The Changes In Three Weeks

Snapshots of an unfolding narrative...

...still unresolved

some improvement, but no consensus yet ...

and then ...

The final piece.

Obnoxious Hue

I know I said I wouldn't be giving anymore sneak peaks . . . .

I lied.

There's too much color to keep hidden and tucked away. Here is another piece that is just a few more sittings from completion (at least I hope it is). There is always a point in my work process when I question my tendency towards color. I struggle between muting obnoxiously garish tones or letting them flourish in their audacity. I'm at that point with this one.
It will most certainly look different when it's done. That, I know.

Come on by !

Come see my latest work at this fall's open studios at my artist collective "Art Explosion Studios". 744 Alabama Street, San Francisco. I'm on the 3rd floor, studio 341. Opening reception on the 16th Sept @ 7pm-11pm. Drinks and munch with lots of promising banter and good laughs. See you there :)

Sneak Peek

Just to show you what's cooking in the studio....preparing overtime now for my solo show in Manila at Artinformal this November. This may be the only sneak peek item (far from done) that I decide to reveal before the (frighteningly close) date. I know it's two months still, but I'm a slow worker and will be traveling this October, which is my personal deadline.

Offline Mountain

Took some time off from the hectic world and camped up in the mountains of Sierra Nevada (Kings Canyon and Seqouia National Forest). No electricity or running water; nothing but the sounds of the wilderness and the great rivers that run through it. It was time to shut down all manic systems and reboot. I'm now back in the city and looking forward to some hard work in the coming weeks before I jet off again.

Tree Blocks

A little baby shower present for a cousin who is expecting his fist child this year :)

Slowness

In existential mathematics: the degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.

--extract from the novel Slowness by Milan Kundera

Bits And Bobs

Getting my head around the fundamentals for my show in November. Ideas are getting a tad clearer everyday I put myself to work in the studio. It is all beginning to make sense--not completely yet, but enough to string together the bits that work, while searching for the missing bobs.

Doodle

I see a giant eye and a wiry chap with a mustache wearing a crazy hat in the shape of an acorn. you?

Banner Phobia

Take 1

Take 2

Trying to come up with a simple, yet badass banner design for my friend's blogspot who is herself a badass singer and songwriter. Problem is, I haven't had much time to fully concentrate on this mini project so my initial treatments have been "almost there, but not quite..". I would normally do my own freehand lettering, but to kill time I downloaded a cool typeface I found on the internet. I did promise her my full attention at some point, so I'll be sure to post final designs.

T Design

An old drawing of mine screen printed on a T.

Plunged

“Plunged each day into the fog of received ideas, man is led to conceive of all things and to conceive of himself through a dizzy series of quickly hidden stumblings, of false steps rectified as best as possible.”

-- André Breton

Free Print!

In the spirit of experimentation, I will be giving away this gyclee print to the first two people who comment on this post. I'd like to see some action on my comment dashboard to get some sense of my readership. I know I've been getting some hits based on my Facebook like button etc, but it would be nice to get some human interaction out of those who either accidentally land on my page, or those who come visit every once in a while. I want to see some words!

So here's the rule: Free print to the first two who comment. Once you've commented, send your postal address to info@toshaalbor.com Note: This will not apply to people I know in real life (family, friends, acquaintances...sorry guys!).

Sight 2011 gyclee print 9"x12"

Realm of Pure Ideas

"The great archetypes of the mind, pure ideas, find themselves usurped by a mere sense, images. Yet we cannot live our daily lives in a realm of pure ideas, cocooned from sense-experience. The question is not, how can we keep the imagination pure, protected from the onslaughts of reality? The question has to be, can we find a way for the two to co-exist?"

--- extract from the novel Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee

Mask

Sketchbook drawing. Thinking about the power of masks in presentations of self, the other, or the what.

Mis Dibujos Ecuatorianos Part 3

The Seasons 2011 gouache, water color, indian ink

Undergrowth 2011 gouache, water color, indian ink

I almost completely left out these two drawings from a series I worked on while traveling around Ecuador last month. You can find the rest of them in older blog posts here and here. Also, you can find them on my website with other similar drawings from this year.

I've been working on a drawing technique that caters more towards instinctive mark-making rather than a conscious effort to unfold a specific visual narrative. The narrative here is really all about time and place. Was I indoors or outdoors, was it light or dark outside, and what mood was I in? I don't start with an idea, but I certainly end up with a few that branch out into the next drawings like some sort of domino effect (which is why I always end up with two or three completed drawings at about the same time). It's a great practice as it pushes me outside a comfort zone and loosens whatever inhibitions I had to begin with. In the end, I get drawings that are far more telling, and richer in narrative than what one would expect. Little tiny pieces of a gigantic puzzle.

Bridging Opposition

These two drawings are still in progress and are, at this moment, at an interesting juncture. I worked on them side by side yesterday (taped up against a wall with about 5 inches between them) and simultaneously--while I waited for paint to dry on the right, I focused on my graphite composition on the left. I really enjoy working this way; it may seem conflicting at first, but actually, it's more liberating than you'd think. I say this because if you take a closer look, there are some similarities in the two compositions. I was never disconnected from one as I worked on the other. In fact, I was able to work into each composition aspects of the other, but using different techniques and tools. So what I may end up with here are two different by-products of the same temporal experience.

A Discovery In Chicago

Taken with my phone's camera at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery

While in Chicago last week, I came across my new painterly obsession of the week: Lari Pittman. I went to see the Joseph Cornell exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), and found one of his paintings in the Cut & Paste section of the show. Something about how he develops his layers of color and form spoke to me. The decorative with the mundane; the chaos and the control; deliberate lines shadowed by whimsical strokes. It isn't only a beautiful and visually striking piece, it also comes across in a more visceral way. So I took a picture of it and made a mental note to look into the artist later.

The very next day, my mum decided to take me out on a gallery crawl around the city. She took me to Rhona Hoffman Gallery, and there, to my delight, I found yet another Pittman painting. It became very clear to me then that Pittman was a force to be reckoned with.

4th Of July Weekend

My phone was busy snapping away at some of the awesome locations I found myself in over the festive weekend. I never take this city for granted. It would be very hard to.