Beginning of February Check-in
Happy February everyone! The month is kicking off with a lot of activity and I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on.
What I’m working on:
I thought I had finished my 30”x40” seashell painting shortly after my last update, but after spending some time away from it, I realized I’m not happy with the background. So I’m back to working on this painting and hopefully I’ll get to a place where I’m happy with the whole thing.
I started a 18”x24” seashell painting that will fall into the same collection as the aforementioned painting. I blocked in the major shapes and have the first layer of painting; I plan on getting back to this painting once I’m happy with the 30”x40” painting.
I also started painting my smaller flower paintings again. I started these paintings in the middle of last year and took a long break from them. I now have three finished paintings in this series and am working on a fourth one. I have been painting these smaller paintings as a break from the larger paintings.
In terms of applications and art calls, I submitted a painting to the art call I mentioned in my last update. There are also two grant opportunities for emerging artists in the Bay Area that have been announced that I plan on applying to. I don’t expect much from my applications, but I think it’s a good experience and learning process to apply to these different opportunities provided to artists.
Outings
This past week I attended a four day figure drawing workshop at an atelier in the Bay Area from Friday to Monday. It was an intensive workshop and I learned a lot from it. I’ve never taken a figure drawing class nor a four day long workshop, so it was a brand new experience. Even though I don’t draw figures, I think that a lot of the ideas and ways of thinking when approaching figure drawing will be applicable to what I do when I paint my landscapes.
In a few weeks, I’ll be taking a weekend trip to the Point Reyes National Seashore to take a break and hopefully be inspired for some future paintings. I had visited the area when I first moved to California, and I’m looking forward to visiting again!
That’s it for my check-in. It’s been raining a lot here recently and I’m starting to get used to the California winters. I hope you’re staying warm and dry!
Mid-January Check-in
January has been off to a busy start. With my resolutions and goals in place, I feel like I have a lot of motivation to work towards them. I’ve also been working on setting boundaries in terms of who and what I say yes to as well as making sure I give myself time to rest and have fun outside of painting and business related work. One way I make sure I have rest and recharge time is setting aside Saturdays as completely work free days and Sundays as paint only days if I decide that I want to work on Sunday.
What I’m working on:
I’m still working on the 30”x40” seashell painting. I’m focused on painting the background, which is sand grains. Lots and lots of sand grains. They’ve been taking a lot of time, but I find them very relaxing to paint. I’ve also been listening to audiobooks while painting, so I find that the time passes quickly when I am working on this.
I posted my first Youtube video! You can watch it here. I’m working on my second video of the month and started planning out some future videos. If you have suggestions of what my future videos should be about, let me know!
I (re)-found an annual art call for a local gallery that is due at the end of the month. I’m going to submit one of my paintings from the California Highway One series that I worked on during the past year and am currently working on the artist statement for the application. Something else that I want to do by February is put the paintings from the California Highway One series up on my website portfolio. I ended up painting 9 paintings in the collection and have been sharing a few of them on my Instagram, and I want to share them on my website as well.
Outings
This past weekend, I went to Davis to see my friend Christina’s solo show Day to Night at the Pence Gallery. The show’s opening reception was this past Friday, and I really enjoyed seeing her work in person as well as talking to her about what it was like to prepare her first solo show. I found her and her work very inspiring!
This update is a quick one. I want to get back to painting my seashell painting. Also, let me know if you want to see something new or different in my bi-weekly updates. They’ve really become a check-in for what I’m currently thinking about and working on, but I’m open to suggestions! Until the next check-in, I hope you are staying warm during these winter months!
First Check-in of 2024!
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful and restful holiday season and feel refreshed for the new year. I spent the majority of the last two weeks resting and spending time with family and friends. I feel excited and ready for what 2024 will bring. I have two resolutions and a couple of art-related goals. My resolutions are:
Work out 20 minutes 20 times a month all months of the year. This is based on the Garmin monthly badge; I just want to be more consistent about exercising (and tracking the exercise) this year.
Read 50 books in the year. Last year, my resolution was to read a book a month and I ended up reading 41 books total, so I think that this is achievable. I also finally joined GoodReads to track my books.
My art-related goals are:
Paint 60 paintings. I painted 62 paintings last year; 30 of them were smaller daily paintings for Plein Airpril, so I think this is a good stretch goal.
Release 3 collections. I released 2 collections last year, so I figured it’d be a good goal to do one more.
Apply to 10 art calls. I applied to 4 art calls last year. I also have a number of art calls lined up that I want to apply to this year, so I think this is another good stretch goal.
Participate in 3-5 in person events. I only participated in one weekend-long in-person event last year. I have a schedule lined up for the events I’d like to participate in this year: some of them require an application process and some of them are open studio events that all artists can participate in.
Post 2 YouTube videos a month. This is my biggest reach goal. I have been posting on YouTube shorts, but I’d like to post proper videos on my YouTube channel. You can subscribe follow along to see if I stick to my goal here!
So now I’ve shared my art-related goals to almost every social media platform I own and now it’s in email and a blog post. Hopefully that’s enough commit devices 😂
And now for a quick update…
What I’ve been working on:
I finished the 30”x40” Yosemite painting, wrote up my artist statement (which went through editing, thank you to those who gave me feedback!), and submitted my application to the art call (That’s 1/10 on my art call goal). I’m really happy with how the painting turned out, and I’ll hear back in about a month.
I painted a 30”x40” ocean painting. I actually painted over the stormy ocean painting that I submitted to another art call at the end of 2023, which didn’t get accepted. I kind of knew that the artwork wasn’t going to be accepted because as I looked at the painting more and more, I started to really dislike it. So I gave the canvas a new life as a different painting and I’m much happier with the painting it is now.
I am back to working on the 30”x40” seashell painting. I’m hoping to submit this painting to an art call that’s due February 9th. I was actually hoping to submit a collection of 10 paintings to the art call. I had heard about the opportunity back in October, so I thought that I’d have enough time to paint 10 paintings. I was also thinking that I’d paint a collection of National Park paintings for the collection of 10 paintings, but I was inspired to paint these seashells, and I also didn’t plan my time out accordingly to ensure I’d be able to paint 10 paintings by February 9th. I think a big theme of 2024 will be balancing the different opportunities and prioritizing what I want to do. So now, for this specific opportunity, I’m probably going to submit 1 painting to the art call.
