art business review and haight st art walk

Art business made it out to my show last month may 6th at cafe royale, please see the review here: www.artbusiness.com/1open/firstthu0510b.html. It also has alot of fun reviews about the other openings that night, it was a great one. I missed Greg Ito at Kokoro studio, but saw it on art buis, and wow it was an amazing show!
Friday night please come and see Alex Helibron and Peter Hurley's show I curated at Pure Beauty Salon on Haight st, 6-8pm!!! LOTS of new work/ collaborations. We are at 1560 haight st, haight at clayton. Wine and snacks. I do not have internet service at home right now, So this is a short and sweet blog today, but please come out friday!!!
-Leanne C. Miller

Garden/ mural opening and last stages of painting at Gough and Eddy

Here are the final pics of the mural being painted on the last day, and more pics of a fundraiser/ opening for the garden and mural. I gave a little talk, ate some amazing food, and listened to an amazing musical artist, Lia Rose play some awesome songs, which you can check out at http://kck./bgPVUa. Then Novella Carpenter, one of the successful urban farmers in Oakland, who recently wrote a book, gave an awesome speech. She has even grown and cooked food for the Black Panthers, or whats left of a commemorative activist group in their name. Please look her up, an amazing and funny as hell woman. The box above is a beehive, yes they keep bees, super cool!!! There is o much life in what used to be a dirty vacant lot full of trash, now it's a well organized dirt filled garden!!
I was also asked to work on another part of the garden and re-do some murals on the north side, which I agreed to. Why not?! and I can do whatever I want to the walls, animals will be there for sure, probably native SF animals n stuff. Thats about it. Thank you for your attention and interest! If you have not, please check out my show at Cafe Royale 800 post st. before the end of the month!!!


Branden and his friend chris k helped me on the last day, as well as Ray ortiz from the San Pancho Art collective!! sweet deal!!!

Here are TONS of photos from my opening Thursday at Cafe Royale. I had a great turn out, people seemed to like the work and I sold a small piece. But that's not the point really, I painted a bunch of new things, I wanted people to see them. If YOU want to see them, go to post and leavenworth on the corner, up thru May 2010. The ones taken during the day are of last sunday when Marko helped me hang the show, couldn't have done it without him!
If you go see the work, in a nutshell, the work is about family, cummunication, and miscommunication, I used animals instead of people for a reference to human behavior relating to evolution and putting humans on the same plane as animals, (which we are animals but people don't see themselves that way). Alan Bamberger from art buisness.com came by too, he took some pics, If you want to see them, go to Artbuisness.com and look for the openings link.
-Leanne C. Miller da Fanciemammal

Last nights Sketch tuesday and Cafe Royale flier for may 6th

Here is the flier for my art show at Cafe Royale May 6th. The pressure is on, I had only about 1 mo. to finish all new paintings. For those of you saying they have seen this painting, yes, this was finished in Oct 2009, but everything else is BRAND NEW!! I am nervous tho, I am confident in my paintings, but getting them finished in time in a way that satisfies me is what worries me, but It'll be workin away everyday till I hang them on the 2nd.
On to fun last night at 111Minna sketch Tuesdays! I met Jenny Bird, (http://www.jennybirdart.com/) an amazing female artist who was recently published in High Fructose periodical art book. She is super nice, and very talented. I also met many other great people, sold a piece or two, but Dan Stromberg (chilibeanpastebucket.blogspot.com) did even better! He sold everything he made, except he gave one to Last Gasp Creator and art critic Ron Turner. www.lastgasp.com. Here are some photos.

Re-cap of art shows this weekend!!! Helen Bayly, akira beard, katie gray, and Micke Tong! The Evergold!

