By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Kristine Schomaker’s eating disorder had made her feel “othered” since her girlhood. She tried to imagine herself as a slender blonde but when she looked into the mirror, she saw herself as she was, a very large woman. Rather than hide from her physical presence, she decided to embrace it. She invited 59 fellow artists to depict her in the nude. Sculptures, photographs, paintings, and drawings in various media resulted in an exhibition now being shown through April 13 at the Mesa College Art Gallery.
Among the artists who accepted the challenge were Larry and Debby Kline, a Jewish husband-wife team who created “Into the Blue,” a larger-than-life portrait ground into blue plexiglass with a rotary tool. Columns on either side, made of blue masking tape, present Schomaker as a Samson-like figure pulling down the pillars of body-image orthodoxy.
“This is an image of her pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable,” Larry said. “We tried to make an image of her that shows her inner strength instead of her foibles and weaknesses,” Debby added.
The Klines have a studio in Los Angeles and a home in Escondido. They currently are the artists-in-residence at UC San Diego Medical School, and Larry teaches art at Grossmont College and the Design Institute of San Diego. A work by Schomaker in which she posed behind cloudy glass was included in the 2018 “Beyond the Age of Reason” exhibit that the Klines curated at the San Diego Art Institute.
Also in 2018, the Klines served as artists-in-residence at San Diego’s Natural History Museum. In an homage to John James Audubon, they painted birds which since his lifetime have become or are threatened to become extinct as one project linking art and science.
In 2015, the couple curated “Seeing is Believing: A Reinvention of Articles of Faith” at the Lawrence Family JCC. That exhibit came two years after San Diego’s Visual Arts Network selected the Klines, along with James Hubbell, as “Artists of the Year.”
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Military History Made in San Diego
There was very complete reporting by Ken Stone in Times of San Diego on the tripartite agreement among the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom to provide Australia with its first nuclear-powered submarines to step up the West’s response to China’s expansionism in the Pacific. Last Monday’s ceremony at Naval Base Point Loma featuring U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian and British Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak was attended by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
The San Diego congresswoman, who had the chance to hobnob at the event with U.S. Ambassador to Australia Carolyn Kennedy (daughter of President John F. Kennedy), said the AUKUS compact helps “fulfill our values of a free and open Indo-Pacific.” With local pride, she also commented that the event was a “real testament to San Diego and our proud military history that this is the location chosen for declaration that’s going to be so transformative in the international system.”
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Israel’s Woeful WBC Experience
By virtue of having defeated Nicaragua 3-1 on Sunday, Israel earned a berth in the next World Baseball Classic, which will be held in 2026. Nicaragua, which lost all four of its games, was not so lucky. It will have to compete to earn a spot next time. Israel’s record wasn’t much better than Nicaragua’s. After its final game Wednesday, which it lost 5-1 to undefeated Venezuela, its record stood at 1-3. The next step in this year’s competition is for the first and second place teams that competed in Miami, Florida, to play in the quarterfinals against teams, including the United States, that competed in other venues. Besides Venezuela, Puerto Rico earned a spot.
Mercy! Mercy! On Tuesday, for the second time in a row, Israel lost by a score of 10-0 — in that instance to the Dominican Republic. As soon as the Dominican Republic scored the 10th run in the seventh inning, the game was ended in accordance with the World Baseball Classic’s so-called Mercy Rule.
The only thing that differentiated this “merciful” loss from that suffered by Israel on Monday at the hands of Puerto Rico was that Israeli outfielder Spencer Horwitz hit an infield single, whereas in the Puerto Rican game no Israeli reached a base — a perfect game for Puerto Rican pitchers.
Notwithstanding the outcome of Israel’s game against the Dominican Republic, there were some highlights, especially for fans of our hometown San Diego Padres. Three Padres played on the Dominican team: Manny Machado, who belted a 437-foot home run; Juan Soto, who went 2 for 4, and Nelson Cruz, who served as player-manager, singled in the climactic seventh inning and had the honor of scoring the game-ending 10th run.
Much was made of Israel’s first pitcher in that game — 19-year-old Jacob Steinmetz, a 6’5″ Orthodox Jew who allowed only one Dominican run in his two innings of work. A high point for him was striking out Machado.
The game Wednesday against Venezuela lacked drama. The Venezuelans got off to a 3-0 start in the first inning, then added a pair of solo homeruns off Israeli pitchers Jake Fishman in the 4th inning and Zach Weiss in the sixth to bring their run total to 5. Israel had a rally after two outs in the 7th inning. Noah Mendlinger beat out a grounder to first base, advanced to second on a Michael Wielansky single to right field, and scored Israel’s only run after Jakob Goldfarb lined to center field. Then Spencer Horwitz struck out to end the rally.
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Jewish Political News
LOCAL — County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is off and running for reelection in 2024, describing her District 3 seat as “the last major purple swing seat in the region.” She is campaigning on such issues as investing in communities, fighting for the middle class, and tackling homelessness and climate change, and favoring eco-friendly development.
San Diego City Councilwoman Dr. Jen Campbell is scheduling meet and greet sessions throughout her 2nd Council District. She’s calling the meetings “Java with Jen.”
NATIONAL – The seats of four Jewish Democrats are among 37 seats being targeted by the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee in the hope of boosting their majority in the House of Representatives. One, in Michigan, is being vacated by Elissa Slotkin, who has announced her plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2024. The others are occupied by incumbents seeking reelection. They are Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, Kim Schrier of Washington, and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania.
INTERNATIONAL – Halie Sofer, chief executive officer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, was among those on Sunday who spoke at a rally protesting Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s visit to the United States. She described Smotrich as “part of a group of democratically elected Israeli government officials directly threatening the power of Israel’s judiciary and its democratic system of checks and balance.” As it was appropriate for the JDCA to protest former President Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy, she said, so too is it appropriate to protest such attacks by Israeli politicians.
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The U.S. Senate confirmed former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to India on a 52-42 vote. The Jewish former mayor was accused by one of his former communications staff members, Naomi Seligman, of enabling sexually aggressive behavior by his chief aide Rick Jacobs. “Predators can only continue to abuse when they have a powerful enabler,” Seligman told CNN host Jake Tapper on Monday. She also said that President Joe Biden was pressuring Democratic senators to vote for Garcetti’s confirmation. Tapper said that Jacobs declined an invitation to respond to Seligman’s charges. On March 8, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had advanced Garcetti’s nomination to the Senate Floor by a vote of 13-8.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com