'As Within, so without' Art Show

How I planned and executed my very first Art Show, in Bali Indonesia.

After traveling for about a year, we arrived in Indonesia! Brandon's favorite country, and it would turn out to be one of my favorites as well and where I would host my very first Art Show.

Bali is a gorgeous island in the country of Indonesia. Bali is much more than the scenery, cuisine, tropical climate, and beaches. In my perspective, the people that reside in Bali (and in Indonesia in general) are what make it so special. Indonesians are the most genuine people I've met.

While staying in Bali I started working on a series of paintings inspired by the island. The technique that I used to create these paintings consisted in collecting leaves around, painting them and pressing them onto the canvas, resulting in a print of all their intricate details.

My days of seclusion making these paintings went by in the blink of an eye, fully immersed in flow. I had been doing art while traveling, largely on paper, which I planned to bring home with me. But, while working on these new pieces, I felt compelled to hold an exhibition in Bali featuring this collection.

I didn't know how, but I was determined to make it happen.

I thought it would be fantastic if I could hold my exhibition at a major event in Bali. To my amazement, I discovered on Google that in about a month, Bali would host a large festival called the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. Not only that, but the venue for this event was only 5 minutes away from the Airbnb where I was staying.

When I contacted the Festival to inquire about the possibilities of exhibiting my show on the festival grounds, they informed me that I had arrived a bit too late and that the list of art exhibitions scheduled for the festival had already been closed.

Nonetheless, I got on my scooter and went to see where the Festival was being held. It was a large venue, and I noticed that construction workers were already preparing the grounds for the festival.

Right next to this venue there was a small commercial space, with glass windows all around it, exactly the perfect size to host my exhibition. This commercial space was on the same lot as a high end hotel. I thought it would be ideal to host my exhibition there because it was right adjacent to the Festival and I would benefit from all of the foot traffic going in and out.

So I stopped to chat with the hotel staff. They said that I was in luck, because the owner of the hotel happened to be there today and I could talk directly to her right away.

After having the idea for my art show, it took only about 12 hours and I had secured a space right next to a big event coming up. I felt that there was too much synchronicity to not go ahead with the plan at this point.

So this is how "As Within, so Without" show came to be. I finished working on all my art pieces. A total of 17 paintings.

To attract people, I created some posters and distributed them throughout the neighborhood and the city. Brandon worked hard collecting largely natural materials such as flowers and vines that I used to decorate the space. The final look of the space was stunning!

We also got to enjoy a performance by an amazing local singer and songwriter, Kai Mata, on one of the evenings. I came across her music and absolutely loved her style, so I contacted her directly and she agreed to perform some songs live for us.

It was a completely new experience for me to go through the whole process of envisioning, organizing and executing an art exhibition. It was also great to connect and talk about art to the people that came to the show.

Bali was our last stop on our trip around the world, but that wasn't actually supposed to be the plan. At first, our plan was to continue traveling through Australia and New Zealand before heading back home to the USA. But after my art show, we decided to stay for longer and finish our travels on the highest possible note: having our wedding ceremony in Bali! It was an intimate ceremony just for the two of us. We exchanged vows with a Balinese officiator overlooking the ocean at a gorgeous house.

I couldn't think of a better way to end our journey around the world!

What I've been doing lately...

After arriving in Austin, settling down after all the travels and having my very own art studio that I adore, I've been experimenting with a variety of art styles in search of "the one" on which I want to focus my energies.

This journey took a quite interesting and unexpected turn.

Nature's shapes, colors, and textures serve as a significant source of inspiration for my paintings. Lately, I felt compelled to play with florals and to be less scared to use color in my art. That's all part of a bigger quest to reconnect with both my feminine and spiritual sides.

That's when I came across a Youtube video of someone making piping flowers on a cupcake. That really fascinated me and made me want to experiment with using that approach to create textured flowers for my art.

My latest creations

Up until now, I've felt like I've been creating art with a masculine mindset, frightened of making mistakes, mixing colors, and always wanting to make sense of a painting through reasoning.

I believe that I know what influenced me to approach my art in that manner. Going back in time, I was about 7 or 8 years old when my father taught me what he knew about drawing.

My dad was quite skilled at drawing graphite portraits. He had an innate talent, and also supplemented it with correspondence classes, as in classes that were sent via postal mail (we're talking about the 80s here). What my dad taught me were techniques that would result on a very precise drawing, since what he liked doing was portraits. Everything was measured, copied, and photographically replicated. My dad told me in many occasions that abstract art wasn't "real art" in his eyes; and that true art was a faithful representation of reality. Even though my dad never thought that he could be a professional artist (also something that he unfortunately taught me), I believe that he had enough talent to be one had he dedicated his career to that.

On my mom's side of the family, my uncle was an intriguing character to me. He was very intelligent. An avid reader, every year the City Library would give a prize to the most frequent reader, and every year he was the winner. He was a self taught guitar player, sculptor, painter and poet. I always felt the wish to just sit down and get to know him. But his struggles with mental health and addiction just made it impossible for me to ever try to unravel the riddle that was my mom's brother.

Whenever I doubt my creative nature and need some type of validation on the reason why I became an artist, I think about these two men (my dad and my uncle), in hope that going through my family history would help me understand who I am and why I create art.

Now that I find myself experimenting with using a piping bag, I noticed that there was something oddly familiar with that practice. It's a liberating experience where beautiful shapes, colors, textures just appear before my eyes as if by magic. And seeing what I'm creating makes my eyes (not only my brain) happy.

That's when it hit me.

Suddenly I had a realization: my dad and my uncle aren't the only reference of artists in my family!

Pictured: my grandma, my dad, me (turning 5) and my grandma's cake

My grandma (my dad's mom) was an excellent baker. She was famous for her incredibly delicious cakes. She began working at a bakery, and later worked independently from home. Her cakes were so wonderful, that people from far used to come to order them. As she was getting busier with the demand, she needed a helper. And who was the person that she hired to help her? My mom.

So growing up I was constantly surrounded by cakes, and frostings and sweet fillings. I watched everyday as my grandma and my mom decorated cakes using piping bags. I even tried my hand at it in several occasions.

The question that I've been asking myself now is: why have I never regarded the women in my family as artistic when in reality they were the ones that were creating everyday and profiting from their creations?

I don't yet have an answer to that question, and am not sure I need one. What matters is that my journey to find an art style that I love has been a surprising one.

Pictured: dad, me, sis and mom (circa 2003)

Realizing that my art practice has brought me closer to the women that came before me in my family has warmed my heart and made me admire them even more.

Living far away from home really requires a huge amount of self-awareness, or you risk losing touch with who you truly are. But that is a topic for a future post...

ANA WHO?

Welcome to My Blog!

LET'S CHAT WHILE I WAIT FOR THE PAINT TO DRY!

I'm so excited to open the doors to my studio and invite you to (virtually) hang out in between my painting sessions.

My name is Ana Beij, and I am an explorer. Explorer of the world, of life and of the possibilities of abstract expression. I recently concluded a long sabbatical year traveling around the world with my husband, and now, we relocated from SF to Austin (I know, it's a trend) and I'm loving to discover the city and its surroundings.

my blog

In this blog, I aim to offer you a glimpse into my daily life as an artist. I'll share with you some stories, the joys, challenges, and discoveries that come across.

I'm trying to post at least once a week, but no promises!

Hope to see you again here! Next post I will talk about how I organized my art exhibition in Ubud Indonesia while I was traveling.