This one almost got away from us. Originally scheduled on a Thursday morning, we discovered the museum opens late on Thursdays so we moved our visit to Tuesday. But the driver/docent developed sniffles and only the two of us who were planning to go by train/ferry on a crisp winter day made the trip. Also, with no RSVP, I felt someone had to show up in case there was anyone we didn’t know about (there wasn’t).

The artist’s early abstract expressionism was commercially very successful. Abstract in the sense you could tell the subject was a dog or a toddler, her canvasses featured heavy impasto and were sought by NYC and L.A. galleries and collectors. After the birth of her child, the artist’s style began to change to something more like Picasso’s, whom she admired. Her work became biographical, as Picasso’s is, and she developed her own distinctive visual style, as Picasso did. But large faces are hard to live with, and collectors planning to display in a residential setting were not attracted. Nevertheless, she kept painting, divorcing, marrying, traveling and seeking spiritually.

There were many self-portraits, and Dianne noticed one with the artist wearing a similar jacket and a wild 1960s hat, so she asked for this shot. Dianne knew how to get to the glass elevator that rises on an angle to reach Salesforce Park where we walked the length on our way to the museum. I had some fun posing in front of the gold curtain by the 1960’s exhibit.