New Studio

On Monday, I received a notice that I had to vacate my studio.  Apparently the new owner changed his mind and wants to use all the space himself rather than lease out afew spaces.  I was told earlier in the year to look for a year long lease, but it never showed up.  I knew I was on borrowed time.  

 

Fortunately, I had been keeping  close tabs on Craigs list over the last 6 months.  Very quickly, I found a beautiful space in SOMA, near the Ballpark and near the waterfront.  It’s a bit smaller, but it has wonderful light, wifi, kitchen.  Plus, I think there will be much greater stability, as the owners do not appear to want to change the usage of the building, and in fact, one of them even exhibits in Open Studios.  This helped tip the decision to take this particular studio. The other option was a bigger studio at 7th and Market.   Not a bad space, but this new one better fits my needs and has wonderful ambiance.

 

As the new  space is a little smaller, so I rented out a small self storage space.  

 

I’m hectically trying to finish the Diomedes painting (final details), and then over the next few days will begin packing and moving.  I hired a moving company to come on Friday to take the big things over.  

 

The sad thing is that Belcher Studios was the last artistic outpost in the Castro.  The neighborhood has lost its last bit of culture, and is now wholly a restaurant and party neighborhood.  As a resident of the neighborhood, I find this very sad indeed.

 

But I’m glad to be moving on to a new adventure.  The new space isn’t quite as convenient (I’ll be taking Muni six days a week now) but I can’t wait to start working there.  

Leather and Latex

With the help and courtesy of Mr. S. Leather, I have been able to set up the skeleton model with actual leather and latex clothing.  This will help greatly when I execute the paintings - the reference photo will allow me to accurately render the leather gear.

For the first round, I borrowed a leather harness, and military cap.  In some poses, it didn’t look quite right on the skeleton, and distracted from the composition.  But in others, the leather works quite nicely with the concept and composition I have in mind.  

Today, I went and borrowed dominaitrix type leather gear.  Linda at Mr. S. was very helpful, and assisted me by suggesting coordinating pieces.  

As usual, dressing up a female BDSM skeleton was way harder than dressing up a male BDSM skeleton.  The latex appears to be way more delicate than leather, so I wrapped the joints on the skeleton to ensure that the screws and other hardware didn’t accidentally snag the latex when I put on the apparel.  

I was up and down on the ladder a zillion times today, and my legs knees and hip are killing me.  Must be my age.

The boots and gloves proved to be too difficult to put on the skeleton - rather than risk damaging the gloves, I’m going to just put them on my own arm and photograph my arm in the position I’ve set up in the study sketch, so that I can capture the folds and lighting.  Same with the boots. 

Over the weekend, I got four of the drawings transferred to panel and did the first underpainting of acrylic.  And on two of the paintings, I got the first oil layer into the background.

More Drawings

The drawings are coming along.  I think I’ll have the first four transferred to panel to begin painting sometime this week.