Seaside Village

Seaside Village

7”x9”, mixed media on paper

From a new series exploring the patterns and color palettes I have been working with for many years.  This time using watercolor, ink and pencil on paper.

T is for Tofu

Hans Hess has a call for art for letter-themed mail art for an upcoming exhibit.  I have chosen to go for the letter T. 😀

My Happy 20th Anniversary!

Leidesdorff Street - Time Travel Photos Series -mixed media, photo collage on board, 14"x11", 2016

For seven long years I worked in the shadow of the Pyramid.  It amazes me to think that 20 years ago today – July 15. 1997 – I gave up a full time job — I have not had another one.  My focus has been pursuing my art ever since.  Yes, I have worked part-time, still do, and there have been some lean times and struggles.  But, I am still working as an artist – well, that is my true full time job.

Pinked Postcards

With all the pink mail art arriving for the upcoming show in Sacramento I felt inspired to make some pink postcards to send out.  These are from a series of old postcards that just needed to be pinked up a bit before they went out in the mail.

Bigger and Blue

Tahoe Collagescape, mixed media on board, 24” x 36”

The latest work in my collagescape series is also the biggest piece so far (and I want to go bigger).  Anyone who has visited Lake Tahoe in person knows there is an intense, rich blue palette found there that is not quite like any other lake.  After painting layers of blue on paper and cutting up the pieces, I reassembled the lake (it’s somewhere close to 20,000 pieces).

Tahoe Collagescape (detail)

Tomales Point

Tomales Point, mixed media on board, 36” x 12”

Point Reyes remains one of my favorite escapes from the City and, as always, a subject for my work.  My collagescape series really started with two works based on Point Reyes.  In this latest one, I continue to move towards larger and larger collagescapes.  This time I strove to capture the gray, green dry landscape up at Tomales Point.  This one is made up of over 10,000 small pieces of cut-up, painted paper.  Prints and additional items based on this piece are also available at Society 6.

Now for iPads!

You can get my artwork on cards, bags, iPhone cases and prints from Society 6.  Now you can get an iPad Case.  And, go to this link for free shipping on iPad cases and most products (valid through April 14, 2003 – midnight PDT)

Happy Holidays 2012!

There is a reason you save all those old Christmas cards and the stamps off the envelopes.  Below is one of the pieces for the 2011 Project made with old Christmas cards from when I was very little.  And this year’s card (shown above) includes stamps that I have been saving for years.   

In Today’s Mail

I stepped out for coffee today and decided to head up to post office and found the latest issue of Featuring Magazine had arrived from Europe.  Having an ice coffee at a café and reading about oneself, it feels a bit, dare I say, glamorous…

It started with a box in a basement...

A forgotten box full of old travel brochures, maps and postcards, etc. + an old photo = more than 30 pieces of new work.  The story is revealed on September 16 when Imagining Val Travel opens (click here for details).  

Every time I go to the Post Office

Now that the Millennia Mail Art Project is underway, it seems every time I head to the Upper Haight to check on the P.O. Box I find another completed piece has returned.  Above are the most recent cards to make it back to San Francisco.

The pieces show include layers contributed by myself and the following artists:

Corrine Gilman, Danielle Williams, David Stanley Aponte, David Wilson, Dori Singh, Eduardo Cardoso, Gina Visione, Jane Smith, Janie Pinterits, Katinka van Ingen, Kelly Sikora Pocci, Lady Nigel Butterfly, Many Fariello, Mike Szwarc, MZ Carbuncles, Nico Van Hoorn, Pablo Piccasso (aka Guido Vermeullen), Pamela Gerard, Paul Graham, Picasso Gaglione, rodni.com, Rufina Abasova, Sandra Lefever, Serse Luigetti, Stacy Gibboni, Susan Gold, Tiziana Baracchi, Torma Cauli, and Virgy Milici.

You can see all the completed pieces at tofuart.com with details and links to the participating artists.  