I’ll wrap up my check-in for now. I’m really looking forward to what 2024 has to bring and the things that I have planned for. I know that not everything is going to go according to plan, so there’s a lot of flexibility in my plans for different opportunities and events to come up. I’d love to hear if you have any resolutions or goals for 2024 and would love to have more accountability buddies!
Middle of December Check-in
The last month of the year is flying by because so much is going on. It’s been a pretty exciting time and I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on in this update!
What I’ve been working on:
I’m back to working on my 30”x40” painting of Yosemite for an art call hosted by the Yosemite Renaissance, due January 1. Which is only 13 days away, by the way. I feel confident that I’ll finish the painting by the deadline. I also need to write an artist statement for the application, which I plan on working on tonight and in the evenings leading up to the deadline. I try to do the majority of my computer work after the sun sets because I try to maximize my sunlight time painting because I really can’t paint without natural light.
The 30”x40” seashell painting and the 8”x10” paintings have taken a pause while I prioritize my Yosemite painting. I also gessoed my big 30”x40” ocean painting that I mentioned a few posts ago because it was rejected from the art call I submitted it to and I realized that I really didn’t like the painting. I figured that I should start from a clean slate with that canvas and try a different painting.
For my volunteer work with genARTS, I’m trying to wrap up the grant writing I am working on to secure funding for their 2024-2025 programming and hopefully will be handing off the work to someone else to finalize and submit before the deadline. Additionally, I have been selected by the co-chairs to be their annual Experimental Exhibition curator for 2024. I’m looking forward to taking on this role because I think it’ll be a great way for me to gain experience and learn about the curating world while also getting to know more artists in Silicon Valley.
Outputs
I hosted an artist networking mixer with genARTS this past week, which let me re-meet a lot of the artists from the 2023 Experimental Exhibition, which I was a part of. It made me realize that I do not enjoy being an in-person event organizer; it makes me really stressed to be physically present and running an event. I did have a lot of fun once the organizing and setting up was done, and it was a good thing to learn about myself so I know where my strengths are.
That’s pretty much for this week’s update. Lots of things in progress and ramping up for next year. I’m planning to focus on painting in the next few weeks over the holidays and spending less time doing computer work. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
Beginning of December Check-in
It feels like it’s been so long since my last update because it feels like a lot has happened in the last two weeks with Thanksgiving, getting sick, and family visiting. I had some time off from the studio and working in general, but I’m back to being quite busy (but not overwhelmed)!
What I’ve been working on:
I started a new painting that was inspired by a visit to the coastline along 17 Mile Drive. A bunch of sea debris of limpet shells, blue mussels, white coral, and seaweed had washed ashore and I was inspired by the random arrangements the ocean had tossed them onto the beach. I took a bunch of close up pictures of the debris and decided to start a 30”x40” painting of one of the photos I took.
Prior to my seashell painting, I started working on a smaller 8”x10” painting of cherry blossoms. I’ve been slowly working through a collection of 8”x10” flower close up paintings. This will be my fourth painting in the collection. I think I’m better understanding my workflow/creative process. I have these ideas for collections and can pretty quickly come up with 5-10 paintings that will make up the collection, but I get bored of painting the same type of subject. So I usually stop halfway through one painting to start another painting in a different collection, but will eventually get back to it. I’m accepting this reality and letting myself paint what I want/what inspires me because I know I’ll eventually go back to the painting or collection and complete them. So it may take me three times as long to finish a collection, but it also means I’m working on three collections at the same time. I like to have a diversity of projects that I’m working on because it keeps me interested and excited.
So that being said, I’m taking a break from my 30”x40” painting of Yosemite painting. I’ll start working on it again before my next check-in because I want to use the painting in an art call specific to Yosemite National Park.
Outside of painting, I’m writing a proposal for a grant to secure funding for programming with the arts organization genARTS, where I serve on the Executive Committee. The funding would be used to create programming that provides networking and educational opportunities for Santa Clara County artists through art career panels and workshops. It’s been an interesting process and I’m hoping to use this experience to help me write proposals for grants for myself and my art business.
Outings
As I mentioned earlier, I had family visit last week. We did some traveling around the Bay Area, including visiting 17 Mile Drive, which was really relaxing and inspiring.
Inputs
I started reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin again to help me get out of the planning brain space so I could feel less pressure and stress with painting. I think it’s been helpful, since I feel really motivated to paint a lot again.
Overall, I think this winter season has been quite nice. I’m glad that I didn’t sign up for a bunch of holiday events. I’m also glad that I did my 2024 planning, because now I feel like I can spend the rest of December painting and building out my portfolio to prepare myself for next year.
End of November Check-in
It’s really feeling like winter here in California… in the way that it can feel like winter on the west coast: low 40s and dark at 4:30pm. Even though I’ve spent the majority of my life on the east coast, my body has quickly adapted to the warmer weather in California and I feel so cold when it’s 45 degrees out. That’s my mini weather update. In terms of my art:
What I’ve been working on:
I submitted my application to the art call where I used my 30”x40” stormy ocean painting. I ended up calling the painting “Depths Within and Beyond” thanks to the help of ChatGPT. Here’s a secret, I use ChatGPT a lot to help me with naming paintings I have no idea how to name. It’s been great.
I finished painting the 12 6”x6” paintings to create an ocean painting collage. I need to get more frames for it to be fully complete, but I’m happy with how it turned out and I feel like I executed the concept I wanted to achieve.
I’m working on a 30’x40” painting of Yosemite, specifically Tunnel View. I don’t remember when I started it and I don’t think I mentioned it in a previous blog post, which is unfortunate, but the entire canvas is covered in paint. I’m hoping to finish this painting by December 1st for a local literary journal submission, but I’ve been having a hard time focusing on painting. I think I’ve been doing too much business admin and planning and it’s been hard to switch my brain back to painting landscapes.
