Wow, things are suddenly so busy here — only time to bang out a roundup.

Doing: With Val’s hot, under-the-hood stylings, I’m redesigning a new and streamlined CaliforniaAuthors [sketch], with a simultaneous rework of thenightnote [sketch]. Also: I’m still on board with Claudio, helping him with the lightning-fast launch of his dream practice. While he works with other designers on a corporate image and web presence – because I swear, I am not in this buisness anymore – I’ve put together an interim web presence for him. Also: I’m working with Lynette and the Louisiana Creole Research Association on their corporate ID and site. Val at Work is still on the easel.

Field Trip #1: Long Beach Museum of Art exhibit “About Face: Portraiture Now.” The museum touted the exhibition as a show of artists who “defy modernist conventions of abstraction and non-representational imagery to produce breathtakingly beautiful and incredibly realistic human portraits.” It is true that the show contains the work of some very skillful artists who have produced some very skillful and occasionally beautiful and insightful portraits. But — with only a few exceptions — as a group, they touch on only a small part of what today’s representation of a real human figure can be. There was just too much super-slick photo-real work in the show. Made me wish for a Lucian Freud — something “incredibly realistic,” but something more about paint. Believe me, I am in no way knocking John Nava, who has a couple of pieces in the exhibit and whose famous super-real genius is scary-good; I’m not down on any of the individual artists in the show. It’s just that “Portraiture Now” is much more that what is hinted at by this collected group — it is the collector, the curator, that leaves me dry on this one. One long smooth note, hit repeatedly, turns the individual achievements into a monotonous hum.

Still, it is always good to see and think about art and I am glad that I went.

Field trip #1 sidebars: A) I went to museum on the first day after the vertigo cure and while walking on the pedestrians-only sidewalk in bluff park, I was buzzed by a man on a bicycle. He startled me, and I tripped and fell. He didn’t stop. It was weird, after a week of being obsessed with falling, there I was on the sidewalk, looking up at the perfect blue sky. Then I got up and went to the museum and I was pretty thankful that it was so easy to do. B) I ran into Lynn and Blair at the museum, colleagues from my long ago Orange County Register days. They said they were enjoying retirement and they looked it. It was nice to see them.

Field trip #2: Val and I took a trip downtown to go to the Superior market on the hunt for cool Mexican and Latin American food ingredients. We got different kinds of peppers–fresh and dried, some yummy sauces jarred in tall thin drinking glasses that will be great for having a cold cerveza with our home-made enchiladas, also some fresh tortillas, crema, and empanadas from the bakery. Yum.

Something for you to look at: Enjoy an existential moment at Garfield Minus Garfield.

Just purchased: New lights for painting (woo, up to 1000 watts of day-stretching light) …

… and a set of round bristle brushes. I usually work with flats or brights. (Here’s a comparison.) I’ve enjoyed experimenting with the rounds, which load up great and seem to encourage more gestural brushwork. I was inspired to get them when watching Duane Kaiser’s little time-lapse painting videos.

Up next: Taxes — barf.

Thank you! to everyone for all your kind comments during the vertigo days.