Sketchbook: San Francisco

 

 Ocean Beach, San Francisco

pen and ink sketch

by Rosa Phoenix

Ah! Nothing like sketching on the beach, on a rare warm and sunny day in San Francisco!

It's important to refresh, renew, and see new sights. Travel is important for artists, to be stimulated by new scenery and experiences. 

This summer, I was thrilled to take part in Urban Sketchers' 2nd Annual West Coast Sketch Crawl in Portland, Oregon.

I'll be posting more sketches from my trip, so stay tuned.

I've been practicing drawing, and I can see that I have made a lot of improvement. Sketching has helped me a lot. I look forward to sharing what I've learned with my art students.

Kids Orchestra Japan

 

Young musician of Kids Orchestra Japan
in Oakland, California U.S.A.

My friend, Junko Suzuki Parsons, founder of the band Cyclub, created Kids Orchestra Japan, a project that involves kids in Fukushima, Japan and Oakland, California USA.  

The children will work collaboratively to play music together, creating a cross-cultural exchange of friendship, art, music and education.

Junko and her band Cyclub are currently working with kids in a public school in Oakland, California to learn music that they will eventually play together with young musicians from Fukushima, Japan.


Below, a few of the young musicians in Kids Orchestra in Oakland, California.
 

Junko is from Japan and has been an anti-nuclear activist for many years.  

When the March 11, 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster struck Japan, she was heartbroken for her country. 

Me (left) and Junko Suzuki Parsons (right) 

Junko's activism took on a deeper sense of urgency, as she watched events unfold, first from a distance in San Francisco, then she traveled to the disaster area in Japan and toured with her band Cyclub.

Junko has organized many benefit events to help the Fukushima victims. She now feels that it is incredibly important to reach the children of the disaster area, as they will be the ones most affected.

The band, Cyclub, her communities in Japan and the San Francisco Bay Area, and many concerned people in Japan and the U.S.A. support her mission. 

"Shining in Da Sun" album by Cyclub

CD cover illustration by Rosa Phoenix

The next generation inherits what we leave behind. 

Let's show them that a better way is possible, by educating kids about health and the effects of contaminants in the environment, and by empowering them to build bridges with art, music and cross-cultural collaboration and dialogue.

Children need hope to survive and thrive.

Learn more about Kids Orchestra Japan.

Sketchbook: San Francisco

crayon and color pencil drawing

The streetlight looks like asparagus. 

It makes me think of Paris. 

In reality, I'm in downtown San Francisco.

Sketchbook: San Francisco

Sketchbook: San Francisco

 

felt tip pen drawing

by Rosa Phoenix

A rainbow over the ice cream shop in Hayes Valley, San Francisco.

Sketchbook: San Francisco

 

crayon sketch

by Rosa Phoenix

I broke out the Crayola crayons on a recent visit to San Francisco!

San Francisco Street Art

 I went to San Francisco for a visit. What a lovely escape from the Arizona desert heat!

The cool fog and ocean air refreshed my body and spirit!

If you are an art lover, San Francisco has plenty to offer. The entire city is a canvas for multitudes of artists who must make a mark!

San Francisco is famous for murals.

 

Colorful works of art abound!

 Faces and fantastic creatures watch you from the walls.

Dreams or nightmares?

 

Mosaic is very popular.

 Haight Ashbury Hippie Counter-Culture.

 Remembering the Wild West era of the Gold Rush.

Where Life and Art blend together.

 I love the textures of the brick wall beneath the paint.

I shall save some more for another post.

Forest Path in My Sketchbook

Sketchbook: San Francisco

Interview with Mark Estes, Photographer "Witnessing Suffering and Beauty"

Mark Estes

all photos courtesy of Mark Estes,

used with permission

There's someone I'd like you to meet. 

This is Mark Estes, a photographer from the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Mark is my friend and someone who is a great inspiration to me, both as an artist, and as an exceptional human being.

The Dalai Lama

photo by Mark Estes

Mark recently announced that he has enrolled in the Chaplaincy Institute for the Arts and Interfaith Ministries, with the intention of becoming an interfaith minister, and providing spiritual support to critically ill and dying patients and their families. He will still continue his photography career. He plans a non-traditional ministry that will integrate counseling, compassion and the creative arts.

Because Mark is such an intelligent and thoughtful person, I thought he would have a lot of good insights to share with artists who are committed to a spiritual and creative path. 

photo by Mark Estes

 "I don't make pictures of people, I make pictures with people.

It's a collaboration."

- Mark Estes

In our interview, Mark talks about The Artist's Way, how artists can help heal the world, working with the Dalai Lama of Tibet, being a hospice volunteer, and his life's mission, "to witness suffering and beauty."

photo by Mark Estes

"Being able to go where the emotion and the collaboration leads you

is as important in portrait photography

as it is in working with people in the hospital,

or in the hospice, or on the street." 

- Mark Estes

Read the interview, and view more of Mark's work, on Artists Up Rising. 

Mark Estes Interview

Cyclub CD Artwork

World Mother Japan

by Rosa Phoenix

Cyclub just released their new CD, Shining in Da Sun, and my artwork is on the cover!

This is what the cover looks like:

 

You can listen to samples, and buy music here:  CYCLUB "SHINING IN DA SUN"

I really hope you will give them a listen, and if you are ever in the San Francisco Bay Area, their live shows are an incredible experience!

I met Cyclub's founder, Junko Suzuki Parsons, in San Francisco in 2009. She really admired my painting "World Mother." I also loved her music, and we became friends.

