My Little Herd

It feels so satisfying to bring paintings to completion, the multitude of little drips and details, the compositions, colors, textures, flow and glow and expressions – right down to my squiggly signature. Finding the right title is fun too – Unwilding, Periphery and Hinterland – thanks to author and friend Christy Ann Conlin for playing the name game with me!

My little herd.

Hinterland

Periphery

Unwilding

Capitola Wine and Art Festival

A really fun Art and Wine Festival is happening this weekend, Capitola’s 37th annual! I was delighted to take it in Saturday morning, taking the shuttle from the Target mall (because Capitola weekend traffic on steroids- or Chardonnay). Before checking out the chock-a-block booths filled with art: glass, metal, leather, fabric, stone and paint or curated. (the gallery where my work is on exhibit) I made sure to get my toes in the sand and ocean waves!

Blown glass

Art Tents

With Melissa Kreisa and Theresa Nelson, the amazing women who are curated. and my newest little painting.

My little florals hanging with Ursula O’Farrell’s figures.

My Shell Grave and a few Birds and Teacups. (bit backlit)

Gail Ragains and  Lorraine Lawson

Melissa Kreisa  and Jay Ruland

Jay Ruland, Dee Hooker, Jane Ferguson

Jane Ferguson

Russell Powell with Theresa and Melissa.

Russell Powell

Melissa Kreisa (detail)

Gail Ragains (detail)

Noelle Correia

Carrie Clayden (detail)

Dee Hooker

Lorraine Lawson (detail)

Dee Hooker, Jeff Owen?

Good day for a hat!

Can you spot the handstand?

 

Iwasawa Reception

Thank you to everyone who came out to the “Conversations With Culture” reception last Saturday at Iwasawa Oriental Art, your interest, support and company was so very much appreciated! The show, part of Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area, continues on until tomorrow, Saturday, October 13th.

 

Meticulously styled after a traditional Japanese mercantile building, this has been Iwasawa Oriental Art’s 36th year in operation!

 

Love it when my dear friends show up for me at my events, so grateful to have them in my personal and professional life!

 

Artist Theresa Giammattei dropped in!

Evelyn Consorti – mixed media

 

With my oil paintings Mr. Katayama’s Peony and Beijing Grey and Ken Matsumoto’s vase.

Lorraine Lawson and Gallerist Kumiko Iwasas Vadas and her apron which says “Best Merchandise, Best Price”.

Reception repast.

 

Patrali Paul – acrylic

Patrali and Lawson in the garden.

 

Lorraine Lawson mixed media with a stone vase sculpture by Ken Matsumoto.

Ken Matsumoto Vases with a Lorraine Lawson mixed media painting

 

James Ong with When Dreams Wake Up.

 

James Ong describing his process to gallery visitors.

James Ong acrylic print.

So happy to see artist Miguel Machuca drop by!

Gallery vsitors.

Hiroko Ohno – Galaxy – pigment on paper

Brooklyn based Hiroko Ohno with Whitney Modern Gallerist, Suzanne Whitney Smedt.

Hiroko Ohno – reconstructed painting pigment on paper

Ann Waltonsmith, Board Chairperson for Hakone with Hiroko Ohno.

 

Rosalio Vargas and Gallerist Kumiko Iwasawa Vadas.

 

Rosalio Vargas with gallery visitors.

Rosalio Vargas’s splatter cars.

Lorraine Lawson with Jeweler Erin Yoshizumi

Erin Yoshizumi’s work can be found at AtelierThe Hun.etsy.com

Conversations With Culture

I’m very excited to be exhibiting in “Conversations With Culture” at Iwasawa Oriental Art, 75 Universtiy Ave in downtown Los Gatos! It’s an exhibition arranged by Gallerist, Kumiko Iwasawa Vadas in her gorgeous, authentically Japanese Gallery to be part of Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area 2018! Like Asia Week, the show runs October 5-14 and there is a special reception TODAY from 1-5 pm with exhibiting artists, Hiroko Ohno, James Ong, Lorraine Lawson, Patrali Paul, Evelyn Consorti and myself giving artists talks (maybe around 2 pm). The show is free and there will be wonderful refreshments.

