DAISY ENEIX ~ Dreamers, Lovers, Beasts

Hairier, Scarier & Waterfalled

2012-01-10T00:50:00.000-08:00

Daisy Eneix Misogi New Year Imp, 2012, in progress, detail

Well I've made a lot of progress on my little Imp. She's got some fur now and her own waterfall and a mossy, green environment (still in progress). So, a number of folks called her a Demon. I wish to explain how and why she is not a Demon. She is most definitely an Imp.

What is an Imp?
Historically, Imps are mischievous, unpredictable magical characters that may assist Demons, Witches, or Wizards. Whereas a Demon is usually a colossal, independent force, an Imp is smaller, lesser, more ambiguous creature. It also likes to have company.

My Imp also has a bit of inspiration from:
Kitsune, which are the enchanted, shape-shifting female fox spirits of Japan,
The goblins in the story-poem The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti,
the monkey god Hanuman from the Ramayana Epic.
And other unspoken ones.

An Imp is an enchanted creature that is definitely going to add chaos to your day.
Whether or not you regret that chaos is never entirely clear. Perhaps it will show you a pleasure you never thought existed, make you laugh at yourself very deeply, or bring you a little secret knowledge or a treasure. It may just as likely bite, claw, steal, kidnap and cause mischief of all kinds.

An Imp will undoubtedly sharpen your awareness of yourself (and your possessions - it is best not to take your eyes off of them when it is around). It always comes with darkness and light, though not necessarily both on the same day. Imps are very devoted and loyal in their own code of what morality is but it is not a human code and therefore makes sense only to the Imp. You can learn a lot from an Imp but it is also best not to spend too much time in its company, lest you lose your way back into reality.

For me, the Imp is the perfect metaphor for the artist's dilemma. Sunlight living is glorious and joyful and feeds the soul and body at the root; however, it is night, darkness and mystery that feed the art and the heart. Both together are essential, but I have yet to find what my own line of balance is. I have definitely experimented with going too far in either direction. However, this particular little Imp seems very much at home in the daylight environment of a lush waterfall. I think that's a good sign.

New Year Misogi Imp, 2012 (stage III, color added)

2012-01-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

She's still in progress. My vision for her is that she will be nestled in a waterfall. Also, she doesn't have her fur yet and she obviously needs some. I have a feeling she's very hairy.

Misogi is a Japanese physical and spiritual cleansing ritual that usually happens in the morning, under a waterfall. The freezing cold water cleans and awakens. I imagine her surprising various pilgrims come to bathe, with unpredicable results ;)

Daisy Eneix, New Year Misogi Imp, 2012 (detail, in progress)

I think I'm finding out that I really love painting in ink on wood. Maybe even more than printmaking. Shhhh.

PS - Next post has more images working up to this one

The little Imp is begun...

2012-01-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

This is with the gesso added

New Year's Eve day, drawing on wood

I first sketched her in summer, 2011

DAISY'S DRAWING TIPS for artistic self-sanity

2011-12-29T22:59:00.000-08:00

Drawing for myself again for several days after months of a hectic teaching schedule feels amazing!! But I seem to forget some very simple things every time I take a big break. With this list maybe I'll remember better:

1. Find the sharpener and the good erasers** BEFORE sitting down to draw. Put the sharpener and erasers in a place that you can reach without getting up.

2. If you are getting too involved in your drawing and don't want to bother to sharpen your pencil, SHARPEN THE GODDAMN PENCIL. You will regret it if you don't. No, really, you will. Sharpen the pencil. Now.

3. If you are a lefty, start on the right side of the page. If you wind up wanting to add something to the right later, protect the rest of the drawing with a sheet of vellum.

4. If you are going to work on a drawing for hours, don't use the Staedtlers. They smear. Use the Tombows. They don't.

5. Do not draw the legs before determining the tilt of the pelvic cradle.

6. If you are drawing someone with male parts, do not wait to draw in the genital details later the way you do with female parts. This is because the penis blocks some of the view of where the legs come out of the pelvis. If you draw the legs first and then sketch the penis in later you are likely to discover later that you have misjudged where the legs begin and that you have to draw them all over again. Being that legs and feet take a hell of a lot longer to draw than a penis, this is very sad.

