learning new approaches to art

Process. This blog has sways been about my process. and for a long time i've been wondering if I could use a printing press in my process. Once at Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda I saw an incredible series of photos that had not been printed in the darkroom but had been made on a printing press. they were marvelous! wish I remembered the artist's name, but he only showed that once. for years i've been following the folks involved in digital negative and photogravure like the fellow I just took a workshop with, Mark Nelson and Jon Lybrook .
But there's alot more to my vision than a monotone print, as beautiful as they can be. I want to add color in a subjective way, from my own imagination, and I want to play with textures and layers. this is why I started with transfers and printing on silk.
but i've never been happy with the look of my transfers, they don't have the depth of an intaglio print
so i'm taking a series of classes to reveal the process to me as I plan to create my own.
this is the first in series which is an attempt to explain what I can't explain to myself: where my art is going!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

April is a busy month!

April is a crazy, exciting month for me and many artists in San Francisco. last weekend was Open Studios in SOMA, the south of Market district. i went to two HUGE studios with so many artists my head was pleasantly spinning! i saw 17 artists at Arc Studios, 1246 Folsom St. @ 9th. this place is very active, more than just artists studios they regularly have juried shows, workshops and classes. i will be taking a silk screening class with Mike Kimble, a fantastic artist I know from City Art.
i also saw 35 artist atSOMA Artists Studio @ 689 Bryant St @ 5th. wow were these incredible artists or what. i seriously was inspired by the quality of work and the diversity of media. both of these deserve a post of their own cuz now I want to talk about all the artists I met!
Now i have many exciting events coming up. Thursday April 7th (yes that's tomorrow!) we're having an opening at Flax Art and Design, http://www.flaxart.com/ @ 1699 Market St. for top artists in the Mission. and my work is among them! here's the details:
Mission Artists United Exhibit, Artists Reception
Thu, April 7, 6pm – 8pm
Flax Art & Design
1699 Market St., San Francisco
howardflax@gmail.com
Come see samples from Mission Spring Open Studios artists at the first Mission Artists United Juried Show. Show runs from April 1 to May 1. http://www.missionartistsunited.org/openstudios

Flax has been really active lately in supporting Mission Artists, including live artists painting events. Mission Artists United is a new artists group that has come together to organize open studios and other events.

But before the Mission Artist United Open Studios, which includes art studios throughout The Mission, I have Open Studios organized by Art Explosion, wherein my studio resides! this event is this weekend!!!! April 8 - 10th.

we are open Friday 7 - 11PM, Saturday and Sunday 12 - 5PM. there are 2 locations, my studio is at 744 Alabama St. (19-20th st) studio #379, that's on the third floor all the way to the big windows!

then next weekend, April 15-16th we again have Open Studios with all the Mission Artists United. you could come to both and see different work because after this weekend i'm delivering 8 super favorite images for the Serenity Spring show at UCSF. and I plan on making a load of wearable art in-between. that's all the work I planned on getting done this week!
And there's more! part way through April we are hanging the Serenity Spring show at UCSF WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTER on Floors 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
2356 Sutter St (x. Divisadero) SF, CA
the Opening is April 27th or you can contact @ mckinleyartsolutions.com to schedule a tour. Matt McKinley curates these shows and others for emerging artists. check out all the great things he does for the San Francisco artists community!
http://www.mckinleyartsolutions.com/home.html
http://www.facebook.com/mckinleyartsolutions?sk=wall
and all month long you can see my B&W work at City Art 828 Valencia. if you want to go when i'm there i'm working April 20-21 12PM to 4:30PM.
City Art is a cooperative artists' gallery which is worker owned. we take full responsibility for the gallery, including jurying in new members, operating the gallery and even painting the walls every month for our new shows!
http://www.cityartgallery.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-Art-Cooperative-Gallery-San-Francisco/73192019817
you're probably gonna have to copy and paste all these links til i get a chance to fix up this post!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

Location:San Francisco

trying again, silk printing

having run out of paper I decided to give the silk printing another shot. the set in the software up is critical at 55 inches, see the notes below the long entry about these settings. in addition to the document size and the image size, because the Epson software is so picky at this length that you need to be exact when you choose the paper source to pick the plain banner roll settings. it's easy to forget because my custom paper is misnamed bourderlessbanner. So I took extra care with pressing the scarf onto the freezer paper. and I added an extra 7 3/4 inches as a leader and loaded it in. I have no idea how i'm going to control this: the printer added another huge margin and started in the middle of the scarf again! maybe it thinks some shadow on the silk is the edge of the paper? with my old R2400 the tape at the beginning was enough of a signal.
even tho I did an impressive pressing job the first thing the printer did was push up a little wrinkle on the edge of the fabric, and things snowballed from there! this is the first time the printing was a total waste! I had to stop it even though it wasn't jammed it was making a huge mess! so still no pictures of a successful scaft :(

my set up for printing on silk

Here's a photo of the way i set up my work table:

it shows how i put down some cardboard cuz the table is rough and then i layer graph paper so i can have straight lines for reference. the first thing to do is to wash the silk. i purchased some professional but environmentally friendly soap from Dharma Trading when i purchased the silk. then it really should be fully pressed before you begin attaching it to the backing (i skipped this and paid in the end!). You should do this on a hard surface which can handle the heat.

here's a photo of my favorite papers to do this with:

The parchment paper is to use on top so your iron doesn't mess up the silk and the freezer paper doesn't mess up your iron. You can use what you like for this, but be warned that regular wax paper will melt and ruin your silk. i like so see thru to the silk so i don't use a cloth for this. The freezer paper is the star of the show for me. I know of no other brand or sizes available. around here only the Safeway seems to carry it.

in this next photo i'm using the closest thing i had to a "T" square to insure that i am laying out the freezer paper very straight.

if the paper is at all not perfectly straight the printer will go crazy.
In this next image i am using the wide masking taper to measure out the amount i have to cut off the width of the paper so that it will fit on my 17 inch printer. darn paper is 18 inches wide.

in this photo i've laid out the silk.

i wonder why i stopped to take this photo? i probably knew darn well i should have pressed this silk before i laid it down on the freezer paper. the day before i'd washed and pressed it and then folded it up in a hurry to do something else.

these next 2 shots show the whole sandwich. the shiny freezer paper, the silk scarf with it's tiny hem, and the parchment paper on top. see how you can see through the parchment to the silk?

these show how you can even see the edge of the freezer paper through the parchment paper as you press the silk to the freezer paper. What's going on here? the coating on the freezer paper is some kind of silicon or plastic. when i set the iron all the way up the coating gently melts and holds onto the silk.

You can also see the blue artists' tape that i made meticulously straight and at right angle to the uncut edge of the freezer paper. this is what makes the whole thing work for me when i insert it into my printer. the edge is slightly heavier than to too light freezer paper and it lets the printer know exactly where the front edge is. the printer can become confused if it sense the edge of the paper and the edge of the silk.

