Wandering Artist's Journal

"Persia", a ticket taker at SFMOMA, wearing a dress made of SFMOMA admission tickets, sparkly shoes, and other classy custom accessories. Beautiful! Photo by local artist, Sandra Yagi (thanks, Sandy!)

Ian Padgham's Pumpkin Praxinoscope: On Friday, before I started my weekly sketching in the galleries, I got a chance to see the SFMOMA employees pumpkin carving contest. They were all imaginative and well done, but Ian Padgham's was just stunning. He painted four small pumpkins with Eadweard Muybridge style action stills (one image on each lobe of the pumpkin.) Then he set up a simple kitchen turntable, with the slit viewer of a Praxinoscope. Very, very simple materials (cardboard, flashlight, pumpkins, turntable.) When the viewer looks through the slit while the turntable is spinning, it's a very realistic motion picture! videos here (three views): video 1 , video 2 , video 3

Friday afternoons are becoming a not-so-secret time for artists to hang out at the cafe on the SFMOMA rooftop. This week was no exception and after the museum closed, we moved on to Bill's Kitchen and then to South Beach Artist Studios for the opening party of their SF Open Studios weekend. Earlier this week , I mentioned that Sandra Yagi had moved to that building and was participating in SF Open Studios this year. The whole building was busy and Sandra's studio was no exception. I was glad to get a look at the five small rock-star skeleton paintings that she'd just finished this week - they're still wet (oil paint) and they really look great - I'll be surprised if they aren't all sold by the end of the weekend. She's still open tomorrow, if you want see them yourself: 11am - 6pm - 340 Bryant St. Photos and video by David W. Sumner , ©2009, All Rights Reserved

I recently made a studio visit to Sandra Yagi , in her South Beach studio. Sounds almost tropical, doesn't it? It's an old CalTrans building nestled up against the Bay Bridge on-ramp. The last time I visited this building it was to see Tina Vietmeier . Sandy just moved to this studio from her old place on Belcher Street. ( I interviewed her there five years ago .) The same rolling cart and easels were here in "South Beach" (Rincon Hill), but this studio seemed a lot brighter, with huge windows along one wall. Sandy said it could get a little too bright, and she just got some curtains to cut down the mid-morning glare. If you're not familiar with her work, Sandra paints with classic old-world methods, using familiar symbols and iconography to convey timeless and contemporary concerns. Lots of skeletons, animals, imagined landscapes, and darkly funny situations. Sandra works out her ideas in sketchbooks before going to paint. She often uses 3D models to work out ...

5:04pm, October 17th, 1989 Loma Prieta Quake In 1989 I was working as a Registered Nurse for a temp agency that sent us all over town to fill vacancies at various hospitals. My specialty was Critical Care. On the day of the quake, I was working in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at the VA hospital (Ft. Miley, on outer Clement Avenue.) Luckily we had just finished the last case and returned the patient to his room. I hate to think what would have happened if we'd had a wire in his heart when the quake hit. Anyway, I was standing at the sink, washing instruments, when the rumble started. Things started falling off shelves and furniture started falling over. I turned and looked across the room at Abby, who was standing in the closet doorway. We both said, "This is a big one." A third woman, a researcher whose name I don't remember, was just screaming non-stop. It seemed to go on a long time. I knew I should get to a doorway, like Abby, but I couldn't walk - thing...

Duane Hanson's "Slab Man" and (live) gallery visitor at the Cantor museum October is always crazy-busy here in SF and that includes the art scene and that includes me personally. I'm posting mini reviews (and previews) of artist open studios on BAArtQuake . I'm also working day & night to get some small paintings finished for the "Tiny" show at Studio Gallery . (Small Pieces under $400, Nov 4th - Dec 23rd, Reception: Sunday Nov 8th 2-6pm.) . . . while trying not to drop the ball on my current "big" series of paintings . And still doing the weekly SFMOMA sketch Fridays (just show up in the afternoon, sketch a bit in the galleries, then go up to the rooftop cafe to meet the other sketch artists.) And of course, trying to keep up with the rest of you blogging, tweeting fools. Check out this recent blog post from David Apatoff, where he does an art school analysis of cartoonist Jeff Macnelly's work: HERE