Artists are like sponges, soaking up all kinds of influences along their path but what they squeeze out in their work should not be a mere imitation of something they’ve seen before but something new, filtered through their own idiosyncratic prism of experience, perspective and vision. The paintings I create are rooted in my own personal narrative and the manner in which I handle paint, color and line are certainly my own but I feel there is a certain Asian resonance when it comes to composition and depth of field in many of my paintings. There is also a shared reverence for the beauty of nature and sense of season.Having said this, It is quite natural that when I paint a flowering cherry branch or a lily floating on a pond, or a peony in full bloom, I can’t help but think of all the exquisite depictions of these very flowers by Japanese and Chinese artists over the centuries and this rich tradition will inevitably pull me in that direction. But it happens even with less obvious subject matter. My paintings have been made better through my exposure to Japanese prints and Chinese brush paintings as well as their influence on artists I much admire like Whistler, Van Gogh and Monet. Often this cultural conversation is taking place in our heads without us even realizing it! I will be showing the following Asian influenced paintings that I have done over the years and I will talk about how this influence came about and how it has affected my work.

Beijing Grey
Oil on canvas
48″ x 30″

Pond Lily Magenta
Oil on canvas
24″ x 24″

Mr. Katayama’s Peony
Oil on canvas
24″ x 24″

 

 

Together We Will at RISE!

Karla Albright of the Los Gatos chapter of  TWW/Indivisible Los Gatos caught the Gutfreund Cornet Art show, RISE: Empower, Change and Action!, the day it opened and approached Whitney Modern for a special tour so the rest of her group could take it in! Though it is a national exhibition, a number of Bay Area artists were happy to get together again and share some of the inspiring motivations behind their social justice work in the gallery.

Please note that if you click on any of the names of artists and organizations, etc, in bold in this post, you will open a link to their website!

Suzanne Whitney Smedt, welcoming us all to her beautiful contemporary art gallery, Whitney Modern, located on the second floor of 24 N Santa Cruz Ave in downtown Los Gatos. The gallery typically represents twelve fine artists but has teamed up with Gutfreund Cornett Art for this specific summer show curated by Karen Gutfreund, Sherri Cornett, Marianne McGrath and Suzanne Whitney Smedt.

Karen Gutfreund reading Maya Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise from the exhibition catalogue, on which Ceciley Blanchard (Jackson Tennessee) had based her photographic series. I love hearing that read (or sung by Ben Harper)!

Irene Carvajal (Belmont, California) with her (what) do YOU think? desk with the positive  messages we’d wish we’d grown up with carved into the wood. You can even take rubbings with the graphite pencils and paper provided, if there is a resonating message you’d like to bring home with you.

Priscilla Otani (San Francisco) with her original braille art book, Political Action Group on democratic women in congress and democratic women running for congress – copies available at the gallery have all sold out but you can still order them through Amazon!

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro (Sunnyvale, California) with her monotype, oil, paper and string on panel piece, Bound and her mixed media installation, In a Constant State of Rising and Falling.

Winnie van der Rijn (San Carlos, California) with her photographic image transfer and embroidery on muslin pieces, One Size Fits All.

When it came time for me to speak about my painting, In the Pink, I shared how I believed that the Pussy Hat (originally co-created by Krista Suh) became such an immediate, global, viral icon of the Woman’s March because it employed such a feminine voice. It took knitting, a traditionally feminine craft, one that we do with our hands, and our hearts, in our homes or together in groups, using soft, warm, pretty and fuzzy fibers and often give as gifts to one another to wear with pride (a bit of kitty humor) saying in our sea of pink that, “We see you Pussy Grabber in Chief and we do not approve, we will not forget, and we will stand together and march for our rights.” Even the metaphor of knitting one stitch, connected to another, and another, collectively making something bigger than ourselves, is so perfect!

Rinat Goren (Woodside, California) with her beeswax, pigment and paper paintings, Finding Points of Agreement 1 and Finding Points of Agreement 2.

