Come to our show!

blue period

gold leaf detail
mutiple exposure polaroid
my christian dior scarf
blue shoes
La Châtelaine, Henri de Tuolouse Lautrec
French Ultramarine, Marcia Hafif

The Land of Milk and Honey

As a child I could see the Sutter Buttes from my grandmother's backyard, but over time an orchard grew and now obscures the view. I took this photograph in the Summer 1997 near her house with my Dad's Olympus OM-10. California is the land of milk and honey.

Can you breathe under water?

In Sacramento, California we are punished with excruciating heat. However, there is ample water here and sometimes all you can do is flock to it and enjoy the cold, cold, cold mountain runoff. That is what I did this Monday. I brought a bottle of Sutter's Home White Zinfandel and I placed it in my purse. At some point the cork came out and filled my bag up with half a bottle of cheap ass dessert wine. My wallet, moleskine, pens, phone, and camera were soaked. The bag is leather so the wine didn't drain out and all of my stuff just marinated in it. My camera is six years old, which for a digital camera is almost abnormal. It's outlived all of my other digital cameras, so of course it was fine. Unfortunately my phone is not, even my sim card smells like wine. I've had a cell phone for at least eight years and this is the first time that one has ever perished because of negligence on my part.

summer

Living crazy, that's the only way!

I know everyone is tired of hearing about Michael Jackson, well, I am not! I didn't start my love affair with Mike until a couple of years ago.

I didn't like him growing up, my parents weren't into him, and I was just a little too young to get into the hype. I do remember seeing him on television from time to time. It was Rob who got me into Mike, Rob still has the Thriller vinyl he listened to as a kid. The first album that got me is Off the Wall. It's the perfect culmination of Motown, disco, and everything that the eighties held for Michael, and for music. The production is immaculate, you can't find that anymore. It has real instruments layered together perfectly. Pop music today is made with a workstation!

It kind of breaks my heart to see so many people tire of hearing about him. I feel like people are missing the point. When he died most of the internet slowed to a halt. Millions of people googled him at once, AOL instant messenger crashed for 45 minutes, Wikipedia, Twitter, TMZ, Facebook all experienced problems with crashing. His music took over the top 20 spots on Amazon.com and itunes. The video for Thriler alone has over 40 million hits on youtube. All of his other videos come in around 20 million views.

Enormous pressure is being placed on CD manufacturing plants in various countries as Jackson's work goes back into full scale production to meet the popularity! I saw R5 Records, where Rob works, on the news yesterday. Huge vigils are being held around the world, with people buying his records up all over the world!

The reason this is important to me is because you won't see this again. I strongly doubt that anyone will ever outsell Mike. The music industry has change, so has pop music. The emphasis on albums has been replaced by itunes singles, musicianship replaced with workstations, and vocal skill replaced with auto-tune. Thriller became the best selling record of all time a little over a year after it's release. 7 out of 9 songs became singles! He wanted every song to sound like a single, to be strong enough to stand on it's own.

the annunciation

Come to my art show and see all of the new paintings I have been working on. It's going to be a tribute to all of my favorite queens and queen consorts. Among the lucky; Marie de' Medici, Catherine of Aragon, Elizabeth I and Mary I, and last but not least, Mary Queen of Scots. Also, I have been working on my own illuminated manuscript. Come check it out June 13th from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the Javalounge, due to unforseen circumstances my art will only be up for about a week and a half. Preview photos coming soon!

Klimt and Demitasse

Using the square template of my dear friend Richard St. Ofle I compiled a few images of things that inspired me this week.

1. Pierre Bonnard's Montmartre in the Rain was recently acquired by the Van Gogh Museum. I would very much like to see it as this is the first Bonnard I've seen that I really like. This painting is more atmospheric than his usual jarring indoor scenes.

2. This is embroidery from a garment that belonged to King Gustav III of Sweden.

3. I finished Balthus' memoirs this week. He may have been the very last artist to approach painting as a craft. He mixed paint according to Delacroix's formulas. There is more to be said about him later.

4. This is the Revolving Miniatures Faberge Egg, it's my favorite.

5. This was taken by Arthur Elgort. I have twins on both sides of the family. I used to think it would be really wonderful to have a twin, but now I see that it's just creepy.

6. This is a detail from a painting of King Louis XV, of France. It was painted by Justinat Augustin in 1717.

7. This is beautiful, I found it on a website that just had a list of antiques that are for sale. I couldn't figure out where it came from.

8. Another Balthus. Joan Miró et sa fille Dolorès, 1937-1938.

9. I love Demitasse cups, I am starting a collection. They're so delicate and detailed, each one is a little work of art.

10. A detail from Gustave Klimt's Beethoven Frieze. Recently another Klimt was returned to it's rightful owner. Another painting of his, the infamous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Blauer was auctioned off for 135 million dollars. The story of that painting is very interesting, complete with a surprise ending!

The painting was confiscated by Nazis. Somehow it fell into the hands of Austrain government. Adele's niece and nephew, who lived in the United States were the rightful inheritors of her estate. They waged courtroom battles in Austria and America, eventually they won. They displayed the painting for a short time before selling it to a gallery owner, who promptly returned it on the condition that he could hang it in his gallery whenever he wished. His gallery, Neue Galerie, houses recovered art that was seized during the Holocaust. They refer to this painting as their Mona Lisa, I like it much better than the Mona Lisa!

