saturday at the sac

Yesterday was Saturday and I made sure that I was in my studio at the Sacramento Art Complex - also known as the SAC - as were many of my fellow artists. At one point (okay, many points,) I wandered around to catch my fellow artists in the act of creating and sometimes just hanging out in their studios.

I started on the second floor, since that's where my studio is, and caught Andrew Hindman sketching, but he consented to posing for a shot for me as well. Andrew is a big guy who could seem imposing except for his very laid back demeanor and beautiful artwork. We had a great chat about home studio spaces and houses and school districts...

Kathy McMahon is one of the newest additions to the SAC building; she was working on a parrot portrait in pastels when I walked in on her. Kathy is one of our most consistent tenants, putting in long regular hours at her studio here - very impressive!

I caught Marbo Barnard working on a small koi pond image, also in pastels. She had recently received an award plaque from the National Pastel Society, I believe. I think Marbo has received more awards than I can keep up with - at any rate, the plaque is nice on her studio wall, but not as impressive as seeing her actual artwork.

Back down the hall across from my studio is my new friend Brenda Boles. I caught Brenda at the easel, too, fine tuning a big floral painting in acrylics. Brenda was leaving a little early to see her granddaughter's gymnastics meet, which was a very important date, indeed.

But before Brenda left, she came into my studio to catch me at my work table - that doesn't happen too often on film, as I'm usually the one behind the camera lens - but I do manage to get work done in my studio, even on social days like yesterday.

A little later I found my way downstairs, to see what was going on down there. I found Allison Carlos in her studio painting, too, in oils, I think... but she stopped to chat with me a bit.

Down the hall a little I caught Pat Orner in Studio 12 working on a tennis themed piece in acrylics, I think...

as was her studio mate, Keith Hopkins. We talked a bit about upcoming shows and schedules and I remembered that I'm loaning them my canopy for an event in Roseville early next month. I'm sure they would have reminded me before too long.

Time to get back to my own studio - if you find it looking sort of like this you'll know I'm not far away: food & drink on the work table, open drawers with more food (I was hungry!) Sunglasses out, open bag on the floor and empty camera case on the stool...

I really did get work done at my studio yesterday, besides visiting with my neighbors. In between it all, I completed "Garcia Bend" (number three of only ten darkroom prints.) It's one of those pieces I've just fallen in love with: all the colors fell together just right, a sign that there's some wonderful creative energy at the Sacramento Art Complex!

remembering

As bad as it may seem, sometimes I almost get too busy at the business of art to do the actual artmaking - but today I made the time and got to work, finally finishing the piece that has been at my work table for a while now -

This piece has taken a little more time than some in this final phase of coloring, as there are a lot of little details that I really wanted to get just so - working in the texture of the bark in the trunk and all the little tiny naked branches - and then getting the color just so...

Finally done, I've titled this large version of this image with the writing and leaf overlay "Remembering Summer" (Tree Story #140.) The whole feeling of memories from when my children were smaller when I took the photo, of remembering the park there before construction and development, looking back at the fond memories of summer long after it's gone... a little melancholy but then the promise of another summer coming that you can see in the sunny little spots of color on the trunk and the leaf. That's how I try to see life in general; sometimes sadly looking back on what is gone, but always looking forward to something good again.

after dinner

June 18, 08
after dinner
backyard
warm but not hot
air conditioner running - just stopped
birds chirping: sparrow tweet tweet tweets; a finch sweee's, trills; somebody else sip-sip sip-sip sip-sip.
Mike's got a sprinkler going in his backyard; the pond fountain water runs steady.
A dirt bike brrrps softly in the distance then a harley sound starts up closer and drives off.
Kids play in a backyard not too far away.
House finch lands on the pool fence then back into the refuge of the trees.
Rosie finds one of her sticks, brings it to the center of the lawn to chew on.
Fish come near the surface of the pond looking for more food from me.

my babies in their new home

Sometimes when I sell my artwork it goes into homes I know well, other times it goes into homes I've never seen. And occasionally I get to take artworks to their new homes and install them personally. This is something that I enjoy quite a bit - I actually find art installation to be quite satisfying, as the final step in the creative process.

