Art21 with Jamie Uretsky

Tuesday was such a full day, after the 8-5 job I joyfully skipping up my stairs thinking of what is to come in the next hour. It is Silk Screen Tuesday with my sculptor pal Jamie. Jamie is a recent graduate like myself, plotting about the development of our education as an artist. So i stuff food in my mouth, gather supplies, say goodbye to Lurch the Urch, and away I go to Silk Screen Tuesday.

So I finally got to the good ol' Pacific Grove with much excitement. As i walk up the perfect staris to the door, Jamie opens the door....it is time. I quickly change into my painting gear, open a little vino, and get to discussion. We start, Jamie puts on a little Art21 and we listen to this video about contemporary artists as we create our design for the first round of prints. The last time that i silk screened I was about in sixth grade up at a place called Sly Park, I had such a great time. Jamie has taken a class on this before, so i was the pupil.


Now, Jamie has this cat...and, this cat, is unlike any cat i ever met. Kenobi is her name. I think that should explain it all. So this was one of my first times having an animal in the studio, which i have always wanted. Kenobi made me rethink that thought. ha. Nosey little kitty. So the silk screen goes on. Tonight was just round one, we created five prints, of some, radical shapes. Just hitting up different techniques and getting familiar with that process. Grated this was SPEED SCREENING, so, blow drying was quite the factor here. So here we go with a painting method, I was the color mixer and created some vibrate hues for my eyes to feed off of.












...and here is the reason... i believe i will stay kitty free in the studio. Im a painter, do you know what problems this would create with my work...plus i play with fire...i dont want to singe any kitty fur.

And so we continue, with a yummy light cadmium yellow.






So like i said, lots of blow drying and some of this process would have worked better if we werent SPEED SCREENING...none the less....Jamie had to work at 6:45am and i had to at 8:00 am, so this is how it goes tonight. We are just getting our hands wet.







Goodnight Kenobi.

Westend Celebration

SoHo West, all weekend! It was so amazing. I had such an awesome time and met some real cool people. This is my third year participating in the Westend Celebration. I love every moment.

It all starts with the early Friday morning, as I grab a cup of amazing coffee from Acme Coffee. To start the curating extravaganza.



Acme Roasting Co. they have these cool daisy/sunflowers dancing along their naked wall. As I was talking to the barista about my work, the words, I love large scale painting, mural painting especially, spilled out of my ever promoting mouth. The owner, looks over at me, and says, "Yea? You do?" "Yes, i love painting large." The owner goes on to talk about how he is planning on painting a mural on the wall with the flowers. So i might be going over to Acme Coffee more.

Anyways, the day progresses, I will just show a few of the photographs from the hanging of the show. Now, just to clarify, i know none of these photographs actually show me hanging or working, but, hey, i have the camera, and my hard work, it just wasn't photographed.




Kick-off Party, here it is, in all its Sand City Glory. Having this event held at the rock gym every year is super fun. Enjoy the few party pictures i have posted for you.





After the Kick-off Party, it was time for bed. Running low on fuel, Time to get ready for round two in the morning. It starts with the first load. Im an excited lil' painter. Nothing like waking up at 7:30 and hauling 2x4's down stairs....where is my assistant.

well here we go, i buckled that seatbelt nice and tight, proceeded to drive pass my mail box sailing to Sand City's Westend Celebration. Round two has begun.


Here is artist John Chappell, getting the party started. I had an awesome spot this year, right across fro the bands. Very cool.



Here is the view from my chair.


Here is Nick, he has nice glass. I actually saw his work last week up in Carmel Valley, so it was great to get to meet him. He takes VISA.


This is Allyson Malek, she is a painter, I love her so much, she is way cool. She is an encaustic painter and acrylic painter as well. She is giving an encaustic demo. Allyson is also a part of the IEA.

The awards ceremoy began, and i took some pictures. I cant resist, here is a picture of the Sand City crew.



Awards were given, Thank Yous were said, and the band played their last song, time to pack it up girl.

And on to round three...Ding, Ding!

Here we are at the after party. This is a very fun event, wine, food, music, dancing, and great networking opportunity. Far few photos were taken at this event, as i was caught up in the band, and dance from 8 to midnight. I can not believe i mustarded that much energy out of my body, but when the music moves you, what do you do. I love dancing.




And after this party, i actually proceeded home...amazing...

No time for rest, lets organize the studio, read, think, sketch and mustar-up some images. Isnt community wonderful. Thank you Sand City for another wonderful year.

Gallery Extravaganza

These past couple of days have been so exciting for me. I had a reception in San Francisco at the Kathleen McMahon Fine Art Gallery, the show is titled, "Water is Gold". This building is so awesome and it holds working studios for many creatives. It was real cool to go and check out work that is being created there because there is such a wide range of mediums from digital media, jewelry making, paintings, hat making, photography and a whole assortment of interesting work. A very cool place to check out if you are ever in the area. Below are a few images from the reception.







Some photos i took on the way to Kathleen's gallery. One of my favorite things about SF has got to be the murals and the creative vibe that is crawling everywhere.



I will end this story with the typical SF shot....



After the SF showing, things kept on rolling, and I went to a very cool art opening in Carmel Valley and met Somer Harrold, a painter who has an awesome color palette and created some extremely interesting abstract pieces that danced ever so softly around the glass pieces that were being shown at the Masaoka Glass Design Gallery. Although i did not have the nikon with me when the glass blowing demonstration was going on, I did go back to the spot to check up on it and found the assistant cleaning up and taking care of a few things. It was real awesome to be able to see glass blowing in person. I also was so intrigued by the hot glass that just looked like water, so liquid and mailable, i think i should start blowing glass now.









Friday night and Saturday I painted. I am still prepping canvas and getting ready for the Westend Celebration. I need to figure out what piece i am going to put into the Friday night show. Here are a few shots of my work in progress and some almost finished pieces. I did a small watercolor painting of this cool holy jelly the other day, and i painted him (in acrylics) on Friday and touched him up on Saturday.








This last one is a watercolor birthday card i made for my sculpting friend Jamie. She always has the coolest hats.


And here is a piece i did for Kate and the family to be.

Well this is it for now. I am heading downstairs to the studio. I have Westend in mind. Hopefully you can make it and have a great time, the Octopi Collective will have their very own t-shirts and wine glasses for sale. Come and drop by in Sand City this weekend, check out my solo show at the City Hall and my latest work.

jelly this and jelly that

Well, where DID the weekend go? Im not quite sure what happened to the time this weekend, and even though i feel like the time is running away minute by minute, i was still able to be productive in the studio as well as promoting studiomargo.

I painted more, red jelly. Here you get one look, because, you see, red jelly, well he moved...


here, look into jelly's eyes




This piece is in transition. i am working on the background, however you will see I worked on the piece over the weekend and I soildified that, now i have to work on the floating birdies.




So there are more things for me to work on, in this piece. The color palette in person is different and i have been thinking about turning the boy birdies to orange. We will see.

I took out of eyes of the octopus, and i have to make new ones, similar to those of my painted jellies.

O, here is a treat, not sure if im done with her or not....she will tell me when she is ready. but for now, she is good, and hanging out inside my little square. No title yet. I believe i created her in response to weekly hanging out with the girls, or as Triple M says, the feminist group. Ha.

It Goes Something, Like This...

Alright, so, it goes a little something like this: