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Sunday, October 31th, 2004 link - comments(0) Happy Halloween After that we stopped by the fleamarket at Martin Luther King and Ashby then went walking around Telegraph avanue. Bought a hat, had some great cappucinnos at Meditteranean caffe, bought some cds at Ameoba and had dinner at Zax on Telegraph with Tom's new credit card. Zax was great if you are looking for a nice dinner. I had really yummy braised short ribs with horse raddish mashed potatoes. Tom had scallops and rissoto. Very yummy. After dinner we headed to Darren and Phyllis's for some drinks with friends. I had a few vodka drinks, enough to make me feel rough today but not terrible. Still I decided to stay in my pjs all day and be lazy. It's been nice. I don't really care that it's Halloween. I've been trying to draw but even that takes more effort than I seem to have energy for. We may just watch the Castro mayhem from home.
Saturday, October 30th, 2004 link - comments(0)
We are off to see the PreFab house on display at SBC park this weekend. I hear they are charging $5 to get in which is about the lamest thing I've ever heard. Tom got an American Express card, the first credit card he's had all on his lonesome so we are going to blow some money on a nice dinner tonight. Maybe somewhere in the east bay. We're going over there to see the Oakland Art Museum since I didn't make it yesterday. Tonight we watched a couple movies A Boy and His Dog starring Don Johnson as a very young boy. I remember this movie from when it first came out. It is very strange. if you haven't seen it, you really should. It takes place in post world war iv devistated desert landscape ala mad max and that tom petty video (you got lucky) from the 80s. The other movie was the Ring. which was pretty good, although I thought the ending was forced and kinda lame.
Friday, October 29th, 2004 link - comments(0)
I was supposed to paint today but got too caught up in other art stuff. I was also going to go to the Oakland Art Museum but damn, downtown Oakland isn't parking friendly. Next time I must remembe to just take BART over. Thing is, if I had BARTed over I wouldn't have gotten to eat a cinnamon roll at IKEA and I wouldn't have seen an escaped Praying mantiss from the graden center at the Long's on Broadway and Pleasant Valley. Today while in Rockridge I saw a police man yelling, hanging onto the driver side window of a car that was speeding up to drive away. He finally let go and almost fell to the ground. The car sped off down the street and the police man ran back to his car. It was really weird. I wanted to chase the car but I didn't.
Thursday, October 28th, 2004 link - comments(0)
I took photos of the mini pastels drawings but they turned out crappy so I'll take them again on friday and give you all a chance to buy them before the Post-Postcard show at the Lab.
You probably think it's strange that I am so into my crock pot but come on, how cool can you get? With just 5 minute's prep time and a little bit of electricity, I can have a yummy, hot dinner waiting for me when I get home from a long day. It's kinda like having a helper chef. I bought some of those little manischewitz split pea soup in a tube thingies. They have been making food stuff since the height of Van Gogh's career. I plan on cooking one of those next week for Mod who is coming to see me after work. Yum! Hot soup!
Wednesday, October 27th, 2004 link - comments(0) Sign this petition if you would like to see a new investigation into the events prior, during and after the 911 attacks on New York. I got a big fat A on my art history mid term. I'm very proud of myself. I'm really into the class. I have a great teacher, Glenn Moriwaki at SF City College. We saw a show on KQED last night about Dr. Seuss. I have always had great respect for him so it was really great to see such an in depth show. If someone wants to buy me a Dr. Seuss Biography, I won't be sad. I've been thinking about my art a lot lately. I think because I'm getting really exposed to lots of artists through my art history class, it's really made me think about my own art. Sometimes I get confused because I feel like in this day and age, it's all been done before and no art is unique enough anymore to have much meaning. If I didn't love making art so much, I can see how easy it would be to give up. The idea of ever making a name for yourself, or ever being able to create unique, important art is near impossible. So I always have to make sure that I'm doing it for my own benefit, and yeah, pushing myself is important but what is most important is the artistic process. My art is my own discovery of what's important to me. But hell, talking about it just seems disingenuous, at least right now while I sit in front of the boob tube sipping a Heineken in a can so I'll just leave it for another day when I'm feeling more eloquent.
