Wandering Artist's Journal

Yes, we're moving BigCrow studios. You can help us by taking away some of the mountain of stuff we have accumulated after 27 years in the Sunset District. Or just come by and visit us - we'll tell you all about our search for art space in San Francisco. (Maybe you can distract me from those annoying people who want to tell me how crappy my one-dollar-item looks, and then they want me to give them a deal!?) Saturday, July 12th 12pm-5pm Books, LOTS of books, art, photos, frames, furniture, housewares, clothes, bicycles, camping gear, etc. (More photos below.) CHEAP! Most items (including all books) $1 each Bookshelves will be sold/given away after the books are gone. Cash or credit cards accepted. Bring your own bags, boxes, and straps to haul it away. 1426 41st Ave. San Francisco, CA (Cross street: Judah)  A fraction of the books (I wish I was kidding):   A table full of antique books. Good for repurposing as art materials:   Abou...

"Gull Patrol", 10" x 20", acrylic on canvas, ©2013 Anna L. Conti 2013 was a pretty good year for my attempt to document the marine traffic on San Francisco Bay. I finished 12 paintings, a few watercolors and a series of etchings. I expect this coming year to be even more productive. It's been a fascinating learning experience for me. I've been combing the used bookstores, looking for old military, shipping, sailing, and other maritime manuals. Today I really lucked out at the Book Bay in Ft. Mason: I found a copy of the Saga of the Delta Queen (sister to the Delta King, now berthed in Sacramento.) The Queen was once the "most lavishly appointed and expensive sternwheel passenger boats ever" built and she carried passengers between Sacramento and San Francisco. The book was written in 1951 by her captain and it is loaded with insider info!

  Weiwei-isms by Ai Weiwei, edited by Larry Warsh; published 2013 by Princeton University Press; ISBN 987-0-691-15766-5   -   Weiwei-isms could be described as meditations on Art, Life, Freedom and Power. Collected by Larry Warsh and organized into six topical chapters, the words of the artist cut to the essence of his experiences over a lifetime of speaking Truth to Power. A Printmaker's Document by Jim Dine; published 2013 by Steidl; ISBN 9783869306445 -  Jim Dine is an American artist known for his experimental, Pop and Neo-Dada works, including painting, sculpture, and prints. This volume is a retrospective of his printmaking and his life as an artist. Beautifully designed, this book is a sumptuous read. 

As an artist, I'm often approached by friends, family, and strangers . . . with the news that I'm so talented, I'm so creative, and they are not. "I can't even draw a straight line," they'll say. (Neither did Mondrian - have you ever seen one of his paintings up close?) But there's more to creativity than art and more to art than painting. I like the way Art scholar Ellen Dissanayake defines art as a behavior, and she says that all humans are born with a capacity for and need to practice art. "Living Artfully" by Sandra Magsamen is the perfect book for those friends. If I could, I'd carry a box of them around with me, and hand them out every time I heard someone complain, "I don't have a creative bone in my body." Throughout the book, Sandra writes encouraging insights in her big loopy handwriting, spread across colored pages . . . inspiring quotes are inserted liberally . . . but it's not a "how to" book...

Esopus is a creek in upstate New York. It's also a non-profit art organization that produces art in a magazine format, twice each year. I wrote about them last June ( "Esopus - Art collecting on a Budget" - issue # 6) and I just picked up the recent issue, #7. The cover artist is a 13 year old boy, Alex Brown, who draws with ball point pen and colored pencils. His work is impressive - hundreds of tiny, overlapping, intertwined figures (soldiers) - each one rendered with appropriate facial expressions and scaled to approximate perspective. It's the kind of work that takes hours of concentrated focus, and he says he draws daily. It shows. From the interview: Do you know where you're going with a piece when you start it? Alex Brown: I don't know. I think as I draw. . . How do you know when one of these is finished? Alex Brown: I feel it in my gut. Another piece is a collaboration between Alex Katz and his son, Vincent Katz. It's a 24 page black-on-whi...