Art Blog

My Student's Creations

2010-07-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

I am now teaching a teengage art class and an adult beginners painting class! I just HAVE to share some of the pieces that my students have been working on:

The girl who created this piece below just turned 16. She's amazing! I only have two students in my teenage class right now which is perfect for a lot of one-on-one attention.

Here are some pieces from my children's drawing class:

This girl is 6 and did this all on her own by following my steps:

And a 5 year old:

Another 6 year old:

As for the adult class, here's what they've been doing:

This lady had only dabbled in abstract shapes before and didn't know any painting technqiues, such as blending two colors together. She's going to outline with black again but she's basically done:

This is actually my mom. :P I begged her to take the class too to curb my nerves teaching adults. My mom has never painted anything moderately realistic before and this was a huge stretch for her. She still has a lot of work to do on it but it's turning out great! And I'm not sure why everyone has chosen to do birds out of my pile of photos, but they all look great!

It's hard to see how this lady's piece is looking from the angle but it looks SO beautiful!

The lady who does abstract brought one of her old pieces in to fancy it up. She's now working on adding depth to it and outlining in black. It's already looking much more professional!

We have one more student that just started that I actually used to play softball with! Small world!

Alice & Artists in Wonderland

2010-07-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

So here are some of the photos from the art show .I would have to say that it was a success. This is a 3-month event, with an online auction eventually being held on the website. Many people dressed up, creating a very colorful and beautiful setting. Anyway, onto the pics:

Crystal and I. Her piece is at the top and mine are on both sides.

Artist Kallee (holding up the Wonderland sign) and her sister:

Craig, Ruthie and their baby with David behind them:

Craig and one of his pieces (on the bottom):

My Queen of Hearts and Alice with two of my flower pots peeking through:

Saija:

Another one of Craig's pieces:

This girl was helping pour the tea for the Mad Tea Party. She was Kallee's friend:

Saija's Mad Hatter and my fashionable Alice (wasn't intended for the show, but made it in anyway):

Two of Christina's pieces. She adds fabric to her paintings. It's so neat!

The artists:

Stella and Lucy showed up and brought me a bottle of French Maid wine! :P

Donna and her whole gang showed up:

It was hard to move in there most of the time. Definitely a good thing!

Eric checking out one of Darby's pieces:

This little 4-year-old is my future boyfriend. He is the cutest little guy around!

That's all!

Alice & Artists in Wonderland exhibition

2010-07-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

For any San Diegans who read this, I am going to be in an Alice in Wonderland-themed art show this Saturday. Click the photo for more details. This is going to become a worldwide show though July-September, so if you or any artists you know would be interested in being part of this, hit the submission tab on the website. All pieces will be part of an online, silent auction. It's going to be a lot of fun!

2010-07-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Lots of art going on in my life. For starters, about a month or so ago when the semester was coming to an end, my photo teacher encouraged me to submit some of my photos to the Del Mar Fair. I didn't want to but she insisted and then bribed me with a free ticket to the fair. Sold! Well.....my pieces ended up getting first and second place!! That came completely unexpected, especially since BOTH prints did NOT turn out how they were supposed to. One turned out underexposed and too small and the other's colors weren't nearly as vibrant as I had edited them to be. Oh well!

Where our photos were hung:

Last week I did an art walk on University ave. in Hillcrest. It was a block party to launch this new light system that they installed to create a light show in the trees. Well, to sum it up, I didn't sell anything and got towed. It cost me 280 fucking $$ to get my car out of the tow yard. I have many opinions about tow companies and the people who work for them but I don't feel like getting into it right now.

Here I am at the show. This picture is on www.sdpix.com. Many photographers were there and newscasters.

I took this one of my show:

I think I need to stop painting portraits and start doing more landscapes. I always sell out of my landscapes quickly and have had many of these portraits for years!

Maybe a month ago I was commissioned to do a 6'X3' painting. It was by far the largest painting that I have ever done. It was for my friend's boyfriend who is a flight attendant. He paid me $80 for supplies and two free buddy passes to anywhere in the continential U.S. (that includes Puerto Rico and Costa Rica)! How exciting is that! The piece was to be mimicked by a piece that he had seen in a store. So here it is:

Here's the piece that I was basing it off of. Not identical but whatevs:

He loves it and that's all that matters. The painting is completely textured too which you cannot tell in the photo.

