Kauai - the red dirt land

A red dirt landscape

A sketch. It's a tree with houses behind.

A palm painted with red dirt.

by Ekaterina Levina


A local Kauai company manufacturing T-shirts started using red dirt for dying T-shirts after a hurricane ruined a lot of merchandise in 1992.
It's very common to see red hills on Kauai when you drive around the island.

I decided to use the dirt for my sketches. It was pretty easy – I mixed the dirt with some water and used a watercolor brush to paint. The mixture reminded me gouache paint with its texture.

I thought that this how medieval artists managed to find painting material – they looked around and used common things, and some of them were dirt cheap like clays and charcoal.

If I painted on a wall somewhere I probably would feel like a cave artist, but I used watercolor paper, so I wouldn't go that far in my imagination.

“The icon & the Iconic” at St. Ignatius Church

Father James Blaettler talks about icons

Saint Nicolas, The Miracle Worker (c. 19th century)
Russia, bronze with enamel, 9”x10”

Old and modern icons

Saint Catherine by D. Papadopoulos
Greece, 20”x14”

by Ekaterina Levina



The exhibit “The icon & the Iconic” brought back my childhood memories. One of my grandmothers was a devoted Orthodox Christian. I remember her praying in the front of icons in a red corner (right corner of the house) since, well... I remember myself.
The icons were dark, very old, the faces of saints were wise, serene and otherworldly.
I remember my grandmother praying to St. Nicolas for all her children traveling somewhere in the world. A thin wax candle was flickering in front of St. Anna, a silver cross, other saints – I don't remember who they were. Unfortunately, all these beautiful icons burned with the house a few years after my grandmother died. All, but one, which was given to my aunt when she got married. I didn't get a chance to inherit anything except my grandmother's intuition.

When I was looking at 17-18 century icons and crosses at the exhibit, I remembered a serene and illuminated face of my grandmother whispering words from a book of prayers. The book was heavy with an old lather cover and written in old style language decorated with red and gold ornaments. For me, when I was a kid, all those religious symbols were beautiful and mysterious objects, they were so different from everything around.

This icon exhibit at St. Ignatius Church features traditional Christian icons (from Russia, Greece, Bulgaria and Ethiopia) as well as iconic works by contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol.

A few beautiful old and contemporary icons were landed to the exhibit by families who knew Father James Blaettlet. I guess that the church (this one is a Jesuit Parish ) is one of the greatest networking systems in the world.

A lady from my art history class organized a tour for our class. Father James gave us an insightful 1,5 hour lecture about icons and art works at the exhibit. There are 69 traditional icons and icon interpretations at the exhibit.
Look up at the dome, and you'll see a pair of angel wings spread over you. A video installation shows people making a snow angel.
A bell “St. Nicolas Shadow” tolls every hour for civilian people who were killed in Iraq on that day.

Last chance to see this beautiful exhibit is Sunday, June 7, 2-5 pm.
Manresa Gallery, St. Ignatius Church
650 Parker Avenue, CA 94118

College Night at the de Young Museum

My painting “California Boys” (center)

Live art drawing demonstration by CCSF Museum Drawing Class

“This is not a box of Wheaties” by Beth Bloom

“Dindelion” by Nining Muir

“Obsession” by Melissa Love

by Ekaterina Levina


I participated in the student exhibit “Warhol Now and Then” with my painting “California Boys” at the de Young Museum last Friday. Yep, it feels good to get to the show at the museum!
It was one big fun party, kind of “an art gallery meets a night club meets an indie film festival”.
I met a few people from the art school who also participated - Beth Bloom, Nining Muir and Simone Guimaraes, who' been a very enthusiastic president of the Art Club of CCSF this semester.

A Museum Drawing class of the City College did a live drawing demonstration in Piazzoni Murals Room. They manage to stay on their places despite all that action and music around.
Usually this class has three costumed models, but this time a male model didn't show up, so Rick Rodrigues, an art instructor, stood for a model. You could see that he wasn't used to modeling – Rick couldn't stay still for a minute.

