Day 88: ‘Peking Bazaar’ & ‘Eavesdropping on the Tattletale’

This is the first nightscape from the roll (isn’t it weird to say “roll of film” now when everything’s digital?) of shots I took in SF the other day. I was randomly driving through Chinatown, trying to make sure I didn’t turn the wrong way down a one-way street and get some decent images to work from at the same time. If you’re wondering why I didn’t just pull over/park and walk around to take pictures, clearly you’ve never been to Chinatown. I was tempted to title this “No Parking at Peking Bazaar”, but then I thought the owners of this fine establishment may happen across this painting and find that obnoxious.

One street I came upon had an explosion of red globes and strings of white lights. Even though it was dark and relatively unpopulated for Chinatown at that time of night, it felt like the street might erupt into a parade at any moment. That’s one of the things I love about Chinatown. It’s as if, at any moment, the lanterns will burst into mutant blossoms and the tiny bulbs above will pop open and rain down glittered tickertape while the pedestrians turn into a walking dragon float. There’s color and vibrancy there all times of day or night, and that’s what I really hoped this painting would show. This took about 8-9 hours from start to finish. It’s acrylic and charcoal, 18”x24” on heavy duty canvas. (I’m going to be taking better photos of this tomorrow in the daylight, will update.)

For those of you who think I may be breaking my own art project rules by allowing this piece of work to span two days, I also painted another text/abstract mini-painting today. So there. 😉 This is acrylic, fabric, text and watercolor on a 5”x7” canvas. The words are “eavesdropping on the tattletale”, which I just find really amusing since both actions are relatively uncouth, which somehow evens it out, I think. The color was inspired by the red orange of the Chinatown lanterns and banners.

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