Please note that i should have looked at my old notes at this point. the way my printer works in the banner setting is it creates an extra leading edge. it rolls the paper 7 3/4 of an inch too far before it starts printing. this is easy to fix when you anticipate it. simply use a larger piece of freezer paper than you need and back the silk up so that it starts 7 3/4 inch (or what ever distance your printer adds) from the front edge of your carrier paper.

Although everything looks smooth a beautiful in these close ups it is not! check out the bumps i left in it! DO NOT DO THIS.

Here is the chute i build with chairs and boards and things i found around the house. i laid an old piece of freezer paper down over the whole thing to make a nice smooth slide. The paper goes over the cover for the roll paper which has been removed and down into the roll paper feed.

and the printing has begun! you can see the lively colors, the 7 3/4 inch gap (arrggg) and the beginnings of trouble in the form of black smudges on the edges.

Here's the printer hard at work. i watch for trouble through the smoky lid showing the print head laying down the ink.

the trouble did not get out of hand completely, where the silk lifts completely off the carrier paper, but here's two close ups of how a small weakness grows:

printing on silk: reflections

quick notes on the printer set up, photos to follow.
w/ Epson 4880 & my mac I need to create custom banners to print huge. the IMAGE width must end in .34 (17.34 for a 17 inch wide print) if you want retain size not auto expand as I do. the custom paper size must add .1 for the length and .23 to the width. this will cause a warning about clipping to come up every time you print. just say ok.
up to the 52 in long scarves I was able to print borderless, w/ 0 margins all around in the custom paper and "borderless roll retain size" in the Epson printing dialogue box. but yesterday the printer refused to print borderless so I ended up adding a margin in the custom paper size and changing the paper source in the Epson printer dialogue box.
note that the printer itself kept defaulting to a cutting state, even tho I set no cut in the software. need to change the default setting on the printer for now cuz cutting in the wrong place would be a mess!
also, the current image can be about an inch narrower and i'll get less spillover onto the paper.
need to attach scarf with 5 inch lead of paper because in the banner setting the printer pushes thru extra at the beginning.
I set the ink density to +20 which was clearly too hi. I had used a +10 setting on that silk on a roll I used last and that had been to low.
the image blurred a lot. it looks good but i'm wondering if I can get the detail back when I want it buy reducing the ink density or need I get the digital ground Heidi recommends?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

fabric fun

Ok so i checked in my order last night and this is what i have.

CDC14= Crepe De Chine 12mm, 14 x 72 count of 5. ooooh, smooth and shiny and , well, silky! these are in a narrower package. the lable on the bag says CDC14, but the label on the scarf only says 100 % Silk.

CDC15= Crepe De Chine 12mm, 15X60 count of 5. same material, diff. dimensions. same label.

SWCDC both 14 x 72 & 15 x 60= Stone Wash Crepe De Chine at 16.5mm. 5 count ea. this has a kinda muted texture, more satiny and more depth. same issue with label.

I also have some tee shirts etc. more on that later.

should I really wash them in hot water??!!! well the silly instructions say to wash in hot water but I just can't do it. instead I wash the first 5 in warm with the detergent I bought from dharma, a new more Eco friendly product they have.

then we cleared off the big table and I covered it with paper and ironed them dry. well sorta pressed them but I always end up ironing when I press with an iron. my back is very unhappy! I need a taller table and one of those pressing machines!

the silk is beautiful! much nicer than the silk Scarves had before and I like those fine.

next time I work in my home studio, I will press the scarves one by one to the freezer paper and prepare that to go thru the printer. I know from last time I have to press it and print it the same day. I think I still have to cut down the freezer paper so it's the right width. does this sound fun? this is the hard part for me.

designing the scarves in Photoshop is fun!

so next post will be about that. stay tuned!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

I just received my shipment from Dharma Trading and I realize I need to keep notes on the process because if things turn out I want to be able to repeat. so I ordered 3 styles of blank shirts, one is organic cotton, un bleach, nice creamy white. soft, well made. I got med., lg., and XLG. these are clearly guy sized so small would probably fit a medium woman. Dharma stock #OCT. made in USA.

I bought white tee shirts styled for women "feminine fit softee" Dharma stock #FFS. these are well constructed somewhat fitted, sized for women. the Small would be a little loose on Sarah. very soft, cute sleeves conservative neck. Sm, Med, & L. made in USA.

then the asymmetrical tunic, Dharma #ASYMT. also white. much light fabric, thinner seams but well sewn. cute as hell. Sm, M, L look a little big but I bet they shrink when I wash them. made in USA.

more on the scarves tomorrow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

this is a shot that shows the recording of movement over time.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net


http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

I think I was fairly incoherent in discussing depth of field yesterday so I m going to refer everyone to the illustrations in this article Understanding Depth of Field in Photography. there are way too many words in this article but the images are helpful. first scroll down to the three images of a statute. if you look carefully you can see that in the first example more of the faces are in focus than the next and the last one has the least amount of information in focus before and after the statue. look at the label. it says f8' f5.6 and f2.8. these are referring to the size of the aperture or opening in the lens. the smaller number is actually the bigger opening. I think this is because like some speed settings these are fractions, so 1/8 is smaller than 1/2.8. I never have to think this through when I shoot. it's automatic and so it's always hard for me to explain. back to the article, scroll back up to the image of the light going through the lens with some of it converging on the film/sensor and some of it converging before or after the sensor. this basically illustrates focus. now zip on down to the bottom of the page where there are two purple images of differing depth of field as a result of a larger or smaller aperture. this shows why the different size results in a longer or shorter depth of field. so I often combine the effects of different apertures with the soft focus on the perimeter of the lens baby lens. to maintain a good exposure I change the speed of the opening to counter an extreme aperture. if the camera is wide open then I need the lens to open and close fast. so then I have a short depth of field and most of the image will be soft. but I can't record change over time. when i want to do that i use a small aperture and a long speed. so that while more of the subject will be in focus, the movement of me, or the subject or the camera is recorded as swirls or zig zags etc. i'm sure this is still a bit unclear as I have the flu, but I'll be back Sunday.

revealing my process

although i'm home sick today i'm not so sick that I can avoid getting bored! so i started thinking about this blog, how i've used it in the past, how it's changed and then, really how do I want to use this platform? I started out just learning to blog, emailing pictures and upload pictures, and getting it to look right. because I was teaching elders i used it to teach in a way. and my posts were about my process and my many experiments with transfers and mixed media.
but then so much of my time was involved in promoting my business, learning marketing etc. that I ended up using this for little more than announcements. boring!!!!
so I want to go back to discussing my process, and what i'm working on now. some people say an artist shouldn't reveal too much. it takes away the mystery or someone might copy your work. but when I explain my work at an art opening or something, people are really interested. and I don't believe my work can be copied as I have a u Kaye view of the world!







like this shot, currently on display at City Art, was taken while looking straight up, weaving with the light morning breeze to try to stay with the leaf.






and this one, also currently hung at City Art, is looking straight down while on my hands and knees in the gutter. it too is a leaf and they were both taken with my lensbaby but with many differences.

the one on top, called "weekend away" was taken on a clear, bright morning which creates more contrast and makes a work seem exciting. I also set it up for a short depth of field, or at least more than the second piece called ancient way. ancient way was taken on an overcast day, so the light is more even, often called wrap around light, and it was taken at a greater magnification, so we feel inside the leaf as distinct from looking at the leaf from the outside in weekend away.

