How Self-Improvement Will Destroy You

A very non-serious .gif by Monkey for a serious post by Seal. What a silly Monkey.

When I was seven years old, I started my first to-do list. I was quite simple, with only three items I wanted to accomplish every day.

• Put away my toys
• Make up my bed
• Help parents clean the apartment

Ten years later, when I was seventeen, the list grew to more than a 100 items. It was no longer a daily list, but a resolution for life. I titled it “Goals in Life”. It included travel destinations, languages to learn, running record times to break, things to become . . .

• Travel to Nepal, Africa, France, London
• Learn French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese
• Run 6 minute mile
• Run 20 minute 3 mile (standard xcountry race)
• Draw in 20 sketchbooks (I gave myself 6 years)
• Read all of Shakespeare
• All Greek Mythology
• Collect stamps
• Wrtie a novel
• Make a film
• Learn how to brew my own beer
• Learn how to make my own cheese

The list went on, page after page. If you can’t tell, I was a very serious person who wanted to accomplish very big things. But at the heart of this list, there was something terribly wrong.

Although I read all of Shakespeare’s work in both junior college and in Berkeley, I couldn’t really use my knowledge of Old English and Literature in my everyday conversations. I hated Greek Mythology. I started a stamp collection, but I don’t even like collecting stamps. I managed to learn conversational Japanese and French on my own, but I have a high resistance to learning tonal languages such as mandarin. I don’t seem to have an ear for it. My friends make better beer and cheese that I did, so why not bum some off of them instead? And as I ran everyday and got close to breaking into 7-minute mile, I suffered an injury that put me out most of the x-country season during my senior year. I never did break that 6-minute mile or 20 minute 3 mile. And although I accomplished quite a lot from my giant list and I was generally happy, when I completed a task and crossed it off my list, the joy didn’t last as long as I thought it would. The experience of accomplishing a goal was tinged with a bit of disappointment. Since I didn’t want to think of what that would mean, I’d hurry onto the next task. My obsession with x-country record time was replaced by the next item on the list. At one point it was literature/ narrative theory at Berkeley, and now it’s art and film.

At the heart of these goals and resolution lists, I couldn't leave myself alone. Under the guise of self-improvement, I had rejected myself. Somewhere along, I believed that who I was at the core was not good enough and I needed to improve. I was thoroughly convinced that if I had accomplished certain things, it would sure to make myself feel worthy. I was busy trying to become someone else. I constructed a parallel life: someone that knew French, Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese, someone who was a dedicated and revered marathon runner, someone who was cultured in Shakespeare and Greek Mythology, someone who could entertain her guests with beer and cheese made from her own very backyard.

“Self improvement” became self-rejection, a mad haste to becoming someone other than myself. I was always either “squeezing myself into a narrow version of revered behavior or crashing and rebelling against everything that constricted me.” No amount of goals I accomplished, no amount of tasks crossed off, satisfied me. “I had to keep doing more and more to silence the part of me that knows my actions were based on fear of what would happen if I didn’t try so hard” (Geneen Roth).

Stephen Levine, a meditation teacher once said, “Hell is wanting to be something and somewhere different from where you are.” If that’s true, then I spent a good number of my life in hell.

For a long time, I did this with art too. I signed up for workshop courses, made myself watch art videos everyday, draw everyday, paint everyday. I was so busy “climbing up the art career” until one day, I had pain and tightness in my wrist and tiredness in my eyes and I was forced to do anything else except for art. That same year, my aunt passed away. I hadn’t seen her for 20 years. There were so many words left unsaid.

I took a walk to my favorite coffee shop and had some warm chai. I didn’t realize that on that particular day, there was a festival at Japantown. So I sipped my chai and watched the kids playing taiko drums as the wind blew wisps of hair around my cheeks.

We are so afraid that if left to ourselves, without structure, without goals and resolutions, that we won’t accomplish anything, that we will falter and give in to laziness. Most resolutions are created out of fear, force, shame, or guilt. They are focused on “self-improvement”- the belief that something is broken and needed fixing rather than “self-actualization” – the unleashing of your already abundant amazing self and embodying your potential. Trust, that left to yourself, you will not destroy what matters most.

Ten years more, at age 27, I stopped making these resolution lists.

So what would happen if I didn’t try so hard?