Speaking of planning, I met with some two artist friends that I’ve made in the past year who create artworks similar to me in palette and theme, but in completely different mediums. We’re working together to come up with an exhibition proposal to a few local museums to see if they’d be interested in hosting our exhibition. It’s essentially like government RFP proposal writing, but less technical and more artistic. But we still need to propose activities, timelines, budgets, and provide artist bios, so it’s very similar work to the proposal writing I did at my previous job. Another secret: you can use a lot of the skills you learned in a corporate setting to a creative business.
Outings
This past weekend, I visited some other artist friends at the SuperFine Art Fair in SF. Both to support my friends and to scope out the event because it might be something I’d be interested in doing in the future.
Yesterday, I saw Ellie Goulding at the SF Symphony. She performed her songs with an orchestra and it was amazing. I’ve been a long time Ellie fan (since at least 2010) and it was like a grow with the artist kind of moment. Not exactly related to my art, but I guess it’s what fill the well.
Inputs
I am rereading parts of The Creative Act by Rick Rubin to help me get into the mindset to paint again. I think I need to be more patient with myself and give myself more space when I am painting instead of trying to force something out.
Overall, it feels both productive and unproductive at the same time. I am busy thinking about what 2024 looks like for my art and my creative business with preparing post videos to my YouTube channel, planning what art festival events I want to participate in next year, and establishing expectations for my volunteer roles across the art organizations I’m volunteering my time at. Lots of planning, but not a lot of doing, and I think I’m at a point where I’m ready to put plans into action. Which requires me to paint more. So the goal for the rest of this month is to dedicate more time to painting and letting myself have the space to create more. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving, because I will be spending it with friends and I think it’ll be a good mental reset for me. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Mid-November Check-In
I’m a little behind on my check-in this week because I wanted to paint as much as I could on Tuesday this week before I had minor surgery on Wednesday. Surgery went well and I’m recovering well, so it’s a perfect time to catch up on my updates.
What I’ve been working on:
I finished my 30”x40” stormy ocean painting. I’m still figuring out what to name it and haven’t submitted my application to the art call yet, but I should do that soon since it;s due next week.
I started painting 12 6”x6” paintings at the same time to create a sort of painting collage. I sketched out an idea and I’m trying to implement it now. I think it would have been a good fit for the art call due next week, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it and photograph it in time
Lots of business admin. I changed my financial tracking system and so I am doing a lot of data entry to transfer all my information from my previous system into this one. This new system is much more scalable and is helping me track my expenses in tax deductible categories, which is helping me keep track of my budget. I’m also tracking sales data from specific events. This new system will help me make better decisions with which events to attend and what my biggest business expenses are.
I’m working on setting up a Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@margaretluoart .There’s really nothing there right now, and I am hoping to have a video up by the end of the month. If you want to subscribe, please do. I’m hoping to put out a video every two weeks!
Outings
I just participated in SFOS last weekend. It was a really good event for me to get my artwork in front of more eyes as well as a great marketing opportunity. I met a bunch of fellow artists, people who are interested in art, people who are interested in pursuing their own creative endeavors, and people who are involved in the arts community in SF/general Bay Area. It was an exciting weekend and I felt both tired and energized from the experience.
On the Friday before SFOS, I attended the opening reception for an art show called More the Merrier at Art Arc in San Jose. I wasn’t participating in the art show itself, but I had a few friends who were, so it was nice to support them and talk to them about their artwork.
Those are my updates for now. Truly, most of my time right now is a lot of business administration and business planning, with some painting. I’m still a bit in recovery mode from my surgery, so I’ve been just thinking and planning a lot. I’m hoping by Monday next week, I’ll be back into full swing with painting! That’s all for now!
End of October Check-in
I probably say this at the beginning of each blog post, but time is flying by so quickly. It’s the end of October and it’s finally cooling down and feeling like fall in the Bay Area. As much as it can feel like fall here, which mostly means foggy mornings, cooler days, and earlier sunsets. Less of the trees changing color and it really feeling chilly like it does on the east coast. Anyways, lots to update on in the past two weeks.
What I’ve been working on
I applied to the art call that I used the majority (7/9) of the California Highway One paintings. I procrastinated a bit on the artist statement because I thought I could get away with writing something quickly since I have been writing a lot of them lately and it was only 300 words. I was humbled by the challenge of writing something concise and I really appreciate my friends who were able to review and edit my statement with such a quick turnaround. So moving forward, I’m going to have to remind myself to give myself and the people who review my artist statements a bit more time.
I finished the painting that I was attempting to capture ripples on a lake surface. It’s one of those things where done is better than perfect (something a good friend always likes to remind me), because I used the painting to apply to another art call that was due at the end of last week. Again, hubris made me think that I’d be able to paint something brand new so quickly. To be fair to my efforts, the sample of friends that I asked to opine on the painting have found the painting interesting. I’ve gotten comments that it looks like geodes, blue cell membranes, the inside of a brain, etc. and I have found that to be very interesting and appreciate that the painting has inspired so many different ideas. I’ll call it my attempt at abstract art and I don’t know if I like it, but it was a worthwhile experience.
Another worthwhile but difficult experience: I started my largest painting to date, 30”x40”. I am painting a stormy ocean for another art call that is due November 17th. I want to say that I’m halfway done with the painting, but I really can’t tell and I’m honestly using writing this blog post as a break away from the painting. It’s been really challenging for me to paint this. I think the reason I’m having such a hard time with this particular painting is that it has a much darker palette than the ones I usually paint with. So I’ve already learned that I enjoy painting things with bright colors, which wasn’t obvious or explicit to me until now. I think it’s worth working through this painting to see what else I learn from the experience, and I would appreciate all the encouragement!
I think I’m mostly ready for SFOS. I’m participating during weekend 2, November 4-5, at Intersection of the Arts on 1446 Market Street in SF. There’s a lot of website management, printing, organizing my supplies and inventory involved, but I feel like that’s all mostly done. This is probably the less glamorous side of running an art business, but I’m looking forward to meeting people who care about art!
