Courtney Johnson at Park Life and Zughaus by Sarah Hotchkiss

Park Life, San Francisco

The other day I visited my good friend, Courtney Johnson, as she gave me a tour of her first solo show, "See You Next Tuesday", (slang for C.U.N.T. if you didn't know- it took me a while!), at Park Life in the Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco.  You might remember from my studio visit with Courtney in 2010, her acrylic paintings of wild and feral women.  She has taken the work she was doing in school during our thesis exhibition and taken the crazy to another level.  We also used the photo session as an excuse to get some coffee and chat together after a summer apart since graduating from CCA's MFA program.  I was so happy for her and so excited to see the new work!

The neighborhood is quiet and homey.  The handle-shaped thing sticking out of the building is a piece by Andrew Schoultz.

Here's Courtney outside of Park Life, which doubles as an store full of art books and paraphernalia, including the infamous Jeff Koons balloon sculpture knock-off bookends, (which made the news when Koons sued Park Life for selling them, even though they are made by a company in Canada).

The store full of goodies

In the back room is a wide open gallery space where Courtney's show was hung.  Unfortunately, I brought a super-fancy camera from school and I didn't notice that the only picture I took of her was with her eyes closed.

Love the reflection mirroring!

Zughaus, Berkeley

Later that evening Courtney and I met up again in Berkeley to see the opening of a show curated by our friend, Sarah Hotchkiss, and featuring work by our buddy Maysha Mohamedi at Zughaus Gallery.  What they didn't tell us was that Zughaus, a gallery-in-the-house dealie, was located on a tiny strip of street located directly next to the train tracks.  It was lovely inside once we found our way, and one more adventure to add to the art quest list.

Courtney and I walking in the dark on a gravel path next to the train tracks trying to find our way to the destination with our phones.

We found it!

Inside, it was a lovely, architect-designed gallery within a home, where they dedicate the space next to the kitchen to an art space.

A Masha Mohamedi painting.  You might remember her from the CCA thesis exhibition, too.

Masha and Sarah in the cute little kitchen.

Unfortunately, I didn't take enough photos of either show.  Courtney's show ends tomorrow, Dec. 4, and I'm not quite sure when the show Sarah curated ends (it's not on their website).

What may or may not come across in the photos I did post is the warm fuzzy feeling of continuing to see my MFA friends and their work now that we have been out in the world outside of school for about six months.  It's ever the more sweet to continue an art dialog as we were so used to having on a daily basis last year.  Here's to the community we created, even if it takes a little more work getting out the calendar instead of walking down the hall through the studios.

Open Studios 2011 Part II

As I mentioned below, CCA recently opened all of its graduate doors for Open Studios this weekend.  I got the chance to snap some photos of many of my awesome friends and their work in between manning my own post.  Here is round two of my quick photos from the day.  

* Please note that we stored most of our furniture and old projects in a classroom prior to the event and were told by the powers that be that we had to move everything back as soon as the Open Studios were over before we could partake in any BBQ celebrations afterward.  This means that in some cases I didn't have a chance to document studios before we moved our things back, and there is a possibility that some studios are not presented in their intended state.

Natasha Wheat outside her studio with curious onlooker inside.  There was a neon palette sculpture, fabricated commodities, and framed prints on silk of Panamanian laborers spraying chemicals to grow the exported agriculture South American countries supply to the United States.

Natasha used an extra atrium space to expand her vision into this installation as well, featuring similar objects and concept, complete with cans of dulche de leche and these palette lounging chairs and Cabana boys, Jim and Sam.

Noah Krell's multi-channel video room of several projects with performance aspects.  I thought the way they were displayed was great, even though it is hard to see the images in photos.

Jake Ziemann is a painter who surprised me with this home on the frontier installation.

Jonathan Runcio's geometric sculptures.

Jonathan Runcio collage and spray paint wall pieces.

Victoria DeBlassie's stitched orange peel architectural structure.

Elizabeth Dorbad's ongoing installation project of a disaster-swept carnival.

There was a curiosity entrapment down the hall from me as people walked up a ladder to peer over Mark Benson's studio wall to discover...

Puppies!  (image taken from Mark's website)

Also a quick reenactment of last year's darling photo of the engaged couple, Mark and Michelle, during Open Studios in my studio.  Here they are one year later, and married.

And this is them before they knew any better.

Here is what my studio looked like.

Maysha Mohamedi and Sarah Hotchkiss created a VIP lounge area in an extra space of their studio building.

Stuff on Manyee Lam's shelf- I love that feather headdress thing!

Manyee's hard-to-photograph string installation.

Stay tuned for Open Studios Part III!

Open Studios 2011 Part I

CCA's Graduate Open Studios just took place yesterday, and with so much to share, I will be posting it in sections.  All in all, the artwork looked great with so many talented grads and the turnout was so plentiful that I had to walk around and take some pics after the official hours of Open Studios had ended.  Here are some quick and dirty images shot from my iPhone as I whipped around the 100 or so studios.  Thanks to all who came out to support and make for big success! 

Allison Rowe (left, and Chrissie Bradley on right) had a camper tricked out with little installations and a lot of info about oil drilling in her native Canada.

Here's a little model of the oil drilling from the camper/art house.

A Courtney Johnson inspiration wall with lots of Tina Turner.

Sarah Hotchkiss made her studio into a space-themed installation about her dreams of space exploration and golfing on the moon.

Space-painted walls and lots of banners from Sarah Hotchkiss.

Jennine Scarboro made use of her time sitting by her paintings by drawing Barbies.

Mik Gaspay's framed image inside what looks like a fridge with a lightbox...

An upside-down fake tree in Mik Gaspay's studio.

Toyin Odutola's labored ink drawings.

A little model for Marissa Botelho's choose-your-adventure-style photography sets.


Open Studios Part II coming soon!

Skyping Skowhegan

Ok, please don't get too impressed or excited for me; I am not in an East Coast artist preserve. These pics are all from my two very talented friends at the Skowhegan, Maine residency, Sarah Hotchkiss and Carmen Winant. I had the fun opportunity to interview them via Skype with the CCA blog editor Yvie Raij for the Grad{e} blog. Check out our video here!

Talking with them made me realize just what a totally crazy amazing experience it is to do a real artist residency, as opposed to locking myself in my old room at my mom's house to make work, (which I sometimes fantasize about). A residency like Skowhegan, which happens to be one of the most prestigious, occurs every summer and is also a school. As Sarah and Carmen told me, there are instructors that come to your studio, visiting artists, and weekly lectures. What might sound totally boring is super exciting to art geeks like us, who just want to stay in school and in our own heads for the rest of our lives. They also said there are tons of self-run stuff, like soccer on the lawn, boat-making, drawing groups, etc., with sixty other artists. Next to a lake and nestled in the woods, it sounds pretty much like art summer camp, which sounds pretty great to me. Congrats to Sarah and Carmen! I'm so jealous!