I paint and make films. I just stopped counting how many sketchbooks I’ve filled up by a certain time. I do yoga and I jog, but I stopped counting how many calories I burned, how long it takes to run a mile, or how many times I go in a week. I learned enough Japanese to telecommute with my boss at SEGA in Tokyo, Japan, but I still don’t know how to write Kanji so I’ll get Google translator to help me with that. I gave away my stamps to an elementary kid who might have appreciated them more than me. If I do end up picking up Mandarin, great. If I don’t, that’s fine too. For my parties, I buy beer from my friend who is currently going to Beer School and cheese from the local green market ~ I’m never disappointed.

Our society has a very odd way of rewarding self-improvement and New Year’s Resolutions. We never question whether they are right to begin with. I’m not thoroughly against resolutions or goals. I think they are important in that they provide some sort of trajectory to aim for. As well as they are truthful tools to get you closer to self-actualization.

For example, you can begin from where you are. What are my goals? Say, to get a job at a top studio as an art director. What prize are you hoping to receive when you accomplish that goal? Is it fame? Financial reward? Or Creative reward that comes with a big studio? Is it rest from “having to find another job ever again”? or is it the freedom to choose your projects? Do you even like managing other artists (this comes with the responsibilities of being an art director)? So if you were able to narrow down your true desire from your goal, say you want to be an art director at a big studio so you can choose your projects and work with other inspiring top level artists . . . (you don’t really need a big studio or title of an art director to accomplish this true desire) what you, in fact, really wanted is freedom and creativity. Unless you can uncover your deepest desires, goals are elusive from one task to another. But if you ask questions about your goals, their true motives, and  they are very specific towards embodying your full potential; they can become your greatest tool and compass towards the theme of your life - the meaning you are trying to make with your life.

Whether you are just starting out or writing your resolutions for the 100th time, the biggest caveat, is that goals and resolutions should never be created out of fear or punishment (ie, if I don’t exercise, I’ll gain weight), but goals should be born out of trust in becoming and self-care (I like the feeling of moving my body and having strength in my limbs, so I’ll exercise). It shouldn’t be “Draw everyday (because if I don’t I won’t become somebody special, I won't create at all, other artists will pass me up, I won’t get a job, or I won’t have anything to contribute,” it should be “I enjoy the process of creating a visual physical thing from ideas, I love putting my imaginary worlds unto something visible that I can share with other people so I will draw whenever when I can.”

Here at Monkey + Seal, we’re a big fan of goals’ close cousin: themes. An extended explanation from out last post: whereas goals cover measurable units (running 3x a week), themes are broad strokes that highlight the values that are important to you (living a more a healthy lifestyle). With goals, you can get easily disappointed when you run 2 days and fail the 3^rd day while with theme, if I fail to run at all in the week, there are many other actions I can take to fulfill the theme of living a healthy lifestyle, I can drink more water, get more rest, eat low cholesterol diet, walk around the block during lunchtime. The same thing could be said for the artist. Instead of “draw everyday, write everyday, or paint everyday” I now “incorporate a more creative life in my moment to moment,” that could mean anything from sipping chai while observing the sounds of steam milk, coffee grinding, and laughter at a café, taking photographs outside my window, catching up on the latest film and discussing its cinematography and color, to walking around the block while hashing out the ending to my film.

So what are your themes for this year? For 6 months? This month?

What is your true north?

Process: Painting "Alone in the Dark"

Monkey here today, for a quick run-down of my process while painting a very recent piece, which I call "Alone in the Dark." In the photo above, the weird blue light coming diagonally across the upper left is just a lens flare.

So for a figurative piece where I want to really convey a specific emotion, I shoot reference. While others might be masters of expressions without reference, I am not, so I got our digital camera, a little work lamp, a sheet of blue acetate, some masking tape, a black cloth, and asked for the assistance of an awesome model, Seal.

If you don't have someone else you can ask to model, you can always do it yourself. I must admit, it is much easier to work with someone else. If you can't afford to pay someone, ask other artists if they might need a model of their own, and do a trade-sie.


