Art, Should and Whatever

I do a lot of different things: original paintings, portraits, design work, live painting, a daily project, prints and more. My subject matter ranges from humorous to beautiful places to plants and people. The sizes I have worked in for the last 6 months have ranged from 3 inches to 6 feet. 

I often think I should be more focused with my art, that I should be working at X size or with X subject matter or making my website look more like X. Or maybe I should...Agh! SHOULD! I hate that word.

I want to be really expansive with my work and let it go wherever it goes. Last year I started doing paper installations, which were incredibly enjoyable to make. Right now I am sketching people's dreams at The Snooze Bar (see tomorrow's blog post). I love how very different these things are, yet their commonality is that I get to make them happen. 

After art school, I got tired of the formalism and seriousness of the art world. Artist statements can sometimes be the most dreadful thing to read and egos of some artists are unbearable. Recently, I've grown tired of the maker/handmade/product world. It leaves me looking for meaning. Now, I am not sure where this puts me, maybe somewhere in between. This summer, I'll be making a lot of new work for a few fall shows and I'll be starting my children's book. It can be easy to get caught in familiar formulas and I want my art to challenge and push me. I want to do things beyond a painting hanging on a wall in a gallery. Even though I'm not sure yet what that would be. All I know is I feel like I have a really good *flow going right now.

Here are some things that have been helping me get here:

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

I've been training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for the last 5 weeks. I have been going 4-5 days a week. It has been amazing both mentally and physically. When I first walked in the door, I felt kind of nervous. The athletic activities I tend to do are swimming, hiking, yoga, running, all things you can do solo. With BJJ you work really closely with just one other person. It's intense, rewarding, frustrating and fun. When starting something new, there is a lot of mystery in figuring it out. When I enrolled in sailing lessons last year, I felt the same way. It's so refreshing to get out of your routine and do something you aren't good at. And when someone has you smashed down on a mat, you feel like you can handle anything that comes your way.

The Poundcast

I love this podcast I discovered recently. DJ Douggpound has reminded me I need more humor, spontaneity and integrity in all parts of my life. Listening to these guys talk about tiny houses, Pere Ubu, banning toilet paper, likes and dislikes ("big ups" and "shots fired") or whatever is on their minds has made me remember I have been ignoring some of the things I love most: being silly, discovering new music, saying whatever you want, taking care of the environment and other randomness in life. If you don't like a little bit of raunchy humor, then this one may not be for you. 

Kyle Pellet's Instagram feed

I love Kyle's art. It's the best. Of course the simple shapes, vintage technicolor and brilliant titles of his paintings are why you would follow him on Instagram, but the little extra is seeing his strange and mundane suburban scenes of San Jose. Kyle, thank you for bringing us back to reality. 

Bahama Kangaroo

I worked with this pair of artists on a mural a few months ago and I just love what they do.  This video, reminds me of what artists used to be like in San Francisco. Not so perfect and curated, but brilliant art all the same. 

Riding my bike and listening to music

We don't need a calendar to tell us when it's summer in California (it was 95 degrees when I started writing this the other day). Lately, I've been having the best time riding my bike and listening to Glass Candy and other old favorites (is this also reverting?). There's a lot of good thinking time while you are on a bike. Plus, you learn a lot about physics and when you have headphones on you feel like you're in a movie.

My horoscope this week

Life is what you make it

My mom often said this phrase when I was growing up (apparently Eleanor Roosevelt said it first, according to Google). She also said "C'est la vie" ("That's life" in French), which I find too accepting of the way things are. Life is what you make it. I think it's true. Sure, we can be dealt some pretty bad cards, but there are choices and risks we can take to make it more exciting or improve things. My horoscope above feels like it fits right in with this. I think it could also be "Luck is what you make it."

Disappointments can be a good thing

Pay attention to the disappointments in your life. They might be trying to tell you something. I received a library science degree after my art degree. During a bad economy. The library I worked (hard) at for 5 years interviewed me for a librarian position and didn't end up hiring me. Neither did the two other libraries I interviewed with. So, I went back to art. I'm happy about that. Recently, after a couple disappointments I found myself in the midst of really cool projects. 

