Two Art Shows, A Cleanse, Pom-Poms, Taxes & Slowing Down

April 15, 2015 in Field Trip, Ramblings

It was a very busy weekend with an art show at Collector in Berkeley, a workshop in SF with Dana Haim, an art show at the Citadel Gallery, crafting for a baby shower and taxes. Whew! I have been overcommitting for the last two months and while I feel lucky to be involved with all these projects, I have been feeling really burnt out. Luckily, I'm on a cleanse so that's really helping things! Ha, not really. I am cooking or preparing every single meal since I have not been consuming dairy, grains, legumes or sugar. It makes it hard if I go out to eat anywhere since I can't eat much of anything but salad. I've been somewhat of a homebody at this time. Anyway, I'm doing it to myself.

FRIDAY

The art show opening at Collector was fantastic! A good friend, artist Elissa Nesheim came out all the way from Gilroy and there was a really nice crowd. I love working with this art shop. Skye and Christina have a great eye and they are so good to the artists. The shop has art-filled walls and an incredible selection of artist prints and handmade goods. Collector also now carries prints of my work. It was so hard to not eat the brie and drink the wine at this opening!

SATURDAY

Dana Haim in the center of all this yarn

My friend Anabella and I headed up to San Francisco early to attend a pom-pom workshop by Brooklyn artist Dana Haim at Makeshift Society. I saw her Pomifornia workshop tour on the Jungalow blog and posted by Makeshift Society. It seemed like it would be really fun. Dana was so great and I learned a ton from her. The other guests were super fun too. I am brainstorming a summer project with these and hoping to include glittery yarn. I love learning new things and Dana Haim has transformed pom-poms into something new and exciting. Working on these fluffy little spheres was addicting. I loved "painting" with the yarn and experimenting with the designs. It reminded me that I love working with a variety of materials from paper to textiles and that I just love color so much.

After the workshop, we headed over to Faye's Video & Espresso Bar to see the work of UK artist and illustrator Faye Moorhouse. I love her quirky, wonky work. Faye's wonky movie posters were just the thing I needed to see.

An awesome turnout at Eye Tea at the Citadel Gallery, including Bella's parents seen in the foreground here.

The show Eye Tea opened at the Citadel Gallery on Saturday night. It was awesome to be a part of Slow Art Day. We were the only venue in San Jose to take part. The theme of artists reflecting on social media and information technology seemed really fitting for the idea of slowing down. Slow Art Day asks participants in galleries worldwide to view 5 works of art for 5-10 minutes each. The average time viewers spend in front of a work of art is said to be about 17 seconds. Slow Art Day asks viewers to stop and view the art.

String Theory, art installation by Frances Marin and Anabella Piñon at Citadel Gallery. Watercolor, paper, dyed string and cans.

Anabella and I came up with the installation String Theory. Two kids talk on a tin can, but there is a lot of noise and eavesdropping happening around them. A fairly simple and straightforward message here. We had been spending many hours on this in the last few weeks. I will be posting about the behind-the-scenes of this project soon.

SUNDAY

I spent time crafting in the morning for a friend's baby shower that's happening this weekend. We made banners and other decor for this. Afterward, I went to Bryan's jiu jitsu competition. It was so cool to see him win his first match.

MONDAY/TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY

And then, taxes. For the last few years, I gather up my documents and data early in the year and get about 75% finished with my tax work. Then, life and projects get prioritized and I end up scrambling at the last minute. Since I have a variety of streams of revenue including teaching, wholesale, several online shops, events, direct sales, etc., my taxes are quite a bit more complicated these days than they were a few years ago. I am quite proud that I am so much more organized and knowledgeable about bookkeeping than when I started. It took years of hard work, but I feel really good about being able to handle this aspect of what I do. I have to be honest about not keeping up with bookkeeping in the last part of 2014. When I sat down and went through the numbers, I was really happy to have made more than I thought. I am determined to get my taxes done earlier in 2016. I'm also determined to stay more on top of bookkeeping for the rest of this year.

Now it's time to slow down a little. I'll be going on vacation for the last week of the month. I think it's well-deserved after this crazy schedule I've had. I have a few fun projects to work toward until I leave, but it is so much less than I have had going. On the trip, I will have limited internet access and I think this will be a very, very good thing.

SubZERO Festival - Textiles

May 29, 2014 in Events, My Art Shows

I've been a busy little factory getting ready for the SubZERO Festival coming up June 6 & 7. My space will act like an open studio, with sketches, paintings, clutch zip bags and art prints in my booth. I'm making stuff as we speak, as well as starting to test out my display. You may have already seen that I made a temporary outdoor studio over the weekend so I could at least pretend I was celebrating Memorial Day weekend.

Since I had been preparing for my students' art show, I have had to pick up the pace these last few weeks for SubZERO. I started off by dyeing, printing and sewing clutch bags for the event. I had fabric left from last year so I decided to make a limited run for the event.

