Dragon Poles, half-circle column, wall-mounted, carved wood.

96″ height (8 ft.), 15″ width.

Turandot sets itself in old Beijing (Peking), China, a long time ago. A stubborn princess is convinced men are out to break hearts, so she herself is terrified of love and turns down any suitor, even that of royalty. The first act opens with the execution of a prince that was offering his love. Her impossible standards consist of three questions, none of which can be answered. The set design is gorgeous and was excited to see Dragon Motif featured in the Hoffman Theatre Walnut Creek Dean Lesher Center for the Arts live performance, July 17, 2009. Set built by Festival Opera at the Willos Theatre Shop and Opera Birmingham contained: gold dragons, elmwood lattice panels, altar throne, dragon poles, tiled rooftops, flaming pearl medallions. Rebecca Sjowall was amazing as the character, Liu. Christopher Jackson as Calaf had a difficult task of filling the larger than life, Luciano Pavorotti’s, most famous aria, “Nessun Dorma”.

An aside, the Lesher’s, who brought art and culture to Walnut Creek (before it was home to Apple, Tiffany & Co., Barnes & Nobles), were a big customer of Rosewood House, their prime Orinda estate held a number of custom design furniture pieces and statuary from the collection of Rosewood House circa 1980-1990s.

Here are stage set images:

Fresh installation at Rosewood House, 2523 Broadway, Oakland CA 94612. Exhibit featuring the works of Lindsey Whittaker. An Uptown Oakland/Temescal Telegraph resident, it’s only fitting that her work be featured in the most established and reputable art dealer in Uptown Oakland, the Rosewood House.

A bit about Broadway Auto Row connecting north to south, from CCA and Piedmont Avenue into Uptown Oakland/Grand – Downtown/Financial — Telegraph/Old Oakland/Chinatown, and concluding at the water of Jack London Square. Once dilapidated, during the 1980s recession under President Reagan, Broadway was under incredible strain: a ghost town heavily covered in graffiti. Auto Row was introduced into the vacant lots and built up with car dealerships to keep Broadway relevant and the tax dollars up for the City of Oakland. In return, Broadway was officially renamed to Broadway Auto Row to drive customers to a singular location where they could shop for vehicles in a booming economic period. Empty lots were filled with shiny, new automobiles and lots were lit 24 hours, thus safety and visibility replaced dark shadows and crime.

Now that Uptown Oakland is established thanks to, in newest to oldest developments: Fox Theatre, Grand @ Broadway, Whole Foods (Harrison/27th flagship grocery store) First Friday Art Walk, and  the refurbishing and residential loft transfomation of the historic Sears Roebuck building by then Mayor Jerry Brown, Uptown Oakland is gentrifying quickly. In addition to AC Transit rapid bus lines and transport hub located at 19th BART station, bicycles and pedestrian traffic is up.

Keep in mind that downtown Oakland, the financial district, just a few blocks south from Grand @ Broadway and 19th St BART, was the set location of Will Smith’s film, The Pursuit of Happyness (2006, director Chris Gardner). Taking place in 1981, the film was shot throughout downtown Oakland’s Broadway corridor, in its current state, serving as the backdrop for the timeline of the film – 1981. Essentially, Oakland hasn’t changed for almost three decades if that says anything of the lack of progress of Oakland in general. It goes to show that Uptown has been making big impacts that count to grow. Since 1969, Rosewood House has been through it all, through the ups and downs of Oaklands development and counter-culture and creation. Rosewood House has evolved into a custom furniture design boutique with an original art collection that rivals or exceeds the SF Asian Art Museum in diversity, authenticty, and quality of craftsmanship. I am ecstatic that Lindsey’s progressive and contemporary work can be rewarded and displayed in such a fine establishment. – Wilson of Dragon Motif

Lindsey Whittaker featured in Rosewood House window display

Saturday, May 16, 2009. 11am – 6pm.

Dragon Motif x Rosewood House will be representing at AHSC 2009 in San Francisco. It’s our third year participating and this year is the best thus far. Previous years in Sunset District and Japantown were super but this tops it all. First, it’s between City Hall and Asian Art Museum. Second, it’s a few blocks from Market St. and BART and the Bay Bridge. Third, Bay to Breakers is tag teaming the event so perhaps AHSC will exceed its 80,000 attendees record. See you Saturday!