Photojojo#19

Laura's drawing seen at a Wells Fargo bank teller's station in SF and Nancy's clear blue sky. It was a beautiful day today.

How funny that we would both have blues and greens in our photos today. Such coincidences!

Photojojo#18 - Skeleton Pizza

The creepy skeleton (Laura) and the expanded metal grate or fence (Nancy).

Boo!

Photojojo#17 - Almost Halloween

and the Photojojo's are getting a little creepy! Nancy's dangling head and my screen shot.

Another Show - Save the Date

As part of the Master Print Class I've been taking the past several months, there will be a show of the participants in this class at the Aurobora Studio & Gallery at 370 Brannan Street in December.

The opening is Saturday December 12th 2009 so mark your calendar now!

Participants are Iggy Gurin-Malous, Lillian Barrows and me.

We're very excited to reveal the work we've been doing in the monotype medium at this show. Stay tuned for more details.

Photojojo Challenge #16 - Musings About Pairings

Nancy's Halloween Witch
Laura's Everyday Texture from the Hillsdale Mall Food Court

Wow - Nancy and I thought maybe we'd get 2-3 photo challenges every couple of weeks, but this is week 2 and we've done 16!

We're both easily keeping up with a pair of photos a day - even when Nancy was out in the boondocks without 24/7 wifi last week. iPhones and internet cafes keep this process moving.

We're both really enjoying that it helps us see our world a little better, always looking for that next photo. Nancy reports that it is helping keep her loosened up. I'm amazed at the synchronicity of the pairings. Like a good wine with that special appetizer, or that perfect cappucino with the tiramisu - pairings are where it's at!

Photojojo#15 - Poker Boots in the Snow

Here's Photojojo #15 - Nancy's books and some of Laura's poker game.

Photojojo#14

Today's Photojojo Challenge - Nancy's Mannequins and Laura's Halloween Face.

BDE

I get my mammograms around my birthday (Sept 18) every year, so in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I always know that I'm doing well.

That wasn't the case in 1997 - it was an awful October. I'd had a mastectomy and was going through chemotherapy. My oldest girls turned 14 and my son was doing his best to cheer me up and get along with his siblings. My youngest, Claire, was only 2 at the time. She kicked me by accident in bed one night and I started crying because her foot hit me in the chest. She still thinks she caused the cancer. I keep telling her it had nothing to do with her.

Today, at work I took the photo of the Genentech Herceptin campaign that appeared on the new shuttle buses for my Photojojo challenge. Later, when I got home from work, Claire presented me with the brownie that reads: Congrats Mom - 100% Cancer Free.

Today was a really good day.
xo

Photojojo #13 - Dorothy and The Rust Field

Today, I was at the mall and snapped a photo of Dorothy and Gang as PEZ dispensers. Nancy took this great shot of things rusting in a field in Danville. Enjoy!

Photojojo#12

Today It's Photojojo #11 - Birthday Coffee

Top - Laura's iPhone photo of a Caffe sign in San Francisco near South Park.
Bottom - Nancy's birthday card extravaganza.

Photojojo#10 - Tender Tomatoes

Today's Photojojo challenge pairs up a delicate doll with some tender tomatoes. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Nancy!

Today is my Photojojo partner Nancy's birthday. We had a lovely dessert at the new Peruvian restaurant La Costenera in Montara (formerly the Chart House). Wonderful menu - highly recommend it.

I took a photo of some buoys at Sam's Chowderhouse with my new little Fuji Instax. Here they are - side by side. Happy Birthday to Nancy!

Gross Grub

My kids love Halloween, and so do I. So much so that we sometimes really get into making "Gross Grub." Lots of great "recipes" can be found in the book by the same name. We have a brain jello mold (how sick is that?!), so I made one of those this year, displaying it proudly on the stainless steel platter reminiscent of autopsy ware.

Claire also helped me make Dirt Worms (gummy worms in chocolate pudding with crumbled Oreos for the dirt) and poop-covered cookies (chocolate frosting on sugar cookies). These are for the party tomorrow at the Lighthouse Charter School Girls for a Change meeting.

I'll let you know if these powerful 6th grade ladies are grossed out or not.

Photojojo#8 - Food

Today's Photojojo is all about food. Laura's Red Velvet cupcake from Little Skillet in SF. Nancy's pantry cans.

Photojojo#7 - Primary Colors

Last day of art class - Iggy's white brayer (Laura) and Nancy's fall leaf macro.

Final Weekend of Master Print Class

I'm in the last three days of the Master Printmaking Class at Aurobora Press. Today I continued some work I started a couple of weeks ago with photos I took last December at Musee Mechanique at Fisherman's Wharf in SF.

I am experimenting with chine colle and xerox transfer to put these images of old time arcade games onto monoprints.

Click on the image for more detail.

Exciting New Little Camera

I saw a movie called Yes Man last year with Jim Carey and Zoey Deschanel. In that movie, ZD was carrying around this camera all the time and using it to take candids. It was used in the same manner as a Polaroid, but it looked different - smaller and more cool.

I forgot all about wanting to get this camera until a few days ago when I got an email from Photojojo - a photo website I love (and the one that inspired my partnership with Nancy on the Photojojo Couple of Pix a Day thing we are doing).

According to a Google search, Zoey was indeed using the Fuji Instax, which is what arrived in today's mail.


