Spain Art Residency Revisit Part 1

It's been a year since I spent a November in Cádiz, Spain for an art residency. At that time, I thought I would write about it here, but it ended up that I preferred to spend my time exploring the city or working in the studio rather than be on a computer.

I thought this November would be a good time to share more about this trip in detail. I can't tell you how much I've thought about this time in the past year. Going through the photos actually makes me pine for going going back. Throughout this month, I will be sharing the time I spent in Spain and Morocco.  

From San Francisco, I landed in Madrid. Shortly after, this tiny plane sent me from Madrid to Cádiz, landing me at my destination on November 1st, 2014. From the airport, the landscape looked a bit like the farmland in close by areas of California. The feeling of driving through and wondering what I was in for is the magical thing about travel. 

These are the city walls of old Cádiz. Arriving here and seeing this beautiful old place was the most exciting thing. 

The Gran Catedral along the promenade. Residents walk, run and bike this route around the city. I had many quiet moments wandering along it.

I sketched this painting of Cadiz before I left. You can see the Gran Catedral in the background. 

My welcome tote bag, button and postcard that highlights where I stayed during my residency. You can see the location is right on the Atlantic Ocean. The Espacio de Creación Contemporánea was a former military barrack and now a gorgeous marble-filled museum space. The residency is on the top floor. 

This is the map of where all the Linea de Costa artists came from. You can see that artists have been selected from just about every continent. You can see my flag on the West Coast in California. 

This was my kitchen of the apartment for the month. There was hand painted tile, a washing machine and all the basics one would need. The bathroom also had similar hand painted tile work. 

And the studio view I had everyday. I couldn't ask for anything better. 

More to come next week!

What Goes On 10/23/2015

Arting

I know I shared this picture in the last post, but I am just so excited about the new studio! Who says artists have to be cluttered and disorganized?? The room hit rock bottom recently and it needed a redo. I am so happy sitting at this desk writing this post.

Buying 

I stopped at the Muji store downtown and bought these gel pens. They are AWESOME! I love how fluid they write and they come in a pack of six. I used the Muji pen for the sketch on the right in my new Cottonwood Arts sketchbook. I LOVE this sketchbook too. The paper is the perfect thickness. 

Persimmons! Oh, how I love you. I have been eating 1-2 a day since we went to the farmer's market. As usual, I will eat as many as I can.

Listening

I went to a lecture by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku at the Flint Center. He is a futurist with many interesting ideas about what's to come. I felt so lucky to be able to attend this event. In the last couple of years, I have been able to see Bill Nye, Max Tegmark and now Michio speak. My brain feels full.

I found this podcast interviewing Erin Gleeson, who authored my favorite cookbook Forest Feast. She talks about her path to making the book, which is really inspiring since I am currently in the works to write and illustrate several books.

Anna Sale hosts one of my favorite podcasts, Death, Sex and Money, always touting that these are subjects no one wants to talk about. In this episode, titled The Sex Worker Next Door, Anna interviews a woman in the field anonymously. The result is human and eye-opening. 

One of my favorite podcasts is Art for Your Ear by The Jealous Curator. This weekend she interviewed Kate Bingaman-Burt. The episode is titled "Make Piles of Crap" and I could not agree more! That's something I have been doing lately. Just drawing a lot and not really thinking of the end result. I've heard interviews with Kate before and she is always fun to hear. 

Reading

This list is well worth the read. I keep hearing about Stoicism and it's relevance these days. These guidelines are for creatives to keep calm in chaos. 

Sea Wolves! Yes, Sea Wolves. I had no idea these gorgeous creatures. If you are interested in seeing them in action, watch this sea wolf video. 

Seeing

I saw these birds on a recent overcast day above the Los Gatos Creek Trail. I love how many there were. What were they meeting about?

SoFA Sketching

Last month's SoFA Sketch was my favorite one yet. I feel like it's finding its groove. I look forward to the next one on October 28th 7-9pm. I'm sure many will be working on their Inktober sketches. I will be making and posting the new flyer this weekend.

Watching

Check out this cool video of the awesome artist duo Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock. I have always loved the idea of two artists working together like this. 

Have a great weekend! 

Shared Art Studio

Earlier this year, I had been working toward fixing up an art studio at my house. You can see in these past Home Art Studio Project posts I was going to make the space in the backyard, up against the cottage wall. Long story short, I ran into some issues with uneven floor and a falling apart fence, so all summer I worked in a corner in the house and in the backyard. 

Then fall arrived and I felt ongoing anxiety about turning a corner of the living room into a workspace and never dealing with this room. It had been an office for my boyfriend, then what felt like a storage room/work space for for me (see photos below) and now I love that it is a place we can both work in. I was insistent that I don't want to take it over as my own since he shoots photos and draws too. 

Just looking at this wall makes me shudder. What a disaster it became. It's pretty embarrassing to share this, but this is the state it turned into at the end of the summer. Because the room gets pretty warm in the summer, I basically didn't work in here and it was like a neglected storage room. 

This isn't a great photo, but you can see how dark the sandy brown walls made it look. The piles, oh the piles. 

The aftermath of painting. My speckled phone and encrusted hands. 

I think I was getting a little crazed by this point. 

Art studio at the Linea de Costa art residency

So first off, I'll show you my inspiration for the room. And yes, I understand that this is the prettiest picture in this whole post. Last November, while on a residency in Spain, I had the world's most beautiful art studio. It had an ocean view, was pristinely white, plants everywhere and hints of blues. While my results weren't exactly the same, I knew that I wanted to paint the new workspace white, to be a lot less cluttered and have plants. 

And here it is. The new studio has bright white walls, empty surfaces to work on and one hanging plant (planter by RossLab). Now, you might want to compare this with the first picture. BIG DIFFERENCE, huh? By the next post, I'll have worked in here for a bit and will give more details on what was done. Thanks so much to Bryan for the help in making it look like this. 

For now, I am ready to be productive in this clean, bright new shared space. 

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!