Outside of the studio, on top of the other two volunteer organizations I mentioned in my last blog post, Art Docents of Los Gatos and genARTS Silicon Valley, I’ve joined the Board of the Silicon Valley Visual Artists non-profit organization. The major efforts of the organization include organizing and hosting the Silicon Valley Open Studios. So far, I’m in charge of project managing the 2024 Open Studios, which has me learning a lot about all the pieces involved with hosting such a large scale event. Joining these volunteer organizations has also helped me be more involved in the artist community, and I feel better connected and involved.
Outputs
I attended the ArtLaunch event at SOMArts for SFOS hosted by ArtSpan (who runs SFOS). One of my paintings is in the SOMArts gallery and will be on view for purchase during the entirety of SFOS. It was a great event to catch up with my artist friends and meet a few new ones. It was a pretty loud and crowded event, so it was hard to meet new people and have meaningful conversation, but I hope more of that will happen at the individual open studio events.
This week, a friend is visiting me for a long weekend. I’m hoping to use the time when she’s visiting to relax a bit and take a little break before my SFOS weekend. I’ve been quite busy in and out of the studio with the painting, art call applications, and my volunteer efforts, so it’ll be nice to have a weekend to recharge.
That’s my lengthy update for this week. I hope you all are doing well. Leave a message or comment sharing your thoughts, I always love to read them!
Beginning of October Check-In
I can’t believe two weeks have passed since my last check-in. It feels like time has flown and I haven’t done that much. I’ll just get right to what I’ve been working on and maybe I’ll feel differently about how much I’ve done in the last two weeks.
What I’ve been working on:
I've officially finished my series of 12 Ocean Perspectives paintings, which means I’ve finished painting them, signed them, varnished them, framed them, and added them to my website. If you want early access to the paintings tomorrow, make sure you’re signed up for my Collector’s Club mailing list here. Otherwise, the paintings will be available to everyone else this Friday, October 143th at 10am PT. Framed paintings are a new thing and I think that they look really good in the floater frames I picked out for them.
For the California Highway series, I think I’m done painting the large painting of a panoramic view of the coastline and the moody painting of a spot on 17 mile drive that I mentioned in my last update. Those are paintings 8 and 9 of the collection. I do have a 10th painting that I’ve started, but I think I’m going to put that painting on hold. I’m going to use seven of the paintings from the California HIghway One painting to apply to a gallery art call that is due October 22nd. I need to name most of the paintings in this collection, which I’m quite unoriginal at. I also need to start writing the brief artist statement (300 words) for the application.
I’ve started a new painting attempting to capture ripples on a lake surface. I underestimated how difficult this painting would be, so it’s been a little frustrating. I’m hoping to submit this painting to another art call that’s due October 20th, so I have to work diligently to make sure I make the submission deadline. I probably should have started the painting earlier than I did, since I had known about the art call for over a month. But it took me a while to think of a painting that would fit the exhibition’s theme, so it is what it is. Wish me luck as I work through this one!
Outside of the studio, in addition to training to be an art docent volunteer for the Los Gatos school district, I’ve also started volunteering for a local arts and culture leaders network organization called genARTS (the organization that hosted one of the exhibitions I participated in). I’m working to build the organization’s membership program to strengthen the network of emerging arts and culture leaders in Silicon Valley. I’ve been getting along well with the other volunteers and I’m excited to be volunteering with them because it’s also been helping me expand my local artist network.
I realize in the past month-ish, I’ve been putting a lot more on my plate, but I find that it’s been very helpful in keeping me motivated. I’m saying yes to things that align with my values and goals for my art career/business (In my Business of Art course, we spent a week on writing out of core values, personally and professionally and I’m really applying the advice that your core values should be guiding your decisions and what you say yes or no to). I also know that I’m someone who thrives under the stress of competing priorities (still unclear if that’s a good or bad thing, but that’s what it is for now). I think things will start slowing down by the middle of November, after SF open studios. I’m hoping in December, I’ll have time to reflect and do a retrospective on the year and share with you my findings. But until then, there will be a few more lengthy bi-weekly updates like this. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts via comments or emails or your texts to me. Thanks for following along!
End of September Check-In
The last two weeks have been quite busy and eventful. This past weekend, I traveled down to Solvang, California (near Santa Barbara) with my partner and a very supportive friend to attend the opening ceremony for the Wildling Museum’s California National Parks: Stories of Water exhibit to see my painting Flash Flood Warning up on the museum walls. The museum held a lovely opening reception and I had the opportunity to meet the other accepted artists, the juror, and supporters of the museum. My painting, Flash Flood Warning, received an honorable mention in the exhibit, which I was amazed to receive. Throughout the process of preparing for this exhibition, I kept bouncing between thoughts of not believing that I even was accepted into the exhibit and feeling a sense of accomplishment. But after attending the opening reception where I, and all of the other artists, felt celebrated, I feel proud of myself for putting in the effort to apply to this exhibit and seeing my painting in the museum. It’s been further motivation for me to continue working on my art and being thoughtful about what I’m painting and what it means to me and those who see it.
I also want to note that the painting is for sale at the museum, so you can reach out to them if you are interested. I also am selling giclee prints of the paintings, which can be found here on my website: 18”x24” Flash Flood Warning Print.
Now that I’m back home after the quick weekend trip to southern California, I’m back in the studio and feeling quite busy.
What I’ve been working on:
I’m just about finished my series of ocean/coastal paintings that I had mentioned in my last update. The collection is 12 6”x8” oil on canvas paintings that I’ve titled Ocean Perspectives as the paintings depict a variety of perspectives of the ocean from different coasts and different times of day. I’m hoping to have the collection of paintings released on my website for sale by the end of the month, so I need to do things like sign, photograph, and varnish the paintings among other administrative pieces of work.
I also finished a large 24”x36” oil on canvas painting of a sunrise I photographed in Maine. I started this painting back in 2021 and I’m really happy to have finished it. I also hope to release this painting onto my website for sale around the same time as the Ocean Perspectives paintings.
