SFIAAFF '09 TWO'FER

Made it to the SFIAAFF '09 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival again this year... and there are two films I recommend for sure if you can catch them either in the festival here or coming to a film festival near you... or there is always Youtube... but I wanna throw some props out to these two outstanding films.

The first is HP Mendoza's FRUIT FLY which I caught at the film festival on it's premier night in the Castro Theatre and loved it. A San Francisco based setting is perfect for this film, and it was well received in the Castro. A great movie by a very talented artist, director, filmaker, songwriter all in one! And, if you haven't seen a movie in the Castro Theatre, then you are missing something truly special. Here is the trailer...



The second is Harry Kim's Documentary DIRTY HANDS: THE ART AND CRIMES OF DAVID CHOE about street artist, illustrator, and hard workin' punk ass David Choe. Now I have been fan of David Choe's energy and talent for years and I am always glad to see a fellow artist who puts his ass on the line taking risks and becoming immortalized in something like this, but lets not overlook the fact that David has paid a heavy price or two for a life like his. But I have been watching the clips of this documentary role out for over a year and the life and times of Mr. Choe guarantees to make interesting documentary film subject matter, so HOLD ON!




Go see 'em folks... get out and support your next generation of film makers and support the SFIAAFF !!!

BLOSSOMING

Every year at the end of February here in California and specifically San Francisco my favorite blossoming fruit tree takes it's turn to remind me of many precious things in my life. About the time of my grandmother's recent passing several weeks back, I was sweetly reminded of her every morning that I walked passed all of the blossoming Japanese Cherry trees that line the many steep sloping streets of this fair city. After reading up a little about the tree and others found in San Francisco, I was surprised to read that the Japanese Cherry Tree is the second most common tree in the city! Second only to the more popular and slightly more exquisite flowering Japanese Plum tree which looks almost the same but with slightly more brilliant pink flowers. The plum tree also has a twin albino version of it that is even more rare and is a white flowering tree with green leaves instead of the red leaves. Everyday for about two weeks I was taking pictures of the magnificent sweet color that these trees bring to the beautiful clear blue back drop skies that we get here in the winter. And if you stop, and smell the gentle breeze, you might just catch the lovely sweet scent of bubble gum that these flowers give off. It is good to be alive! I am reminded to take time... and enjoy these pics, and one of the true treasures found on the planet.





















































Photos: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher

WONDERCON '09 WRAP-UP!

It was a blast! Another year of WONDERCON which seems to be growing year to year. I went with two of my friends Shan and Gary. There were a lot of regulars and a lot of new faces to see. Like....



RICHARD KIEL!!!! JAWS to you and me. Yes another childhood dream checked off the list of to do's... "Get picture being choked by JAWS"... (the villian in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker).





A FRIGGIN RAD CYLON! Yes RAD... For you younger folks this was a dream that maybe you can't relate to, but if you grew up in the 80's, nothing struck more fear and fascination in you than an old-school cylon from Battle Star Galactica... complete with humming, oscillating red eye... You just had to be there... the 80's I mean!




And even something for the kids and perhaps the coolest costume there... I can't believe there is a guy under all that... My pal "G" gettin a shot for his three year old who couldn't believe dad met Bumble Bee...


Other great highlights were...

meeting up with one of my favorite graphic novel artists David Mack of his very successful series Kabuki... http://www.davidmack.com/

Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill... (Carrie Fisher ROCKS!!!! What a cool chic!)

we missed Adam West...

Erin Grey from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century... (again you had to be there...the 80's)!

Darth Maul (the guy that played him Ray Park)...

the storm trooper who actually said the lines "these aren't the droids we're looking for" ... Anthony West (who was a very cool cat)

and that guy from Children of the Corn... you know him from and a ton of great 80's and 90's movies... the blazing red-headed punk...Courtney Gains!

It was truly a fun day that I look forward to every year. Autographs from some has-been movie and tv stars, some great artist, great art, great BOOKS on art, portfolio reviews of art, comics, action figures, costumes, creatures and contests. If you have never been, even if you DON'T like comics, you gotta check it out at least once... there is something for everyone! Actually I'm already plannin' for next year.

check out these Youtube videos to sum it up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0EkiYALymM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irCvbNsBMYM&feature=related

Thanks to my buddy Shan Senaratne for the great shots!

