Pride workshops, Film Noir, Urban Sketches
It’s mid-May and you know what that means– it’s practically Pride month already! Of course, it’s always Pride month for me, but things do tend to go into turbo mode during May and June. In particular, I’m excited to be organizing a series of Pride workshops at ARCH Supplies.
The first is Queer Surrealist Zines with Sean Owens. Sean’s approach has proven time and time again that they can get students past their internal barriers to completing a zine and have fun while doing it!
Next up is Rainbow Book Binding with… me! A few years ago, I taught myself to bind my own sketchbooks with the coptic binding method, which allows you to make a book that opens perfectly flat, using any paper you want. Then I realized that there was nothing stopping me from making a book out of a rainbow of papers. It was so fun that I decided to teach a workshop to share that joy.
Finally, there will be Go with the Flow Improv Painting with Gem Mahusay. I met Gem through Art Jam, the annual transgender art making extravaganza that I help produce as part of The Spooky Haus. Gem’s paintings are fun and therapeutic, so I thought their class would make for a great moment of creativity and relaxation.
To tie it all together, there’s a prize for anyone who takes two or three of the classes– an ARCH tote with colorful art supply goodies inside. And it doesn’t stop there, I’m also hosting a free crafting event at the shop on Pink Saturday (June 28), during which anyone will have the opportunity to make a pronoun button and a rainbow twirler to bring to the Pride Parade the next day.
This is all particularly exciting for me, since it’s something I planned from the ground up. Please sign up for a workshop, tell your friends about them, and come out to say hi on Pink Saturday. It would mean a lot to me and encourage me to make the Pride workshops series bigger and better next year!
One last note on workshops– I’ve quietly scheduled my next Cityscapes in Gouache Workshop, so if you want to make sure you have one of the limited spots in that one, you can grab your ticket now. I haven’t posted about it anywhere else yet, so this is your chance to get in before it’s publicly announced.
I’ve been busy with all of this planning, but I have found a few quiet moments to sketch. Two of my sketches this month ended up featuring the Clay Jones Building, the towering 1927 Art Deco Icon. The first was from one of my favorite spots, looking down Clay from Lafayette Park:
The second is from Huntington Park. I went into this sketch thinking that I’d done this view before and that I was repeating myself, but when I looked at the old sketch, it was quite different.
I can see that I have a clearer value structure and better understanding of shape and simplification now.
Coming up next at STUDIO Gallery is San Francisco Noir. This is such a juicy theme, I can’t wait for the show to open! It starts up today, May 15, and the opening reception is this Sunday, May 18. There will be pieces depicting San Francisco at night, as well as artworks that reference film noir. I have a little of both in the exhibition:
On the left here is the Malloch Building, which famously appears in Dark Passage. Center is Last Night at the Uptown, which I painted on location at the legacy bar during the last night it was open. The community came through to toast its final hours. That experience and the painting are both a reminder to go and appreciate all our favorite spots that we still have, to keep them around. On the right is a nocturne I painted recently from Broadway and Kearny, featuring the Sentinel Building. It was a complex scene made even more complex by the traffic and city lights of nighttime, but I’m delighted by the result.
Speaking of San Francisco and Film Noir, my reading recommendation for you this month is something you can’t read quite yet– Midnight at the Cinema Palace by Christopher Tradowsky, coming out on June 10. It’s a beautiful depiction of queer San Francisco in the 90’s, as the silver city. It is an homage to the art of film, especially film noir. The novel layers history, nostalgia, and the seeds of present day San Francisco that were planted in the 90’s. There is a mix of places that are gone and deserve to be remembered, as well as icons and dives alike that we still have. Even though I am too young to have experienced the city at that time, it felt deeply familiar and intense for me to read it. The book questions nostalgia while serving it deliciously.
Ask your local bookstore if you can reserve a copy with them!
Mark your calendars for May 24: CROONERS Bursts into Bloom!
I recommend this show every month because it’s my favorite night of the month, and I want it to be successful so that I can keep enjoying it forever. Check out the website for photos from past shows and more info!
Thanks for reading my newsletter! As a reward, here is a photo of my cat, Ruby:
While you await the next newsletter, you can check out my website to see my portfolio of plein air paintings, still lifes, block prints, figure drawings, tiny model houses, murals, and you can also find information on commissions! Please feel welcome to email me (just respond here!) and ask about any ideas you have that aren’t covered on my commission page, I’m always willing to discuss.
Stay tuned for next month, and let me know what you’d like to hear about in the newsletter in the future.
-Nathaniel J. Bice
he/him