Maganda Open House

For my first field trip I attended the Maganda Open House, held in Naia Lounge. I was immediately drawn to the paintings on display and I spent the rest of the time there. The colors used in the paintings were so vibrant and intense it would be difficult not to be touched by them. One man did the paintings and each was unique and I really enjoyed the different names he used for titles. The artist was standing close to his paintings and it is always nice to see an artist up against his or her work looking so proud and content with the outcome. I paint but have not done much painting since coming to Berkeley this fall. Standing in front of the paintings and looking at the brush strokes and imagining the feeling of mixing colors made me miss painting more than I thought I ever would. I have been doing some drawing here and there, but it wasn't until looking closely at someone else's work did I really miss working. Drawing is not the same for me; the smell is different and the colors aren't there. Over Thanksgiving I picked up a brush and pallet knife again and it felt so so good.
At the open house I also flipped through past issues of the magazine and I really liked what I saw. There are a huge variety of poets and artists and I really enjoyed reading what others had written down. All in all, I liked the open house.