On a Day Trip to the Hatfield Reservoir
November 05, 2024
do not let the knowledge of this being something i wrote after a trip sully what i am saying. i talk a lot and am often out of line but this is the most truthful thing i have ever said. hop skip jump trip take a bite of your fresh, handpicked fruit and rejoice.
On a day trip to the Hatfield Reservoir, the lake is green and sultry and everything sings. Hatfield Reservoir 2 is the first thing we see. It is so easy to giggle like girls. It is so easy to love. The lake is aglow with flies buzzing that one is unable to shy away from the presence of life. The photo, however, is deserted. Everything green is disrupted by a tiny house. One house, many trees, not a person in sight. Hatfield Reservoir 1 is more inviting. It is a louder green, a friendlier blue. The water is clear, almost drinkable. The wooden walkway reminds me of a bed frame. I am so occupied by the inside that I reject the outside without meaning to. I have this immediate desire to be someone who lives in the moment. We both bring up visiting. I mention to you that I am not as flexible as I’d like. That making a plan to visit is only the promise of a better life. You agree with me. Maybe, in the future, this will be different.
I enjoy doing things for myself that I think are bettering but can never discontinue things that are not. I am always hoping they cancel each other out. Having and eating all the cake in the world only makes me nauseous and too full for things that can sustain. I never have too much fun doing something I forced myself to do, and so, pushing myself out of my comfort zone achieves nothing. I sometimes forgo my ego and decide to seize days as if real estate. I am so territorial despite having nothing to offer.
Last weekend, I went to the John Natsoulas Gallery with my best friend. Thea Hudson and Genevieve Ryan’s exhibition 'Friends Are Everywhere’ was on display. I had never read a truer statement in my life. We sat there for hours trying to work with an interactive mixed media piece that ended with two girls reaching for the other’s hand and flying away. Their world then restarts.
Hudson and Ryan live together now in a studio apartment in Davis, California, where they went to college. The work is beautiful and the thought placed into it is so kind. There is always something so fascinating about the ability to create, to put your hands to use. We leave the gallery, taking the long route home. Moving off campus has been so hard. There is this feeling of being untethered that you cannot pinpoint. It is almost as if, just as it were when one moves to college, there are no consequences to your actions. The world is your oyster but it bites, so beware. Living off campus can make you a stranger to a place you had established a friendship with. This is quite possibly why it hurts so much. My relationship to campus now is less with a building and more with the Silo Terminal. How does one come back from that? Decidedly, the key is that you mustn’t forget what people or places have done for you in the past, and recognize that they are meant to be mobilizing. If bogged down by something that is inherently vehicular, you are doing a disservice to that same friendship. In a taxi cab on the way home that same day, our Uber driver sang along to handpicked country music and I said to myself that the world is wonderful and that I promise to never forget. Now that I have written it down like this, feel free to hold me accountable.
At the heart of this exhibition is the idea of meaning. Being connected to someone or something enriches you and should not be taken lightly. Friendships are born in these spaces, these vacuums, that are hard to renege on. Things are still meaningful beyond their longevity. I follow four girls on the internet that have lured me in so easily through the gift of their friendship. One of them wrote the foreword for a photo book the other published. One of them directed multiple music videos for another. They all went to college together and now live separately. Some of them have long term partners while others write about how unlucky they are in love. They frequently collaborate on their projects like this yet very rarely do any of them work with the same medium. Trivialities of form needn’t stop you. Friends are everywhere.
Thea is an oil painter and Genevieve is an illustrator; they are both multimedia artists. Friends are Everywhere can be found at the John Natsoulas Gallery until September 28, 2024.
Last weekend, I went to the John Natsoulas Gallery with my best friend. Thea Hudson and Genevieve Ryan’s exhibition 'Friends Are Everywhere’ was on display. I had never read a truer statement in my life. We sat there for hours trying to work with an interactive mixed media piece that ended with two girls reaching for the other’s hand and flying away. Their world then restarts.
Hudson and Ryan live together now in a studio apartment in Davis, California, where they went to college. The work is beautiful and the thought placed into it is so kind. There is always something so fascinating about the ability to create, to put your hands to use. We leave the gallery, taking the long route home. Moving off campus has been so hard. There is this feeling of being untethered that you cannot pinpoint. It is almost as if, just as it were when one moves to college, there are no consequences to your actions. The world is your oyster but it bites, so beware. Living off campus can make you a stranger to a place you had established a friendship with. This is quite possibly why it hurts so much. My relationship to campus now is less with a building and more with the Silo Terminal. How does one come back from that? Decidedly, the key is that you mustn’t forget what people or places have done for you in the past, and recognize that they are meant to be mobilizing. If bogged down by something that is inherently vehicular, you are doing a disservice to that same friendship. In a taxi cab on the way home that same day, our Uber driver sang along to handpicked country music and I said to myself that the world is wonderful and that I promise to never forget. Now that I have written it down like this, feel free to hold me accountable.
At the heart of this exhibition is the idea of meaning. Being connected to someone or something enriches you and should not be taken lightly. Friendships are born in these spaces, these vacuums, that are hard to renege on. Things are still meaningful beyond their longevity. I follow four girls on the internet that have lured me in so easily through the gift of their friendship. One of them wrote the foreword for a photo book the other published. One of them directed multiple music videos for another. They all went to college together and now live separately. Some of them have long term partners while others write about how unlucky they are in love. They frequently collaborate on their projects like this yet very rarely do any of them work with the same medium. Trivialities of form needn’t stop you. Friends are everywhere.
Thea is an oil painter and Genevieve is an illustrator; they are both multimedia artists. Friends are Everywhere can be found at the John Natsoulas Gallery until September 28, 2024.