Weekend 3/11/16

It's been a few weeks since a weekend post so I gathered a few weeks here. It's been all dog, taxes, cleaning and sketching around here lately. I'm heading off on a trip at the end of the month so I am trying to get everything in order before we go. 

Cleaning

Ahhhh, the studio looks so good again. I tidied it up for a photo shoot for an interview. It was the perfect excuse to clean the place. After a few recent art shows it became disorderly quickly. You'll hear about a creative block I had further on, but I think it happened because my space was messy.

Hiking

Heading down to the beach

We went to Fort Funston for the first time a couple weeks ago. It's basically a dog paradise where they can roam free off leash in bluffs over the sea and down below on the beach. We brought our new dog, Homer, with us and he loved it. 

Fort Funston beach

Listening

I listened to this Nick the Tooth podcast with the founder of Shoyoroll. Only jiu jitsu fans will know what I am talking about, but it's great to hear a story of how someone got started in creating something. 

Marc Maron's interview with Abbi Jacobson and Iliana Glazer is so good. I think these ladies saved the day when I was getting frustrated by all the male ensemble comedy shows. Men can't have all the fun! Listening helped me uncover this video of a drum off between the ladies while doing Broad City Live. I had no idea, Iliana. 

I just discovered this Bay Area art podcast Congratulations Pine Tree. I will let you know how it is soon.

Parking

A rainbow just prior to sunset

Unedited photo of the sky last week

Having a dog has sent us to the dog park frequently. Because of all this wet weather here in Northern California, the skies have been really beautiful. I love having a dog for many reasons, they have awesome personalities, they are so loving, they make you get exercise throughout the day and when you are training a new dog, you have to be present and pay attention. Getting out of the studio to walk him has been really good for me. 

Reading

My friend Suhita Shirodkar was featured in this San Jose Mercury News article. She has been painting signs and relics in San Jose lately. I love her fresh style.

I read this great New Yorker article on Resilience. I think about this topic often. The author mentions you have to experience adversity of some sort in order to know whether you are resilient. I see how different people react to bad situations and I'm often amazed at how some people with the biggest hardships are able to overcome difficult situations and experiences.  

This article on How Complaining Can Actually Make You Feel Worse is great. It's short and really worth the read.

Sketching

The nice thing about being someone who likes to draw all kinds of things is I don't get huge creative blocks. Sure, I'm stumped sometimes, but last weekend I couldn't get anything going in my sketchbook for three days. I know it was basically due to me wanting to make something really great and letting perfectionism get in the way. 

Lastly, I sketched my cat Stanny last night after she brought a mouse in the house. After we couldn't find it, we put Broad City on the episode had an eerily similar theme. I love when that happens:)

100 Day Project: Days 51-60

Last week I attended the Global Meetup for the 100 Day Project. It was such a good time! I met artists that I have been following and met new ones along the way. 

I had a big realization upon hitting Day 60. I realized I need to work in a more concentrated way. It's too easy to reach for my phone or open a new tab. I also listened to a podcast on going on an "information diet" where you really limit who you follow and what you get from the internet. I kind of try to do this anyway, but I realize I need to do it more. 

Day 51 Are there sections? Consider transitions

With 51, I painted the courtyard of a place I stayed at in Grenada, Spain last year. I love how these kinds of homes feel like they consist of different compartments. I actually originally started drawing this for the Cinequest Film Festival live painting event I did earlier this year, but changed it into something else. I'm glad I got to carry it out after all and I'm thinking I will make a really large version of this, maybe 3x4 or 4x6 feet. My favorite part is the tile with the orange and pink hues. 

Day 52 Towards the insignificant

I had the idea to paint a tiny universe for 52. We are not even a pinpoint in this universe (I made that up, maybe it is true, maybe it isn't). The Milk Way galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter and it's one of billions of galaxies in the universe. How it that for making you feel insignificant?

Day 53 Don't be afraid of cliches

Do you remember these canvas binders? I had a blue denim one that looked quite like this with all the usual blue ballpoint pen clichés. This one made me a bit nostalgic. 

Day 54 Cut a vital connection

I went to Capitola Beach and saw this woman laying in the sun on her pink towel. I loved the way she looked with her red hair falling over her arm. For the photo, I added some sand from my bag to the painting. 

Day 55 Not building a wall but making a brick

I love an A-frame. My thoughts first went to brick, but I knew I didn't want to make it literal. After running through a few ideas, I thought about how you have to shape each piece of wood to build a house. I liked the idea of conveying the same idea with a different material. I love the way this project is stretching my brain. 

Day 56 Look at the order in which you do things

At first I had thought about the way I go about making these daily paintings: pull a card, think, grab a brush or a pencil and go. I thought about other ways I could mix things up with materials. Then, it hit me to look at how many days I have missed and make abstract art about it. I was thinking it would turn out to look like a maze or something that moved fluidly around the paper. It ended up looking like Tetris. I really got into the mathematical aspect of this and sort of felt like I could just make art like this. 

Each row represents each day of this 100 day project so far. The color squares represent how many days I missed until I posted for that particular day (between one and seven). The pencil rectangles represent drawing two in one day as a desperate attempt to catch up (happened 6x). There were only 28 consistent days (though none for more than 3 days). Conclusion: I'm not good at doing things daily. 

