Kelly's Studio

Art and other sparkly things.

Sticky Fingers

Posted on | December 6, 2009 | Comments Off on Sticky Fingers

That 96″ tall canvas is still in my office. But I had some ideas about what to do with it this week, and I’m trying out some of them on a 36″ x 24″ canvas.

I have been thinking about curlicues and curlicues make me think of quilling. I called around and found some quilling paper at the art store, but in the end, I didn’t feel like buying any. I didn’t know how much I would need, whether it would work, and I wanted to work on a bigger scale than 1/8″ wide quilling paper would allow, anyway. As an experiment, I rescued the thicker color circulars from our newspapers and painted one side of them. Once dry, I measured and cut the painted sheets into strips and spent hours curling, gluing and pinching them into different shapes. If I were better at this, I suspect my fingers would be less sticky. But what can I say.

Here is the first dry-run of a design I’m considering. More in the way of paint needs to happen on the canvas, but I’m still thinking about that, too.

Me, Looking at You.

Posted on | November 22, 2009 | Comments Off on Me, Looking at You.

A few months ago, I mentioned we’d be replacing the photos under the “About” tab on my website with some new and improved ones that were a little bit friendlier (and a whole lot better lit).

Marc delved back into the photos while I was painting yesterday. I’m pleased to announce that the new photos are up. Check it out!

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So long low season?

Posted on | November 21, 2009 | Comments Off on So long low season?

I’ve been thinking for weeks about working on some new paintings.  I wasn’t quite ready to dive in until today, though.

Last Sunday, I ran the Big Sur Half Marathon.  It was fabulous and gorgeous and my time was 10 minutes faster than the half marathon I ran this past February.  My improved time really surprised me.  I can only conclude that eating and drinking my way through Spain for 10 days when I should have been increasing my mileage was even smarter of me than I had suspected.

Last Saturday, before we headed off for Monterey, I touched-up the painting I gave my sister for her birthday in August.  It was damaged in transit, and I still don’t understand how the protective styrofoam corners ended up melting into the paint.  Anyway, I am pleased with the new and improved version.  I hope my sister will be, too.  And that safe little repair project made me really start thinking about the work I ultimately did today.

Here is the photo that inspired my work today.  It’s a piece from the Museo Taller del Moro in Toledo, Spain.DSC_0226

Here is my interpretation, in progress. I’ll post more photos when the paintings are finished.
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Today’s painting soundtrack: La Oreja de Van Gogh, Compilation Jazz 2002 Edition Speciale Du Festival.

Boo!

Posted on | November 1, 2009 | 1 Comment

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Last weekend, I turned another year older. Yay! for birthday celebrations; boo! for another year under the belt. (*sigh*) Family and friends helped distract me from the getting older part and I had a fantastic birthday.  I enjoyed several awesome birthday song renditions, including the musical stylings of dezervision live on my telephone while I opened a lovely and perfectly-fitted black jacket.  Marc took me to Aziza for dinner, which was fabulous. We had tried to go to a Moroccan restaurant while we were in Madrid, but because we just wandered by it and didn’t have a reservation, we were turned away. When we returned home (but before Michelin announced that it was awarding it a star), Marc made a surprise birthday dinner reservation at Aziza. The food was amazing, the staff was wonderful, and we were pleasantly surprised when they thanked us for our patience in being seated by presenting us with a drink from the bar and a dessert on the house. I’ve never been happier to wait 30 minutes for a reservation.

Birthday Week Celebrations continued when Marc gave me a laptop. I’m typing on it right now. But I’m sure you can see the the difference even without my telling you, right? Now that I’ve gone portable I may become a better more regular blogger. We’ll have to see.

The week continued as it usually does, and I had planned to get started on some new paintings on Friday when I was off work, but that didn’t happen.  Instead, I did a bunch of errands and finally took my scooter in for the BIG post-tumble repair.  While the darling was in the shop, I caught up with Little Dictators and went pumpkin shopping.  I found one pumpkin desperately in need of a face (carving!) and one to eat (oh, delicious pumpkin, how I love to cook and eat you). Friday night brought carving and pumpkin seed roasting.

Necessary Tools

Necessary Tools

Getting To Work

Getting To Work

Hello, eyes!

Hello, eyes!

Almost done.

Almost done.

Complete!

Complete!

Boo!

Boo!

Saturday night was filled with adorable trick-or-treaters, many compliments on our most impressively carved pumpkin to date, and an absolutely fabulous pumpkin risotto (merci beaucoup, Mme. Farigoule et Peter Mayle).

