I was interviewed by Smash Pages, a comic blog, about my San Francisco portraits, work with Nocturne, dream drawings and more!
Viewing: Robin Galante - View all posts
Published: "Exploring Little Russia, Past & Present"
Hello!
I just finished a second illustrated story for the Bold Italic. This one is all about an oft-overlooked corner of the city - and some personal history too.
So much fun, I love doing these! Hope you are safe and untouched by the many fires raging in CA.
Till next time,
Robin
Published in The Bold Italic
Hello everyone!
I was asked by the editors at The Bold Italic to write a piece featuring my artwork. I had no idea what to write about... my first draft was meandering, to say the least. My editor asked some questions in the margins, and got me to re-think what I want to say. The result is this: a story about me, about my neighborhood, about living and working in a changing city.
Read the article here. Enjoy!
Greeting Cards for Sale!
Hello friends,
As you know, I'm a big fan of Bazaar Cafe, one of the sweetest cafes in my neighborhood. I feel very lucky to have my greeting cards on their shelves. Today, I stopped by and found that all my cards were SOLD OUT (yay!). So I brought some new ones in, including brand new "4-Star Theatre" greetings.
Support a local artist and one of the best local businesses in the city and go buy some for your friends! Only $5 a pop, perfect for birthdays, thank-yous, condolences and "just…
Read moreNewsletter Feature!
"You can keep up with everything coming from Galante's prolific imagination via social media, proof that there's still delight to be found in the oft-fraught platforms.”
I'm a little bit famous!
A friend of Vanessa Lowe (producer of Nocturne) sent her an email the other day. It was an industry newsletter called "Inside Podcasting." It turns out that they featured me and my artwork (including my work with Nocturne, my neighborhood portraits and my dream drawings) in the latest issue. I had no idea! It…
Read moreThe Magic of Nocturne: a podcast about the night.
The podcast Nocturne has been getting a lot of attention lately - and it's well-deserved. In The New Yorker, Sarah Larson writes a lengthy backstory about producer Vanessa Lowe and describes the podcast as having "a nocturnal mood, atmospheric and occasionally mysterious, that feels just right between the hours of eleven and deepest dark." iTunes featured Nocturne on its Podcast page this week as well.
I met Vanessa in 2014, when she reached out and asked if I could create the logo and later, artwork for…
Read moreStory Time: Opening for Gaelynn Lea, and some fun history...
Hey!
When local music promoter and friend KC Turner invited Eric and I to open for Gaelynn Lea at Doc's Lab here in San Francisco, we were thrilled.
We fell in love with her music when she won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest last year. She plays the violin like a cello and uses a looping pedal to create gorgeous melodies that support her thoughtful, often inspiring lyrics. He thought our music would go well with hers, which is the highest compliment.
The show was at Doc's Lab here in San Francisco, which used to be…Read more
When local music promoter and friend KC Turner invited Eric and I to open for Gaelynn Lea at Doc's Lab here in San Francisco, we were thrilled.
We fell in love with her music when she won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest last year. She plays the violin like a cello and uses a looping pedal to create gorgeous melodies that support her thoughtful, often inspiring lyrics. He thought our music would go well with hers, which is the highest compliment.
The show was at Doc's Lab here in San Francisco, which used to be…Read more
"Emily & The Magical Library"
Great news! The children's book I illustrated, "Emily & The Magical Library" by Paul Rest is now available for purchase. The copies are spiral-bound, signed and numbered by the author. Click here to order a limited edition!
In the meantime, here are some snapshots from the book, which includes over 40 full-page watercolor illustrations. This was a labor of love and I'm thrilled to have been a part of such a beautiful book.
In the meantime, here are some snapshots from the book, which includes over 40 full-page watercolor illustrations. This was a labor of love and I'm thrilled to have been a part of such a beautiful book.
House Dreams, Part 2
As I've described before, I have a recurring dream about a house. The house has stayed pretty much the same for 15 years, although there have been variations. It's located in a strange, barren neighborhood with other similar homes. The house feels like a step back - I always sense that I lived there in the past, and in the dream I usually make the decision to move back. The house feels familiar and "safe", but also like giving up.
