"When September Ends"

I just realized that I posted the wrong painting of "When September Ends". The painting I posted is called "Leah on Burgundy Couch", at least until I come up with a better title.
This is "When September Ends"; which was painted of my daughter a few years after she graduated from college, and I felt the melancholy of growing up and "becoming who we are" in her eyes. Like the words of the Green Day song: "summer has come and past, the innocent can never last....like my fathers come to pass, 20 years has gone so fast...wake me up when September ends"

San Francisco!

Last weekend my husband and I went to San Francisco to visit our son, Shane, who lives in Oakland, and also for me to meet with Martin Muller, the gallery owner of Modernism, and discuss my work, and upcoming show.
We had a wonderful time, and saw some incredible art: Gottfried Helnwein, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Wayne Thiebaud, Eric Zener, Gilles Marrey, and Sylvia Ji, (thanks Shaudi for opening your beautiful home, and giving us a "tour" of your Sylvia Ji collection) just to name a few. And those were all in galleries, (and one home)...we chose not to go to the SFMOMA, because of time issues, as well as we have been there many times. (We did check out the SFMOMA store though, because they have such wonderful books, and assorted art gifts!)
My meeting went well with Martin, and we are "refining" the group of paintings that will be in my show. We are close to setting a date, and I will post that as soon as it is decided. It was a very productive meeting! (I have decide to delete a few of the paintings that will be in the show from my blog and website, (that I previously posted) so the work will "be new" for the show.)
On Saturday we went on Bart to the Eastbay, where we saw my son (Shane)and his girlfriend's (Mel) apartment. It is very cool, with wonderful art, and a cute pet cat; Hiboux! Mel even made us some delicious vegan cupcakes! (Her vegan blog is vegilicious)
That evening our son took us to the Berkeley Rep Theater where we saw the musical "American Idiot". It was a fantastic show, and of course the music was incredible! As I re-listened to the American Idiot cd, (when I got home)I realized it was totally suited, if not written to be a "rock opera". I must say that was one of the highlights of our trip! The Bay area is so beautiful, and I always miss it when I return! (We lived out there for 7 years, in the 90's)
Today I am posting a painting I painted of my daughter, Leah, that I painted after listening to the Green Day song; "When September Ends", along with a photo of Shane, Shane, and me in Oakland, with the Bay Bridge behind us.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Last week I watched the Lifetime movie about Georgia O'Keeffe. After the first two hours were almost over, and Alfred Stieglitz died, I got excited, and was looking forward to another hour about Georgia O'Keeffe living and painting in New Mexico. I was soon to be disappointed, when the movie abrubtly ended. I guess in hindsight I shouldn't have been surprised, because it was, after all, a Lifetime movie. They chose to view Georgia O'Keefe's life through her connection, romantically and professionally to Alfred Stiglitz. Of course he was a driving force in her life, and I am reminded of my son saying to me once that Georgia O'Keeffe was only famous because of Stieglitz, and I argued that while he promoted her, and gave her many of the opportunities she possibly wouldn't have had without him, she was still the first person in art history, that I know of, to paint the subject matter she chose in her own personal style.
To me, after reading much about Georgia O'Keeffe, I think of her as a strong and independant woman who would suffer almost anything to continue painting. I found the movie to be true to everything I have read about her, but from letters she wrote before she met Alfred, she still seemed to be a strong willed woman, and not quite the love sick nymph she was portrayed as in the movie.
Another one of the things I question about the movie are the size of her paintings. I have been adding Georgia O'Keeffe paintings behind my figures, and I have been trying to keep the sizes true to life. So when I saw her painting her "Oriental Poppies" probably at least 5' x 8' I was surprised that I could have been off by so much. So I looked up the size of the actual painting, and it is 30" x 40". It sure added to the drama of the painting, (in the movie) to see her painting such a giant, beautiful image! Then I remembered the first time I went to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe, and was rather shocked by all the small paintings. (I think we have seen her work in print or posters for so long, that we think they are huge. A few actually are huge though.) I was blown away by the art in the movie! I think it was, and should have been, the best part of the show.

Anyway, after such a long post, I have added some Georgia O'Keeffe videos from youtube to my blog. The first one is actually Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico, and I think it gives you more of who Geogia O'Keeffe was in almost 10 minutes, than was shown in the entire Lifetime movie.