7. If the top half looks great and it doesn't need a bottom half, remember that a drawing doesn't always require a bottom half.

8. If you have not moved for hours, get up and shake it out. Also, do not get so absorbed that you ignore nature calling until it is shouting. Your body and (believe me) your line quality are suffering.

9. If it's getting on towards three in the morning and your drawing looks great except one part, just stop. You can fix it tomorrow or more likely not even remember what the part was the next time you see it.

**Throw out your shitty erasers. At best, they sit around fooling you into thinking you have erasers when you don't, at worst, you'll get desperate and use them and we all know that ends in tears (here both meanings of the word apply).

Now let's see if I remember to look at this next time I have to take a big break...

Final Show 'n' Tell at Oxbow

2011-07-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

The Pinnacles of Summer Studios ;)

Looking

Clint's Prints

Suzanne

Craig

Kathleen

Leslie

Me with large works in progress

Great spaces to work in

Our Lady of the Root

2011-07-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Daisy Eneix, untitled (in progress), 3x4' painting on panel

Detail of painting in progress at Oxbow. I brought out the wood grain using colored inks, then added the figure. The initial drawing was created by scanning an existing life drawing sketch I had and combining it with images of tree roots on photoshop; tracing it onto vellum and then tracing it again and adding and altering details. When I finally had a design I like I enlarged it onto the wood panel, first painting the shape in gesso (transparently) and then working over it in inks. This was the first time I used photoshop to create an initial composite - actually several - to see what worked best. The amount of sketching and erasing time it saved me in the initial planning stages was phenomenal.

Daisy Eneix, untitled, 3x4' painting on panel

Here the luna moths have been added. These were made by mixing gesso and ink initially, not layering as much, so they appear more opaque. Mica was added for iridescence. The bird and nest also received some more color. I still haven't chosen a title.

Luna Moth - ink on panel

2011-07-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

There's more to tell about this small detail of a 3x4 foot painting I made,

but this is a good beginning.

Painted Stages of Spiderweb/Trap

2011-07-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

First I made some sketches from reference.

Using the drawing as inspiration, I layered ink and white gesso on a long, narrow panel. This is a detail of it.

This is a detail of the final work - with added ink, pencil, colored glazes, and acrylic 'ooze'

This is a detail of the top of the work. I wanted the web to look strong, thick and a little bit worn. Parts of it are incised into the wood. I had a close look at a number of webs and was surprised to find double-strands. While trying to collect reference, I learned that spider webs can be right there in front of you but not appear in photographs at all. You have to be in the light just right for your camera to see them. I thought that was pretty eerie.

Oxbow Painting Retreat

2011-07-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

This summer I had the opportunity to work alongside some incredible artists at Oxbow school. The Oxbow summer adult program allows artists to work on independent projects with experienced and encouraging facilitators. For three years I participated in printmaking, but this year I tried painting for the first time.

I had painted before in oil on canvas and watercolor, but I wanted to do something different. Normally I do a lot of preparatory drawings for my prints, and the drawings themselves are interesting. I was hoping to somehow combine qualities of drawing, painting and printmaking all together. I wound up using ink, pencil and paint on wood with gesso and also, sometimes, carving directly into the wood. I found that creating white gesso shapes based on my drawings did have a printmakerly feel. I also learned that I could work with ink directly on wood, over a clear-gesso, or over white gesso and get very different effects. Pencil also worked on the wood, but it dulled very quickly so I had to sharpen it a lot.

Both the subject matter and the media of my work appears to be shifting from what it was before. Changes like this are at once challenging, because I can't rely on what I knew from before, and exciting, because I can approach things with more of a beginner's mind. Having such a supportive group and helpful teachers was the perfect environment in which to explore this new material.

