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.

New Upload on RedBubble

Just added this 2008 painting, Sassy Lady, to my RedBubble page, which is available for purchase as a greeting card or print, though the cards may chop off half of my signature. :-(

I'm still working out some technical bugs with photographing my work.

Note to Self: don't sign future paintings so close to the edge of the canvas.

Kissing Clownz

I did this little painting last semester when I was seriously experimenting with different mediums and techniques; it's a combo of acrylic, oil and glitter-- very small: 4" x 6".

I just submitted it to an annual group show called "Tiny" at this one gallery in town. Hopefully it'll get in! I have to figure out if I should varnish it or something, because the glitter falls off a bit too easily if one isn't careful. (It's already fallen off in a few places that I have to touch up!)

It's even sparklier in "real life."

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.

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!!!

Thanks, and More Art...

First off, thanks to all of you for the sweet comments for the last post! Never has a 5 word post avec exclamation point elicited such a major response. You are all so kind, and NOSY! :-)

I'm not sure if I'm ready (or him either) for the public unveiling yet, but I'll keep ya posted. It's still very much a work-in-progress. One little detail: he's also a (very talented) painter. It's nice that we have that in common.

Onto my latest painting/critique disaster... So for our next assignment we had to do a mixed media painting that was about the genre of decoration, which is something happening a lot in contemporary art these days. I just went on my merry way with an idea that incorporated a decorative element but was not solely about that. So I got kind of dissed in the critique again, while some butt-ugly paintings that were indeed solely decorative got praised! Do I sound bitter?

This painting is not finished, because the collage elements in the painting took hella-long to put together.

It's called "Frozen Entree Face"

Some of the other students in the class liked it, but the instructor did not seem to be that into it. He critiques paintings based on whether or not the piece fulfills the assignment, rather than on the merits of the painting itself, and he also seems to have his favorites in the class, who I am referring to as his Acolytes.

The irony is: this instructor is incredibly knowledgable. I think I can learn a lot from him. I'm just not getting the little ego strokes that I so desire, which sucks.

Grrrr....

I'm smarting a bit over this painting critique this afternoon that didn't exactly go MY WAY. The culture/mix of personalities in this class with this new instructor is one that I'm having trouble adapting to. BUT: I'm not going to vent all over the internets about it.

Anyway, here are two paintings, and a photo of me as a very young art student (taken by myself in the mirror; I've always been a navel-gazer, of course! ) that served as the inspiration for them.

I like them. So There!

At top, a three-session painting; below, a single session painting. The assignment was to do a single panel expressionist painting, meaning a painting that evokes a strong emotional response in the viewer. Truthfully, I just painted what I wanted to, and did not care too much if it answered the assignment or not. So I got burned somewhat in the critique for that.

Arrgh, I said I wasn't going to vent!!!!!!!!

Art and TV

I have a new painting instructor this semester who is challenging, very knowledgable... we have to do assignments even in the Advanced section. Our current assignment, which is just wrapping up, is to do a single-panel Expressionist painting. By Expressionist, he means: a piece that evokes some strong emotional response in the viewer. I will show all y'all the results in my next post.......

I have come to the conclusion (finally!) that I need to cut back on my TV viewing, especially RE:Ality TV. Oy Oy Oy! It was just getting to be too much. So I am just doing The Bachelor, American Idol, the end of Top Chef, and most likely SNL. Oh, and Survivor when it starts up again. Plus some brief TV news watching-- the national stuff mostly. (I heart Katie Couric ever since she took down Sarah Palin.)

So: no more Wife Swap, The Nanny, True Beauty, assorted sitcoms, Oprah, Dr. Phil. No Celebrity Apprentice! Sorry, The Donald!

How embarrassing are these lists? Sheesh!

Last night I listened to an opera music CD that a friend burned for me eons ago that was gathering dust in my Bachelor Pad. It was quite pleasant! Tenor Arias by Juan Diego Flórez.

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.

Propaganda Art

I made this painting at the beginning of the semester that I'm just finishing up. I don't think it's really that successful, but it was a nice try. I did it in response to the "No on 8" campaign here in California which failed not long thereafter, thanks to our friends the Mormons and Catholics, not to mention those wacky Fundamentalist Christians.

At the time, I thought maybe I could do some art about gay marriage, and about the type of religious fanatic yahoo that comes out and protests all the happy gay and lesbian couples getting married (represented by the sign-holding ogre on the hill).