BOO!

Protective Gear or Fabulous Fashion? ScooterGirls Delivers Both.

Posted on | October 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

If you know me, you know I love my scooter. I ride a Buddy 125. I’ve had it for a couple of years, and it makes getting around San Francisco FUN (and so much easier).

When I took my Motorcycle Safety Foundation course and got my M1 license, I cleared a huge personal hurdle. Before that, I would have never dreamed of riding around on a motorcycle or a scooter because, as my parents always said, it was “Just Too Dangerous!” It was basically the equivalent of “you’ll shoot your eye out!”

The MSF course I took was critical in helping me get out on the road and replace the “Just Too Dangerous!” mantra with “Safety First!” There are plenty of bad things that can happen to you on two wheels. You have to be smart and constantly vigilant as you ride among the cars and trucks on pot-holed and sometimes slick roads, where pedestrians can dart out or open a car door at any time.

But as a rider, you can also control for a few things by wearing protective gear. In addition to my full-face helmet (as my friend commented today, “What good is a brain without a face?”), I wear my gloves and an armored motorcycle jacket. I was reminded why I wear all of this protective gear a few weeks ago when I took an embarrassing low-speed tumble as I rode out of my driveway one morning. My scooter is still awaiting repair, but I suffered no scrapes, only a (now healed) bruise on my right calf. Other people must take tumbles too, from time to time, but you wouldn’t know it from the number of them darting around without protective gear.

Anyway, my gear looks fine with jeans, but there is no mistaking my jacket for anything other than what it is: a badass motorcycle jacket. So, when I ride to work, I face the choice of walking around downtown at lunch wearing my motorcycle jacket and looking like a mis-matched weirdo in my business clothes, being cold, or stuffing another jacket into my backpack for street wear.

If you’re me, you try to remember to stuff your street jacket in your backpack, and you soldier on. But if you’re Arlene Battishill, you create ScooterGirls and make fabulous street wear jacket styles that have all the safety features of a motorcycle jacket. You call it GoGo Gear. And you thrill me by telling me that I should prepare myself to put my jacket-stuffed-in-backpack-days behind me.

Rain, my friend who customizes helmets with amazing eye-catching designs made of Swarovski crystals, connected me with Arlene, who, with her jackets, is fresh from winning first prize at Los Angeles Fashion Week. We three and another friend had breakfast this morning. We talked about business, fashion, sparkle, and how there’s a huge need for attractive and well-fitted non-pink gear for women motorcycle and scooter riders.

I had checked-out (okay, drooled at length over) the ScooterGirls website before meeting Arlene, and I was really excited to hear about GoGo Gear and how it will keep me safe.  I was even MORE excited to see the gear in person.

After breakfast, we tried on all the jackets. They are as fabulous as they appear on the website, by the way.

All the Jackets

All the Jackets

And we got a look at how the jackets are constructed. All the jackets are abrasion resistant, some are reversible and reflective (but unarmored), and others are armored. And let me tell you, the armor is imperceptible to anyone who isn’t actually wearing the jacket. The fabric drapes beautifully, and the cut of the jacket is snug enough to keep all the armor in just the right place while also allowing you to wear layers underneath. Brilliant.

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Three Layers of Fabric

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The Armor

If you are in the Bay Area, SF Moto will be your local retailer for GoGo Gear. I can’t wait to place my order!

Vacation!

Posted on | October 18, 2009 | Comments Off on Vacation!

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I love Spain.

We were there on vacation for ten days! Ten days! You might think that would be long enough, but you would be wrong.

We flew to Madrid, drove to Segovia for two days, then Toledo for two more, and then back to Madrid for the rest of the time. We saw castles, cathedrals, libraries, and museums. And the art! The amazing collections at the Reina Sofia, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Prado made me wonder (for a crazy moment or two–I must have been drunk) how Spain managed to get all of the art in the world within its borders. I wish I could have taken more, or actually any, photographs inside the museums. There were strongly worded signs and enforcers against photography–flash or otherwise. I even forgot once, snapped a photo and immediately earned a stern tongue-clucking and talking-to about my photographic ways. *Sigh.* Instead, I made notes of artists and works of art so I could try to find them later in a book or on-line.

