End of October Check-in
I probably say this at the beginning of each blog post, but time is flying by so quickly. It’s the end of October and it’s finally cooling down and feeling like fall in the Bay Area. As much as it can feel like fall here, which mostly means foggy mornings, cooler days, and earlier sunsets. Less of the trees changing color and it really feeling chilly like it does on the east coast. Anyways, lots to update on in the past two weeks.
What I’ve been working on
I applied to the art call that I used the majority (7/9) of the California Highway One paintings. I procrastinated a bit on the artist statement because I thought I could get away with writing something quickly since I have been writing a lot of them lately and it was only 300 words. I was humbled by the challenge of writing something concise and I really appreciate my friends who were able to review and edit my statement with such a quick turnaround. So moving forward, I’m going to have to remind myself to give myself and the people who review my artist statements a bit more time.
I finished the painting that I was attempting to capture ripples on a lake surface. It’s one of those things where done is better than perfect (something a good friend always likes to remind me), because I used the painting to apply to another art call that was due at the end of last week. Again, hubris made me think that I’d be able to paint something brand new so quickly. To be fair to my efforts, the sample of friends that I asked to opine on the painting have found the painting interesting. I’ve gotten comments that it looks like geodes, blue cell membranes, the inside of a brain, etc. and I have found that to be very interesting and appreciate that the painting has inspired so many different ideas. I’ll call it my attempt at abstract art and I don’t know if I like it, but it was a worthwhile experience.
Another worthwhile but difficult experience: I started my largest painting to date, 30”x40”. I am painting a stormy ocean for another art call that is due November 17th. I want to say that I’m halfway done with the painting, but I really can’t tell and I’m honestly using writing this blog post as a break away from the painting. It’s been really challenging for me to paint this. I think the reason I’m having such a hard time with this particular painting is that it has a much darker palette than the ones I usually paint with. So I’ve already learned that I enjoy painting things with bright colors, which wasn’t obvious or explicit to me until now. I think it’s worth working through this painting to see what else I learn from the experience, and I would appreciate all the encouragement!
I think I’m mostly ready for SFOS. I’m participating during weekend 2, November 4-5, at Intersection of the Arts on 1446 Market Street in SF. There’s a lot of website management, printing, organizing my supplies and inventory involved, but I feel like that’s all mostly done. This is probably the less glamorous side of running an art business, but I’m looking forward to meeting people who care about art!
Outside of the studio, on top of the other two volunteer organizations I mentioned in my last blog post, Art Docents of Los Gatos and genARTS Silicon Valley, I’ve joined the Board of the Silicon Valley Visual Artists non-profit organization. The major efforts of the organization include organizing and hosting the Silicon Valley Open Studios. So far, I’m in charge of project managing the 2024 Open Studios, which has me learning a lot about all the pieces involved with hosting such a large scale event. Joining these volunteer organizations has also helped me be more involved in the artist community, and I feel better connected and involved.
Outputs
I attended the ArtLaunch event at SOMArts for SFOS hosted by ArtSpan (who runs SFOS). One of my paintings is in the SOMArts gallery and will be on view for purchase during the entirety of SFOS. It was a great event to catch up with my artist friends and meet a few new ones. It was a pretty loud and crowded event, so it was hard to meet new people and have meaningful conversation, but I hope more of that will happen at the individual open studio events.
This week, a friend is visiting me for a long weekend. I’m hoping to use the time when she’s visiting to relax a bit and take a little break before my SFOS weekend. I’ve been quite busy in and out of the studio with the painting, art call applications, and my volunteer efforts, so it’ll be nice to have a weekend to recharge.
That’s my lengthy update for this week. I hope you all are doing well. Leave a message or comment sharing your thoughts, I always love to read them!
