Dark skies

Last week the weather was rainy. This is not unusual for San Francisco, but the sky was... We have never seen a sky like this, and I don't believe the camera does it full justice. But hopefully you get a sense of how weird things looked.

Melissa and Erik

Two of our favorite friends eloped last week and got married. When Melissa called to say they had just gotten married, she sounded ecstatic. It was raining and cold on that day, but the sun may as well have been shining. (That's right people -- get ready - a cheesy post it's going to be!) We agreed a celebration was in order, and decided to have dinner over the weekend.

Now, backtracking to months past, Melissa and Erik had us over for dinner as a continuation of the dinner-show-down. You can read about past meals here. The latest installment had an island theme in celebration of our summer wedding in Hawaii. The meal was amazing, and we had such a wonderful time.

This past weekend, we all ate at Maharani in the Fantasy Room. Exquisite food and decor.

These two people are very special, and we have a lot in common. Max and Erik love cooking, Melissa and I are artists. They are both very present, attentive, caring and kind. I am so happy to have met them, and I am very glad to have them in our lives.

Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Berkeley at George and Ann's house.

Eggs were being dyed in the backyard.

Adults hid the eggs.

And then lots of munchkins ran around looking for them.

My life as a poodle

Earlier in the week Max thought it would be very funny to flip all my hair forward and hold it down with my sun glasses. And then take these pics. And then email them to me. Yeah... very funny.

Time Warp Theatre

Max wanted to see this new movie about South Africa, and for some reason it's only playing at one theatre in the city. A theatre we've never been to before. It's right down the street from a huge AMC megaplex, but for some reason we've never gone to this one. We decided to see In My Country at 9.25pm, and got there with half an hour to spare. We had to pay for the ticket through bullet proof glass, and then the cashier came around and opened the glass door to let us in. Once inside, he asked us to wait a while and sit on the bench. This picture is taken from the bench. It felt like a Twilight Zone episode. No one else was there but us and another couple, who were just walking around.

Once we actually moved into the theatre, (which was HUGE and we were the only ones there) we spent the next 20 minutes watching 'behind the scene' specials for The Interpreter, a music video for the new Kojak, starring Ving Rhames(?!?!?), and a 5 minute promo for the TNT channel about 'What is Drama?' with sound bytes from stars of all your favorite Drama shows on TV (ER, NYPD Blue, Law and Order).

So yeah -- the theatre was weird!

As far as the movie goes - it was really good, but very sad. It's all about the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings that happened after apartheid ended. There was some pretty gruesome stuff and I cried throughout the movie, but it was also quite authentic and thankfully lacked some of the ridiculous drama that most American movies about Africa have. I recommend anyone who's interested in South Africa see it.

The Rite Spot

Last night we had dinner with some 'school friends'. It's Spring Break this week, which means people don't have their normal hectic schedules. We were all able to find a day and time to meet and eat! It's a miracle. We gathered at the Rite Spot, a dinner and jazz place with a very relaxed vibe. At the end of the night, Susan grabbed a candle from the table and started making funny/scary faces. Max managed to capture this pic on his phone. Please let it bring you as much laughter as it did for me.

Mango Madness

We visited my brother Shaun this weekend, to check out his newly painted room. The color was a bit of a shock, and the cellphone pics don't fully convey how bright the color (mango madness) is. But he really likes it, and he did a really good job painting the room.

New glasses

Sunny California

Lying on Shaun's bed, while he played the gee-tar!

Cyber Tree

This is an image of my website using tree .

tree is a translation programm. the simulation of real space by software as a starting point and basic question characterizes the search for an algorythm (design specification) which illustrates a real tree. tree interprets each html page as a design specification; the html space determines the algorythm and generates the visual world of the translation beyond simulation.

tree accesses the source code of a webdomain through it's url and transforms the syntactic structure of the website into a tree structure represented by an image. this image illustrates a tree with trunk, branches and ramifications. first each tree is initialized, than all html links are detected, chronologically saved and finally displayed.

I'm not sure I completely understand, but I thought it looked really beautiful.

Not cool

We saw Be Cool. It was nothing special. In fact, I felt like there was a big insider joke -- and I was on the outside. I was confused as to why all these stars (Harvey Keitel, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Kobi Bryant) would cameo in this movie. It just wasn't very good. There was a lot of offense homophobic language in the movie, all directed at The Rock's character: a gay bodyguard. Inevitably, The Rock stole the show. He was so funny. He always gives 100% with the roles he takes on, and in my opinion this was the biggest leap for him to date. He did a great job, but I still wouldn't waste the $10 on this in the theatre. Wait till the DVD comes out, and then you can watch him trying on the baby blue leisure suit over and over again.

My own font

I have been continuing with the text paintings, but lately I felt frustrated with how much they look like signage. I started doing some in my own handwriting, but they still don't look how I want them to.

Joseph suggested I create my own handwriting font, and emailed me about Fontifier. It's fantastic! It took no time at all, and it only cost $9. If anyone wants to do this, I recommend using a bold felt tip pen, as the writing is pretty faint unless I increase the font size to 20pt or more.

