Artist du jour: Loretta Lux

My friend Joseph introduced me today to the wonderful art of Loretta Lux. We saw her portrait of a boy at the SF Moma and browsed through a book of her photographs. Her depiction of children has always a strange and lonely quality, always beautifully composed. There is a very painterly quality of her choice of colors and set up, reminiscent of Renaissance paintings. Some of the vintage clothes the children wear were saved from her childhood by her mother.
The portraits of these children are haunting and sweet, ready to tell a fairy tale of strange adventures - I just can't stop looking at them and wondering..

A fantastic hat by Jasmin Zorlu

I bought this fabulous cocktail hat from Jasmin Zorlu. She is a very talented milliner. I love her style. Can't wait to wear this giant flower to some fabulous event. Also, I have the feeling that I might have to share this hat with someone else....

My summer adventure

The great dig: cleaning out a storage room filled with things from the past!
This summer I went on a blitz mission to Germany to help my dad clean out a storage room, that was filled with things from our families past. It felt like an archeological dig, working through boxes of old, moldy magazines to unearth some wonderful treasures that are meaningful to our family. We found some old photos from around 1915 of my grandfather posing for my great great grandfather, the painter Johann Friedrich Engel. We were very excited when we realized that these photos were used to paint a picture of my grandfather Hugo as a little Bavarian boy.

Hugo Friedrich modeling for Johann Friedrich

The painting of little Hugo

Another painting by my great great grandfather Johann Friedrich Engel (John Fred Engel)


Enjoying life at the Garda Lake, Italy - lucky me: it was not all work, but also play, spending some days in Italy!

Artist du jour: Elizabeth Addison

I just got news that my good friend, the very talented print maker and local Berkeley artist Elizabeth Addison is going to have a show in SF.

Wednesday, October 1, 6 - 8 p.m.

at the reception for

FALL FEATURES FIVE

at Mad River Post

451 Jackson Street, 2nd Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111, 415-693-0713

I love her use of vintage imagery that she up-dates and personalizes by imprinting everyday objects. If you can't make it to her show, check out her work at Kiss my ring.

Turrell and Chihuly at the DeYoung

My favorite piece in the exhibition: 2 boats filled with glass objects






Just in the nick of time (before it closed) we went to see the Chihuly exhibition at the De Young Museum. We enjoyed the dramatic set up of Chihuly's colorful glass work very much. But more inspiring was a very interesting space in the "backyard", behind the cafe. We ended up spending some time in this strange egg shaped little building that evoked peace and contemplation. This place was created by artist James Turrell and he calls it a "skyspace", because you can watch the sky through an opening in the roof. A beautiful feature was that the sun light entered this building through the oval hole in its dome and then illuminated the entrance (as you can see in my photos). It also had the most interesting accustic and at one point we all started humming with other visitors, creating an intersting sound scape. I would love to have one in my backyard: a beautiful, empty space to go to and chill out while watching the sky. I have enjoyed James Turrell's work since first coming across it in the early 90's and have to say, that I still like him a lot. He is a much better artist for my money in the world of Land, Earth, Conceptual and Process art than Olafur Eliasson, who fairly recently had a giant exhibition at SF MOMA and who is the big hype. I love Turrell, because he has a spiritual side to him, emphasizing the simplicity and beauty of nature and making us slow down to observe. I would definitely link him to all time earth art favorite Andy Goldsworthy. Also he is a cool looking dude! Eliasson's art on the other hand appears to be right out of the SF Exploratorium, science experiments on a grand scales, but lacking a deeper level. I guess his recent installation of waterfalls in New York City, particularly at the Brooklyn Bridge is kinda cool, but I absolutedly hated his show at the MOMA and his constant use of headache inducing orange light!

Artist du jour: Shepard Fairey

I meant to put the art of Shepard Fairey on my blog for over a year, when I first became aware of him. Don't quite know what took me so long. I guess I needed a real life connection, like his up-coming show this weekend in San Francisco at White Walls. Apparently the show is already sold out! This guy has made an amazing career in the art/design world. Quite uncommon to straddle both worlds so sucessfully. He went to Parsons Design School and used Graffiti-Guerilla tactics with his Obey - Andre, the Giant campaign to catapult him to street-fame. His coup d'etat is of course The Obama Poster. He sells his designs on t-shirts, posters etc. on his own web site and in many young hipster boutiques. I love his patterns and the layering of patterns he uses on some of his pieces: very clever, very pretty and definitely catching the zeitgeist of vinatge and whimsy coupled with political criticism.

Frida Mania

The San Francisco MOMA is showing till September 28th an exhibition of Frida Kahlo's work. It is a fantastic exhibition and probably a once in a lifetime chance to see so many of her paintings. Don't miss this opportunity! I have been already been 3 times, since I am a major fan of Frida Kahlo and her work. So to commemorate this important artist I made my own Frida paper dolls. Reaching back to my childhood, when paper dolls were my most favorite toy and obsession. I was just 5/6 years old and would sit for hours cutting out paper dolls and their clothes until my finger hurt from holding the scissors. I still like holding the scissors (and yes, I also dress up as Frida Kahlo, when the mood strikes.)

Charms, Buttons and Embellishments

I have so much fun with kid's crafts and Shrinky Dinks are a little obsession mine. Last year I taught kids at Martin Luther King Middle School to make cool key tags from Shrinky Dinks and had a blast. So I had to revisit this craft, but this time I wanted to give it an adult twist, make something I would wear and use myself. I experimented with Ink jet printer shrink plastic and created a series of Victorian Wine Charms and Pins, as well as interestingly patterned buttons that I embellish greeting cards with. If you are tempted to join in the fun, come and take my class at The Workshop, September 24th.

1001 Butterflies

I spent 6 wonderful years at Oxford Elementary school volunteering and teaching art to the kids. My favorite art project was a farewell present to the leaving principal Kathleen Lewis. Inspired by the story of the 1001 origami cranes, I set out with the kids to create 1001 butterflies. A group of parents and I pre-cut 1100 butterflies in 4 different shapes and 3 different sizes. The kids decorated the black construction paper butterflies with glittery or flurescent gel pens (which I got for free from the Sakura Gelly Pen Company). For several weeks I went from class to class until all 300 kids at Oxford Elemantary had created 1001 butterflies. My friends Pam and Ellie helped me turn the unveiling of the butterflies into a powerful event. All kids, teachers and the beloved pricipal were present and blown away, by the power of 1001 butterflies!

Artist Trading Cards

Sometimes I need to pull back and just enjoy the creative process. Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are the perfect project for a lazy afternoon, when you want to craft without the pressure. These small cards are not intimidating and invite you to try out a variety of techniques. I love to combine decoupage, drawing and stamping. If you are interested to learn how to make some, sign up for Courtney Cerruti's ATCs class, also at The Workshop. Her cards are delightful and she masters many different techniques! She is also a fellow arts and crafts blogger and has a wonderful blog.

A paper dress

My daughter made this beautiful dress from architecture plans at her friends house. It fit her perfectly and I loved taking the pictures.