It seems like life has been put on hold since COVID started, and yet the wheel still turns. As a society, people moved on, went back to work, and the smog crept back onto the horizon across the San Francisco Bay. I migrated from the city to the suburbs as my partner’s job allowed for working from home, and I landed a new job teaching in-person at a high school in Fremont.
While I relished the time that I was able to create in my studio during my ‘forced residency’, at my new school I am able to create alongside the students. I often produce watercolors at school and the examples I make for assignments often serve a purpose towards my portfolio. I can’t think of a more symbiotic career to be able to be both an artist, and earn a living.
I’ve also been taking graduate arts classes in Abstraction and in Watercolor. A friend texted me and said, “I’m not really good at art, but I sense a deepening.” I think she is right, something in my work is shifting. Another person told me to stop using the word ‘rendering’ to describe my work, because painting is really about how we interpret reality and doesn’t always need to be about depicting it. I am finding ways to push what I need to say visually without simply translating exactly what I see. Expression is taking the spotlight.
Right now I am working on a series where my ability with landscapes intersects with geometric abstraction. I am getting a reaction from people that I haven’t gotten when people see my usual landscapes. I am stepping into a new phase as a painter, and it’s very exciting.