Pablo Cristi on Street Writing, Cultural Hybridity and Living Full Circle

There are days, and then, there are SEE(d) studio visit days. Those are the days that SEE(d) supporters get the opportunity to experience an artist’s spiritual, creative and sacred space—their studio. Those are the days artists generously share their ideas, their practices and open themselves up to new community. Those are the days we at SEE(d) are grateful for artists’ grit, intention and creative enterprise. Artists are truth-tellers. We, as supporters, need to listen.

Pablo Cristi’s Oakland studio visit on Saturday, September 17, 2022 reminded us just how lucky we are to be able to gather and celebrate creative genius and sustained artistic effort. Pablo’s works are deeply affecting and relevant today as they directly address themes of migration, human rights, displacement and how these affect family bonds, economic struggles, and community building. Pablo brought up themes of street writing, hybridity, cultural liminality, marginalization of the past, present, and future. Thank you to those who joined us for this enriching and nourishing evening, and to those who purchased art for their collections. 

Pablo Cristi works are available for purchase through SEE(d), proceeds go to support the artist. Contact: director@seedartistseries.com with questions.

SEE(d) Reboots with Artists Julia Goodman and Michael Hall

We are deeply grateful to two extraordinary Bay Area artists Julia Goodman and Michael Hall who hosted SEE(d) on June 5th in their light-filled Berkeley garden studio. It was a brilliant afternoon of deeply looking, thinking and investigating the cycles of life and transformation and connective meanings each artist brings to their work.  Art patrons came from all walks of life, including thought leaders from the arts, design, VC, tech and other business realms to learn from and support one other. At the center were the artists’ ideas and their thoughtful and unique ways of seeing the world. There is always so much that we gain and take away from each SEE(d) artist’s visit. Thanks too to Monique from Euqinom Gallery who co-presented Julia’s work.

Here are a few photos from the inspiring day. It felt so wonderful to gather in person. The feeling of belonging was felt throughout. Artworks are available. Contact: director@seedartistseries for artwork inquiries.

SEE(d) Relaunches in Spring 2022

SEE(d) is so happy to be back after two years of COVID-hiatus! We missed sharing deep conversations about artistic practice.

To celebrate, we offer a visual and oratory reminder of how artists think and dig deeply into their artistic processes and output, providing thoughtful, unexpected ways of seeing their world and methods of sharing that world through their artistic process.

SEE(d) visited artist Ilana Crispi in her delightful, Half Moon Bay studio long before COVID. Patrons were indulged with story-telling of the rich history of Crispi’s work, her generous spirit, and exquisite works of art made from soil dug in this case, from San Francisco neighborhoods where the artist lives and works. Crispi’s soil projects ask us to ponder the meaning of value in the context of material creations, history of a place, and the changing faces of the people who inhabit the city and who lived on this land long before the city existed. 

Ilana Crispi on the radical act of excavating soil to make art

We hope you enjoy the video and join us for SEE(d)’s inspiring artist studio visits in 2022.

Julia Goodman and Michael Hall Build Resilience through Making

We visited artists Julia Goodman and Michael Hall in their family studio complex in Berkeley this past week and it felt as if our past year’s dreadful heaviness got lifted and washed away in an hour. It was an afternoon filled with seeing through art, talking about each of their intricate and painstaking, detailed processes of art making, laughing and empathizing while sharing stories about juggling parenting and work, all of which nourished us in ways uniquely human and resilient. 

Julia shared a year-long process-based piece she started after lockdown to mark the isolating days of COVID, ripping antique bed sheets and tying them together then adding papier-maché hand molds to mark the week. Her sketchbook also took on a more pronounced role as she ‘jotted’ ideas in watercolor to negotiate a 2-dimensional shape before its 3-dimensional form. All of this was done while parenting their son who has taken center stage in the couple’s artistic life.

Michael, for his part has transformed his painting studio into a full-time teaching studio, and like Julia, has a lot of projects underway. He shared some pieces from his Belongings series, renderings of his own personal collections of music, ephemera, films, books, letters, etc. The ones that survived Covid were smaller works that he could accomplish at the dining room table. These homages (see the rendered Prince concert ticket and DVD case of Grey Gardens) are imbued with memories of time and place, of fame and fandom, of cultural reverence as well as longing for the days we could gather in public space.

Both artists spoke of creating small spans of time throughout the day or week to move their projects forward. The studio was alive, and reminded us that artists know what to do in a pandemic—make.

While we do not know when it will be safe to gather in person, we at SEE(d) along with Julia and Michael cannot wait until the day we can host our SEE(d) community members and share the amazing work they have been producing during this past year.

Enjoy a few images from the Julia and Michael’s studio visit…

Finding Inspiration with Artists during COVID-19

SEE(d) Artist Series has postponed all planned 2020 programming due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures in place. We continue to pause our 2020 Fall scheduled artists’ events.

