Motown

I've been playing with packing tape transfers. For these postcards I layered tape-lifted images onto old 7-Eleven waxed paper that I got from god knows where. The images add a cool transparency and go well with the dot tape I got from Target.

Friday Openings

Fernando Reyes at the Reaves Gallery


Richard Perri at the Market Street Gallery


Oleg Osipoff at SF Arc

Went to 3 openings on Friday night. Our first stop was at SF Arc in Glen Park. This was formerly Sweet Sue's, that used to make great pies. Osipoff had the visitors participate in making offset prints from running rollers over inked textured surfaces. His abstract works are called Life Underground.

Then to Market Street Gallery to view Richard Perri's paintings called Iconsthatlast, the Java Huts. He likes these old, tacky eateries.

Finally we went to the Reaves Gallery to see Fernandy Reyes' works. He uses a combination of oils, collage and printmaking. The collection is called Sweet Dreams.

Benefit Art Auction: Part II

Left to right: Laurie Wyman-Herson, "Ode to Morandi (watercolor), Julie Nelson, "Untitled" (mixed media on panel), Kay Marshall, "Unstill" (monotype with oil crayon and graphite)


Richard Bolingbroke, "Studio Still Life #1" (limited edition 1/25 giclee print)


Zabrina Tipton, "Bay Bridge and Hills" (fuji archive photograph, limited & signed edition 2/25)

We picked up these five pieces at the Artspan Benefit Art Auction on Saturday night. What a pleasure to collect original works of art!

Benefit Art Auction

Somarts Gallery filled to capacity with art aficionados and artists


Guests discuss artwork with Executive Director


Beautiful pieces up for bid

This yearly Artspan event is the best kept secret in town for buying great art by San Francisco artists. The silent auction starts at 1/3 of the value of the work. Many pieces are priced modestly, which means that you'll find original art that fit your budget. Despite the recession, artists gave generously and the public who attended reaped the benefits. Purchases helped ArtSpan continue its youth arts program that brings art education to public schools. As a contributing artist, I'm proud to be part of Benefit Art Auction.

Market Street Comics

Today was the perfect day to photograph Briana Miller and Thien Pham's comic book posters on Market Street. San Francisco Arts Commission has a program of showing art on these triangular kiosks that stand near bus stops along downtown Market Street. Two sides of the kiosks have advertisements that probably pay for this project and one side has artwork that rotates several times a year. In a Chronicle article, Briana is quoted as saying that this is a palindromic comic - it can be read forward or backward. These two artists are friends who teach at the same high school and have a graphic design business on the side. It was brilliant and cool downtown - a great day to be walking and taking photographs.

Berkeley Botanical Gardens - Winter 09

For Susan's birthday we walked around Berkeley Botanical Gardens. It was sunny, not too cold, with only a few visitors on the paths. I hadn't been here in years and enjoyed seeing the winter vegetation. Withered leaves mixed with rhododendron blooms made for a uniquely Northern California spring scene. We had lunch at Vik's, a favorite South Indian snack shop, then walked around 4th street to shop the paper stores.

Views of LA #1

Watts Towers


Downtown Rush Hour

A wonderful week in Los Angeles. We got to see the Watts towers just before sunset on a day when the clouds were patterned and swirley. On the way to an awards dinner we stopped over the freeway and photographed cars speeding away into the sunset.

Aubrey Rhodes Opening - February 20

After the Russian festival we went to an opening at the Space Gallery on Polk Street. I had never seen Aubrey Rhodes' works before; her boyfriend works at UBS. Lots of paintings in different styles. I liked her circus series best.

Russian Festival - Feb. 20, 2009

I look forward to the Russian Festival at the Russian Center every year. It's a wonderful event that includes an art exhibition, Russian food prepared by volunteers and a 3-day variety show. I love the balalaika, the dancers, the singers and clowns. This year we could only stay for a little while but we got to see Olga Prokoshina dance.

Rex Ray at Gallery 16

Rex Ray demonstrated his collage techniques at Gallery 16 tonight. First he applied a watered-down Elmer's glue with a brush onto a large canvas. Then he adhered hand-painted paper on top. He used a brayer and sponge to flatten the paper onto the canvas. I noticed there was quite a bit of water used. Then with an X-acto knife, he defly cut shapes on the paper, then removed the cutouts. It was interesting to see that instead of cutting shapes and messing with glueing them on the canvas, he applied sheets of paper and cut them out from the canvas. As long as the glue stayed wet, the paper came off easily. I wondered how he would adhere the next layer of paper without accidentally cutting the paper beneath. We didn't stay long enough to find out.