Welcome Luke Felix

Very special friends of ours in Manhattan just gave birth to a 9lb 10oz baby boy. Isn't he gorgeous? He looks very snuggly.

Mondays are starting to be my favorite workweek day

Today was another gorgeous day in the city: sunny, blue skies, a nice cooling breeze. It was just heaven. I abandoned going to the studio, and instead spent the day hopping from place to place, writing in my sketchbooks. I am in the process of finalizing my thoughts and ideas about what the Thesis will be, and what my contribution to the MFA exhibition will be. It was a super productive experience, and the ideas came freely after I found the right spot to sit and jot down my thoughts.

On my travels, I stopped in at PaperSource on Filmore and spent some time looking at their goods. It's one of my favorite stores, and I had to force myself not to buy anything. The best new find in there was the blank pillow boxes, which are perfect for putting small gifts into. And because they're made from blank white paper, the gift giver is free to decorate/paint/draw whatever they want on it.

As I got closer to home, I decided to stop in Grace Cathedral once and for all. I've lived a few blocks away for over a year and a half now, and I've never gone in. It was amazing. Beautiful stained glass windows, gold leaf paintings on the walls, and a super cool indoor wool tapestry labyrinth near the entrance to the church. More on this here.

Now it's time to start tidying the apartment and washing the dishes. A lot of play and a little bit of work. Ah, life is good.

Crazy Lady

Yesterday Max and I took a trip to San Jose for a tour of the Winchester Mystery House. We did the 2.5 hour tour, which included wearing a hard hat for the basement. It was really interesting and a bit creepy. The weather was beautiful and it was really nice to take a break and get away for the day. I am in the process of learning how to do a pop-up slideshow of images. (anyone know Java?) In the meantime, I'm including just a few images of the excursion.

For more pics, click here.

Talking in my sleep

Max informs me that I said the following in my sleep:

(in a very whiny voice)

Yeah... they tell you that you'll see her and she'll give you immunizations. But you go to see her, and she just gives you vaccines.

I wonder what I was dreaming!

Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA)

Mondays have become Thesis Day. I usually wake up a little later, eat something, shower and proceed to sit in front of Lappy (my laptop) and type. This is much easier to do at home, as there are far less distractions and I cannot use the excuse of all those people to chat with.

But today was just gorgeous. The weather has been beautiful and sunny and blue skies and breezy and just too good to stay in. So, I walked to HANG where Susan works on Mondays, and had lunch with her. Then I went to the SFMOMA and spent the afternoon there looking at all the exhibitions. I looked at the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Collection, New Work by Rachel Harrison, Jeremy Blake's Winchester, Robert Bechtle's Retrospective and the SECA Award Show.

"The 2004 SECA Art Award exhibition showcases new and recent works by four Bay Area artists of exceptional promise, each of whom takes the medium of drawing in an original, independent direction."

My top picks were by far Jeremy Blake and SECA. Blake's 3 channel video installation was inspired by the Winchester Mystery House. Having been on a tour of San Jose a few months ago, I was very interested in this historical site. The videos are gorgeous, luscious and quite painterly. Blake was a painter originally, and this influence is very evident in the way he animates and records images with the camera. I was actually mesmerized, and spent the full amount of time with each piece (12-20 minutes each). SECA included Simon Evans, who I love. He was also featured in the California Biennial, and I think his work is really inspiring. After looking at his work, I always feel like drawing.

Simon Evans


Jeremy Blake

I took a leisurely walk home, stopped by Urban Outfitters to look at the goods, and I'm ready to start doing some thesis work now that the sun is setting...

A week of accomplishment

Will she ever post as regularly as used to?
Will she ever tell us anything of interest again?
Will she stop talking about herself in the 3rd person?
Sorry people, but I'm busy. Grad School is almost over, and I must stabilize a future for myself!

This week included a few tasty highlights worth noting.

1. Upon This My Dreams Are Depending closed this week. The chalkboards have been removed from the walls, save one near the bathroom, which owner Kate Dumbleton wanted to keep as a permanent installation. Over the 4 weeks the show was up, I was able to change the lists and document 8 rounds. I now have a large collection of images which I plan on transforming into an artist book. I am currently experimenting with printing materials, and looking into binding options. I would like to use Taurus, but their prices are somewhat high. If anyone has suggestions on where else to look, please be in touch. More on this project to follow on this.

2. The bed frame Max and I bought from bedroom Depot was finally returned. It has been a month of horrendous customer service, unpleasant phone conversations and downright aggravation. In the end we received an 80% refund on a product that was defective to begin with. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, contacted the local television show ConsumerWatch and I'm writing a letter to Modus Furniture International about the shitty bed frames they make. Some may say I have gone overboard, but I cannot stand when something is unfair, and will take things to great lengths at times when I feel that fiery knot in my stomach start to turn.

3. There are certain blogs I return to frequently (Dooce, Stereogum, Superhero) and then there are new ones that pop up all the time. I have decided to add a Favorite Blog segment to my own, in order to share the fabulous talent online with those of you who read mine. You can find Blog Pick on the right hand menu under Top Picks.