Meet me at Flax

If you’re in San Francisco, come by Flax on Saturday, June 2 between 1-4 p.m.
I’ll be giving a demonstration of some of my mixed media techniques and will also bring along a few of my newest pieces.

Flax Art & Design is located on Market Street at the corner of Valencia.

Maps and Mapping

Some of my map pieces will be appearing in a show opening this weekend in Sacramento at Tangent Gallery.

Maps and Mapping

Tangent Gallery

2900 Franklin Boulevard

Sacramento, CA 95818

Opening Reception

Saturday, January 14^th, 2012 6-10 p.m.

Gallery hours, Saturdays 12-3 or by appointment.

Five of my pieces have gone up for the show including a map collage inspired by Japanese textile patterns, my icon of the Virgen de Guadalupe made out of maps and a piece titled American Jesus Horse which is an image of a dinosaur made from maps of the bible belt. “Jesus Horse” is the term used for dinosaurs by anti-science, religious fanatics.

When Creating Art is an Act of Historic Preservation

Over the years, while working on collages, I began to see how using source material from a certain period could “date” a piece. I do not mean to imply that by “dating” a piece it’s somehow out of fashion. But rather I am using the term “dating” in the sense of freezing time. When I use older source material in a contemporary piece, I am creating something akin to a time capsule. So much of the material I use is destined for landfills and recycling bins. When I repurpose the material for a work of art, it in turn also becomes preserved in a way other than the placing it in a drawer or mylar envelope.

A collage can be a way to preserve various ephemera. Even after a little cutting, you are setting the material in some sort of glue for the ages. But when I start cutting, there is usually little of that kind of preservation going on. I tend to work with small pieces — thousands of small pieces. But even after I cut material into little pieces and reconfigure it, what I still do preserve is the color. And color can really change over time. Some shades of a color are very distinct to a certain time.

For example, when you see a distinct shade of a color it can trigger a memory. The color may bring an image to mind or specific point in time. It happens when you see a color like the original blue on a classic car and immediately realize that particular blue was only used on cars during the 1960’s. Memory triggering color may also be associated with clothing, household objects, old photos or printed material. It might be the shade of baby blue or pink that reminds you of a vintage telephone. There are distinctive shades of red and blue that were used as backdrops in advertising photos in the 1950’s. The olive green and harvest gold kitchen appliances of the 1970’s are unmistakable. Dig deep in the closet and something in a very bright yellow or purple (or both) might fall out. It’s probably a shirt that hasn’t seen the light of day since Daddy Bush was president.

As I cut up things like old maps, atlases, vintage postcards and discarded magazines and books my first purpose is just to make a work of art. I work in the present. But, I also understand that I am preserving color palettes that are disappearing.

Some examples of some Palette Preservation can be seen above and much more is at tofuart.com.

Favorites at the Museum

I’ve been a regular museum visitor all my life. One of my habits is always to “visit” my favorite paintings on each visit. I can’t go into the de Young without saying hello to Elmer Bischoff’s Yellow Lampshade. I have a handful of must sees every time I pop into the de Young. I miss Charles Burchfield’s Spring Flood. They haven’t had it up since the new museum opened. If they don’t want to display it, I would gladly give it a home.

I have a few favorites at pretty much any art museum I regularly visit, even museums beyond the Bay Area. I was just down in Los Angeles at the LACMA. I took the opportunity to introduce my nephew and young cousin to a few of my friends at the museum. Thomas Hart Benton’s The Kentuckian is a perennial favorite.

If I wasn’t an artist, I’d want to be a curator. I would love an opportunity to curate some museum shows. I have a head full of ideas. Maybe one day the world will come to see Tofu’s Favorite Works and then everyone can endlessly analyze why I chose what a chose for the show. But I am getting ahead of myself, I haven’t even designed the coffee mugs for the gift shop.

Why Maps?

Why do you like maps?

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that question….

