Tag Archives: san francisco

See Gwendolyn at Seesaw!

Here, Booky Booky! Promoting a book is a full-time venture, so my H tips its hat to Bill and Ian, creators of Gwendolyn.

This Saturday Bill will be hosting a Gwendolyn gallery opening at Seesaw, a charming and humble kids’ castle in Hayes Valley.

Bill’s prepared a bevy of original artwork to celebrate this spirited little redhead, including oils and mixed media. Come by Saturday after 5 for opening night. On the menu: a live DJ, refreshments, and precocious children’s lit!

If you can’t make it December 1st, the show runs through January 31st. Set in a child’s world of learning, it’s a uniquely kid-friendly exhibition.

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Home dressing.

Gabriela Meneghetti

If it is true, what Bill Cunningham says, that “Today women are dressing the insides of their heads as well as the outside,” then the only revision I suggest is for people in general – not just women – to also dress their environments. If we can’t afford Painted Ladies of our own or rolling acres of gardens and topiary mazes, might as well channel our well-intentioned pins toward perfecting our surrounding interiors.

Last night, the Academy of Art’s School of Interior Architecture & Design graduated another class of creative minds. These are professionals who, I hope, will be reshaping how we feel when we walk into everyday spaces like cafes and special occasion spaces like theaters. As much as I loved seeing the expansive ideas of the larger scale designers, what appealed to me the most was some of the graduates’ applied textiles and furniture design work:

Haiden Bench by Kimchungah

The kind of versatility that I want every stationary thing in my life to have.

Gabriela Meneghetti's "Dig In"

I could see an entire resort decked in Gabriela Meneghetti’s “Dig In”.

From Colin Daly's Maritime Theme From Colin Daly's Maritime Theme

Wouldn’t you love the regularly surrounding panels around you to be draped in those patterns? More pics here. Continue reading →

Stacks in the Fog in Fog City.

Kate Burgess' Fish

It must be the gorgeous weather. Plus the cool things I see my friends doing. I’ve been feeling quite inspired lately. There’s so much I want to show off, but in more significant ways than just pinning a pic or Tumbling a quote. In the past couple of weeks I’ve really been wanting to create something, something visual and possibly tangible. I think I’m close to figuring out what that thing might be, but in the meantime, I’m going to continue navigating the world in sponge mode by taking in interesting things.

One such persons doing inspiring things is Kate Burgess, mother of real-life Podling Penelopants. Tomorrow she’s showing her artwork at Seesaw in Hayes Valley. My favorite pieces from Kate are her pencils. They’re the work of someone with intricate and big ideas in her head, and this is the one in my home office:

Kate’s blend of mechanical and fantasy is so appealing. It’s not industrial the way you’d think it could be. A fan of good fiction, I think Kate is really good at injecting realistic elements into mythical worlds. The level of detail is something to marvel at. I barely know how to avoid smudges on a graphite-covered piece of paper, and here comes Kate, covering sheets in right angles and tentacles.

Art Reception: “Stacks in the Fog” by Kate Burgess
Friday May 11, 2012
6:00-9:00 p.m.

Seesaw
600A Octavia Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Check out her show while it’s in the city. If you are lucky, you may also catch a glimpse of Penelopants.

P.S. I just love how this blog post looks right now. The fish featured image, the tonal pencil sketches, black and white and teal highlight text. Love it!

The graduates of style.

The Academy of Art University’s School of Fashion turned out some amazing talent this year. Thursday’s graduation fashion show was my first time visiting an AAU Fashion event, and I was genuinely, thoroughly impressed. These students were educated in a city known for innovation but not at all celebrated for its influence in style. Seemingly they’re at a disadvantage. Yet one of San Francisco’s greatest strengths – its international blend of inhabitants – made its own huge presence in the show, permeating through each collection with levels of global refinement and inspiration that could only be achieved by people who really know how to travel and process ideas from multiple places. Judging by the major fashion houses these students are headed to for internships and work, San Francisco won’t be overlooked for fashion much longer.

So many students who showed their work deserve accolades, but my personal favorites were the collections from:

Zhangchi Wang – Amazing geometric wools. The shapes seemed embossed while still maintaining rigidity and volume. Unsurprisingly, Wang earned a scholarship that night. Oh, and an internship at Alexander McQueen. NBD.

Hely Nguyen – Looove his structured stuff! Tailored but light. There was a brushed metallic sheen to his fabrics, but it wasn’t industrial, just extremely chic.

Ethan Yang – More amazing. Totally made me think of Alexander Wang. Also, he was born in Taiwan but grew up in Athens, Greece, which sounds like a really interesting upbringing.

Julie Seltzer – I cannot get over the textiles she created for partner Jacqueline Rabôt’s collection. Ryan from Astonish got a hold of the sketches. Check these out, but imagine them in person:

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Stories and cycles and Spokespeople.

This is your stage.

You can tell by the way I use my walk go off on a tangent that I love a good story. I’ve lost a bit of my touch in storytelling (outta practice), but that makes hearing a good real-life fable all that much more fun for me. Fans of The Moth (Oh, look! Ben won New York’s GrandSLAM!), take note of what I’m ’bout to tell you.

My friend Sara Barz has launched Spokespeople, a cyclist-loving organization that loves its stories, with two of her friends Rebecca Stievater and Emma Bailey. Once a month since this past winter, animated speakers and active listeners have been gathering for largely extemporaneous rounds on loose themes like Red, Touching, and this weekend’s In Transit.

Spokesppl 2

Sara interprets Red.

As the weather gets better (which may be any minute, since Global Warming has the Bay Area believing that seasons come in three-day packages and swapping climates every half a week), Spokespeople will be organizing unified charity cycling trips. Did I mention these three founders have each ridden their bicycles across the country? (Methinks my Mixie would not make the journey even part-way.)

The story sessions are fun! They are typically hilarious, sometimes gory, but live and engaging. At Red earlier this year, we heard about one of Sara’s first dates (ended in blood), one woman’s insane ex-girlfriend (involved blood), and Bill’s redheaded childhood friend (Ian. Contains blood.). Interpretations of the nightly topic may be loose or literal, but it seems that no matter who is at the mic, they are entertaining. It’s a completely comfortable setting, too, hearing a fellow local talk about a possibly universal or possibly niche topic.

Tomorrow’s theme is In Transit, for which I have about twenty-five years of random bits and pieces to string together why I love/hate BART. Or someone could talk about transitions. Or someone could talk about a different version of Point A to Point B.

If you’re interested in checking out Spokespeople, I highly recommend heading out to the Mission tomorrow night. Donations are welcome as the group gets going, and stories even welcome-er!

Spokespeople #4: In Transit
Saturday – April 28, 2012
7:00-9:30 p.m.
Email Sara at skbarz (at) gmail.com for the address.

Yes, there is food and drink. Also feel free to bring your own!