5-Fulton

Since I've moved to San Francisco, I've used public transportation more than I ever have. And the bus I use the most is hands down the 5, which drops me off conveniently two blocks away from my house. Continuing with images from the city, and this particular image taken by Casey, here's my latest.

It may seem like an homage to MUNI, the public transportation company in SF, but I'm actually trying to not use it anymore. They've hikyed up their prices, cut services, and have become increasingly hard to know when they will be at my stop. So, its time to buy a bike.

Busy May

The first half of this month has been a busy one. First off, Tango Gelato has been a great spot for my art. I've sold a couple paintings already, one of which is:

Thanks to Michael and his wife for buying this one (and leaving a cool note on my last entry letting me know its in safe hands) The other painting that I sold was actually the painting I did for this spot, Madame S. Sialis. Crazy enough, someone bought the painting four days after I put it up, which makes less than a week after I started it. That is officially the shortest amount of time I've had with a piece. Thanks also to Ziv, the owner of Tango Gelato, for helping me with the sales.

During the weekdays, I've been working on new paintings for a group show in June at the Artist Xchange. More on that towards the end of this entry though. I've also been busy painting my buddy Shain's new apartment, making some dough while catching up on music listening. The past couple weekends have been pretty exciting, and also very cheap!

Here is Yeasayer performing up around Fisherman's Wharf at a free concert we found. Microsoft put on the show to promote their new phone, and from the production of the whole thing, it definitely showed its corporate strings. Ironically enough, I overheard about this show while leaving another free show I attended earlier in the day. It was the Dodos, a local SF band and one of my favorites. That one was put on by Verizon and a coffee shop. Nothing like French pressed coffee, doughnuts, and the Dodos for FREE on a Saturday.

This past weekend was Bay to Breakers, an annual seven mile run from one end of the city to the other aka from the Bay to the ocean, where the waves break..ers. Anyway, it is partly that, but mostly just another reason for everyone to party in the city. People dress up, or dress down, build floats, throw house parties and consume a ton of alcoholic beverages for this thing, bright and early on a Sunday. And I thought nothing could get city dwellers up on a Sunday morning.

TONS of people. Originally, I didn't really dress up. I put on a poncho and moccasins, just to have some type of theme, and called it day. Then I entered this and realized how lame I was.

Completely ridiculous by normal standards, but somewhat modest for Bay to Breakers. Casey and I met up with our friends Ryan and Thomas and had a great time. We stopped by different areas with music, enjoyed the sun showing its face, were overwhelmed by the crowd and ended our day in Golden Gate Park.

I just thought this was hilarious. Please note the passed out people in the background. Let's just say they're sunbathing.

We quickly went home and changed into normal clothes. Then hopped on a bus, missed our stop, walked uphill in Potrero for about 8 blocks before hitch hiking to a free Port O'Brian show. This one, like the Dodos, greeted us with free coffee and a Verizon advertisement.

The show as great. They ended the show with everyone standing up, some on the stage, and yelling out a common chord progression as loud as we could several times. I love show that do that.

As I said earlier, I've been working on some new stuff. New, both because I'm doing it right now, and also due to the subject matter. The theme for the show is San Francisco. The folks at the Artist Xchange invited me back for this group show if I had work that reflected the theme. Being that I never painting buildings, I didn't have work just yet, so I decided to make some. Here is my first finished one:

I was stoked how it came out. Being new to painting buildings, I was a bit nervous. It actually took me several sessions to do this one, mainly because of the anxiety of painting something with actual perspective to take into account. But I'm so happy with how it came out and hopefully it will do well in June.

Tango Gelato

I found a few paintings on the street the other day. It looks like someone who had artistic aspirations in the past got rid of some old paintings. Being free material, I took the canvas off of one and stretched my own on. I realized that I really like the old stretcher bars, these were probably from the 70s. The wood just seems to be sturdier and I like the hard angles.

This past weekend I've been working on a painting on the new, old canvas. Ironically, the subject matter is somewhat of the same as the original painting, but done in a totally different style.

I'm calling it Madame S. Sialis. It's 24 x 20 in. oil on canvas. I painted it to have a new piece to add to the older paintings that I just installed on the walls of Tango Gelato, a gelato/cafè in Pacific Heights. Kind of a last minute thing, I spent the weekend both enjoying the sunny weather and putting together some old and recent work to show at the cafè. This painting was also my effort to try to find some cohesion in the work I put up.

And here it is on the walls. I just put it up today and it was weird seeing people look at a piece that's still really new to me. I really dig the light fixture above the painting. It seems to all fit together.

I have 10 paintings up on the walls for the month of May. I still feel a bit weird about having such a mix of new and old work up, but its a great place to have some exposure. If you happen to be in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, check it out. Its on Fillmore, on the northwest corner of Pine. Two stores up.


Here's another picture of the cafè. Aren't we getting tired of that painting already? I'm going to be starting some city paintings shortly, so check back to see what that turns out like.