Painting on the Roof

The Convalescent.

This is my in-progress painting of Renata. Again I've employed the shattered prism motif. This time I want to make it more like sparkling jewelry. I think it's appropriate for Renata. She used to paint strange geometric angles right before her accident. I have about 25 hours left to complete this painting. With this piece I feel I am actually making a painting, instead of something that looks like homework. I am very sentimental about doing her good with something visually epic. I am trying my darndest!!

Self-Portrait

Based off the elegant profile portraits of Bernard Boutet do Monvel.

The Carpenter

It was a day of much progress as I've added more graphic information to the side. This is one of those pieces that hasn't settled well with me EVER. But I'm loving it more everyday.

Copper Fence...

Shrubbery

I'm having a blast with this shrubbery painting experiment, which has ended up so much easier than I expected. All I've done is layer four colors of green--darkest to lightest--in a patchwork and drawn in leaf-shapes. Further refining and adding of flowers is next!

Cochineal

Today a friend brought to me cochineal beetles to do my first dye, something I've been interested in doing for awhile since carmine, my favorite red paint is made from cochineal.

WIth an alum mordant soaked into the silk the scarf was submerged in a bath of the beetles. The dye is made exclusively from the female beetle which are collected off cactus in Mexico and dried.

As a painter, it is incredibly important for me to understand exactly what all of my materials are made of.

A new obsession has started!

Working

These are photos my friend took of me last December.

The Convalescent.

Today I am working on "The Convalescent", a piece I have recently begun. As with every piece, it seems to be painting itself far away from my original plan. As usual, I have the option to focus, or "go with the flow", even if it veers away completely from the plan I made originally. Pictured below you will find the original blue print. It includes doberman pinschers, a strange veiled figure, a simple four-post bed, and a room that is cold, like a hospital.
Part of my problem in making art is my unwillingness to focus. I get excited by a "lead", and move forward, completely abandoning the map. Maybe it has something to do with being Californian. Regardless, I am at a place where I continuously work on the bed and the walls, avoiding the true subject.

Will the piece be dreary, or fabulous? I am inclined to be dreary, but I want to be fabulous. As I noted earlier, a tarot reading told me I'm dishonest with my work. It is true I continue to mourn about Renata, which this piece is about. But Renata, pictured below, obviously wasn't dreary, or in any way the convalescent that she is now.

If this is a portrait of a person's spirit, it certainly shouldn't be sad. But I do want to own that her life is a tragedy.

Miniatures

The miniatures of Will and I gift-wrapped for delivery!

The Show

Feeling a level of gratification, gratefulness, and a "tip-top tenuousness" of exhaustion. Yes, I feel like collapsing.

But the show was a success! I cannot harp on the turn out, which was plentiful and fun. I sold 6 pieces, including the miniature portraits of me and Will, a salacious tribute painting to a seedy gay man, an abstract, and I don't even remember what else.

It was wild! By the end of the night my face hurt from smiling so much. As you can see from the picture below, I was talking a lot.


There was a little drama, thankfully, involving homeless people pretending to be interested in art as they shuffled pointlessly from one piece to the next and demanded champagne. Unfortunately, nothing else exciting took place, which is a shame since that's what stories are made of.

But of course it is my art and we hate party poopers. Luckily, nobody's party was pooped and each dainty child wine glass with it's perfect pink bow was filled gratuitously with wine!

Please note the giddy zeal of my expression as I'm given hydrangeas, the flower of the evening. Not only do I wildly appreciate hydrangeas, but nothing is more fabulous to me than receiving gifts in public. It creates a mystique, or a sense that indeed you are worthy of goodness, which I've worked my ass off to achieve.


And now I have to process everything. I am worthy of goodness. And it was quite good.

But now I must rest.

My Show

Please come to my art show!
It is located at 1345 Grant Avenue in North Beach.

Opening reception is on January 27th, starting at 8pm and running til 11pm.

Otherwise, the show runs January 26th through the 28th, 9am-9pm.

Be there or be square!!!