UNDERWATER DANCE DREAMING

2011-05-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Haunting, powerful, devastatingly beautiful, not what you'd expect...watch the clip...

click here - SAN FRANCISCO BALLET'S THE LITTLE MERMAID

The Little Mermaid
a ballet by John Neumeier after Hans Christian Andersen

Composer:
Lera Auerbach
Choreography, Scenic, Costume, and Lighting Design:
John Neumeier
Staged by:
Kevin Haigen, Leslie McBeth, Niurka Moredo, Lloyd Riggins
Lighting Realized by:
Ralf Merkel
World Premiere: April 15, 2005—The Royal Danish Ballet; Copenhagen, Denmark
Hamburg Version: July 1, 2007—The Hamburg Ballet; Hamburg, Germany
San Francisco Ballet Premiere: March 20, 2010—War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California
Music originally commissioned by The Royal Danish Ballet. Current performing version (Hamburg Version) commissioned by The Hamburg Ballet, made possible by the generous support of the Foundation for promoting the Hamburg State Opera (“Stiftung zur Förderung der Hamburgischen Staatsoper”).

The 2010 United States premiere of The Little Mermaid was made possible by Lead Sponsors Richard C. Barker and The E.L. Wiegand Foundation, and by Major Sponsors Suzy Kellems Dominik, Jennifer Caldwell and John H. N. Fisher, Stephen and Margaret Gill Family Foundation, Alison and Michael Mauzé, and Sponsors Gail and Robert Smelick.

The Little Mermaid

In The Little Mermaid, Hamburg Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer John Neumeier blends dance, dramatic storytelling, and spectacle into a stunning interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fable. With choreography, sets, and costumes all by Neumeier, this ballet—as much theater as it is dance—reveals the depths of the choreographer’s imagination. And it demands the heights of artistry from the dancers, who must venture into deeply emotional terrain in order to convey the ballet’s full message. Neumeier elevates a fantasy into a sophisticated portrayal of psychological transformation and the resilience of the spirit, human or otherwise.

Neumeier created The Little Mermaid for the Royal Danish Ballet in 2005 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Andersen’s birth. Of all the famous writer’s stories, the choreographer chose this one because of its “very particular concept of love,” he says. “Love that is so strong that it can overcome boundaries, that it can transport her to new worlds, although it may seem to be self-destructive—because the Mermaid re-creates herself at the cost of extreme personal pain. But the story teaches us, at the same time, that no matter how strong our love may be, it doesn’t obligate the object of our love to love us in return.”

“Visually stunning” is how San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson described The Little Mermaid when he saw it in Hamburg four years ago. “It was a very dramatic piece, very emotional,” he says. Always looking for opportunities for his dancers, Tomasson says he felt this ballet would be “wonderful to bring to San Francisco. It’s very different from anything the dancers have done, and the role of the Mermaid is fantastic! It’s very difficult, what she has to do.”

Tomasson and Neumeier have a long history—as a member of the Harkness Ballet, Tomasson danced in Stages and Reflections, one of Neumeier’s earliest ballets. “We’re talking about 40 years ago,” says Tomasson. But the experience left a clear memory of what it’s like to work with Neumeier. “He’s very demanding—he reminds me of [Jerome] Robbins in that way—every little detail has to be to his liking,” Tomasson says. “I feel that he’s a major artist, and maybe now the time is right for us to see his work more in this country.”

Neumeier, a Milwaukee-born American who has spent nearly his entire career in Europe, trained in Copenhagen and London and began his dancing and choreographic careers at Stuttgart Ballet. After only six years there, in 1969 he became director of the Frankfurt Ballet, where he caused a stir with his reinventions of classics such as Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet. Four years later he began his tenure as director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet, and in 1978 he founded a school that now supplies more than 70 percent of the company’s dancers. He has created close to 140 ballets for his own company and as a guest choreographer for American Ballet Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, and throughout Europe. His extensive list of honors includes dance and arts awards from the United States,Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Denmark, and several publications.

Given Neumeier’s tendency to couch ballet tradition in a stylized dramatic format, it’s not surprising to learn that he holds a degree in English literature and theater studies (from Marquette University in Milwaukee). He cites Japan’s Noh theater, a roughly 700-year-old form of musical drama with a fixed repertory and masked performers, as a favorite. Cultural influences permeate his ballets as well; for example, the Mermaid’s hairstyle, makeup and costume derive from African, Balinese, and Japanese traditional styles. In considering making a ballet about the Mermaid’s story, Neumeier saw the potential for imaginative richness. Its magical premise, fanciful characters, and worlds gone askew make it a perfect vehicle for the kind of dance-theater he does so well.