I do like the way I represented the male (clown) couple. That's how I envision my Future Hubby and Myself. :-)

I don't envison bickering over housekeeping and who cleans the litterbox.

Work-In-Progress: Mary-Kate and Ashley

There was this photo in the newspaper. I had to make a painting from it. What I love most is that each girl seems to be facing paparazzi coming from opposite directions. So much like my own life!

AlbGlinka Paints from The Model

We have 4 more weeks in my painting class and there will be models to paint until the end of the semester. I decided to go for it today... I took a break from a painting of Mary-Kate and Ashley that I had been working on! (will post a pic of that work-in-progess, cuz I'm digging it)

Painting from the model is something I know I'm good at, and I get nice attention and compliments when I do it. When I do figure drawing or painting, I get transported into this very different headspace. It feels like I'm channeling some Beaux Arts student from another century. The nude is always the nude, no matter what time period, although the above-the-butt lotus flower tat on this lady definitely places her in contemporary times...

"Sassy Lady"; Detail

I recently completed this painting. It's based off of a few fashion photos I had laying around and also on countless hours spent killing off important brain cells by watching every single cycle of "America's Next Top Model."

You wanna be On Top?

You wanna be On Top?

Doodadoodadooda

Doodadoodadooda

Dooooooooooooo!

I'll show the whole painting when I can photograph it in better light; it's kinda dark in my bachelor pad right now.

Go Tyra! Go Tyra! Go Tyra!

Ladies: Nice and Not-So-Nice

I'm shipping out "Nice Lady" today to a *special person* who lives down in L.A. I hope she likes it. To all my other Nice Lady Friends: now's the time to purchase some GlinkArt at rock-bottom prices before I become Hella-Rich-and-Famous. C'mon, you know you have lots of cash laying around and nothing to spend it on.

Not-So-Nice Lady Department: Sarah Palin makes me ill. I so hope she disappears on November 5th, though I know that this will not happen. Her Right-Wing ignorance and intolerance push my buttons big-time. She's such a fucking phoney. This woman must not ever become President!

There, I've gotten that off my chest.

At the Museum Cafe

I'm on a roll painting the ladies... this one was inspired by a sketch I did of a *big-boned gal* that I did while waiting to get into a overly-hyped exhibit at the de Young Museum... the exhibit was kind of sucky, but I had a delicious bowl of soup and got the inspiration for this painting out of my cultural expedition that afternoon.

All GlinkArt is 4Sale! ;-)

Albert the Artist/Retail 'Ho Opposes Any Federal Consititutional Ban on Gay Marriage

Figured I'd make my own news here on my blog since the national news (Palin-ick!) is so lame currently!

Here's another Masterpiece I finished right before I did the "Nice Lady" painting in the previous post. It's titled "Clown Off to a Party".

"Nice Lady"

As I wait excitedly for the start of the VP Debate-- the most exciting Re:Ality TV event in recent memory-- here is my latest Masterpiece...

I've made a mini-breakthrough in the application of very lush complex colors. (This .jpg is a bit sucky.)

It's more Picasso-ish than I usually allow myself, but if I'm going to evoke a famous artist, why not Picasso.

Sick Clown

I've been home yesterday and today with a cold and funky fever that's low rather than high. Not the proper state in which to sell merch. It's been very nice having the weekend off even if I feel crummy. There are a million sales associates on the floor on Saturdays and Sundays so no one misses me-- less competition for them.

This is another painting I did last semester, doesn't really have a title. Maybe it should be "Sick Clown" like the title of this post! It's another 3' x 4' canvas, quite imposing.

I'm not sure if anyone would want this hanging over their couch!

Latest *Masterpiece*

I completed a couple of large-scale paintings in my most recent painting class which I haven't yet posted in cyberspace... this one is called "Praying Clown" and is 3' x 4'. I was attempting to do something less angsty than my precious images and with a more complex figure. I wanted a spiritual theme.

This morning I submitted some paintings online for a group show that's being held in September-- A hopefully fortuitous conicidence: I have a sweet young neighbor who is connected to the curator who is organizing it. I'm going out tonight to check out this other show connected to the curator and this art venue, Hotel des Artes. The show opening tonight is work from a Chicago-based artist, Ray Noland, dedicated to Barack Obama's campaign. Link here.