Tuesday, October 26th, 2004 link - comments(0) I've been working on this painting that until today I've been really hating. So much, in fact, that I because of it, last week I decided I'm a terrible painter. Well today I attacked it full force and I really think I had a breakthrough with it. It now looks like my painting, and no one else's. The colors were so generic and boring. Now there are lots of pinks and greens and I changed the time of day. I then pulled out the "opposites" painting of the kids and puddles and discovered that now, compared to the other one, it is really thin and needs tons of work. I didn't have enough time left in class to do much to it. My confidence is back and I'm looking forward to Thursday's class. I will remember to bring the camera to class next time. Jhina sent me this great spam about Dr. Laura. It was a letter someone wrote after she had said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned in any circumstance. Here is the letter Buffalo Wings Looking at some buffalo wings recipes: Weird News for the day Buy my G4 Powerbook Monday, October 25th, 2004 link - comments(0) I started on my "Self Portrait of artist as Audrey Hepburn" painting tonight. Painting oils on panels is a totally different experience than painting on canvas. I was doing washes just to get the composition down and man, that suckers runs like crazy. Larry would have been proud of me. He thinks your first layers should be really drippy and all the colors should run into each other. After spending a few hours with my new painting tonight, I'd have to say he's probably right. I was able to work a great deal of problems out of the composition that normally I would have struggling over later on. So thanks Larry! Sorry, no photos of paintings or drawings to share today. Maybe tomorrow.
Sunday, October 24th, 2004 link - comments(0)
We went to the Pork Store today. It's been a while. I went to the one of Valencia and 16th but it's just not the same thing. They must never change the grill at the Pork Store on Haight. It holds all the magic.
I went to Ikea today and picked up a bunch of very small frames 4" x 6". I am going to do a series of pastels drawings for the Post Postcard show at The Lab. I'm excited because I didn't think I was going to be able to find the time but I'll save quite a lot of time doing pastels instead of paintings. The set up and clean up time alone suck a lot of time. I finished 4 tonight and they look great. I'll post a bunch of them later in the week so you, my faithful reader can have first pick of them. Time is running out though. I have to drop stuff off by November 4th or 5th.
Saturday, October 23th, 2004 link - comments(0)
Today I slept in a little, made breakfast, then went to the studio and built a new panel for my next painting assignment. I think I'm really going to like painting on wood. It gives me a lot more options too. I'll be able to do encaustics over any painting if I start doing them all on panels. They are a little easier to put together than canvases and I like the surface. We shall see. Tom stayed home and played music. I made a big batch of chili but I didn't cook the beans long enough. It's still pretty good though. We watched Bubba Hotep and Betty Blue.
Friday, October 22th, 2004 link - comments(3)
Thursday, October 21th, 2004 link - comments(0) Apple Computer Rocks My World As you can imagine, we had some conversation about how wonderful Apple is. I noticed that generally the only people I hear complaining about the price of Macs are people who don't own Macs. The ones that do, wouldn't dream of buying anything else. Since OSX my brand loyalty, already strong, skyrocketted to downright worshipping. My bond is as strong as it was in my tender years of learning graphic design on Mac IIs. My first Mac was a Mac IIci and it was worth every penny.
Wednesday, October 20th, 2004 link - comments(0) Alanna: "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right?" My boyfriend is dreamy like a 50's teen idol. http://tampatrib.com/News/MGBU3UEHF0E.html
Tuesday, October 19th, 2004 link - comments(0)
Star Wars X-Mas Special Tom had a dream this morning that we found a really nice breakfast place somewhere. We couldn't figure out what the name of it was, we looked and asked everywhere, when we finally found out the name, I etched the name "Ida's" in the window in sugar. I think that is the best dream I've ever heard. Oops! One more for the list
Monday, October 18th, 2004 link - comments(1) Wow, look at this woman's art journal. So cool. I want to do more collage. This is just too cool. There's a photo of me on Anna L Conti's site. She didn't even know it was me.
Sunday, October 17th, 2004 link - comments(0)
I cooked most of the day. I forgot how much time and effort goes into my lasagnas I almost ruined it too by cooking it a little too long. We have another baby lasagna left over for a future meal. We really cleaned up the house. It's probably cleaner now than it has been in a looooong time. Feels nice. We should have more dinner parties. I drank a little too much though. I am a bad girl. Here's a photo of Oona trying to smile as big as she can. Looks painful.
Saturday, October 16th, 2004 link - comments(0)
Stuff I liked today: Peter Doolin, his stuff was just really fun. great monoprints of animals, strange people with round heads and only eyes, no mouths ears or noses. Roxanne Worthington, she does really great creepy photos of little red riding hood and the wolf. She sets up scenes using dolls from different points in the story. Super creepy and spooky, very beautiful. Sylvia Buettner who does lots of collagraph printing. I'd never heard of it before. Her prints are full of texture and depth. She uses a lot of Indian iconography in her work and there are lots of animals, which you know, draws me in. I stopped by and said hello to Tina Vietmeier and Adele Shaw. I took their workshops about a year and a half ago at Sharon Arts and I finally got to say thank you to them. I just really love their work and it was great getting to see so much of it in one place. Sorry Anna, I couldn't find you! And well, I was suffering from shyness that was giving me a stomach ache. After fort mason we went and saw Tofu's home studio. He was great to talk to about the SF art scene and Open Studios. We stayed there quite a while. Keri Smith has a cute artist's journal Paint out your favorite part Friday, October 15th, 2004 link - comments(0)
I'm leaving work in a little bit to go try and finish my dreams of flying painting. Howard Dean called me yesterday to tell me to vote for Nick Waugh for District 5 Supervisor. Since I can't vote for Howard Dean, I figure the next best thing would be to vote for Nick Waugh.
