#Viaarte

Chalk. Chalk. And more Chalk. This past weekend the Bakersfield Museum of Art (aka BMOA…..and yes we have an art museum) held its 17th annual Via Arte Italian Street Painting Festival. Now, if you aren’t super up to date with your art terms nor art history, you might be deceived into thinking about spaghetti, the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel… So before anyone’s mind starts spiraling into an Italian culture overdrive… and with out having to get into a crazy art history lesson, this festival was/is all about chalked street art.

Artists and art spectators all gathered at the Market Place this weekend to take part of this gnarly event. Artists set up under tents, took out reference pictures and busted out their pastels. Some pieces were group efforts, while others became amazing solo projects. There was so much to see!!

Unfortunately I was unable to stay long enough to see many of the pieces completely finished(sad face). Luckily the event had a hashtag so I was able to keep updated on some of the cool art pieces……… With that said….I present you guys with some of the dopes #viaarte posts via Instagram!!

  
 

  
  
  
  

  

  
  


  

Dope Artists: Bety Avila

It all started with Instagram.  I started following this really cool “organization” that showcases street art in Mexico City (future post).  They started posting progress pictures of a mural that was being painted by Mexican artist Bety Avila. I had no idea who she was, but I remember the pictures looking like really large fascinating pencil sketches………So I did what any one with a sparked curiosity would do…I stalked her. What I found was pure genius!

Looking through her murals was like gazing at visual representations of a song or poem. It was society, it was life, it was everything imaginable and unimaginable perfectly portrayed and structured on a large canvas. Her art was mesmerizing and fascinating; I could feel the emotion and power of the mural gravitate towards my body, making me forget my existence outside the painting.

Other than Instagram and a small description on her website, I couldn’t find as much information about Avila as I would have liked. I saw some of her older work in other mediums, but it wasn’t as intriguing or powerful as the murals/pencil art. In fact, it seems that mural-ism might be new/current venture in her artistic career. If so, I really hope that she sticks to this aesthetic and keeps creating these breathtaking pieces of art.

    

     

     

     

    

All of these and more pictures can be found on her Facebook page!!

“Let’s Quit Our Jobs and Make Art”

Do you ever feel like you could be/should be doing something fucking amazing?! I keep saying I want to live in Mexico for a year, or explore central and South America……………I’m 24 and it’s not like I’m getting any younger. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and everything about right now to be honest……but sometimes (and by sometimes I mean like 75% of the time) I just want to quit my, job hop on a plane…………and just fucking go. I keep saying I want to quit my job and make art…but what does that fucking mean?!! To be honest I don’t really feel like I have enough artistic talent to really go off making that statement, nor do I really consider myself an artist…. So… here’s where I answer my own question and sound unavoidably cliché as fuck!

“I just wanna quit my job and make art,” I say. “Do it” say my instigator friends (those are always good friends by the way). But what the fuck does it mean?! I’m sure most of them think I want to be a designer when I say I want to make art. And let’s face it it’s one of the only “artsy” things I really excel in and could possibly make a living off. But enough ranting and more answering.….. Let’s make art; let’s live, because life is a work of art.

Everything about the world fascinates me. It’s art when I wake up in the morning and look at the sun shining over the mountains, It’s art when I see all the field workers working, It’s art when I look at all the buildings carefully lined up in down town, It’s art when a person thinks they can make a change and decide to run for office, It’s art when a single cell can replicate and create chaos inside a person’s body. The world we live in is the best work of art I’ve even seen. So when I say I want to quit my job and make art….. I literally mean I just want to explore, see, do, experience and soak up as much as I can. Just because I’m happy where I am, doesn’t mean I’m willing to conform to where I am now, when I know there’s so much more out there.

I go through a constant struggle between wanting to explore the world, and excelling in my “career.” I equally really want both…and can feel my career choices paying off which makes it the more difficult. Why must these choices be so agonizingly hard?! One day I’m so passionate about what I do, and the next I’m convinced it’s time to just pack up and leave. Either way one thing is for sure…..we should all just make art…………. Live life to the fullest, take every opportunity that presents itself, kiss as many people as you can, try as many different foods possible, be reckless, passionate and always be present wherever you are.

-D

Dope Artists: Mel Kadel

It’s no secret that I’ve been indulging in the greatness that the art world has to offer lately…………but…… Mel Kadel is where it all began. I’m not exactly sure how old I was (but deff. in high school), I remember walking into Beach Works (currently Mainland) inside Valley Plaza and browsing around. About every month or so they would have a new issue of Bliss Magazine………… the first issue I picked up had a piece by Mel Kadel on the cover.

