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| Rosa 'Double Delight - 16 July 2025 |
Because my mother was a busy high school teacher in both Argentina and in Mexico I was educated and mentored by my grandmother, María de los Dolores Reyes de Irureta Goyena. I was saved of many chinelazos (whippings in which my mother used a Filipino/Chinese slipper called a chinela) because my Abue argued that I was an artist like she was and I was to be allowed some artistic licence.
I have a distinct memory of being taken to an art opening in Mexico City by my grandmother. It was a show by a young Filipino artist. We faced a large painting of a Mexican huarache. After staring at it she told the artist, “Why did you paint something that is so ugly?” His answer was memorable, “Ah, the beauty of ugliness!”
That was a lesson that I have never forgotten in a world where objects and even partners are traded (upgraded?).
The Asahi Pentax S-3 in my scan I purchased used in 1962 at Foto Rudiger in Mexico City on Avenida Venustiano Carranza. I could not afford the lovely Leicas being sold nearby at Foto Lipkau.
This camera and my Pentacon-F (purchased new in Austin in 1958 from Adorama in NYCity) were the cameras I used from Buenos Aires to Mexico until Rosemary told me in 1975 we were moving to Vancouver. They served me well until the late 70s. When I went to Mexico City in October 2023 I took the Pentax as I wanted to take it back to its former home. The link to the blog about it below.
A few months ago before the fabulous local camera repair man, Horst Wenzel died he repaired the shutter button of the Pentax that had fallen out. It works perfectly.
Of late I have been going against the grain of my fellow rosarians from the Vancouver Rose Society (I began as a member with Rosemary in 1991) by appreciating the beauty of spent blooms and scanning them. For my fellow rosarians, roses have to be admired at their absolute peak of perfection.
I love the worn out black paint of my Pentax that exposes the brass underneath. My Rosa ‘Double Delight’ is lovely just as it is now.
Both the Pentax and the rose are definitely a double delight.
Thank you Abue for teaching me to admire what is not perfect.
And I must add an unusual feature of my Pentax. In 1977 I lost my Canadian SIN Card (Social Insurance Card). At the time the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) made available a tool to inscribe in metal our SIN number on our expensive appliances to prevent theft. I inscribe my SIN on the bottom plate of my Pentax. When people from the government call me and ask me for my SIN number I tell them, to their surprise, "Let me get my camera and I will give you my number."