I’m back to working on the California Highway One series. After painting the aforementioned paintings, which had a very different color palette than my California Highway One paintings, I felt refreshed and reinspired to continue with this collection. I have three more paintings that I want to finish in this series: I am over halfway done a painting of a panoramic view of the coastline, almost finished a moody painting of a spot on 17 mile drive, and I’ve just started the last painting. I’m hoping to use a number of paintings from this series to apply to a gallery call for art that is due October 22nd, so I feel good about my timeline.
I did a bit of a website re-organization/update because I felt like it was becoming a bit unwieldy, so I collapsed all of my original paintings into one shop. I’m hoping that it doesn’t present as too different from a viewer, but it has helped me keep things much more organized and easily accessible.
Outside of my studio, I’ve started training to become an art docent volunteer at the Los Gatos school district. I’ll be training to provide 20-30 minute art lessons to kindergarten to middle school aged students in the Los Gatos school district. I miss working with kids, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to mix my passion for art and expanding children’s education.
That’s all for this update. Thank you all again for supporting me throughout this journey! The next few months are going to be quite busy with my Business of Art program, art docent training, preparing for SF open studios, and overall preparing for the holiday season. I hope to continue providing these biweekly updates and I always appreciate your comments and emails in response! Have a great rest of the week!
Middle of September Check-In
Last week I was vacationing in Glacier National Park so I’m a little late on my bi-weekly update. I spent a week in/around Glacier National Park and it was a very active but restful and relaxing trip. I went on so many hikes and I took so many pictures. I haven’t gone through them all, but hopefully I feel like I took enough photos this time. I’ve been back home for a few days now and I’m getting back into my painting routine.
What I’ve been working on:
I’m taking a little break from my California Highway One series to work on some half finished paintings in a very different color palette. I started a bunch of ocean/coastal paintings one to two years ago that have been hanging over my head (literally) that I wanted to finish. I’ve started to think about what paintings I want to share during SF open studios in the beginning of November while juggling which paintings I want to submit to gallery calls for art. I thought it would be a good idea to finish these ocean/coastal paintings to both relieve some of the burden of years old unfinished paintings and have the opportunity to showcase them during the open studios. My goal is to finish these paintings by the end of this week (9/16), so I’ll let you know how this goes in my next update!
This week I start a 10 week program called The Business of Art run by San Jose’s Center for Cultural Innovation. I was accepted into this program and provided a scholarship and I’m excited to meet more artists in my area while also learning more about running a creative business.
Inputs
I’m paused in reading Entangled LIfe by Merlin Sheldrake because my library loan expired, but I’m hoping to borrow the book again soon. It’s been an interesting read so far!
I started reading This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein because this book was quoted a bit in Jenny Odell’s Saving Time.
Outputs
Two weekends from now (9/24) will be the opening reception for the Wildling Museum’s California National Parks: Stories of Water exhibition. I’m very excited for it and I also have a friend coming to visit me for the opening reception. I also received a postcard from the museum advertising the exhibition and they used my painting as one of the promotional images, which has been adding to the excitement!
As I mentioned, I did a bunch of hikes and outdoor activities while in northern Montana in Glacier National Park. It felt great to spend a lot of time outdoors and being active again, since I haven’t really been able to do that since my surgery back in July. I’m almost fully recovered, and I felt like this trip was a good reset for me.
Another thing I’ve noticed since coming back from Montana is that it’s cooled down quite a bit in the Bay Area. I felt like I left for vacation during the peak of summer with the dry heat and the unrelenting beating sun. Northern Montana was distinctly cooler, cloudier, and it rained quite a few times. Upon my return home, it feels like it has cooled down quite a bit and the angle of the sun is much less intense. It also stays foggy/cloudy for longer in the morning, which I’ve learned is one of the things I love most about living here. I think the middle of September may be my favorite part of the year here. It may also be helped by the fact that last Friday marked a full year of leaving my job to pursue painting and building a creative business full time. I feel like the year has passed very quickly, but also recognize that I’ve done a lot and many things have changed. I’m very much still in the beginning stages of figuring out what exactly I want to do with my art and creative business, but I have a much better sense of direction than I had a year ago. I may do a deeper dive reflection, but I’ll probably do it closer to year end when things feel a bit less busy.
This week’s update was a bit long. Things are picking up and I know the next few months will be busy with the business program, calls for art deadlines that I hope to submit to, SF open studios, friends visiting, and probably a bunch of other things that I haven’t yet accounted for. I’ll plan to keep everyone updated!
End of August Check-In
I have pretty much gotten back into my regular schedule during the last two weeks. I’m still healing from my surgery, but I’ve been able to paint as I have before my surgery. I’m currently working on paintings that I hope to submit to a couple of gallery calls for art that are due by the end of this month and in the next few months. Related to calls for art, my painting made the press release for the Wildling Museum’s California National Parks: Stories of Water exhibition! I shared earlier this month that my painting had been accepted into the museum’s exhibition and I’m very excited about it! I plan on going to the opening reception on September 24th, so if you’re in California and around Solvang, you should check it out!
What I’ve been working on:
I decided to add three more paintings to my California Highway One series, which makes the collection 10 paintings. And now I have five unfinished paintings in the collection instead of two, but I’ve been making good progress on three of them. My goal is to be finished painting this series of paintings by the end of September because I have another series in mind that I want to move onto.
Inputs:
I finished reading Saving Time by Jenny Odell, which I really enjoyed. I decided to re-read Odell’s first book How to Do Nothing, which I don’t remember enjoying as much the first time I read it and thought I should give it a second chance. I again am finding it hard to track because it feels all over the place.
I started reading Entangled LIfe by Merlin Sheldrake because I keep seeing people I know read it. I’ve truly just started it, so I don’t have much of an opinion of it yet.
Outputs
Last weekend I attended the genARTS Who Are You? exhibition opening reception in San Jose. It was a really great experience and I enjoyed meeting more people in the San Jose art’s community. My painting sold at the opening reception and I felt very grateful that I had the opportunity to share my work in a public space.