So the above photo is primarily the one I worked off of. I like the hand positions in this photo, but I wasn't completely sold on her head position. I skimmed through some other photos I had snapped in our little 10-minute photo shoot, and after doing some Photoshop work, adjusting the levels, adding a very transparent gradient of aqua, I ended up with this:

With this as my reference, I started to paint. I paint with acrylics, and I like using Liquitex Heavy Body acrylics. For this painting, I used my usual palette set-up, which consists of:

titanium white, unbleached titanium (lazy painter's warm white), mars black, yellow oxide, cadmium yellow light hue, burnt umber, cadmium red medium hue, alizarin crimson hue permanent, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue (green shade), veridian hue permanent, and dioxazine purple. I will sometimes add extra colors to the palette if I need a large quantity of a certain color that I don't want to mix (I also keep a tube of magenta and an aqua handy), but usually I just stick with these colors and mix everything.

I also got a tube of ivory black to warm up the black since I was doing a cool light, but you can just as well mix some alizarin into your black to warm it up a bit if you stick with mars black.

I did a direct drawing onto the canvas using watered-down burnt umber. I mainly went for general proportions and gesture at this point. So you can see, I didn't quite hit that target on my first go, but since acrylics dry fast and you can paint over stuff, I decided to fix it later and just start painting.

I laid in a dark black for the shadowy background and mixed up a nice green to really push the creepy atmosphere and emphasize the unearthly lighting situation (which is also coming from below, which you don't see very often and adds to the creep-factor).

I also laid in a green underpainting where the flesh would be. Why? Because I like the effect of laying down a blue-green in my portraits and then layering fleshtones on top, especially if you're putting them in green light.

I then blocked in the lights and darks of the shirt, using a thin black wash to fill in the shirt, as I didn't want to lose the form of the shirt too early, while I was still figuring out the folds and construction and form. If I was a crazier painter, I could probably have gone with some opaque black, but I didn't want to push it, so I took it easy. I hit the light parts with green, since that's the color of the light.

The next step was to paint over the green with some unbleached titanium mixed with a bit of cad red light and yellow oxide. I also added the shadows on the skin, and took a bit of time to carve out the shape of the hand.


So the above photo is taken after about 3 hours of work. I paint fairly fast, thanks to a Quick Studies class I took at Academy, but I had to slow down a bit since I hadn't attempted to do anything even remotely realistic in a while, and sort of forgot what I had learned.

Tthis next photo was taken after about another 3 hours of work. What did I do in these three hours to go from weird chalk-lady to a decent approximation of a scared Eve?


Well, I spent a good two hours or so really studying the folds and buttons on her shirt. For some reason, I get a kick out of painting collared shirts on people, so I ended up devoting a bit too much time to the clothing, but it turned out pretty swell.

I also slowly painted, and repainted, and repainted again Eve's face, working to smoothly blend and capture all the subtle colors that are in her face in the reference photo. I also had a bunch of facial proportions all wrong, so I repainted her nose about three times. The first time it was too small, then it was too low and big, and then it was too high, and then I figured it wasn't worth it to go for a perfect likeness and decided that the nose looked proportional and real to the painting and that was that.

I also took time to start painting the hands. I then realized, while painting, that something seemed funny, and somehow during the painting process I stopped using the photo reference, and fudged the hands quite a bit. After carving a bit away, repositioning some fingers, and generally undoing a lot of the preliminary mistakes I had made, I repainted the fingers.

And after another hour or two, I decided I was finished. During those last few hours, I pulled out some highlights on her hair, softened a lot of the cast shadows on her face, sculpted the eyes a bit more, rendered the lips, added a bit of detail to the hands, and repainted her neck so that the anatomy worked a bit better.



Ta-da! So after about 50 minutes of reference shooting and prep work, and about 9-11 hours of painting, the finished product is here. I saw the painting starting to take a pulp-horror paperback book look early on, and decided that I would try to keep it in that vein as opposed to going for ultra-realism (which I find I just don't have the patience for).

Oh yeah! By the way, I also use Golden brand Acrylic Glazing Liquid (Satin) to thin my paints if I want to sort of glaze over dried paint to smooth transitions or tint parts certain colors. I used a lot of medium while painting the hands and face, due to the high concentration of blood vessels close to the surface of the skin. Due to the green light literally going through the skin, hitting the red blood, and bouncing back, you get this weird mixture of cool pinks and warm greens, with strange transitions in-between.

I hope you learned something from this process post, and feel free to ask any specific questions in the comments. While this isn't the style I'm currently working in, it is nice to bust out a creepy painting that flexes some of my classical realism training that I got in school, and also balances my work so it's also more fun to bust out and do my regular sweaty monsters. Woo!