Some people think that the lensbaby is doing all the work here, but i have added the experience of my years of macro photography to the mix.

so if you go to the lensbaby site you will see that the original concept was to have a lens with a sweet spot of focus surrounded by soft focus in a lens that was mounted on a device that focused by squeezing an accordion box. this set up also allowed the sweet spot to be moved off center by squeezing the lens unevenly.

when I use the lensbaby I attach various adapters to work at the micro level and I set up the speed and the aperture to create different results. the speed and the size of the opening in the aperture are two settings that control the amount of light coming in to get the right exposure. if you use extreme settings you will get different effects. it is the effect of time and angles. if I had a very small aperture I would need a slower speed to give the light more time to expose the same amount of light as if I have a wide open aperture and a faster speed.

the effect of the first can be imagined if you think about truly long exposures where the camera records the location of light over time, resulting in beautiful streaks. at a less dramatic setting that is what's happening in weekend away. the exposure is a little long so the movement of both the camera and the leaf paint the passing of a little extra time. compare it to ancient way which is very still.



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

Location:Berkeley

productivity

Today was a very productive day. I made the "contact sheets" for the Alameda on Camera event which is a simply record of our captures this last weekend. I burned them to a disk and labeled it for delivery.

with help I hung the show at City Art in SF and came home to find in my email an acceptance of 8 of my pieces to the next Serenity Spring, a revolving show at UCSF Center For Women’s Health.

the work is due mid April, between the two open studio weekends, when I will have a new show at City Art. hum, I think I need to but some frames!

on the personal side I got my daughter a new phone, took her out for both lunch and dinner, and went grocery shopping.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

Location:Berkeley

what to wear for AOC

what to wear? well some of the forecasts I checked still said snow but that's silly because it's been so clear. true it's cold, but... so I layered up especially wearing a winter hat, wool socks with hiking boots and leather gloves. for me it's important to keep my extremities warm! Jeans and tee shirts and several sweaters along with my jacket seemed about right. it was still below freezing at my house when I stepped out but by the time I stopped for coffee and drove to my little 1/48th of Alameda it was above 45. so I left the jacket and gloves. after an hour some clouds had come along and I switched to my jacket again. I meant to bring my rain pants which are great for kneeling in damp leaves, which i've all ready done twice.

taking lots a shots.
more soon!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

Alameda on Camera

Alameda On Camera got off to an exciting start with the official kick off last nite and the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in the city of Alameda. The awards were announced including the best photo journalism submission from the local paper, best digital art from a local printer, best in show with a solo show in the back gallery ...
then we drew our little pieces of the map from the hat and scattered into the nite to check out our territory.

I picked #25 on the map which is bounded by Otis and San Antonio, Walnut and Chestnut. it's a mixed neighborhood near the mall on the way to the south shore. let's see what I can do!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Beans: Things are seriously blooming.

Beans: Things are seriously blooming.love all that Yellow! gratitude makes our world turn.

playing with black and white

well i messed with this conversion in Photoshop for about an hour.
is it better or worse than the one below this?
it's less contrasty, which is more the mood of the original color version.
i used the B&W filter that comes with Photoshop, but was not thrilled so i made an extra copy of the background layer and deleted two channels and blended that with the original layer and left the B&W layer ontop. my photoshop is old, CS3, so your milage may vary.

traveling

I just got back from a trip to So Cal with some of my family. altho I diligently packed up my camera I didn't take a single shot!

I would have thought i'd be over it by now but I just can't work with other people around! I can't stand the idea of people watching! weird huh?

this is a killer at popular places like point lobos and convenient places like my neighbors gardens!

speaking of neighbors gardens here's a quick b&w conversion on an iPad version of PS!




moody right?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

openings

going to openings is not easy. I often spend more time looking for a place to park than I do at the opening. and you gotta get out of your paint stained work clothes. but it's always worth it. the art is always interesting and stimulating of your own creativity. because i'm shy, if it's not my opening I usually split after congratulating the artist and checking out all the art. tonight I got to two openings. the first was in San Francisco at 111 Minna, a hopping bar. my pal Mike Kimball had a new series which invokes the romanticism of my youth. fast cars and rain. remember necking in cars in the rain? remember gas at 35 cents a gallon? I didn't meet the other artists in the show but I did have a conversation with a stabbed about the art. amazing! on of the reasons openings are hard for me is because I want to talk about the art and people just wanna talk. so I really enjoyed that encounter. the second opening was RAW in Berkeley. it definitely lives up to it's name. several pieces we propped agains the wall, on the floor or tables, and tall thin pieces hung much high than standard. it was not in the lobby of the Hotel Shattuck, nor in the popping bar, but down a long hallway, passed the restrooms, thru the courtyard into a room you might rent for a book club luncheon. there was more than wall art. there was some jewelry, greeting cards and phone books with art on the covers, a DJ and a fellow using a projector to demonstrate drawing in Photoshop. or so it appeared. but he was projecting it on a wall where someone else's art was hung. I really liked the gal who was promoting it but I was kinda disappointed.
here's some art of mine,




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

blogging from my iPad

some things are incredibly difficult on an iPad. doing anything online that's flash based is out. unless there's an app for that.

I usually only download free apps. but the reviews on all the free blogging apps were ultra critical. so I choose to pay for this one.

let's see how well it does



this is a little doodle I made with one of my free apps Atomic Toy.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

returning to the web

i've mostly not been posting here because of the tremendous health issues i have faced since 2008. all my energy went into either healing or making art. i did continue to promote my work and it continues to be accepted in san francisco and berkeley. but my health issues have made my mixed media work nearly impossible. and i felt to tender to be sharing all the details of my limitations.

Probably the most exciting even of 2009 when i accompanied my husband to a old time music gathering in Centrailia Washington. Morey played music to his hearts delight and i had all the time in the world to experiment with some fabric "inks" i found. it was so funny when people passing out site responded to my test patches as though the were art! ok people were drinking alot, that likely explains it.

