Gajasimha

2-5-2010
In celebration of the grand opening party at the Viracocha store I crafted this elephant creature ealier today. Inspired by a photo from today's New York Times of a sculpture of Vietnamese origin, an 'imaginary creature'.

An awesome night of music and the premiere of the 16th and Mission documentary!

Expressing Geometry

From 1-28-10.
A friend shot this picture. Every week I draw some chalk outlines for a poetry group that meets in the Mission.
Thursday nights, 10 p.m. 16th and Mission

Feathered Serpent

This is another promotional piece done at the 21st and Valencia location. Done over the days 1-13 and 1-14.
It is a representation of the feathered serpent god, a.k.a Quetzoquatl. Also called Viracocha.
Experimented more with the wet blending technique. This time by pouring small amounts of water onto the surfaces. Not ideal, but it worked pretty well, giving the appearance of brushstrokes. I think the next use of this mode will be using a sponge.

The atmosphere on Valencia is relaxed and supportive. The piece caught a lot of people's eyes as they went by.

Lotus Hue

This is a quick one from earlier today, Jan 8, 2010.
In support of a friend's store opening I did some mural work as promotion. The store is on 21st and Valencia and is called 'Viracocha'. (One of the names for the feathered serpent god in south america.)
The official opening will be around the 15th or 16th. The store will be art and antiques by day and performance by night.
Spent a few hours drawing this lotus shape in front of the space, and a couple friends with me added their own sections. Great fun. It was a little bit difficult as locations go for being directly on Valencia street with a lot of foot traffic. I had to be constantly aware of being in peoples' way, and the passage of baby strollers smeared the work a bit.
It is an exciting venue for art and activities and everyone is looking forward to the scene percolating there.

Gradient Lion

From the afternoon of 1-6-10.
Got a great drawing session in today. The first chance I've had to draw in dry weather in weeks and I've been feeling the abscence.

This piece, as with the last, made use of wet chalk from the bins that had been left outside in the rain. The muddy, pasty texture of the saturated pieces calls to mind finger painting as a kid.
Its a study of another one of the lion statues of ancient persia that I like. Working in the middle of the day was beneficial, making use of the little bit of sun that was available. The rest of the day was overcast and it got pretty chilly towards the end.

This was at the location at 20th and Valencia that I like. Recently, the cracked sections of sidewalk there, on the border of the zipcar lot, had been redone. It almost seemed that the new layout of sidewalk squares was arranged neatly for chalk murals. The panel in the center called to me!

Clouds and Face

From 12-15-09

With a big bin of chalk that had been left out in the rain, I started blending colors and ended up with this swirling collection of lines.
The messy, clumpy nature of wet chalk is definitely a change of pace. With the consistency of paste, and spreading and blending more like paint, experimenting with this mode was intruiging.

Diamond and Portrait

This is the finished work from Wednesday, December 2nd at the Project One Gallery, 16th and Rhode Island.
After seeing some of my work around, the nice folks at Project One on Portrero Hill invited me to do some art there for a gallery event called 'Everything is Beautiful'. I was excited to be given this chance, but time constraints worked against me on this one. It was a nice experience to have done this work for them, and I hope it leads to more work in the future. On the Monday of that week I drew in the outlines, but on Tuesday I wasn't able to get any drawing time in. On Wednesday afternoon I got as much done as I could; a sort of haphazard rush job compared to the 3 or more days I usually spend on a piece. My web designer friend was there to hang out with me while I was busy with it, working on his laptop. By the end of the day it was so cold that my fingers weren't working very well and I had to throw in the towel.
Ultimately I think everyone liked the art I made, though for me it was a bit of a disappointment. I would've liked the end result much more if I had more time.