Terri Lowenthal at CULT

I stopped by the new, adorably tucked-away location of CULT / Aimee Friberg Exhibitions the other day to see Terri Lowenthal's solo show "Psychscapes." Though I'm not always a big fan of the verbiage galleries use to explain what an artist is doing, in this case I think some of the copy about the show does an admirable job or articulating what's going on here -

"Terri Loewenthal investigates the sublime expanse of land and sky romanticized in the still-potent mythology of Utopian California...

These single-exposure, in-camera compositions utilize optics developed by the artist, to compress space instead of time....

Standing in front of the works, one is brought to the sensation of beholding a vista in all its glory...

Her capture of daylight’s theater of light against a geometry of mountain vista alludes to a hallucinogenic or kaleidoscopic viewing of landscape...

The perceived idealism of these surreal environments nods to both aura photography and the distorted experience of psychedelia, long-associated with California."

The colored frames are a nice touch, too. And the fresh raw space (hidden away behind a residential building in the Western Addison) makes a perfect setting for these gems.

Color Poem #42

I noticed the other evening
that Bill’s lavender toothbrush
almost exactly matched his
pale purple gingham check shirt

Marlon Bundo

Let me just tell you, it has been quite a delightful thing for the past week to work at the publisher of the surprise release and tremendous hit Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. If you're not familiar with the story of this book, or have been wondering how and why a popular tv host suddenly published a sweet children's book about gay bunnies and democracy benefiting the Trevor Project and AIDS United, I recommend both the complete story over on the Chronicle Books blog, here, and the relevant bit of Last Week Tonight, here.

In Which I Illustrate Roxane Gay (What the Ever-Loving Wonderful Hell?!)

Holy crap, did I really never post here yet about this amazing thing that happened to me?! Where I got to illustrate an essay on memoirs by one of my all-time writer heroes Roxane Gay for the inaugural issue of a brand-new print magazine called You?! Well, it happened. It really really happened and I can still hardly believe it. All thanks to the amazing art director Brian McMullen for taking a flier on my brand-new-baby-illustrator self. The magazine is indeed so brand new that it does not yet have an online presence. But I have an early copy and have taken photos of my bits of it - where I drew the covers of the various books Ms Gay talks about in various book formats (hardcover, paperback, table, audio-book, etc.) - for you to see here.

Pamplemousse La Croix

I made this drawing of a can of La Croix (Pamplemousse, of course) back in the winter for Artists Take Action holiday auction. It was an honor and a delight to be among a fantastic roster of artists and help raise money for Americares.

Sheila Hicks

I happened to google the artist Sheila Hicks the other day. I already knew I liked her work, but I had not previously known how adorable she personally is. Photographers take full advantage of this fact - draping and snuggling her adorable form in her gorgeous artwork whenever a portrait of the artist is needed. Let's enjoy some together this Friday, shall we?

photo above by Giulia Noni

photo by Christobal Zanartu

photo by PhotoSenso

photo by Christobal Zanartu

photo by Christobal Zanartu

photo by Christobal Zanartu

photo by Christobal Zanartu

photo by Guy Bell

photo by Guy Bell

photo by Guy Bell

Oasis For Girls Career Night

Last week I got to go down to the Women's Building and have the honor of being a mentor at one of Oasis for Girls' Career Nights. Rather than try to paraphrase what Oasis is and what they do, here is their own mission statement from their site:

Oasis For Girls partners with young women of color aged 14-18 from under-resourced communities in San Francisco to cultivate the skills, knowledge, and confidence to discover their dreams and build strong futures, redefining their communities in their wake. Our Springboard Series of programs empowers girls to pave paths to successful academic and career goals; understand social justice issues and advocate for change in their communities; and develop confidence, advocacy, and self-care tools for healthy growth through high school and college, the workplace, and beyond.

At Oasis, we start with a baseline of the validity and value of girls’ individual experiences, and support them in developing the tools they already have. Oasis’ three programs—RISE Life Skills, CREATE Arts Education, and ENVISION Career Exploration—each focus on key tenets of holistic girls’ development.

At a time that falls in the middle of each of those three programs, they host a Career Night where professional women from various fields come and mix and mingle and chat with the girls directly, one on one, about our careers and how we arrived at them, yes, but also about the girl's own interests and dreams, questions they have about college, adult life, and so on.

I realized several things throughout the evening - the first was how passionate and focused and amazing these girls were (way more so than I remember being as a teenager). And the second was that while we were indded there to impart information about career paths and possibilities, we were also there to help the girls practice a particular key social skill. If you call it "small talk" it sounds diminished and unimportant (and, not at all coincidentally, feminine) whereas if you call it "networking" it sounds horribly cynical and corporate (and, not coincidentally, macho). Instead, let's call it what it is: the fine art of conversation.

 

Color Poem #41

the vase and the ball are
almost but not quite
the same color

the vase we’d call lilac
the ball more orchid
with orange bits



vase by Heath Ceramics / one-of-a-kind paint ball by Leah Rosenberg

Shopping for Fabric

The other weekend we went shopping for new window curtain fabric (more about the actual exciting project to come on another day) at legendary San Francisco fabric emporium Britex. Above is the luscious raspberry-and-white print of giant flowers and pomegranates we ultimately picked out. Below, a selection of snapshots of other options we considered. (We had one among our party, and I bet you can guess which one, who loved all sparkly and glittery things, as you will see).