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Not Just a Landscape

11/13/2014

On my recent visit to California,just last week, I got to hang out with my good friend and amazing artist Stephen Workman, and we went to a few galleries in town to see what the current San Francisco art scene is up to.

As we went about our business we walked past one of the schools of art, which was having an exhibition on landscape paintings from one of their program's faculty. The artist is a self-proclaimed landscape artist, so she basically ONLY paints landscapes. Which brought us to talking about how we felt about landscape painting.

In reality, I haven't really defined what I would like to paint. I simply like to paint according to what inspires me at the moment. Sometimes its nature, sometimes people, imaginary scenes, geometric shapes.... and at times, it has been landscapes and cityscapes.
The thing is, once i thought about it, I realized wasn't just painting a view or a building, when I paint a landscape, I'm painting a feeling, or the memories that are brought up by seeing the surroundings I was in at the time. It doesn't represent any sort of affiliation or support for something, just the general feel I get from being at some place, or having been there.

The Salt Lake City Temple paintings I have do remind me of good times and great people from there. I had really great friends and despite it being a much slower pace than what I enjoy now, living in NYC, it was a great lifestyle for the time I was living. A lot of people ask me if I'm mormon because of having lived there and seeing that I have those paintings, and I'm not, but most my friends there were, and they are all great. The temple is beautiful and it does bring nice memories.

Same goes for the painting below. Miami is one of my favorite places to visit, I love the city, the weather, the vibe, but most of all, I mostly visit it with my family, so its a place full of memories with them. One thing i never considered when painting it though, was that I could do the same service for other people, such as the person who wound up buying this piece from me. I know he likes Miami a lot, and he visits quite often, and as he said (and i'm paraphrasing) "now I have the Miami views that I wanted". So to think that every time he sees the painting in his home, would make the connection for him with the place that he loves so much, gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

So maybe there is more to painting landscapes, and we can all see them for more than what they seem to be ;)

Post by Daevid Mendivil's Art.

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Halloween 2014 in San Francisco, California

11/3/2014

Pedestrians in San Francisco the day after Halloween, Photo: Daevid Mendivil

Mano and I At the San Francisco Giants Parade

In an attempt to escape the cold from New York, and to see some close friends of mine that live in California, i headed out to San Francisco to spend a few days in the sunny nicer weather and have a relaxing time.

As my trip got postponed 2-3 times over a period of about a month and a half due to work related stuff (dance rehearsals, performances, and photoshoots for Pookie & Sebastian in NYC), it wasn't really on purpose that I would be there for Halloween. Certainly I'm happy it coincided though, if anything for this awesome photo I took (ABOVE) of some random people who passed me on my way to the SF Giants Parade, the other lucky coincidence of my trip, which happened in honor of their Baseball World Series Win.

I'm not really a huge Halloween type of person, I mean, I enjoy it, but I don't get very much into planning my costume like some of my friends who spend literally weeks planning and gathering just the right materials to make the perfect costume. Usually I end up doing something last minute and this year was no different, I ended up just wearing a black jumpsuit and painting myself as some sort of skeletal creature. Overall we had a great time, I met a bunch of my friend's friends, got to briefly hang out with a recent New York - SF transplant (who seems to really like the change) and just experienced a different, seemingly more laid back Halloween scene than the New York Scene, which I like, however its always nice to see a different perspective ;)

My last minute face painting

Not Just a Landscape

Halloween 2014 in San Francisco, California

www.Daevid.net

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