So now that it's 2010 (don't you just love saying "twenty-ten"?)" i'm rapidly recovering from the latest challenge i'm feeling strong enough to share with strangers again.

the image at right is from the campout. we were staying in a sheep pasture and there was plenty of rusting farm equipment throughout the fields. this is me celebrating the sun set while getting up close and personal with a tractor. it was fantastic to watch the light twist and turn while i worked my lensbaby. i was astonished to see the light curve in two or three directions at once!

getting my work out there!

it's been such a busy time! i'm really getting my work out there and feeling good about the positive feedback i'm receiving. this month my work will be in three galleries and a coffee shop. two shows have been juried by real artists! one by the guy who owns the coffee shop. so i have some smaller works at the intimate Cafe Musica in the Mission at 564 South Van Ness Ave., San Francisco CA. 94110 415-834-5804 - artist's reception to be announced.

the theme this month at Frank Bette Community Art Center. 1601 Paru Street, Alameda, CA 94501 is "What if ..." and the opening is the Second Friday of July, July 10th 7-9 pm - i have a dreamy beach piece in that show.

i'm also very proud to have one of my newest pieces "flying leaf" accepted in the 2009 National Juried Exhibition at ACCI Gallery 1652 Shattuck Ave Berkeley, CA, 94709 Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 11- 6; Saturday, 10 - 6; Sunday, 12 - 5. re-read that slowly. not only is it Juried, it's National. that means my work was among a small group chosen among a national wide applicant pool! in fact they told me there were over 900 entries! and a mere 76 pieces chosen! So please come to that opening Also on July 10th - 6-9 pm.

And finally my most exciting news is that i've juiried into the artists' coop at City Art which is also in the Mission at 828 Valencia Street near 20th Street. i will take part in the next show with several brand new pieces. the opening is July 3rd 7 -10 pm be there!

I will post some examples of my new work very soon!

better late than never

yes i know it's been what 5 months! but better late than never. in case you weren't sure - no Morey couldn't come but i put him there with this van morrison song

big sur

Morey and i spent several days in big sur a few weeks ago. we stayed in some cabins that had little kitchen and sat right on the river. we had a tiny deck off the kitchen and a skylight in the shower.
i brought my new toys with me and spent some time getting to know how the new anti lenses work. i had a zone plate and a keyhole optic for the lensbaby. these drop into the composer i've mentioned earlier. they are 50 mm focal length; Pinhole: f/177; Zone Plate f/19. these are TINY apertures. you can't see a thing in normal light when you look thru the lens! you must take long exposures. so i used the preview more than usual and took a million shots til i got an idea of what is going on. there is also a color shift because bright colors have higher (faster??) light waves so the light colors hit the capture sensor many more times than the darker colors. for example, it you were shooting a black and white subject the white would hit the sensor so many more times than the black that the white image spills over to the black and it looks ghost like. the color shit comes about when you have colors that tend to occur and certain frequencies, like yell0w tends to be fast and dark blue is very slow. but these colors make up most of the oranges and pinks and have an impact on green and magenta. skeptical? try it in photo shop. just try turning on and off the channels in a color image and see how surprised you are!
actually, i just messed with the channel mixer for several of these and while i'm right there's a color shift i may not be at all right about which way it's shifting!
so i'm still trying to decide if i like the images i captured!

back to work in baby steps

i have found it hard to get back to work both physically and emotionally. i still don't have quite enough energy and i feel like i really lost ground. not only ground but my camera equipment! yes when i moved back to berkeley i hit a snag - someone stole my camera backpack - which had every last thing in it because of the move. my insurance company found a way to only cover about half of the loss. not even the price of a new Rebel - let alone all the equipment lenses, gadgets, silk clothes, tripod, filters, battery charger, home current adapter and the backpack itself which was a really good one, lightweight with excellent padding and a perfect hip belt.
so even though that was about 6 months ago i have not even begun to make up the loss. economic times being what they are neither channuka nor my birthday were excuses for big spending so it's been slow.
i did get the new rebel and i got a lensbaby composer - thinking i'm still to weak for all the physical challenges of the squeeze box experience of the original lensbaby. and a small tripod. for my birthday my mom got me more new lensbaby equipment, so i have enough to get going again.
the tough work is submitting for shows and getting my stuff organized. both my digital files and my art equipment are a mess. ah well here's something i took a little bit ago it's looking straight down as usual, so i'm not sure if i should display it vertically or not.

Open Studio 2008

Come to Open Studio 2008 Saturday and Sunday October 11th and 12th (11am - 6pm)!!
2169 20th Avenue, San Francisco, Ca. In the Sunset near Beautiful, if foggy, Ocean Beach!

daydreaming arts is proud to be able to participate in ArtSpan's SF Open Studios after kayla's incredible year of recovery from her bone marrow transplant and renewed creativity!

Come see kayla's All New Art invoking bold, vivid life or peaceful serenity, a look at details of our world reinterpreted through kayla's personal vision. This year kayla all new work includes 13 full sized prints, framed up to 26" x 32"; several all new mixed media found object pieces; and a growing collection of wearable art. Many of kayla's original collection will be on display, as well as work that has yet to be framed and works in progress.

This year's Open Studio is a celebration of Life and Health. In keeping with that theme daydreaming arts is sponsoring free massages to all visitors on Saturday by Sarah who just completed her massage certificate.

On Sunday there will be Musical Entertainment by Morey and from 4-6 we will finish with a gathering of old time-blue-grass-folk musicians answering our open call to jam.

Also on Sunday from 1-3 kayla will demonstrate several of her artistic processes including hands on opportunities to work with the Lensbaby, Photoshop, silk printing and more.

This year Sarah has found her ability to help others through massage has been satisfying and stimulating. On her way to a career as a massage therapist, which can support all her creative endeavors, daydreaming arts is proud to sponsor her debut!

Morey has pursued his interest in music by regularly getting together with various Bay Area musicians. It's so inspiring to be part of such a talented family creating a joyful environment for me to heal and create in!

So it's fully fitting that they should help celebrate my new art. Please come and be a part of this delightful family growth. (Avi is off at college but was home for part of the summer learning to play the banjo and doing my heavy lifting so he contributed to the flow too!)

thanks,
kayla garelick
daydreaming arts
vist my new website at http://daydreamingarts.net
get directions at google: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2169+20th+ave+san+francisco&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.215051,83.320312&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr

Open Studio 2008

Everyone is invited to come to my Open Studio for 2008! Organized by ArtSpan

San Francisco Open Studios occur throughout October, with different neighborhoods open each weekend. my studio is in The Sunset and we are open Oct 11th and 12th 11 am to 6 pm.

daydreaming arts studio is located at 2169 20th Avenue Just off of Route 1.

I have so much new work this year it's very exciting getting ready. I will have 13 brand new oversized abstract photos framed and hung for presentation and a mountain of new prints that have not yet been framed.
You can see these at my new website, daydreamingarts.net

I also have mixed media work including several new silk works such as hand printed scarves, wall hangings and a new "found art" window with a silk montage and beach elements.

for my photographic prints i always use the original capture, but for the mixed media and silk i enjoy creating montages with those images so this work has a surreal impression. The picture on the right is one such montage that i used one my latest window.

Is it attachment or motivation?