877 Valencia Group Show

On Saturday, Seal had her group show opening at 877 Valencia in the Mission. It was relatively a small space, but the traffic was great. Seal got to live paint with James Garcia of Kulayan Arts and Wednesday Kirwan of Gama-Go. She realized what a fun privilege it is to be able to paint in the streets of San Francisco and to have art displayed in public spaces and local businesses. She met strangers and friends who stopped by to observe and ask questions. She loves San Francisco for its love of local artists.

The start of my live-painting, I had in mind a tree in the snow. After 30-40 minutes, James and I decided to switch to see what we could come up with. I like the creativity and unpredictability that comes with collaborative art. The pieces below are currently unfinished. We'll be working on them sometime in the coming weeks and will re-post the final. As friends of Monkey+Seal, you get to see our process and a short glimpse of what's to come.

The start of the collaborative mash-up with James Garcia.


James's piece, in which, I was able to partake in. He did the gorgeous colorful tree on the left (photo doesn't do the details justice). Since I had a brain fart, I added my signature jellyfish and raven on the right. I love working with other artists, since they have different ways of approaching the painting. I especially loved the palette that James was working in. It is also currently an unfinished piece, the final will be re-posted.


Wednesday Kirwan doing a painting of a beautiful girl.

Inside the show. The owner of the space was 17 when he got married to his wife. He and his wife worked hard while going to school and opened up his business in 1979. They have been doing well ever since, and are big supporters of showcasing local artists. It's touching to hear the success-stories of people who have struggled through their adventure cycle and came out on the other side.

When Seal is live-painting, she remembers how fun painting and art is. Sometimes it takes putting your art out in front of people to remember why you paint. To see people's reactions, questions, . . . that your art has somehow impacted them, even if by a little bit, this is what it means to make art. Sure you can make art and keep them in the closet from prying eyes, but ultimately, art is communication with people's thoughts and emotions. In the end, it needs to be seen and appreciated outside of yourself. So take out that half-written novel and unfinished painting, finish them and let them see the light of day.

How to Deal With an Artists' Block

Artists' Block:

This is a difficult subject that Seal will try to address in multiple posts, starting with this one. Almost every artist has experienced or will come up against this wall called an "artists' block" or "slump" where art doesn't feel as creative or at worst, even painful to complete. Not only do we avoid doing art, we beat ourselves up for not doing it: "I should have started sooner" "Why am I not doing more?" we demand from ourselves. We try to fix it, by doing EXTRA the next day, "Okay, I will get up earlier and do more tomorrow, since I slacked off so much," but when the next day comes, we are listless, full of other commitments that take its place (we are secretly relieved in not having to do art), at the end of the day, we feel guilty, disappointed, angry - another day has gone by without having done art.

Let's break this down. An artist's block needs to be seen as an illness. There is a cause behind it and a treatment. Each case is unique, so the diagnosis will often have to be made on an individual basis, but the good news is, once you know what is is, what's causing it, you can begin to find the cure.

With an artist's block, you need to treat it with all seriousness and respect. Your body, mind, and soul is telling you something very important that you haven't been listening to all this time, and it has resorted to hijacking your system, creating all kinds of ailments, shutdown, and alert signals for you to pay attention.

Like any physical illness, when you visit a doctor, they begin with questions and tests, to find out what's causing it. When did you begin to feel an artist block? have you had it before? how frequent is it? do the rest of your family members have a history of artist block, it may appear in the form of minor depression, listlessness, etc., Has something triggered it? What was the event? What happened? And how did it make you feel?

Recently, Seal had been kindly asked to do a group gallery show. She was filled with excitement and gratitude, after a day had passed, she began to feel dread -- to the point of not showing up for the gallery show. Painting became very difficult and scary. She procrastinated. But every day was filled with growing disappointment of herself - she felt as if the kind opportunity to show in the gallery was squandered with each day that she wasn't painting, and was instead used to fight her artists' block. This is not the first time for Seal to experience this kind of block. Throughout her battle to go back to art school and pursue art despite vocal oppositions, Seal has dealt with many artist's block many times before. Sometimes it would come and go within an hour, other times it lasted months, or years before Seal would pick up the paintbrush again. So, she was able to recognize this recent experience as another artist block.