I have a couple of favorites from the show.
I loved a short film (I think the title was “Anonymous”) by Melusina Gomez in collaboration with Tokotzli and Aztlan Media Kollective. It was a combination of a film, music, and performance with old-fashioned nostalgic imaginary and beautiful poetry with a hint of desperation of a broken heart.

The art exhibit had a bright colorful and optimistic feel for the most part. One work stood out and had none of that cheerfulness - “Obsession” by Melissa Love.
I haven't had the chance to talk to the artist, but I assumed that the young and pretty woman taking her picture next to this photo was her.

It's difficult to see the whole image, but there's also a shadow of a leaving man on a door on the right side. It's simple, concrete and wonderfully dark.
You can find a much better quality image and other photographs by Melissa Love on her website:

http://melissalovephotography.com/

In her statement for the museum Melissa Love wrote:

“.... Death fascinates us as it is one of life's many mysteries. One will never get to know what it is like, until he or she is faced with it. Until then, it seems all that we can do is observe.”

Open Studio event at the end of earth in San Francisco

Industrial landscape at Hunters Point Shipyard

Beth Bloom greets a guest

Sculptures by Beth Bloom

Linda Hope in her art studio

Assemblage boxes by Linda Hope

by Ekaterina Levina


I went to Spring Open Studios at Hunters Point Shipyard for the first time yesterday.
This place at the end of earth has been an art community for about 20 years.
I know a couple of artists who work there.

Beth Bloom is a future interior designer. She does everything – painting, printmaking, sculpture, jewelery. I met Beth when she was a president of the Art Club at CCSF last year. I think she's been the most energetic president so far. She makes art, studies for her interior design degree, runs her own design business and trains for marathons. I don't know when she sleeps.

At open studios Beth presented her jewelry - very modern pieces combining silver and wood and her sculpture. For some reason, my attention is always drawn to things that have a heart shape. It doesn't matter, if it's a painting or a sculpture, if it's a heart – I love it.

Check out Beth Bloom's web site:

http://bethbloomdesigns.com/

In a studio next door I met my ex-instructor Linda Hope. I took Linda's class a few times. I love how she teaches Figure Drawing. Her approach to explaining a process of drawing a human figure could be applied to drawing anything. Her class is about how to open eyes and hearts to creating something on paper. Drawing is a process that involves an eye, a hand and a mind. Linda teaches how to engage everything.

This summer Linda Hope teaches Figure Drawing “Life Beyond Fundamentals” at Fort Mason (Continuing Education CCSF) on Saturdays, June 13 – July 25.

I recommend this class to everybody who's serious about drawing.

Hunters Point Shipyard is a very busy and vibrant art community.
All art studios were taken, all were open, all available space had art works in it. Clearly, the artists have been working there – they had a lot to show.

Many people came looking for something – paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, ceramics, jewelery... As one artist said: “people come just looking on Saturday, then some of them come back to buy what they love on Sunday.”
I hope they would.

Such a great art community deserves great patrons who appreciate art.

New ceramics at Market Street Gallery

“Between Absurd and Obscene” by Sherri Cavan

“Locked Mystery’s of Our Ancestors” by Maggie Malloy

“The End of The Mechanical World” by Maria Sosina

by Ekaterina Levina

You won’t find a single vase or a plate at this show of ceramic sculpture.
Instead you’ll see a ceramic ship with words of wisdom written on it, ceramic bones and locks, an abstract shore house and amazingly real looking parts of rusty plumbing system.

The show runs until April 30 (Market Street Gallery, 1554 Market, San Francisco, http://www.marketstreetgallery.com/index.html)

The exhibit was fun and I enjoyed it!
It gives you an idea about the wide range of things that artist find inspiring – from conversations with God, meditation, personal memories to politics and mechanical creatures. Every piece there deserves a story about it.

I loved deeply spiritual sculptures of Maggie Malloy.

