SF Feb 4th-11th 2013!

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I was in San Francisco from February 4th – February 11th! During that week I was able to do all sorts of art related things! It was very exciting! I was able to go on the art walk, go to an open studio, and even work on myself as an artist professionally.

I went to a lecture on the 5th where there were several gallery owners talking about how to present yourself as a professional artist. This lecture was incredibly helpful because, believe it or not, in college none of my professors went over how to be a professional artist. There should really be a whole semester on how to be a professional artist and some of the basic things you should know. I’ll make sure I keep all my notes and share my wisdom with you all once I have a good amount of information and know that these things help. It was really great to find out that I’ve been on the right track and that I’m moving in the right direction. There were also a few things that they talked about that I hadn’t thought of before.

In SF every first Thursday of the month they have an art walk! It’s fantastic. The official art walk only goes from 5:30pm-7:30pm but the galleries are open all day. I suggest if you’re ever in SF, take the ENTIRE day and try to hit as many of the galleries as possible there’s some really fantastic galleries. I went into the 49 Geary Street building where there are a number of galleries on 4 or 5 floors of this building. There are so many galleries on one floor that it can easily take you two hours to just look at work on one floor. The art walk is called “First Thursday Art” and their website is: http://firstthursdayart.com/. A buddy of mind who has lived in SF for about 10 years never knew that there was a art walk in SF so spread the word and love for art in SF!

Saturday the 9th I went to the Lost and Foundry Open Studio in Oakland! This studio space houses Nemo Gould, Jeremy Mayer, Alan Rorie, and Christopher Palmer. Their work was incredible and highly inspiring. Here are some photos I took of the open studio. For having so much stuff in the lost and foundry these artists are incredibly organized!

IMG_20130209_192554This piece’s arms would move and there was a red electrical current that would run through the head part. It’s huge! And such a fun piece!  Nemo Gould does some really fun kinetic sculptures.

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This piece was also done by Nemo. It reminded me of something out of Alien but at the same time is cute and whimsical especially with the way that it moved.

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This is a motorcycle that Nemo is currently working on. I love motorcycles and can’t wait to see this sculptural piece finished!

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These two pieces were completely done with parts from old type writers! These sculptures are incredible to see in person. Jeremy Mayer is the artist of these intricate pieces.

After the Open Studio a couple of buddies of mine and I went and watched the new public art light show that was just installed on the Bay Bridge. I can’t even imagine how the artist must feel after coming up with an idea like that and having it realized! If you have the chance to go to San Francisco you should stay till after dark and watch the Bay Bridge lights.

Not really art related but on the 7th I went to the 9:20 Special to go Lindy Hop swing dancing. I haven’t been to the 9:20 in at least 5 years! I walked into the room and BAM a flood of memories came swimming back to me! It was crazy. I had a blast. It was also the first time that I ever competed in Lindy Hop even though I’ve been dancing Lindy Hop for about 12 years now. Strangely enough, every other time I had tried to compete something would prevent me from it and I pretty much gave up on trying to go to events to compete. But this time they were having an impromptu Strictly Lindy competition and a buddy of mine, that I had never danced Lindy with before that night, asked me to be his partner for that night. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to dance Lindy with my friend. I need to brush up on some of my fancier moves. Just being there made me remember why I love Lindy Hop so much.

Thanks for reading! I’m off to SF again next week for more amazing art related things. I’ll try not to keep you all waiting too long between posts next time!

A me ke aloha!