Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Romualdo y yo en el Valle de Mexicali:

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Andrade Mesa wetlands west of Mexicali were formed from seepage by the All American Canal a few miles to the north. Now that the All American Canal has been lined with concrete, this lovely place faces a very uncertain future.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

¿Porque te interesas en esto ahora? Los Americanos ya ganaron.

--Jaime Delgado (Periodista de Mexicali)

Friday, December 25, 2009

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

Family/Burden

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Friday, December 18, 2009

A few highlights from today's bus tour of the Urban Oil-Scape of Los Angeles by the Center for Land Use Interpretation. In huge swathes of the LA basin, up to a million barrels per acre await extraction:

The last extant oil well in downtown Los Angeles. It profitably pumps about 4-5 barrels a day:

Two of the 4 man-made "oil islands" off the coast of Long Beach:

The islands have fantasy architectural elements and tropical landscaping to cleverly conceal their actual function as oil derricks:

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The dissembler pretends to be someone he is not. His role requires constant improvisation, a steady forward progress across shifting sands. Every moment he must remake, re-create, modify the personage he is playing, until at last the moment arrives when reality and appearance, the lie and the truth, are one.

--Octavio Paz

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Sunday, December 13, 2009


(Testing the "Night Mode" on my new camera.)

Friday, December 11, 2009

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Yo trato de completar estos paginas...
Yo trataría de completar estos paginas...
Yo trataré de completar estos paginas antes de yo vaya.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

On 12/9/09 12:52 PM, "Cynthia Hooper" wrote:

¡Lo siento otra vez, Randy! Estoy enferma todavia, y estoy muy prisa ahora. He leído los paginas en mi libro—los paginas que tu me recomiendo. Voy a practicar mis verbos futuro y mis verbos conditional con Lorena (mi amiga de México) pronto. (Viajaré a Mexico la proxima semana.) Voy a completar todo mi paginas de libro de trabajo antes de vaya.

Tambien: no puedo tomar Español 2A la proxima semestre, desfortunamente. Esta clase es lo mismo tiempo tan mi clase de arte! (Tomaré esta clase la proxima otoño.)

Muchas gracias por me ayudas esta semestre! Aprende mucho! Voy a verlo a la fiesta de Justine esta Viernes? Ojalá que tu vengas!

Hasta pronto y lo siento otra vez,

Cindy


On 12/3/09 4:01 PM, "Johnson, Randy" wrote:

Hola Cindy,

Sí, qué lástima que estés enferma.  He estado pensando usar la clase de hoy  y la de la noche del “examen final” para cubrir las formas  y usos del futuro y del condicional de los verbos…principalmente para ti y para Kelsey.  El martes de la próxima semana podemos hacerlo, sí.   Así que (Thus/ that  way) Uds. dos tendrán el mismo contacto con el sistema verbal que tienen los que van a 2A de las otras clases de 1B.  También yo quería hacer un poco con dos verbos: tratar  de(to try to…en “Más vocabulario”, p. 482), y acabar de (to have just…Lec. 6, p. 191).  Acabar  de + infinitive se usa  en el presente por lo general (Acabo de leer…I just read… tu email) pero  tratar de se usa en todos los tiempos verbales.  Unos (muchos) ejemplos:  Trato de comer una dieta sana.  Siempre tratabas de estudiar.  Hemos tratado de terminar el libro.  Estoy tratando de hablar el castellano a lo máximo. Yo trataría (would try) de comer menos azucar.  Voy a tratar de llamarte.   Acabar también  es sinónimo de terminar :  Hoy acabamos/terminamos las clases regulares del semestre.

¡Puedes ver que no resisto otro  sermon!  Hasta el martes.   Randy 

Sunday, December 06, 2009



My student Gordon Lindholm's final project. (Click on the images to see the details.)

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

heaven's not a place that you go when you die. its that moment in life when you actually feel alive.

(A quote from my kid's MySpace page.)

Monday, November 30, 2009


Estudio Teddy Cruz, Practice Diagram, 2008

"Latin America is the only place in the world where governments have attempted to harness the potential of social networks and the dynamics of informal economies in order to rethink urbanization."

Sunday, November 29, 2009


(California City: a suburb abandoned in advance of itself 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Packard Jennings (click here)


(A completely engrossing video.)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Friday, November 20, 2009

Monday, November 16, 2009

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The kind of mind that stops fearing death, well, that frees up some disk space there...

--Author Steven Dubner in last night's episode of Charlie Rose

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Never argue with someone whose job depends on not being convinced.

--H.L. Mencken

Tom LaDuke @ Angles Gallery (click here)


Auto Destruct, 2009, oil and acrylic on canvas over panel, 60" x 80"

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Lorena y yo durante la presentación de BORDOCS en Tijuana:
Integrated Planning Model: Improve student learning through outcomes assessment and measures of institutional effectiveness.

