Treasure Island 2010

Treasure Island Music Festival happened again this past weekend. There was a bunch of great bands playing in a ton of cold weather. Having enjoyed 80+ degree weather in the city earlier in the week, it was a bit painful at time to endure the coldness during the festival. But, the bands were totally forth it and needless to say, I had an amazing weekend.

Thanks to the hardworking Noise Pop interns, the festival went on without a hitch. Here's intern Jaime, intern Casey and intern Allison in the back.

The highlight of the festival, for me, was Monotonix, a band from Tel Aviv who is practically banded from all the venues in Israel. Knowing they put on insane shows, Casey and I dug our way through the crowd the get face to face with the band in the middle of crowd.

Here is the lead singer, sitting on a stool that a few guys were holding up while beating on a drum a few other guys were holding. At one point, he had his foot on my stomach while I held up held his body weight with another guy.

The guitarist got up there too, but he was a bit more subdued and just enjoyed the new vantage point. I haven't been to a show like this for a very long time.

Seeing everyone up on the crowd, Casey decided she should be up there too.

Here's Casey riding the crowd for the first time. She was up there for a good amount of time and got down like a champ.

The best part about being on Treasure Island is the view of San Francisco. It's easy to forget what you actually live in when you don't see it, but we were all in awe when we looked across the bay to see our city. Go Giants!

The thing about this festival is that the crowd noticeably grows throughout the day. By the last four bands, the island is packed.

Here is the crowd during Deadmau5's set. He a DJ with an awesome aesthetic and a very entertaining, and technically impressive, performance. Throughout his whole set, he wears a helmet in the shape of a mouse head (basically Mickey Mouse) that turned out to be electronic. He had a digital/animated face on the front synced to the lyrics. Pretty cool!

This is Belle & Sebastian, who headlined the festival and closed Sunday. I wish I had more pictures of the bands, but I was usually too far away or they just weren't interesting. All together, I saw a good part of 21 bands this past weekend. Not too shabby.

Now its time for work. I've got a bunch of things Im working on and will be posting soon.

Weighted Hibernation

I've been working for a while on this new painting. It seems like my busyness is sinusoidal and this past month (and looking forward to next month) are the peak of the wave. If it is sinusoidal though, at least I can look forward to a little break after November.

Anyway, here is my new piece, Weighted Hibernation.

It is 38x40 in., oil on canvas. I have plans to make it one of two pieces that compliment and complete each other. Hopefully I can get that painting going soon.

As it turns out, I've got another month at Tango Gelato, so if you're in the area, go and check it out in person. It really is a piece I think benefits from seeing in real life.

Drawings

A couple months ago I was in between ideas with painting and did a few drawings to get the art itch out and to just draw again. I sometimes forget how much I used to draw before I started paintings, so it was nice to spend a few hours on these and just get into the details. Click on the pictures to see the details.

The images I drew from come from a book I bought in Colorado on the works of an American photographer named Wayne F. Miller. Photographs 1940-1958 show images of life, American and foreign, during war and postwar time.

There is sometime that seems more real and genuine back then. Something that seems more based in the world and the tangible. Or maybe its just the way Miller shot. He seems to have this ability to capture people and their thoughts in amazing exactness.

Im planning on doing a few more of these in the next few weeks.

The New

It's be a while since my last post. This was party due to some secrecy regarding the second painting of this post, and partly due to just spending more time on paintings.

Here's the newest one. I'm calling it Static Introspection and its a bit larger than some of my recent work. I had a bunch of Blick Art Supply coupons and used the opportunity to invest in working a bit larger. At 38 x 40 in., it's not huge, but comfortable for now.

I also enjoyed allowing this painting to evolve through the process of making it and I'm stoked with the outcome, aesthetically and conceptually. It's going up at Tango Gelato in the next couple of days, even though I'll only be in that space for two more weeks.

And here is the not-so-secret-anymore painting. Guess who's birthday gift it was.

It was a bit hard doing this painting in secrecy, especially when I see Casey every day and usually had paint on myself without any new paintings to show for it. In any case, it's exactly how I picture it and is in the private collection of one of my biggest patrons and supporters.

What? No Figures?

I recently finished a couple of paintings and they are up for all to see at Tango Gelato. Its a bit of a departure from usual subject matter and style, but I'm digging this new direction and really enjoyed working on these. Hopefully the titles will help to explain what the pieces are about.

Train, 24x30 in. oil on canvas.

Tangent, 30x24 in. oil on canvas

The idea behind both of these new ones stems from the past four "movement" paintings. They all play with a restless mind and the interaction and resistance that goes on inside out heads when we try to calm it.

I enjoyed not using figures in these, but I feel myself being drawn back to painting some, so in the new few they might pop back in.

Commissioned

In addition to the paintings I did for myself last month, I also worked on a couple of pieces for friends and family. Now that everyone has their paintings and there are no more surprises, I can post about them.

This one was done for my friend/former housemate Shain. He just moved in with his girlfriend and wanted me to do this fantastical painting as a surprise birthday present for her. I had a ton of fun working on this one.

When I gave it to Shain, he just laughed every time he looked at it, to the point of tears. I'm taking that as sign of approval. We had a lot of fun and spent a good amount of time talking about this painting and with all the images that went through my head, I'm happy with how this one came out.

This one was done for my cousin Sarah. Its a portrait of her dog Paulette and I actually did this this past week and not in July. I kept thinking and judging that I was making her too adorable, but after many photo references, I realized that this is actually how cute the dog is.

I'm starting to play around with this abstracted background. I'm really enjoying the pure aesthetic freedom I have with abstracting the background and like the physicality that I get with my process. It will probably pop up in upcoming works.

Seconds at Tango Gelato

This past month has been a busy one for me. I've been painting a bunch, getting ready for a second showing at Tango Gelato, the Pacific Heights Cafe I was at a couple months ago. I'm super stoked on the work I've made and feel somewhat of a relief hanging it on the walls today. Here's the new works that will be joining the last two paintings I've posted, as well as a couple of city paintings I did in May.

Red Cave, 24x24 in. oil on canvas. This one was based on the lead singer of Yeasayer, Chris Keating.

Drain, 24x24 in. oil on canvas. A bit of a self portrait here.

Between Stops, 24x36 in. oil on canvas. Ironically, this one is based on a night in San Francisco after a Yeasayer show. Casey and I missed the last BART out of the city and got stuck in San Francisco until 4:30 AM, when BART started running again. Quite a memorable night at Denny's.

If you're in the city, please go and see the work in person. Its at Tango Gelato, 2015 Fillmore Street at Pine St. I thought it was only for the month of August, but after hanging the work, the owner told me I'll be having the work up until the end of September. Thanks Ziv! With the added month, I'll definitely be doing more work to put up.