Hello from California

Hello from California!

As of May 2009 I no longer live in the WRONG city in a wrong state. I’ve had it and don’t even want to type the name of the wrong city! Let’s just not talk about it. I am now in "Bay Area" of California, still browsing the area.

Walnut Creek, CA 2009 ( Click here for more images in Flickr)

A Cat Who Crossed the Continent

I know some people take their cats with them when they move. But I am sure not so many people put a wild stray screaming dirty cat in a car and drive 3,100 miles for six days through broiling hot southern desert states near Mexican borders. A litter box was a new thing to this poor little old creature, and being contained in a vehicle with this distressed cat certainly pushed me to the edge. By the time I reached the destination the cat, Lulu, looked so weak, confused, and all the friendliness was totally gone. The cat was scared to death, and it appeared the end of the world was near.

My host family generously allowed Lulu to live in their backyard. Then Lulu vanished shortly after. I didn’t see her one night and then the following days I didn’t see the cat. As I made an effort to find her I also prepared that I would never see the cat again, considering how confusing and stressful it might have been to the cat who is estimated 17 years of age and never left a small section of the tropical residential area all her life. I regretted that I took her with me this far. “If I left her in the land she had lived all her life, she did not have to die like this,” I reasoned.

Just as I slowly processed those feelings, Lulu abruptly came back. I suppose she had to explore the area before feeling safe. Now Lulu is a happy elderly Californian outside cat.

Now What?

I have some adjustments to make to the unfamiliar climate I had never experienced before. I am dressed as if I am in February NYC in one moment, and in a matter of hours, suddenly I must take off (nearly) all clothes because it is now hot. Climate here is an irregularly alternating micro-summer and micro-winter, and on top of that, nearby cities may have different temperatures as different as 20 degrees. While I lived in the humid wrong city, foot powder was one of the most important products for me, but here I don’t even think about it because of its dry climate here. And it doesn’t rain. This climate appears to be a very uncomfortable place for mosquitoes.

My work studio has not been fully set up yet. This is a photo taken from my temporary rental studio that is built far backyard of an artist's home.Yes, the studio comes with a swimming pool, garden, and two black cats with yellow eyes.

I've booked some art fairs for June and am working on more in the following months. Calender here.

I can't tell you how I like California so far. I am still trying to figure that out. It hasn't been even a month since my arrival - too short of time to conclude such a thing. On the other hand, I haven't been able to find anything particularly to complain about. And if I ever have to complain about something, people here understand English!

Walnut Creek, CA 2009

Pizza for One

I don't know what took so long for this to be sold. I always thought it was a well done piece with appealing colors and composition. And hundreds of people liked it but it took a long time to sell. This actually is "Pizza for One #2," Bhich was finally sold at an art festival at Key Biscayne. I used to eat the frozen and microwavable small pizza, called "Pizza for One," often because it's convenient, inexpensive, and also a doable size for a snack or in-a-hurry meal. As a hoarder I was thinking of making a series of art called "Pizza for One" by using the package boxes. Below is the "Pizza for One #1." Unfortunately I ate too much of "Pizza for One" and got tired of it after a while. Also, I wanted to eat healthier food than frozen pizza. But that wasn't the actual reason why I didn't continue making more "Pizza for One" pieces. I just got too busy for other things. Anyway, a friend of mine bought "Pizza for One #1" a few years ago, and finally #2 was sold last week. I think I made them on 2006. To me, that's a long time ago. It is much fun to make them than try selling them. But I am glad some people liked them enough to purchase them. I think our society is full of packagings, and I find it so wasteful. They spend so much resources both the cost and materials just to package the products, and the packagings are thrown away. So I wanted to resist that just a little bit. Pizza for One #1

I Survived Art Festivals

I survived art fairs. Having three art festivals in a row turned out to be physically strenuous and intense, but I didn't die from it. Now South Florida season is over, snow birds are back to their Northern nests. I am packing up to leave Miami too. Unlike snowbirds I am heading to the west, California. And I plan to come back to South Florida in the next season. I had started doing art fairs/festival in the worst time of economy, but it turned out to be my advantage. Artists who have been there for many years already had set high prices, whereas I am literally nobody, so my low prices spoke during the events. I really don't know how other artists did at those events because I didn't ask all of them, but from the situations around my booth, things were pretty slow everywhere. For me, things were not so slow. I sold 7 at Las Olas, 4 at Surfside, and 5 at Key Biscayne. In this super slow economy and the fact that I am unexperienced in fairs I take this as a huge success. At Key Biscayine Art Festival, it rained occasionally on the first day. My booth space was uneven so I struggled to set up my booth, but things kept falling apart. Two artists in the nearby booths came to rescue me as they saw me "suffering alone." Because of this, by the time the show started I was still hanging my art. What I learned about avid art collectors is that they tend not to care about the presentation part once they are hooked on to a particular artist's work. Such was the case when this lady decided she was going to get one of my paintings. This orange "Sunrise" linescaping painting was just painted a day before the festival, and it even didn't have hanging wire on the back, so it was on the glassy ground leaning against my panel when she saw it I often can't catch up with installing wires on the back of paintings so I do it during art festivals. I reported earlier this year (you'd have to scroll down to see the report) that color group of red is selling like crazy. This may serve as a continuation of my testimony to my "Red Theory 2009." One week earlier I sold one orange painting and one red painting at Surfside Arts Festival. I think this has something to do with the current recession and people subconsciously seeking redness to compensate the gloomy feeling. I could be very wrong, but I have been running out of red/pink/orange products in the past several months. I think Oas Olas and Key Biscayne were both very good shows. People had good eyes and bought what I consider best of my work. And interestingly but not surprisingly, nearly all buyers were "snow birds" from up north. So I will be back in the next season.

