Monday

Murphy's Law and Mondays

Murphy's Law demands that when the going gets rough, more shit happens.
Or, rather, I prefer actor Peter Capaldi's take: "[Malcolm] Tucker's Law".


And today was an excruciatingly painful example: unexplained Internet disconnections, a stalled scanner, templates gone awry, pens suddenly running dry, paints spilling, and idle phone calls "to simply chat" (the ol' Whatchadoin'?) -- all 10-minutes before deadline. Thankfully, everything was sent off relatively on-time; the publisher loved them, and will be putting forth the e-book, which will be print-on-demand through Blurb.com and Scribd.com.


Here's a sneak peak at one of the completed panels from today!


Voila!

Saturday

Gallery Opening Night a HUGE SUCCESS!



Wow!

I am sooooo thankful and grateful to my wonderful boyfriend and Diane Johnson-Mendes, the gallery owner & curator, for promoting my show, which opened on Thursday night, June 3, for Art Hop. So many people gave me positive feedback on my artwork -- and participated on the wall installation I created as a way for the community to provide their own fun and quirky self-portraits within the space.

There were a few people who were confused by the foam board on nails with simple statements and statuses; the yarn resting on the table with the Lewis Carrol-esque directives (this one/that one) were vague. But after some trepidation, many gallery goers "got it" over the course of the evening, and had lots of fun stringing patterns to match their likes and dislikes upon the wall. In fact, Diane said that people were still streaming in long after the wine and food had run dry just to visit my side room, and play with the installation until almost 11 o'clock!

"They've never really seen something like this here before," Diane said. "I think many people assume that galleries are like museums where everything is sterile, and someone is always standing by and watching and waiting to yell out, 'Don't Touch the Artwork!' But your exhibit -- they can, and do eventually understand that it's okay to touch it. I think that's what makes it so much fun, and very exciting.

Art needs to be relatable. It's always about ownership," she said.

Considering that I was still in my exhibit hammering in nails at 4:45 PM (and the show began at 5 PM), I was definitely short on time! Standing there in my flip-flops and jeans, my hair in a messy chignon and sweat beading on the tip of my nose, I wondered whether people would understand what I was trying to achieve here: a community portrait. I held a nail somewhat level, and slammed the hammer down. Thankfully, the show has been extended until June 26, so anyone can walk in to the gallery during opening hours to view artwork AND contribute to the installation.

It's looking pretty awesome following Art Hop, I can assure you that! (Pictures of the art panels coming soon . . . )

In my view, there is art that is purely decorative -- flat, formulaic, and mass-produced -- the sort of artwork you can find at any retail center that doesn't have a particular voice or message, and does not come from a particular person at all. Decorative art is the sort of white noise you need in the background when there is nothing else left to say at a party. Then, there is nakedness.

The nakedness of the artist lay bare upon surface, all colors or none, awash with abstracted intention and convoluted purpose -- but full of personality. The sort of artwork that does not require a distinctive brush stroke, color palette, or recurring theme, but is still indicative of exactly who the artist is, or was, when it was being made.


Decorative art is self-conscious, the needle of the compass always pointing northward no matter how you turn. It is self-correcting, refining, and harumphing and clearing the throat.


Pure art, not necessarily always beautiful, requires either grand insecurity or a huge ego.
It is a shout, jumping to test sturdy legs, and the arms thrown back to scoop the air.

Since I worked with raw wood, graphite, charcoal, and acrylic sealer sprays for the past few weeks the skin on my hands has been chapped raw. My knuckles started to split! That was nuts: I could clearly picture my skin peeling back at certain moments, imagining the white, spit-foam of tendon upon yellow fat on each finger. Of course, I would later read the caveat on the back of the sealant spray: ". . . may defat skin. Wear gloves. Non-toxic when dry." Of course.


I had never even heard of the word "defat" -- though logic provides the literal definition, and process.

