HELEN AND I ARRIVE at The Painted Lotus a little after 8 p.m. There are already a number of people here, milling about, and we wander around awhile, looking at various works. Many of them are beautiful, but some are a bit scary. I try to remember some of the things Joan taught me about light and texture but most of it escapes me, so I just read off the names of the artists and try to remember if I’ve ever heard of them. Generally, I have not.
We stop in front of a particularly interesting work. It looks like someone cut some pictures out of magazines, glued them to the canvas, then painted over them, then blew what look like jelly beans onto the surface before the paint dried.
“What is this?” Helen asks.
Looking at the exhibit card, I say, “The title is ‘Summer at the Beach’.”
“You’re
