11 JUN 2021 · Bougainvillea, by Lucy Eddy Garlands of royal Purple: Proud, regal notes of pageantry Sounding imperial color: A fanfare of trumpets Triumphant, barbaric: Bells and chimes and cymbals Clanging crimson. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/AnAjrb5eDp0

21 MAY 2021 · Our last portrait challenged us to put extra effort into the ears, a part of the face we usually tend to neglect. During the process, we came across a close-up of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which reveals the minimal paint Vermeer employed to depict a fully formed alleged pearl. It has two strokes, one of them barely visible, no hardware, and no hook. The skin beneath is not covered; it can be seen clearly. But if you stand back, a pearl appears. There is a difference between painting illusion and painting effect, and exercising restraint can help us transcend the first to achieve the latter. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/eCM1e-HweIY

14 MAY 2021 · Contemporary artist Virginia Nimarkoh painted Untitled #1 (After Gerhard Richter, Betty, 1988) in 2001. Her painting replicates the famous photorealist portrait by Gerhard Richter, replacing a young African-American woman for Richter's daughter, engaging us to reconsider the determinability of an image and the ways minority representation expands the narrative of a conceptually unmovable artwork. Nimarkoh's painting invited us to revisit Richter's piece, which at that time broke many conventions in portraiture. The daughter turns away from the camera, and the viewer looks into one of Richter’s monochrome works from the mid-70s. The composition achieves intimacy through extreme awkwardness. Conceptually, the tension builds from the uncertainty about the reason the figure is looking back. Is she about to look forward? Was this the instant when Richter is about to press the shutter button, and Betty decides to unexpectedly look away? We will reenact both paintings' exact position using a different subject: ourselves, a family member, a friend. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/RJX5hxAu49k

7 MAY 2021 · It's hard to visualize the quintessential image of a modern painter as a solo (and sometimes lonely) figure translating nature through their brush without the existence of tubes of paint. Artists have been painting their own art supplies on still lifes since the late 1800s. By using paint tubes as our subject for this collection, we effectively become part of our creation, bringing paint into existence through paint itself. In turn, our painted tubes become more like us than their simplest existential form. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/S2a2vZ3nDbY

30 APR 2021 · Arbor Day—which literally translates to “tree” day from the Latin origin of the word arbor—is a holiday that celebrates the planting, upkeep and preservation of trees. For centuries, communities spanning the globe have found various ways to honor nature and the environment. However, the appreciation of trees and forests in modern times can be largely attributed to Arbor Day. And although Arbor Day may not have the same clout as holidays like Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day (or even Earth Day), it has a history with strong roots that branched out across multiple nations. Arbor Day 2021 will occur on Friday, April 30, and is typically celebrated on the last Friday in April in the United States. The Spanish village of Mondoñedo held the first documented arbor plantation festival in the world organized by its mayor in 1594. The first American Arbor Day was originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska by J. Sterling Morton. On April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted there. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/F2WQH1LUM0c

9 APR 2021 · During the last 16 years, artist Serge Attukwei Clottey has been collecting discarded yellow containers made out of plastic that were once used by people who had no running water. Women were tasked to walk miles to fill up the containers with potable water. Today, the containers are littering the country. Serge is using them as raw material for his plastic tapestries. In addition to talking about the water crisis and environmental injustice, Serge is blanketing the streets where he lives to make a case for people unable to claim private property because of bureaucratic obstacles. Desert X is currently showing an installation in Palm Springs using Serge Attukwei Clottey's plastic tapestry. Water shortage, environmental justice, and land ownership are issues that affect us here also. We will use the same image reference of the yellow plastic container symbolizing so many things as inspiration for a still life painting. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/y_F4nrBf-pY

2 APR 2021 · The ‘Mods’ of late 1950s London loved Italian suits, tidy haircuts, espresso bars, Vespa scooters, and the latest American jazz. The artists of this counterculture also loved to pose in front of their work. Inserting themselves in their creations was a way to reaffirm their newfound identity. Art historian Thomas Crow writes about people posing in a new book titled The Hidden Mod in Modern Art: London, 1957–1969. In it, he describes the life of a few visual artists, Pauline Boty among them. Boty posed with her paintings often. She was the artist and the art. She identified with her subjects, and she let the subjects identify her. The symbiosis wasn’t fortuitous. She made her own rules. Can we painters be both active subjects and objects at once? Well, of course we can. In this collection, we will paint self-portraits holding one of our paintings, or more, maybe hiding behind them or covering them—a painting of us posing with a painting by us. It’s time to become our own heroes. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/y_F4nrBf-pY

26 MAR 2021 · Spring. Flowers. Still life. Flowers. Mass shootings. Flowers. Last week we celebrated Spring. This week we're mourning the victims of the heinous crimes in Atlanta and Boulder. Makeshift memorials always pop up wherever people's lives are senselessly broken. Strangers lay flowers and gather in silence. Placing flowers by those who left us behind is regarded by anthropologists as one of the oldest tributes to the departed. Soil samples in burial sites determined that funeral flowers were indeed placed by our ancestors at least 62,000 years ago. And we still do. Flowers are a symbol of rebirth and a metaphor for the temporary and ephemeral beauty in the inescapable cycle of life. Let’s capture that short-lived beauty in our paintings. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/qB5hnnotuCo

19 MAR 2021 · As if by magic, every March 19, hundreds of swallows have been descending to San Juan de Capistrano Mission after traveling all the way from Argentina to nest and spend their summer there. Or at least they used to. Because of urbanization and remodeling in the mission in the 1990s, the colony has set stop somewhere nearby. We’re painting swallows this week because the day also coincides with the Spring equinox, and swallows have symbolized new beginnings. As the subject for our paintings, swallows are also a metaphor for the long journey we’ve all gone through during the pandemic. If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/9NkTabexsBI

12 MAR 2021 · We're thrilled to learn that the makers of the classic Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head toys will be dropping the binary prefixes and add a few more pieces in each box, so new generations of kids will be able to create more identities beyond the binary genders. Potato Head will now be a little more inclusive. Reading about the toy's history, we learned that the original Mr. Potato consisted of a box filled with pieces that kids would actually stick to a life potato or whatever veggie and fruit they wanted to turn into a figurine. We're proposing to play vintage Potato Head by juxtaposing a classic still life of a potato or any vegetable and add representations of toy pieces to it (from image sources we would provide). If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/CEazsoDquXA