Joe Goode lays bare the artistic process -- and gets an assist from Michael Tilson Thomas

Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic

Monday, June 5, 2006

Her face looms and swoons and crinkles up with aggravation and dismay about her life. She's a comically sad case, a brittle, burned-out arts administrator blown up to billboard size by the video artist she's served for more years than she'd care to count. Caught in what she calls the "soggy bog" of middle age, such a woman is more likely to be an irritant than an inspiration for an artist.

Unless the artist happens to be Joe Goode.