Sunday, July 15, 2012

San Fran Sketches

This week I arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico to participate in the summer workshop at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography, which has been fantastic so far! The first week has been packed with demos & theory of aluminium plate lithography - the depth of knowledge here is really helping me to understand the finer points of the medium. The instructors, staff & students are all lovely and inspiring. I will post much more about Tamarind soon, but first these are a few sketches from my stay San Francisco last week.

I was excited to stumble across a great Dr Sketchy's group in the basement of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the theme of the night was fertility goddess & there were two pregnant burlesque performers who alternated poses.

4th of July holiday @ China Beach, where we relaxed and watched a dramatic horseshoe game.
A combination of African sculpture at the DeYoung museum, a downtown supermarket, Aidah (on the right) & a sticker from the exploratorium where I attended a fun adult night in conjunction with the social experiment "What Can You Do?" where you were supposed to teach your strange skills and learn from others hence the 2 blind drawings - the one on the right is mine and the great one on the left is a guy I taught.

Aidah also took me along to her Muslim Community Center where I witnessed Jumu'ah (Muslim friday prayer) for the first time.

I enjoyed the chance to catch up with friends, as well as checking out museums - my favourites were: SFMOMA, the DeYoung, which had an amazing exhibit of Chuck Close's mezzotints and trial proofs, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which had a hilarious exhibit by David Shrigley, Crown Point Press where I especially loved seeing Julie Mehretu's etchings and having a look around the studio, and San Francisco Center for the Book where I was excited to discover a treasure trove of bathroom-broadsides. Wandering through the galleries at the Art Murmur happening in Oakland and seeing the majestic redwoods in Muir Woods were also wonderful experiences! Here are a few snapshots:







Tuesday, July 3, 2012

hello from San Francisco!

on route to U.S.A. (new adventures coming soon!)

I had a proper airport reunion with my dear friend Aidah :) This is us later in the day (after a serious art discussion) at her studio in the California College of the Arts grad program.