She quickly launched into her series of questions. What triggered it? Has a similar incident like this happened before? What am I feeling? She wrote a lot. During an artists' block, it's good to document your thought process. Suddenly, the words in her journal jumped off the page . . . "I am afraid . . . " then slowly the answer scrawled itself on the page" . . . it dawned on me that the last time I was asked to be in a group show, I had left the gallery scene early during opening night, only to find that my painting was stolen when I came to pick it up after the show. The gallery denied knowledge of the painting's existence. My friend, who was simultaneously my friendly rival in school, agreed that he never saw that painting at the gallery in the first place. Our friendship dissolved soon after. To this day, it is unclear whether a guest had stole it, my friend who invited me to be in the show, or the gallery curator did."

I was a young, naive, college student at the time. I didn't even get to take a picture of it when it was hung on the wall. I was just happy to have been asked to be in a gallery. It was, at that time, the best painting I had ever did - the one my mentor had acknowledged as having potential. It was the first time anyone had acknowledged that I could be something. It was the first time I began to dream. I had dreams of going to Cooper Union and doing residency painting there. That one painting was a symbol, the accumulation of all I had learned thus far, my best expression, and I was afraid, that it was a fluke - that I couldn't paint like that anymore. And no one that matters to me now had ever seen it. It exists only as a faint memory in my mind. I can still see the rich colors, the smooth transition, the curvature . . . I am haunted by it, and seemingly, only I know of its existence.

This one incident continually presents itself as an artist block for Seal. But once she recognized the cause for her current state of procrastination, resentment, and fears, the treatment was simple, but it does take time. Acknowledge the experience and feelings that come with it. Grieve for what is lost, replace what is lost. Realize that most artist blocks are old mechanism, tactics you used as a child to protect you. As a child it often doesn't know any better means of dealing with a scary or painful situations, so it shuts down, throw tantrums, hides. But as an adult you can comfort your inner artist child, make amends for what is ailing, and have the power to protect it now.

For example, the adult-you can take extra measures to make sure you have good relationship with the curator, make extra copies of the contract, take pictures of your work, etc.

Begin by acknowledging the block. Don't blame yourself. Remember your artist block is simply trying to protect you from whatever danger it perceived. Find out what it is that is causing the block. Write in your journal, draw it, knit it, in whatever communication that is most helpful and conducive for your artist self. Some people do yoga, and talk to their bodies and they answer back! Your physical body carries a lot of information that are right under the surface of your consciousness. One lady who was suffering from a sniff neck asked herself, "neck, why are you hurting me" and she answered back, "because you're always sticking your neck out for other people, and you never stand up for yourself." Wow. Just the other week, Seal asked herself why she had a toothache and got the answer "cause I took on more than I can chew." Obviously if you have major physical problems, you should also check them at a legitimate doctor's office. But often our ailing psyches manifest themselves unto our physical form.

Once you've got the answer to why you are in an artist's block. Thank your artist's block for trying to protect you. Assure it that it is being listened to and that you will take care of what needs to be done, to make your artist feel secure. Then take those actions to ensure the safety of your artist self to come out and play again. This is the most important step. Because a broken promise from yourself will lead you further into the block. Sometimes all you need to ask is, "what will make you feel better? What would make you feel safe to do art again? Sometimes the answers come quickly, other times, it might take awhile. Throughout the while, just listen. Do low key activities, (remember, an artist's block is an illness that needs to be treated. You can't expect to dance and paint, if you've got a gunshot wound to the heart. It has to be looked after first.) And lastly, start gradually. No shock. Even 1 word a day or a paint stroke a day. That's it, no more. One day soon, you'll revive the desire not to put the brush down.

For more reading: The North Star, The Artist's Way, Fearless Creating

Portfolio, Industry Recruiters, Life as an Artist

Last week, Seal attended her art school's senior industry portfolio day, where big-name industry recruiters such as Laika, Pixar, Dreamworks, Illumination, Lucas Arts, and Blizzard were conducting one-on-one interviews on the spot. There were many recent grad students like myself who were vying to break into the animation/film industry. The students were filed into a small room and waited to be sent to the various industry representatives for their respective interviews. As soon as an industry stated what they were looking for ("we're looking for 1-2 concept artists"), all students with the "right" portfolio were called in. Sometimes the line to see a certain company snaked around the corner and your peers could hear your every exchange with the rep during your interview.