I was quickly obsessed and mesmerized by what I saw. Her pieces were very dream like. They reminded me of peaceful daydreams in the clouds and tangled, agonizing nightmares at the same time. Most of her pieces portrayed the same character, but she had many forms. Some times she gracefully floated around warmly hued landscapes with mountains, while other times it felt like she was struggling to get by with the world on her shoulders. The body of work that was featured on that issue of Bliss was the first art collection to really capture me. I remember the feeling of belonging and being able to relate to her character when I browsed through the pieces.

 

 

Kadel’s coffe stained pieces were the first “art” posters to ever go up in my room. I think me discovering her work when I did, really helped mold and define my aesthetic preferences. I wasn’t really interested in “art” before looking through that issue of Bliss….. but the more I think about it, I really do think Mel Kadel is where it “all began”……………. This fascination I have with warm hues and abstracted realities/perceptions of what could or might be……………….. Overall Mel Kadel is just a freaking dope artist that has been super inspiring and influential to me and I thought I’d share.

Hope you guys enjoyed!

-D

Most of the pictures are from her website melkadel.com, some are actual scans from Bliss Magazine and the rest are form www.mkgallery.com, and they have a bunch of other cool artists!! Check it out!

 

 

 

 

“What are you looking for?”

I’m 24, single…and happy. So you can imagine my frustration when I keep getting asked what type of guy or relationship I’m looking for. I am genuinely NOT looking for anything, but that’s never the “right” answer apparently. I don’t understand everyone’s obsession with finding  somebody, or just not being alone in general. I’m not saying I don’t believe it’s possible to find someone supper amazing I feel the need to be with, nor that I haven’t been in love and it isn’t nice. What I’m saying is that the thought doesn’t consume my existence.

Many times when I say I’m not looking for anything, people assume that it means that I don’t want to be in a relationship. Or that I’m playing the “independent” girl card….and let’s face it, I am known for commitment issues, but that’s not where I’m going with this at all. What I mean when I say I’m not looking for anything, it’s exactly what it sounds like. I’m not constantly going out of my way to try to “find” or “meet” someone. I love life right now, and I’m enjoying it. There is no need for me to be preoccupied with finding someone to spend the rest of my life with. Also, just because these are my thoughts on “finding someone,” that doesn’t mean that I’m not open to someone just showing up. I mean who doesn’t love spontaneous. I’m not a crazy man hatter or anything, and if I happen to meet someone tomorrow that rocks my socks, well then hey it happened and I would embrace it.

❤

Let Me Take Your Picture: Saidee

 Lets face it. As much as we all love to complain about how lame Bakersfield is…………… Bakersfield is actually full of crazy dope people you’ve probably never met nor heard of! One of the chillest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting this last year is Saidee DeLeon.

   

Me and Saidee, Saidee and I….we aren’t necessarily best friends, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate and admire the fuck out of her. She has always been inspiring and golden in the pursuit of achieving goals and being happy. I will always remember her for sticking up for her believes, saying “fuck you” to the man, quitting her management job and deciding to work at a dispensary. This might sound crazy, even a little irresponsible to some people but a few months later I asked “how are you?” and she replied “happy.”

❤

 

  

   

 

    

Model & Make-up: Saidee DeLeon

Photographer & Stylist: Diana Perez

Happy Fucking 24th Birth Day to Me!

Self reflections: Everyone really does hate you when your 23. Nah j.k. But since my birth day is during the summer, every year since 18 has been pretty much the same………school, work and all the randomness that is life; BUT there has always been the stability of being a student. When I turned 23 I had no idea what my life would be like in a few weeks…months…let alone a whole year. I’d just finished school and had no idea what I was going to do. I moved back “home,” except for I actually lived in Sacramento longer than I had in Bakersfield (which was never really home to begin with) so I had to start all over.

Sometimes I think about what I’ve done this past year and feel like I haven’t really done much, but then I realize………. fuck that 23 kicked my ass! 23 was the year where I really learned what it meant to really love and be loved. I learned what it felt like to be crushed, heart broken and feel like I was dying. I lost people in my life I never thought I could be with out….(but it turns out I could/can). I met some of the most amazing and inspiring people I’ve ever met, and I build kick ass relationships with people I never in a million years thought I’d be friends with. I found new passions and things I’m good at, as well as grew and developed in my field. I can honestly say that I’ve been the happiest and sades I’ve ever been in my entire life this past year. I’ll always remember 23 because I really think it’s been the year I’ve changed and grown the most as a person. Overall………….you were good to me 23, but I can’t say I’m not a little glad to say good bye……..so peace out!

Hello and welcome 24!!

Random Quotes: #1

“I have no special talent. I am just passionately curious.”

-Albert Einstein