Saturday, January 30, 2016

Back in Berkeley

The Berkeley Art Museum is back.  I got a peak at the members’ preview today.  I have always been a fan and even had a fondness for the old, brutalist edifice on Bancroft.  Years of education in 70s modernist buildings can do that to you.  The new museum is a totally different experience.  The new building is simply flawless.  The firm of Diller Scofidio & Renfro did the sort of innovative, quality work that frankly is rare in the Bay Area.  You can immediately see that the space will be flexible for showing a wide range of art.  The building has been designed first and foremost to show art.   It feels spacious and the galleries flow well with at least two entrances for each room.  Even on a crowded day, the museum still felt comfortable.  There are architects who design museums then there are architects who are museum-goers and design museums.  You can tell.

The inaugural exhibit is Architecture of Life and it:
“…explores the ways that architecture—as concept, metaphor, and practice—illuminates various aspects of life experience: the nature of the self and psyche, the fundamental structures of reality, and the power of the imagination to reshape our world.”

The current show officially opens tomorrow and runs until May 29, 2016.   I am excited to have the Berkeley Art Museum back as part of my local museum rotation. 

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Tennessee Cove

Tennessee Cove, acrylic on paper, 12”x9”, 2016

The beach is closed due to erosion and dangerous high surf, and even with a few rain showers, a Tennessee Valley hike like the one we took last Saturday is always inspiring.

Monday, January 25, 2016

My First Artist Stamp



A sheet of my first ever artist stamp.  These were distributed yesterday at the monthly meeting of the San Francisco Correspondence Coop.  And now some of the extras will be affixed to some of my outgoing mail art.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Outgoing Collage Fodder and Recycled Envelopes

I like to start the new year by getting organized.  Taking stock of my art supplies a bit of purging and a lot of recycling.  The collage fodder always needs to be reassessed.  Among the contents of the bin was an unused, vintage Pan Am barf bag.  It’s the last of a stack I bought for 10¢ each at a yard sale a few years back. 

I decided the best way to repurpose it was to fill it with some random collage fodder and use it as an envelope.  This one is off to France to the Artist-in-Seine (aka Dean Marks).  He always sends me amazing mail art and so often it is a piece that you can’t believe made it through in he way he sent it.    For example, there was the box of unused pharmaceuticals and the amazing barcode piece of mail art.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Ready for 2016…


This pile of art supplies that arrived yesterday can only mean one thing.  It’s time to get to work on a new solo show opening October15, 2016.  Stay tuned and mark your calendar.