Some quick paintings of my Nishiki road bike, built in 1990 or so. (Spot the old-timey lugs on that thing.)
(My apartment really is just filled with bikes and vegetables, in the best SF style.)
Category Archives: art
Painting persimmons
I’d never seen a persimmon before I moved to San Francisco. The first one I encountered, in a CSA box, was a total mystery. Eventually, I learned — slice them super thin, like potato chip-thin. Or roast them like tiny squashes, and eat them like cobbler.
I’d intended to paint pomegranates this season, but they just never spoke to me. It might be something about their lumpiness that made them unsatisfying to paint. Maybe next year I’ll try again. For now, it’s all persimmons.
Last season: avocados.
YES! We made a sign!
If you attended the YxYY conference this summer you might have noticed this gorgeous sign hanging out in the Ace Hotel lobby and at other events over the weekend.
This lovely object was a collaboration betweeen me, Fiona, and Thor.
We started with big ideas and a couple rounds of prototyping.
Eventually we realized we just needed to make it simple. Sturdy, plywood, bright pink. With a big yellow “Yes” on it, which had been beautifully designed by Yiying Lu for the conference (and who graciously let us totally copy it). The sign felt solid and satisfying, though less flashy than some initial concepts.
And here it is in its blinking glory.
Such a fun project and collaboration. (Made even more fun by the Breakfast Sandwich Cook-Off that became part of Sign Painting Day, but that’s another story for another day.)
The postcard project (and eating what I paint)
I’ve started painting watercolor postcards for every season, and this summer I’ve been painting avocados. As I sketched and then painted the foundational washes, the model avocado gradually browned so that even as I began to really understand each nuance of color and texture, those colors and textures were themselves changing. I took a photo of the avocado to serve as reference for painting subsequent layers over the next days, and then I chopped it up and ate it.