Irene Carvahla (Santa Cruz, California) with her acrylic, mixed media and image transfer, Ambient Thoughts.

Irene Carvajal (Belmont, California) with her screen print on paper, fan and plexiglass tank kinetic sculpture, Future Gains: the dollar is rising. She is selling individual bills to help fund her trip to the border to offer her language services to those families who are seeking asylum at the border and are too often being separated and denied their legal rights.

Chandrika Marla (Mountain View, California) with her acrylic on canvas painting, For Our Lives.

Karen Gutfreund standing with Jenny Reinhardt‘s mixed media on canvas painting, Split the Sack, shared the dismall figures, of the percentage that women artists earn in comparison to their male counterparts, as well as how poorly they are represented in museum shows and what an incredible value their work actually is! Sales continue a pace at Whitney Modern and RISE has been extended to September 9th, 2018 to be included with ForFreedoms a 50 state activist art initiative!

Shannon Edwards from TWW/Indivisible Los Gatos thanking the Whitney Modern and the artists for the evening. Together We Will as a grassroots civil engagement movement that helps to lobby for progressive initiatives, supports candidates and sponsors local events was the perfect audience for RISE! It’s so great to join together like this!

Artist, Winnie van der Rijn and author and speaker, Nilofer Merchant.

RISE! Pano Power

In my continuing documentation of RISE: Empower, Change and Action!, the Gutfreund Cornett Art exhibition at Whitney Modern, I’d like to explore the power of the pano and it’s potential to give the illusion of being in the gallery and experiencing the flow of the work….

RISE! Reception!

Quote

Wow! This Show!

The Gutfrend Cornett Art exhibition, RISE! Empower, Change and Action Reception and Artist Talk and Walk at Whitney Modern in Los Gatos, California last Saturday was completely uplifting and inspiring with artists as far away as New York sharing the moving inspiration and fascinating stories behind their work.The exhibition is intended to create a dialogue between artist and community together over important issues feminist issues of out time. Click on artists names for links to their websites where available.

The girl blowing bubbles on the cover of the exhibition catalogue came to life welcoming quests to the reception.

Three of the four fabulous curators, Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, (Gallerist of Whitney Modern) Marianne McGrath (Independant Curator), Karen Gutfreund (Activist Curator at Gutfreund Cornett Art and Arist) that pulled together this fabulous exhibition, standing in front of Vanessa Filley‘s (Evanston, Illinois) archival pigment print on cotton rag paper pieces, #Me Too, Minerva Looking, #Me Too, Assata Toward, #Me Too, Gabriela, The Futrure and bedside Indira Cesarine‘s (New York, New York) neon piece, Equal Means Equal. The fourth fabulous curator, Sherri Cornett (Activist Curator at Gutfreund Cornett Art and Artist), was unable to make the reception, and was greatly missed!

Karen Gutfreund, engaging the audience, earlier she had read Maya Angelous’s poem, Still I Rise, in honor of Ceciley Blanchard (Jackson Tennessee) who had based her photographic series, (included in the catalogue) on this poem and was unable to make the reception where she had hoped to recite the poem herself.

Gathering to view the work of Carolyn Doucette (Tiburon, California) and Sarupa Sidaarth (Tiburon, California)

Love how the In a Constant State of Rising and Falling installation floats in the “atrium” between Whitney Modern above and Gallery 24 below.

Artist Walk and Talk around the gallery where each artist would speak briefly about their contribution to the show.

Me with my oil on panel painting, In the Pink.

Dana Richardson (Scotts Valley, California) with her oil paintings Burning Woman and Millennial Woman.

Irene Carvajal (Belmont, California) with her screen print on paper, fan and plexiglass tank kinetic sculpture, Future Gains: the dollar is rising. She is selling individual bills to help fund her trip to the border to offer her language services to those families who are seeking asylum at the border and are too often being separated and denied their legal rights.

Maeve Grogan (Bend, Oregon) with her Mixed Media and Flashe acrylic painting, Noise & Space Game.



Mague Calanche
(San Francisco, California) with her acrylic, oil  and wax on wood painting, Todas Trabajamos, Hasta Las Ninas.