Focusing and daydreaming

It is hard to focus with the internet around. I have been more careful with what I look at and absorb from the internet because as someone who is interested in a lot of things, it is easy to take in too much or get annoyed. Not having internet access for 6 days while on a trip a couple months ago was pure bliss. I now catch myself and step away from the stupid phone or computer. I don't wake up and look at my phone. I make coffee.

Tidying

A few months ago, while working on my Home Art Studio Project, I mentioned the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I had to stop the clean up and studio project because of other projects, but I am getting back to it. We all just have too much stuff.

Reverting

This past week, I have been thinking about the younger me. When I was a teenager, I hated things that were popular or mainstream. With the internet, it always feels like a popularity contest and I always avoided that. I dropped out of high school, never went to school dances, dyed my hair, ignored most people and hung out with the weirdos (which back then, we were actually weird). What did I love? As a teen, I loved The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, politics, things not made in sweatshops, recycling, riding my bike, hiking and liking being different from everyone else. While we should always be evolving, I think your younger you shouldn't always be ignored. Does watching Jon Stewart daily count as being political??

A Step by Step Guide to Spontaneity

Spontaneity, Fun and Humor

I've followed my intuition, tried something new and cracked up at stupid things. 

So yeah, whatever!

* Flow is a good book I read many years ago. Check it out!

100 Day Project: Days 11-20

I have been having fun with the 100 Day Project. Actually, it has caused some anxiety since I haven't been making work daily as planned. Some of these Oblique Strategies cards have really stumped me! I have been finishing up some bigger projects and events lately so this project has not been as "daily" as I would have liked. Still, I've now completed 21 total and I'm happy to share with you 11-20 in this post. Even though I still have 79 to go, I am intrigued to see where this project will go. What has been really exciting is to follow others participating who are ahead of me. Many of these artists' projects have taken such exciting turns! I have a good feeling about the future of this project and I want to dedicate myself to doing it daily from now on. Search the hashtag #100dayproject on Instagram to see what everyone else is doing. 

Last week, I announced in my newsletter that I will be selling the first 20 today, June 9th, at noon. They will be $20 each and sold on a first come first serve basis on my website. If you have connected with any of these paintings, now is your chance to get your hands on one!

Day 11 Repetition is a form of change

This one feels pretty self-explanatory. I wanted to give the dominoes a nice vintage feel with that yellowed look. I love this phrase. It's like when you practice something you get better at it until it becomes an actual thing. 

Day 12 Simple subtraction

This was a pretty easy one to come up with. Every morning I make coffee in a French press. It's a ritual to start my day right. I was really happy with the galaxy-like quality of my camp coffee mug. I really enjoyed letting go of perfect perspective and working with that deep blue. 

Day 13 Decorate, decorate

Originally, I wanted to paint something really elaborate and decorative, but instead decided to paint my living room. It looks more vibrant in this painting than in person. 

Day 14 Slow preparation...fast execution

Since I often paint portrait, I figure that is my slow preparation and here is my fast execution. This was the fastest drawing or painting I have made yet for this project. It wasn't nearly as satisfying as a lot of these have been, but sometimes you just have to knock 'em out and move on. 

Day 15 Is it finished?

This is pretty funny to me. On Day 13, I painted this scene and my furniture designer friend wondered why I didn't include his coffee table in the painting. I think it looks much better with it and the terrarium.

Day 16 Be extravagant

My trip to Spain last fall felt extravagant so I painted the little casita we stayed at in the town of Frigiliana. The place was pure magic, built into the rock mountainside. I am hoping to do more 3D art with the 100 Day Project. 

Day 17 What to maintain?

My bathroom routine is pretty simple so I wanted to convey that in this image of my maintenance. I don't curl or flat iron my hair (I've tried and I get bored) or spend countless hours in the bathroom. I like how this image could be for a beauty routine while camping or at home. 