But Neumeier’s first concern with any ballet is whether its story translates well into dance. “There are certain beautiful stories that are so dependent on words that even the essential conflict, the internal story, is not really possible to present in a nonverbal form of theater,” he says. So first he envisions what is possible to portray onstage. “I always think the job of a choreographer is not to put steps together; it is to create worlds,” he says.

But with this ballet he faced a huge obstacle: finding a way for the dancers who portray the Mermaid and her sisters to move as though they have tailfins, not legs. “How do you do that in a ballet?” he asks. “Because I knew I wanted to do this story, I agreed to do it before I knew the answer to that.” Then, while on tour in Japan with his company, he saw a Noh play, and in it was his answer. “There is a medieval kind of Japanese trousers, which are very, very long, and watching this man moving I thought, ‘That’s it—he has no legs!’ ” For his Mermaid, Neumeier designed wide-legged silk pants that add fluidity to her movements, pooling onto the floor when she stands and fanning out like fins when she is held aloft to “swim.”

Helping Neumeier define the distinctions between land, ship, and sea is Russian composer Lera Auerbach. Like the abstract waves of light that divide the stage visually, showing us whether we’re above the water’s surface or below it, the music too sets the scene, evoking both atmosphere and emotional tone. Auerbach, a prolific, award-winning musician (and a poet to boot), earned two degrees at The Juilliard School and completed a piano soloist program at the University of Music and Theater in Hanover, Germany. Her works, performed worldwide, include ballets, operas, symphonies, concertos, string quartets, and other chamber works.

In her score for The Little Mermaid, sweet and haunting melodies for violin flow into brusque passages of atonality and dissonance, making audible the strangeness and discomfort of being out of one’s element. Complex and changeable, with few normal harmonic progressions, in early rehearsals the score challenged the dancers, who can’t fully invest themselves in their roles until they have integrated movement and music into an unquestionable whole.

Beyond its setting, Mermaid offers more riches. Written between the lines of this fable about personal sacrifice was a far more touching story—Andersen’s own torment. According to Neumeier, many scholars believe that this story is probably Andersen’s most autobiographical work. The writer had a history of falling in love with women he could not have, and a few men as well. This tale of unrequited love could well be his own; shortly before he wrote it he had suffered greatly at the marriage of Edvard Collin, a love interest who did not return his affections. “So in a sense,” Neumeier says, “Andersen’s disappointment [about Collin] is the jumping-off point for The Little Mermaid.”

Neumeier has played on that fact, expanding the ballet’s story to include Andersen as the Poet (who is, like the Mermaid, in love with the Prince). Neumeier didn’t intend to depict Collin specifically; instead, he says “the historical facts inspire and help to create a new Prince—through movement—in the necessary present tense of dance. You can do a lot of research for a ballet, but even if your subject is a historical person, you cannot use intellectual findings as a recipe book for creation.”

But as integral to the story as the Poet and the Prince are, it’s the Mermaid who is at the heart of this ballet. And Principal Dancer Yuan Yuan Tan seems born to the role. She found a strong personal connection with the Mermaid, she says, in the character’s pursuit of “unconditional love. People dream about it. And [the Mermaid] tries to pursue it, and fails, but still believes in it. I think all of us do things we want to do, and if we try and fail, it’s okay; we keep going.”

Tan says she didn’t expect to experience any monumental transformations as a dancer at this point in her career; after all, she is in her prime. But dancing the Mermaid “brought my dance skill up to another level,” she says. “I have to say this role changed my career. I didn’t think I could have grown anymore; I thought, ‘I’m pretty comfortable with where I am.’ And now I express myself more and I have less worries about what I’m doing. I think I’ve come to a stage [where] I just feel happy to dance—not as an obligation, not as a job, but as a joy. The mind and soul—it’s all there. Life goes on, things change, and you grow and you learn. So it’s a combination of the whole. I’m much happier.”