Images: ©Copyright 20009 Trey Gallaher

ALICE'S WONDERLAND

My grandfather William G. Gallaher was the painter in our family, and though I never had a chance to know him in my adult life, I have always felt an intimate connection with him through his work (perhaps the reason I became a painter). But it was my grandmother that shared with me his many talents that remained hanging in her house. Growing up I would spend weekends at my grandmother's little house, just hangin' out and discovering the wonders of her mystical property shrouded in oak trees and hideouts to be discovered.

Alice Gallaher was a grade school teacher in her day, who loved learning. My sister reminded me on the phone recently, how she remembers everything was always about learning with grandma. This struck me in a peculiar way, maybe because I too am now a teacher, and I began to be reminded of all the things she did teach me that I never really thought about but somehow still remember. The little things in childhood that we hold on to in a distant memory, almost a dream-like place. There were some very clear specifics too, like her mannerisms, the way she spoke, paused, breathed, hobbled along, hummed a crackly tune. They are the wonderful nuances that we carry very deep in our memories and hearts throughout our lives, and even after theirs...

My grandmother was a crafts person, she collected, always widdling away at something, some project, a book, some music on the piano, a church program. Never anything fancy, or even noticed, but steady, steady the way grandmothers are in our lives. Almost like she could spend hours alone just noodling away in her own little world, cozy and safe. I remember her always showing me her latest painted-china piece she had been working on, or digging through an old closet way in the back to find some little puzzle we could work on together. Letting me explore and discovering on my own.

Decades later I was poking through a bunch of my grandfathers paintings, documenting them, trying to make some sort of record of all of his work that is scattered throughout our family, when I came across this painting, not signed, and hanging in my aunt's house. My aunt was quick to remind me that this was a painting her mother had done, NOT her father. I was taken aback... "This?" I thought... "Grandma? I didn't know she painted too? This is good! Really good!". I kind of wish I could find more of her works like this, especially now that I'm really into the impressionists and painting alla-prima! (a painting term for immediate quick, thick, impasto painting technique).

Though this painting may never be seen on the walls at Christie's, I am proud of my grandmother's painting (one of the only paintings she ever did) and amazed at the many secret gifts she had, the many projects she was always chipping away at. It's funny how we often think we know somebody all of our lives, only to discover something brand new about them, something that we see in ourselves that explains our own behavior and interests. I look forward to learning more about my grandmother's many secrets as well as my own. I guess we are still working on that puzzle together.

Painting: ©Copyright Alice Gallaher

1915 - 2009 a.d.

R.I.P. Grandma G.

Thank you for...

being easy going, peaceful and gentle with me
giving me your wide smile
being a good teacher
teaching me to play my first piano song (Silent Night)
having your doorbell and letting me ring it over and over
teaching me to love home-made whole wheat bread
teaching me to love almonds
teaching me about painting on china-ware
teaching me to love the great oak trees
teaching me to collect stuff and value the little things
giving me a sense of family
teaching me about my family
showing me my grandfather's paintings and telling me about him
making me feel safe
always giving me love and looking after me

I will miss you and your sweet smiling face,
I love you always...

NEW YEAR NEW PAINTINGS

With the New Year comes a new series of paintings I have begun. Last Year's SAGACITY series was a success and I continue to make new paintings in that series. But I have recently begun another venture that I am excited about... they are in oil paint. I'll be the first to admit I do not have a long tenure with oils (being an illustrator) but I am experimenting to find my method of using this bold and versatile medium. But let me say this, ITS FUN!!! This shot above is Easel #1, a piece I am doing in oil for a friend.

Mixing, mixing, mixing those oils. The colors are rich and deep. JUICY!!! I've been using Windsor and Newton's Artisan oils which I am finding really great. Being a mostly water based medium painter, these babies are great medium for me. They make clean-up hassle free, and are not nearly as toxic as using turpentine or mineral spirits. Just soap and water for clean up and they can be mixed with regular linseed oil or any other medium of choice... ain't technology grand! I've been reading a lot about these oils (water based), and they have been around since the seventies for professional printing, but have really begun to take off in the painting world over the last twenty years as a healthier alternative to traditional methods, while still delivering the rich buttery and deep color effects.




I've been prepping a bunch of new canvases and boards as well. I love painting on wood panel and have never been real fond of stretched canvases. Being a draftsman and a lover of drawing, the bouncy surface of canvases is like having sex on a springy matress, it can be wild, but not much control. But none the less I am doing a few on canvases too, mostly portraits.