Although Seal is very grateful and she personally had a lot of fun, she also noticed a downside for her fellow artists. Unfortunately, these kinds of situations breed what Monkey and Seal calls a "mentality of lack." What I noticed was that many of the students around me were thinking in terms of limitation. Many felt that this "one day" is the only one shot to their dreams, the "be all, end all" moment. Rumors started spreading around, "they are looking for only one artist, etc." Although it may be true for a company to state such a thing, it does not mean that perhaps they will not be looking next semester or even a month from now. I can see negativity in the students' demeanor. One guy in the elevator (whom I did not even know) randomly asked me, "so, . . . how many interviews did you get?" I (don't like thinking in terms of numbers) replied, "I don't know, I wasn't really counting" and he scoffed at me, "I was called into six of them." It saddened me to think that this "artist" defined his craft and himself by how many interviews he had.

It shocked me to see that so many of my talented peers, whom I aspire to, and consider my friendly rivals, were downgrading themselves. They defined themselves by how well their portfolio was received, or how many interviews they had, not by how far they have come, where they want to go, and what they need to do in order to get there.

Although it was intense, I had a lot of fun. I heard a lot of good feedback regarding my work and also how to improve it. I now have a direction to evolve my art. I was so happy to be able to speak with creative directors/ and artists from the all the different companies and had the opportunity to pick their brain and experience. Their knowledge, time, and feedback is invaluable. After all, some of these folks have worked in the field 5-20 years. Although I understand that everyone is looking for a job, would like a job, and would like to be recognized for their artwork, the one-on-one feedback from these creatives for even just one minute - was the most rewarding and important piece of the entire experience.

With all due respect and perspective, when these experienced artists of 5-20 years, see a "recent grad student's" portfolio, they probably come to similar conclusions: "I see potential, but needs polishing."

In these kinds of situations, an artist must have pride in their work for what it is, but also see into the future of their growth. One day, I will throw away everything that is in my current portfolio because I will have grown, my work may change, and I need to move forward and constantly experiment in new ways to best express the images in my head.

There were plenty of people who had talent and a kick-ass portfolio, but the people who really did well that day, who seemed as if they shone above the crowd, were people who believed in their own potential, accepted the situation as it were, and at the same time, had the generous heart to root for their comrades during such an intense situation. A couple of people came to mind, but I was thinking specifically of my friend, Nathan. He was giving everyone the thumbs up, reassuring his colleagues, really, genuinely, was wishing well to all of his "friends and simultaneous competitors." His personally was gold. And the industry recruiters could see that. I'm happy to congratulate him on his new work in the animation industry.

The way I like to look at it is this: There are jobs for each and every artist, it's just about finding the right fit.

Your portfolio, your current skills, who you are as a person right now . . . it is what it is, but ultimately, it can be molded into anything. In the end, you are not defined by your art portfolio, but your character as a person and an artist.

Congrats to Seal and a Question for You

Today we got some good news - The visual development project she worked on all last semester has been accepted to the Academy of Art's Spring Show! Yay for Seal! The best that can come of this is that Seal gets a job offer from an animation studio, the worst is that she now has another award to put on her resume!

In other news, for all you readers out there, Monkey wants to know what your dream guide would be. Would is be about how to make a living as an artist? Would it be how to do prepress for commercial printing? Would it have something to do with the wedding industry? A design for dummies? A guide to essential tools for self-promotion? A beginner's guide to painting?

We want to hear about what YOU want. Ideally. Even if we've never talked about it before, what would your ideal guide consist of?

Stop by to see Seal Paint!

Hi all! Don't forget that you can see Seal in action once again doing a live painting show with the ever talented Lawrence Yang at Hyphen's Issue 19 release party: the Blaze of Glory! Monkey will also be on hand selling Seal's prints and his ties, so be sure to check it out!

The show is at 111 Minna, and starts at 9pm. Seal should start painting around 9:30-10pm. Cover is $10, but if you pay $20, you also get a 1 year subscription! Cool beans! You can check out Hyphen's FB event page for more info.

Rough recipe - Vegan Hamburg Soup

So although the title seems pretty contradictory, Monkey + Seal got creative in the kitchen the other night and came up with this new tasty soup! While perhaps the photo doesn't really capture the full appetizing nature of this, we never cook for presentation, but for taste!

