Chris Smith: An artful way of addressing politics

Paper dresses aren't only for paper dolls.

New York Magazine has a piece on artist Maria de Los Angeles, the Mexico-born adopted daughter of Sonoma County who's currently creating, painting and at times wearing dresses that illustrate the life of an undocumented resident.

Read the magazine story here

In it, Maria, an SRJC grad who last year earned a masters of fine art at Yale, says she noticed that when art looks to be political people tend not to want to connect with it.

“But a beautiful dress?” she said. “I'm curious if a dress can make people engage.”

Maria prepares her poignant paper gowns for the show she'll open June 2 at the Front Art Space located - in case you'll be in NYC - on Chambers Street, not far from City Hall.

GETTING SMART: We need to talk.

SMART trains are set to begin running before year's end from Airport Boulevard, north of Santa Rosa, to central San Rafael.

For regular commuter service to commence here will be exciting. But trains also kill.

Most of us here in Sonoma and Marin have never lived with the danger that rides the rails. It's been decades since trains ran regularly on what's now the SMART right-of-way, and even those of us old enough to remember Northwestern Pacific freight service never saw a train accelerate to SMART's maximum of 79 mph.

It's not alarmist to suggest that, given our unfamiliarity with local trains and also contemporary factors such as cell-phone distraction, headphone-induced deafness and the impatience that has many drivers running red lights, we should treat the approach of SMART as an imminent peril.

The first thing to tell ourselves and our children: Stay off the tracks.

Each year, trains strike and kill between about 700 and 800 people in America. Most of those deaths don't occur when a train hits a vehicle at a crossing, but when a train requiring a vast distance to stop comes upon a person or persons walking, running, lying, standing, goofing off or shooting selfies on or too near the tracks.

SMART officials are talking up safety to Sonoma/Marin residents for whom the train service scheduled to start in mere months will be potentially life-altering and also deadly.

Let's talk about it, too.

ELEVATING ELYSE: Well up Mount Everest, a climbing team that includes army officer Elyse Ping Medvigy of Sebastopol and a vet who walks on a prosthesis since losing a leg to a roadside bomb has launched an attempt on the summit.

If all goes well, the climbers could reach the peak by Friday. Medvigy and another of her team members would become the first active-duty U.S. soldiers to summit Everest.

With them is retired Army staff sergeant and amputee Chad Jukes. A Marine with a prosthetic leg, Thomas “Charlie” Linville, is making the climb on a separate expedition. They could become the first and second combat amputees to complete the climb.

Elyse Medvigy, an Analy High and West Point alum who seeks most to heighten awareness of post-traumatic stress and suicide among service members and vets, received welcome news on Everest.

The former 1st lieutenant has been promoted to captain.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.