I have always incorporated old maps into my mixed media work. in 2001 I started making pieces that were exclusively made of maps. People are always curious about my “obsession” with maps. I just like maps. Well no, I love them. It’s a simple answer, and I find that anyone else into maps usually just nods with approval.

Below are some details about my relationship with maps.

How long has this been going on?

Even as a child, I was attracted to maps. It’s hard to remember a time when I did not own an atlas. I could spend hours at the library looking at the collection of atlases. Even my interest in history is connected to maps. By the time I was eight I began drawing imaginary maps. I spent hours of leisure time through my teens drawing imaginary maps.

It’s hard to say where this interest in maps originates. I am definitely a spatially oriented person. I have an innate sense of direction yet am terrible when it comes to remembering names and faces. My spatial memory is quite strong. For example, I could draw an accurate floor plan of the apartment I lived in between ages two and four.

There is a natural relationship between maps and travel and I have always been drawn to travel. Before I had the opportunity to extensively travel, I travelled through maps. One might even say I approached maps as works of conceptual art.

What are some of the reasons you like using maps in art?

There are a number of ideas that emerge in my work and there are some basic reasons that I prefer maps as a medium:

1. I like the “control” of the work when I exclusively use maps as a collage source.
2. I like using the places on the maps for their symbolic significance. Many times I choose specific places in a piece.
3. The recycled/repurposing nature of using old maps has a great deal of appeal. Often maps, particularly road maps, can be infused with a great deal of energy from the previous users.
4. The impermanence of the information on maps fascinates me. Names change, borders move, small towns disappear or get swallowed up by bigger towns, small towns become cities in a matter of a decade or two. And even the physical features are not permanent. Rivers dry up, coasts erode, volcanoes blow their tops. When I use an out-of-date map in a work of art, I am taking that former-reality and giving it a permanent place in time.
5. There are universal and similar patterns that appear in traditional art throughout the world. I use maps to express the patterns in an alternate medium. Many of the patterns I use in my work are influenced by and can be found in the art of different and diverse cultures around the world. I have been influenced by everything from American Quilts to Japanese Textiles to Native American Rugs. Some of my pieces are non-traditional mandalas.
6. Working with maps in the way that I do is personally very beneficial. The reaction that I usually hear, is that my works of art are very calming. Personally, my entire creation process can often be a very calming and centering experience for myself. Preparing and cutting then gluing down one small piece after another is, at times, nearly trance inducing.

I continue to create map-based work and am exploring new patterns and configurations. This year I also am working on an ongoing piece called the 2011 Project. Many of the mixed media pieces include maps. The project is also giving me an opportunity to experiment with new media beyond maps including vintage postcards, photos and other ephemera. Examples of my map work can be seen on my site, tofuart.com

The Map of San Francisco – 10 Years Later

10 years ago this summer my living room was a mess. A large canvas (50”x40”) was on the easel. The floor was a sea of small bits of map. I was in the middle of creating a new map of San Francisco.

I had decided to render the City in a detailed map where each city block would be represented by a piece of map from someplace else. I wanted the piece to reflect the immigrant nature of our City. To that effect, certain places dominate various parts of the map. For example there are a lot of pieces of China in Chinatown, the Mission contains pieces of Latin America, Bayview has pieces of the U.S. South. True to San Francisco, there are pieces of all sorts of places throughout the map. There are also hidden little messages. For example, the block where the Transamerica Pyramid stands is represented by Cairo. And if you’re a serious history buff, you’ll know where to look for a piece of Sydney to represent the notorious Sydney Ducks.

In 2001, when I was in the middle of this piece, I realized that I never would have undertaken the task had I truly understood the amount of effort that would be involved. Often when I am the most pleased with my results, they are the pieces that that end up being far more involved and a greater challenge than I had anticipated.

Elephant Magazine, Issue #7

Issue #7 of the British art publication Elephant Magazine is out. Two of my map pieces are featured in an article about artists working with maps.