The end of July came and went and it feels like suddenly the reality that it’s already almost a week into August has hit. I think this is the first check-in I’ve truly missed since starting my updates, and I really didn’t mean to miss it. So much has happened since my last update, and I’ve been working on a lot of different projects, so I’m going to make up for missing the last check-in with a potentially very long and rambling update.

What I’ve been working on:

John and me at the *Ebb & Flow* opening reception

My group exhibition Ebb & Flow at New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) has officially opened and will run until January 4, 2026. The opening reception was an amazing event. I was surprised by the number of people who came to celebrate the opening of the exhibition with me and my collaborator Chieko Shimizu Fujioka (unfortunately our third collaborator, Moeko Machida, moved to Switzerland before the opening and wasn’t able to make it). You can read more about the opening in the Los Gatos local newspaper. The museum did a wonderful job of preparing and installing the exhibition, and it was really cool to see the behind the scenes process of putting together an exhibition before it opens. And there’s a lot of programming planned with this exhibition: we already held a tour, we’re planned to be a part of NUMU’s 60th anniversary celebration in September, and we’re leading a workshop in the beginning of October. More work and planning needs to go the workshop, but we do have a bit of a break from working on the exhibition.
Over the past 2-3 weeks, I’ve been working long days assisting on a 70’ long, 10’ tall mural that I mentioned at the end of my last update. The mural is located at OB Whaley Elementary in San Jose, and it’s part of an effort to revitalize the school through more arts programming hosted at the school. I learned so much about scaling a design, painting large, and general mural project management while assisting on top of just putting in hours painting the wall. We were very fortunate that the mural site was in shade for 90% of the day, with only 2 hours at most in the sun. But I did manage to get sunburnt and a very serious sock tan line, so lesson learned about being diligent about the sun! I had such a great time working on this mural. I love being outdoors and it felt great to be working outside in such a temperate summer that we’ve been having in the Bay Area. I feel really grateful that my artist friend hired me for this opportunity. Yesterday we officially finished painting and there’s potential that there will be more mural work for this client in the near future!

I finished painting all 50 paintings for the 50|50 juried show at the Sanchez Art Center yesterday! It’s been a bit stressful finding long stretches of time to focus on these paintings while juggling the Ebb & Flow exhibition and mural installation. For all my former coworkers, it definitely felt like having too much project work with competing deadlines, but all my training at Mathematica juggling multiple projects really shined through this past month. Painting these 50 paintings was interesting because I realized I had gotten used to painting large and spending a significant amount of time on a single painting. The process of painting 50 6”x6” pieces felt choppy because I would spend at most an hour on a single painting before I needed to move onto another one, either because I wanted to cover as many panels as possible in a short amount of time or that the painting was too wet to continue working on. It’s interesting to see how I’ve transitioned into enjoying painting larger, becaus the first paintings I ever did back in 2020 were 6”x6” paintings. So it was cool to see my development over the last almost 5 years in how I approach painting and I solidly know that I’d prefer to paint larger.
- I have a couple of more things to do before I can call these paintings officially finished. I need to clean up the sides of the panels to give them a finished look and create labels for each painting because they are associated with a specific location and time as they are sunrises and sunsets. There are also a couple of administrative things I need to do for the show, including writing up a bio and statement, and then there’s exhibition installation since each artist is responsible for installing their own work. I haven’t even thought about the layout of all 50 paintings, but I’ll either figure it out beforehand or during install!

I also finished working on my skull for Local Color’s 31 skulls fundraiser. I definitely struggled a bit with the polymer clay, but I’m glad I tried out something new for this project. I dropped it off last week, but I think I need to ask for the skull back to varnish it. I had forgotten about that last step until I dropped off the skull and saw other people’s pieces varnished, but I think that I can ask for it back since there’s time until the October fundraiser. Plus, another artist said that it’s easier to photograph the skull when it’s not varnished to avoid the light glare, so maybe it’ll work out that I didn’t varnish it before Local Color had them professionally photographed.

Two weekends ago, I participated in the Filoli Historic Garden’s Art Walk. It was a long weekend and overall, I didn’t feel like the visitors were quite my audience. I did end up selling an original painting, and I have received some follow up inquiries about some pieces. I did feel overwhelmed with participating in a weekend long art festival in the middle of these projects and thought at some times that I could have been painting with the time. But it did all work out in the end, and if anything, I was able to rest a bit and not worry about painting while I was there. Plus Filoli is such a beautiful place to be, so all in all, I can’t complain.

Finally (I think), one of my paintings from my Ocean Arrangements collection was accepted into a juried show hosted by the Los Gatos Arts Association and displayed at NUMU. I went to the museum two times last week, once for the opening of the show and once for my tour. So if you’re in the Bay Area, NUMU has 2+ pieces of mine in their museum.

*Remains* at The Greater Bay Area Open in NUMU

What’s upcoming

I have two small (8’Hx8’W and 8’Hx3’W) murals that I’ll be painting in Oakland’s Chinatown. I’ve had to make some design changes to accommodate the sizes of the walls that my murals will be painted (we applied with general designs without a specified wall and have been assigned walls after we were awarded the projects). I’ve already had to switch locations once for each mural, which means I’ve made changes to my design two times already, so I’m hoping there are no more changes before I paint them. I’m scheduled to paint one during a weekend in late August and the other during Labor Day Weekend. I was able to take home a significant amount of leftover paint from the mural at OB Whaley, which is great because my designs use the same colors as the ones in the OB Whaley mural.
The commissioned painting that I started earlier in the year has taken the backburner while I’ve been working on all of these projects with pressing deadlines. The client has been super understanding and isn’t in a rush, which I’m really thankful for. I’m leaving for a family trip on Wednesday evening, but upon my return on Tuesday, I will be working on only this commission in the studio, so I can make sure it turns out exactly how me and the client envisioned.

And I think that’s it! It’s been a busy time, but it’s a good type of busy. I was definitely feeling quite stressed in the thick of it all, but I’m feeling much better about everything since finishing the mural and the 50 paintings. I’m really looking forward to my family trip; we’re travelilng to Florida, so it’ll be a lot of beach time and relaxing. I think that’s when I will be able to better celebrate the accomplishments I’ve made this summer. I will be bringing my computer to do work, since I am comically behind on computer work (this long update as evidence), but I don’t feel bad about it because computer work feels strangely relaxing now. But that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed the excess of photos in this update! Thanks for following along, and have a safe rest of your summer!

Beginning of August Check-in

Beginning of July Check-in