Junko is an extraordinary person. She is from Japan, and has been an anti-nuclear energy activist for many years.

When we met, she spoke to me with great concern about the dangers of nuclear radiation in Japan. Her mission has been to educate people, through music and art, to choose healthier alternatives.

After last years' earthquake and tsunami, and Fukushima disaster, Junko helped to organize a number of San Francisco Bay Area benefit events to help the victims of the tragedy. She wrote the songs for this CD with Japan in her mind and heart.

When Junko asked me if my painting "World Mother" could be the CD artwork, I was deeply honored.

I created a special version of "World Mother" showing Japan especially for this CD.

More about Cyclub on their official website.

Paxton Gate

Paxton Gate describes its wares as "treasures and oddities inspired by the garden and the natural sciences."

I hesitate to call it a shop. It's more than that. It's an experience.

It's like entering a secret cave, where a wizard lives. 

Here are all the magical stones, herbs, crystals and plants that the wizard uses in his sorcery. 

There are also lots of taxidermy animals, skeletons and fossils. Creepy and fascinating, yet also funny.

The most memorable display was the flying fairy mice, each one outfitted with a fine costume. These enchanting little mice tell many stories. Frozen in mid-flight, it's easy to imagine that they are under the wizard's magic spell. 

Sadly, this display is no longer there, replaced by some punk rock, bride and groom, and priest mice.

If you have a love of the macabre and bizarre, and you are not afraid of the wizard's magic, this is a wonderful place to explore.

Paxton Gate is at 766 Valencia Street in San Francisco.

There's also a Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids at 824 Valencia Street.

Palo Verde in Bloom

 

palo verde tree in springtime

all photos by Rosa Phoenix

Spring has come to the Sonoran Desert. The palo verde is Arizona's state tree.

The palo verde is a native tree of our desert, with a delicate and feathery appearance. It is completely green, with green trunk and branches and tiny leaves.

In springtime, it covers itself with tiny, golden yellow blossoms.

I spent almost my entire childhood in Arizona. I've seen many palo verde trees. Yet I feel that I am seeing them in bloom for the very first time.

 

Why have I never noticed this before?

To see the street lined with many of these delicate desert trees, 

adorned with golden flowers, is a special vision.

I was sad to miss the cherry and plum blossoms of San Francisco this year. 

Imagine my delight to see the palo verde trees of a desert spring.

Sometimes, you have to go away for awhile, and return again, 

to see with new eyes, what you weren't able to see before.

I Follow My Heart

Heart Fire
photo by Abdulhamid Al Fadhly

Happy Rosa Phoenix Day! 

Today is Valentine's Day as well, a time to celebrate love and romance.

Today is also the one year anniversary of launching my business, Rosa Phoenix Art & Design.

It's also time to celebrate a new year (the lunar new year was on Feb 3 -- I launched my business on the lunar new year 2010). 

It's a good time to take note of a change, and the beginning of a new cycle.

I moved back to my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

This was after living for 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and prior to that, New York City.

I left Phoenix and my family at age 18, to see the world and live a life of my own.

I quickly adapted to big city life in New York and San Francisco, met lots of people, learned about other cultures, and made great connections everywhere I traveled.

Everywhere I went, I found love . . . in the form of friends, neighbors, romantic partners, and even kind strangers who helped me.

My heart went through its own changes.

It grew with love, it shrank with fear, it broke with sorrow, it strengthened with courage and resolve, it reached out to others when they needed caring, and it even broke others' hearts, through carelessness or cruelty.

My heart has been transformed by all these experiences and interactions with other people. I feel that now it is a stronger and wiser heart, growing and expanding more all the time.

I follow my heart. It constantly leads me to new places that are full of risk and renewal. My heart leads me on my journey as an artist, a twisting and turning path where nothing is known or secure. Yet this is what makes me happy.

My heart also leads me away from my comfortable and familiar life, and many people I love and care about. This makes me sad because I miss them, but I also have faith that my heart is leading me to the place where I need to be.

I trust my heart to guide me.

Now my heart is leading me back home.

I am returning, 18 years after I left, to live with my family again in Phoenix. It definitely feels like a full cycle has been completed, and a new one is starting.

For some time now, I've been having visions of the Arizona desert, its colors and textures and vast open spaces. Arizona is forever a part of me. It called me back, and I responded to the call.

I'm looking forward to the new adventure, whatever is in store for me.

Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate the heart and the people you love. I always follow my heart, and my heart led me back home. Love is here with me, where it has been waiting all along.


What does "follow your heart" mean to you?

Selma Brown's 1960's Art

Selma Brown

San Francisco Artist

It isn't every day that I get a scoop on a newly discovered historical cache of 1960's original San Francisco art!

Selma Brown arrived in San Francisco's Hippie Haight Ashbury District more than 40 years ago, during the "Summer of Love."

She is a San Francisco treasure who has contributed to many of the city's famous murals. 

I've had the good fortune to befriend this lovely artist.

She has taught me a lot about art and life. She continually inspires me with her creativity and productivity. She is always working and experimenting with new techniques and ideas. And I love to visit her in her cozy, colorful apartment that is filled with her art.

Recently she called me with news that she had found a portfolio of paintings in a closet, that she hadn't seen in about 40 years!

Seeing the work filled her with emotion.

She thought these pieces had a freedom and intensity that truly reflected the turbulent 1960's and the spirit of San Francisco.

Of course, I had to interview Selma and feature these works on my blog, Artists Up Rising. 

Click on the link below to get the full story and see the paintings!

Selma Brown's 1960's Art