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro (Sunnyvale, California) with her monotype, oil, paper and string on panel piece, Bound.

Penny McElroy (Redlands, California) with her graphite, colored pencil, digital composite, encaustic, metal thread with LED piece, sweet fragrant spring.

Jenny Reinhardt (Summit, New Jersey) with her mixed media on canvas painting Split the Sack and Karen Gutfruend.

Amy Pleasant (Mill Creek, Washington) with her acrylic painitngs, Something Worth Waiting For and On Her Shoulders.

Chandrika Marla (Mountain Vew, California) with her acrylic on canvas painting, For Our Lives.

Rinat Goren (Woodside, California) with her beeswax, pigment and paper paintings, Finding Points of Agreement 1 and Finding Points of Agreement 2.

Winnie van der Rijn (San Carlos, California) with her photographic image transfer and embroidery on muslin pieces, One Size Fits All.

Karuna Gutowski  (Santa Cruz, California) with her acrylic, mixed media and image transfer, Ambient Thoughts.

Paula Bullwinkel (Bend Oregon) with her oil on canvas painting, So The Darkness Shall Be The Light And The Stillness The Dancing.



Sally Edelstein
(South Huntington, New York) with a print of her monumental collage, Women’s Lib-A Storms Approaching.

Roberta Aherns (Petaluma, California) with her plaster embedded fiber and acrylic painting on box frame painting, Sepia Dahlia.

Sondra Schwetman (Arcata, California) with her silk, pigmented sewing pins and steel sculpture, Witness. This piece was a Special Award Winner by guest juror, Joan McLoughlin of Mcloughlin Gallery in San Francisco!

Brian Rothstein (Vallejo, California)  with his oil painting on canvas, Be Gentle 1.

On the far left of this photo is the monitor displaying even more amazing work that is included in the catalogue but for which gallery space would not accommodate. On the right is Marisa Govin‘s (Talent, Oregon) watercolor on paper painting, Ñust’as.

Pages from Gloria Matuszewski ( Novato, California) mixed media, Altered Book, Gray’s Anatomy.

Gina Herrera‘s (Bakersfield, California) assorted found materials sculpture, Jaunting for Restitution.

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro (Sunnyvale, California) upstaged by her clear umbrellas, fishing line, silkscreen or laser cut plexi installation, In a Constant State of Rising and Falling.

Viewing Nayda Cuevas (Arlington Massachusetts), oil and panel paintings #latina:Reclaimingthelatinatag.

Anitra Frasier (Dolton, Illinois) was a Special Award Winner chosen by guest juror Jessica Porter (Arts Bussiness Strategest, New York, New York) for her oil on wood painitng, I Think It’s Going To Rain Today, on the left. On the right is Kelsey McDonnell’s (Buffalo, Wyoming) acrylic on canvas painting, Learning to be a Phenomenal Woman, #6 Balancing Time and Energy who was also chosen as a Special Award Winner by guest juror, David Weinberg, (Executive Director of Weinberg Newton Gallery, Chicago Illinois) for her acrylic on canvas painting, No Turning Back.

Sally Edelstein speaking on her work.

Maeve Grogan describing the meaning behind her work. A glimpse of Beth Lakamp’s (Fenton Missouri) watercolor on clayboard panel, that’s the idea and she told them so.

And my favorite photo from the reception, my muse for my oil painting, Feathers hanging with my favorite bubble girl!

A distant peek at Sarupa Sidaarth‘s (Tiburon, California) acrylic, googly eyes, eyelets on canvas painting, Shh.

The League of Women Voters, a non partisan group, had volunteers available at the gallery to register people to vote. Make your voice heard and Vote! 46.9% of those eligible did not vote in 2016 and look where that got us! in the background you can catch a glimpse of Blond Jenny‘s ( Edison New Jersey) c-print, Womanhood, Lindsey Carrell‘s ( Billings, Montana) oil and egg tempera on panel painting, Translate, and Shelly Floyd‘s (Round Rock, Texas) acrylic on paper painting, Struggle to Rise.