Starting Thursday, there is a whirl wind of art shows, but it's not just first Thursday! Lets start, first things first, Helen Bayly , "OH MOTHER", all new paintings at Cafe Royale Thursday April 1st. I am excited because this is my friend that helped me make " Find yourself in natural history", the mural I did on 6th and market for the San Francisco Arts Commission last fall. Her new work is amazing, well painted and has an interesting concept. Cafe Royal is located at 800 post st. at Leavenworth in the TL. Also on Thursday, The Evergold will have " American Cinema and Viva Novelitas".
Friday is the Haight st Art walk, though Pure Beauty is really the only long lasting main stay of the first fridays event. Any how, Katie Gray, a truly bay area artist, went to UC Santa Cruz, CCA and lives in Oakland. She does tattoo's in oakland, and makes her mixed media paintings there also. Her newest work is painting and drawing combined, on paper, and there are a few paintings on panel as well. She has morphed human and animal together with stark backgrounds. Come and see her new work, 6-8 pm, 1560 Haight st, Haight at Clayton, Friday April 2nd!
Saturday there are two shows going on, It will be hard to decide which to go to. White walls is having a group show, " New Territory". My friend {and Helen Bayly's Beau} Akira Beard will be in this show, but the other exciting part is that I helped Helen paint a mural/ backdrop on a wall for aki's paintings there! Aki's work is amazing, and has a high entertainment value, pop culture turned on it'd head, add a little portraiture with a splash of philosophy and you have Aki's newest works. Only Akira could put Snoop Dog and Walt Whitman in the same room and make it make sense. White walls gallery is at835 larkin st betewwn geary and o'farrell.
Also on saturday in the TL, Micke Tong is at the public barber salon, in "Ground Control". micke is an old friend o' mine from back in the day when Ar+space gallery was rockin the SOMA hard. His new work is about faith, philosophy, and shedding light on such things as MECCA. It's very interesting, and they are 3 dimensional paintings, sculptures, very different and cool, what a brain on that guy huh? see his interview at his studio at www.the sardonian.wordpress.com, or micketong.com.
O.k, guys, good stuff, I'll see youat all of these events this weekend!!
-Leanne C. Miller
fanciemammal

Final stages!!! urban share 2010

Well, it's been a long time comin, but the mural is nearing completion. I haven't worked on it in weeks due to working at my regular day jobs 7 days a week for months now. As you can see it is no longer a depressing vacant lot, but the beginnings of a lovely garden!!! What a fantastic site and an honor to have worked on it. Urban share.org is amazing and wonderfully laid back, which is great due to my taking so long to finish it. Thursday I got my friend Vanessa to varnish it while I painted accents on the pilars of vines growing on sticks, better than metal colums I suppose. The curator Tamara Lowenstein has asked me repeatedly what I was going to do with them, I just said," We'll get there when we get there", and were there now! I wasn't sure if anything was gonna be incorporated, but I just couldn't leave them blank. Dan and Vanessa Varela from San Pancho Art Collective helped me all day, then out for a few margeritas after! Nice day!












My muscle man pose is on top of a pile of manure, like fertilizer, nothing was gonna get in my way of these finishing touches! Although I am not quite done, maybe one more coat of varnish and some more vines painted between the panels, but then it will be done. On to the next I hope! The SFAC Street Smarts program is starting off a little slow, haven't been paired up with a property owner yet. But thats o.k., They said it could be up to a year! I should book something in between I suppose If I wanna keep on the mural tip, which I do. Especially now that it's spring and summer, gloriouse summer!
Next week is going to be crazy busy!
Monday I am helping my friend Aki
at the White walls gallery for an opening
that will be on april 2nd. Aki, (also known as Akira Beard), is having myself and his girlfriend, Helen Bayly paint a mural
as a back drop for his work. I am excited as Whitewalls is super awesome, Aki is super awesome and I get to work with Helen again on something large scale!! She helped me do the mural on 6th and market, " Find Yourself in Natural History". Also April 1st Helen is having an opening at Cafe Royal 7-10pm in the tenderloin, at 800 post st. Her paintings are amazing! and I mean amazing!! Also next week is The haight st. Art walk, Pure Beauty will be featuring Katie Gray 6-8pm!! Yeah!! Thats friday the 2nd. I will be at PB till 8 and then on down to white walls 8 till obliteration station!! woohoo!!!
-Leanne C. Miller

Haight St. Art Walk at Pure Beauty!!!! Katie Gray

Katie Gray is a painter, please see her web site, www.katiegray.info, and also a tattoo artist in the San Francisco Bay area. She is fantastic and I would love for everyone to come out and support her next month for the Haight Street Art walk! I haven't curated at Pure Beauty since Nov 09. This will be the first one in months. I am excited and look forward to seeing you all, light refreshments and wine will be served. Here is the Stats,
Pure Beauty Salon on Haight st, at haight and Clayton
1560 Haight st
up stairs in the salon.
Friday April 2nd
5-8pm
Artist: Katie Gray, curated by Leanne C. Miller