I've helped two gallery owners set up websites over the past two weeks. Make sure to check them out!

I'm going to be in shows at both of these galleries. This one HERE, I'm actually in a show tomorrow! Hopefully I will make it and take photos.

And I helped Hyacinthe put together a website for the Alice & Artists in Wonderland show. This is a worldwide show so if any of you artists want to be part of this, let me know! Here's her site: http://www.hyacinthebaron.com/. We're still working on the site. It's nowhere near done yet.

Rancho Santa Fe Event

2010-06-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today I was in an art show at a Rancho Santa Fe Polo event. The people hosting the event actually contacted me and invited me to showcase there, so that was exciting! I asked my aunt if she wanted to show with me and she said yes. I also got a friend a spot there too and ironically, the girl in the tent next to mine is actually a friend of mine as well! It was a total coincidence but so much fun having so many people I acutally knew at the event. Here are some photos:

We had VIP spots of the event:

Here was my friend's art. She does beautiful flower pots and jewelry:

And my other friend's art:

During halftime they have everyone turn the holes over, just like in Pretty Woman. They actually played that song while everyone was out there too which I thought was a bit funny since that movie is making fun of people like them.

Let's see, I've painted some new flower pots. I brought all of these to the event today:

Teaching

2010-06-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd show some of the art pieces that I have created so far for my drawing classes. The kids really love them:

The kids (ages 6-10) are actually going to paint this on a canvas next week for their final week!

And here's a painting I found that I created back in 2003:

2010-06-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the past week or so:

I found a just-emerged swallowtail coming out of my fennel plant when I was watering. :

The Jacaranda trees are blooming everywhere in San Diego. These are one of my favorite trees.

Photo Final + flower pot

2010-05-16T23:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here are the other photos for my HDR project. The bottom line is if you want your photos to look HDR-tastic, you have to be in a high-contrast setting, such as the beach. Clouds really help too. Oh well. Live and learn. These still completely qualify as HDR as they are 7 photos merged into one, they just don't look insane like these examples.

Hyacinthe was nice enough to put one of my paintings in the window next to hers. I just love her style. I plan on painting larger from now on. No more tiny paintings!

New Painting

2010-05-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

This is the Mad Hatter for the show. After these Alice in Wonderland paintings, I think I'm through doing the types of paintings that I've done for the past 10 years. It's time to become more professional and create paintings that people with money would actually want in their homes. I'm wasting my time with these childlike paintings, I feel.

Anyway, do you guys think it looks better with the text or without:

(My favorite quote from the book. I think I hate it on this painting though)

And I finished a flower pot last night. Took me about an hour. I plowed through it while watching "A Life Less Ordinary" which I definitely recommend.

Side one:

Side two:

Final Photo Project

2010-05-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Our last photo project is to be in HDR (High Dynamic Range). We were to set up our tripod and take photos of subjects that were still. We were then to take 7 photos without moving the camera one bit, but each photo was to be in a different shutter speed. That way we would have some photos that were too light, others that were too dark and one that was considered to be of perfect lighting. Then, you just plug your 7 photos into photoshop and use the "Merge to HDR" option. Then you can edit them as you would normally. Pretty cool.

Here are my first 3 of 7:

I decided to take photos of the homes in my neighborhood because they're so darn beautiful! Plus, I want more architecture photos in my portfolio.

I'll probably fiddle around with these a bit more and photoshop out the distractions before actually turning them it. There will be more to come within the next week or so. It's sad that our class is almost coming to an end. I've always loved taking creative classes where we're told what to do. That way it gives me an opportunity to think in ways that I may not have normally.

Queen of Hearts & Alice

2010-04-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

I just recently finished my Queen of Hearts for the 'Artists in Wonderland' show which will be this summer. The photo's a little cut off on the top.

And I worked a little more on my Alice:

Next up is the Mad Hatter.

Sammy bear:

There used to be a bunch of caterpillars on my fennel plant. I was told they would turn into Swallowtails. Well, now there's only one! I've concluded that either a bird got them or the gardner murdered them because I noticed they were missing the day after he worked on our yard. :( They sure were heffers! It's really fun watching them eat.

Another inspirational homes post....

2010-04-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

...because I just cannot get over all the beauty in this world!

Photo Project #4

2010-04-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

Our 4th photo project was to be a montage of several photos previously taken for class. Here they are:

Can somebody tell me how the heck I managed to turn the hundred dollar bill's #'s upside down but the face remained the same? So strange!

