Virtual Museum

Have you heard of the Google Art Project http://www.googleartproject.com/?  You can view art work from galleries around the world.  Thank you, Google!

The Santa Ana art walk

I went to the monthly Santa Ana art walk in the Artist's Village last weekend with some friends.  We walked around, looked at a loft for sale, I got to buy art from a local artist, and we ate dinner at Lola Gaspar's.  All in all it was a pleasant evening.

I really appreciate the art walk movement because it's such a great way to bring local communities and artists together.  I got to chat a bit with the artist who sold me his painting and got to tell him I how much I liked his work.  I've learned that we artists need to affirm one another . . . and support one another by actually buying art!  I've decided to start collecting, and I do have a small collection right now, but I'd like to make more room in my life and budget for art collecting.  That reminds me, I need to start selling my own work . . . 

I also bumped into the man who modeled for my life drawing class I took a few years ago in Costa Mesa.  It wasn't awkward at all--we had a nice chat.

Top piece by Dino Perez

I dedicate this post to all my pregnant friends

I'm going to be an aunt to many little babies in the spring and summer.  More and more of my friends are starting to have kids!  I can't wait until they can all start saying funny things.

One thing I find really cool is the opportunity to decorate nurseries once you start having kids (although I'm pretty sure that by kid #2 you're not as eager to exercise your creativity). 

My friend K who is extremely talented (she creates the best decorations for parties and makes her own cards) painted a mural for her baby boy with some leftover paint she had from another home project.  So creative!

My friend K hand painted the mural.

I also really loved this nursery featured in Covet Garden magazine for a little baby girl.  I fell in love with the ceiling installations!  Hmm, I could have something like that in my house . . .

Image from http://covetgarden.com/

The Art in Food

If you know me, you know that I love good food and I love to cook.  I don't however like to stick to recipes too much because personally I find measurements and specific directions too restraining which is why I'm not good at baking.  I do like the idea of recipes so I'm constantly flipping through cook books and clipping out things I want to try.  My best friend however is an expert in the kitchen and I'm amazed at the ways she can take recipes from Food and Wine or Bon Apetit and make complicated dishes at home!  She's also the best home pastry chef I know and has started a blog.

There's just something so artful about a piece of fruit, a platter of cheese, or fresh vegetables from the farmers market.  I love going to the store, finding what's in season, or something that looks especially fresh and creating something delicious to eat. 

Winter citrus: Satsuma Mandarins

Impromptu cheese platter with pears, chestnuts, persimmons, figs, tangerines, brie, and fontina

My fruit composition.  I'd love to paint some still lifes soon.

Pistachio macaron from Bouchon Bakery - so delicious but never in a million years would I have the patience to make something like this.

Last week was a blur

I don't remember the good part of last week.  I got sick, I've been in bed, I've been sleeping a lot.  Where did all my time go?  I'm just starting to feel better but it seems like every other person I know is sick.  I vow to get a flu shot next year!

A post about my plants

So I was tending to my plants the other day (I admit that I have been neglecting them for some time but good thing that most are hearty succulents) and just tending to them helped me understand some important lessons.  Here are some of my observations:

1) I don't have a green thumb and I've always marveled at those who did have them . . . like my friend L.  She can touch a dead plant and bring it back to life.  Her home is filled with beautiful plants that all seem to say "we get well taken care of".  But anyway, my point is that even though I am not your classic gardener, there is something nourishing about interacting with plants, and nature in general.  I just felt so happy and full after tending to my plants -- pulling out the dead leaves, re-potting with fresh soil, trimming dead branches.  It was nice to see young green shoots coming out of my plants.  It meant that there was life and regeneration happening in my little pots.

2) Things grow when you nurture them.
I've thought long and hard about what makes things grow but I think it's simple really.  Take care of something, nurture it, love it, and you'll see it grow.

3) I bought most of my plants at the grocery store.  They were pretty, decorative items I bought on a whim but they've since moved from the store shelves, been transplanted into bigger pots, and have weathered their fair share of wind, heat, and cold.  I can't really call them pretty but they are beautiful -- some have grown wild, rustic, and changed colors to adapt to a non-climate controlled space.  Yes, you can't call them pretty any longer but they are still beautiful.   

Did you know that British writer, G.K. Chesterton, abandoned atheism and came to believe in God after examining a dandelion?  How amazing . . .

The community garden in Irvine I get to walk past everyday!

Peace in the park.

Design meets lawn.

The grocery store succulents no more.

My minimalist garden in our front entrance.  Noguchi inspired?

My air plant is growing a flower!

Cody, my nature buddy.  I swear, this dog could spend half of his life sniffing the ground.

The Beauty in Minimalism

Minimalism, a stripping down to the most fundamental of forms, can be so beautiful in its celebration of shape, structure, and skeleton. 

My trip to St. Louis last week reminded me of the time I found minimalist Richard Serra's sculpture in the middle of downtown on a previous conference I attended there in 2009.  I was walking from my hotel to the conference center when, to my delight, I stumbled upon a sculpture garden in the middle of the city and the Richard Serra installation shown here:

I loved the sharp angles and exact shadows this sculpture created in the middle of a grassy plot of land.  This sculpture must really pop out when the ground is covered in snow!

I had heard of Richard Serra in an art class but became more familiar with his work on a visit to BCAM a few years ago.  I was going through some hard things at the time and wanted to take an afternoon off at the museum.  It was here that I discovered his sculpture "Band":

Richard Serra "Band".  Image via tincaart.com/wordpress

"Band" is interactive.  You can walk around the serpentine maze of its massive form and discover intimate spaces in the center of the sculpture, or take in its seemingly infinite length as you circle around its outer structure.  Something about the towering sculpture and its earthy color - the color of red clay - was so soothing and therapeutic for me that day.  There was just something beautiful about the sculpture's silence juxtaposed with its massive size.