 documentary films to venues across Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stanford University. More than just a film festival, UNAFF is a civic forum—a space for dialogue, reflection, and action.
By Noma Faingold (Updated September 10, 2025)
Artist Rose B. Simpson is more than a little preoccupied with vessels. She views pottery, cars, her figurative sculptures, the womb and clay, a material she most often uses in her creations, as vessels.
Courtesy of Rose B. Simpson
“I think in clay. Clay was the earth that grew our food, was the house we lived in, was the pottery we ate out of and prayed with,” Simpson told a de Young Museum audience at a very personal lecture she delivered earlier this year. “My relationship to clay is ancestral and it has a deep genetic memory. It’s like a family member for us.” Continue reading
By Noma Faingold (August 1, 2025)
“I never wanted to be a poet. It chose me. I didn’t choose it. One becomes a poet almost against one’s will, certainly against one’s better judgement. I wanted to be a painter, but from the age of 10, these damn poems kept coming. Perhaps one of these days they will leave me alone and I can get back to painting.”
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet laureate, publisher, activist, playwright, novelist and painter
The poet and artist Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his San Francisco studio. (Photo courtesy of Brian Flaherty for The New York Times)
Calling someone an “icon” is annoyingly overused these days. However, when it comes to the late multi-hyphenate Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), the moniker is appropriate, especially in San Francisco, where he thrived artistically and socially since his arrival in 1951. Continue reading
By Noma Faingold (April 16, 2025)
Watching the 28-minute, 10-screen film/art installation, “Lessons of the Hour,” by British artist/filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien, isn’t as overwhelming as one might think. In fact, the flood of images, sounds and words, dedicated to the life of writer, orator, philosopher, and social justice activist Fredrick Douglass (1818-1895), a former slave, allows the viewer to absorb and interpret the immersive experience in their own way.
“CAKE PICNIC™ was born out of a simple desire to eat a lot of cake. And be surrounded by friends,” writes founder Elisa Sunga. “It is a gathering for the love of cake. It celebrates cake in all of its forms — chiffon cakes, upside down cakes, Princess cakes, Russian honey cakes, meringue cakes, jello cakes, trifles, multi-tiered cakes, sponge cakes, butter cakes, and more. Continue reading
By Farwa Ali (January 30, 2025)
Graceful veined hands turn the seashell over a few times in reverent contemplation. A few moments later artist Ann Arnold tosses the seashell back into the rippling cerulean waves lapping against the shore of San Francisco’s Baker Beach. It has completed its journey, traveling from the ocean into Arnold’s life; where she has acknowledged its value, captured its luminous existence in her painting, and respectfully returned it to the ocean from whence it emerged. Wrestling The Angel – an Artist’s Passage, does more than capture Arnold’s artistic journey.
An Interview with Director Julie Rubio
by Geneva Anderson
Tamara de Łempicka, the Russian-born 20th century painter known for her cosmopolitan Art Deco portraits and arresting nudes, is front and center in the Bay Area with two major Bay Area venues showcasing her: the Mill Valley Film Festival and the de Young Museum.
Orinda filmmaker Julie Rubio’s years-in-the-making documentary, “The True Story of Tamara de Łempicka & The Art of Survival,” had its world premiere at the 47th MVFF with two sold out screenings and more to come. Simultaneously the de Young Museum opened “Tamara de Łempicka,” the first major museum retrospective of the artist in the U.S. It runs through February 9, 2025. (Details at the end of the article.)
Director Julie Rubio and Tamara de Łempicka