Principal Dancer Sarah Van Patten, who dances both the Mermaid and the Princess, agrees that the Mermaid is a life-changing role. “Dancing the Mermaid was very different from anything I’d ever done. And it’s the main role, so the weight of it was also challenging.” Along with the physical aspects of working on the floor, being barefoot, and needing to be flexible in certain ways that she wasn’t used to, Van Patten found that preparing to dance the role took “a lot of time, thought, energy. You’re dealing with being a fish—creating this image of being underwater and making sure you use that throughout the entire [ballet],” she says. “Even when you come onto land, you’re still moving as if you’re a fish because that’s all you’ve ever known. And yet you’re now a human being using feet and hands for the first time. So it takes a lot of imagination.”

Imagination, certainly. But dancing the Mermaid also requires an emotional investment on a level not often found in ballet. The character’s psychological journey is not only searing, it’s an endurance test for the dancer, who remains onstage for long stretches of time. With no chance to stand in the wings and prepare for the next emotionally devastating scene, it requires a mental presence that’s immediate and committed. “With the Mermaid, I found that I needed to keep up with what was happening in that moment, and not go ahead of myself,” says Van Patten. “Little nuances need to be real, so you need to be present in what’s going on. You can’t be thinking, ‘I’m going to get really devastated in about half an hour.’ You need to do what you’re doing in this moment so that when you come to the devastation, it’s going to be real. So that made it really interesting, and very difficult.”

Part of what makes the role so rewarding, Van Patten says, is having to connect so deeply with the Mermaid’s emotions. Neumeier would accept nothing less. “John is someone who can tell right away if the emotion is real or not. He knows how to get honest emotion out of people, and it’s so scary to do a part like that and be fully honest. It’s very exposing.” Depicting such powerful emotions means revisiting personal memories of similar experiences. “Say you felt that much pain in your life, or that much loneliness or feeling of being excluded, being cast outside, which the Mermaid was,” Van Patten says. “Or having such a broken heart, or loving somebody so much and not getting that in return. [Dancing this role] makes all those emotions surface again. And then to experience that over and over again—that’s one of the hardest aspects of the piece—but also the most rewarding, on some level.”

“John told me, ‘Don’t act,’ ” Tan says. “He doesn’t want the girls all doing the same stuff, because everybody’s different. Because he’s the creator, he gives you the steps and the music to express yourself.” Within the choreographer’s parameters, the dancers brought their own feelings and experiences to the role. “One time he said to me, ‘I can see you’re working on it, and I can see a lot of improvement. And now [I want] more. I will tell you if it’s too much.’ ” In conveying what he wanted, Tan says, Neumeier didn’t need words. “I could see through his eyes what he wanted. And he saw my expressions in my body and knew what I was trying to say. So it’s communication without speaking.”

Van Patten too noticed Neumeier’s astuteness in dealing with the differences between dancers. “He has a good way of watching people; he tends to see who they are, and then he can communicate either through helping them with the movement or with an idea.” She describes how he would talk to her about a feeling or a situation in such a way that she would respond emotionally, “and then you know what he’s talking about. So then you can associate that step or moment with that feeling he’s sparked inside of you. And he seems to have a really good sense of how to do that. He would talk to Yuan Yuan and me very differently.”

As the Mermaid makes her way through physically and emotionally disturbing terrain, we see the world through her eyes. And so everything underwater is beautiful and serene. “She is in her element [there]—gorgeously, beautifully, and belonging,” says Neumeier. “She knows this world, and yet she has a desire to go beyond that.” But what she discovers when she leaves her watery home “is that our dreams, our answered prayers are not always what we wanted—not always as we imagined them,” says the choreographer. “The earth world, which she so desires, can have some very sharp edges.”

Those edges become visible in the searing pain she endures as she walks on the feet she wanted so much, the bizarre behavior of the ship’s passengers, the nightmarish atmosphere to the Prince’s wedding, and the horror of being bound by ceilings and walls instead of free to roam an endless oceanic paradise. Toward the end of the ballet Neumeier reveals, in his set and in the Mermaid’s actions, the trap she has laid for herself.

And yet the Mermaid’s terrible sacrifice leads not to tragedy but to redemption, and that’s what makes this story compelling. “There is a sense of transcendence in the last dance [the Mermaid and the Poet] do together,” says Neumeier. “I think that the story is, in its essence, so beautiful. I don’t know of another story in literature with such a vision of love.”