So today we spent much of the morning roaming about Bath & Body Works, where I gave myself a sugar scrub manicure and tried their new line of shea butter hand creams. I loved their Shea Cashmere line -- it's smooth, emollient, non-greasy, and it smells just a hint of butterscotch. Just enough to get you hungry, but not overpowering or naively sugary and chemical. I've obviously haven't been much of a shopper or "mall rat" since 2008. Living in San Francisco until recently meant that I got all of my cosmetics either at Sephora, or Walgreens.

As for this weekend:
The New England Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League's Youth in Leadership Awards Gala is TONIGHT at Benjamin Franklin Hall in Boston, Massachusetts. They're holding a grand ball -- and I've been told that many A-listers are attending -- including one of the producers of the NYC-run of "American Idiot" & the owners of the Boston Celtics. That's ridiculously awesome! HERE'S a link to one of their parties in November 2009, just to give you an idea of what they're like -- and who comes.

I was invited, in May, to contribute some artwork in-kind for this event . . . and I'm so happy to have been able to participate this year. Valerie Basnight is an incredible woman, and has always been a smart gal -- I'm happy to see that she's in a good place, and with good people, back over in Boston. I cannot wait to see photos from the event.

Although I was given tickets to go, I have to tend to my gallery show here in California and make sure that I meet my deadlines to my book publishers, plus I just picked up two trade partnerships with Urban Outfitters AND Threadless (just saw their handy-dandy designs for iPhone skins at the Mac Store) so I should get back to crafting some new templates; drawing and designing more comic strips, characters, and fine prints for that account; gearing up for my next show, which will most likely be in retaliation to BP's's huge debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. I can already here the tic-tic-ticking of the clock, so I should go now ----

Have a wonderful weekend!
Wear sunblock, not sunscreen. It's damn hot out there.

Wednesday

Just ONE MORE DAY before the Big Opening!

It's five minutes past midnight, and I am about to turn into a pumpkin: I'm dead-tired.
I have a few more panels to wrap up tomorrow morning before sending it all into the gallery, setting up the same night, and then loading up with flyers to poster around town and the Internet before the party begins on Thursday. I'm a bit brain dead, at the moment, so I'll just keep this nice and short -- Goodnight!

Saturday

Alphonse Mucha

+100 years later, his art still inspires me . . . and is really incomparable.



Alphonse Mucha "Peonies" (watercolor, pattern for fabric design)


Mucha's "Woman with Daisies" (printed velour)

Mucha was very much undervalued, in my eyes, but continues to inspire and instruct artists from other media -- check out this amazing stained-glass work from Iowa-based Bogenrief Studios, Inc.. It's just SPLENDID. I absolutely love this piece. . . . 


PREVIEW: First Piece in my Upcoming Gallery Show (June 3)


Here's a sneak preview of one of the pieces I'm doing for the show . . . it was 50% finished last night, at the time that I took this picture (sometime after one in the morning -- why am I only productive after midnight?). Of course, the piece has been finished this morning, and has also taken a slightly different direction than expected. However, I love the piece, and I'm going to have to sit down with the Handbook for Pricing & Ethical Guidelines on Tuesday -- when I ship the dozen or so pieces out to the gallery. This is a smaller board.

I'll be working on the longer panels tonight, depending on when I finish the suite of small wood panels.

Friday

Anthology Update

So, while I was pouring over my copious paint and layout notes for my gallery collection, the frayed and buzzing thought wafted through my mind while tearsheets fluttered to the floor of my studio: June first, June first. What in the world is happening on June 1? I asked myself, scrunching my eyebrows and twisting my lips.

Ah. I've got it: Thymos.
No, it's not the name of a glandular condition, . . . or a Greco-Roman lyric hero.



THYMOS is the name of an Asian American organization currently seeking submissions for their anthology; contributors must be affiliated with the state of Oregon in some manner, which was not elaborated very thoroughly on their Web page. Either way -- being an Oregon-born and -raised Asian American, I suppose I qualify! Hurrah!


