Mid-February Check-in
Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I’m recovering from a cold I caught this week, so this weekend has been set aside for rest. I’ve had a busy few weeks and a lot coming up in the rest of the month, so I want to be well-rested and healthy. I’m flying to Pennsylvania next week to visit family and support a fellow Swarthmore alum in her installation art piece that she’s presenting on the 24th and 25th. I’m looking forward to the trip, but there are a few things that I need to wrap up before I leave.
What I’ve been working on
I started working on the large collaborative piece for my summer group show. Our timeline was shifted because one of the artists is moving to Switzerland in early spring, so she needs to finish her portion of her piece before she moves. Since I paint the first layer of the artwork, setting the color palette and movement of the piece, I need to finish my part before the end of the month. I’ve got a decent start, but I will be spending the next few days before I leave for Pennsylvania solely working on this painting.
I’ve continued to make progress on Morning Swim. The values of the painting aren’t quite right, so I plan on continuing to work on it when I return from my trip from Pennsylvania.
I also started a larger version of this study of a morning sunrise in Port Angeles that I saw during my trip to Olympic National Park last year. I’ve only worked on the first layer, blocking out the shapes and setting the dark tones. It’ll have to take a back seat for a while, but it’s another painting that I’m looking forward to working on.
Outings
Last week, I attended the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation’s fundraising gala, which was a nice celebration for all the work the public hospital does for the community and to showcase the Hearts in San Francisco artworks. I was able to meet the other artists who painted a heart for the fundraiser as well as the hospital doctors and staff and the various supporters of the hospital. It was a fun event and made my artwork feel very meaningful because I was able to see the ways the fundraiser supported the patients of the hospital. It’s one of the wonderful ways to see the positive impact art can have.
I helped organize another professional development event with genARTS this past week. We held an artist statement and resume writing workshop to support emerging artists working towards a career in the arts. We are holding two more workshops before the summer, so I’ve dedicated a lot of my time volunteering with this organization doing administration work to ensure all the events run as smoothly as possible. Volunteering with this organization has made me feel more connected to my local arts community, but I am thinking more about re-prioritizing creating art since I feel like I haven’t been able to spend as much time in the studio as I want to.
Those are the major updates from the last two weeks. I continue to learn about myself and the kind of work I enjoy. During this recovery time, I’ve been reflecting on what I enjoy most about working for myself and being an artist. I really value quiet time working alone and setting my own timelines, while also meeting people to talk about art. This has helped me better refine the opportunities I pursue and what type of work I focus on, with the goal that I enjoy how I spend most of my days. I’m going to try to keep this in mind as I continue to move throughout the year and as my workload fluctuates.
Thanks for following along my updates; your support is meaningful and really helps motivate me!
