Angela J. Hill

Happy Birthday, Julia! You know how to celebrate in style.

Phase 2 is mostly about refinement. Whenever I do these sorts of paintings, I have to paint the same thing over itself several times before I’m happy with it. The challenge with gradients like this is that the whole thing has to be done at once to keep it smooth.

Support this project by Andy Baio on Kickstarter:

“What would the pioneers of jazz sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? For years, I’ve wondered what “chiptune jazz” would sound like, but there are only a tiny handful of jazz covers ever made.

I hope to have the entire album download ready for Kind of Blue’s 50th birthday on August 17. (Printing and shipping CDs will take longer.)”

Since I had such a clear vision of this, I have the whole first layer (plus some detail) done already. It feels good to be painting again. This is a 36″ x 40″ canvas and it’s a combination of latex and acrylic paint.

Had a flash, completed vision of my next painting this evening. I sketched it in oil pastels on a scrap of paper that apparently has my signature imprinted in it…

It’s very little. The ink part is maybe 8″ across.

The yellows are pretty wrong, but I’m letting it go.

I haven’t painted anything in weeks, so I’m easing back into it with another miniature of an exisiting number painting: 2569062. This is all pen so technically I suppose it’s not a “painting”. The blue numbers are card stock stickers. This is the easiest way for me to protect the white space of the numbers–they’ll come off when I’m done. Oh, and I realized too late that I had only 2 6s/9s so one has had to do double duty, which is why the 9 is already blank.

This makes me both happy and sad, and triggers the kind of immersive memory that usually only comes from a scent…

I enjoy reading more than one book at a time, especially when they’re sort of at odds but possibly complementary. Following a lovely afternoon at the library on Saturday, I’m reading The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas, with commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, and Richard Feynman’s The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.

The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas explores the teachings of Gyelsay Togmay Sangpo, a 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist monk. Bodhisattvas, in Buddhism, are people who have attained enlightenment but postpone nirvana to help others attain enlightenment as well.

Richard Feynman was a physicist, writer, and professor, sometimes called the “Great Explainer” because of his love of creating simple explanations for complex problems. He participated in the development of the atom bomb and in the investigation into the Challenger disaster. He was also considered a free spirit, learned to play the bongos, enjoyed some success at drawing, and (this is my favorite part) had some synesthesia with the letters in equations (n, apparently was “mildly violet-bluish”). This book is a collection of his short works. It is FANTASTIC.

I like reading these two together because I find the connections between physics and philosophy (and I’d say Buddhism could be considered both religion and philosophy) fascinating.

I was in Starbucks earlier tonight when a Glenn Gould recording of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations came on. That performance is transcendent…just amazing. But, with the sounds of the people talking in the background, the faint murmur…it reminded me of the ending of The Exodus Generation, in which I played the a minor prelude from book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier (also Bach, of course). It starts around 80% of the way through the piece.

The Exodus Generation

I composed this piece from a series of interviews I did on the topic of “nature vs. technology”, along with some sound design using and ARP 2600, and that piano recording. I performed it in quadraphonic sound back in college, but here it’s mixed down to stereo, of course. It’s one of my favorite pieces and it’s in the style of Glenn Gould’s contrapuntal radio pieces.

It was beautiful! And we had a great time running around the Embarcadero getting portraits after the wedding. Could we find a better-looking or happier couple? I don’t think so.

For me, it was SO much fun to 1) work with some different lenses, particularly a 50mm 1.2, and 2) shoot such fantastic subjects. This makes me want to do a lot more of this! And, get into fashion photography.

Emily took the more “official” shots and I was going for the more artsy side. This is the album of my favorites from the bajillions taken with my camera. Here are just a few of my favorite-favorites.

The wedding’s tomorrow, but we took test shots at the rehearsal tonight. The whole family was so sweet!

When two things that have no reason to be the same just are, it’s neat.

While walking around in Burlingame over the weekend, I stumbled upon a game of “historical baseball”. They play with the rules and equipment of the 1860’s. That means gloves are literally just that…gloves. No fancy mitts. No shin guards. Bats are 40-ounce and higher. And the umpire wears a top hat!

There were even people in the stands in historical attire. I sat down near them, unsure of what I was watching, and said, “Good afternoon. I can’t help but notice that I have hot pink hair, and he (pointing at umpire) is wearing a top hat. Something seems amiss. What’s going on?” That broke the ice and we chatted for some time while I got my camera ready.

Following the game, I became the impromptu team photographer. So much fun! They play again in a couple of weekends and I plan to make it out to catch that.

It was THE party of the season, so to speak. There are several pictures here! Thank you SO much to everyone who came and made my first show a really special event. And if anyone has any more pictures, please send them my way!

If you’ve seen my paintings at Mighty and are interested in learning more, please visit my Art page for prices, availability, contact information, and commissions.

As of this weekend, and on the spur of the moment (though the “spur” wound up taking about 5 hours…):

I am THRILLED to report that three of my paintings are now on display at Mighty, a club in SF. They’ll be there for a few months, but to celebrate, I’m having a shindig at Mighty on Saturday, May 9th. Doors open at 10 and everyone’s invited.