Xphile

Xphile
Originally uploaded by la5sol

its been twelve days since i posted last. and true to my word i have been sketching a lot more, filling up pages with color in a newly prepped day journal and have been working on juggling languages with deftness and ease. i found word games in french and spanish and i have been trying to decompress a bit by playing in spare moments. the image is from 'les mots' , but of course it doesn't have the room on my ipheezy to squeeze in my favorite of all time "jose chung's from outer space." Roswell! Roswell!

the blogging has been neglected of late and for the life of me i can't seem to think of the why and where did august go? i was extremely lucky that during the month we had more than adequate cloud cover, meaning Happy Mami, Happy Nina, and Happy Gigi! looking through most of my sketchbooks, (which serve as a hard copy of real life) i did a bit of walking with the girls, mostly along a stretch of bayside that faces the island of alameda and the skyline of sf, which is aptly named 'shoreline park'. did more cooking than usual, which means the painting of postcards and such diminished drastically. so it will be good to get back into that habit. did some drawing. sent out the mail art. saw more family than i have in the last few years. just about wrapped up another journal/collage book, "les mots" with the exception of some outlining paint to bring some rather fractured pieces/pages some cohesiveness. and received my new sketchbook project sketchbook and have been keeping it right here next to the computer so that i may, sketch in it, every, every moment so that it gets filled up sooner rather than later. the collage posted with this entry is one that i did a while back on a piece of cardboard with scraps from the recycle bin and a foil piece from a pellegrino limonata can. ummmm, pellegrino mi amore!

purple haze

cleveland sage?
Originally uploaded by la5sol

never really heard the song but know of the title, i did hear of cover of the song in one of my all-time favorites "born in east LA" where Rudy is playing guitar for tourists in TJ for change to pay off a coyote to take him back to, you guessed it, ELA. Whittier Blvd, Taco Village, Morales Shower Doors, and Garfield Ave. Pico Rivera and the Pomona Fwy. Soto St. Chickens in backyards and churros outside of la misa on sundays. And the everpresentthumpthumpthump of a heavy duty bass and WAR blasting from the cherried out buicks with chain link steering wheels.

mission blvd

mission blvd
Originally uploaded by la5sol

this year has been all about family stuff for me. so much so that it seems that not a week goes by that i am not engaged with immediate or extended family in one way or another. this weekend was no different. i needed to go see my father on saturday and then go to my uncle's birthday on sunday. since the little monsters are a handful, i doubled back the next day in a sense. while driving both days, i was reminded how much things have changed, and conversely, how thins have remained untouched.
Roads and thoroughfares- big changes. the old farm roads that i knew are being demolished to make way for new overpasses to avoid the inevitable accidents on the two lane hiway.
Farms and crops-unchanged. the smell of broccoli and the sight of row upon row of strawberries and culled through lettuce fields grabs hold of my heart no matter how long i'm away, and twist in an odd fashion. for as much as i hated it here and couldn't wait to go to the "big city", the earth has a hold on me and experiencing the surroundings via the senses calls the long forgotten to be reintegrated.
livestock-still abundant, the cows, the goats, the horses, the ranch dogs that keep pace with your car and bark furiously until you reach the next property always makes me smile.
the picture of this post brought a laugh and smile to my face and heralded my trip back to the fields and hills. it was like a vision from my past announcing my immediate future. have a lovely day.

sabiduria

sabiduria
Originally uploaded by la5sol

oooh, not a good shot. but it will do for the sake of the general idea. so, the impetus for this is integration and fitting pieces together to make a coherent whole- ---it was something i have been doing over and over again as a main design for about a week now. one of the things that happens to me when i draw and doodle on paper is that i draw in theme cycles, that is, if i draw unconsciously, things appear by themselves most of the time and i've learned to go with it (a tour through my photostream will show previous cycles, eyes, circles, squares, waves,e t c ) and now when i look through older stuff, i can remember the theme from specific dates (eyes 2004-2006, squares 2008 late fall, etc.) does this happen to others? i wonder.

