My First Submission

This past Tuesday, I found out about an art show that is accepting submissions.  The show, put on by Climate Theater, is titled "Everything Must Go!" and is seeking artists to respond to the web on consumerism that we live in today.  At first, I wasn't planning on submitting since submissions  are due today and that left me with only three days to get something together.  But, after watching the street from my window and being recently annoyed by impatient drivers, an idea sparked in my head and I got to working.  

I made two pieces for this show.

"A Chicken in Every Pot"

"A Car in Every Garage"

The title of my pieces refer to campaign slogans by Herbert Hoover for the 1928 presidential election and his promise to Americans that we should have these luxuries.  The composition of these paintings were inspired by engineering drawings, hinting at the production or manufacturing of "things."  Furthermore, I painted on the bottoms of discarded drawers I found on the street.  Things, such as furniture, that were once made to last and pasted down to generations, are now carelessly tossed on the street to make room for new "stuff."  In an ironic sense, my representation of Hoover's message is painted it's product, showing how drastically our society has changed in the century since these statements.  

Well, wish me luck in getting my submission accepted.  It's not going to be a big show, but I gotta start somewhere!  I'll keep you updated.

Things are Rolling

After about a month of working at the restaurant (and lack of posting. . . sorry), I'm starting to find my groove in San Francisco.  For now, I'm working part time (and possibly full time with some nights added in) at the restaurant, and working for myself on my days off.  Here are some examples of what I've been doing with all this free time.

Chasing geese!   Ok, I'm not actually doing recreational sports such as this on my free time.  Only on special occasions like the birthday of Casey.  We went to Golden Gate Park to enjoy nature and  were surrounded by geese.  At one point, a little three year old with his parents entered the park and with his tiny legs, proceeded to chase the flock of equal sized birds, making them a bit nervous, but more just annoyed.  We decided to follow suit.

I wished we could have made them all fly away, but something made me think this was an everyday occurrence for them.  At least I got one to lift off.  

Ok, so what I meant by "working for myself" is painting.  I've been spending my free days working on paintings.  Now that things are pretty settled in other aspects of my life, I can now focus on art without worry.  Which is great, because I've been itching to do that since my semester in Italy.

This is a painting I did as a gift for a friend (of whom I hope does not read this blog).  I'm not sure if I'm done with it yet, but its in pretty good shape and I have a while before I gift it away.

Cory, one of Casey's coworkers, commissioned me to do a portrait of him based on a John Singer Sargent painting.  This is it and I apologize for the horrible picture of it.  My camera automatically adjusts the light when it photographs dark thing, making the colors and quality of the picture off.  This is the closest I could get to what it actually looks like.  In any case, it was fun to do this painting, although it is definitely not my style.  

This is my style.  This is actually based on Cory again, the one who commissioned the last painting.  I found a picture of him on the good 'ole Facebook, and had an overwhelming urge to paint it.  So, one night, I decided to just do it, and the beginning of this came out.  I'm very happy with it and it will soon greet visitors to my house at the stairs.  

Well, I'm going to keep this momentum of art and work going.  I've got another commission coming up and am totally open for others, so spread the word to your friends!