My student Jenelle Birnbaum's lovely story "The Bodhisattva of the Sea," inspired by Katinka Bock's abstract sculptures, is up on the Henry Art Gallery's blog. The exhibit runs until May 4, and I think I need to squeeze in another visit before then, as there was a "Profane Fireplace" that surely had a fairy tale in it.

One of my favorite things, which I don't do nearly enough, is to get lost in a city and stumble upon something wonderful. Yesterday, I took my father around Seattle, from Capitol Hill (where we chatted electric insulators at Arabica) to South Lake Union to Queen Anne to the Olympic Sculpture Park and finally to Pioneer Square, after which we plotzed on the 43 bus back up the hill. It was a lovely eye-feast of high end furniture, antiques (like this Japanese gourd, though there was a doubly-bulbous one as well as an enormous Turkish yogurt vat very much to my liking), and contemporary sculpture (plus some smoked salmon and cheese samples at the market!). My favorite stumbling place was the Sisko Gallery,where we were warmly greeted by Daisy, the gallery's terrier, and John Sisko, the sculptor-founder. The current show, "Aether",  features Phil McCracken's dark fruit wood sculptures made luminous by epoxy resin; one of my favorite pieces is "Arctic Night", pulsating midnight blue from a smoldering red center, around which orbit white and red splotches. Tony Curtis's poem "The Mole and Cosmos" opens "Aether", setting a warm tone for the whole show and also fitting in quite nicely with the welcoming atmosphere of gallery. More about McCracken's "cosmic turn" is here. The gallery features new work every four to six weeks. I'm looking forward to a return!Next up, the Arboretum's Winter Garden...