Laura McHugh's Almost Daily Art Diary

Chrysalis Studio Print Show

2011-12-01T23:11:00.001-08:00

I participated in the SoMA Chrysalis Studio Print Show tonight. The studio is owned and operated by Katie Gilmartin. I took a class from her in May 2011. It was fun to be in her space and learn some excellent studio organization and printmaking techniques.

I was invited to participate in the Print Show, which I believe she has held annually for the past 5-6 years. A big thrill was seeing my pal Jason, who bought a piece from me.

There was great food, good company, and a lot of really good prints. Check it out in the photos below.

My monotypes on exhibit.

So many people having a great time!

SOLD!

Still Working with Those Birds

2011-11-25T01:28:00.001-08:00

We had Open Studios on the Coastside and in HMB this past weekend. I was so happy because that was one of the things I hoped I could participate in when I moved, but for five of the six years I've lived here there has been a poor or no OS scene. It was tacked on to Silicon Valley OS I think, but no one really associates the coastside with Silicon Valley.

About 200 people came through my house and on Sunday I did a print making demo with Kristine Wong. She worked on her linocuts with Speedball water-based ink. I used litho ink on this linocut I managed to pull together on Sunday morning, before Kristine arrived. It was crude but did the trick.

Birds were the theme, por supuesto.

Birds, Clotheslines, Windmills

2011-11-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

I love two out of three of these things - the other I'm trying to learn to love. So, for off-Bad Art Night last night, I worked with them all together. It is really hard to put something you don't like in with the ones you do.

My mind kept racing through the questions "will putting the **********s* in there just fuck it all up or will it be interesting?"

"Will I be able to draw the **********s* correctly?" because I know when I don't ****LOVE**** something, it is really hard to put my attention to capturing it properly.

I'm pretty happy with how they all work together, and the addition of the butterfly graphic from a 2008 New York Times magazine was a element that really brought it all together.

What I've Been Doing For a Month, And Some Birds

2011-10-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

Moving. I can't believe it's taken a month to move a household. The inside stuff from the old house to the new garage, and then into the house. The old garage to the new garage. And I still need to get the POD with all the really good stuff soon. If they will deliver it to the new house street and then come pick it up soon, because I'm still waiting for the sidewalk and street to get finished.

Today, I am home sick because somewhere along the way in the past four weeks, I overdid it. Probably more than once or twice. Then I got on a plane and in my exhausted and stressed out place, got strep throat. Actually, I felt pretty unstressed out by the time I went to LA last week. I was feeling pretty good at having gotten through the previous three weeks alive and started to relax a bit. That's how the strep got in - I let the guard rails of my immune system down and it snuck right in.

I don't like birds - in art, or in real life. I'm going through a phase right now my art friend Kristine and I call "Put a Bird On It." I can suffer the birds if they are a parody on my own work, which is interesting because I'm not exactly standing there explaining to viewers that the bird(s) are not serious. But that is another blog.

Here are photos I took out my new front window today. These particular birds (crows?) just love my front yard. There were thousands of them. Okay, well at least a hundred...and they were interesting, if also a bit scary.

Last BAN @ 739

2011-09-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

I was moving yesterday, from one house to another. Actually, just my stuff got moved, and not even all of it. I moved the house contents, but the garage/studio at the old place will have to be moved later, after the new garage has been painted.

Even though I was in the midst of cleaning toilets, mopping floors, patching paint, painting patches, and getting every last bit of stuff out of the old house, I kept to having BAN. We sat and tore paper and collaged. I was dead tired and don't remember feeling too inspired, so in a sense, it was a better Bad Art Night for me - what I was creating was pretty bad.

RPTP Photo was here and brought her immense range of markers. I thought how she had some of the pulled out was beautiful and fascinating.

BAN will reappear in a new location in three-ish weeks. Stay tuned, kids!

A Deck With a View

2011-09-20T15:24:00.001-07:00


From my new roof deck. What a beautiful day.