Tofu's Art

I work primarily in mixed media, collage and landscape painting.  My work has included maps, postcard-themed art and mail art projects.   In 2013 I began moving away from found ephemera and shifted to making my own material.   This started with a series called Collagescapes.  With Collagescapes, I start by painting paper with areas of color representing the palette of a specific place. Next, I cut up the paper into hundreds of small pieces.  The final steps are to randomize the pieces and then reassemble them in various geometric patterns. Collagescapes are both landscape paintings and collages. My latest work is a series called Post-Folk Art. It is a nod to the color palettes found in costumes, textiles, pottery and other forms of traditional Kashubian and Polish folk art. Since 1997 my work has shown in over 40 venues, primarily in California but also in other locations in the United States and abroad.  My artwork can be viewed at tofuart.com

[kvetchlandia]

G. C. Cox Walt Whitman, New York City 1889

…Give me now libidinous joys only,

Give me the drench of my passions, give me life coarse and rank,

To-day I go consort with Nature’s darlings, to-night too,

I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men,

I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers,

The echoes ring with our indecent calls, I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,

He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be one condemn’d by others for deeds done,

I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?

O you shunn’d persons, I at least do not shun you,

I come forthwith in your midst, I will be your poet,

I will be more to you than to any of the rest.

– Walt Whitman, “Native Moments” 1855

[tofuart]

My latest rubber stamping, Walt Whitman in the Grass....

[tofuart]

Can Mail Art Save a Language?

Wymysorys is a language with less than 100 speakers and classified as critically endangered by UNESCO. The language is spoken in Wilamowice where a group of locals are working to preserve it.  Wilamowice is a town with about 3,000 people in Southern Poland.  

Wymysorys belongs to the Germanic Language Family. But it is not German.  It is believed its origins come from Western Europe when a mix of Flemish and German speaking settlers moved east during the 13thCentury. Wymysorys’s speakers are ethnically and culturally Polish. For centuries the speakers did not identify themselves as Germans. After World War II they were allowed to remain in Poland but the use of Wymysorys was officially discouraged.

My latest series of mail art preserves some Wymysorys vocabulary.  I have included words like brif (letter) mark (stamp), pöstkiöt (postcard) and briftröejer (mail carrier). This might be the first time the language has ever been used in mail art. But no, mail art cannot save a critically endangered language.

[tofuart]

A photo about AI that is NOT AI — Market Street in San Francisco.

[vintagecamping]

It's Maine All The Way! Travel Maine - Mid-Coast Route Roadmap

1962

[tofuart]

A very cool map cover, even I would not have cut that up when I made Maine art.

[tofuart]

BREAKING NEWS! Pantone has updated its color of the year for 2026. 

[tofuart]

An unofficial San Francisco landmark is disappearing soon

It's delighted neighbors and passersby for more than a decade. 

[tofuart]

On the way to Italy for a mail art call with the theme of Stone and Water. A desert scene because in California our rivers run dry.

[vintage-tigre]

[tofuart]

I wish I had thought of this. 👀

[tofuart]

I always put adequate postage on my mail.  But I love when my faux postage stamps also arrive with a postmark from the USPS.

[tofuart]

[tofuart]

The Wayne Douglas Quinn Archive

Preserving, documenting, and discovering the life and work of artist Wayne Douglas Quinn.

Do you know about the San Francisco artist Wayne Quinn?  15 years I found a book, created a blog post that has since generated more interest.  Now there is a website…. 

[tofuart]

Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection 

Visited the Berkeley Art Museum and had a look at the current exhibit Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser. It is great news that these pieces are becoming part of the museum’s permanent collection — everyone will be able to enjoy them when they are exhibited for years to come.

There is a lot of outstanding work, and of course I really get excited when I see other artists doing art that is all about circles and grids.  Jennifer Bartlett’s Binary Combinations was a favorite of mine.  Howardena Pindell’s piece is one of those things that makes me say, “I wish I had done that…”  Consider me inspired.  The current show is up through June 28, 2026.

[tofuart]

Work in progress, this will be my biggest bookcase collage so far. Painted paper + cutting + gluing

[tofuart]

For those of us that liked the Vaillancourt Fountain, it is now a font so we can always remember it. A big thank you to Danielle Baskin for creating this/

[tofuart]

An Attempted Murder

There is an “attempted murder” right now in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park. That is the title of Jack Champion’s crow sculptures.  I LOVE crows and these are just incredible.

[tofuart]

I like my rights ICE Free!

These incredible anti-ICE artist stamps made by Jennie Hinchcliff were waiting for me in my P.O. Box.

[tofuart]

RawHound Productions

RawHound Productions

This week’s Portland trip included a visit to the studio of RawHound Productions and a sneak peek at their latest projects. In 2025 they won an Audience Choice award at the Portland Festival of Cinema.

[tofuart]

Portland Art Museum

When I travel, I always try to make time to visit local art museums. I especially like to go to museums that are smaller, less well known, etc. I often discover real treasures, from excellent regional work, artists who should be better known and even works from very famous artists that never make the art books and travelling blockbuster museum shows. Santa Barbara, Long Beach, Tucson, Boise, just point me to the art museum.

I get up to Portland now and then but realized it has been 18 years since I visited the Portland Art Museum. The museum has tripled in size since my last visit.  This is an example where more exhibition space is better (that is not always the case).

It is always satisfying to see a lot of local artists featured in a museum. The Inkling Studio show is an excellent showcase of local printmaking.  Mark Rothko was a local artist, but most of the blockbuster work is elsewhere. As an artist, I found seeing some of his early work fascinating. There is a beach scene that reminded me of Chaïm Soutine.  The museum has Soutine’s The Little Pastry Cook — a pleasure to see as we do not have any of his work on display in the Bay Area. The photography of the Kenji Nakahashi was also well curated, it is shown with contemporary Japanese ceramics.

I must be sure not to wait 18 years to go back.