Day 18 Always first steps

This one came to me quickly. I pictured a nearly all black image with feet at the start of the stairs. So I painted it. Had to throw some Converse high tops on those feet. 

Day 19 Turn it upside down

I was painting this image with the blue as the sky at the Maker's Market over the weekend. A customer came by and said, "Whoa! You are painting that upside down?" When I turned it around I saw what he meant with the yellow as the sky and blue as water. So, it changed. 

Day 20 When is it for?

Now or never. That's when it's for. I have been meaning to make this as a book painting for my Fake Book series on wood. I decided to just go ahead and to this on paper. More of these are coming this summer. 

100 Day Project: The First 10 Days

When I got started with the 100 Day Project, I thought I could just whip out a lot of these sketches in a half hour or so. I also wanted to go beyond sketching and really branch out with other projects. You can read a little more about how I felt getting started in this earlier post about this 100 Day Project.  

Some things I have found so far.

1. I am frustrated that others are on day 34 as I write this. I am behind. I hate being behind. I also hate giving up. Yesterday, I decided that I will keep going, get the full 100 done and note care if I am behind everyone. 
2. I have high standards. I don't want to share things that are just okay or not great. Part of this project is to do the opposite of that. 
3. Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt came up with some pretty tough prompts with these cards. Some feel very intellectual and you (I) tend to overthink things. 
4. A friend and I were talking about going through an awkward growth spurt with our art. I have been consistently getting design and custom work, I'm growing wholesale accounts and sold half of the original paintings in my Berkeley art show. All great things, but I often wonder what I should be focusing on. Something felt strange. I realized I just need to go with the flow and things will fall into place. I have been coming to terms with that this week and finally feel really great about where things are going. 

Below, you will find out more about the thinking behind the first 10 days of painting.

Day 1 Disconnect from desire

I loved how this one turned out. It was not literal, yet somehow fitting. It felt symbolic to what this project might bring. 

Day 2 Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame

I found this one pretty funny. An homage to the 80's, to nostalgia and fairly literal. 

Day 3 Tidy up

Earlier this year, I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, so I was pretty inspired by this one. I have been getting rid of a ton of belongings, so I thought of someone living in their penthouse, tossing out everything they own to live in a spacious and uncomplicated place. Things get so clear when you simplify. 

Day 4 Disciplined self-indulgence

This painting came from knowing I was going on a cruise. I have been dreaming of sleeping on the sea. The trip felt like an indulgence after all the hard work I have been doing. 

Day 5 Breathe more deeply

Day 5 Breathe more deeply

I have to admit, I had this idea in Spain. At least to have a girl sitting on the beach. I never carried it out there, but it came to me in Miami. I used my hands to tear out the girl and umbrella. I rolled a piece of paper for the umbrella pole. 

Day 6 Take away the elements in order of apparent non importance

When we arrived in Roatán Honduras, this was the view. Humid drips of water everywhere. My thought was that water is the most important thing. 

Day 7 Make an exhaustive list of everything you could do and do the last thing

While on the ship, I made this list and did the last one. I ran on the jogging track at the top of the ship. Running out in the open ocean is a pretty great thing. 

Day 8 Humanize something free of error

Remember typing words into your calculator? This is why I love this project. Using your head in different ways. 

Day 9 Only a part, not the whole

I had this idea while on the ship: part of the moon, part of the boat. I had trouble getting started on it. This one really bogged me down and I stopped working on the 100 Day Project. I finally finished it and didn't post it for a few days because I thought it wasn't good enough. This is where I decided I need to just do it, good or bad. 

Day 10 Trust in the you of now

Such a perfect card for me to get on this day. This one's self explanatory, don't you think? 

Stay tuned for the next 10...

String Theory Collaborative Installation

When I was asked to participate in the art show Eye Tea at Citadel Gallery, I had to say yes. My friend Anabella Piñon had not been showing her art as much in the last few years and we thought it would be great to do this show together. At first, we thought we would make separate pieces, but as we got talking we decided to collaborate.