Five years ago i had aggressive chemo for AML and was confined to one hospital room during treatment. the first round was 30 days, the second a bit longer and the last stay was 45 days. throughout each stay i longed to go outside. Morey brought me books about the high country and pictures of the great outdoors. Mom read to me from a travel book where a fellow wandered throughout Kansas on foot.

My longing became one of my motivations for getting better. (my family and art were others.) it combined with memories of the joys of hiking and camping, and my renewed desire to create art and share it.

Likewise the restrictions on fresh fruits and veggies, created a longing to be strong enough to enjoy these normal everyday pleasures.

the restrictions kept me healthy by keeping me safe from germs, fungus and viruses, but also served to deepen my appreciation of a healthy life. this longing was part of my fight, i longed for green grass between my toes more than i longed to lay peacefully in God's embrace.

i’m wondering about this longing as a positive motivation in contrast to longing which is unhealthy, little green monsters of envy, disruptive attachment. what is the difference. how do i know when my heart pulls me toward the light or toward the dark when i don’t know what direction i am facing?

according to Pema Chodron who has written some wonderful books like “the places that scare you,” the difference between positive motivation and negative attachment or desire is completely discernible by us mortal. Each of us is capable of listening to our heart. staying with the longing long enough to determine it’s true nature and weather it’s positive or negative.

when i first read this about three or four years ago i felt betrayed because i wanted a clear cut answer! but after all the work i’ve been doing getting in touch with the base of many of my obsessions, i feel that i too can tell the difference. for me one clue is listening to my body. if my jaw is tense, even a fraction, if there are butterflies in my stomach, then it’s likely a little green monster is near.

i also listen to the child’s voice in me. is she resentful? feeling cheated or deprived? or is she feeling joyful or sweet satisfaction when imagining reaching the goal?

i think i can react either way to the same situation. locked away from nature i could be an angry and resentful child counting the days, dreaming of breaking the rules. or i could be a joyful child imagining the freedom to run on the beach, reaching into physical memories of fun in the sun to create a moment of imagined pleasure. which amounts to pleasure when you are stuck in a hospital bed!

Sometimes i can even change the course of this. if i feel the physical tension, heard the resentful child and i can sit with it long enough to really acknowldge it, to feel the source, the base of fear, and sooth that by thinking how safe and loved i am now, then sometimes i can change my reaction overall.

so now when i think of being deprived fresh fruit and lightly steamed greans i think how comforting the over cook veggies of the 50s were, how comforting a baked apple can be (even if’ it’s “baked” in the microwave! while still seeing the raw food as a reward down the road for when i’m health again.

peace
kayla

imagining the future

I have not posted since the open studio, as that was the last big thing i did in my art career because of my health. I will be having a stem cell transplant, likely next month.

Imagining the future has been so hard that even considering submitting to a show would cause me to freak out. would i be available to bring in the art if i were accepted? Something else less well defined is tearing at my heart. when i got sick again, i suddenly took a look at all the activities i'd engaged in as part of marketing and entering the art world and as i looked back i felt i'd gone astray and i wanted time to think about my direction. all i wanted in the beginning was to share my work and have people appreciate it. but then so many materialistic concerns began to pull and twist till i was beating up my mind and body working too hard for a goal that had become so unclear.

Being sick has really put a damper on my ability to work. i'm too tired to manage the physical challenges of a shoot, i've only done two small ones in all these months, and i don't have the will to work on any mixed media stuff around the house.

Today something weird happened. I was talking with my girlfriend Julie who had been such an inspiration to me last winter in admiring my work and encouraging me to submit to the TV of Tomorrow show. We were talking about everything under the sun as we usually do when suddenly she was talking about my immense talent and how galleries should be representing me. She starts rattling off the names of galleries she thinks i'd do well in and how they can get prices that i don't even imagine. I was floured by the complement that she thought my work should be in galleries. I thought i had i long ways to go.

The idea of galleries representing me fills me with tingles! I've been concerned about ways in which i can share my work when i don't think i'll ever be able to hang my own show again. but if i was represented by a gallery i'd never lift finger! well ok it's not that much a cinderella story but still, ... she's got me imagining a brighter future!
thanks Julie!

Kayla's Open Studio Oct 13 & 14

To all my Art Lovers and Friends:
Yes it's been a whole year since the last Open Studios here in San Francisco.

Next weekend The Sunset and surrounding neighborhoods will be having Open Studios. Come see my most recent fine art photography, which focuses on the spiritual in the material world. I also have some handmade books, and wall & window hangings that utilize my photography.

Kayla's Open Studio
Oct 13 & 14, 2007 at
2169 20th Ave., San Francisco, Ca, 94116

Part of the fun of open studios is seeing works in progress. I have been experiment with many forms of mixed media and going through and exploratory and playful period with working with encaustics, polymer clays, incorporating real objects of nature into these works. Feedback on these experiments is very valuable to me so come see the process and give your opinions.

Because i have been diagnosis with a second serious bone marrow cancer and will have to go through a bone marrow transplant soon, i feel a strong urge to share my work this last time before i undergo this procedure which will likely keep me busy for the next year. I feel that the work that I've done will be complete when it hangs in homes and spreads the joy! I will continue making art - it brings me so much satisfaction - but i will not have the energy to have open studios or continue to submit to galleries for quite some time.

So please come by. Prices are deeply discounted to facilitate spreading the deep connection with nature that i hope my work creates. 10% of sales will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/ who do so much to support research and public understanding of bone marrow diseases, while providing practical assistance to patients and family. I love this organization!

Go here if you want information on my disease (MDS):
http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=55442

My Heath Story and more information on MDS and Bone Marrow transplants:
http://daydreamer.pnn.com/2713-health-and-wellness
See some of My Art: http://daydreamer.pnn.com/2103-the-art-page (explains spiritual connections and http://daydreamingarts.blogspot.com/ discusses process

October 13 - 14th 2169 20th Ave., San Francisco, Ca. 94116
use google maps to get directions: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&time=&date=&ttype=&q=2169+20th+Ave,+San+Francisco,+San+Francisco,+California+94116,+United+States&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=71.064097,111.972656&ie=UTF8&lr=lang_en&cd=1&geocode=0,37.747299,-122.477098&ll=37.747355,-122.476251&spn=0.008908,0.013669&z=16&om=1

Noe Valley Show at Gallery Sanchez Opens

The opening at the Gallery Sanchez in the Noe valley Ministry yesterday was a very nice event. I really enjoy working with this group of artists from the Sunset, we are an interesting mix of ages and life experience. The space is really lovely, hi ceilings and loft feeling with out being overly religious. Although The Noe Valley Ministry is a church with crosses etc here and there, it's also an active community center where various groups meet including a Jewish Group and the have regular musical performances. I also really enjoyed having time to talk in depth with the other artists about our plans and dreams.
This piece, One Leaf, is part of the show at Gallery Sanchez. It was taken on a drizzly / foggy day at Fort Funston. It's special to me because of the subtleties in it. The smooth shading indicating the shape of the leaf in the softened background and the intense yellows and oranges on the leaf edge as the plant reacted to the pressures of the weather on the bluff. The part that clinches the deal for me is the curve of the edge and how seductive it's path through the image is.

