Balancing the in Between

I realize that I tend to write about learning to balance life. Many of my friends who are artist are also workaholics. This past fourth of July I found myself in the studio, painting. On my birthday I am usually always in the studio. Since I have been sober for the last year and a half I have found myself in the studio more than ever before. Learning how to keep life balanced seems it will be a life long practice for myself. I have started to go to meditation about once a week to keep me on track with a more balanced life, going to yoga and getting outside in nature as much as I can are all great moments I can do to keep my life balanced.

 So, balancing the in between, huh? Well in between painting and drawing making food and enjoying natures color palette are top priority. John and I are working on the Calgary Canada mural and putting the finishing touches on a mural in San Bruno for Skyline College. Below are some images of some of our process in the studio.

Here is the project for Canada. We are mixing colors for the glass tube. I enjoy this color palette so much! There are images of swimmers that are on the non woven media that we will paste onto the mural once the tube is ready for them. I am excited to learn how to make this tube really look like glass.

Next up is the mural just about ready for installation, Skyline College in San Bruno, CA. This is the first mural I have worked on from cartoon to finish. I am very excited about installing Skyline. This mural is about 15 x 16ft. We will be installing Skyline in about five days from now. One of the wonderful things about working with the non woven media is the ability of being mobile. If you have been following you will note that this mural was once in a different studio. We rolled it up and brought it to the Truckee/Lake Tahoe studio further North of the Santa Cruz mountains. Once Skyline is ready we will roll it up again and take it to its home. Although I am excited about installing the mural, this part of the process is always a high adrenaline rush, being up on scaffolding, rolling out the mural, and working it into its place, where it will live for the next 100 years, or so.

O, hey, let's not forget, this whole, balancing the in between. Here are a few shots from outside the studio, soaking up new inspiration and smelling the sweet California air. I hiked up Squaw Valley, three hours and took the little lift down. It was real different than hiking in Big Sur, which I am most familiar with. I have not skied and going up all the way to the top was real interesting and thinking about what it would look like with snow was, cooling.

This three hour hike, where my patience started to wear out, not knowing where I was going, but I was along for the ride, really was a treat. When I got down from the mountain, I heard amazing soulful music. It was a band from New Orleans, tearin' it up! It was so awesome! I dont know where I got any additional energy, but I just could not stand still, I hopped into the crowd and started to dance with the crowd. It was just such an amazing experience and the icing on the cake!

To the Drawing Board!

From mural to mural, researching to conceptualizing over the last few months it is time to put the collected images, thoughts and imagination on paper. We are working in about every stage possible in creating public art from starting new projects, initial sketches and ideas, rolling up murals and preparing for installations, shipping paints to the on site location, mid point to final painting and preparing new material for the new projects on the horizon.
I am learning to just roll with it all and stay as calm as possible. Staying up and working until 5:30AM, drawing monkeys and turtles, drinking water and creating interesting dishes to eat in the AM keeps my life, lively.

Below are images of the Pacific Palisades mural, we are creating the final drawing and painting the mini mural.

Below is the meeting in San Bruno at Skyline College. To the left is a to life size template of the mural. The wall is being prepped as I type.

I also played badminton for the first time. I knew if it were anything like tennis, I would have a fun time but I am not that great at land sports and try to stick to the water when I can.

I am always on the look out for interesting looking shapes and colors, I came across this bathroom window at 3AM one night. We took some photographs for fun and called it a night.

status quo

Things here in California are staying on a roll, on an exciting roll-a-coaster that is.  The last few weeks I have been working on two main projects. Here in the Truckee/Lake Tahoe studio we are working on the Calgary Canada project. This was my first time helping to build a model to study the light. I got to make the little swimmers that go inside the glass tube. I wasn't that excited at the thought of it and wanted to just put little army men inside the tube, but once I started to make the swimmers, I just could not put them down, I even made little bikinis for the ladies.

Making mini sculptures at 3AM.

I tied dental floss to my beautiful ladies and inside the glass tube they went. It was time to observe the way the light reflects off the swimmers.
 

From Truckee to Los Gatos/Santa Cruz. It was back on the Skyline mural almost ready for installation. Here we are projecting the image of a fresco onto the mural. I have been on this project from the start and I am so excited to see Project Skyline College grow up and get ready to leave the nest!

Here is a color palette photograph for the initial colors for the fresco. I love mixing colors so much. I found a new favorite color, Arylide Yellow! The next few days we will finish Skyline and install it at the college. I can't wait!

O by the way, Happy August 1st!