If you didn't know, I started making these bags because I inherited a bunch of vintage sewing supplies from my aunt Yolanda, an incredible creative and amazing artist. I had to put all the vintage metal zippers to use, so I decided to make some bags. I hand dyed cotton canvas, carved some block prints, and voila! I had made my first set of bags about a year ago. Interesting enough, this current batch used EXACTLY the last of the metal zippers!

Tangerine, lilac and avocado fabric drying.

Sewing in the labels

Multitasking. Getting booth ideas on Pinterest while arranging my bags.

I think the jacaranda petals have been influencing my color choices.

Stop by my booth at SubZERO and check them out!

Hope to see you there!

A glimpse of my installation for the Shelter show

Black and White Mood

April 11, 2014 in In the Studio, My Art Shows, Ramblings

Have you noticed that I've been in a black and white mood lately? If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have seen a lot of black and white art in the making. I have been working with Sumi ink and paper a lot in the last few years, but it wasn't until I hung my drawing wall at my Lay Low show at Seeing Things Gallery that I saw just how much I was using this medium.

Keeping it simple with Sumi ink, a rag, brushes and a palette

A few months ago, I was approached to do a show called Shelter. This dual exhibition was to take place at two galleries. The first show at Works Gallery opened last weekend and the second show at The Citadel Gallery opens this Saturday night, April 12th. For the Works show I submit a drawing, titled Buried History. It shows a living room underground, the living room of my childhood. It shows my dad's records, mom's books and my grandmother's black floral loveseat. We had to get rid of all this furniture due to financial circumstances and moving when I was young. It's actually one that I almost wanted to keep, but it sold so I will let it go.

For The Citadel show, each artist explored the idea of sanctuary and creativity. The initial idea was to create an installation that shows your creative space. At first, it seemed too easy. I have lots of interesting things in my studio, including my paint-covered studio desk, little vintage nicknacks and natural objects like driftwood and rocks. At some point I came up with the idea to draw my studio instead. It was for a mix of reasons. For one, I thought about how I could live without my desk in my studio for a whole month? I've been wanting to do an installation for awhile now. I also loosely had an idea to draw my show at Seeing Things Gallery, but decided against it. I am so happy I finally made it happen with my piece We Have Overcomplicated Things. The title comes from the drive I have to simplify my life and minimize this past few months. I am in the process of cleaning my studio and plan on having a much more calm and clear workspace, much like this art installation.

We also got a lot of rain in the Bay Area recently, so maybe these overcast skies had something to do with all this black and white too!

This has been quite the project. It was all painted freehand. Mistakes were made. They were erased, covered up, left. I definitely planned some things in advance but a lot of it was carried out intuitively and spontaneously. Very satisfying to not have any pressure but from myself. It’s been a test of my patience and a will to roll with mistakes. This little installation shows how I feel when I am in my creative space. Everything feels expansive, good, simple.

You can see the show at The Citadel Gallery. Opening reception is April 12th from 7-11pm. Can't make the show? I will post an image of the work on the day of the show.

Lay Low Art Show and Self-Discipline

November 16, 2013 in Ramblings, My Art Shows

I've been working very hard for months on a solo show at Seeing Things Gallery. It's been a wild ride of commissions, returning to teaching about 10 hours per week and creating new work for this show these last few months. I spent a lot of quiet time on a chaotic workload. I am happy the flyer is finally finished as the December 6th opening date looms closer. Please come by from 7-11pm!

Lay Low, new work by Frances Marin at Seeing Things Gallery

For me, working on a show means digging into the fragile parts of my brain. It means negative self-talk happens, moments of insight create positive and productive work time and this up and down usually happens up until the night of the show, when I breathe a big sigh of relief. This show, more than any prior, was very intuitive. The paintings evolved and changes were made by gut feeling. I can often over-think my work, and though that still happened, I was more easily than ever able to quiet that side and just get to work.

A big reason I was able to work on this show, commissions and teach part-time these last few months, is because of a very disciplined schedule. While I wasn't actively working every single second, 24-7, I was working pretty close to that. I missed shows that I wanted to go to (Mazzy Star?!), celebratory events with friends and overall most human interaction that was outside of my teaching job. I exercised almost everyday and only drank water, coffee and green juices. Spending a lot of time alone is great in some ways. I found the past resurfacing and made better sense of that. I thought a lot about changes I want to make for next year and beyond. I realized what was most important to me in all categories of my life. Spending a lot of time working alone can also be rough. There can be too much thinking and too much self. You realize how important it is to get outside and live life.

While self-discipline has been a recurring thing in my life: it got me through college, put me in a swimming/yoga/running routine years ago, quit smoking, multiple detoxes/cleanses, it was this time that I felt it in a more true sense of the phrase. I'm excited to see where this goes.