What Goes On 9/25/15

Arting

Sketchbook page by Rob Sato

Sketchbook page by Rob Sato

Print from sketchbook by Rob Sato

Sketchbooks by Rob Sato. All numbered as you can see here. 

I stopped at the Rob Sato show at The Arsenal on Tuesday. Rob is a truly incredible painter. He works on paper primarily and creates imaginary worlds and draws from life. I just loved this show of his sketchbooks and prints from his sketchbooks. It seems like he mostly works in ink and watercolor, two mediums that I love. Watch this video to learn more about him and his work. 

I'll be exhibiting at The Arsenal in February 2016. I can't wait to fill this space with my work.

Eating

On Sunday I made avocado egg toast. It brought me back to Spain, where I often ate this. Just toast some baguette, smash avocado into it and in this case, add sliced tomato, eggs scrambled with mozzarella and top with dandelion greens and basil. Best breakfast ever. 

Watching

I went to the Bellator MMA fights at the San Jose Arena on Saturday night, which if you know me, may seem a little out of character. Although I love jiu jitsu, I often have a hard time with other combat sports when it gets too bruised, bloody or violent. Still, I had a great time at this event which featured kickboxing and MMA. 

Have you heard that the artist Jeremy Fish has a residency at San Francisco's city hall? It's pretty cool. I would love to visit him while he's working there. Check out this NBC video about the experience. I love seeing all the ways artists are being utilized and respected these days! 

De Young and Ocean Beach Field Trip

Last week I went with to San Francisco with my friends Elissa and Laura. We wanted to catch the Turner exhibit at the De Young Museum before it was gone, so that was the catalyst for getting up there. Turns out, so was everyone else. The show was CROWDED to say the least. 

Of course I'd photograph one with a palm tree

I confessed to Elissa and Laura that I was never a huge fan of Turner. I always thought his work was too atmospheric for me and maybe he used too many layers to get his point across. 

We first went up to the tower to have the 360 degree view of San Francisco. It will always be one of my favorite cities. You can't beat the bay, hills, park and buildings. In the entryway to get up there, these Ruth Asawa pieces were hanging on display. I love sculptural installations like this. The shadows are gorgeous and the metal work so detailed.

A Turner watercolor

We moved into the Turner exhibit and were soon suffering from mild claustrophobia. It felt like solid people pushing forward to make a wall around each painting. "Wow!" I thought, "who knew everyone loved Tuner so much?" As we made our way through, I found myself far more draw to the watercolors than the oils. Seeing all those layers on paper only makes sense in person, but the photo above shows an example. There was also a room of unfinished works, which all of us like as well. Turner definitely grew on me after seeing the show. 

Elissa and Laura checking out the velvet bordered paintings

We decided to head off to the rest of the collection and found this amazing, expansive breath of fresh air in the empty gallery spaces. From here on out, our day became super relaxing. 

Elissa brought three blankets for us to sit on at Ocean Beach. I sketched people at the beach and a Sumi ink of cargo ships on the ocean. 

Here's Elissa's beautiful landscape. I love all her layers and textures she gets with watercolor. I felt like we need to do this more often!

We stopped at Mollusk Surf Shop after we left the beach. I had been dying to come here, but always get here after they close. I guess I always spend too much time at the beach! They have the softest t-shirts with the coolest designs and beautiful built-ins like this treehouse. 

We stumbled on this tiny shop The Last Straw. Don't expect me to link a website because the owner doesn't take credit cards and lets you purchase by cash, check or IOU. She was so sweet, reading her library book while we browsed her soaps, jewelry and other objects. The fence you see above protects the cute garden beds behind.

Good times! It was pure bliss being in San Francisco for the day. What a way to end the summer!

What Goes On 9/18/15

This week I have been busy working on commission sketches. I have several portrait orders going, including a returning customer from 2 years ago. She wrote me to say that they have had a child and he is mesmerized by his parents' portraits and dog portrait I made. She wants to add him to the wall too. How sweet is that?