Thursday, October 14th, 2004 link - comments(0)
My friend says we should re-elect Mark Sanchez for the San Francisco school board and I say that sounds just fine with me. I had my art history mid-term last night. It consisted of 3 questions, 1 essay, 2 mystery slides and 15 slide identifications. I did great on the slide identifications and the mystery slides. The essay I think I did ok although I changed my mind on which topic I was going to write about which might have hurt me a little. The questions were a little tough, I felt like I was just babbling and although I probably touched on most of the points my teacher was looking for, it was watered down with a lot of babble. In my painting class, I got an A- on my flesh tones color chart, pretty good considering I didn't give a rat's ass about it. We have a critique next week and I need to finish the other painting I started to replace the one I sold. My class mates think I should just get an automatic A for selling an assignment before it was due. I say that's alright by me. I need to get started on the third painting as well as the next assignment. Yikes! Too much to do. I'm glad art history will be mellow for a little while. There's one more quiz and a final. I think I'm in good shape so far. I may have to skip the Post-Postcard show at the Lab this year, i don't don't see how I can get all those tiny paintings done in three weeks.
Wednesday, October 13th, 2004 link - comments(0) The Meow Meow club in Portland has a very cute website, and my favorite colors too!
Tuesday, October 12th, 2004 link - comments(0)
It doesn't matter how long you've been friends, when you invite your friend over to your dinner party, she shouldn't ask things like "What kind of dinner party? what kind of food are you serving? Who will be there? will I like them, will they be nice to me? You know I'm picky so I need to know if I'm going to like it or not." I think that just sucks. You are being shielded from the truth Hey, what's with all the smoke? TPing your neighbor's house is so last millenium. If you really want to embrace the new age, try forking instead. Uh oh, cutest cat website ever: Amazing Cat Collection I was on ljcfyi.com and found a link to this very beautiful website on the Phoenix Zoo rhinos.
Monday, October 11th, 2004 link - comments(0)
This week I have a paper due and a Midterm on Wednesday. And if I have any time left, I need to start painting for the post-postcard show at the Lab as well as a christmas sale at a gallery in Monterey. Happy Birthday BT! It is a new week, and I think we should all start out the week with some humorous reminders of how silly Mr W is. Off Road Emissions And here is a not so humorous artcicle about just how un-cute our present government is. Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Guantanamo, President Bush and the Invasion of Iraq. Here is a blurb: "I think one has got to ask Americans: What is it that you want to be known for? Do you want to be known for a country who, having become the superpower, realized actually that in this moral universe, power is for service. That you are going to use your power to try to transform the world into what God wants it to be. Where there is gentleness, and laughter, and compassion, and caring. You have got the capacity to help eradicate poverty and disease and ignorance. You have got that capacity. Do you want for people to say, "Yeah, that's the kind of country we'd like to live in." Or do you want, as now." --Archbishop Desmond Tutu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sunday, October 10th, 2004 link - comments(0) Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from Lisa that her and Darren were going to Zeitgeist for a beer. We were really tired but against our better judgment, hopped on a bus and headed down to Zeitgeist at 6pm. Several Pitchers of beer and three cigarette packs later, we found ourselves silly drunk, still at Zeitgeist, at 1 in the morning. Darren's friends Neil and Gary had joined us and helped guzzle and smoke as if the world were ending. Ted and Eric showed up and I babbled incoherently to Ted. We are feeling a little rough today and instead of enjoying the sunshine, or getting the house cleaned up, we are nursing our hangovers and headaches.
Saturday, October 9th, 2004 link - comments(0) Open Studios - Week Two I also fell in love with Martha Sue Harris's work. Awesome website too. She draws, paints and sews very cute creatures. There were a few mono-prints that tempted me but my wallet is so empty and I couldn't make up my mind. I just bought one of her books: "Flabber Nathy All Lucrid Tales." I'm sure there will be opportunities in the future. I was very taken by her monster dolls last year. And I think you should go buy some for Christmas presents right now! I talked to Benedict Cressy for a while. He has very cool minimalist still lifes with martini glasses, number stencils, dice and stuff. After Art Explosion we headed over to BASE. I told Hannah Stouffer that she has the coolest website ever. I bought a great book by Lark Pien. I saw it last year, I don't know why I didn't get it then, was I out of cash? Well I wish I had bought on of each because they are all really cool. The book is called XOXO, Long Tail Kitty. It makes me want to make books. We then headed over to The Blue Studio on Mission and 17th. I really like a lot os Ashlee Ferlito's paintings. I'm a sucker for paintings involving deers, whales, walruses and birds. Also in the same studio space is Brooke Kelly. She has beautiful, bright abstracts. I guess I am super into comics, illustrations and books right now. I spent $60 on a beautiful glue-less bound leather sketchbook with arche's watercolor paper from a nice girl at the Blue Studio. I don't even remember her name. She had beautiful books and great paintings too. We are now home and super tired. Tom's back is sore after getting cracked today and I feel the need to ingest much caffeine in hopes of staving off needed sleep.