Today I installed three large originals into a lovely, loving home, where they fit just right. From left to right, the works are titled "American River Reflection," "Property Line" and "America River Reeds." They were chosen for their subject matter, the personal touch of the journaling on "Property Line" and their compatibility as a grouping. It was fun for both the collector and for me to bring it together as a group and then install them all.

While not all of us have the same style or tastes, this is actually a home decorated much as I might decorate my own. The owner describes her style as casual, and I guess that fits me, too. Not too rigid, comfortable, open & airy - and perfect for these three pieces of art.

2nd Sat @ SAC

Last night was Second Saturday and in Midtown Sac that means art openings and major party time.

Here in the SAC Building it means artists like Allison Carlos getting ready, putting labels on at the last minute...

Artists like Kristen Hoard bringing flowers in to show off cool metal art vases...

And artists like Michelle MacKenzie just generally pulling themselves together to greet the crowds of art lovers on their way.

Other artists like Misha, have made cool canvas signs to help art lovers find the way through the halls...

Some, like Brenda Boles, greet early guests who know how to beat the crowd and come early.

Others, like Steve Memering, show their attitude for the camera, though Steve is probably one of the least dramatic artists I have ever met...

And finally, my studio mate, Wendell Minshew, uses my little snapshot camera to create a little art at the end of the night.

simply drawing

simply drawing a succulent

studio work

Today was a studio day, meeting with a collector, getting ready for Second Saturday & yes, even working on a piece of art.

So just imagine you're standing in the studio, looking at the left corner by the door...

turning slowly to your right, seeing my open drawer (so obviously I'm working)...

and then looking farther to your right...

then peeking over my shoulder to see the amazing tree piece that I'm working on right now. (I think the tree is amazing, don't you?)

Or come see for yourself on Saturday - I'll be there from noon until around 5 p.m., maybe run out to grab a bite to eat, then get back for the party from six until whenever...

town & country art fiesta

Just a couple shots I managed to snap at the 50th Annual Art Fiesta this weekend.

Nice weather, wonderful art lovers, great artists & great fun -

And a big thank-you to Donna & Kristy of the Sacramento Suburban Kiwanis, and all their volunteer guys who work so hard to put this great show on every year!

zazzle

Sometimes I spend alot of time working but I don't have anything physical to show for it - sometimes it's subtle like tweaking the website, sometimes it's a new venture I'm trying out. Lately I've found a pretty cool site that lets me design products with my images on it and put them up for sale. check out my gallery at Zazzle and you'll see what I've been doing. And if you've got a request for a particular image on a particular product, just email me & I'll see what I can do!

whiteboard journaling

I took another class of ninth graders out into the wild blue yonder of their highschool campus today. My journaling was on my whiteboard, so I thought I'd document it.

I didn't have the time to shoot the second set of journaling on the whiteboard until we got back into the classroom. The last thing I'd want to do is make kids late for their next class for my documentation!

new drawers

Sometimes it's the little things that make me proud of myself. This week I went over to my local Ikea (which I've loved ever since I first saw one in Germany) and bought myself a small utility drawer unit for the studio. Gotta have somewhere to put those little things, you know. So I took the box of unassembled pieces with me to the studio today & put it all together - I even had to bend metal for the drawers themselves! (It was made to bend easily, I admit.) It just gave me a real sense of accomplishment to have them all done & start putting things into them!

(You can see my cute little set of drawers right next to my worktable here.)

Oh yeah, and I started painting on a pretty cool piece, too... I'm pretty excited about how this is going to turn out as well. ;)

another weekend art fair

I spent my weekend at another weekend art fair, this one in Mountain View, and conveniently documented in this photo.

I'm trying to remember to document my own booth for each of these fairs I do this year, if for no other reason than to remember all the different ways I've laid it out. This time I was fortunate to get a corner spot, so I wanted to make sure to take advantage and leave two open walls on my canopy.

I was also fortunate to be neighbors with my good friend Michelle MacKenzie again - who got the corner spot across the walkway from me.