After having the dream again, I decided to try and illustrate the…
Interview with Yorokobu Magazine
Hello!
I was interviewed by Yorokobu Magazine, about my dream drawings and my music. I'm am very honored they contacted me and it's a gorgeous website. They release a printed publication once a month. It is in Spanish. Maybe I'll be famous in Spain!
Here it is:
http://www.yorokobu.es/una-artista-ilustra-los-suenos-como-los-recuerda/
"Nightbirds"
I'm proud to share this collaboration between myself, songwriter Mike Rufo and videographer Glen Kinion. Song by Mike, artwork by myself, and video magic by Glen.
Enjoy! https://youtu.be/4LtTga6FY9w
We're on the radio!
Hey everyone!
... Well, the new version of radio. Eric and I were interviewed for the latest episode of the Nocturne podcast, "(This is Not A) Love Song". It was a lot of fun and the episode is, like all their episodes, intriguing and multi-layered.
Nocturne is steadily climbing the iTunes charts - as of today, it's #24 in the "Society & Culture" Top Podcasts category (kind of a big deal - sharing space with This American Life, Hearing Voices, Freakonomics and others). I'm still illustrating each episode…Read more
... Well, the new version of radio. Eric and I were interviewed for the latest episode of the Nocturne podcast, "(This is Not A) Love Song". It was a lot of fun and the episode is, like all their episodes, intriguing and multi-layered.
Nocturne is steadily climbing the iTunes charts - as of today, it's #24 in the "Society & Culture" Top Podcasts category (kind of a big deal - sharing space with This American Life, Hearing Voices, Freakonomics and others). I'm still illustrating each episode…Read more
Nocturne Podcast: Art and sound, together.
I've always been a night person. As you've probably seen, I am a huge fan of dreaming and love to illustrate my dreams as a way to remember and understand them. Sometimes I find myself awake in the wee hours of the morning. It can be a time of wonder, of solitude, and of quiet creativity. And other times, it's not.
A few months back, songwriter/podcast producer Vanessa Lowe asked me to design a logo for her new podcast, Nocturne, a beautiful collection of stories about the night. Now, we are embarking on a…Read more
A few months back, songwriter/podcast producer Vanessa Lowe asked me to design a logo for her new podcast, Nocturne, a beautiful collection of stories about the night. Now, we are embarking on a…Read more
VIDEO: Live Performance at the Monkey House Theater
Hello!
So this past Saturday, we had a super fun show at the Monkey House Theater in Berkeley, CA. It's a wonderful, intimate venue with great sound and an awesome audience. Owner Ira Marlowe was kind enough to shoot a video of our set.
Click here to watch selected songs from our performance, as well as see the whole set if you are bored at work and don't mind a little banter (you can always fast-forward through the tuning and talking, right?).
I know I haven't been on here much - pretty busy with a range of…Read more
So this past Saturday, we had a super fun show at the Monkey House Theater in Berkeley, CA. It's a wonderful, intimate venue with great sound and an awesome audience. Owner Ira Marlowe was kind enough to shoot a video of our set.
Click here to watch selected songs from our performance, as well as see the whole set if you are bored at work and don't mind a little banter (you can always fast-forward through the tuning and talking, right?).
I know I haven't been on here much - pretty busy with a range of…Read more
Cherry Blossoms and Paper Airplanes
Usually, my dream drawings are a mashup of all the dreams I remember after a given night. Sometimes these drawings have as many as 4 separate dreams in them.
The other night, all I could remember when I woke up is a snippet of a dream, where I was gazing up at the sky and the sky was filled with cherry blossoms and paper airplanes. The image stuck with me throughout the morning, and I decided to capture this moment in an illustration.
This picture is my simplest dream drawing and it showed me that I don't…Read more
The other night, all I could remember when I woke up is a snippet of a dream, where I was gazing up at the sky and the sky was filled with cherry blossoms and paper airplanes. The image stuck with me throughout the morning, and I decided to capture this moment in an illustration.
