LIVE! Painting

A few weeks ago I participated in a live art performance night downtown San Francisco for a Yerba Buena neighborhood night. I was a great experience where I get to meet all kinds of new people and it pushes me to be more public with my painting process (which is normally in the safety of my studio complete with coffee cup and pajama pants). I think I may have been a bit ambitious with the size because by the end of the two hour event I had really only blocked in most of the piece, but what is life if not a learning opportunity. And painting aside, I was in the company of some lovely performers, belly dancers, vocalists, contortionists, oh my! It reinforces my sense of wonder with creativity in general, what a spectacular time and place to be a human. Thanks San Francisco.

'Lust for Life' exhibition

 If you didn't get to see Lust for Life In person, here's the next best thing, a digital tour! I went by the Gallery today and took a bunch of pictures to document the installation:

Left wall as you walk in the room, installation flowers with framed paintings in center




I'm so Happy I could Die, three part painting





Wheat paste wall paper installation and title wall painted by yours truly





Vagina wallpaper



View from the interior of the second room





Let's go Party Girl






I Heart the Tenderloin

 



Partied out Jesus

 


Fountain of Decay, with surrounding flower installation

 


Fountain of Decay, detail

 


Happiness, a three part painting





F*ck Yeah I'm Alive



DMT Mary

DMT Mary, detail

Baby in Space, and Holy S*it

Interior of the third room, looking back

Pan study, Bright Future, and OMG

Oh S*it for Reals?, The Hero, and For Love or Fear

Looking to the last wall in the third room, my monster of a painting, Lust for Life and flower installations

Lust for Life, detail

flower installation detail

Extreme close up, all hand made tissue paper flowers, with a little help from my friends

Mural at Space Gallery

Mural at Space Gallery, 2012

MAY 12TH, 2012 SOLO EXHIBITION @ LOPO GALLERY

It's time to release my large paintings to the viewing public after over a year of hard work. I am very much looking forward to my Solo Exhibition at Lopo Gallery. I have been working with the Gallery for a while but this will be my most ambitious show thus far, with one painting in particular that took me six months to finish. I have posted some of the pieces in my blog here, but there will be plenty of previously unseen works, and to be honest the pictures hardly do just to the ink paintings because they have lots of little details that get lost by the lens. Come in to see it in person if possible!

I'll also be in the Gallery the week before the opening working on some installations to go with the artwork. I think that if given the opportunity, making an environment in the gallery around my art is the way to go. I find that as artists we can expand on our concepts by not limiting the expression to the rectangular shape of the art, but to let people walk into a room and become submerged in their surroundings, that's what it is to be generous with ones work. That will be my goal in May, to create an environment not just a show. I look forward to the challenge!

DMT Mary, detail, 2012, 6o"x44.5", ink on paper

OPENING RECEPTION:
LUST FOR LIFE
SATURDAY MAY 12TH, 2012, 7p-11p

LOPO GALLERY

1141 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA.

email: chris@lopogallery.com
415.377.3325



(sneak peak of the installation the week before the opening)

Check out pictures from the show here:
http://hifructose.com/2012/05/16/helen-bayly-brings-the-party-at-lopo-gallery/
http://2opcollective.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/helen-bayly/
http://www.artbusiness.com/1open/051212a.html



The Fountain of Decay

The Fountain of Decay

I made this painting inspired by the youth culture today. On New Years Eve 2012 I painted at a fancy event in a fancy hotel where young, pretty people came out to drink and celebrate. I was sober until about 11:45 because I was painting and I wanted to stay concentrated around such a large group of people. The result of this was being very conscious at midnight surrounded by a mass of extremely inebriated very unconscious and equally unpleasant people. I'm no stranger to the party culture either, game recognise game. Growing up in Santa Cruz we started early and did it right. Not to say it makes the ideals of indulgence any more attractive or healthy, it just means I had to learn the hard way, and still need reminders from time to time. Anyways, back to the art, based on the mythological fountain of youth, this fountain of decay delivers a promise just the same, it's the ugly side of free and adventurous ever sought after endless party lifestyle. There lying in the shadows is addiction, depression, disease, disgrace, basically the full package of decay to the human body and mind.

Please enjoy the artwork responsibly.

The American Albino Alligator

(click on image to enlarge)

This painting is for a Thursday Night party in March at the California Academy of Sciences. I am truly a fan of this institution and was extremely excited to contribute art to an event taking place there. The new building (2009?) is a very beautiful, advanced, self sustainable structure dedicated to the Natural Sciences, but I remember the old building from years ago. I grew up in Santa Cruz, about a two hour drive to San Francisco, and my mom used to take me on trips there as a child. There was a large Alligator pit, much like the current one, and you could stare down at these ancient creatures which were very impressive, all be it quite inactive. I very much enjoyed these trips and find that today looking back on my early experiences with the natural world I can't help but give them credit for my adult passion and connection to nature. Some day I'll have to retire to a calmer place, where the gators run free (but hopefully not too close by) and I can take my shoes off and reclaim my place in the larger scheme of things: as a lonely human on a big planet.

The Messenger, an Albino Snake