The neighbor to my side became a brand-new friend, Paul Micheal Meredith, a folk harper and harmonica player. We got to listen to his calm soothing music and then to his cool blues music all weekend long. I'm a blues fan myself, so it was pretty cool.

My booth faced probably one of the coolest bookstores ever, Book Buyers. Not only is this a great place on the inside, but it looks good on the outside, too.

It was pretty hot this weekend, so there always seemed to be clumps of people in the shade of the young sycamores that line the street. In another twenty years or so, this will be one of the shadiest art fairs around.

teaching journaling

Today I was teaching some journaling techniques to another high school class - my white board was my journal sample on the spot. I gave the students the challenge to make observations about one of the trees in the quad where we were so we could identify them when we got back to class. A couple were silver maples, easy enough, but another wasn't in my tree book. I'm guessing it's a landscape tree, maybe my garden books will tell me about it. So I went back to really journal and record the tree myself, for better reference later.


(click on image to enlarge)


(click on image to enlarge)

I got a digital shot of it, too, just for kicks. I'll have to figure this out later in my spare time...

sac building soft opening

The Sacramento Art Complex is officially open and running with it's "soft" opening Second Saturday reception this past weekend. (That would be the weekend I'm just now recovering from.)

Though the reception didn't officially begin until 6 p.m., there was a trickle of people beginning to come through around 5 p.m., as I was darting out the door to go get a bite to eat, then come back, get changed & freshen up from being at the East Sac Garden Tour Boutique all day. It was nearly 6 o'clock by the time I made it back to my studio and opened it all up.

Wendell had been in the studio all day getting his work up on the walls - which at one point meant knocking mine down on the other side - and had left to shower & change at around 4 o'clock, then he got back right around the time I did. (By the way, no artwork was harmed, so all was well!)

More and more people were coming through by six, and by six-thirty, there was a steady stream of humanity until about nine-thirty, when the crowd started to get thinner. We sometimes had alternating crowds in our spaces, and I managed to think of taking a couple photos during a brief pause in my studio.

The whole building was hopping with art lovers and artists, catching all that they could take in and getting a chance to talk with each other in an intimate setting. There were still people coming through at 10 o'clock, when I finally had to call it quits and shut the studio doors - next time won't be so rough, since I won't be working a weekend show at the same time.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I actually caught another artist friend, Kristen Hoard chatting at the top of this image - it's great how the whole complex is becoming a community of artists - and we've already got a few ideas about inviting the rest of the world into our community for more than just Second Saturdays. I'll be posting more on all that later, I'm sure.

(mostly) ready for second saturday

I've gotten more work into the new studio in midtown Sacramento - that would be in the new Sacramento Art Complex at 2110 K Street, near 21st Street, Studio #21 -

Trying to get everything ready for our "soft opening" this Saturday, the Second Saturday of the month is art reception time here in lovely Sacramento. If you're in the area, you are invited to come see me from 6-9 p.m. Heck, you can come in from out of town, too, if you want!

Lot's of activity going on in the building right now - a dozen or more artists are just moving in now like me, everyone going like crazy to be ready for Saturday. I can't wait to see how everyone transforms their own space. I guess I'm a little ahead of alot of artists, but I've got classes to be in tomorrow & a weekend show to set up & do, too -

One of my print racks is in here, the other one will be with me at the East Sac Garden Tour Boutique this weekend (Sat-Sun 10-4 at David Lubin Elementary) leaving me just enough time to run over to midtown for our first reception!

I've pretty much got everything in that will fit right now - even managed to sit down and get some painting done today, for the first time in quite awhile -

moving into new studio

Went and picked up artwork from the Artisan gallery tree show and took it down to my new studio in midtown Sacramento - I actually got a couple pieces of furniture in there last week - moving in little bits and pieces.

Some of the work is from the Visions of Heaven show last December, too. (I'll be rotating some work through here, as it won't all fit!) I thought that the work would take more space, but I've still got room to spare...

More Heaven art pieces flanked by "Quercus Woodland" tree art - still room for more, so I'll have to bring more in soon.