Alternative Cafe - "This is the End" show

As some of you may already know, Ryan got a piece into a group show in Seaside, CA at the Alternative Cafe; and we attended the opening on Friday night. It was quite a ridiculous journey down to Seaside involving many a bus and train and walking for miles (only to learn later that it would actually have been cheaper to just rent a car...) but ooh well. I still rather enjoyed our trip. I have really been needing to get out of the city for awhile for a little mental health break. I need fresh air, grass and trees in my life -- which has been seriously lacking for some time now.




This is somewhere between Oakland and San Jose. Even just getting to see this outside of the train window was a relief.

Anyway, our journey wouldn't have been quite so long and or ridiculous had we not missed our connecting bus because of a delayed train. However, we did, and the result was us wandering around San Jose, CA for about 3 hours or so in order to kill time before catching the next bus to Seaside. At first we were both a bit furious about the long time gap between buses (worried that we might not even make the show) but San Jose turned out to be pretty cool to wander around in. San Jose has a really nice downtown area. They strive to integrate art into the city - through murals, architecture, sculpture, and the like.




One of the first things we saw was this giant Monopoly board at a park.








This is one of the ugliest buildings I have seen, but in such an awesome//hilarious way. So very 80's. So very gross, yet, so very boss









Eventually we made it down to Seaside, with plenty of time left to enjoy the show, which, by the way, was curated by Creep Machine





Ryan in front of his piece.
"The Return to Darkness" 6" x 10" graphite on paper (framed)
See a much better photo of his drawing on his BLOG


This is one of my personal favorites from the show (besides Ryan's piece of course)
"How Close I've Come" by Tom Haubrick 9" x 19" ink and wash
More from Tom Haubrick


My other favorite, is by Ken Garduno This piece is titled "End Games". I'm not sure of the deminsions.. it looked about letter size or so.

Then of course, there were several artists whose work I had never seen before. I also had the pleasure to get to chat with a few of them. One of whom was Gene Guynn His paintings are AMAZING. I could only get 3 out of the 4 from the show in this shot

But make sure to check out his website to see more samples.

I also got to talking to Gene's friend, Mary (who's work was not in the show) but I thought I'd share some with you here. She draws and paints lovely and detailed works on wood (mostly) as well as some on paper.




The night ended well, but not before one last photo of all of the artists who attended.

If you'd like to see all of the work from the show, go HERE

The following day was very pleasant indeed. Seaside was actually not at all what I had expected it to be, and we didn't see the sea at all in fact. We were just on one big strip of road full of fast food, motels and 99 cent stores. And then we saw it. LITTLE CEASARS! O-M-G it was the best moment of my life. OK. That's an over-statement, but I literally jumped up and down and squealed with glee. I F-ING love Little Ceasars. (sad, I know, but so true) And I haven't had crazy bread in months










So instead of going to the sea, like one probably should when visiting Seaside, we went to Litlle Ceasars. And Target. haha. But seeing as neither of those things exist in San Francisco, I felt justified in going.

So overall it was a pretty excellent trip. We got to see some amazing works of art, meet some cool people and eat some long over due crazy bread. And the best part of all, was getting out of the city and exploring new territory.