El Papél: 0226
“In a country that recognizes value only in economic transactions, the ambiguity of cultural work is routinely viewed with ambivalence.”
Happy Figuary!
And Happy Black History Month! We wouldn’t have the culture that we love so much without Black Artists and Leaders. We are honoring this month by hiring and paying Black Art Models directly. Make sure you are coughing up extra tips this month for them.
We kicked off February with our first instructional workshop, Figure Drawing Basics, with our friend Michael Buffington at The Frontier Tower, right next to Blick’s Art Supplies on Market and 6th Street. Some of you may know it on Tik Tok as the Robot Fighting spot. We know, an unlikely partnership. Especially when these oligarchs are the reason for genocide of the culture in the Bay Area. But we were offered the space as a donation, which would help our budget greatly for offering such programming. In addition to receiving assistance on fundraising, directly from the tech workers that work in this building and its partners - to sustain our organization.
We are very picky when it comes to working with new partners, so when they approached us with this offer, we were pretty firm with our acceptance, heh. We don’t want to live in a world where we are complacent with what we get - we are going to start demanding.
Oh CCA’s closure. It’s one of the hottest subjects of the town right now.
What can you say about institutions selling out? What kind of poem can we write about the hurt this will stain, across generations of artists who will never experience a nonprofit art school. The students who are attending now, the backstab they must feel. The faculty who were blindsided. And where did all that donated money go? will Vanderbilt just make Ai art slop and teach everyone to be a total NIMBY? So many questions, whose answers we are more scared of hearing. Like Winston Smith’s Art has plastered so eloquently on shirt, in comment of Thee Parkside’s closure: “These will be condo’s you can’t afford!” Will these changes hinder the culture that’s still left, or thrive under pressure?
Sigh, another day in the police state.
With the Super bowl looming over the Bay this weekend, a revote on the great Highway, and now Bottom of thee Hill and Thee Parkside - it’s kind of hard to maintain the garden of hope. But with small glimmers of hope, like Oasis being able to stay, we have things to look forward to. And building this programming out, helps us see that. We need to see cycles end to generate new ones, or something like that.
Como Bad Bunny dice - “Que viva la puteria”.
Updates:
We have 1 more seat for both Franklin Lei’s Gouache Workshop. Seats are filled up for Jeff Lance’s free, 1 day workshop. We’ll be releasing the second half of the year of workshops in April! Charcoal, fashion illustration, and oil painting.
If you are challenging yourself this month for Figuary theme, consider submitting your favorite pieces to our BiAnnual Zine! We’ll have 2 submission dates listed on our website. It’s a great way to get your stuff out there, help us raise money, and start gathering pieces for our bigger project: a coffee thick photo book of our 15 or 20 year anniversary.
If you really love a certain sketch and planned on framing it or finishing it into a painting or refined drawing - consider submitting it to our 13th Year Anniversary Art Show! Yep, we’re doing it again. This time, at 5 Olive Gallery for 2 months in the Tenderloin! It would run from August to September.
Upcoming Events:
Valentine’s Day Art Market
Come join us for our first Art Market! We’ll have a special figure drawing event inside the venue, while we have a special, adults only Art Market in the larger ballrooms areas. We’ll have live music, live screenprinting, an art market, and great vibes. Come shop for the holidays and support local artists.
This is in partnership with The Oakland Grove, where we will have our Wednesday Evening Figure Drawing sessions!
📅 February 14th 2026
🕰️ 12pm to 4pm
📍 3630 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland
🎨 Free to attend the Art Market.
Our first figure drawing salon of the year: Burlesque!
That’s right suga, we got your hot cakes right here. Come join us as we get the ol’ razzle dazzle from Andy Rose and Edie Eve! This is a costumed event and will be all ages.
📅 March 1tth 2026
🕰️ 2pm to 4pm
📍 140 9th Street, San Francisco
🎨 $30 presales and walk-ins.
Artist Talks: A New Series
We are excited to start yapping in front of colleagues and strangers, on all things art related. Thanks to the good friends at Blick’s on Market, we are going to be using their store as a space to hold some good convo’s. FREE and on an early Saturday afternoon.
Come join us!
Some Events You Should Go to:
1. Our boy and team member Nathaniel Bice, is having a Solo Show in February at Queer Arts Featured on Castro Street from 5-9pm on 02/06/2026! Let’s pack the place!!
2. Lian’s got a piece at Modern Eden’s Year of The Horse Group Show, which opens on 02/06!
3. Risa Iwasaki’s Felt Sculptures at at MAG Gallery, opening on 02/06
4. NoisePop Festival! runs from February 19th to March 1st.
