Zine workshop in New York, bookmarks, gallery shows, project sneak peek!
This month I’m looking forward to a trip to New York City, putting art up in galleries around the Bay Area, and revealing an unusual new painting!
May already??
I can hardly comprehend that we are halfway through May already, but here we go. This month I’ll show you the new merch I have available, the galleries I’ve been running around delivering paintings to, announce upcoming classes, reveal a new, unusual, large painting, and recommend my favorite latest reads, videos, and upcoming shows!
First off, in my constant quest to find new and more affordable ways to get my art out there, I have been making bookmarks! I’m having fun playing with pulling new compositions out of my paintings that work for bookmarks, especially when I can have something that peeks up over the top of a book when it is closed. My favorite one is of course Sutro Tower, but I’m excited about all of them. I shot a video of the process of making these bookmarks, which you can watch here.
The Sutro Tower bookmarks are available now on the Spooky Haus website, but the full collection is available at the booth (check the website for where you can find us!) and at Queer Arts Featured!
I also returned to my new favorite small print shop, A Good Sign, for a new run of prints, this time with five new designs! There are just a few of the last set still available through Spooky Haus and Queer AF, and this set will soon be up at both shops as well, in person only. There are only ten of each!
The next show at STUDIO Gallery, City Streets, is my favorite one of the year, since it’s all about the cities of the Bay Area! I’m excited to be showing a slightly larger painting than usual, Transamerica Trees. I made this painting during last year’s Frank Bette paint out on the off-island day (the rest of the paint out takes place in Alameda). It was absolutely freezing and I shivered my way through almost 5 hours of painting.
Speaking of the Frank Bette event, I am delighted to announce that I have been accepted to participate again this year! Spending an entire week focused on just plein air painting was so good for me and my practice, not to mention exploring Alameda and making friends with other painters like Karen Feine! Mila Kirillova will also be joining us for her first time this year, so I get to have my painting buddy there with me. One of my favorite paintings from last year is still available: Portal.
This was one of three paintings that I made on the very last day of the event, and I really pushed myself on it since I often avoid painting cars!
This month for the first time I have a painting up at The Drawing Room on Clement for their exhibition Food Chain. For this one I brought out a painting I did a few years ago of the beautiful oven in my house. This oven has quite a history. It was gifted to my roommate, Callie, by the Haas-Lillienthal family over 30 years ago when she bought the beautiful Victorian home that we live in. You may recognize the name from the famous home that serves as the headquarters for the SF Heritage Foundation. The oven is from the penthouse that the family moved to nearby after they donated the house, and eventually they moved out of there as well and needed to donate/give away much of the contents of the home. This painting was perfect for Food Chain, because the Haas brothers made their place in early San Francisco as grocers.
I am stretching my reach farther than usual for the upcoming exhibition at Arts Benicia: I. We. They. Celebrations of Gender. Of course I had to submit some Objects of Queerness paintings for that theme! Three of the series will be up in that show, including Objects of Queerness: Myself, which was the very first one.
A few people have asked me when the next Cityscapes in Gouache class will be, so I reached out to ARCH Art Supplies and got it on the books! We are scheduled for August 10, and if you like to plan ahead (or want to make sure you get in before it sells out!) you can already get your ticket!
In very exciting news, I am going to New York City next month! It’s my first time visiting, and however much I would love to paint, I am just going to bring my sketchbook. Make sure you are subscribed to this newsletter to see my sketches from the trip next time!
While we are there, Sean Owens and I will be hosting a collage zine workshop at Yesterday’s News in Brooklyn!
If you will also be in New York on June 13, join us for an evening of creativity in a beautiful antique shop. And if you won’t be in NYC at that time, let your friends who are know about it!
Inspired by my outdoor mural work with Neil G. Ballard, I created a panel covered in found objects and did a painting of Sutro Tower over it. There’s always something in the way when we are doing murals and we became fascinated with the way that we wrap an image around obstacles, so I created an entire panel of obstacles and challenged myself to paint over it. I’m excited about this direction because the painting has so much tangibility to it, and it straddles the dividing line between painting and sculpture.
It’s time for the second edition of my new recommendations section! For those of you in the Bay Area, I have to recommend Crooners. We will have the show with different guest vocalists every month on the fourth Sunday of the month, and I just have to share this photo of me in the role of Door Guy at last month’s show taken by Kayleigh Shawn:
Last month’s show was so special and magical, with such talented queer voices in a gorgeous place. If you would like to see me all dressed up, but more importantly hear the beautiful voices of some of San Francisco’s most talented queer performers, join us at Stookey’s Club Moderne this month on the 26th! There are only 25 seats available at each show, so get your tickets early!
I also just finished reading a graphic novel which I enjoyed: Forest Hills Bootleg Society. The illustrations by Dave Baker and Nicole Goux are just stunning!
My last recommendation this month is for Rajiv Surendra’s YouTube channel. I discovered it while researching paper marbling (stay tuned to find out why next month!), and found the whole channel to be full of delightful things! He walks you through everything from home cooking to antiquing to mindfulness practices, all with the best imaginable attitude.
Thank you for joining me for another month! 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 scale model houses, murals, and you can also find information on commissions! Please feel welcome to email me 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 if there’s something you’d like to hear about in the newsletter in the future.
Lastly, as always, here's Ruby!
Thank you!
-Nathaniel J. Bice
he/him