Mail art received

Outgoing
Originally uploaded by la5sol

this week i've been a little, yes, just a little, lazy in regard to the blogosphere. call it crazy, but i know that the countless millions will not be showing up in front of my home with torches and pitchforks demanding in loud unreasonable voices if i fail to post. hence, the sloth, the lethargy, the definite ohwhogivesanish if i don't post. but i did get some nice mail art this week. and btw the picture and the post don't match. that's my outgoing mail in the photo. however, i got some good stuff from alexandre in guaralhos, sp and from test tower in washington and stickers from spence in canada. nifty!

collage brut

Journal page
Originally uploaded by la5sol

my style of collage is an ever-changing technique, but for the most part it is based on found words and scraps of my own art work or paintings. sometimes i like to fill the page for a spill over effect, and other times, like this example here, i play with the empty space around the main image. collage in some of my journals aren't finished for quite a time, i go back and add and take off and cover with paint or more words or images. i use color to bring it together loosely or in some cases, wait to see what develops on the page.

all it needs is you

all it needs is you
Originally uploaded by la5sol

so this weekend was just another example of how if we really wanted to stop the madness and refuse to participate in this mess of a sham called democracy it is possible and it could be, dare i say it?--even fun.
my vision for a revolution is for a weekend long sit down, stop work, bbq party with music and dancing and eating and socializing, a be-yourself or whoever you would like to be...maybe even a costume revolution in full disguise and fun wigs? why not? who says revolution has to be serious? why couldn't it be a hazy smoky lovefest? a 25 bottle of beer on the wall game of quarters with everyone on the block refusing to go out to buy *%it, or drive to work, or generally refuse to create or exchange income? i think if we can not shop on xmas (pretty much, right?) why not use that self restraint and organizing skills to stop the Kist machine and make it take notice to the big sitdown and drop out. just a nagging thought.

to the park, driver

to the park, driver
Originally uploaded by la5sol

or the beach for the naughty husky's Birthday!!! yes, our little dramatic, over the top, emotional little wolfie-poo Nina herself is three years old. time has gone so fast now that she is slowing down a bit, the first year and a half were excruciatingly slllloooowwwwww, with demands for walks, attention, walks, attention, walks and more attention. honestly, i saw that someone on fb was wanting a puppy and i shuddered at the memory of howmucheffinworkitwas. ouf! as much as a toddler! and everyone who knows me knows how much i detested having toddlers. a breed of demonic humanoids that should be sent away to some sort of island until they are able to verbalize needs and conduct themselves properly. and don't think i didn't stay up nights refusing to submit in powerful battle of wills with mine--i gladly went without sleep to make sure no half pint of neurons with vocal cords in training pants was going to outdo me in stubborn-ness.
as if!


but i would have to say that nina was probably the easiest to get to listen and obey, far easier than gigi, who i have to engage in a duel at least once daily until she remembers who gives the orders--nina, after all--in the words of mj is "a lover, not a fighter". that doesn't mean she doesn't try (hence the nickname the naughty husky). it just means that one steely look from me or a strongly stated reprimand sends her ears back and brings her back to good common sense, and quite often, a little tap dance over to me and a kiss on the hand as an apology or peace offering. happy birthday diba!

Don't mind the gap

Don't mind the gap
Originally uploaded by la5sol

sorry for the huge delay in the blogstream. since the weather has returned to semi-normal offshore cloud patterns, the pups and i have been taking advantage and catching up on all the things that we couldn't do while it was too hot last week (although that's hard to believe-the temp has dropped +25 degrees)! we are all catching up on our missed sleep-since it was too stifling to really sleep well-so the girls have been drowsy of late. hence the photo of gigi, on the edge of nodding off with droopy little eyes. i've not the slightest idea where she used to sleep as a stray, but i am guessing it was someplace small and inconspicuous, because she has an absolute fetish for smashing her head into things before she journeys into the arms of hypnos. sleep well and dream of snackies, little goodie gobbler.

Waves of color

Waves of color
Originally uploaded by la5sol

i've been away from the blogster for a few days now. i've been catching up with cleaning and laundry after a flurry of painting to beat any potential heat waves that might have made the painting an exercise in s/m, with the little plastic suit i wear to keep the splatters from falling on me and such and the u/v rays beating down through the window of the dining room. soooooo, i am forced to skiff through ( i love making up random verbs a la l.carroll- 'twas brillig and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble...) the flickr fotitos. so here's a cool colored mandala made with le pen thin pens in some of my favorite colors- aqua blue and olive green.

Nearly done

Nearly done
Originally uploaded by la5sol

after four non-consecutive days of a few hours each time, the lovely pre-wwII dining room is nearly finished. only one wall and a partial doorway remain to be done, and the room looks fantastic. the moulding, which was covered haphazardly with terribly hand painted birds (bald eagles, no less!) is covered completely and only the filagreed plaster remains, sans feathered friends. what a relief! the room looks like it was meant to, simple in elegance and a calm center of the home. the color really turned out well, a huge bonus, the beige neutral enough to blend with the cool grayish green of the art studio (see photo) and warm enough to compliment the reddish oak furniture within the space. it's quite exciting.