The Eye Tea show asked artists to reflect on social media and information technology. I know one aspect I wanted to cover was overwhelm. I frequently get overwhelmed by the massive amount of information, likes, comments and emails the internet brings. Through multiple chats, we eventually came up with the idea of using the old can and string game of telephone. We were to each draw one life-sized child that would be mounted to the wall. 

Anabella and our dyed string

We met up at her studio multiple days, where we dyed string. It was fun starting with primary colors and eventually playing with pattern, leaving some areas white. 

Pretty string

Anabella had these wood slices that made the perfect storage for our string. We even liked the way this looked and wondered about doing something like this for a future project.

Anabella's studio

This is the corner of her studio where we painted the kids. She has a dream studio, with a lot of space and cool stuff everywhere. I loved working in it. It got the wheels turning for what I would like to do with mine. 

String Theory - watercolor, paper, strings and cans

The final installation, String Theory. As Anabella worked on her boy, she realized my girl was starting to look a little mad, trying to get him to hear her and her boy was starting to look like he was straining to listen. All the cans are voices and eavesdropping, conveying the chaos that internet communication can bring. 

Girl close-up

One special touch here: you can see the string connected between the boy and girl is blue and white. We thought this would convey a sort of active, Morse code communication between the two. 

Boy close-up

Strings and cans close-up

One of my favorite things about the piece was all the colored string and the shadows created by their lines. It was difficult to capture this in photos, but you can get an idea here. Thank goodness for Anabella's efforts with family and friends to collect all these cans!

Lines

Eye Tea opening on April 11

The opening had a great turnout! Viewers loved interacting with our work and used the cans we provided for them. Other artists also went above and beyond for this show. The tall sticks you see in the background were bamboo constructions. There were multiple installations and there was a lot of great two-dimensional work. We may be installing String Theory elsewhere in downtown San Jose. I'll keep you posted. For now, I'm scheming up an installation for the SubZERO Festival in early June. 

#100 Day Project

This week, I started the #100 Day Project. It's about 100 days of making and about the process, not the product. If you start late, as I have, you just make up the days or jump in. I like how flexible it is, but although I am a little behind I don't plan on missing any days until it's done. 

I really wanted to participate since I love the idea of dedicated consistency in experimenting for over 3 months. I thought about limiting materials (100 days of Sumi ink), subject (plants) and even 100 days of series. All of those felt a little limiting to me, especially since I have been feeling a little experimental in my mediums lately.

Oblique Strategies deck of cards

After days of deliberating (yes, days), it finally came to me that I should use my set of Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards by Brian Eno. It was gifted to me a few years ago and I am so happy to be putting it to use. The deck is meant to help artists with creative blocks with each card using anywhere from one word to nearly a sentence to prompt you creatively. I haven't used this set yet because I never feel like I have a problem with creative ideas, but which one I should be working on. I hope using these cards prompts not only new ideas, but also the back catalog of ideas in my brain. 

The first card I pulled was  "Disconnect from desire." I made the painting you see above. I started with the yellow upper left corner and told myself to not make it a landscape. Then it became a landscape. I told myself not to use blue, that deserts don't have water, especially with plants floating in them. Then the blue stayed. I told myself those little things, they don't look like plants, they look like rocks, actually they don't look like anything.

And then I just said it was done and liked it. 

I know this project isn't supposed to be about the product. I can also see the battle I will have with myself about trying not to make a finished thing. What do I hope to get out of this project? I hope I push my creative process to work a bit differently. I hope I make things in a variety of mediums, not just gouache, watercolor and ink, but also textiles and whatever else. I don't necessarily want to be all over the place. You will still see my usual plants, objects and people. Some I'm sure I will try to complete, some not. 

On Friday, I'm heading out of the country for a week and I'm interested to see what will happen with this project while I'm gone. I will be taking limited art materials with me and maybe I will get creative with things I find out there.