Their tentative deadline is June 1.
Although you don't need to be Asian American, you should still consider giving them a ring if you want in on the project. E-mail them at: ThymosBook@gmail.com


I'm going to be preparing a mini-comic pulled directly from my 20s in San Francisco, and a personal essay on generational shifts between three generations of immigrants in denial of their vagrant beginnings in the United States. You know, cheerful stuff for the Portland, Oregon, set.

My cousins there should get a kick out of it.
I haven't been back to Portland since trying to sneak in to a Beastie Boys concert over by Yamhill way, way, way back in the time I'd like to call "the '90s". Or, I suppose I can call the days of listening to 7 Year Bitch and Veruca Salt the turn of the century instead?

Memorial Day Weekend


There's something really wonderful and soothing about spending a morning doing normal things -- walking the dogs, gardening, cleaning -- with the knowing that it is akin to setting up the stage for a grand theatrical debut: tonight, I get to create something beautiful . . . over and over again until the holidays are over. I've amassed a pile of sketches and photo references over the week for my collection -- and now that the rains have passed, I'm excited to let my wood panels dry outdoors while brewing sun tea and making chocolate-dipped almond shortbreads.

Painting is, for me, cheap therapy.

Thursday

FREE Sneak Peak -- Letterhead


     Here's a quick snapshot of the letterhead that I created this morning for the gallery show. 

     Since there are two other artists showcasing in the space (and I'm gathering that I have a distinctly more "contemporary" style and floor/wall layout plan) I intend to handwrite truncated quotes from my artist's statement on these sheets throughout my wall space just to keep the collection in JUNE 2010 cohesive with my vision of postfeminist re-appropriation of American advertising images, the business-side of weddings, and classical [global] fairytale archetypes. I've fallen in love recently with old Victorian children's books, so those will also be a large influence -- blame it on Salinas, CA. 

     I went to the historic John Steinbeck-town last autumn for a reading, and discovered a gorgeous antique store on the main boulevard that just floored me with its immediate intimacy, history, and endless array of trucs and bric-a-brac. I bought Scrabble board pieces and vintage elementary school valentines printed on parchment paper and silk, and will never send them away. The carefully-cut sheets of tissue are still scrawled in the tight cursive penmanship of a fledgling secretary -- the deep and even grooves of graphite swirling in tiny loops and measured hooks for the letter "G" in "To Mrs. Grimshaw, much love to a wonderful teacher!"

     Last month, NPR featured a short radio segment with an author on the exploding culture of rudeness across America -- Do children even appreciate teachers, anymore? They wouldn't seem to have any sort of model to learn from, judging from how teachers are being bled right out of the educational system at the moment. But I digress . . . 

     It's an ambitious show, I know . . . come, and be surprised.
     There will be white wine sangria, and lovely tea and cookies to nibble. In  fact, opening night attendees may even get an extra surprise! (Shhhh)

Website Redesigned -- with Million Thanks to Graphics Fairy!

Thank God for Karen of Graphics Fairy (http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com) for the ticket background for my Blog Redesign! I've been trying to fix my scanner for ages now . . . and it's not going well. But this was perfect for my aesthetic. Karen, you are my rock star.

Wednesday

Rack & Mailer Postcards DONE!



Wow . . . I'm really, really loving Google Doc's new OpenSource drawing tool. 
I just sent these out to my gallery, and will be doing more posts soon.  Anyway . . . Here's the front of my flyer design. Ta-da!




WEDNESDAY!!!! 


     Boy, the week just crept up on me all of a sudden. I should be cranking out this show's collection tonight and tomorrow afternoon. I have a meeting with some city officials regarding an online initiative to create a source of e-commerce for Fresno-based artists. Although I find it redundant (e.g., I'm already on Society6 and other social sites), I think it's still a somewhat necessary step in the right direction for the City of Fresno's IT specialists and marketing team. It's about time the Central Valley was slingshot into the 21st century.