Day 57 The inconsistency principle

I had to laugh out loud when I pulled this card! After Day 56 and realizing just how non-daily this project has been, it was kind of the perfect reinforcement that I need to get consistent with this project. I am determined to finish all 100 and I wanted to do so by the end of summer. I am thinking about doing two a day until then.

This one required more math and measuring. It actually plays with the number 11 and that number on all 4 sides since I have 44 left for this project. Again the math and also the transparent layering felt like things I want to pursue in future work. 

Day 58 Just carry on

Day 59

This was a fun one to get. There are so many things that can be faked, but I thought it would be fun to fake a style. At first I thought I would do that of a really famous artist, but decided to do the art in the style of my friend Kyle Pellet. His work can be on old gridded paper, include hilarious descriptions, date stamps, state info for meetings that never happened and more. His color palette is black and white or bright vintage video game colors. I decided to paint Dennis Richmond and Elaine Corral in my own style since I didn't want to fully copy him. It's funny because when I wrote the date, I meant to make it the actual date of the sketch night, which was 8/26/15

Day 60 Don't be frightened to display your talents

I mulled this one over for some time. I think I don't like the word talent, especially when I am thinking of myself. I decided to use one of my sister's travel photos to make this drawing. I received this Blackwing pencil set as a gift recently and thought I'd put it to use on this one. These pencils actually have a really cool history. They were discontinued after being considered the best pencil ever made. They had a cult following and in recent years they have been made again. 

This drawing made me realize I need to take more time with my art sometimes. While I have developed a quick style, I do really love sitting down and working for longer chunks of time. This piece also was successful to me because I was able sit and focus without the usual internet distractions. Got to try this again. 

Weekend in the North Bay - Pt. 1 Bolinas

I like doing wacky things sometimes, like driving up to the North Bay coast two days in a row, with two different sets of people. The drive is maybe 2.5 hours to Bolinas and 3.5 to Cazadero. Let's start with Bolinas.

Gospel Flat Farm - This is a family farm. We live here so please smile and say hello.

We started by heading to Gospel Flat Farm, a family run farm in Bolinas. I had never stopped here before, usually because I beeline for the beach and on the way home, it looked closed. I learned they have a 24 hour farm stand that operates on the honor system. I love Bolinas even so much more now. 

Kaaaaale

Look at all that kale! Their farm was beautiful. So many good things growing here. 

Family laundry hanging on the line

Chris and Claudine

The reason we came to visit the farm was because of an art show title Nature Babes. I knew of one of the artists from Instagram. Chris and Claudine came along with us and as you can see, they had a blast. We were lucky to spend their 5 year wedding anniversary with them. I enticed them with the following question: "Wanna go to an art show on a farm with wood-fired pizza and wine in a small beach town and have a killer dinner and pie at the Coast Cafe afterward?"

Who could say no?

Wood-fired pizza with toppings from the farm

Pretty huh? Work by Maria Schoettler

It was nice to meet Maria Schoettler in person. We follow each other on Instagram and I must say, these kinds of things make you love the internet. Her work is so lovely. The textures and colors are pure bliss.

Lindsay Stripling, part one of two of one artwork

Linday Stripling, part two of one artwork

Aren't these pieces gorgeous? Lindsay Stripling created this diptych of an invasion of a campsite. Looks like the wolves and turkeys took over everything. 

Work on paper by Emily Ritz

Emily Ritz created highly detailed watercolors with ink details. You can see the scale of this one by looking over at that window sill. The work is really insane closeup. So much detail!

Inside the gallery, work by Emily Ritz

You know I love a good A-Frame. Another one coming in Part 2 of this weekend:)

Pattern Inspiration in San Francisco

On Wednesday, I went to see a friend in San Francisco. We didn't have much of a plan, but we were thinking something like lunch and checking out the sunset at Land's End. My friend Gabby is a crazy-inspiring person. She has a lot going on in her life right now and actually kind of always does as a traveling, swimming (she just swam to Alacatraz!), pilot who is starting a company with her man. The day was like a breath of fresh air for the both of us. I won't write too much since the pictures speak for themselves. 

Mile Rock Beach, Land's End

A-maze-ing rock pattern

Gabby walking through the maze.

Mussels

More mussels... and look at that hole pattern in the sand too.

Sand lines with golden hour lighting.

More sand lines. 

A tree-like pattern. 

Fractals, dude. It always amazes me how this pattern exists so commonly in nature. Blood vessels, trees, lightning, snowflakes, this repeating pattern occurs everywhere. 

The view of the Golden Gate from Mile Rock Beach. You can see the mussels on the rocks here. 

Never a bad sunset here. 

The sunset getting more ridiculous.

View of the moon from Top of the Mark

We ended the night at Top of the Mark, the 19th story bar and lounge at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. We wanted to sit with a view of the moon and at first we couldn't see it. After a few minutes, we saw it peek out from behind this building.  We drank martinis while a jazz pianist played. Of course, the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

Such a good day and night.

Don't Wait For Your Ship

My grandma stitched up these wise words, which I received from my mom over the weekend. Good thinking for the beginning of the week, don't you think? I have been working hard on portraits, my new wholesale catalog and a new art show these last couple of weeks. I see a lot of good changes coming and it all feels like it's because I am on a mission to do all things I have been meaning to accomplish in the last year this summer. I think the rest of the year will be a great one.