Next week I am taking a week long trip to Glacier National Park. I’m a little sad that I’m still healing from my surgery and won’t be able to do many hikes because I have to take it easy as I continue to recover. I’ll use this as an opportunity to take a lot of reference photos and hopefully I’ll feel like I’ve taken enough photos. Every trip I take, I look back through my photos to pick out the ones I want to paint and I always wish that I took more photos.
Overall, I’ve felt like my summer has been pretty quiet with a lot of time spent indoors painting and resting. I do know that my fall and winter months are going to be pretty busy with friends visiting and a couple of events, so it’s good that I’ve been taking this time to paint and rest. That’s all for this update, I hope you are having a good end to your summer!
Middle of August Check-In
I’m still recovering from my surgery, but I’ve been getting a little stir crazy so I’m easing back into my regular routine. It was a little difficult to start painting after taking almost a three week long break from it, but I started out small and painted a little landscape on a 4”x 6” piece of paper. This was helpful because it was a very low commitment painting in both materials and time, so if I didn’t like how it turned out, I felt okay about it. That helped me overcome the hurdle of starting, and the next day I essentially forced myself to focus on working on one painting that I’ve been avoiding for a while. Once I overcame that block in painting, I wake up ready to paint every day.
What I’ve been working on:
I’m back to working on my California Highway One series. I think I’m finished with one of the paintings I had started probably months ago at this point. I am slowly working on the largest painting of the series while I also started the seventh and last painting of the collection that I planned for. I had debated on whether I should do the seventh painting because the reference photo was very similar to another painting I had made in the collection and I didn’t want to have two very similar paintings. But so far, it’s turning out quite differently from any of the other paintings in the collection, but still fits the theme, and I’m excited about it.
Inputs
I started reading Saving Time by Jenny Odell at the recommendation of one of my new art friends. I had read her first book, How to Do Nothing before the pandemic and I don’t remember much of it besides Odell talking about birdwatching and feeling like the book was a little bit all over the place. So far, I’m finding Saving Time easier to follow and I am relating more to it, in part because Odell is from the SF Bay Area and she includes a narrative of various locations in the SF Bay Area that I know and am familiar with. I’m only a few chapters in, but I’m enjoying it so far.
Outputs
I haven’t been able to go outside on walks and drives until last week, so I haven’t had many outings. I am driving up to Berkeley tomorrow to see my printer and to get photographs and prints made of a few of my paintings including my painting that got accepted into the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature’s California National Parks: Stories of Water exhibition.
I also have an opening reception for genART’s Experimental Exhibition: Who Are You? on Saturday that I’ll be attending.
I think that’s all I have for this update. I’m hoping that I’ll be fully recovered from my surgery soon. Meanwhile, I’ll keep making progress on my California HIghway One paintings. I started planning my next collection of paintings, which I think will be of my trip to Yosemite.
End of July Check-In
The past two weeks haven’t been very eventful. I’ve spent the last two weeks recovering from my minor surgery and resting, so this update will be brief.
I finished painting the four 8” x 8” canvas panels and submitted my application to the show at a local coffee shop just today. I’ll share a photo of one of the paintings I submitted.
Some exciting news is that I’ve been accepted genARTS Silicon Valley’s third annual experimental exhibition genARTS Open: Who Are You? which will be hosted at Crema Coffee Roasting Co. in San Jose from August 12 - September 28. There will be an opening reception on August 12th and I’m really looking forward to this exhibition! I’ll be adding this and the SF Open Studio dates to my Events page on my website.
Other than those two updates, there’s nothing much else to share in this update. I haven’t had the energy to read, so not that many inputs, but I’m looking for book recommendations if you have any to share with me!
I hope you all are doing well and are enjoying your summer!
Middle of July Check-In
July has been quite a busy month so far. A lot of deadlines are approaching. In my personal life, I have a minor surgery coming up this Thursday, so I’ve been working hard to finish a bunch of things by this Wednesday so I don’t have to worry about the deadlines immediately after the surgery in case I need lots of time to rest and recover.
What I’ve been working on:
I finished my painting of Joshua Tree for the Wildling Museum call for art. The submission deadline was pushed back a week, which is nice, and I took the extra time to review my artist statement for my artwork a few more times. I had a lot of help from friends who proofread and edited my statement, and I’m content with how it turned out. It’s hard to know when painting and writing are “done”. I’ve reached a point where I just needed to stop painting and editing tiny details, so I guess that’s my definition of “done”. I’ve photographed my painting and uploaded all my materials to the submission website, I just have to hit send. I’m going to sit on it for one more day and then submit tomorrow.
For the San Francisco Open Studios (SFOS), I’ve been accepted to the group show at the Intersection for Arts building in the Westside of SF! I’ll be part of the second weekend of studio visits for SFOS on November 4 & 5. I’m very excited to be part of this group show! Even though November is months away, I’ve already started listing out what I need to do to prepare for my first open studios event. Now that I know where I’ll be for SFOS, I was able to finish my registration for the event and I’ll be in the printed and online guide for the whole SFOS event.
I’m currently painting four 8”x8” canvas panels to submit for an art show hosted by a local coffee shop that are due by July 28th. I learned about this art show from attending an Artist Mixer hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose and talking to some other artists who know so much more about what’s happening in the art scene in the San Jose and South Bay area. Two of the paintings are pretty much done and in the middle of working on the other two.
On the business end of things, I filed and paid my 2022 California Sales tax. This is the first time I filed and paid sales tax for the whole year. Previously, I had been filing and paying sales tax by each event I participated in. But at some point last year around this time, I decided to get a permanent sales tax identification number, which means I would file and pay on a more regular schedule. The filing process was a little different from how I filed my taxes by event, so I had to update my tracking methods a little bit. Overall, I think I’m doing a really good job of keeping track of my sales and taxes, and I hope my processes will scale well as my business continues to grow.
Inputs
I finished reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. I’m not sure what to read next, so let me know if you have any book recommendations, both fiction and non-fiction! I think I’m going to have some time on my hands where I won’t be able to do much as I recover from my surgery and it’d be good for me to read instead of scrolling endlessly on my phone, so I welcome all recommendations!