And that’s the secret to The Little Mermaid’s power. Yes, it offers up stunningly original dancing and high theatricality. But audiences and dancers connect to it because of its story. For Van Patten, it provides the kind of depth that allows every performance to be fresh and alive. “There are moments throughout the ballet where little things will be different every performance, emotionally and physically, even though you’re telling the same story,” she says. “And that’s why I think it’s such an awesome piece to dance, and one you can dance over and over again. It’s not something that ever gets old.”

As for Tan, she says she was shocked at the impact the ballet had on her. “After the premiere, the bow, I couldn’t stop crying. And I had to get John onstage, and he was crying, and he gave me a hug and we cried onstage. I would never have thought this would happen, but it was good.” Her face lights up in a huge smile. “Because my heart was out there.”

Program notes by Cheryl A. Ossola

Hey, I'm on the card! Come on by this Friday :)

2011-01-31T14:31:00.000-08:00

CITY ART GALLERY OPENING RECEPTION

Review of the Marriage of Opposites exhibition I'm participating in

2011-01-18T23:21:00.000-08:00

The California Society of Printmaker's exhibition at the gorgeous new Alameda Library was reviewed and my work in it -- yay!!

Click here - MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES article

I'VE DONE BEEN PUBLISHED for NEW YEAR'S -- nice :)

2011-01-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

The Mission Local visited my studio, photographed some of my work and interviewed me about my artistic journey. See link: ARTICLE: Mission Loc@l

Happy 2011!!

Museum Visit: San Francisco Legion of Honor's JAPANESQUE

2010-11-28T23:46:00.000-08:00

Travis and I went to visit the Legion of Honor last week. I'd forgotten how beautiful the landscape is there, even when it is about to storm.

The exhibition we went to see was Japanesque, which explores Japanese printmaking and its influence upon 19th Century and early 20th Century Europe and the United States.

On this particular day, Tomoko Murakami, who I remembered from my days working at the Palo Alto Art Center, was demonstrating Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking techniques.

Each of us had the opportunity to carve a tiny block of wood. In ukiyo-e, cherry wood was traditionally used for its hardness and capability of holding fine lines. However, it is so hard that a hammer and chisel are required.

For the purposes of the demo Murakami used a softer wood called Shina veneer. It is so soft that it can be carved very quickly, which is nice if you have young students or not much time. Also you can use regular woodcutting v-gouges rather than the hammer and chisel.

I was in an impatient, stormy mood so I carved a rather odd mini-tornado in the wood.

Though I had read about it, I had never seen ink applied to woodblocks using brushes, only rollers. The brushes she used were very stiff: one is used to apply the ink and the next is used to spread it on the carved block. Traditionally, the brushes are rubbed against sharkskin to open up the bristles so that they may better absorb the ink. Tomoko also suggested using house paint brushes, trimmed down until they are stiff, as an affordable alternative. She uses one per color.

Each of us tried printing with the ink and brush. We used Akua water-based inks, some thinned with rice paste (which can also effectively slow down the drying time). I was surprised by how easily they spread. What's nice is you can also put ink on part of the block and then blend it with water, creating those gentle gradations of color found in ukiyo-e prints, often in the sky. Which reminds me, she wet the wood with water and wiped it before inking it (otherwise the wood just absorbs the ink). She explained that if you have a large block, you will want to wet both sides to prevent warping.

There was a video about carving, inking and printing techniques that was pretty fascinating. One thing that amazed me was the use of a hanging jug of water next to a light bulb to concentrate the light on a particular area of the wood so that the carver could really see it clearly. Considering the fineness of the lines (especially in the representation of women's hair), this made a lot of sense. It also appeared to be a brilliantly economical way to illuminate your work area.

Tomoko Murakami will be teaching classes at Kala Institute this year. Here is the class schedule.

Museum Visit: San Francisco Academy of Sciences

2010-11-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

Last week my mom was in town and I took her and her partner, Seth, to see the Academy of Sciences. We went to the diorama section. This was my first-time viewing of them and I thought it was nifty how they had updated them to include live animals as well.

In the one of the African Savannah, if you look beyond the zebras toward the horizon you can see a herd of elephants appearing and disappearing in the distant 'heat' (done digitally, I imagine). In addition, if you peer up into the tree above you'll find a leopard peering down on you. I loved all of those little hidden things.