Monkey really missed French Onion Soup (one of his favorites when he ate meat), but after being vegetarian for the past couple of years, he hasn't tasted any in a long, long time. Thus, he figured he might simulate some of the pleasing qualities of the soup with this creation.

Since Monkey was trained in a Co-Op kitchen and learned how to cook by seasoning to taste, he never got the hang of writing down recipes - especially not exact quantities. So please bear with him as he (tries) to teach you how to cook this awesome vegan delight.

Ingredients:
-4-5 cloves of garlic
-oregano
-basil
-salt + pepper
-rosemary (or rosemary salt, yay!)
-vegan soy mozzarella
-1 big leek
-1 vegan beef patty (we used Morningstar Vegan Grillers)
-crap-load of vegetables (note: crapload is the technical term for a whole lot of stuff...we did a celerac root, a handful of chard, 4-5 small radishes, 1 large watermelon daikon, a head of broccoli, some carrots, and a small potato. You can really put whatever you want...think italian soups..)
-1 hamburger bun
-some pasta (1/4 to 1/3 pound of whatevs)

1. So in a soup-pot-thingy, boil some water and cook the pasta al dente (ie..almost cooked, but still pretty tough). Drain in a colander and set aside someplace. I'd also run some cold water on it so they don't all stick together.
2. Dump the water from the pot and dry it. Put some veggie oil in it and loosely chop the garlic cloves and leeks. Throw the garlic in first, let it cook a bit, then add the chopped leek. Stir so they don't burn. Once they're sorta cooked, add about 1/2 pot of water to the pot. Bring to a boil.
3. Chop the veggies (the smaller the quicker your soup will be done) and put them in according to how slowly they cook (the roots went in first, the leafy stuff later).
4. Season. Yes this is oversimplified, but you just take it as it goes. I used dried oregano and basil, and added about physically as much as the pepper and salt.
5. Let the veggies cook til they're as soft as you want them. Add in the pasta and turn down the head to medium (like a 3-4).
6. Tear up the hamburger bun into tiny pieces and mix them into the soup.
7. Slice the soy cheese into strips and lay them down on top of the soup. I kinda pushed them down just under the surface of the soup so they get nice and gooey, cuz I like cheese that way.
8. Once the cheese melts to your desired consistency, remove from heat, spoon into bowls, and serve!

The soup pot we make served two. Note that we ONLY ate soup for dinner (and an olive baguette from La Boulange) and also I am a ravenous beast that tends to have a hearty appetite. So, from what I've seen, if you're serving this as just part of a meal, then it can probably serve 6-8 small-medium eaters, or maybe 4 hungry souls.

Anyhoo, that's enough cooking with Monkey. Stay tuned for more art!

THANK YOU!!

Monkey + Seal would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who supported us last night (and the past few weeks) to make Handmade Ho Down such an amazing success. Everyone who volunteered their time, bought stuff, just showed up and hung out, let us get out of class/work early, who dealt with Monkey's lack-of-sleep-craziness - we really couldn't have done it without you.

Seal sold out of a few of her prints and Monkey sold a bunch of ties and is almost out of an entire edition of prints. We made a lot of good contacts and met tons of awesome people. Thank you for your continued support and we hope to see you at our next show!

Seal Process: Tyger Tyger series in acrylics

Above is Seal's most recent illustration. Normally she works in gouache or watercolor, but for the next couple of illustrations, she is trying out acrylics.

She is inspired and repulsed by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster of 1986. Although not a historical accurate presentation of Chernobyl, her piece is set in a similar imaginative setting. She wanted to feature a resilient resourceful young female protagonist, a survivor, who utilizes her art and imagination to navigate through the decimated world. Below is Seal's painting space. She has her inspiring artistic references close by when she is painting: 1) Cannabis Works by Tatsuyuki Tanaka and 2) Revelations of Chernobyl by Nakasuji Jun.


She recently noticed that she also keeps her coffee dangerously close to her paint water bucket. Which is probably a bad idea. Next to her painting on the right is her original thumbnail. Every 30 minutes she checks the thumbnail and adjusts her values as needed. Below: this is what her palette looks like after 4 hours of painting. She has two side by side so she doesn't have to change the palette as often. For the purpose of this painting, she wanted the colors to be muddy and muted. Ideally, it's a good idea to change the palette more often so you have "cleaner brighter colors."