We took ourselves on walking tours of Segovia and Toledo, stopping at any monument or building that was open. We also walked all over Madrid to see the various neighborhoods. I leveraged my limited Latin American Spanish as best as I could, and we mostly got what we needed. My mime act for two-pronged-electrical-wall-outlet-converter-thingy (the one we packed didn’t work) was effective, but in the wrong hands or a different shop, it would have looked very, very dirty. Had I not overlooked the obvious, I would have gone with “cambio,” and according to the shopkeeper, I would have been right. I also picked up the word for artichoke and how to say “one of each.” I learned that eggs count as a vegetable, and that pâté doesn’t count as meat. Those last two kind of makes sense if you squint a little while thinking about them.

I’ve put photos of the trip up on my Flickr page. Stay tuned for future blog posts that, no doubt, will have something to do with this amazing trip.

Crackle Paste and Pleather Scraps

Posted on | September 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Crackle Paste and Pleather Scraps

Last Friday, I went to Britex with two of my lovelies. I was in search of some inspiration. I ended up raiding the pleather scrap box. Here’s most of what I bought:
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And here are two works I’ve had in progress since last weekend. In the one on the left, I tried using crackle paste. It didn’t behave the way I thought it would … but I’m starting to get effect I want.

Both of the pieces use pleather scraps.

I was thinking about landscapes and volcanoes. Can you tell?
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Getting Back To It

Posted on | September 18, 2009 | 2 Comments

“Don’t call it a comeback. I been here for years.” – Mama Said Knock You Out (LL Cool J)

It has been almost a month since the Tiburon Art Festival.  And what do I have to show for it?  Not much, unless you count the November half-marathon I signed up for and the additional days I went running or swimming instead of sitting down to paint.  All that planning for the event sapped me of more creativity than I had realized was possible.  The experience was definitely worth it, but I can’t remember the last time I went a month without painting.  The more troubling part, though, has been my being stuck. I have had no idea of what to do next. I had started to worry my little artful fairy of creativity had packed her bags and left me for someone else. A very sad and scary thought. Fortunately, it turns out she was just being very tidy and extremely quiet. Imagine my relief when I noticed her rustling around this morning.  I woke up with a few hazy colors that are continuing to take the shape of a painting in my imagination.  I like this development very much.

So, stay tuned.  I’m getting back to it.  Probably this weekend.

And I’m also thinking big.  Have you ever seen a 96″ tall canvas?  The first time I did, I had to buy it because I have to tell you, the possibilities it holds seem endless.  After I bought it, I managed to carry it the few very windy blocks (it acted as a sail–pure comedy, I’m sure, if you’re not the one carrying it) from the art store to my my office.  But that’s as far as I got.  I put it behind my door stopper and it occasionally tips over as if to remind me it’s STILL behind the door stopper.  Everyone who notices it finds it captivating, too. (“Wowww, so cool … what are you going to DO with it?”)   But it will not fit in my car.  Marc and I will need to take it home together some weekend (this weekend?) on the muni.  Surely it will fit on one of the train cars if it is not rush hour.  I also need to measure to make sure I have the space to work on it.  And then somewhere to hang it.  Details, details.

Off to find the tape measure …

Last Call!

Posted on | September 7, 2009 | Comments Off on Last Call!

This morning (early afternoon, really), we headed outdoors for another round of photos. This time in bright daylight, without a tripod.  Again, lighting proved challenging in new and different ways. (Shadows! Teary and squinty eyes!) But we’re going to use a couple of photos from this round to replace the photos on my “About” tab. I think they look friendlier. And friendlier can’t hurt, right?

It turns out I have a really hard time just lying around, guessing what’s going on behind the camera and not really being able to participate in the trouble-shooting process without asking A LOT of questions. And asking questions results in weird facial expressions. I also have a hard time not wrinkling my forehead when in bright sunlight. Awesome.

We decided that the best way to spend the rest of the afternoon was eating oysters and drinking wine. Delicious.

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Close-Up, Round 2

Posted on | September 7, 2009 | Comments Off on Close-Up, Round 2

Sunday, post-hike collapse and shower, we tried out the tripod along with the fancy new lens. The tripod was a bit too much to schlep around on an 8 mile hike, so it’s first use was in our front room. For this round, I was the subject.

We worked with the concept that had turned out so well when my friend photographed me with some olives. This time, instead of olives, I piled on a bunch of necklaces.  It didn’t turn out looking nearly as tacky as I thought it would.  So that was interesting.  And it will come as no surprise to those of you who really know what you’re doing that lighting and resulting shadows were our biggest challenge. We had naked-bulb bedside table lamps lying, standing and swiveling to various locations on the floor. I was somewhere in the middle. We got some decent results, I think.

Learning as we go, (hopefully) moving towards improvement.

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