hanging the show in Noe Valley

today we are hanging the show in Noe Valley Ministry, Gallery Sanchez. hanging shows can be a long, complicated process and it'd be great if i could do all this faster. i will be helping to hang the Altered barbie show and i can't be this methodical, i will have to think on my feet as artist bring in last minute changes.
my current belabored process started over a month ago when i got the dimensions for my share of the space in the gallery. At that point i was submitting my work to a couple of shows and planning on submitting to a few more so i made a master plan of what was going to be where. i had to settle all this in my mind before sending out my image to be included in the publicity for Noe Valley.
so i thought about the themes for the other shows and then thought about coherence for this show. i decided that certain pieces were definitely going to other shows and could not be included in this mix. decided the Yosemite image was the anchor for the Noe Valley show. I thought it made a good publicity photo because it's hi contrast, recognizable even shrunk down, and people had responded so well to it at the Art on the Avenues show.
next i did the math to figure how many framed images could fit in my Noe Valley space allotment. I had not yet unpacked everything from the Art on the Avenues show, so i started pulling out pieces and sorting them. propping them up around the house (my studio was too small for all this visual thinking). finally the idea of green/blue tan and blue came together and i started selecting sand, ocean, and greenish blue plant images, mixing vertical and horizontal work.
next i began to draw layouts of the famed pieces on my section of wall. my first layout was just six pictures, but it looked sparse when i used my graph paper to put things in scale. so i tried other combinations. i stopped when i had a fairly settled idea.
yesterday i took up Debra's suggestion and measured out the 5x7 space on my floor and laid out the actual framed images on the floor. good thing too because some of my frames are a tiny but bigger than others and that made a big difference in my little plan! i tried moving them about but eventually found it too physically demanding to avoid stepping on them and bending over so much (i've been a bit under the weather). so i went back to drawing on my graph paper. I should have used a pencil because i changes my mind so many times and made a bit of a mess with my pen. this morning before i pack them up to take over to the gallery i will clean them and lay them out on last time.
so i could improve by:
being organized through keeping a folder or searchable database of images of what's in frames now so i can sort thru the images on the computer to help me choose rather than moving them about the house;
deciding faster through confidence in my decisions;
being more accurate, through knowing the actual dement-ions of my work and using a calculator;
being sensible by using a pencil and good eraser when drawing plans;
learning to use the computer for layouts (so that it's faster than drawing on paper which it's not now cuz i fumble through it) because designing on the computer will be more accurate and give me more visual feedback than my sketches on graph paper and be physically less demanding than laying the framed art out on the floor!
the reason for exploring process is to see where you can make changes and help others think about there own process.

"Patterns, Portions, and Pieces"

Patterns potions and pieces opens tonight at the Frank Bette Center for the arts in Alameda. I'm not even sure if i'm in it because ii was bad and forgot to call in yesterday. I hope folks can come to the First Friday Opening Gala July 6, 7-9 PM tonight at 1601 Paru Street Alameda, CA.

I have to explain the process of submittal and acceptance at FBCA so you can understand the previous statement. FBCA, like alot of community art centers, has many open calls. Every month they have a Theme which artists use to guide them in selecting what to bring in for the show. There is a drop ff day when we all bring in our work. there is no jury for these open shows (unlike Alameda on Camera), rather the pieces are selected as how well they all fit together to make a show. the process of the gallery is to go through all the pieces and begin to plan the hanging and as they do that the way the whole show will look gels in their minds. Then they hang the show. The artists call toward the end of the week and determine if they have something to pick up. Because we often drop off multiple pieces, we usually have to pick something up even if we are in the show. this process tends to keep these shows local, but it helps me to make it to the opening because i make one trip to pick up art and go to the opening.

Altered Barbie getting ready

Photo depicts "Barbie's Hood Ornament" by Leigh Radtke.
Well the Altered Barbie show is coming closer. I'm running like mad to get organized. the press release went out, the post card is at the printers I actually had some input, but mostly i fixed the issues with the logos for the sponsors in the press release.
this is just the sort of thing i'm good at. problem solving on the fly.
the first acceptances went out. there are actually some artists who don't have email and that makes it hard to contact them, snail mail is well, ... slow! so i won't publish all the names yet.
I actually made a spreadsheet - yeah i know!! this is tough for me of course with the dyslexia and all but i have to get some skills in this area. i need them for Frank Bette Center for the Arts too.

I went out and purchased the domain name for altered barbie and set it up with a real life server. there were lots of little bugs at first, several caused by my inexperience! but i worked it through with tech support.

So now i really have to update the Altered Barbie site and blog and our pnn.com interactive news site cuz so many details have firmed up. I also have to start adding artists pages and gather artists info for the book and website. Oh and the sponsers! (of which daydreaming arts is one!)

I love working on this show but i've been doing it pretty much non stop for two weeks now with just a short break to help with intake at Frank Bette last Sunday. Boy was that demanding!!! Also I did my shots but have yet to print them cuz my printer still hasn't arrived (another crazy story) and i've been working hard on helping Sarah with her dioramas. getting Barbie to stand up is really hard!!! Oh and Sarah and i were at the mall yesterday and we started planning what we will wear to the Barbie Ball, it's getting so exciting!!!!!
so i'm heading over to the blog right now.

Sunset Artists Noe Valley Show July 10th to August 18th

I'm excited to announce that I will be part of a group show of local San Francisco artists in the Gallery Sanchez of the Noe Valley Ministry 1021 Sanchez Street, near 24th St. San francisco Ca. Our artists reception will be Saturday July 14th from 2 to 4 pm. The other artists whose work will be hanging in the show include: Roger Thoms, Ann Eby, Kelsie Tinker, (who will also be in the Altered Barbie Show the end of this month) David Grote, Susan Grote, Voula Sideris, Kate Salenfriend, Kyla Johnk, Steve Dehlinger and Kate Dopheide two more Altered Barbie artists!!! small world huh?

The artists in this show are all part of the Sunset Artists Society which puts on the annual Art in the Avenues show at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park.

I'm looking forward to this show because I will have a large space to fill. Instead of just one or two pieces in a group show of many artists, we will each hang several pieces in a show with a small group of artists. I will have a section that is 7 feet wide, so the show will be more focused than the Art on the Avenues show where i hung over 30 pieces from the last year.
I'm also looking forward to the process of us hanging the show on Monday. I've planned the pieces I want to bring and I know I'll get lots of help from this great group of artists. Planning and hanging shows is an important thing to learn. Each time I feel more in control. Debra at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda taught me to do my layout on the floor in the studio first!

Please come to the reception Sat July 14th 2-4 in the afternoon! I want to have a good turn out of friends and admirers to help fill the huge gallery space.

