forever studiomargo

I create these weird little jellie/octo creatures. Most of the time they are created in water color however I have seen them showing up in my acrylic and encaustic paintings. These creatures started as a response to my many hours of studying the deep sea in college for a mural project. What I love about the deep sea is that it seems like anything weird looking comes from there. After a few years of painting them, they have evolved and taken on a world of their own. Since I have been consistently painting them for a few years now I have a strong attachment to them. When I want to feel comfort I paint these little jellie guys. They make me laugh so much. Each one I paint has his or her own character and mood. I get such joy out of creating these little creatures.




I spent sometime with my family a few weeks back and what do I see?


Wow! My cousin tatted one of my jellies on his arm. The picture above is showing just one session he had with the artist. My cousin recently acquired one of my water color jellie paintings. The tattoo artist and him want it to look like the water color painting he has. It will take a few sessions of layering the color and illustrating the brush work on his arm.

I will say that my exposure to the tattoo culture has been starting to grow. There are painters painting tattoo artists and tattoo artists tatting paintings, drawings and ideas onto bodies. For me to be able to see my own work of art on a body is the coolest experience. I am at a lost of words to write about, but all I can say is that it feels so amazing to see my jellie on his arm. I cant wait to see the progression of this work. Don't worry, I will keep you up to date on this piece.

End It With A Bang.

The end of May sure makes for hectic days. The last few weeks and weekends have been extremely productive on all avenues of my life. Last we left off I was out at the Surfabout in Carmel. Since then Monterey has been quite gloomy during this so called summer time, so I went out for a hike and saw a little nature. Im gathering inspiration for the National Steinbeck Center exhibition. I have been reading, "The Acts of King Arther and His Noble Knights". So in this book there are many forest scenes. The forest is a magical place of love, lies and trials. I want to use that scene of the forest to inspire my new body work that i have been working out in my head over the past few months. As i read, i take note of the colors that are being described in the book as well as the way the characters feel in the particular situation while in the forest.






Now from the inspirational forest to the enchanting leafy sea dragons. I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to check out their new exhibition on seahorses. Here are a few shots of these marvelous little creatures. If you are ever in town, it is well worth the visit. The MBA is an amazing source of inspiration and education. I truly appreciate their vision and persistence in educating the public about the sensitive world we are a part of.










After all that knowledge what else, than to watch the sun set? This sunset was unlike any that I had seen before, well arent they all different? This time I more or less watched the sun drop in the clouds. Most of the time i can still see the light playing with the colors of the sky but this time, there was none of that. The sun went behind the clouds and there was nothing left to see, like slipping under the blankets and knocking out to sleep. The Sun must have had a super productive time that day and just had to knock out. Goodnight Sun, Hello Moon.




Now it is time to get back to the studio.



I have been working a lot in acrylics lately. Perhaps it is because I am waiting for the bees wax to arrive. :D But I have been finding such a release in painting with acrylic. I was able to have a week to myself and dove into painterly self portraits. I have been thinking about my life, where I want to go, what I want to achieve and just how Im going to do it. So being able to work on self portraits gives me that time to think about my life and try to gather some sort of understanding of this journey of being a painter and making it in this world. O yes, and im working on learning when to stop. It can be a disaster if you over work a painting and over work yourself.

Now for some family time. My little sister got married. There is nothing sweeter than seeing your family members truly happy. The two are off on their honey moon. It is great to have people be alive, happy and healthy! Cheers to the newlyweds!


I travelled back to Monterey and created 12 new paintings. I created my largest painting in my Asilomar series, 16x20"

The Octopi Collective had a meeting and here are a few shots. J.R. got a sunburn while working on a 3-d shadow. Everyone in the group is busier than ever and working on commission work, work for galleries, and grad school. I love the hustle and bustle of the Octopi.






That Friday the Alternative Cafe and Gallery had an opening with some interesting work.








This past weekend was an educationally filled art-tastic weekend. I teamed up with fellow encaustic painter, Allyson Sanburn Malek to give demos about the encaustic process. We were out at the Titus Contemporary Gallery located off Hwy one in the Carmel Highlands. This is such an amazing gallery space with great lighting and plenty of space for demonstrating our work.







I will leave us with this amazingly designed little flower. I will never forget one of my design mentors telling me, over and over, 'Design is in the details' Well if this isnt proof enough. This flower is so amazing because of the details. The color palette and shapes and structure of it all. Simple bold red petals, with hints of purples, oranges, and greens. What a treat for my eyes! I just wanted to share it with you too. Have an amazing week!

Fun in the Sun

This past weekend was full of friends, laughter, love, live music, art, and nature. I am going through more changes in my life, who knew being 25 is such a ride! I have been working with pure color in my acrylics which I believe stems from my encaustic color palette. These two paintings were inspired by the Monterey Bay, ocean life, and my seaside oozing candles.



I have also been doing some demo work and creating new encaustic paintings out of it. It feels great. So from this...to that.



So each morning this weekend I woke up and turned on the wok, heating up the hot plate for a morning painting session feels so amazing, and is a great way to start every morning. After the painting, I went out to Carmel to The Sunshine Freestyle Surfabout. I had an amazing time, just hanging out, watching some of the best surfers do their thing and enjoying my friends company while soaking up the sun. There are just a few shots from the beachie days. I also caught my friend Nic Coury (whose blog you can reach by the tabs on the right side of my blog, photographicNIC) taking some GREAT shots with his amazing lenses.
















And with that beautiful sunset away I went.

On Sunday my encaustic friend Allyson Malek had an opening at the Haute Enchilada in Moss Landing. This Art Gallery space is run by this group of artists. I went to go check her work and her new space out. It is always so nice to see Allyson, she is so lovely. She has been working so hard since she has been back from Nebraska. I love her new work. Allyson and I are gearing up to teach encaustic workshops together in the Carmel Valley area. Dates soon to follow.










From Moss landing to Carmel Beach. This day was a little chiller and the fog came in fast and we weren't able to watch the sunset, but we watched the fog roll in.





On my way back home I ran into some roses which was a nice way to end the weekend.