My Dodger Fans

My Dodger Fans
Originally uploaded by V G.

Here are my Dodger fans, my husband and son.
We went to Dodger Stadium on Thursday night to see the
Dodgers v.s. SF game. Sorry to say that the Dodgers lost.
Nonetheless, I have a lot of SF fans in my life too. My mom and dad to name a few. If I still lived in the Bay Area, I would be a Barry Bonds fan too.
For one reason or another, I have converted to living in LA and I am now true blue. I have been for a while now...about 15 years now.
Anyway, these are my two guys...daddy and his little slugger.
Go Dodgers!

Helvetica, the documentary.

I saw "Helvetica" the documentary today.

http://www.helveticafilm.com/

It was great. It was made for graphic designers.

The movie explores all aspects of Helvetica, the ones who love it and the ones who hate it.

Do you love or hate Helvetica? Let Veer know. The "love/hate" graphic above is from Veer.

http://blog.veer.com/archives/001449.html

I'd classify myself in the LOVE helvetica camp.

To me it is one of the most perfect typefaces.

I fell in love with the "a" during my art school days.

My typography teacher had us do graphite renderings

of fonts on vellum to learn the beauty of working with type. Do art schools still do this?

Helvetica was one of my favorite ones to imitate. It was so satisfying to me to do a perfect graphite rendition.

I love a lot of fonts...but I kind of feel like Helvetica was one of my first true loves. Now I am going to try to think of something to write for Veer's "love/hate". Hmmm?

Bergamot Station Pesto Chicken Sandwich

Bergamot Station Pesto Chicken Sandwich
Originally uploaded by V G.

This is a painting that was painted in 2003 for an art show at Bergamot Station Cafe, Santa Monica. It is 11x 14", oil on canvas.
It hung with about 12 other sandwich paintings, some of which included "Turkey Club", "Tuna in the Sky", "Classic Pastrami", "PB&J"...to name a few.
Now this painting has a new home away from my home.
Somebody at work recently bought it from me.
She originally saw it in 2003, almost bought it and has been thinking about it ever since. At work, once in a while we get the opportunity to hang up some of our personal work. I hung this painting up not intending to sell it, since I really like this painting. The person who did end up buying this painting really did buy it this time. At first I thought she was just saying she wanted to buy it, but she really did want to buy it. I am happy she has it now in her kitchen. She says it is perfect there.

Mural In-Progress

Mural In-Progress
Originally uploaded by V G.

Here's the latest on the mural.
I was thinking of David Hockney's "pool series" when I painted the mow marks in the grass. Can you tell?
This mural still has a long way to go, but I'll get there.
It's basically blocked in now.
As you may notice, the sandtrap color is actually the original color of the wall coming through.
There is still so much to do to it. I usually don't like to post works in-progress, but it might help me to keep tinkering with it and one day say, "I'm finished."
It's also getting me to look at other parts of the house which need fresh paint for real. Hmmm? Always lots of projects...

My Inner Diego

Here's progress on the Pebble Beach Golf Links, 17th hole mural... I'm still blocking it out and laying in the basic shapes. I've made more progress since this photo today, but I have not gotten a good photo of it yet.

My son is already testing out his golf club in front of it.

Painting this mural is bringing out my inner Diego.

Besides many other things, one thing that separates me from Diego Rivera is today's Home Depot. I was able

to buy "Ooops" house paint for $1/quart and $5/gallon. What a deal. Part of using "Ooops" paint is luck. There has to be a color that someone made an ooops on while mixing for it to be an "Ooops" paint. It's random, but so far I have had luck. I found 3 shades of green and a gallon of blue.

Diego's painting is far from house paint. He painted frescoes. The "true fresco" technique consists of painting on a wet plaster surface (usually a wall or ceiling), using pigments mixed with limewater. The only connection to Diego would be that I am painting a mural. Other than that, it is a very loose concept.

I think I just like the feeling it evokes. For me to say I am bringing out my inner Diego feels like I am bringing out some thing I am kind of familiar with, but still has lots of room to explore. I have no idea if this makes any sense. Plus, with using house paint, I am also feeling a little like Pollock, although I am not dripping it intentionally. I am not using enamel, but instead it is waterbased latex. I'll still call it a "stretch of the imagination" Diego-Pollock combo with a touch of David Hockney. I just mentioned Hockney because I was thinking of his pool paintings. I love the squiggles in his water. So graphic. What I painted today reminded me of Hockney. You'll see when I get around to posting it.

So it is a Diego-Pollock-Hockney...and doesn't look like any of them. It's just what I am thinking about when I am painting.

One quart of Oops paint. Dark Green.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!
Originally uploaded by V G.

Happy Easter everybody!
Here I am dressed for Easter.
Actually, I'm not. It's the beauty of Photoshop.
Last month I met James Hayes, the Puppeteer who was giving a
talk on his life as a puppeteer. Very interesting man. What a cool job. Anyway, in the room where he spoke, there was a life-size cut-out of his pink bunny costume where you could stick your head in the cut-out section. Then, you get your polaroid taken. It was so much fun. James says he wears this costume for Halloween or whenever he feels like wearing it. Anyway, I just remembered I had this photo and meant to post it sooner. Today the lightbulb in my head went off, then "Bingo!". It seemed perfect for Easter.
I added a forrest in the background.
It seemed to go with the pink bunny...although this bunny could have easily been in the city too. Or at a nightclub, or a baseball game or viewing the Eifel Tower or promoting pizza cheese slices or whatever...
Enjoy the holiday!

Here's the original polaroid from the James Hayes day.

PebbleBeach Golf Course 17thHole

PebbleBeach Golf Course 17thHole
Originally uploaded by V G.

I did this watercolor over the weekend. It's 11 x 14" on an Arches block of watercolor paper. No Chinese white or gouache was added. I kept my watercolor pure. I'm not a total purist, but I have my moments of it. I have nothing against adding white or gouache to a watercolor, I'm just mentioning it because I didn't use any opaque pigments. A few of you may get the humor in this. Otherwise it is just a note of what I did and did not do.

How was I inspired to do this?
Through blogging, Pam in Colorado mentioned she was painting her bathroom from pink to green. Then it sparked an idea for me to do some painting on the house. Why not start a mural in my backyard related to golf? After browsing through a couple golf books, I kept coming back to the Pebble Beach course.
Then, it was the 17th hole that seemed most inspiring. I started painting some green in my backyard to start, then at night I painted this watercolor to get more of a feel for what I was about to attempt in the mural as sort of a warm-up. The mural will be more of a square compostion, so I haven't totally figured that out yet. I'll just see how it goes. I may have to do another watercolor just to see.

If all goes well, I'll post some progress shots of the back yard mural project as I go along. It may take me a year to paint it, but I'll do it.
I have to paint during the weekends and during my son's naptime. This gives me about 2-4 hours per weekend depending on the duration of the naps... so that is not a lot. I already started some of the green for the green on the wall, so now I'm commited. It will be fun. I have needed to do something like this.