Capturing Light

i keep promising myself that i will post more often and get back to the real use of this blog which is to talk about my artistic process and teaching.
but first this commercial break. I have several shows coming up. in Petaluma at the Aurora Colors Gallery i will have my piece "Hooks" (from the Alameda on Camera collection) in their show: Capturing Light - Photography. it runs July 21st to August 18, 2007. the opening is Saturday July 21 6:30 -8:30 PM at Aurora Colors Gallery, 145 Kentucky Street, Petaluma, CA 94952. PLEASE COME! To contact the Gallery, call Vangie Pullins at (707)762-0131 or email events@auroracolors.com

"Hooks" is not the piece's real name, but the name is a joke and i didn't think it would be appreciated outside of the context of the Alameda on Camera show. the real name is "disappearing hooks" because of the crazy story that goes with the taking of the picture and it's aftermath. this is a story of process so i will share it here.

the Alameda on Camera event, you may remember, was a challenge to photographers to reflect their vision of their little corner of the City of Alameda. 40 photographers reached into a hat and grabbed 1/40th of the map of Alameda. they then spread out across the city to grab their visual impressions of that little corner of the map. we had but 48 hours in one weekend to capture the essence of our piece of Alameda.

i was lucky enough to draw a map piece that represented a part of Alameda that was mostly off limits! the Coast Guard, the Navy and a private community all posted signs making it clear i could be arrested for being there. So i was lucky to be forced to mostly focus on the few public areas available.

one public place was a short path by the canal where huge container ships come and go. at the end of the path was a dry dock where much smaller ships and boats we being worked on. between me and the work was a high chain link fence. so i began shooting all the junk that was hanging on the fence - you know i love junk. there was all sorts of stuff, paint roller minus the covering, parts and piece of things - - and then there were these fantastic hooks. i was drawn to them like love at first sight. but the footing was horrible and it took me forever to get into a secure position. the light was low, it was raining and i had a long lens on so i really needed to steady myself against a fairly long exposure.


finally ready to shoot, i'm interrupted by "ma'am can we help you?" from a couple of guys in hard hats and dusty work clothes. i back up from the work and turn on the charm, explaining all about the Alameda on Camera event and the Frank Bette Center for the Arts. i show them my ID around my neck and take out my little piece of map showing where we are and finally seem to make them comfortable. they tell me the hooks are illegal because they are broken and then move on. i return to the hooks, working to get myself positioned securely. the ground is uneven and muddy (it's still winter) and the angle of me, my long lens, the fence and the hooks is difficult.

right as i settle in, it happens again. i went through the whole explanation again. again they tell me how the hooks are illegal and finally moved on. i reposition myself, really getting to it as fast as i can. by now my back is killing me and my legs are quite put out. but when it happens a third time i manage to keep my humor and charm and go through the explanation all over again. this last pair (why are they always in twos?) took particular pains to explain why the hooks were illegal, pointing to the failures of safety features and insisting that they were not used. that's why they are on the fence you see. cuz they're broken and no one uses them. so i explain that i really like the colors and the textures of the peeling paint, and that i like that they are old and broken. they look at me like i'm nuts! finally, when they move off i move really fast (for me) and zero in on the hooks. then i move on to some mushroom growing nearby.

the next day i came back to the same spot before dawn and took some great shots of these folks working in the rain long before you could see well. when it was finally light enough, i left the path and went back to take more of the hooks, hopeful that i will be better able to take my time and make sure i have the shot. but look! they're gone! all the other junk is still hanging on the fence but the illegal hooks have disappeared! despite all my charm they did not believe for a minute that i was an artist, i had to be from the Government catching them with the illegal, disappearing hooks.

"Peaches and Cream" at FBCA

So the latest show at Frank Bette center for the arts is Peaches and Cream." I submitted a classic of mine (read not made in the year since i moved tothe sunset district). I call it bite because it integrates the natural "imperfection" which is nature getting along fine, bugs gotta eat!

Hall of Flowers show a great success!

I really had a wonderful time at the Hall of Flowers "Art on the Avenues" show. I really hope it's not the last one - it went so well! I sold some small things and one of my silk wall hangings so that i covered the money i spent on new frames for the show! not exactly a profit but there was so much more than money that i profited from. It's an incredible learning experience to Put together 32 new pieces for the past year and see how your work is developing. and then to spend two whole days looking at my work and the public's reaction to it. WOW. I can see where i will be heading next - but alas there are no words for what i saw!

Hall of Flowers Show this weekend!

June 2nd and 3rd from 10 am to 5 pm, at the "Hall of Flowers" in Golden gate Park which is on the corner of Lincoln and 9th Avenue. It's the Annual Art on the Avenues Show by the Sunset Artists Society, I'm so excited I have over 30 new pieces - all made in the last years since i've moved to the sunset. It seems like I've been so productive since i moved here and i wasn't finding time to frame everything so this forced me to! All week I've been matting and framing and this morning i finally got them all in boxes to take over and unload later today. I'm so excited! Everyone should drop by and see my new work!! Oh and there are 18 other Arts whos art iss pretty good if you ask me! it's a juried show after all.

Altered Barbie on the web

in addition to the blog for altered barbie http://alteredbarbie.blogspot.com/ I've made a whole new website for the show: http://alteredbarbie.home.comcast.net/ and a really cool site at pnn.com which is very multimedia and interactive alteredbarbie.pnn.com/ I've been immersed in barbie and pink. Now those who know me may be wondering what's going on here! well it's a fun change for me and i'm learning tons working from the inside out. so check it out. there's some fin videos at the blog and pnn already. go and make comments and let's all do barbie up right!! I especially love the Jack Spicer video "i'm a barbie girl in a barbie world, plastic plastic, its fantastic." "you can brush my hair, undress me everywhere!, imagination that is your creation!" "come on barbie let's go party!!!" the song is by Aqua. go barbie!! the other video just came up with a Barbie search at that video station and it's this very funny bit with a couple of young adults playing with a whole load of barbies. at the blog i have a couple of other videos from uTube. One has a whole country western thing going on. and it's really funny although maybe for different reasons for diff people - but the new "cross dresser ken" ready for the toy shelf is worth wading through the 70''s waitress.

upcoming Sunset Artist Society show

Once again i have Juried into the Sunset Artist Society annual Art in the Avenues show at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park! hurray. I will have all new work this year!! and new pricing structures. I'm celebrating my first full year living and working in the Sunset with work created since the move. Most work will l be hung publicly for the first time! So everyone has to come and see my new and exciting work. Date June 2 & 3rd 10am to 5pm; Place: The Hall Of Flowers at 9th and Lincoln, San Francisco, this show is so exciting and this may be the final year as the show's organizers burn out!!!!! will others pick up the torch and keep this annual event hopping? will i be here in the Sunset another year???? should i get involved organizing????

other projects

in addition to getting my art shown i've been working on several projects. one is the %th annual altered barbie show at Market Street and Red Ink Galleries opening July 29th 2007. I'm working as an intern for ChatterBox Gallery which is Julie Andersen's baby. I get to see the inside view or producing and curating a show. So far i've worked on the call to artists, cleaning up and stylizing the pdf file and making a webpage (the beta is linked above). I also went to a meeting with SCRAP, a art and education recycling/ reuse kind of place. It looks like the will be helping out with workshops and providing materials t artists.
I'm also very involved at Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda. I'm working as their membership coordinator and put in hours gallery sitting. once again i'm seeing the art world from the inside of administration etc. I'm updating the data base, wring letters to members and working on additional forms of communication. so much to learn and it feels good, though hectic, to stretch myself.

time flies when you are busy!

this is an image i love from that raining sunday morning in Alameda.