Outputs
As I mentioned earlier, I attended an artist mixer and I met other artists and learned about resources for artists in the San Jose/South Bay area. I have a couple other applications that I have submitted or am working on related to calls for art and small business training that are also due this month that I learned about from these resources. I’m really glad that I went to this event, even though I debated about going for a long time and had a lot of resistance to going. I’ve been working on getting to know more about my community and have been trying to push myself to meet new people, so this was a great opportunity for me.
Okay, I think with that lengthy update, that’s all for me for now. Hopefully, by my next update, I’ll be recovering well from my surgery and I’ll feel a little less busy. Thanks for reading!
End of June Check-In
These past two weeks since my last check-in have gone by very quickly. I greatly enjoyed my trip to Yosemite. Yosemite experienced record-breaking snowfall this winter, so there was a lot of flooding and the waterfalls were bursting. I went on a lot of hikes (through some of said waterfalls) and took many reference photos, which I hope to paint a few paintings from one day.
What I’ve been working on:
Since getting back from Yosemite, I’ve been working diligently on my Joshua Tree Painting for the Wildling Museum call for art that is due July 10th. I felt stressed about the state the painting was in when I had returned from Yosemite because I felt like I had a lot of painting ahead of me. But after intensely painting only this painting for a little over a week, I feel much better about it and think that I’m getting close to being finished. On the flip side, I’m reaching a point where I don’t know how much longer I can keep looking at the painting because I’ve stared at it for hours and hours on end. There’s also a writing component to the application, so I’ve been working on that as well, and I think everything will be ready by the deadline.
The only other thing that I’ve been working on has been figuring out where to hold my San Francisco Open Studios event, since I don’t live or have a studio in San Francisco. Hopefully I’ll have something figured out by my next update!
Inputs
I re-read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert for the second or third time. I feel like the book resonated with me a bit more now that it’s been over half a year since I started to paint consistently and take painting more seriously.
Along similar lines, I’m reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. It’s been helping me stay focused on my Joshua Tree painting and also feel less overwhelmed by the other ideas I have for paintings. I think a consistent struggle that I have had since I started painting full time is that I have a lot of ideas and a lot of projects I want to work on, but I try to work on them all at once and get overwhelmed. I think I’ve finally settled into a practice where I am working on only one project, and I’ve been feeling less overwhelmed and more productive. I also feel less stress around starting my work day at a certain time and trying to force myself to paint for a certain number of hours. I’ve been more flexible with my time and I think I’ve finally gotten out of the 9-5 mindset that I used to work in. I’ve realized that I have to work differently when I paint and create something and I’m kinder to myself about it.
Outputs
With all the traveling and focused painting I’ve been doing this month, I’ve been trying to be more intentional about spending time with friends outside of my apartment. This has helped me take more fulfilling and fun breaks (compared to scrolling endlessly on my phone). I’ve mostly been exercising or going to dinner with these friends, which makes me step away from my painting and not think about it.
Mid-June Check-In
I’ve been back home for a little under a week and I’ll be traveling to Yosemite tomorrow, but I have a few updates on things that I’ve been working on and what I’ve been up to. The theme right now is figuring out how to get my artwork in front of more eyes. As I mentioned in my last two posts, I’ve been trying to apply to calls for art from galleries and museums. This is a new experience for me and I’m learning a bit more about the process. One update is that I’ve been unfortunately rejected for the 50|50 show, which is a little sad, but I am new to applying to calls for art and it was a stretch goal for me. Rejections are hard, but I remind myself that it’s not a reflection of my artwork and different jurors have different preferences, so my artwork may not have fit with the theme they are trying to achieve with this year’s show. So I’ll keep working harder and I will continue to put myself out there when the opportunities arise.
What I’ve been working on
I am steadily working on my painting of Joshua Tree for the California National Parks: Stories of Water call for art this past week since I got back from the east coast. The call for art is due on July 10th, so I have a little under a month to work on it and complete the painting. I wasn’t as industrious as I had planned to be while at home and didn’t work much on the written materials for the application. I plan to do some writing while I’m in Yosemite. I drew up a painting schedule for when I return from my trip to Yosemite to make sure I stay on track and meet the deadline!
This year, I am going to be participating in the San Francisco Open Studios event, which will be happening during the weekends of November before Thanksgiving. I’m currently working out the details of figuring out a venue to host my event since I don’t have a studio in SF, but once I have the location figured out and which weekend I’ll be participating, I’ll definitely share the information!
Inputs
I started reading In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré to help me reframe my mind about slowing down and doing less things. I’m used to filling up my schedule and have always tried to keep myself busy because I have/had the belief that being busy and doing as much as possible is a good thing. As I’m settling into creating and making art full-time, I feel like I have to reframe how I think about moving quickly and being constantly busy, so I’m trying to learn through books. Let me know if you have any recommendations on related books or podcasts!
Outings
As I mentioned, I just got back from a trip to the east coast visiting family and attending a wedding. It was an eventful trip and I enjoyed spending time with my family and celebrating my friend’s marriage, but I am glad to be back home to rest and recharge.
Today, I went to San Jose’s Municipal Rose Garden, which I had visited in the beginning of May, to see if more roses had bloomed. Turns out, it’s coming to the end of the rose season, so while the rose bushes and trees are more full of flowers, compared to the beginning of May, most of the roses are in stages of decay, Which is also beautiful in its own way.
I think that’s it for now. I’m looking forward to my trip to Yosemite and hope to be inspired by the park! Also, wish me luck on my California National Park painting, which I will be focusing on when I return from my trip.
End of May Check-In
This week’s check-in will be a quick one. I’m on the east coast visiting family and attending a wedding this week, so there will be no painting for a little while, but I’ve been working on a couple of other things during this visit.
What I’ve been working on
I’m starting a new set of commissioned paintings of flowers and have been making mock-ups for them to review before I start painting. I create these mock-ups on Procreate, so I didn’t need to pack too many materials for this. When I work on commissions, I work hard in the beginning stages to make sure I understand what the client wants for their painting or paintings. This really helps with the painting process because I have the client’s vision in mind while also staying true to my artistic style.
