Spain Art Residency Revisit Part 2 - Around Cádiz

Cádiz is located on a small strip of land, surround by the sea on three sides. They say it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe. It is one of the safest, prettiest and most magical cities I have been to. The lighting, color and people are enough to make you feel like you stumbled on a different world, one where time has stood still with hints of modernity. While I was there, I decided to see where it was on the latitude compared to here in San Jose. Funny enough, Cádiz is at 36.53 degrees north and San Jose is at 37.33 degrees north. Just about one degree of separation. I ended up drawing a lot of comparisons by location, weather, population and more while I was there and incorporating it in my art work.

There are many streets like this, open to pedestrians and motorcycles, but generally not cars. When you do see cars, they are small and modest.

Balcony and rooftop

Airplant

Apartment courtyard with oh so many plants

The balconies and rooftops alone made me want to live here. Not to mention that everyone decorates their homes with so many plants.

Classic Spain right here. People eating outside in the plaza, random accordion player and cobblestone. I passed this plaza, Plaza del Mentidero, everyday on my way to the art studio. 

A woodshop open to the street. I loved finding artisans working in these arched doorways. This is one of several I passed by.

Citywide, you can walk along the city walls. On sunny days, the water had an aquamarine hue, unlike any other ocean I have seen. 

Along the southern wall, Parque Genoves is a landscaped area and nearby you find checkerboard floors and the balcony that overlooks the ocean. Seeing this everyday made me feel like I was in a lost Bergman film or storybook. 

Just some birds and a walkway to a castle

A sea cat on the city wall looking out at New Town.

Among the blocks, I found dozens of cats living and hunting for food. One day, I smelled something terrible and when I peered over, found the cats eating a sea gull. Live nature show.

The domed Gran Catedral is one of the most notable buildings in Old Town. It was such an icon for me, since I sketched it before I left on my trip. Walking through the city was something I did daily. Things felt very intuitive here. Unplanned and spontaneous. 

More to come...including the food and working in the studio...

What Goes On 11/6/2015

This week's What Goes On is actually from the last two weeks. It's been a little crazy around here, but now I am back on schedule. 

Arting

I drew wine bottles in Sumi ink

Nancy Ahn, Suhita and Claudine so focused on their sketches. 

This month's SoFA Sketch was a small but great gathering at SoFA Market. I feel like in the last couple months, it has found its groove. I was a late on promoting it, didn't get around to it until the day of, but that made for an awesome table of artists working intimately. 

Nancy Ahn drew Konjoe Tei Ramen & Izakaya

Some of the artists will draw from life and others from their imaginations. I love the mix. It always makes it fun. I am finding the 

Anabella's halloween-themed sketches

Suhita Shirodkar's pumpkins. Her sketches are always so loose, yet representative. 

Claudine's amazing horror poster sketch

Bryan's awesome cats on a dimly lit street. 

Another sketch of Suhita's. I love the contrast of the bottles and the dark figures.

The next SoFA Sketch is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday November 25th. Follow me on Instagram @francesmarin to stay in the loop on things.

Designing

No sneak peaks yet, but I have been doing some behind the scenes designing lately and can't wait to share them with you this month. Hint: bags and a calendar. 

Eating

Kabocha squash

I made this Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup this week. It's super good and hearty. You can also toast the seeds afterwards. It turned out killer!

Listening

I listened to the Halloween edition of This American Life, titled And the Call Was Coming From the Basement. I'll just say the segment on the raccoon freaked me out!

Watching

I FINALLY saw How to Draw a Bunny. After years of being recommended this movie by friends and waiting for it to appear for free on YouTube, it surfaced so I could watch it. Lesser known, Ray Johnson was an artist who was friends with a lot of famous friends: Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, James Rosenquist, Christo... He was so prolific and his work was ahead of its time. He hated galleries and museums. He was a also a mystery to many people. Watch it.

I've been pretty into the show The Americans. It takes place during the Cold War and focuses on two KGB spies disguised as a suburban American couple. I think a big part of why I like it is that it takes place in the 80's. I also love that it is pre-cell phone, so they have to figure things out via landlines . It's nice to see them handle things in a fairly low tech way. The acting is pretty good and it is nice and suspenseful. 

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.