good news!

Alexander Calder in his art studio.


Pablo Picasso in his art studio.


I am pleased to announce that I have been selected by Shipyard Trust for the Arts (STAR) and a committee of artists and art professionals to be the 2011-2013 Artist in Residence at the Bayview Hunters Point Shipyard! This program grants studio space for 18 months to artists living or involved with the Bayview-Hunters Point community. I will have my very own artist studio! Check out more details about the space HERE.

The best part of the acceptance letter was this:
"The Committee was impressed by your level of reflection, your artwork, your past involvement with the community, and your wish to continue to teach, curate and involve the community. 8 people evaluated the applications and you received top score across the board; in fact, you were the top choice among many of the reviewers."

yesterday/today

me yesterday




me today

inspiration Saturday

beauty

Prayer is not simply asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one's weakness. - Rev Run, Words of Wisdom

daydream

Far better it is to dare mighty things to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

at the shipyard (part 4)

at the shipyard (part 3)

I had the pleasure of meeting Estelle Akamine and talking to her. She had such a vibrant space full of work that made me feel energized and happy!



Estelle works with kids and teaches them wire sculpture so it was fun to see some of the student work on display as well.



- interesting piece I saw in one of the halls...




The entry walls were covered with postcards and posters of artwork and the studio numbers as reminders of who you should go see...

at the shipyard (part 2)

There was SO much foot traffic at this event. The studios consist of 4 -5 buildings housing the largest concentration of artists this side of the Mississippi! (Seriously- I read that somewhere!) I only managed to visit one building. Each building has two floors and after 2 hours I'd only been in one building, on one floor! There was so much to see and so many talented artists.




This was inside a jewelry designer's studio. I couldn't get close enough to photograph her actual works because her space was packed! However, I found myself enchanted by the little umbrellas she has hanging above her display table. Do you see them?




These are photos of some beautiful national park in Arizona! Breathtaking isn't it? I talked for a few minutes with the photographer. His space was filled with so many breathtaking images!

at the shipyard (part 1)

This past weekend I headed over to the Shipyard to visit the open studios. This is the one building I visited out of the four open buildings of artists studios. As you can see, there are plenty of people roaming around.




This is my friend Alex MacLeitch's work. He is also the guy who curates the windows downtown. I was excited to see some of his work out here as well as to stop and chit-chat. I saw about a dozen people I knew during my stroll through the studios.

the artists surrounding me - part 2

I took photos at the live/work space where I had open studios this year. Many of the artists hung work in the halls so there was more to see than most years.



In front of my friend John Chiara's studio. The big black thing on the right is one of his cameras. It fits as a trailer behind a car. This is his newest camera. The one he uses most often is parked outside. It's huge and fits behind his pickup truck - sort of the size of a U-Haul trailer. The lights are hanging over one of his photos. He creates large scale photos - 50 in. x 70-80 in.




Cathy Feiss works with ceramics. In addition to her sculptural pieces she makes cute little tiles like this with images and fun narratives.




Lee Germano is a photographer. He has travelled extensively around the world but he also has a great collection of photos of San Francisco.




Rosa De Anda creates massive wings out of driftwood and class tiles. She has been making sets of wings for over 15 years now. I remember seeing her work when I first visited this building over a decade ago.




These drawings are characters for a book one of the artists from the building is working on.

all souls day

Today is All Souls Day. {A day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away.}

I don’t usually observe or realize/recognize this day but a blogger mentioned it and I found myself giving it some thought. In her post she talked about the people around her who’d died and the memories they left her with.
I’ve had so much on my mind lately – insomnia is back because my mind won’t stop processing all of the thoughts that fill my brain. As usual, I have been thinking about my place in this world – my purpose and how others fit into my life. I have lots of questions and not many answers. Eventually I get to a place where I say the scripture that I have had hanging on my closet door for the past two years –
‘As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right.’ – Jeremiah 26:14

Souls. I have been thinking about my dad. He died in a tragic car accident when I was 3 years old. I’ve never gotten over it. I don’t expect that I will. It brings up feelings of emptiness – this gaping hole inside me is exposed at the mention of his death. It’s hard to think that I missed out on having him in my life. I know some things about him – stories my mom has told me and there was a period of time in my twenties when I read a stack of letters he’d written my mom. Yes, he was a letter writer just like me. Through those letters I found out the most about him. I saw his personality. I heard his voice and the way he expressed himself. I saw the maverick in him. I saw the risk taking and also the foolishness of his youth. I saw the man he wanted to be and the love that he had for my mom. I realized that he was as full of goodness as he was flawed – imperfectly perfect.

Souls. When I was a little girl, I found myself fascinated with two women whom I considered my heroes (although I’ve never used that word…). They were spirits of sorts that I felt a connection to. Harriet Tubman and Helen Keller were women who I found myself obsessed with – looking at any book that I could find that would tell me more about them. Yesterday I realized what they had in common. They both spent most of their lives traveling in darkness and calling out to God to guide their path. They both had courage beyond what any ordinary person would display and they did things that most considered impossible. This is a very simplistic summation of their lives but nevertheless it makes sense to me at this moment as I wrestle with my thoughts – questioning if what I am doing what I should. I get confused when I compare my life to others until I remember that I’m not living an ordinary life and so trying to make comparison is like attempting to fit a square peg into a round hole. I wonder if people told Harriet Tubman that she should rethink her plans and do something more ‘rational’. She lead 300 slaves to freedom taking trips on foot more than a dozen times. She risked being caught again and again – becoming such a threat that there was a reward for her capture worth $40,000! (back in 1856!) I wonder if people thought she was insane.

Souls. If you notice, Jesus was anything but ordinary. And if I am to follow Him then I should expect to be misunderstood at times, to take the road less traveled, to ruffle some feathers, to create change...
Lord guide me today.

the artists surrounding me - part 1

My friend Jennifer Ewing creates 'spirit boats'. This is a work in progress - a drawing of one of her spirit boats...



She adorned the doorway to her studio and then inside her studio was a collection of paintings and sculpted boats - all centered around the idea of spirit boats.



a big canoe at the entrance, drawing you in...

my open studios show

Here are some blurry photos of my artwork on the walls for open studios weekend...

the group show

I realized over the weekend that I had so many photos on my camera and had forgotten to share them!
Here are some shots from the past month... I'll be sharing a few each day until I catch up.

Every year there is a huge group show that accompanies Open Studios. On this particular day I headed over to the gallery to drop off my piece in a salon style show with over 400 pieces.




Outside SOMArts Gallery






This show had a size limit of 20 in. x 20 in. As you see, the spaces are divided up with twine, and labaled (They ask for all of the information about your piece months before the show so that when you arrive labels are already in place.) Once all of the work is hung they take away the strings and have a nicely plotted out wallspace.



This is a piece by my friend Kay Weber. He cuts paper. This is one of his more simplistic pieces but it is still pretty amazing.



This painting really stood out to me. Something about it drew me in.