I’ve decided to apply to the California National Parks: Stories of Water exhibit at the Wildling Museum. I’ve started the painting I’ll submit for the call for art. The call for art closes on July 10th, and I’m a little stressed about the timeline because I’ll be away from the studio for a little over two weeks until the deadline. Meanwhile, the application requires some written materials, so I’m planning on working on those while I’m unable to paint. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the painting and the other application materials on time!
Before I left for my trip, I took down my Plein Air paper paintings from my living room wall and set up a little gallery wall of my collection of ocean paintings. I liked having artwork up on my living room wall and wanted to fill up the wall space with a bunch of my finished paintings (BTW these are for sale on my website!).
Something that I’m working on that is more business related is working on getting sales tax exemption status at the retailers that I buy my art supplies from. I recently learned that if I sell the materials that I purchase, like canvases, frames, paint, etc., I shouldn’t be paying sales tax on the materials because I’ll be collecting sales tax on my sales. It’s not the most exciting topic, but I’ve been working with sales tax laws a lot recently, and things like this do take up a portion of my time to figure out and make sure I’m compliant.
These are the main things I’m working on. I’m still working through the jet lag from the time difference and red eye I took coming over to the east coast, so I feel a bit disorganized. I’m hoping to spend quality time with family and friends this week while also getting some work done!
Mid-May Check-In
We’re at the halfway point of May and it feels like a lot has happened since my last check-in. I wrapped up Plein Airpril and completed all 30 paintings, which is an accomplishment that I’m proud of. A little over halfway through April, I started to lose motivation and felt like I was dragging my feet to paint each day. I’m glad that I stuck it through and painted all 30 days, because they ended up looking really nice together! I’ve also sold a few of the paintings to friends. It’s surprising to me which paintings other people like, because they’re different from the ones that I like. It also feels reassuring when people like ones that are not my favorites, because it’s a reminder to me that people have different preferences and like different kinds of art, so I don’t need to constantly be making a “perfect” painting in my eyes.
The process of painting daily in April also helped me realize that it’s helpful for me to have some external goal to work towards in my painting practice. I have started looking at calls for art from galleries in my area and have been trying to figure out where I would be a good fit. One of the calls for art that I have applied to is a show called 50|50 at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, CA; for the show, artists paint 50 6”x6” paintings in 50 days. I’ll find out the results of my application next month. Another call for art that I’m thinking about applying to is a California National Parks exhibit at the Wildling Museum in Solvang, CA. I just started on a painting of Joshua Tree for the call for art, which is due July 10th, so I hope to be focusing most of my attention on this for now.
I’m still working on my smaller flower paintings for now, but I think I’ll soon focus on my Joshua Tree painting because I have an external deadline for it. Working on the flower paintings is an internal goal of mine, and I’m sure that I’ll get back to them. Similar to my California Highway One paintings: I haven’t forgotten about them, but I’m taking a break from them for now.
Outputs
I had family visit at the beginning of the month and it was really fun showing them the area around where I live. It rained most of the week they were here, which has been a common theme around people visiting me, but quite uncommon for California weather generally. We did a few hikes in the rain and didn’t see as many wildflowers in bloom because the flowers close up in the cold and rain, but it was quite green, which is unusual for this time of year.
I have a bit of traveling coming up in the next few weeks. I’ll be flying to the east coast at the end of next week for a wedding and spending some time with family. A few weeks after I come back from the east coast, I’ll be taking a week long trip to Yosemite, which I’ve been looking forward to for a while! Since I’ll be traveling a lot before my Joshua Tree painting is due, I’m hoping to spend this week and next week focused on working on my Joshua Tree painting. I want to have a good base down before I’m gone for a couple of weeks and not feel behind in the painting.
I think that’s all for now. Thanks again for reading through my check-in! Let me know if you have any thoughts about using external deadlines as motivation or if you have recommendations for visiting Yosemite!
End of April Check-in
This week I made a point to not procrastinate my blog post, mostly because I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on since my last update!
What I’ve been working on
I’m in the last week of Plein Airpril, a month-long daily painting challenge to paint outdoors. I started to lose motivation halfway through last week. The novelty of painting outdoors wore off and I was getting annoyed with things like how bright the sun was and the wind blowing my things around. I realized that these were silly things to get annoyed about, because I had enjoyed experiencing the same things during the first week of the challenge. I was able to motivate myself by hanging up the paintings I had completed on my wall. This helped me see how my paintings were fitting in with each other, which I wasn’t able to notice before because I had been so focused on each day’s painting. I’m really excited to see how the paintings are coming together. Let me know in the comments any themes or patterns you see! I find that other people notice things that I don’t because I’m too close to the process.
The commissioned painting was delivered to the client last week and they loved it! I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to make this painting and so glad that it turned out well!
I’m working on another close up flower painting, still inspired by the paintings that I’ve done for Plein Airpril. I’m happy that I found a new subject to paint. I definitely will still be painting landscapes and seascapes, but it’s been fun trying something new.
Those are the three major things I’ve been working on. I have been good about focusing on a limited number of projects, which means I’ve been better about getting things done. Seems obvious, but I still have to have an internal dialogue about whether I should start an exciting new project or finish the one I’m in the middle of. More often now, I am choosing to work through the project that I’m in the middle of.
Inputs
I’ve been reading a lot lately. I read How to Change by Katy Milkman, Do the Work by Steven Pressfield, and I started reading Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. Since I don’t talk to as many people as I used to when I was working at my old job, I've been reading a lot to get new ideas into my life. I think I’ve found a decent rhythm for painting full time.
Outputs
Outside of my plein air sessions, I’ve been keeping indoors a lot recently. My allergies are getting pretty bad, so I’d rather spend time inside. My family is visiting me next week, and I’m looking forward to spending time with them and taking day trips!
Thanks again to everyone who has reached the end of this week’s check-in. Feel free to leave a comment or email me back to let me know how you’ve been doing, give me book recommendations, or share any advice on finishing projects. I’d love to hear from you!