Below is a zoomed shot of a corner of her illustration. She gives herself at least a .25" bleed all the way around and paints beyond the edge. It makes all the difference in cropping if you give yourself extra room for flexibility. All in all, she had fun painting old rusted pipes and the light coming in through the window.

Thanks for visiting!

Come see Seal's art on Saturday!

This Saturday, November 14th, come and check out Seal's work in person at the Sugar Cafe from 7pm til 2am! Seal was invited to be a part of a group show put on by Saida, an organization that is working to raise awareness about the growing problem of homelessness in San Francisco and to raise funds to build a homeless shelter. Pretty darn spiffy, if you ask us!

There's even going to be a fireplace and a fashion show involved as well! There is a cover charge (that enters you into a raffle) if you are under 21, and if you are of drinking age, part of the profits from your booze will go to Glide, and awesome SF org fighting homelessness in the Tenderloin - plus there should be some great art for sale!

Seal will have a few pieces in the show (look for Eve Skylar's work) so definitely stop on by! Monkey will be on hand as well drinking and supporting the Seal.

Seal's Watercolor Illustration - Process

Seal is currently working on a watercolor illustration. This piece is titled "Looking for Noah," loosely inspired by the Noah's Ark story and Blacksad, a comic album series created by author Juan Diaz Canales and artist Juanjo Guardino. Juanjo Guardino's detective story features anthropomorphic animals in full watercolor illustrated panels.

Seal mainly wanted to convey the overall tone of low key bar lighting, facial expressions of the different characters, and "a moment" during an investigation. Seal had in mind a Chicago bar with mahogany counters.
Seal usually starts with small thumbnails for composition, that get enlarged into a detailed pencil drawing. The above stage was trying to decide lighting. In order to get the "old wooden bar" look, she mixed burnt umber, purline, and rose madder. That way she can also control value and temperature just by varying the degree of each color.


Seal's palette resembles the color wheel. It makes it easier to reach across the complimentary color to mute, cool, or darken a color.

Seal normally doesn't like to use masking fluid, but because the piece called for extreme highlights, she does masks some of the lighted edges on the characters and bottles before painting. If you rub some liquid hand soap on your brush before using masking fluid, it will preserve your brush and make it easier to clean the glue off. Once the colors are mixed, Seal layers monochromatic value using a big flat brush. Textures are layered with hard small brushes. The result is the top above illustration. Eventhough Seal likes this monochromatic piece, she eventually wants to glaze some muted greens and blues to make the piece much more richer in color.

Monkey got published!

Monkey got his illustration published in the latest issue of Hyphen. You can find the illustration on page 18 for the article "Hollywood Not Bending," about the topic of race and casting in Hollywood. This topic has been at the forefront of the controversy surrounding the movie "The Last Airbender." This was a great pairing as Monkey takes personal interest in this topic (he and Seal both have acting backgrounds as well!). You can find out a lot more about the issue at racebending.com.

While Monkey + Seal is generally very benign, we also have a very distinct social and political side to us. We actually try to infuse as much social commentary as we can in our work (although there is a lot of stuff we just like to create for fun), and we generally try to be subtle about it. But sometimes, a more direct approach is necessary (like this fine item, and these postcards here).

Back to school and a work in progress

Hello! Monkey and Seal just started their fall semester at art school last week. Thanks to the many generous acts of kindness from friends, family, strangers, Martha, and Monkey, Seal is able to attend her much needed senior portfolio classes. She has been busy juggling daytime work, school, and nighttime art. She is very excited about this semester and is learning a lot. Seal is working hard to come up with new illustrations and paintings for APE (the Alternative Press Expo) in October. Although they are number 44 on the waitlist, both Monkey and Seal are very hopeful. They also recently bought a new Epson printer that can print archival large poster size!

On another news, Monkey is hard at work meeting with other artists in San Francisco to create more venues to showcase everyone's work. If you are an artist interested in selling your art, please contact Monkeyandseal@gmail.com.

Now it's back to art time! Here's a quick sneak peek at some of Seal's newest concept art!

Seal's Gouache In Progress

Seal has been hard at work sharpening her gouache skills to prep for her weekend-long demo at the SF Zine Fest. She's currently working on some smaller paintings to sell/make glicees from. She's still working on this one, but here's a sneak peek!


(from L to Right): Gouache work in progress, original pencil sketch, digital color over pencil sketch