Like Father, Like Daughter

(Instagram? Nope, this really WAS taken in 1975!  Left to right: my younger sister, my dad, and me)
 
People often ask me how I became a visual practitioner.  It all really started when I was four years old.
 
Every weekend my family and I would go to the Avenue Theater in San Francisco, the gilded (albeit aging) movie palace where my dad would accompany silent movies on a huge pipe organ in front of a live audience… without having seen the film beforehand.
 
Watching the film unfold over his head on a giant silver screen, listening to the audience’s reactions to what was happening, and drawing from the musical library in his head, he crafted unique accompaniments for every show.  In real time he translated the film’s story – and each audience’s experience of that story – into a unique and magical score, adding tremendous value and enriching the experience for all involved.
 
It was a sort of experiential alchemy, and I loved it.
 
Decades later, I realized that this is what I do, too.  Only instead of a story unfolding on a silver screen, it unfolds on the wall.  Instead of an organ, my instruments are markers and pastels.  And instead of creating music, I accompany in pictures.
 
Just like my dad, I have become an experiential alchemist.  And I couldn’t be more grateful or proud to follow in his footsteps.  (I love you, Dad!)
 

 
Update 12 June 2013
 
I was researching online for new images of the Avenue Theater, when I came across this new mention on Curbed SF:
 
Portola residents hope to save the Avenue Theater, a 1920s classic building, from becoming a CVS pharmacy. The Portola Neighborhood Association has kicked off a petition campaign to “Renew the Avenue,” inviting neighbors “concerned with the loss of our cultural and historic resources to help save yet another one from becoming just another urban drugstore.”
 
Reading this was akin to learning that the church you attended all your life as a kid was about to be turned into a Starbucks! (Nooooooooooooh!!!!!!)
 
So now, rather than a new Father’s Day blog post, it would seem that the best present I could give for this and future years is to sign that petition and help restore the Avenue to her former glory. By signing their petition, you can do the same!

I cannot wait to see what you draw forth,