Let me just start by saying wow! WOW!
I hear that Anne and Mark have been hosting their Art Party for a number of years now but this is the first time they’ve held it at the Santa Clara Fair Grounds – because they’re just that big and fabulous!
Artist Holly Van Hart and I got dolled up for the Opening Gala to check it all out and we were so impressed with the quality and variety of the work which was not limited to just visual art but there was spoken word, poetry, music and dancing! Just when you began to think you saw everything there was another maze to follow and more talent to be amazed by! I hope we can wrangle an invite to participate next year!
Where possible I have linked the artist’s names to their websites so you can find out more about them and their work, just click on them!
Oh – and the party is still going on until September 25th artpartysj.com. Go!
Me with Li Ma‘s 633 Hours to Intergalactica! installation.
Joe Miller exhibited a great street inspired installation.
Turns out photographer Michelle Longosz and I have a lot of friends in common – which is always really fun to find out! I was blown away by her serene yet emotionally charged photographs, Seven (above) and White ( below). They are very still and full of movement at the same time ?! To me, they are like photographs of the human spirit!
Dotti Cichon explaining her photographic process for printing silk scarves. They make a great backdrop for the the couple on their date below. (Can you guess which one is based on graffiti from Florence that I picked out for myself?)
Art gaze – Thorn of Plenty by David Middlebrook of Los Gatos.
Kebe Konte‘s Rings of Fire – nails on wood.
Cie doing an impromptu dance for me in front of Jen Jenning‘s untitled work made from wood, nails and human hair (they reminded me of wool carders).
CT-86 Big Iron by Richard Starks was a showstopper!
Roberta Aherns paints her florals on cracked linen which gives them a soft textured age look like a fresco.
Did I forget to mention that I did have some artwork on exhibit after all? It was on Holly’s back, a shapie tattoo compliments of yours truly! A little something I dashed off (to match the one she’d done on her leg) before we dashed off in her car.
And while my little feather was lovely and all that, what was really breathtaking was this Rose series by photographer Jay Ruland! Thump – thump…Thump – thump…Thump – thump!
A quiet moment of reflection with Stan Welsh‘s Void and Pilgrim – ceramic figure and epoxy resin.
White Queen by Michael Garlington – silver gelatin photography, mixed media frame was full of fabulous, dark details as was his other shrine like piece.
Party goers discussing the ecstasy of the nun in Michael Garlington’s shrine like sculpture.
And while on naughty and nice – this mixed media piece, Foot & Ass by Tracey Snelling also took a look at secret pleasures.
Fields of Gold by Yvonne Escalante, speaks to the aggressive nature of modern agriculture, with these bullet or even missile like forms. They are striking as handsome, sleekly crafted objects, loaded with symbolism and complex implications!
Another favorite piece was this encaustic work, Part of the Whole, by Linda Steenkamp. These cell-like shapes could be read in a lot of ways but they reminded me of little boats made up of maps and bits of writing on a crowded sea where everyone had a journey but no one was getting anywhere. Perhaps I’m too imaginative with my interpretations. Viewer’s prerogative!
Mixed media paintings by D. Hooker, whimsical and perhaps a little menacing.
Monica Van den Dool‘s Blue Rabbit’s Foot and Canary mixed media ceramic pieces combined pop (over-scaled, familiar objects in bright colors) with something tender and dark (the real rabbit’s foot and wishbone) leaving me with a feeling of soft melancholy.
David Pace exhibited riveting portraits, that pin you with their stare piercing through the kaleidoscope of pattern.
A George Rivera mixed media painting looms central in the photo above.
A dramatic detail from George Rivera’s mixed media piece, Hope, with its deeply wrought darks and its burnished highlights.
Artist Phyllis Jenkins, Lorraine Lawson (yet another Los Gatos Museums Gallery artist – along with me and Holly), Gallery 85’s Sandy Burkhart and Holly Van Hart!
Melissa Kreisa and her rich metallic Abstract paintings.
Susan Kraft and her textured abstract acrylics.
Great people watching!
I’ve been a fan of Gail Ragains bold and bright abstracted figures for some time now and it was great to see an entire alcove full of these swimmers in acrylic!
I would have liked to walk home with these! Voices of Dissent and Off with Their Heads, mixed media paintings by Christopher Elliman. He uses elements of stencil and poster bombing, street art and fairytale. I find them both whimsical and politically charged! LOVE!
A rose by any other name…
VHS tape knitting by Cristina Velazquez – I’ll take a sweater dress please!
Patrick Hofmeister‘s installation above and below (I hear he’s on his honeymoon – congratulations!)
Dancing dudes with stilts and blow torches.
Fire Dancer performed to one of my all time favorite musicians, Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn and his qawwali piece, Dum Must Qalandar. I believe this was the remixed version with Massive Attack.
A possible Anne and Mark sighting – Thanks for the party!
Deep sea fish car.
I watched early on as artists were stringing up the CDs among the lights, and by the end of the evening they looked like twinkling stars!
When your photos start getting blurry like this you know it’s time to go home – too dark for my hand held camera or too many Art Dog martinis?
But not before one last blast from Jon Sarriugarte‘s snail car, The Golden Mean!
