Mormon Temple near Folsom, California

I went out painting with Naomi, Dean and Sophia and we decided to paint the beautiful views from behind Hazel avenue looking out towards Highway 50 going to South Lake Tahoe. Later the neighbors told me that this was a large Mormon Temple. You can see some of the colors changing in September and a path going down into the woods.

New Paintings

Here is a piece I completed while driving around Napa Valley. I'll be listing another round of paintings on ebay soon. There were large trees to the left creating long shadows that crept down to this little winery shed.

West Indian Girl Band Painting

I've been communicating with a great L.A. band called "West Indian Girl" and have begun doing a series of paintings for them, ideally for a CD cover. After talking with founding member Fran Ten we started brainstorming some ideas. If I did one painting and it wasn't right it would be a shame for everyone so I decided to do something I've never done before; create an outline image, scan and print it onto canvas and watercolor paper, then do a series of paintings in different styles. This photo isn't very clear, but it will eventually be scanned in at a high resolution.

I'm excited about all the possibilities for these paintings. We can sell these versions, prints of them, the band can paint in their own versions and sell them, fans could color them in at shows...we can create a coloring book for the kids! These will take a while to finish so I'll post them as I complete them. I'm going to do versions in pop art, impressionism, etc.

Suchi Bhosle...an artist to watch

I just got off the phone today with my good friend and mentor, Suchitra Bhosle. She just returned from a long trip back to India and gave me a ring to say hello. She mentioned that she just did an interview with Southwest Art magazine, one of the premier mags in this country, because she was listed as an "artist to watch" in 2009. I've taken a few classes from Suchi in the past and plan to take more. She's a great artist and, unlike some other teachers, can convey important points so you feel like you know more when you leave than when you arrived. I can't stress enough the importance of being able to teach...anything. So I'm very excited for her and I look forward to hearing more details from her trip back to India.

Preparing for Del Paso Show on Dec. 13.

With the help of painter John Krempel I was able to land a show for Second Saturday here in Sacramento. Most of the art traffic is downtown near 20th and J, however, there are also many galleries over on Del Paso Boulevard. I usually go over there every few months to see what's going on. There was a great gallery that burned down called the "Sol Collective" which had cool art and bands from people like Pinguino. I was sad to see it go. There are other great galleries there still.

Anyway, I met a woman who is heading up a project where they put art in various places in the neighborhood that are not traditional galleries. I'll be in this building (details to come) with 4 other artists, including the great Teaspoon Sakamoto!!! We're finally going to show her origami and quilting skills. There will also be a band playing and, of course, food and beverages. I'm hoping to sell some pieces that I've had for a while so I'll have a clearance rack or something like that.

Successful Pecha Kucha night!

I just got back from Pecha Kucha night and I'm amped because it was the most successful one we've had in a while, partly because of our new format and the quality of the presenters. Claire Obenson and I met a while back and put together some ideas for making it more interesting.

What is Pecha Kucha, you ask? It's a way for people in 147 cities around the world to experience design, architecture, music and other art forms in one night. Every presenter gets 6 minutes, 40 seconds to do their thing, and not a second more!

One of our ideas was to have the artist who has their paintings in the Level Up Lounge do a presentation and have the event serve as an artist reception too. Another was to ask Suleka to invent a drink called "The Pecha Kucha" so that we could all do a toast together. Here are the presenters:

Todd Taylor wines from Clarksburg, Ca. Excellent wines, by the way, and very cool people.
Thomas Harris is a painter who is interested in what he calls "escapism." Good stuff.
Richard Burnsed, Program director of the Sacramento International Film Festival, showed us a few animations.
Jeff Walker is a young architect who did a presentation on the use of lasers in architectural design. He's done some interesting work.
Evan Jones was the artist in residence for this month. She's been painting for about 4 years now and is finally starting to show her work publicly. She was a hit.
R&B recording artist Aaron Young or "A-Y", sang a few tunes for us. He has a CD out entitled, "They call me A Y." He's doing good work here in Sac.
Jason Silva is a local architect who gave a presentation on "placemaking", the focus on central locations in every big city. Jason also ran the computer for us.
John Krempel brought his entire entourage to the bar and they were somewhat hostile until we brought him up onto the stage :o) They were Jonesin' for John. He makes his living as an artist and has a solid following. We talked for a while after the show and we'll swap a piece of artwork and try to put a show together. He was a cool presenter.
Suleka! Her staff demonstrated the creation of the "Pecha Kucha", which is Bacardi 151 set on fire (yes, we're blue flamin' it), then add equal parts Kahlua and Peppermint Schnapps. It was very tasty and I was glad that we got some people to throw some money into the register. Suleka is so sweet to support us and her employees are all A-1 people so I enjoy hanging out there. The vibe is always very positive and I end up in the most interesting conversations because the crowd is not pretentious.

Check out more info at www.pecha-kucha.org

Peace out!

Gaijin Card Photo

I'm designing a brochure and I thought I'd include some international images, like a few of the stamps in my passport and that sort of thing to be used as the background for the paintings of various locations around the world. I stumbled across this little gem, which was the photo for my foreigner or "gaijin" card in Japan. What a blast from the past. Hee hee.