Friday, October 8th, 2004 link - comments(0) Salon.com asks: Was Bush wearing a wire at the last presidential debate? I went to the Gottfried Helnwein show at the Legion of Honor today for a class assignment. Really incredible show. His paintings are disturbing images of children in bandages, with scarification, or looking like their have experienced traumas that children their age should not have to live through. The paintings are photo realistic, similar to Gerhart Richter's paintings of newspaper clippings or portraits. They are pretty disturbing and as I looked around the room, I saw many people with hands over their faces. It's not an overt, in your face kind of disturbing, it's subtle. Helnwein was born in Austria in 1948 and grew up around adults who could not come to terms with their misjudgments during the years any of them supported the Nazis. He grew up among depressed adults who would not talk about what had happened, who never smiled. Some of the children are Jesus-like in pose or subject matter. There are a couple Virgin mother and baby paintings. In one, the baby is pointing at an adult as if to say "How could you have screwed things up this much." The
Thursday, October 7th, 2004 link - comments(0) Rainbow Arch Children's Show
I've been real whiney lately. I should stop. I have a really good life. I don't have to do all these things, I choose to do them. And I've been getting enough quality couch time. Self Portrait Project Wednesday, October 6th, 2004 link - comments(0) For those of you who watched the vice presidential debate last night, Cheney made a boo boo And another Cheney boo boo when he stated that he'd never met Edwards before, implying that Edwards never shows up to senate votes. This story on SF Gate shows them sitting next to each other during a senate prayer breakfast. If you've drank as much coffee as I have today, and are feeling a bit paranoid, here's a nice conspiracy theory for you. The interweb is a strange place. Wanna know what the calculation for caloric content is? Its Cals = fat X 9 + (carb - fiber) X 4 + protein X 4 + alcohol X 7. Hi Jesper. Dear San Francisco Here's some proof that you really can go back in time by crossing the international date line. If you travel around the world fast enough, you can pass yourself. I don't care what anyone else says.
Tuesday, October 5th, 2004 link - comments(0)
If you need to register to vote, you can do so here. Please vote. I don't care who you vote for, I just want you to vote. I want the people of this country to start speaking up. The country is run by a bunch of pigs. We need fresh blood and new opinions. You can help make a difference.
Monday, October 4th, 2004 link - comments(0) I'm suffering from a little post show depression. I'm super tired but don't know what to do with myself. I don't want to be around people. I'm cranky and I have cramps. I am no fun to be around! I left work around 2:30 and painted for a while. Painting was pretty liberating but I was so tired. I had to lug all my paintings downstairs and then to the car, then drove to my house, lugged the paintings through the front gate, park the car, then lugged the paintings upstairs. During that time I decided I was the worst painter in the world and that I should throw all my paintings away. I won't throw them away, I know this is just a temporary feeling.
Sunday, October 3rd, 2004 link - comments(0)
Now I need to grind the gears because I have very few paintings left. I sold my class assignment and I am behind in school but plan on working on a replacement today and friday.
Saturday, October 2nd, 2004 link - comments(0) I've finished my first day of open studios. It was really busy for most of the day with a few lulls. I sold one piece and met one of the people that bought the baby with the fork painting and the stove boy painting. I'm tired. Gonna watch lost in translation now in my pjs and get some rest. Come tomorrow!!!
Friday, October 1st, 2004 link - comments(0) I we're hanging today for open studios. Hectic day.
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I heart my tiny crock pot
I am not in the best of moods today. Yesterday I went home from work at 4pm. I tried to do some work but fell asleep at 6 and slept until 8pm. Today I am no better off. I am so tired. And despite the rain, my allergies are awful. On top of this, I decided today that I am the worst painter ever. The painting I'm working on is a terrible composition and boring colors. It's so boring I wanted to poke my eye out with my paint brush. I just want to go home to bed and ice cream.
We had a very successful dinner party tonight. Everyone had somewhere to sit, there was just enough food but not too much. People were happy, there were no fist fights.
I got a really nice email this weekend from someone who has a broken foot. They found 
Here's one of my latest. I am painting to replace the painting that sold this weekend that was for my class. yay! I'm not super crazy about it yet but I think it'll turn out pretty good once I get a little crazy with colors. It's a little tame right now. It's also still very loosey goosey since it was just my first pass on it.
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