San Mateo Japanese Tea Garden

weeping ume in bloom

We had a break in the weather today to enjoy a walk around the Japanese tea garden in San Mateo. It was more understated than the one in San Francisco and felt more authentic. After a leisurely turn around the garden, we went for dim sum at nearby Joy Luck Place.

Last Friday Evening

De Young A Place of Her Own Reception
Fog Outside the De Young
Tower Lights Glazed with Fog

Went to the closing reception of AAWAA's "Place of Her Own" exhibition. The gallery was buzzing and most of the artists were on hand to talk to the visitors. Afterwards, the evening was shrouded in a thick fog, which put a lovely glaze on street lights.

To Serve and Protect

I'm working on image transfer techniques. Here's what I did for this piece:

• Used matte gel to coat a square of wet muslin and black and white inkjet image
• Placed the image face-down on the muslin and rubbed the paper until a faint outline of the image appeared.
• Let the muslin dry, then sprayed the adhered paper with water and rubbed it off using a sponge. The transferred image is completely married to the muslin at this stage.
• Turned the muslin over (image face-down) and applied fabric ink. The ink bled through faintly to the image.
• Let the muslin dry, then applied a light wash of fabric paint on the front of the image and let that dry.
• Applied matte medium to seal the paint.
• Tore the edges of the muslin to create a slight fringed effect.
• Applied muslin image to an old money bag with double-sided interfacing.

CNY - Chinatown Flower Market

It's one of those perfect San Francisco days: overcast skies, bright colors on the street, the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the new year. People were buying flowers, it didn't seem to matter if they were real or artificial. In the paper stores, there were good luck calligraphy on shiny red paper, ang pow envelopes with cartoon and traditional images, glittery decorations for the walls and paper clothes with dragons painted on. I bought a bag full of red paper and came home to make CNY cards for friends.

A Visit to Vered's Studio

I was invited to visit Vered's studio in Palo Alto on Thursday. Her studio is in the garage of her home and she has filled it with her drawings and bright images of the Star of David, the cross and the crescent moon. She has been working with these images for several years, letting her unconscious lead her in her quest for meaning and resolution.

Inaugural Ball

Festive hipsters attend the Obama Inaugural Ball at Electric Works.

LA Views

Fabric & Paper Compositions

Red Lanterns
Gold Rush

Centipede

I've been experimenting with fabric and paper. These pieces incorporate muslin, xeroxed images, ink, paint, hairnet and glitter. For technique see http://littlemailbox.blogspot.com/.

C-Town and J-Town LA

Chinatown
Japantown

I visited Los Angeles Chinatown for the first time this trip and was startled to see buildings that seem to be preserved from a 1940's Hollywood's image of Chinatown. The buildings looked like stage sets and one wonders if anyone actually lives in them. Or perhaps actors are hired to act like they work and live there. Japantown seemed a bit weedy too when I walked throught it one morning. What's with the pseudo-Oriental typography used in both of these neighborhoods? I thought they went out of style decades ago.

Disney Center/ MOCA

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles

Disney Music Performance Center

Saturday, as soon as we had lunch we drove over to MOCA to see the Louise Bourgeois show. We ended up parking below the street in an empty building lot. I didn't realize that we had parked in the Disney Music Performance Center until I crossed the street and saw the breathtaking Frank Gehry building. It gave off quite a lovely shimmer with the afternoon light reflecting on the metal surfaces. The MOCA itself was lovely, nestled between glass towers. The Bourgeois show was worth coming to, especially her early sculptures and her recent works. I have never felt jazzed about her penis and breast sculptures.

Car of the Future?

Went to a car show in San Jose to see what was on tap for 2009. The show was surprisingly sparse with hardly any carmaker showing innovation. Chrysler, so close to crashing, came up with this concept "green" car. It looked a bit like those Chevron cartoon cars - stubby with a big grin on its face. I've enjoyed my PT Cruiser since 2001 but am leery of replacing it with another at the moment. Let's hope Chrysler gets back on track and actually produces a line of green cars. The car I wanted to see, the Cube, by Nissan, wasn't on view, alas.

Legend: Myth and Memory

Went to a wonderful opening at Creativity Explored on Thursday evening. The works incorporate words and image in interesting ways. One wall was filled with sweet images of cupcakes and cakes but the words were about the struggles of being mentally challenged. Beautiful, moving pieces all.

Classic Movie Theater

The Rafael has a classic movie theater facade. The inside is pretty modern and stripped art deco. We saw Slumdog Millionaire here today. A harrowing but exceedingly well-done flick.

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy Year of the Ox! Spent two days cooking traditional New Year food including this nimono which consists of slimey taro potato, grey potato jelly, carrots, kelp, shitake and age in a broth of water, mirin, soy and kombu dashi.

Christmas Evening