I am also working on some new make-believe book sketches. These are for a couple of musicians who live in the North Bay. Hopefully I can see them perform someday! 

Now onto the list...

Arting

Ok, LOTS of arting happened since my last post. I've been making it to more art shows recently and sketching out and about. 

Colin Frangicetto and Drew Roulette at Empire Seven Studios - I thought these two artists' works went great together after attending last Saturday's opening. You can see Colin's work above. I didn't get any clear enough photos of Drew's work, but you can see them side by side here.

One piece of exciting news is that I will be in a Screaming Hand group show at Empire Seven Studios in January. Jim Phillips came up with this image in 1985 and it has been a classic skateboarding logo since. The show is part of a Santa Cruz Skateboards art tour sponsored by Vans. It is an honor to be included in this show with such an iconic theme. Watch this Jim Phillips video to get a little background and for some good tips on being an artist.

Opening today, Naoki Onodera, one half of Bahama Kangaroo has a show at Luggage Store in San Francisco. I worked with him and his wife on Jen Stark's mural at Facebook headquarters. Both he and his wife are amazing artists. The work is just so pure, fun and brilliant.  

Also opening today, Nine Lives at RVCA in the Haight in San Francisco. If you didn't know, RVCA has an Artist Network Program that supports artists in many ways. You can watch some artist videos here. Mitsy Avila Ovalles, an amazing artist I met in art school, will be showing amongst eight other artists. 

Drinking...and sketching

I have been having such a blast meandering around and sketching while drinking coffee, tea or wine. In the last couple of weeks, I have met with my friend Kyle Pellet a couple of times and it has spawned more sketching in public. I'm so excited for the next SoFA Sketch, which is coming up September 30th. I feel such a great sense of artistic community in San Jose right now. Between SoFA Sketch, The Exhibition District, gallery and museum visits and random meet-ups with fantastic friends, I am thoroughly enjoying being an artist in the San Jose and the Bay Area lately. It's about time:)

The sketch above was done of Le Bateau Ivre (French for The Drunken Boat), a great dining spot and cafe in Berkeley, CA. The brick section of the building is so cool and the place has a relaxed vibe with a kind staff. It's the perfect, quiet place to draw or read. We'll definitely be going back! 

Okay, this one wasn't sketched in public, but I really liked how it came out. I wanted it to be freehand and loose, embracing any wonkiness. I really liked how it turned out and I will definitely be working with Sumi ink a lot more. 

My friend Kim had a baby a few months ago and it struck me that she must continue making art even so. I invited her to come and sketch with me at B2 in San Jose. I thought we could stroll over and I could help watch the baby. It worked out amazingly well. We both got work done. I sketched her and she worked on her annual Halloween card. Her daughter fussed just a little bit, but mostly sat on either of our laps or slept. Parenting is easy, right?? 

Friday, I will be heading up to San Francisco with my friends Laura and Elissa to see the Turner exhibit at the De Young Museum. I'm so excited to hang out with them and meander around. It's gonna be, as always, a really inspiring day.

Eating

I made this last night. Boy, was it good. This is one of our classic meals around the house since it involves sweet potatoes, onion, mushrooms, kale, fresh basil, pork and an egg top. These meals are super satisfying and give me lots of energy, especially after working out. This time, I chopped up some insanely good pitted green olives and it really made the meal. I say put an egg on everything all the time. Same for olives.

Listening

I listened to Lee Fields on Employee of the Month with Catie Lazarus. He's one of my favorite singers and I love the way she interviewed him while he was on stage. So cool. 

Danielle Krysa on Tiffany Han's podcast - These two ladies are great. I've been a longtime fan of what they have to bring to the world. They have their own podcasts and do so much more to help the creative community. It was a blast to listen to them together. Be sure to give this one a listen. 