Easel #2 features a piece I am finally getting back to after my SAGACITY show, and is part of a series of pieces I started a couple of years back and have been slowly building on.




On Easel #3 I'm finishing a piece that there was no more room for in the SAGACITY show at Sweet Inspiration last September. I really wanted to put this one in the show, but it didn't make it in time, and there wasn't any more wall space anyway. Almost done.




My boy Ti-Jean... Jackie Delouz... angelic skid-row bum... Kerouac, looking back at me from behind the clutter... never far from my thoughts! Great writer of sadness, savior of my soul, again and again always picking me up and putting me back together, making strange but truthful poetic sense of all this madness we call life.





















Pickin a few Dead tunes out in-between paintings. For me, my guitar and harmonica are never far from my easel. To me music and painting go together, like illustrations and literature. Painters and musicians, musicians and painters. Most painters I know also play music, somewhere in there lives.






Photos: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher

JOYFUL FACES

Among the shopping, traveling and festivities I had a blast finishing this portrait assignment over the holiday break. I've always loved the happiness that completing a portrait brings. Capturing a person's likeness is a challenge uniquely set-aside from other forms of figurative painting and drawing. People are often most critical and self-editing of their own appearance and the trick is to not just capture their outward physical appearance but to make it express what they want to see in themselves. This involves a deeper investigation than just the cold hard reality found in a casual photograph. But if you get it right, there can be no greater joy or sense of pride for an artist even if it is only an audience of one.

Image: "Momma Chu" ©Copyright Trey Gallaher
conte crayon and gouache on toned paper

THIS YEAR'S CARD

For almost fifteen years I have been illustrating my own Christmas cards to give to close friends and relatives. I print and assemble them myself and usually end up delivering them by hand. This years card is from a drawing I did over three years ago. I rediscovered it while going through some old drawings a few weeks back. I had ditched this drawing last minute for another piece I had going at the time. This piece was drawn from Union Square San Francisco watching the Christmas tree trimmers go through their ritual of decorating the city tree.

I remember the shapes of the decorations, the tree, the crane structure and the composition looking interesting to me. I remember wanting some color in it but not wanting it to feel like a painting, but more like a drawing. It's funny, sometimes when I look back at old work, I get a fresh view of it, an almost detached feeling (or seperation) from ever having done the piece, and it allows me to enjoy it all over again or in a new light that I missed before.

Images: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a BIG thanks for all your love and support over the last year. It was a great year filled with a lot of new exciting work coming out of my studio. My Sagacity series was a big success and my show at Sweet Inspiration was a great kick-off. I received a lot of insightful feedback and already have plans for new additions to the series as well as future exhibitions. I'm now back in the studio again working on some new pieces for another new series. The upcoming year hopes to be productive. I'm also continuing to upgrade the website including some new sections and adding more work so check back. Be safe everybody and love one another... Cheers!
















Photos: The family pooches by the fire (Klaus top), (Klaus, Kurt and I below)
©Copyright Trey Gallaher

ALL YOU HAVE ARE YOUR DREAMS

It was almost fifteen years ago that I painted this humble little scholastic piece for a Christmas card to send to my family and friends back home (usually to build sympathy for more money and food). I was months away from graduating from San Jose State University with my new bachelors degree in graphic design and illustration. I wasn't sleeping, eating, showering or shaving but pulling all-nighters to barely finish paintings before day-light and the end of the semester. I remember being filled with sweet anticipation, hope and a far-off dream of my future that propelled my classmates and I forward with such passion and determination.

Not much has really changed since those days. I'm still up all hours of the night, still making my illustrations and paintings and still dreaming of what I want to do with my work, but now I'm suddenly wondering "where has the time gone?" and that it really is true what they say that all we have are our dreams. It's not whether you became what you thought you would, made that money you struggled so hard for or became an over-night sensation but that you continue to dream for tomorrow. For this I am grateful, grateful for the people that believed in me and stayed by my side, listened and didn't let me give up. And now that I am a teacher, and watch my own batch of tired, sleepy-eyed, hunger-panged, dream-filled potentials drag their heels through the classroom door to make that one last deadline and critique, that I stop and laugh, a joyous laugh down deep at the vigor and determination of my own youth, the youth that still lives in me and that our dreams never really leave us but simply mold into something even more encompassing and more beautiful and that all we have to do is to live it, keep believing in it and to share it with whomever will stop to listen.

Image: ©Copyright 1995 Trey Gallaher