I took a lot of pictures of the horns, because they vary so much and I'd like to incorporate them into the figures I create for my Bestia and Dreamers series.

We all enjoyed watching the film about the Academy of Science expeditions in the Galapagos section. These voyages resulted in many of the specimens that re-opened with the museum after it was demolished in the 1905 earthquake. My mother and I went to the Galapagos Islands when I was in college, so it was of special interest. I had not realized to what extent the Academy serves as a research institute as well as an exhibiting entity.

We also took a quick trip up the elevator to see the living roof. It is really hard to believe that this is a roof. It's like something out of the Shire. I thought of Hundtertwasser's tree tenants.

A docent explained how they began by growing plants in coconut-husk boxes made especially for them in the Philippines. The roots grow through the box and eventually break it down entirely. The egg carton forms catch the rain runoff. There's a layer of insulation in between that lets water through but not the roots.

Afterward we went to see the rainforest. There really is nothing like it. Wandering from floor to canopy surrounded by live birds and butterflies while viewing (behind glass) environments containing bats, leaf cutting ants, tiny poisonous frogs, creatures from Madagascar, lizards galore...it truly is a living wonder world. I enjoy the fact that you must check in a mirror for butterflies when you leave, and that you enter by way of a semi-airlock, as if you are on a spaceship.

We were sorry when closing time came, but exiting the aquarium I caught sight of these Surinam toads, utterly frozen in this position (and no, they were not stuffed...well...OK, never mind).

Visit me tonight :)

2010-11-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

I'm manning (mistressing) the gallery tonight, Saturday, from 4:30 - 9:00pm.
Come chat, look at lots of folks art as well as mine!
City Art Gallery, 828 Valencia between 19th and 20th Streets.

Yay!

2010-11-11T22:52:00.000-08:00

Three of my works on my wall at City Art sold so far, including Encounter (below). I'll have to come up with some replacements. :)

Exhibition Friday Nov 5th

2010-11-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

You are invited to the City Art Gallery reception this Friday evening, 7-10pm at 828 Valencia between 19th & 20th Street, San Francisco, where I have a large wall of Dreamers & Beast-themed work installed :)

Kink's anatomy & lizard love at the studio of Sandra Yagi

2010-11-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

There is nothing quite like visiting the studio of an artist you admire; I felt very privileged to get to do that today with Sandra Yagi :) I love her imagination & her technique. Her production levels, especially for the style she paints in, truly astound me. Someone to look up to as I go forward down this always sketchy (see what I did there?) road of being an artist. AND I'm saving up for a piece :D

Oh, and it's always important that an artist have a serious, professional portrait so I made sure to bring my state-of-the-art camera (er...old Iphone ) to do the job. I think she's speaking lizard to her lizard model, which was perhaps used for the extraordinary painting she made on the easel.

Check out her web site & blog:

www.sandrayagi.com

http://sandrayagi.blogspot.com/

Encounter, viscosity color print

2010-11-03T01:14:00.001-07:00

Encounter, 2010 from sketch (detail) to carve to ink...

2010-11-03T01:13:00.000-07:00

Online Art Mag of Interest...

2010-11-02T02:02:00.000-07:00

Art Practical

Reception this Friday

2010-11-02T01:08:00.002-07:00

Just installed work on the nice big back wall at City Art Gallery in the Mission. :) The show opens this Friday from 7-10pm, 828 Valencia (btwn 19th & 20th Streets), SF.

Cool CCI Workshop

2010-11-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

This evening I attended a planning workshop for artists put on by the Center For Cultural Innovation that gave me some good, creative strategizing material :) It's pretty cool organization -- it's gotta have some true artist clout if Bill Viola is on the Board!

10/23/10 Artist Talk at BEAST

2010-10-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

Discussing the Dreamers series & Bestia installation

(behind me) before the Pony performance.

Photo by Susan Schen.

2010-10-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

Dorian Katz discussing her work (as guests

continue to color it in!). Photo by Susan Schen.

Artist Talk & Human Pony Show 10/23/10

2010-10-26T14:42:00.001-07:00

As for the Ponies -- they were stunning!