Earth, Wind & Fire at Kaleid

Bay Area artists Dotti Cichon and Jamila Rufaro have a joint exhibition, Earth Wind & Fire at Kaleid this month in downtown San Jose, California. The show focuses on the use of natural and weathered materials, rworn and rusted materials, silk papers and metalics. I was so happy to attend the Aritsts’ Reception which coincided with Kaleid’s fabulous Two-Buck Tuesdays!

Artist Dotti Cichon at Kaleid, 88 S 4th Street, San Jose, California.

Reception

Dotti Cichon’s silk panels have beautiful abstracted patterns printed from her manipulated digital photographs of global architecture. They can be worn as scarves as well  (I’m a proud owner of one not depicted here).

In this gold leafed panel Dotti Cichon  strikes an elegant balance between the organic, “worm-holed” treatment and the sumptuous gold finish.

This copper-leafed textile is another beautiful metallic treatment of an organic feeling surface.

Here is a detail of silver leafed papers, some with remnants of calligraphy from the silver kimono assemblage below.

Silver kimono assemblage.

Kimono Angel assemblage by Jamila Rufaro and Dotti Cichon.

Book art by Jamila Rufaro is inspired by imaginary sea life and Cortez. I have one of here pieces from this series that was exhibited at Sanchez 50/50 2017!

I love the forms that Jamila Rufaro has created manipulating book pages!

Such a Fascinating interactive sculpture with video depicting the origins of the cosmos by Dotti Cichon.

 

RISE! – Going Up!

Spent the day with Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, Karen Gutfreund, Marianne McGrath and Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro, because it’s more fun to unload a U-Haul together!

Many hands make for light work!

Unwrapping Jenny Reinhardt‘s huge painting Split the Sack.

Looking good together! Jenny Reinhardt‘s Split the Sack and Gina Herrera‘s sculpture, Jaunting for Restitution.

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro installing her installation, In a Constant State of Rising and Falling.

The installation can seen from Gallery 24 down below as well.

Laying out the pieces of the puzzle, Nayda Cuevas paintings #latina:Reclaimingthelatinatag.

RISE! – Incoming!

I brought in my painting, In the Pink, to Whitney Modern on Friday, for the upcoming Gutfreund Cornett Art show RISE: Empower, Change and Action! and was delighted to find the exhibition catalogues hot of the press! It tells us about Gutfreund Cornett Art with its vision of “Changing the World Through Art” and Whitney Modern a much needed Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in the heart of the Silicon Valley,  the curators of the show, Gutfreund Cornett Art, Marianne McGrath and Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, the guest jurors: Jessica Porter, Kelsey McDonnel and Joan McLoughlin (and all the special award winners) and documents all of the art in the show with artists comments about their pieces.  There are also two important essays on the importance of social activist art and engaging with community by Sherri Cornett and Karen Gutfreund.

Gallerist, Suzanne Whitney-Smedt and Curator / Artist, Karen Gutfreund, (curators for the exhibition along with Sherri Cornett and Marianne McGrath), graciously modeling the new catalogue for me. Catalogues are available at Whitney Modern while supplies last or through Amazon.

165 pages of gorgeous images and inspiring content!

See?

Santa Cruz artist, Karuna Gutowski was bringing in her Ambient Thoughts painting just as I was leaving. It’s in the bottom right corner, just below Scotts Valley artist, Dana Richardson‘s painting Burning Woman. Can’t wait to see the rest!

The exhibition runs July 18 – August 31 with an opening reception and artist talk Saturday July 21 12:30 – 3:30pm. 24N Santa Cruz Ave, Los Gatos, California.

In the Pink and Feathers in Rise

 

I have some very exciting news to share, both of my paintings, In the Pink and Feathers have been selected for Rise, a nationally juried show organized by Gutfreund Cornett Art in conjunction with Whitney Modern that will run July 18 – August 31, 2018 in Los Gatos California. For a preview of the inspiring and powerful work included in this exhibition, curated by Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, Marianne McGrath and Gutfreund Cornett Art, visit GutfreundCornettArt.com where you can also see who won the Special Recognition Awards, selected by Jessica Porter, David Weinberg and Joan McLoughlin!