(How hard I fought for this sentence.)

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Tara Donovan and Lorena Mancilla at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego:


Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Its almost not useful to think about what art is anymore because what isn't?

--Mark Ruwedel at a recent lecture at the LACMA

Monday, November 02, 2009

José Luis Martín:

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Urban Crude: The Oil Fields of the Los Angeles Basin (@ the CLUI now)







"The oil industry, blamed for many of our urban woes, has left a legacy of open space that could be a more lasting, treasured, and important resource in this, the largest pool of urbanity in the nation."
The very fact that there seems little chance of selling pictures until the war is over seems to be a release to me, and I feel free to work on a picture like this, which would neither, even in normal times, increase my standing with the critics, or find a purchaser. Since no pictures of any kind are being bought, I might as well paint entirely for myself. This is what an artist ought to do under any circumstances, but it is not as easy as it sounds.

--Charles Burchfield, 1943

Friday, October 30, 2009

Part of the reason I have such a hard time with the role of the artist is that I really don't think the planet needs more stuff--even if it's art.

--Aurora Robson

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Beauty, after all, is one of the great persuasive powers on earth.

--Frances Richard

Sunday, October 25, 2009



I love how my student Chuleandra makes her hatches.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

My lovely family:

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Global Polis: Interactive Infrastructures


(Chalkboard visualization of the economic crisis by Lize Mogel.)

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Tuesday, October 06, 2009


(Another cool and kinda creepy value scale by my student Malinda.)

(A cool collage by my student Katie.)

Saturday, October 03, 2009

On Oct 3, 2009, at 10:34 PM, lorena mancilla wrote:

Mucho mejor!

(subiré el grado de dificultad de la leccion)

Me encantará trabajar de nuevo contigo en diciembre, sera fabuloso estar con el momo rodeadas de bichos del infierno en el invierno glacial de mexicali...

De verdad, Cynthia, necesito escaparme contigo unos días, esos viajes, la compañia y las pláticas son cosas que en verdad disfruto.

Abrazo

L.
Subject: Re:
From: cynthiahooper
Date: October 3, 2009 10:29:32 PM PDT
To: lorenamancilla

Tus lecciones son muy divertida, Lorena! Yo estoy tomando una clase de Español otra vez, porque voy a regresar a Mexico este Diciembre a trabajar contigo! Necesitamos hablar con "El Momo" todavía. Es mi Español más mejor ahora? Yo quiero mas tiempo a estudiar mis verbos, pero yo siempre tengo que luche el guerra de mi colegio. Esta guerra tiene no final, desafortunadamente.

¡Diciembre es va a venir, además!

Mil besos y hasta pronto,

Cynthia
From: lorenamancilla
Subject:
Date: October 3, 2009 10:00:56 PM PDT
To: cynthiahooper

Hey Cynthia, I was reading your posts in spanish, and i want more!
here are my 2 cents of spanish lessons:

Te gusta leer sobre mis problemas con mi trabajo en Español?
si, me gustaría.

Quiero este mes ser acabado ahora. (the structure of the sentence is a little funny)

Por lo regular se dice:
Quiero que este mes se acabe ya.
Quiero que ya se termine este mes
Quiero que ya se acabe este mes

¡Ya quiero este mes ser acabado! (same here)

Mi trabajo me da penas en mi cuella.
My work gives me neck shames
My work gives me neck sadnesses (the last s in pena makes it plural)
pena

Me lo da penas. (this sencence is funny and it makes no sense, but i really like it)

Creo que lo que quieres decir es:
Mi trabajo me da dolores de cuello
My work me gives pains of neck (Literal translation of each word)
my work gives me neck pains
mi trabajo es un dolor de cuello
my work is a pain on the neck

Cynthia es una amiga muy querida.

Abrazo

L.

Friday, October 02, 2009

Keeping Up With the Johnsons (click here)


(A new blog by my colleagues Garth and Claire.)

Monday, September 21, 2009

The funky space where my husband is currently showing his work:

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The art world is in many ways one of the least regulated occupational spheres on the planet.

--Roberta Smith
¿Te gusta leer sobre mis problemas con mi trabajo en Español?
Quiero este mes ser acabado ahora.

¡Ya quiero este mes ser acabado!

(There are so many subtle nuances in learning this language.)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Mi trabajo me da penas en mi cuella.

Me lo da penas.

(The indirect object pronoun always comes before the direct object pronoun.)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009


(This artist's work is filled with blatantly disturbing wonderment.)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Dan Attoe @ Peres Projects:


(This artist's work is filled with subtly disturbing wonderment. I'm hoping to get back to LA in time to see this show.)