Check out her website:
http://www.mesart.com/maggiemalloy

I watched how surprised people were to find things looking like something from under the sink on a gallery wall. They obviously wanted to touch and check out if it was really a clay sculpture.
I saw how Maria Sosina explained the process of creating “The End of The Mechanical World” .

Find more Maria’s art on a website:
http://www.segmentusart.com/

I was lucky to share an art studio with Maria last summer. I watched her working on this installation and how she combined different things to build a new visual world.
I had a few conversations with Maria during our lunch time. Once she mentioned her childhood in Moscow and told a story about beauty and challenges of living in a XIX century building with an ancient plumbing.

The gift of the show – you’ll find and see the beauty of places like the one on this picture.

On the wings of friendship

“Night butterfly”

My friend’s airplane

by Ekaterina Levina

I miss my friend. I terribly miss my friend.
He’s a graphic designer in Moscow. We used to work together, well… long time ago.
Was it 1996 when we met? It looks about right.

He’s insanely busy with his work. The biggest downside being a graphic designer working for a video production company, besides crazy hours and clients who never know what they really want, is that everything must be done “yesterday”.
I’ve seen two types of designers: one is a nervous wreck, who screams at the computer screen, and another is a Zen philosopher who says, “This could be even worse… and it’ll be”.
My friend is a Zen type. He’s wonderful.

I remember when he made this screensaver picture with an airplane with words from a song written in 1943 (he was interested in the WWII history):

"Мы летим, ковыляя во мгле,
Мы ползем на последнем крыле.
Бак пробит, хвост горит и машина летит
На честном слове и на одном крыле...”

Comin' in on a wing and a prayer
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer
Though there's one motor gone
We can still carry on
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer

I loved the picture because it perfectly described my emotional state at that time. I think that I’ve told my friend million times about how much I admire his picture. For me, it’s symbol of my life 10-15 years ago.

Now it’s spring and my friend is in love. It’s about time.
My friend’s had his share of troublesome relationships in the past. I hope he’ll be happy this time. I cross my fingers and wish him luck.
I’m waiting to hear his story (there’s nothing better than a love story)!

I can reach him in my dreams when my imagination flies across the ocean under night sky. I imagine butterfly wings which take me there.

Friendship doesn’t care about time and distance.
The wings of friendship can bring people together anytime and anywhere.

I can’t wait to get his e-mail.

Somebody had to make the first apple!

“The First Apple”

God as architect of the world, a moralized Bible from Paris, ca. 1220-1230.
(from Gardner’s Art through the Ages)

by Ekaterina Levina

A few years ago I wrote a term paper for a Medieval Art History class about an illustration from the Bible “God as architect of the world”.

A medieval artist clearly understood that such complicated thing as creating a new world required some thought, planning and draft drawing.

Artists imagine and create impossible things. They paint gods, angels, dreams, nightmares, moods, and even things that don’t have names.

I imagined how the first apple was made.
First, there was a thought, an idea, then a plan, then a draft (a drawing on the right side of the painting). Now, add some light, some color, some juice and substance – and you have your very own apple, at least on the painting!

I included this painting in my café show last spring.
A local San Franciscan poet Steven Mackin saw it there and wrote a poem:

A History of Apples

Did the First Apple
Stem from a Platonic ideal
Somewhere in the sublime still

Is there a form
The Perfection of Apple
Equation of seed core flesh and skin

From brown leaves black thorns chaos
A Fibonacci derivation
Begins the Second Apple

And how many apples had to fall
From trees in Kazakhstan
Before Apple replaced Fig

As the Fruit of the edenic Tree
Or was it the Grape
Made old Adam Dumb

SPMackin

Steve is a regular feature at the café, and I know that he writes a lot about art.
You can read some of his poems here:

http://poetrymatters.150m.com/index_files/places_files/SacGnds_files/stevem.html

For me it was a wonderful gift to meet Steve and read his poetic response to the painting.