For that, you just had to be there....

Printing at Graphic Arts Workshop

2010-10-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

Printing on the Sturges press. The top row of prints

is from my Sceptre series, made with very old, very

large clock hands. Photo by Travis Eneix.

Open Studios - Graphic Arts Workshop - 2010

2010-10-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Visiting the Oakland Museum -

2010-10-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

A dreamlike mirror/window installation.

Photo by Davor Atles.

2010-10-24T22:34:00.001-07:00

2010-10-24T22:32:00.001-07:00

2010-10-24T22:30:00.002-07:00

2010-10-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

BEAST! Opening at Million Fishes

2010-10-24T22:25:00.001-07:00

The BEAST Opening was mobbed. It was very nice to have all those people and also a little overwhelming. The interactive elements and the performances really added to the experience of the show.
More about BEAST
More opening pictures on FLICKR

Installing: Beast

2010-10-24T22:16:00.001-07:00

The completed Bestia installation: prints,

thorn magnets, painted branches and all.

Photo by Ken Tarr.

BEAST at Million Fishes Gallery

2010-10-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Came up with a new way of presenting works from my Bestia series for the exhibition, BEAST. I wanted forest-y kind of look. So instead of framing the prints, I created magnets with thorn stalks from rosebushes. My friend Ken Tarr collaborated with me on the forest part, collecting branches and painted them black and red. We put it all together in the gallery.

Blogland

2010-10-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well, all my friends have blogs. Serious artists have blogs.
I have a blog now. I am a serious artist.
Amen.

For the sake of completion, notes from 2008-09

2010-10-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

Summer/Fall 2009:

For two weeks in August I'll be exploring museums in Paris!!! Eeeee!

I've joined up with City Arts this summer and plan to exhibit some Street Skins in their San Francisco - themed exhibition this August (check it out!) and some newDreamers works in September.

I've been having fun as Events Coordinator on the Board of the California Society of Printmakers. If you are a printmaker, join up so you can come to our tours and events and exhibit with us! I'm organizing a 'Sharing Secrets' printmaking event on November 15th where printmakers can come and learn from one another. I'm also putting together a panel about contemporary directions in printmaking for Spring, 2010.

In July I returned from Oxbow Summer Studios happy, sated and exhausted. It's an extraordinary program, you print from 9am - 9pm daily but break for delicious organic meals cooked by unbelievable Chez-Panisse trained chefs. The copper etching studio is out of this world, with a giant garage door that opens up to the view of the 'oxbow' turn in the river. The program is taught by Stephen Thomas, a Master Printer formerly of Crown Point Press. I've started 4 new etchings for the Dreamers Series -- can't wait to print them at Graphic Arts Workshop! I'll be exhibiting new works there in October - stay tuned for details!

Since I'm spending a lot more time at Graphic Arts Workshop these days as well as working on other project, I'm thinking about opening up my studio for a studio share. If you are interested drop me a line and I'll share some pictures with you.

* * *

Exhibitions, 2008:

Annual Sale, Chrysalis Studios
Thursday, November 13, 7-9pm
SOMAR, 934 Brannan, SF
I'll be exhibiting several new linocuts along with other talented printmakers. Art, printmaking demonstrations, food and drink. When you come in the building through the side doors, take a left and you'll find Chrysalis toward the back.

Systems of Sharing: Below the Surface
95th Annual California Society of Printmakers Exhibition
November 25- January 2, 2008
Reception: Saturday, December 6, 1:00 - 3:30 PM.
Bay Model, Sausalito, CA
Hours: Tues - Sat, 9:00-4:00 (closes noon on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve)

Holiday Sale, Graphic Arts Workshop
Saturday, Sunday, December 13 & 14, 11am-6pm
2565 3rd Street @ 22nd, #305, SF, CA
I'll be exhibiting a variety of prints along with many talented artists, all under $150, many under $100. Food, drink, general merriment!

October, 2008:

I've just been accepted to Graphic Arts Workshop, a print collective with wonderful facilities and a long history of interesting printmakers, and am looking forward to working in the midst of other busy artists.

Exhibitions, Nov-Dec 2008:

October, 2008: