Last night I opened up an art book I haven't looked at in maybe 20 years, and found these drawings from an old sketchbook inside. They are from 1983, and I was around 24 years old. They were drawn at the house of my High School art teacher (and still good friend), Mel Friedman, and I post them now for fun, but also with continued thanks for all he and his whole family have given me in the 30 years I've known them. Happy New Year Mel and Sue! (and cheers Erik and Brent)
I'm entering this in a drawing show coming up. Who knows if it'll make it in--for one, is it a drawing? Or is a painting? Also-is it done yet? I keep tinkering with it (small stuff-like I'm still a bit dissatisfied with parts of the mouth and hair). Also-I needed to give it a title. My friend Monica once shot some portrait shots for me to consider, of a young woman named Rachel. This isn't her, but I like the name, so there it is. It's 5'x6'. Small, as these things go for me. (Oh, and as is often the case, it's somewhat washed out in these photos-sorry.)
Michael Coy and I went over to S.F. last night to catch the last performance (for now) of a pretty cool new opera about Burning Man and first stopped by White Walls to check out their group show. Here's a few of my personal faves- first up-work by Sylvia Ji (as always, click to enlarge) These two are by Ian Frances This is by Adam FloresThese weren't actually in the show, they were upstairs (Bob and I saw this show a month or so ago)--anyway, still really great work by Regino Gonzales Jim Houser And a smallish one by Shawn barber (dude can paint!)There's tons more there-if you get a chance, I think the show's up for another week or so. And there's a cool Van Arno show next door at The Shooting Gallery...a few of my faves there- (This last one features Freddie Mercury flanked by Suzie Quatro and Joan Jett. Fun.) OK, wrapping up this set, how about a little somthin' from Animal Collective's great new c/d-"Merriweather Post Pavilion". This is "My Girls"
Winter will do that to you, but it's so dang nice out! Maybe some videos will help too. I saw this short piece on artist Robert Hardgrave over on Fecal Face the other day..I like alot of what he says about making art and especially in the context of his brush with mortality.... And then recently I discovered this great music blog put together by five women-their blog's called "So This Is What The Volume Knob's For" (http://volume-knob.blogspot.com/), and they in turn have shown me Los Campesinos, a rather exuberant collection of young Welsh musicians that make very youthful and exuberant...hmmm, I'd almost call it "glee-club punk-pop", but since that's silly I'll just say that right now, in the middle of winter, and just having had that big 5-0 birthday, and therefor feeling a little old-ish...these peeps are giving me some much-needed energy. Check 'em out-(Lisa and I have been saying that we need to be writing more lists this year, so this seems appropriate) "My Year In Lists" And there's just no f'n way you can feel old listening to this one-"You! Me! Dancing!" (the video's pretty cool too, though it doesn't really have anything to do with the song)(wasn't that fun? I feel younger already) I also found this video again (I saw it a year ago or so, but forgot about it)-it's San Francisco's own The Dodos-nice drumming and strumming! "Fools"And just to get a bit nostalgic, I saw this great Camper Van Beethoven classic over at Boingboing today, which I will leave you with...from 1985, when I started working in the paper department at Amsterdam Art in Berkeley (Hi Amy!). Enjoy!
These are the two pieces I'm entering in the Petaluma Art Center show called "Weather Report". The photos--as always it seems--are a bit washed out and perhaps too yellow in the first one. Still.