I have been so busy i haven't even had time to post to say how busy i am!
my work is hanging again in the Aurora Gallery in Petaluma, this time in a show called May Day All Things Bright and Beautiful, again in Alameda at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in their Earth, Sky and Between exhibition, and i continue at the San Francisco Hall of Juvenile Justice in the school lobby. Plus i have two found art pieces in Brooks College in Sunnyvale. my windows and my cabinets with the silk inserts. frank Beete and brooks College opened this Friday and Aurora Colors the Sat. night before that.
wow!

alameda on camera opens tonight

the Gala Opening for Alameda on Camera is tonight at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts for 7 -9 PM. i'm so excited to see the exihibit. whe i dropped off sxome of m work I was so impressed withthe quality of everyone's work. thisis going to be an incredable show! the link above will take you to they website where there are good directions. it's at the corner of Lincoln and Paru which is a major intereection. http://www.frankbettecenter.org/

spring at last or Seeing Grean

i've been so incredibly busy lately and the weather has been so fine, i haven't sat still long enough to write a blog in quite some time! this flower petal isn't even a spring flower! it's from the dead of winter -- which around here is not so dead!

the TV of Tomorrow show last week was FANTASTIC! what fun we had! mostly the techies kept to themselves and the artists kept together, even though we'd never met before. the show was a conference for folks who work in the development end of interactive tv. the idea was to explore the possibilities. in keeping with that theme our art all had something to say about tv and many of us imagined where it might go.

one piece was a robot that was peopled remotely. there was a tv screen with the person's face broadcast live and you could talk to her and she'd talk back. the robot could move around the room because it was wireless. this was created collaboratively by some art students. it became the intersection for the artists and the techies. being so overtly techie as a piece it was easier for the techies to approach.

the was also a student journalist there so i had my first newspaper interview. i wonder if her published anything!

on Sunday i drove up to Petaluma to pick up my art from the Aurora Colors Gallery and had a nice chat with the owner. in the car i switched out frames cuz i hated that Plexiglas and took that piece and two others down to Ben Lomond for the "Seeing Green" show at the Santa Cruz Mountains art center http://www.mountainartcenter.org/

so i will have three rather green pieces there- the show opens friday night with a party and goes for a month. i still have work up at the Frank Bette Center in Alameda. for now it's in their "Green" show and that will be follow by our Alameda on Camera work. all 40 photographer's and our vision of the city!

i'm printing out - for the fourth time - the piece for that show as i write this. it has a great story behind it which i will share when i post the image here. i'm reprinting it to get the sharpening just right. it's very textured and it looked to grainy, then too blurry, and then grainy again.

i ended up sharpening different parts of the image differently. over all used "High Pass", for which you have to make a copy of your background layer because it is a destructive filter and when you are done you blend it with the original layer. I have some of my own tricks that i've added to this hidden gem. i like making the hi pass layer black and white to avoid adding a color cast and playing with the blending modes and opacity.

i made a separate layer for sections of the picture that had unique issues. one part for example, was so deeply orange / red that it was loosing detail when it printed. rather than desaturate (which i'll try if this doesn't work) i put this part on it's own layer and sharpened it in such a way as to emphasize the hidden yellows. this created a more textured look and lessened the orange / red blow out.

it's coming out of the printer now. well i won't decide til tomorrow whether i need to keep working on this image. often the print changed a bit as it dries over night.

matting and framing

matting and framing has been the order of the day! I know it's not exciting but it has to be done! I had to ready 5 pieces foe the TV of Tomorrow show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. the show opens tomorrow and i dropped off my work today. I finished all my matting and framing before the weekend so i could relax! i continue to improve but i have issues cutting the mats just so, and more now the problem has been a silly math error in calculating the size of the hole! I know how to determine the size of the margin - i subtract the size of the image from the size of the matte and divide by 2. so if my image is 10 by 18 and my mat is 16 by 20 then i subtract 10 form 16, to get the difference of 6, which is divided in 2 because there are 2 margins on each side. and then subtract 18 from 20 and get 2 divide by 2 is 1. well that would be a bad looking matte if it were 3 inches on the sides and only one top and bottom but you get the idea.
I have started using light mattes. i've always used black, but you can't actually get museum quality mattes that are black because the coloring ruins it's archival qualities. It's still acid free and all, it's just won't last quite as long. so people really expect off white. I'm not sure at all i like the way it looks! but i did it for the show. I got wooden frames so i could put the real eye screw things in it and i even used archival matt on the back and taped up the back to the frame! this reduces the effect of pollution. were i to get better at the taping part it would really protect it well, but I'm still leaving tiny wholes so it's not fully sealed. I guess this is boring but artist have to do many things that are maybe not so exciting! however, tomorrow night i go to the artist's reception for the TV of Tomorrow show and i expect that will be very exciting!

yosemite!

i took a day trip to yosemite with three other photographers. it was incredible, getting up at 3:15 am, pouring coffee in my gut and driving down to the park and ride to pick everyone else up and then getting off the peninsula before rush hour, through the coastal range across the valley and into the foothills in time for breakfast! we ate at happy burger on rt. 140. It was still early when we got to Yosemite and it was cloudy on and off (and snowing on and off too!) so we could take pictures all day. we left around 4PM and i was home by 7 at the latest. it was 500 miles round trip.

this image is of yosemite falls taken with my lensbaby without the macro and with the biggest aperture.

anyway, hit the link above and you can see so unedited shots that a threw up on the web.

thanks to Thomas, Lawernce and Jen for being part of the adventure!

Frank Bette Center

I have discovered this great place in Alameda called the Frank Bette Center for the Arts. I love this place! I took part in the Alameda on Camera event last weekend - the show will be in April. And in March starting tomorrow night, I will have a piece in the show called "Green."
the hype:
"The color green and... "green behind the ears," money, lettuce, salads, greener pastures, wealth, grass, parrots, jealousy, new, spring green, green eyes, "eat your veggies," summer green, green eggs and ham, clover, luck, Irish, St. Patrick, Greenpeace, Green Party, bowling greens, Green Bay Packers, field of green, green apples, fried green tomatoes, green hills, green belt, green algae, acid green."

I'll upload an image of the on accepted into the show maybe Sunday! I just saw how late it is so i have to go, but first wish me happy birthday!