Head Gear!

While photography is not my most advanced skill, I have been playing around with taking pictures of my collaged cardboard headdresses to see what happens when they are worn ny somebody. Thanks to my guinea pigs Adair, Jake, and Courtney!

My Headdress Comes Alive

My class assignment: to peruse a partnering thrift store, Community Thrift in SF, for endless art supplies to display an installation in their window. Since I have been making paper headdresses, I knew I wanted to try to make one in 3-D, and walking through the Christmas aisles, it all came to together- to make a big, baubley, shimmering, and ridiculous head piece for the model I found in the school basement.

The first step was to spray paint her white, but I left a little oval of her face because she had such a nice one, complete with false lashes. Second, I gathered anything red I could find and painted everything else. I spent one day dipping fake flowers into a bucket of red enamel paint, which was extremely messy and satisfying! Next, I built a wire frame and had some friends help me drill some holes in her head to hold it in place.

On a cold and rainy Sunday morning I showed up to install my red queen at the thrift store, knowing it would be lonely and weird to be sitting directly in the window in front of all the passing traffic. As I was gathering up my motivation, Marissa appeared like an angel with wire snips to help me! Yeah for friends! We had a great time attaching a million little trinkets to the wire with our bare and bloody hands. It was really fun to have the people outside give thumbs-up as they walked by, and while some gave me a hard time about the Christmas theme in October, (she's just red!), it was worth the time it took for the mere week it shimmered in the window.

Gallery Field Trip!

My class went on a field trip to a far and distant land... to the galleries up the street in downtown San Francico. Still, it's always fun to see some stuff you had been meaning to see because you know in your heart that you probably wouldn't have made it otherwise.

First we stopped by Baer Ridgway and saw Chris Duncan's show, which I posted about before last month here. However, since I only ducked in for a moment the first time, I didn't realize that there was a whole other floor downstairs with more art. Here's Kate experiencing that art.

Two doors down was Catherine Clark with a retrospective show of Masami Teraoka, an artist who has apparently been showing these East-meets-West provocative work since the late 60s.

This is a weaving.

Sweet watercolor

Mark, Jake, and Rachel are un-phased with the new work on gilded panels.

We headed over to Crown Point Press to see Mamma Anderson and Jokum Nordstrom's print show. The show was great and the nicest part was that they let us see the studios behind closed doors where the work is made painstakingly by master printers.

Mamma Anderson (?)

In the back room we saw some color tests for Chuck Close photo prints.

Amazing array of pigments!

We sauntered up to John Berggruen to see Chris Brown's solo show, who teaches at CCA.

A really nice room of oil paintings.

Upstairs was a group show with this John Baldessari piece.

Afterwards we went up to the 77 Geary building and checked out Michael Hall's solo show at Patricia Sweetow. I had my first show ever with Michael in the 2006 Bay Area Currents at the Oakland Art Gallery and after getting his MFA from Mills, his work has only gotten better. Congrats!

A painting of defunct old buildings and a concrete and grass sculpture.

One more painting of detritus and nature.

"Living", a Group Show Curated by Brandon Holmes

Two friends of mine, Kara Joslyn and Justin Olerud, (both great artists), run an art space within their studio in Oakland, 4707 Telegraph. Last week I stopped by to check out the opening of a show guest curated, by another art bud, Brandon Holmes, who also interns at Triple Base Gallery.

The show centered around a theme of domestic space, with a number of works mimicking the things we have laying around or decorating our house. It's worth noting that all the artists are CCA alums. Congrats to Brandon on his first curatorial exhibition!

Painted panel that looks just like an album cover by James Sterling Pitt (I think!)

Anonymous wood piece Brandon found at the CCA Craft Fair

Drawings by Jacob Tillman

Hyper-detailed small watercolors by Mara Baldwin

Painting on paper plate by Rachel Kaye

Painted version of a cross-stitch by Elisheva Biernoff

Gold ficus by Christine Wong Yap

I snuck into the back room and snapped a pic of a watercolor in progress by Justin Olerud

Studio Visit: Courtney Johnson

I stepped in to my friend, Courtney Johnson 's, studio the other day when I heard giggles down the hall from my own studio at school. Courtney, who I blogged about earlier this year, is a great painter as well as avid nail salon lady. As I pulled back the curtain I discovered Courtney and my bud, Michelle, trying out a new nail technique: swirly colors. While it is just for fun for Courtney to do nails, I think her passion for nail colors is interesting in combination with her colorful and funny paintings of wild women who have stepped out of regular society. I took a few photos to update my previous post and to show how fun and amazing her studio is!

I like looking at people's collections of inspirations almost as much as their actual art. Look at this pile of good stuff: fashion photos based on the movie "Badlands", a National Geographic on sheep herders, a Miss America photo, and a French movie called "The Wild Child".

Paintings of wild, strange women in progress.

Courtney and a finished piece behind her inspired by beauty pageants.

Her super cool gold docking shoes.

Some of her awesome collection of nail colors!

Michelle getting her nails did.

Pretty spectacular! (The process involves cups of water and enamel swirled together with your fingers covered in vasoline and dipped in and then cleaned up). Well done, ladies!