Here are three cute quick photos I took tonight. I'm going to love this little thing. I'm sure it will figure into upcoming art projects.

Photojojo#6

And the dog (Nancy) jumped over the SF storefront architectural model (Laura).

Photojojo #5

Some flowers (Laura) and signs of Fall (Nancy). Enjoy!

Photojojo #4

Nancy's red wagons and Laura's construction taping job.

Photojojo #3

Here's the post for the day: El Machino (Laura) and the Artichoke (Nancy).

Nancy and Laura's Photojojo #2 on 10-Oct-09

More Encaustics

I was able to get in some quality studio time today and worked on these encaustic pieces:

Busch's Cabinet Slowly Deteriorates
Mixed Media Encaustic
11x11

Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque en Vaucluse Provence France
Mixed Media Encaustic
5x5

Eiffel Tower Diptych
Mixed Media Encaustic
5x5

Photojojo Buddy Challenge

My good friend and photographer Nancy West and I are collaborating on Photojojo's 2 Tag-team Photo Projects For You + Your Pal.

We'll each be taking a photo and combining them with our pal's random photo every week. We'll see what kind of synchronicity this provides.

Here's the first one: Nancy's photo of Riley swimming with his favorite frisbee and my photo of some lights at Ray's Sushi in Hayward.

Give Blood - Give Life

My kids (CMM and WDM) and I donated blood yesterday for the American Red Cross. Families that donate together stay together!

Upcoming Trunk Sales - Laura & Nancy West

I'm teaming up with one of my favorite and inspiring artists, photographer Nancy West, to have a "trunk sale" for our friends and family in October and November. This is an excellent opportunity to get in on buying some unique pieces for yourself or as gifts this holiday season.







Details:

Sunday November 8th Hosted by Laura McHugh
739 Third Avenue
Half Moon Bay CA
10 am - 4 pm



Feel free to bring friends out for this fun day of shopping and meet the artists! We hope to see you there.

What Does a Green Ribbon Mean

Julia Nelson-Gal was kind to send me this photo of my entry to the Pacific Art League's current show Mostly Black & White.

I can't seem to get over there to see the show in person, and I can't read what the ribbon says. So, for now, I'm thrilled there is something hanging on the piece.

Here's Julia's entry on the right, which is fabulous. So cool that ours ended up being hung right next to each other.

Something's Starting To Shift

Detail

Great Minds Think Alike
Encaustic
13x15

I had a weekend full of art - but the kind of art that involves talking about it, hanging out with like-minded people, hearing lectures about it, shopping for the tools to do it... and feeling a sense over several weeks now (years, really) that I don't know what I'm doing and that I will never find my oeurve.

Hearing Tony Scherman speak at IEA starting something shifting in me. I'm still not sure what, but I did come home from the conference feeling like I could sit with encaustic again. I had such a great experience in the first workshop I took with Eileen Goldenberg a couple of years ago. She's such a fun and inspiring instructor and she makes you MOVE! Then, I came home and couldn't replicate any of it. My work was gloppy and uninspiring. It looked like a kindergartner had been let loose with modeling clay of the worst kind.

I went to the IEA conference last year and got reinspired and came home and tried it again - another run at the elusive mistress that is wax. Some success, but it was not sustainable. I know - you are thinking "to get good at something, really master it takes Practice, Practice, Practice." And that is true and I have not been putting in the time, but still expect results.

So again, reinspired by this year's IEA and a visit to Daniella Woolf's open studio wherein I saw a brief but wonderful demonstration of her doing encaustic that is more the type of encaustic I would like to be doing - mixed media collaging. I came home and made these two pieces.

Great Minds Think Alike
Encaustic
13x15

Decouverte Lecon XLV
Monotype and Encaustic on Rives BFK Paper
Paper Dim 22x30
Plate Dim 11x17

I'm feeling more competence. And that is good.

I also saw a ribbon on my piece (triptych) through the window of the closed gallery at Pacific Art League. That didn't hurt. I think I won something....

Moss Landing

Some photos of Moss Landing that appeal to the engineer in me.

IEA Retreat

I heard Tony Scherman speak at the IEA retreat yesterday. His talk was a mixture of mathematical concepts, philosophy, painting techniques, and autobiographical references interwoven with a backdrop of images of his paintings. I first saw his work when Stumbling I think. I don't remember finding it in connection with anything specific I was doing or looking for. When I saw the work I just thought it was beautiful - so ephemeral and painterly all at the same time. It didn't hurt that the splash image was of a work he did of Kurt Cobain in a series called "The Junkies."

He talked about how it felt when he first mixed pigment with the wax and saw it spread and melt. He explained how the first paintings he did, of Napolean, didn't feel complete until them staring back at him felt like when you look in the mirror and really "see" yourself for the first time. He talked about how important it is for artists to sell their work so that they feel the love flowing back into them for doing the work.

I'm still processing everything he talked about. I know it will have a profound impact on my work - I just don't know how yet.

International Encaustic Artist Annual Retreat

By Tony Scherman
Tony Scherman is a featured speaker at this retreat.

Tomorrow morning I'm headed to the IEA annual retreat in Carmel Valley. The venue is so lovely - quiet and relaxed. The program always includes an amazing collection of very successful artists who are so generous with their information. The community of encaustic artists is heart warming to be with and the food and lodging is also good.

If you are an encaustic artist I highly recommend IEA and the annual retreat.

More will be posted throughout the weekend. Stay tuned.