I'm enjoying these little bloggy sound-bites. Thanks for reading, Phinney, LOL.

What's happening today? I need to accomplish all my 2010 goals (less pressure than resolutions). Oh wait, I have 360 more days for that.

I think I want a painting studio, God/ Goddess/ Universe/ Tao/ Spirit. I want to be able to participate in San Francisco's Open Studios next October. Just putting it out there.

Smush Paint On Canvas

My painting class starts up again today... I'm going back to my first instructor who I think "got" me more than the others I've had since. I'm heading out to the main Phelan campus as opposed to the more Adult-Ed-oriented Fort Mason campus, so there might be mostly young things in the class.

I'm also trying to work up the nerve to approach this cafe manager to show my work at this cafe in the Castro. The work that hangs there is okay-- not spectacular sometimes, I think my work would look good there but it's a big space and very intimidating to think of filling all the walls and being so public. A good friend is pushing me to make this move.

In The Heights (and sometimes Depths)

I am obsessing over this musical-- I wish I could fly to NYC and see it! First fell in love with it last year when it won the Tony for Best Musical. I really relate to the New York immigrant dreams and hardships somehow, and I love the Hip Hop/Salsa mix of the music and lyrics.

Sorry I've been scarce, all y'all! BTW, is Blogspot still relevant with Twitter, MySpace and Facebook getting so much attention? I don't know...

I am still a "We" though it's been bumpy. :-/

Painting class ended. It was definitely a challenge to get through it; I may need a break from painting or definitely a different professor or maybe I'm finally ready to try making art on my own.

Hope you all are well, luv Grove/Alb.

Completed "Issues" Painting
(woohoo, I got it done!)

Worked really hard to get all the glitter glued onto all the letters yesterday and today... It was quite laborious. The critique was this afternoon and for once it was an unqualified success. Fellow classmates GOT the message of hypocrisy and homophobia, and the instructor really thought it was a good painting, that it worked on several levels.

Click on the image for the best view.

W.I.P.
(Work In Progress)
:-)

I have made peace with my new painting instructor! I had a good talk with him and got some information on his critiquing goals, the varying skill levels of other students in the class and other stuff. It felt great to talk to him directly rather than harbor a resentment that would eventually end with me ditching the class.

So here's a very preliminary look at my latest masterpiece. This painting had to be about a social/political issue, and it had to incorporate text or borrowed image in some way. My completed painting, if I ever accomplish it, is going to have all this text in pink glitter running across the canvas, with some scrawled homophobic slurs cutting into the text. The idea being: the hypocrisy of closeted gay Fundamentalist religious leaders contributes to hatred of the GLBT community. Hopefully that's what will come across, although I guess it's open to other interpretations as well...

I have only a few words done in the glitter right now, the rest are just traced out and the critique is Thursday! Oy Oy Oy!!!

Art and RE:Ality (TV and Other Stuff)

Here's my latest masterpiece (sorry no scratch and sniff, Remo!). The instructor had the same model sit with the same pose for four class sessions, which was a great opportunity to do a more finished piece.

This painting was completed in three sessions, so about eight hours total. I prepared a canvas with a pinkish ground, and then painted the figure with whatever colors struck my fancy. Fauvism is the genre that is most like this. I wasn't a slave to correct proportions, although my one self-criticism is that it's not far enough removed, like let's say a Modigliani, yet not completely anatomically correct either. This is partly because I just don't paint from RE:Ality very often these days, and figure painting is one of the hardest technical challenges there is in art.

I really enjoyed painting from the model this semester!

My friends who I've shown my lastest work to are all encouraging me to aim for having a show in 2009. I definitely have enough work, it's just a matter of where and how. I have a lot of trouble with self-promotion in my offline life. BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Fear of rejection. Ugh! But I definitely feel like it's time. Even if it's in a little cafe somewhere.

Onto RE:Ality TV: "Momma's Boys," NBC, Monday night. Be there! It's sick and awesome. I'm not sure if it's politically correct to stick a racist, bigoted, anti-semetic, ignorant, hypocritcal Momma into a house with a bunch of demographically diverse and randomly silicone-enhanced bachelorettes, but it definitely makes for great TV.

Impressions of Women Impressionists

No, it is not a picture of Madame Glinka at the Opera, it is a painting by Eva Gonzales...

I just came back from the Legion of Honor Museum where I went to see this show of four Women Impressionists: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, and Marie Bracquemond. I think the museum may have mounted this show in part because one of the major contributors to the museum owns a few of the displayed paintings in her private collection-- I couldn't help but notice that on the exhibit labels. The de Young and the Legion of Honor are kind of curatorially incestuous this way, but probably all museums are. Yes, I just checked the exhibit website and I found this: "The major patron for the exhibition is Diane B. Wilsey. " Way to flaunt the fabulosity of your private collection, Diane!

It was an okay exhibit, but there were too many paintings of women avec babies or nannies avec young children dans le jardin for my tastes. I was happier at the Frieda Kahlo exhibit that I saw last week at SFMoMA, which was edgy and angsty and psychologically interesting, if a bit overwrought.

The Women painters of the time (circa 1870-ish Paris) were on a very short leash socially: they weren't allowed to go out unaccompanied and so they often made domestic life their subject matter. There is an underlying theme of these artists having a way harder time being taken seriously and establishing their reputations than their male counterparts-- but I was surprised that I wasn't more moved by the paintings themselves. Maybe it's just me.

I wandered from that exhibit over into the permanent collection to visit my favorite Watteau in the museum and I also did a pretty cute sketch in my journal of a female bust that I may share in the next entry. (hmmm, there's a female bust in this entry too!)