Last night we listened to so much good music. T-Rex, Vashti Bunyan, Ariel Pink, Roy Orbison, Talking Heads, The Cure and My Bloody Valentine. I've been listening to a ton of podcasts and interviews so it's always good to get back to the music I love.

Reading

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/11/10/pico-iyer-the-art-of-stillness/

Training

I did my first jiu jitsu competition class (note class, not actual competition) last Saturday and second one on Monday. It was really hard, but awesome to put what I know together at a faster pace. Of course, you realize how little you know. The funny thing with jiu jitsu is I learned a lot in the first fundamentals class. You kind of think you know what to do, but when you go to apply what you learned you forget one or two little things: the placement of a foot, where to distribute your weight or to not let your arm hang out, and are immediately are back to square one or submitted. The technique is super important. 

I've probably said this before, but I do find jiu jitsu really amazing for the mind and body. It has changed my perspective and made me a much, much more chill, open minded and expansive person. No, really. I love being a part of Heroes Martial Arts. It's been amazing. I was pretty timid at first there and far less nervous or afraid then I was when I started. 

Have a great weekend!

What Goes On 9/11/15

I missed last week's post since I was so busy with a wedding, birthday and otherwise. Happy to be catching up today!

Arting

A collaboration with Kyle Pellet

Last week, I sketched with Kyle Pellet. He is one of my favorite artists. His work is super funny and original. We collaborated on the above piece, which is available for purchase here. 

Tonight, Empire Seven Studios will be opening their show by Colin Frangicetto and Drew Roulette. 

When I had work for sale at the Oakland Museum of California, I had the pleasure of meeting Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh. I loved her work and on Saturday her show at Oxtail Studio in Berkeley opens. 

Rob Sato is an incredible artist with sketchbooks on display at The Arsenal. I can't wait to check this show out. 

Listening

I've mentioned the podcast Death, Sex and Money and I'll mention it again. The latest episode with Maria from Sesame Street is really, really good. 

The latest That's Deep Bro episode, Why Be Good? is really excellent. Christina ponders, "Why bother being a good person when some people seem to opt out?" I consider myself to be someone of pretty good morals and do question humanity a lot so this one was quite excellent to listen to. 

Meeting

On Thursday, I was waiting for Bryan at the SoFA Market when I ran into an old friend, Demone. Demone is someone I worked with at Streetlight Records, many years ago. He is now really involved with arts in San Jose and was there for a meetup for MALI (Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute). It was great to learn that something like this exists in San Jose. Being loosely to extensively involved in the art, blogging, Etsy/maker world, I constantly notice the lack of diversity in it. I had no idea of this organization until last night. I met a new artist who knows my work through a mutual friend and she came over and introduced herself. It was great to meet her and she has a potential new and exciting project happening in San Jose.

Reading

I started the book The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux. My mom had given me a small stack of his books and I've finally gotten around to reading one. So far, so good. I like his writing style. It was written in 1979, so it should be interesting to hear his perspective on travel back then. 

Redesigning

The website got a redesign this week. I have often gone back and forth with this style and a single image on the front page. I do like being able to show all that I do on one page. I have also been thinking about my artistic goals and I want to do a broad range of work, so I think this reflects that. Hopefully sooner than later I will be working on a book and other special projects. There are some things that I need to do like adding all the sizes of the artworks, a new logo and such, but I wanted to let you know about the new look. If you have any feedback for me, please leave it in the comments below. Thanks!

Training

I labored on Labor Day. I trained for 2 hours midday and it was so much fun. I love Heroes Martial Arts. Everyone works so hard and has a great personality. I also couldn't ask for better exercise. I learn so much from everyone when I go. It felt great to go in after a long wedding weekend with a few too many drinks:) I ended up training 3 hours on Tuesday, 2.5 on Wednesday and an hour on Thursday. Somehow, it still feels good to work this hard at something and progress so slowly. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

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.