We miss seeing and interacting with SEE(d) Creative Network as well as the meaningful connections we cultivated with SEE(d) artists over the past two years. We look forward to resuming our SEE(d) artist studio visits and conversation series as soon as it is safe to do so.

In the meantime, we continue to find strength and inspiration through the meaningful art produced by 2020 SEE(d) artists whose work touches upon human-centered issues—Black Lives Matter, loss, injustice, colonialism, memory, place, family and community. Art continues to be a balm for us during these challenging times. 2020-21 artists are: Brett Cook, Sofía Córdova, Julia Goodman, Michael Hall, Pablo Cristi, James David Lee and Taraneh Hemami.

Images top row: Brett Cook, Yasmeen Afua Vaughan, 2020; Sofía Córdova, Meltwater Pulse 1b (Antes), 2018; Julia Goodman, Reciprocity, 2019; Michael Hall, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, 2018 - 2019

Images bottom row: Pablo Cristi, Untitled, 2020; James David Lee, Curtain, 2019; Taraneh Hemami, Ever Green installation in progress, 2020; Julia Goodman/Michael Hall, Dependent, edition of 50 letterpress prints, 2020

Please stay safe and connected with us on Instagram and Facebook: @seedartistseries

2020 is Hopeful...SEE(d) Gathers with Artist Brett Cook on January 25th, 2020

We at SEE(d) are so very happy and grateful that we were able to share artist Brett Cook's amazing, multi-layered and intentional work and teaching. From his 90’s political mural bombing in SF and NYC, to Reflections of Healing & Life Is Living in Oakland, to collaborative art to advocate for better public housing at Hope SF, to his current social practice at Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, and his solo large-scale self-portraits that are ‘still in the oven,’ Brett’s work is equal parts reflection, action, collaboration and transformational healing practice. We thank you to those who attended for being witness to his pedagogy and community building and holding space with us. 

Artists Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth Hope share their working processes, November 16, 2019

It was truly a packed afternoon with a dizzying amount of ideas and a look behind the scenes of the artists' world of complexity, collaboration and meaning-making. We witnessed the power of art to push thinking, question assumptions, and inspire local and global awareness of contemporary issues. We hope you enjoyed your time learning about the artists' practice and connecting with others who share a deep sense of curiosity, desire for exploration, and caring about all our relationships with the world.

Layers of Meaning: SEE(d) visits with artist Deborah Oropallo, September 28, 2019

Artist Deborah Oropallo shared her most recent paintings and videos in her studio complex designed and built by architect Michael Goldin. Oropallo's collaborator, composer and photographer Andy Rappaport was also on hand to discuss Oropallo's newest body of work, Dark Landscapes for a White House. We even got to pet the goats.

Two SEE(d) Artists engage audiences to think about ownership and place

In Spring 2019, SEE(d) Artist Series presented two San Francisco social practice artists—Marcela Pardo Ariza and Ilana Crispi.

In March, Marcela Pardo Ariza invited SEE(d) to explore cultural and gender identity in her studio located at The Minnesota Street Projects artist complex in San Francisco. Pardo Ariza’s artistic project honors the tradition of theater and performance art as tools of resistance, in which she collaborates with friends and queer performance artists to co-create and rename identity through the action of making performance-based photographic works. Marcela shared her interest in capturing a gesture, the back of our head, a stance, a statement, power, and the items that speak about gender, collaboration, identity. Her process interrogates her interest in inclusivity, ownership, the audience gaze, the performer’s own collective partnership in the finished work, and asks: who ‘owns’ it?

“Photography is the youngest of the mediums, it’s like over a hundred years, and it really hasn’t changed that much since. . . why is it being so uptight, can’t we just move on from that (laughter) and can’t we just let it play around just a little bit more?”

— Marcela Pardo-Ariza

In May, ceramic-based artist Ilana Crispi hosted SEE(d) at her Half Moon Bay studio. Crispi shared a detailed exposé of her iterative process of mining the soil to create works of art that speak about history and place. She visually explained her labor-intensive working process of creating her own clay and glazes by digging, hauling, sifting, and then testing the soil to discover it's chemical and energetic contents. Artifacts that reflect the his/herstory of that place are then created and brought to the greater public in a social arena of discourse and storytelling. Crispi’s fascination with the ground underneath feeds her connections to place and the questions inherent with gentrification and urbanization of land.

“So taking the dirt from this place (Mission Dirt Project) and then making it something that I can then share with other people is a kind of radical act. I envisioned it as a kind of guerrilla land grab. So, when you think of staking your claim for the gold rush, we’re in our next gold rush here where people are trying to get ahold of this city and hold onto it and change it, make it theirs.”

— Ilana Crispi

SEE(d) Creative Network enjoyed two afternoons filled with thought provoking art, poignant conversations, networking, artisan wine and food, and art objects acquired from the artists. Join the SEE(d) Creative Network to keep you feeling creative all year long.