Do you see the circles?

Recap

The art show I took part in this past weekend was a success!  It was a grassroots effort to bring people together through art and it worked.  Thank you again to all my friends and family for supporting me and offering your encouragement.  Many thanks to Ivan and Francisco for having the vision and the resources to provide a space for developing artists!  Keep art alive!

It was also a big step for me to actually take part in a show.  Starting this blog was a big step in beginning to share my work with others, and actually participating in a show was another step in putting myself out there as an artist.  It's always a risk to share what you make with others because your work is so connected to who you are . . . but I'm glad I did it.

I had a lot of work displayed (some created in my '20s, and some created recently) and the variety was helpful in helping me figure out what type of medium and style works for me.  My strongest pieces were my cards and the work that received the most feedback.  The more and more I think about it, I think I want to learn about the art of printmaking.  It just seems to work for me.  And I have always made cards for people as a way to connect with others--and I have consistently heard people tell me that they keep my cards, even after 15 years!

Another exciting piece to the night was receiving feedback from an actual person from the indie L.A. DIY/craft scene.  She saw my printed vintage time cards and told me they would sell well at events like the Downtown LA Art Walk and Unique LA.  I'm not quite sure at this point if I should pursue a career in card making/stationary but it was such affirming feedback--that people enjoy the things that I feel represent me the best and that I take the most joy in making.

And speaking of Unique LA, I definitely want to check it out.  Let me know if you want to go with me.

Cultural Milieu

New work I started on found wood (am I coming out of my floral fixation?) / Jeremyville at Tender Greens in Santa Monica / Yogurtland + Hello Kitty

Margaret Kilgallen

I like things that are handmade and I like to see people's hand in the world, anywhere in the world; it doesn't matter to me where it is. And in my own work, I do everything by hand. I don't project or use anything mechanical, because even though I do spend a lot of time trying to perfect my line work and my hand, my hand will always be imperfect because it's human. And I think it's the part that's off that's interesting, that even if I'm doing really big letters and I spend a lot of time going over the line and over the line and trying to make it straight, I'll never be able to make it straight. From a distance it might look straight, but when you get close up, you can always see the line waver. And I think that's where the beauty is.

You're invited

Is it possible to fall in love with a park?

This place is one of my favorite spots in the city.  Thank you M and Sunset Magazine for the introduction.

I took some time to meditate, pray, and spend time with God here this past weekend and it was good.  I felt so full and rejuvenated.  Not to sound overly sentimental but there were all these cheery yellow flowers bordering a flight of stairs and I felt like they were old friends welcoming me to sit down and enjoy the sun and fresh air.  Ha, I sound like an English Romantic poet!
 
I would love to come here for a picnic sometime.  If you are reading this post, hit me up so we can plan a fun picnic.  I want to enjoy this park with human friends too.

Home

I just wanted to share some pictures of my new home in L.A. 

A very nice surprise: My plants have been growing twice their size here in L.A.

I've also been enjoying our version of fall here in So Cal.
I found some magnolia leaves and created a small fall arrangement to complement the pumpkins.

My friend, L, an inspiring home chef who is both intuitive and practical in her approach to cooking posted a recipe on cooking with pumpkins here so I took the opportunity to experiment with my pumpkins before they went bad.

My pumpkin seeds are a honeyed curry version.

I also made this salad with roasted pumpkin, broccoli, walnuts, and pomegranate seeds with a light curry mayo dressing (gotta love my current hippie bent towards cooking) but if I were to do it again, I would roast the broccoli and maybe add bacon and shallots (and take out the walnuts and pomegranate seeds).  It was a pretty good salad though.

On another note, for my Korean readers--do your parents forage?  My parents seem to find things in the forest or at local parks that most Americans don't eat or use but are more common in Korea.  Their latest find was mistletoe (I think) for tea.  I think it's supposed to lower your blood pressure.  Hehe, it's nice to know where MY foraging tendencies come from.