Sunday afternoon

Sunday afternoon
Originally uploaded by la5sol

i did this floral mandala in what i would call a semi-usual style, it was not what i would instinctively have done, especially with the filled in lines instead of blocked out colors. and i also deliberately tried to do something different by not filling in the white spaces of the green lines. it was somewhat frustrating to leave the white spaces as such, i wanted so much to put down thicker, broader strokes of color to fill it all in. but i reasoned that if i wanted to do that, i could always draw the design again and make a blk/wht copy and then go back and do color/texture experiments. i guess this is why people use photoshop, but aside from the prohibitive price, i like to do things by hand rather than mess about with the computer.

Chiens Interdits

Chiens Interdits
Originally uploaded by la5sol

well, they may be forbidden but that didn't prevent us and the girls to play on the mostly barren shores the other afternoon the first day of the heat wave. half moon bay was a lovely 65 in the sun, with a brisk cold wind blowing. the naughty husky Nina and the goodie gobbler Gigi were in their element, running leash free on the sand dunes, galloping like little runaway horses. papi even coaxed nina and gigi into the waves so they could get used to the water, braving the 40 degree pacific coast swells himself, which i thought was pretty darn heroic, considering he was used to the warm mediterranean currents.
the girls were so content that while we went to eat after our excursion, they snoozed in the back of the little ford four door without a peep until we got back to fairmount ridge. with the infernal heat going into its third day, i'm dreaming of the cold winds and stinging sands of la plage.

Via Flickr:
sorry girls no chasing horses today

Collage from Kragujevac!

Collage from Kragujevac!
Originally uploaded by la5sol

while i've been busy painting dining rooms, i received some wonderful handmade collage postcards from the serbian mail artist Petrovic, whose work i love! he has a minimalist but dense style consisting mostly of typeface, one of the most wonderful things in the world, imo.
i love letters, words, script and font design, and to have cyrillic phrases incorporated into art that i can touch is thrilling beyond belief. Thx P!

fly away home

fly away home
Originally uploaded by la5sol

the first couple layers of primer and paint have almost completely obliterated those horrific birds that were haphazardly painted on poor catherine's walls...she decided to go with a beige-y color that was difficult to find. most colors were, even as a beige, too red, orange, blue, grayish, even lavender-ish to be considered a neutral neutral. luckily she stumbled upon this color, which resembles coffee ice cream. yum!

Bye Bye Birdies

Bye Bye Birdies
Originally uploaded by la5sol

i've a painting job in a lovely old home that unfortunately for my friends, has survived some rather atrocious prior paint jobs, such as the one here to the left <<<<
but i'm happy to say the birds that have been fashioned out of the 1920's moulding are pretty much on their way out. i really enjoy painting rooms and such, its very satisfying and for someone who loves to see progress and end results, its wonderful. stay tuned for more pictures tomm!

Gigi w/ her snazzy new backpack

Gigi w/ her snazzy new backpack
Originally uploaded by la5sol

here is a photo of the goody gobbler herself, GiGi, who just celebrated her two year anniversary chez nous. Since that time, she has blossomed from a 29 pound waif who didn't know what toys or affection were, to a little lover who can sit, lay down, walk on a leash, and roll on her back for tummy rubs, while showing her little front teeth. today when we went for coffee, she lay on the cool sidewalk in front of the cafe, as people walked by and stopped to admire her. as they reached out to pet her, she put her head under their outstretched hands to encourage the affection. it was lovely to see.

correo colibri

correo colibri
Originally uploaded by la5sol

in our yard we have two giant bottlebrush bushes that are approx 7 feet tall. within their branches the hummingbirds dance and feed and sing their strange clicking songs of mirth or gossip, depending on the speed or rhythm, i'm guessing. they are quite tame, and usually come to greet me in the mornings and afternoons, hovering close to my face, their tiny eyes focusing on mine with a gaze that belies their aviary nature. in mesoamerican culture, they retain special significance and i feel a great affinity for them. i love to watch them in flight and at rest on our old tree with its withered branches, their tiny bodies no bigger than my thumb. i hope to soon plant even more foliage to keep them close to me so that i can watch them and offer them a bit of respite chez nous.

fancy a cuppa?

fancy a cuppa?
Originally uploaded by la5sol

ok i didn't have a cup of tea but i did have a slice of red velvet cake and a cup of coffee at cafe leila's today for the end of the month artist meetup, which had its origins over six years ago thx to mail artist carla cryptic who was generous enough with her time and resources to be the official host of our east bay meetup atc group. since that time, we have evolved as artists and in different mediums, but the bonds we forged as artists has remained strong. no longer at emeryville public market, we have moved from venue to venue until settling down in berkeley as a central meeting place, with, miracle of miracles, PARKING. the wonders never cease.