Marlene Dumas : "The Image as Burden"

A friend of mine recently returned to California with the most thoughtful gift: the art book released with  Marlene Dumas' recent retrospective at the prestigious Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Chrissta is a special friend, a thoughtful friend, who saw the show and was reminded of me and the last time we visited the Stedelijk together when I visited her in 2012 :)
I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK!

D-rection, 1999.

Jesus Serene, 1994.

Magnetic Fields, 2008.

The First People, 1990.

The Jewish Girl, 1986.

I first encountered Marlene Dumas' paintings when I was in Chelsea in NYC 2006. I remember feeling as if I happened upon a gold mine. From far away her paintings are complex. Detailed. But when you get closer you realize that she works quickly with smudged, loose, watered down medium. Incredible :) 

Lavender Regan

On a cool evening last November I walked down to the beach near my apartment to get some air and clear my mind. I had the beach to myself except for some curious geese. The air was still crisp and wet after the slush we'd gotten that morning. I sat there all bundled up for an hour, photographing and sketching the landscape as the sun set over the mountains. There really is no place like home :)

Lavender Regan

11" x 14"

Oil on Canvas 

2014

Cotton Candy Clouds

I love this painting. Its the first in my new series, "Feeling Blue". The clouds were this gorgeous shade of pink for about 10 minutes, before the sun went down and they changed to a slate grey. They remind me a bit of those psychedelic elephants from Dumbo, swirling and constantly changing. I just sold this painting to a friend I recently reconnected with. Glad to see it went to a good home ;)

Cotton Candy Clouds 

Oil on Canvas

36" x 48"

2014

Feeling Blue: Ferdinand Hodler

Being home in Tahoe has really mellowed me out since this summer. I work at The BoatHouse, a lakefront bar  and restaurant right on the Timber Cove pier. All day I gaze at the lake, mountains and sky. I love the calm, morning water that reflects Mt. Tallac in its bright blues and greens. I love pale pink and lavender sunsets on clear evenings and the neon oranges and fushia clouds of the sunsets after a storm. I love the full moon on cold, clear nights in winter.

Recently, I've begun a new landscape art series I'm calling "Feeling Blue" as a follow-up to my portraiture show, "Seeing Red". I am so inspired and impressed by swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler. I know I blogged about him before after I saw his M A S S I V E paintings in Zürich and now again, I cant get enough. Check him out:

Craig

This is a quick painting I did of my friend, Craig during finals week in one of our last semesters of college. We were both tired, over-worked and under-fed. We needed a break. I did this in about 2 hours, maybe less. I dont think Craig liked this painting very much, but I love it.  Usually he is so fab, bright and shiny with nary a hair out of place on his perfect head. Hes bouncy and fun and always has more energy and charisma than anyone else in the room. But not that night. That night he was human. Worn, sleepy and irritated.
I feel I caught the dark side in him...Coooll ;)

London: Rose Lychee and Ladurée

Roy Lichtenstein

Rose Lychee martinis at Ping Pong :)

Ladurée at Covent Garden. Devine!

Chanel Pop-up floral boutique for Mother's Day

Tiny, fluffy, sweet and delicate, the Orange Blossom macaron was my favorite. 

Street food is the best. 

This cute young man was picking out flowers so carefully. 

St Pauls!  Visually its astounding. A purely massive structure that I couldn't even fit in my camera's lens.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend for my first visit to London, and my gracious hosts, Katy and Josh showed me an incredible time. From an inspiring visit to the Tate to see the Roy Lichtenstein retrospective to the steps of St. Paul to sipping cocktails overlooking the Thames River, our reunion had nary a dull moment. 

Harry told me that sometimes he'll wake up in the morning and the fog is so think that he cant see the other side of the river. So cool. 

"Seeing Red"

Culminated from my recent experience in Switzerland/Germany 2012, I had my first solo art show in September titled "Seeing Red" :) I made 5 new pieces, and showed 2 others from my last semester of college that I felt went nicely with the theme. The show was a great success for me because it allowed me to view my work together and, due to the large space, from a distance allowing me to process my work differently than I was able in my small studio. Looking forward to new work!! This cold, Berlin weather is quite inspiring!!

Ryan. Oil on Canvas. 72" x 40". 2011.

 Crystal. Oil on Canvas. 30" x 40". 2011.

Selim. Oil on Canvas. 80" x 66". 2012.

Ava. Oil on Canvas. 24" x 18". 2012.

Oliver. Oil on Canvas. 48" x 36". 2012.

 B. Oil on Canvas. 48" x 60". 2012.

B and Brooke. Marker on BFK. 22" x 30". 2012.