11. It's summer, the heat is horrible. It's time for escape; the ocean, hiking, aimless drives, swimming, and hopefully staying away from sun burns.

sky cam diptych

April 7, 2009 4:38pm and 7:14pm.



April 23,2009 5:35pm and March 21, 2009 6:44pm.


May 4, 2009 7:14pm and 7:26pm.



April 2, 2009 2:44pm and 3:11pm.


March 23, 2009 6:38pm and April 17, 2009 7:29pm.



May 6, 2009 2:05pm and 4:23pm


May 5, 2009 8:05pm and 8:23pm.



April 4, 2009 7:08pm and April 5, 2009 7:44pm.


April 7, 2009 11:07am and 4:38pm. In the morning the first clouds of a storm begin to move in, by late afternoon you can see rain falling in the distance.


April 4, 2009 10:53pm and May 4, 2009 7:56pm.


May 1, 2009 2:26pm and 6:11pm.


May 5, 2009 11:46am and 11:56am


May 5, 2009 11:58am and 12:58am



May 5, 2009 12:11pm and 12:17pm

I imagine this project will slow down as summer heats up. Even now, every day looks the same. With no rain, clouds, or visible changes in the weather, this becomes a bit boring. Summer is one high pressure ridge after another, a barometer holding steady.

canonize us

This is my first semi-successful landscape painting. I know it may seem that landscapes have little to do with the work I have already done, but in time the ideas will merge. The geographic space we share is what links us all together. The landscape should be seen as a spiritual bond between all people, it should be exalted. Instead we fuck it up. Whatever. Dead bodies lying in grass fields coming soon.

Mothers Day

My grandmother Jeanne is very dear to me. She has influenced my tastes and ideas very much. She is Swedish and has visited my family there, I love to hear stories about the home they have there. She grew up in Santa Cruz, married a man who worked undercover doing secret government business(she was only 17), lived in Germany, and had five children. My mother is the youngest.

She has beautiful ettiquette, likes real mail but knows how to use a computer, and has two great grandchildren. Unfortunately we lost my grandfather suddenly before my little sister was born. I feel very lucky to have memories of him. My grandparents were disaster specialists for the Red Cross and have been all over the world on aid missions. She has been involved in the Red Cross for at least 25 years.

She is Jackie Kennedy to me.

So, on mothers day we always visit her. Here are some shitty iphone pictures of my trip. She showed us all of her china and told us stories about our favorite demitasse cups. Our favorites are from Occupied Japan, from the Wedgewood company, and also the Noritake designs from Japan.

This is part of our family tree, were Viking.


This is a spinning wheel my grandmother brought from our family home in Sweden. As a child it frightened my cousins and I, we saw it as the evil things from Sleeping Beauty.


She has beautiful taste in china. This one is from Occupied Japan. She has many from Japan, England, Finland, Germany, and Sweden.


This is the bottom of a demitasse cup from Japan, this is my favorite.


This is the cup, it's very small and lovely.


This is my grandmother's piano, we love it. My sister and I played it together for a long time.


My grandmother is an avid birdwatcher. This bird feeder has always been there, hummingbirds would come up and drink from it all day long and she would tell us neat facts about them.


She recently found this at her house, the only date inside is written and it says 1916. There was no publishers information, so we called it "emersons zine"


She is a wonderful gardner and her backyard has been a magical place for all her grandkids. Every celebration happens in her gardens. She has a gardenia bush right next to her front door. The smell of gardenias reminds me of saying our hello and goodbyes. I painted this for her.


I also painted this for her. Pears are our mutual favorite fruit.


and this is my sister:

April 11th

I am having an art show at Artifacts on K street in Sacramento, Ca on April 11th, 2009. Please come to it. My Birthday is the 15th, pay your taxes!

I'll shake off your flesh.

I have had a very difficult time sleeping lately. I am not sure why, I don't think it's stress. I feel tired, I get into bed, and I don't go to sleep. I lie awake and think. When I finally fall asleep, I have very vivid, lucid dreams.

I've recently purchased a 1987 BMW 325 a few weeks ago. It's bronze. The interior is black leather and in perfect condition. Even the power windows and locks still work. It has barely 100,000 miles on it, with working speedometer and odometer. Obviously it was someone's baby. I started to hear a very slight, quiet, clank sound while shifting gears. The clutch feels great and I can tell the sound isn't coming from inside the transmission. After two weeks of reading and research I've narrowed it down to a few (non-clutch, non-tranny) possibilities. I am confident that I have the know how to replace my clutch all by myself if necessary!!!

Rob and I are having at art show at the Javalounge in July. It's going to be a musical and visual tribute to Giallo Terrore. Giallo films are characterized by extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and sets, and unusual electronic musical arrangements. I would recommend a Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci movie if you are interested in the genre. These movies aren't particularly violent compared to American slashers, but the murder scenes are drawn out, over the top, and have alot of blood. I've seen a good number of these movies, but Suspiria by Argento is still my favorite. I can watch it with the sound off, it's a beautiful visual journey. If you're more into zombies than check out Fulci's movies. He pretty much invented that archetypal Italian zombie.

I finally gave up on my relationship with my scanner. I have attempted to photograph some of my drawings, though I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with the results. I see depth distortion but much better color.


18"x24" Graphite, ink, and gold leaf on paper.


11"x15" watercolor on paper
This one is on loan from an anonymous patron.