This one is a bit cramped, but whatever.

Okay, off to teach!

Alice

2010-04-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

Here's one of my pieces for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland show that I'm going to be in. I'm going to work a little more on it, but it's pretty much done. There's texture and sparkles all over this painting that did NOT show up on the damn camera! I think they really makes this piece what it is! Whatever.

Details:

It feels nice getting back into a consistent painting groove. Much more to come in the future hopefully!

Hillcrest's Farmer's Market

2010-04-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

I was given the wonderful opportunity this past Sunday to do a live painting at Hillcrest's Farmer's Market. I was located at Hillcrest's actual booth, as I was hired by them. They were kind enough to do a write-up on me too which I'm super excited about! You can read it here.

My God, my hair looks like a wild mess. How embarassing! I was celebrating my friend's b-day pretty late the night before and vanity was very low on my list the next morning. :/

Photoshoot with Diana

2010-04-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I did a photoshoot with my friend Diana. She wanted to do a shoot with her guitar, so that's what we did. She plays the guitar so beautifully and it felt like a 5 star photoshoot with her beautiful music in the air! It really added to the ambiance.

Anyway, my main gripes are that I'm beginning to think that my lense just cannot capture distance without it looking blurry. I'm going to need to confirm this with my teacher. Of course, it could also have something to do with the settings that I was using. Once again, these are still all shot in raw mode, which means I have to manually set the aperture and shutter speed (yikes!). Haha, that's no big deal to an experienced photographer, but it's obviously giving me some trouble.

I love the blue lights from the sun that appeared directly on her in this photo below. A little magical, no?

Ugh, see this one pisses me off because of how blurry it turned out. Whyyyyy??

John & Fish photos

2010-03-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

These are some of the most beautiful photos I have ever seen. You must check out John&Fish's photographs on Flikr.

Photo Adventure in Balboa

2010-03-28T00:23:00.000-07:00

oday I went shooting (photos) with my cousin and David. Once again, I am now exhausted. It must be a combination of this heat and all of the walking. I am going to have an early night tonight for sure. Here are the photos that I took of our event:

This is probably the best depth of field that I've ever done. I'm finally mastering the art of aperture and shutter speed!

This is actually a bum's feet and pants. He was sleeping in the field:

I certainly love spring time!

Oh, and I took another photo of my recent painting, but this time I took it with my Canon camera. I think this photo below looks more how it looks in real-life. The other one made everything too sharp and crazy. Wish I could have done better on the sunlight breaking through but I'm over it.

My Day

2010-03-21T00:45:00.000-07:00

I am so exhausted from nothing really. Today David and I hiked around a canyon in Balboa for about an hour and that really did me in! We got some pretty pictures though.

Sausage fruit:

Poor squirrely!

The canyon was FILLED with sourgrass blooms! Yellow and green everywhere!

It was rather majestic really.

This poor squirrel has a missing patch on his fur! Something must have bit him!

After our exhaustive journey we treated ourselves to a vegan lunch and a decadent non-vegan dessert!

Mmmmm....Chocolate cheesecake brownie and Buddah's Garden tea!!

That's all! Oooh, wait until I show the delicious 5-course meal my friend recently spoiled me with! Stella is an angel in disguise and I owe her BIG time! :)

Project #3

2010-03-18T00:48:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd photo project was to focus on urban geometric shapes. David was nice enough to be my model. These were taken in University Heights off of Park Blvd.

I still feel like these photos aren't crisp enough. I don't know if my lens is just not good enough to create super-crisp shots or if it's something that I'm doing. Wah.

2nd photo project

2010-02-26T00:51:00.000-08:00

Well, this shoot certainly turned out interesting. For our 2nd project in my photo class, we were to work on shadows and a person and then convert them into grayscale. Well, I was planning on using my friend Albert who is a part-time model, but our schedules were too conflicting to make it happen. That was a TOTAL bummer because I was really relying on using him. Quickly, I began going through my phone list and calling everyone up who I thought might make a good model that also lived nearby. I eventually fell upon my friend Chris' number. When I asked him if he wouldn't mind modeling for me, he thankfully said yes! So, without further ado, here's how the shoot went.

These first two photos are the ones that I used for the project (we were only to pick 2). These were the two best shots for the project I felt. The sun was setting and once again we weren't allowed to use flash. That was incredibly annoying as I could not get a crisp shot. Eventually I said "fuck it" and began using flash for the sake of getting some good shots, yet knowing I wouldn't be able to use them for my class.

