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!

A Much-Needed Breather at Ocean Beach

While most of the country enjoys their summertime weather in the Summer, ours always arrives just as we forget it was ever promised. Back at school, on an 85 degree day, I sat in my studio dreaming of some kind of body of water until Courtney invited me to visit her in the Sunset area of SF, right next to Ocean Beach. I called my friend Rachel and it was as good as done. Sorry, studio, we'll meet again.

We teleported to New England.

Courtney gets to do this every day.

Every picture has me looking pissy. I was glowing on the inside.

Rachel's beach braids.

Treasure.

Whirlwind Weekend Part 3!

In the same day that I saw Andrew Schoultz at Marx and Zavattero and Chris Duncan at Baer Ridgway, I also went over to the Mission to be a good bud and check out Mark Benson's art in a juried group show at Root Division.

Mark Benson, Hyun Sun Jo, and others, "Introductions 2010" at Root Division through September 25.

Mark Benson is a good friend of mine in CCA's MFA program and his studio is right down the hall from me, so if I didn't go to this, I knew he would have retaliated against me somehow, in the form of a mean critique or maybe even stealing all the cookies in my studio. I decided to support him and Hyun, another CCA MFA recent graduate, instead.

I took two pictures of Mark; I couldn't decide between this one, which shows the freak that he is...

Or this one, where he is pretending to explain art to Mik Gaspay, another one of our CCA brethren.

A broom & book sculpture by Mark, and a confused man.

This is a painting by Mark, which has a piece of paper stuck to a canvas with tape that says, "Dream Big". I wonder if this kid knows the irony their hat plays.

I found Seth Curico and Julie Henson of Daily Serving, charming as ever. Seth has a studio at Root Division, which also functions as a non-profit art studio building.

A gem-like painting by Hyun Sun Jo.

Even though I was tired I decided to catch the opening at Guerrero Gallery, which was also an after party for Andrew Schoultz and Chris Duncan.

"Materialism", Two-person show by Aaron Noble and Greg Lamarche at Guerrero Gallery through October 2.

The outside of Guerrero with body guards, prepared for the party to get started. I like this neighborhood, over on 19th Street by Potrero Hill. It's more quiet and open than a lot of parts of San Francisco, so that it kind of reminds me of the Culver City gallery neighborhood.

The inside is pretty magnificent and spacious.

I know I've seen LA-based Aaron Noble's work before. I think he is a pretty big deal in the Mission(?) art scene. Look at that craft; he paints these in goache!

Greg Lamarche is apparently a well-known graffiti dude but I don't know much about that stuff. I liked these collages that look like abstract paintings.

A surprise opening across the street at Steven Wolf's new space! (He used to be in 49 Geary with all the other stuffy galleries downtown). Now it feels like a new art community right down the street from my school!

Rudolf Schwarzkogler, "Castration Myth", at Steven Wolf Fine Arts through October 9th.

I never studied photography in school but Schwarzkogler's photos at Steven Wolf are all from the mid-60s and seem to me as though they were a big deal in how subversive they are, especially for the time period. I had a nice conversation with the gallery owner, Steven. He is really approachable and friendly guy, and a big supporter of young artists.

Here's the inside of this beautiful new space. The building is over 100 years old. That's Steven in the white shirt and that's art phenom, Barry McGee, with the dark hair and mustache. Whoops, I think he caught me!

In the back room: I know I've seen the work on the left before but I'm not sure who it is, and that's a Margaret Kilgallen on the right.

Some pieces by outsider artist, Daniel Johnston, who Kurt Cobain introduced to much of the world with his infamous t shirt.

I stole this image of Flea and Cobain from the internet.