This picture is my simplest dream drawing and it showed me that I don't…Read more
That's a...what??...
Have you ever had a dream where you are in the middle of, say, a zoo, but you know that it's actually your house? Okay, maybe not a zoo. It could be a supermarket, an ice-skating rink, or perhaps it's a house. Wherever it is, it surely doesn't look anything like your home. Despite all appearances, though, this place feels very familiar.
Things in dreams are often not what they are in real life. (That sentence sounds so lame, but I'm not sure how else to put it).
Like, in one dream, I was shopping for brakes…Read more
Things in dreams are often not what they are in real life. (That sentence sounds so lame, but I'm not sure how else to put it).
Like, in one dream, I was shopping for brakes…Read more
Performance Anxiety
All of us deal with performance anxiety at one time or another. Maybe you have to make a presentation at work, and your palms are sweaty just thinking about it. Or, you've got a test the next day and despite all the time you've spent studying, you're worried about whether you'll pass. You're up late, unable to sleep, worrying about how well you will perform, whether it be during a date, a job interview, or a meeting with family. And many of us, at one time or another, have anxiety dreams that reflect our…Read more
Spiders!
I'm afraid of heights. I'm afraid of mayonnaise. And, yes, I'm afraid of spiders.
The lamest thing about my arachnophobia is that I'm really, really scared of the sorts of spiders that won't hurt me. Namely, daddy-long-legs. The longer the leg in relation to the body, the more afraid I am. It's not logical, but there it is.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have many dreams about spiders. This one from the other night was cute:
...Until he wanted to dangle. When spiders dangle, that's the WORST:
I don't…Read more
The lamest thing about my arachnophobia is that I'm really, really scared of the sorts of spiders that won't hurt me. Namely, daddy-long-legs. The longer the leg in relation to the body, the more afraid I am. It's not logical, but there it is.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have many dreams about spiders. This one from the other night was cute:
...Until he wanted to dangle. When spiders dangle, that's the WORST:
I don't…Read more
Dreams Within a Dream
Every once in a while, I actually dream that I am dreaming. In my dream, I will wake up and remember the dream I just "had". Now that I've started illustrating my dreams, I sometimes actually start the process of remembering, writing down, and drawing the dreams - within the dream!
For instance, this character is looking at a dream drawing that I made - of the dream that I was having at that moment. Talk about trippy - and confusing:
A quick aside: last night, in my dream, I dreamed about a spider. A…Read more
For instance, this character is looking at a dream drawing that I made - of the dream that I was having at that moment. Talk about trippy - and confusing:
A quick aside: last night, in my dream, I dreamed about a spider. A…Read more
Illustrating Dreams: The Beginning
About 9 years ago, when I first moved to San Francisco, I started having a recurring dream. I am in a house. The house is in the middle of a field, and it's an industrial area. People are coming in and out of the house, and the general feeling is one of being "stuck". Like the house is a place I left a long time ago, but, here I am again, and I don't want to be back.
Over the years I have been in this house, in my dreams, many times. I was trying to describe the house to my husband, as the details were…Read more
Over the years I have been in this house, in my dreams, many times. I was trying to describe the house to my husband, as the details were…Read more
3am.
For the past year or so, I've been waking up in the middle of the night. I'm using the term "night" loosely here, as it's usually around 3 in the morning. It usually starts when I get up to get a glass of water.
I don't want to wake up all the way, so I do this thing where I half-close my eyes. I carefully get out of bed, eyes almost closed, and fumble for my water glass, then the door, then the doorway, then the sink. I fill up my water, still half in dream-land, eyes nice and heavy, and fall back into…Read more
I don't want to wake up all the way, so I do this thing where I half-close my eyes. I carefully get out of bed, eyes almost closed, and fumble for my water glass, then the door, then the doorway, then the sink. I fill up my water, still half in dream-land, eyes nice and heavy, and fall back into…Read more