(this shot would have turned out so much better with flash dammit!!)

As the very short shoot progressed, things began getting increasingly ridiculous. The boys were naturals though and they jumped at the chance to be photographed! I was really shocked to see their enthusiasm with being photographed. Perfect for me!

Chris has so many strange things at his house:

At this point, I began using my flash. Notice the increase in quality as well.

Okay, I was NOT expecting this stunt!

Uh oh, Chris has fireworks in his hand....

Things actually got really dramatic here. Chris should NOT have lit that fire cracker. We were on a roof in the heart of downtown San Diego with larger buildings all around us, it was extremely loud, it wouldn't go out, there is a liquor store below us, it could have burned the roof, etc. Although it was a lot of fun. :P

Back to normalcy....

Best pencil sharpener ever (the eyes usually light up when you sharpen it):

First photo assignment

2010-02-19T00:52:00.000-08:00

We had our first photo assignment in my photo class. Quite simply, we were only allowed to use the manual settings on our camera, meaning we would have to determine the correct aperture and shutter speed for each shot. We also had to shoot in RAW and were not allowed to use our flash. It was really frustrating actually because I had to change the settings with every shot as the lighting was constantly changing. Oh well, I know this is excellent practice!

Test shot in North Park:

So, for my first photoshoot I decided to head up to Escondido and go to two buddhist colonies. The first spot was the Deer Park Monastery:

It's so peaceful and quiet up here.

I really need to work on my close-ups:

I was seeing just how close I could go:

Afterward, we ended the day in mosaic land, which is another hidden spot in Escondido. Just one shot:

A wonderful Valentines weekend. :)

As of late

2010-01-30T01:06:00.000-08:00

Two Sundays ago I shot another wedding! I was very honored to be asked to be the photographer for this very special event. I charged very little because I know that I do not have the proper equipment (good flash, for one) or even a great lense to produce *amazing* results. That will come in good time though. So, all in all, I am not thrilled with the results, but then again I am never thrilled with anything I create. I hold my standards extremely high, but am glad that I do that because it always pushes me to become even better!

The wedding was indoors with very dim lighting. Like I wrote above, I just didn't have the right equipment to get good, crisp shots with this setting. I worked with what I had though and took a lot of time editing them. Here's a few shots from the wedding:

The full wedding can be seen HERE.

P.S. Does anyone know of a good free website (not Youtube) where I could upload my videos? I'm having copyright issues with photobucket and I'm sure Youtube would pose the same problem. I don't like how Vimeo videos look when presenting a wedding. I want something a bit more classy, ya know?

And other things recently:

I finally got my beads back from the garage at my condo. The tenant recently moved out (he has to go to Afghanistan, poor guy) and while doing the walk-through, I saw that my beads were still hanging on the wall in the garage!! The've really helped make my house come together. Look:

My duvet came in the mail last week. I really love the beautiful fabric:

How about some recent shoe purchases of mine:

Very Happy

2010-01-10T01:09:00.000-08:00

Last night was the art show that I was in. My piece will be hanging there for a full month so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will sell. I'm asking $250 for it. 25% will go to the gallery, which is completely fair of course. It looks like I'm going to be in another show next month too, which is a benefit for endangered animals. Yay!

Here are some photos of the show. I wasn't sure if photos were allowed, so I only took a few inconspicuous shots:

(mine is in the middle)

(2nd from the right) Haha, my friend on Flikr joked that my girl looked scared being next to so many vatos! She can handle it though. She's tougher than she looks!

I thought this was cute:

We then walked around all of the galleries since Northpark has an art walk once a month which was going on this night. I was really loving the atmosphere, being around so many ecletic individuals, great music, good food and wine, etc. I had a lot of fun.

Behind the musicians is a wall filled with four murals. My friend, Craig, painted this one maybe 6 months back:

It's of his wife and was inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

I thought that this was a cute mural too:

And a couple other shots for good measure:

These are fushia flowers and berries in my parent's front yard. For the record, fuschia berries are actually edible and make great jams! They're rather tasteless alone, but if you were to add sugar to them, they would taste great!

Emma and I going for a stroll:

Good bye.

I feel it's time for an inspirational dream home(s) post

2010-01-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

This one really pumps me up to garden!