Painting Donuts will never get stale.

Much gratitude to Sam Whiting and the San Francisco Chronicle for the recent story about my donut painting exploits. I've been painting these timeless icons since I opened my art studio long ago in part because All Star Donuts have consistently been making the best classic donuts up the block at 10th avenue and Clement Street. I also paint subjects from the produce markets but the donuts have a unique allure due to their nostalgic whimsy. In April six of my donuts became a permanent display at the new Genentech building in South San Francisco to pay homage to the previous structure on the same foot where donuts were made. I had a big Donut exhibit at my studio in 2008 and perhaps it's time to create another? In the meantime my donut art can be found at CK Contemporary Gallery near Union Square in downtown San Francisco. I also have a few at my studio. Indulge!

...exploring possibilty.

In an effort to make its way out of the sketchbook and on to a bigger format this composition is at first underway as a drawing on panel. At 36"x "48" it seems to hold up. I'll try it as a larger charcoal drawing and then a big painting. Somewhere within the three methods exists the answer I'm looking for in which to proceed with the others. All answers are found in the labor. The unknown. How else will I know unless I just go? Ultimately it's not as much what creation comes from the hard work. It's what the hard work creates in the worker yes?

...easel to easel.

Working on one creation at a time only happens in the moment. Except for quick sketches, figure drawing sessions and the rare plein air painting, I've always bounced from easel to easel to drawing-board to sketchbook and back again. All projects are happening simultaneously. It's a dance that keeps the ideas vibrating. Orbiting. Flowing. Fresh. The possibilty of new perspectives. Seeing the overlooked. The time away from each artwork is vital. But so is maintaining an intimate relationship with each piece. Balance. Individuation. It's the way I've evolved in my studio. It's how I think. And pivotal in my orbiting is the sketchbook. A delicious meander into streams of consciousness. Starting with a cup of tea.

...studio corners.

Looking at the overlooked is not exclusive to the world outside the realm of art galleries and art studios. Sure it's in those sanctuaries of creative display and output that artists share their observations, responses and expressions. Visions pulled from within are put on paper. Vistas seen from without are scrubbed on canvas. Symbols and icons built from anything and everything are suddenly there to share. Actually not so suddenly. These big ideas hang on the the main walls demanding and getting most of the attention. Yet in these colorful spaces there are also hiding places. There are niches, drawers and back rooms. The cloakrooms of temporarily overlooked art. There waiting in hiding spots, for that adventurous and discerning seeker of the unexpected, are treasures. Drawings, sketches, paint studies, doodles on paper cups, and experimental art of all kinds. Virtuous in their ability to catch an eye despite being out of the limelight for the moment. A painting reclines against the wall by a door near the flatfile and beams bright in the dim light. A discovery! A carved figurine sitting on a busy shelf appears from the clutter as the paragon of elegant beauty. Uplifting! A charcoal rendering peaks out of a drawer and speaks with explosive power. Unforgettable! 

For the intrepid art lover or collector there's much to be found in not so obvious places. It's just a matter of looking. 

SF Open Studios!

This weekend San Francisco is rife with a range of cultural activities including the start of SF open studios throughout the northwest parts of the city. I'll be exhibiting new paintings alongside the wonderful artwork of other artists inside my workspace. All the art is connected to an ocean theme. Clearly the sea surrounds us in this town and inspires so come be surrounded by sea-inspired imaginings Saturday and Sunday all day!

Where? 

Jay Mercado Studio

4754 California Street @ 10th avenue

415-751-4231

...bed sheet.

Resting on my west wall easel is a  48" x 60" composition titled Bed Sheet. As a painting process it's continually meditative and as an artwork I want it to be the same.

...SF Chronicle interview!

Sunday in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine I was interviewed about art making and other things. I'm grateful to be in my hometown newspaper!

Many thanks to Sam Whiting and Russell Yip for making it a cool happening.

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Drop-ins-welcome-at-storefront-art-studio-4775795.php

Playing with Panorama

I've been using the application Photosynth to shoot panoramas. The pics serve as a visual connection for me to my workspace. Something to look at when I'm not there. What I enjoy most are the unplanned hallucinatory overlaps and blurs that occur. These tend to give my studio a dose of magic realism. And offer a subtle suggestion for my paintings perhaps in a place where anything is possible.

More Art on Walls.

This awesome painting hangs boldly on the wall at the top of the entry-way stairs. It's one from an ongoing series of sea urchins by local artist Charlie Callahan. The artwork becomes a vibrant abstraction of color up close and tightens up to become a vivid icon from the sea as you view it from a distance. It's such a cool painting as are all his urchin mandalas. A mural of the same subject can be seen on the exterior of the Outerlands restaurant in the Sunset District. Very cool stuff!

Box Painting: Pear Tajitu

I've been painting objects in boxes for a bunch of years. And I've enjoyed the box as a visual constraint within which I've had fun solving a compositional puzzle. The organic shapes I find for my subjects have been the perfect puzzle pieces because of their elegant and figurative lines. I'd use anything as my model as long as it served my need for finding a pleasing solution. It's a game I invented for myself called playing with still-life. This year I've changed the rules. This year I've simplified the proceedings. Or have I?

This year I set out to discover the beautiful possibilities that exist within the regular quadrilateral known as the square. It's not my first foray into being a square painter. Actually I hope that by embracing the square I'll become less of a square painter and ultimately find new freedom within my constraint.  It will still take awhile to transcend the obvious before I begin to make the unknown known. That's why I've committed myself to creating ten 12" X 12" paintings per month. By the end of the year I will have made 120. It's not the only art I'll be making but I find it necessary to square off with the square this year. I fully expect to further my relationship with the unexpected. And who knows what else. And maybe I'll have a better understanding of what Lao Tzu meant by "the great square has no corners."   

Box of Kelp

Mounds of knotted seaweed and kelp appear on Ocean Beach and have always caused me to stop and stare and wonder and muse at the complex entanglements of amber-green cord. A Gordian knot from the Pacific sits at my feet and I'm hypnotized by the possibility of unraveling its mystery.

Grape Harvest (panels two and three details)