Las Olas - It Was Fun!

Relatively speaking I was very pleased with this art fair in Fort Lauderdale. Since this is my second art fair, I am only comparing this to the previous fair at Hobe Sound, FL. I found people friendly, and surprisingly, everyone I spoke to spoke English! Yes, I've been in Miami too long; I feel a culture shock when I go to English speaking crowd. On the first day I totally ran out of my business cards I thought I brought enough of. I received lots of complements, in which I felt they should tip me instead. On the second day my business cards were going out in a fast pace as well. I sold 7 pieces of art in two days during Las Olas Art Fair II. Since I am inexperienced in art fair, I can only tell you about those two I had done. I feel that Hobe Sound in general was an "anti-contemporary" crowd, slightly (maybe not slightly) shifted toward redneck. Yes, I did sell 4 pieces in Hobe Sound, but in general, people were not interested in my art. People in Las Olas were in a much better mood than those in Hobe Sound. A lot of friendly jokes and interactions took place throughout the fair in Las Olas, whereas I found people in Hobe Sound difficult to talk to. Such people are called "unfriendly" in my dictionary. Another thing about Hobe Sound was that I and my art were being grilled and smoked all day long for two days by the surrounding several food vendors who were cooking massive amounts of food by deep-frying, grilling, barbecuing, stir-frying, and so on. I drove back to Miami with the smell of those mixture of grease and smoke. I am so glad that all art fairs are not like Hobe Sound's! I wish I could look around at Las Olas Art Fair but I had to be at my booth, and also the fair was so huge that I couldn't even go to the other side of the fair with my booth left unattended so long. I got the impression that the quality of fair is rather high, and all artists I interacted with were friendly and kind. Las Olas Art Fair was something I want to do next year again. See more photos of my booth at Las Olas Art Fair

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Soap Dishes with Soaps

Now my soap dishes are sold with local artisan's handmade soaps! Every one of them are different!

Almond Soap Dish!

Blue Soap Dish with Sparkling Stars

Soap Dish!

This is the first soap dish I made. Then I realized I had to do mold making. I had never done mold making, and I found out that it is a lot more complex than I thought it would be. It certainly requires craftsmanship of mold making kind. I've probably made about 7 soap dishes so far. It is a lot of fun but it is a lot of work because unlike making fine art pieces, not only it has to hold a soap, I have to make it in a way that can sit on a flat surface without rattleing. And the soap has to sit on some sort of drainage. So far my resin soap dishes are demanded by local hand made soap artisans. Yes, there are rice, beans, sesame, and sparkles in it.

Art Fair in Hobe Sound?

If anyone who start doing art fairs in a worst time of economy, that is me. On February 7 & 8, there I was in a town I was unfamiliar with, getting lost at least once a day. If you think I should have a GPS, send me an operating GPS; I can't afford it right now! Yes, I had no expectation, as it was my first art fair and also I knew people would not spend money. Nonetheless, It was hard to believe that it was an art fair because most people walking around didn't seem to be interested in art or craft at all. Not spending money is one thing, and not interested in art is another. They were not only spending money but also not interested in art. They were just walking around for the sake of walking around. It seemed to me that they were spending time with friends and families by walking around talking to each other on a sunny weekend afternoon on a festive street. Miraculously there were two couples who came to the fair in order to buy art for their homes, making two sales of large paintings, and when I was about to pack up on the last day someone bought two resin collage works. So I made up for the expenses, the booth fee, hotel accommodations, gas, and food, but this fair produced no profit. Frankly it is physically strenuous and exhausting. The difference between doing this in a local farmers market and art fair in this case was the unfamiliarity to the town. It added certain stress to me even with Google map, which I used in my car because I was not able to find the site and the hotel. The roads in Hobe Sound, Jupiter, and Stuart area were very confusing, confusing enough for locals to agree with me on this. Getting lost early in the morning, 5 or 6 AM, in the dark, is not fun. Certainly not a fun way to start a day. I am glad it's over now!