News

In Search of 20 LA Artists

Ayin Es1 Comment

I am looking to survey 20 Los Angeles working artists at any stage of their career for an article I’m writing. The question is pretty straight forward:

What would you like to see happen to your art career within the next 5 years?

Limit this to one paragraph. Be realistic, and you don’t have to limit your answer to just goals. It can be a direction you want your art to go, it can be about process, projects you want to work on, gallery affiliations, residencies you’d like to take, people you want to emulate, strategies you might have, shows you are working towards, etc.

The first 20 Los Angeles artists to email me their answers will be mentioned in the article. I’ll let you know ahead of time if you are one of the 20.

Deadline: June 3rd.

carol (aaat) esart [dott] com

Seize the Day

Ayin Es1 Comment

I’m having sleeping problems again. Maybe it’s all the bad news from China, Myanmar, India, Iraq, you name it, I can only take so much. I am so sad about seeing the pictures from China. What a nightmare, but it’s no dream, it’s real. I was listening to NPR all day yesterday while trying to paint and many times I just stopped and wept.

I’ve been working on this bigger piece about Lapland. I’m no where near done, but here is a pic that Michael snapped without me knowing on Saturday.

Here’s what it looked like the day before:

Later in the evening I went to Kimberly Brooks‘ show at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery in Culver City. She created an exhibit of paintings that depicted what it was like to spend a summer of family vacations after realizing that her father was terminally ill. They are moving and organic, warm and colorful. The show is called “Technicolor Summer.” She wrote quite a nice article on the Huffington Post about the meaning behind the paintings and what it was like to work her way up to the show. I loved this piece in particular, called, “Yosemite Walk I.” Looky:


Kimberly Brooks, “Yosemite Walk I” 2008, Oil on Linen, 24″ x 18″


Kimberly Brooks, “Yosemite Walk I” (Detail), 2008.

I love the color and the loose brush strokes, all the while the people are more refined as if these family members are in ultra-focus against what a blur life has been when we forget how little time we have here on this beautiful Earth.

Technicolor Summer runs until June 14th.

I guess I had a busy week, even though my art progress has been so slow. I have also been writing for a grant, and those take forever when you’re trying to say just the right magic things that will ignite something perfect with the people who are reading it. Thursday night Baby Smith and I went to the Investing in Artists seminar at the Japanese American Cultural Center downtown to get a better perspective as to what CCI is going for. I’ve applied the last 2 rounds with no luck, but I feel I’m at least writing a better grant this time around. It is good practice to do these things. It’s a good way to define your goals, your needs and wants, and that is half the battle really. Today I feel lucky to be alive, in this country, and without catastrophe. Grant or no grant, life is beautiful. And life is sad. Seize the day, damn it.

Out of the Closet

Ayin Es3 Comments

I do not usually post political tirades on my blog. I like to keep it generally about art, and a sort of document about what I am working on in my studio. AND it is difficult to out myself about this subject when it is completely unpopular amongst every single one of my peers; I have yet to find one artist that isn’t crazy gah-gah over Obama. And for the record, I am not against him. But I am a long time supporter of Clinton. If you want to throw tomatoes at me, that’s fine.

If you think I’m against what Obama stands for, that would be incorrect. I am all for “Change.” I just think a REAL change would be Hillary Clinton as our first woman president. Don’t you think men have run this country long enough? And I’m not only for Clinton because she is a woman. I am for her because she has a long history for fighting for our civil rights, has tried to change the healthcare system when she had a little bit of power during the Clinton administration, and has not given up despite people telling her to quit. She’s specific and cares about people. She has to deal with all the media making her look bad because they are obviously pro-Obama. I love NPR, but they are HARD on Hillary. Every media outlet has been hard on her. People have been harder on her than they have been for any man — and have expected far more from her than they would from a man. When have you ever heard the media disappointed in a male candidate for not showing his “softer side?” Boy was I pissed when Hillary had to cry a little after that whole thing. She shouldn’t have! She’s tough, and so what? It’s such a double standard, and she’s putting up with a lot. She’s the underdog, not Obama. And we just may have a nominee based on 48 states instead of all 50. People seem to be forgetting about that too. How fair is that to Michigan and Florida, not to mention all of us? Shouldn’t everybody’s vote count? Is this the hijack of 2000 all over again?

Anyway, I just wanted to come out of the closet about all this. This morning I was on hillaryspeaksforme.com watching all the videos, and I was moved to type this up.  So let the attacks on me begin.

Out of Reach

Ayin Es1 Comment

My new prints are here! I finished signing them this past weekend while hanging out with Gina Stepaniuk, who was there at SHG working on her first acetates. Her print is going to be soooo amazing. I just know it. She brought in the original painting, which I’ve seen before, but it reminded me of what an incredible painter she is. She is right now working on her MFA at Claremont and it doesn’t sound fun to me, but she is one strong cookie.

So here is not the greatest picture of my print entitled, “Out of Reach.” It is a 7-color, 22 x 26 inch screen print. The edition is 75:

Upon signing and pulling my prints, I found out that the 10-artist suite is going into some pretty prominent collections, like LACMA and the Mexican Museum in Chicago. Neither me or Gina are Latina so it’s a little bit strange, but I’ll take it where I can get it. Each woman also gets the whole suite too, so that is the icing on the cake, I’ll tell ya. There is going to be a big kick-off show of the prints at Self Help Graphics sometime in June, and possibly elsewhere that Yolanda will cook up. I am still just so grateful for this fabulous opportunity.

The prints can’t be sold until June, but I am taking pre-sale orders if you’re interested.

Coincidentally, I finally got my Blogger Killings print completed. It took a long time to get them to look right, but they look amazing and maybe even better than the originals. It’s a smaller edition at the same price as the silk screen, as they are high quality, archival digital prints. Those are for sale now, so order one for your office and scare your co-workers:

I just packed up all the work for the “Bookish” show in Seattle and FedExed it on out of here. I’m still thinking if I will be going to the opening. It might be an expense I can’t do this month, but if you are in Seattle, the opening is Thursday, April 10th from 5:00 to 8:00 PM.