“RISE: Empower, Change and Action! seeks to bring artists into dialogue and to bring forth what is important to self, community, our nation and the world at large through art that reflects and addresses complex socio-cultural issues and focuses on a vision for a more positive, empowering future, particularly for self-identified women and girls as well as their families. It is underpinned by the feminist principle that believes in political, economic and social equality for all.” – from the show’s prospectus.

Such an honor to be exhibiting with this great array of artists working for empowerment, equality and social justice!  Mark you calendar, the reception will be held at the Whitney Modern, 24 N Santa Cruz Ave (on the second floor) Saturday, July 21, I’ll post the exact time closer to the date.

 

In the Pink – 2017 – oil on cradled panel

 

Feathers – 2013 – oil on canvas

Studio Visit with David Flick

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting with David Flick in Los Gatos, California. I had seen his work previously in a pop-up downtown and was very impressed with his portraits and figurative work and so when he turned up at my studio during NUMU’s Historic Home Tour this year I asked if I could visit his studio. I’m so glad I got a chance to see his work before he goes off in the fall to begin his MFA at the New York Academy of Art!

I was immediately drawn to Flick’s sensitive rendering of the figure and his gorgeous handling of light (oblique shadows, spotlighting, backlighting and reflections) and his innate sense of color. His compositions too are thoroughly dynamic. But beyond these great technical aspects, his subjects are all really compelling, with a captivating point of view that draws one deeper in to the work. He’s not afraid of paint either and can make it behave or explore it’s wilder side. I can’t wait to see where his MFA journey will take his work….

Here are just a few images that caught my attention but you can visit his website is at davidflickart.com to see the full range of his work and follow him on Instagram at dflick.

Rider – 2017 – oil

Desert – 2012 – oil

Lactose Intolerance – 2016 – oil

Ben – 2015 – oil

Idol – 2018 – oil

Ok, I had to include another studio shot because just how cool is it to have an aqua VW van in your studio?!

The Telling of Beautiful Untrue Things – Anthony Riggs

The Recovery of Reason After the Fall of Eden – 2013 – oil on canvas

Today Anthony Riggs gave an artist talk as part of the Brown Bag Lunch Lectures at the Triton Museum of Art in conjunction with his exhibition, The Telling of Beautiful Untrue Things (such a gorgeous title)!  These aesthetically arresting paintings weave historical art imagery and patterns (from both Eastern and Western cultures) with religious and pop allegories and environmental and scientific symbolism. His paintings are studded with post-modern elements such as pixelation, color banding and employ a collaged style in which space, scale, light and color are all intentionally ambiguous. His figures, carefully rendered in three dimensional style, inhabit two dimensional spaces and are even bisected by flat swaths of pattern. Shadows are purposely inconsistent and color is thoroughly appealing but rarely reliable. All to underscore the artifice inherent in the the very act of painting.

The artist shared a quote from George Orwell that was on his mind as he created this body of work, “All art is propaganda.” In a time before the printing press, the radio, the television, and the internet, there was the power of the painting which was used through patronage of the Church and State and those in power to promote ideology and status. Painting is not truth – art and artifice go hand in hand and that is what Riggs is emphasizing in his seductive, apocalyptic paintings in which opposing ideologies and power dynamics intertwine in conflict without answers but leaving room for more questions. It is a good time to be questioning and seeking one’s own truth in this age of the internet where fake news and propaganda flows fast and furious and purposely muddies the waters between fact and fiction.

In Much Wisdom is Much Grief – 2017 – oil on canvas

All is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit – 2017 – oil on canvas

He that Increases His Knowledge Increases his Sorrow – 2017 – oil on canvas

The Future will be Better Tomorrow – 2012 – oil on canvas

The Star Planters – 2014 – oil and metal leaf on canvas

The Gemini (detail from diptych) – 2016 – oil on canvas

 

Anthony Riggs is based in Benicia, California. You can visit his exhibition, The Telling of Beautiful Untrue Things, which runs until August 5 at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California or visit his website, anthonyriggs.com.