Down the Rabbit Hole – Anne & Mark’s Art Party 2016

September 27, 2016

What a party! The food, the fun, the friends the fashion the frolicking the theme (falling down the rabbit hole into a world of wonder) and yes, booze, but at its core, Anne and Mark’s Art Party is all about the art – visual, musical, spoken and dance, SO many artist and SUCH great work! Artists emerging and established, local and international, street meets museum! As an exhibiting artist this year I am so grateful to Anne Sconberg and Mark Henderson and Georgie Huff and to the vast army of volunteers and contributors who made this all possible…and it’s not over yet!

The gallery is open this week, Friday and Saturday from 11am-5pm ($10 admission) and a Closing Bash ($29 admission) Saturday night, October I, complete with a Pivot to Fashion Show that is not to be missed! It’s a good thing because you can’t see everything in one visit! Check out https://artpartysj.com/ for more information! FYI This post is link rich – click on the artist’s names for websites where available!

Bill Gould‘s installation over the gateway to Anne & Mark’s Art Party clattering in the breeze like a river rucking over stones.

Exhibiting artist Holly Van Hart and company in front of a sculpture installation by Tulio Flores and Linnae Asiel of Asiel Design.

Live painting!

So delighted to have six of my Florilegia – illuminated mixed media assemblage paintings on exhibit in my own little “gallery” in the south-west corner of the Main Gallery. Here I am with Purity and Oblivion.

Pano of my “gallery” Secret Lover, Mature Elegance, Happy Marriage, Purity and Oblivion.

With Bryan Callanta – the man who knows galleries and shirts and also the man I have to thank for my great little gallery!

With artist W.M. Vinci – the Mad Hatter with the sublime taste and the fab footwear!

Goldfish heels! Swoon!

Fabulous Steam Punk art lovers.

Susan Kraft and her encaustic paintings.

NUMU curator, Marianne McGrath.

Sieglinde Van Damme and her digital prints from scanned Chemograms with gallerist Jack Fisher.

Jay Ruland‘s gorgeous dying rose scanned prints.

Lovely White Rabbit & Mad Hatter!

Christopher Elliman‘s mixed media Systematic Deconstruction.

Tessie Barerra-Sharaga‘s mixed media installation.

Exhibiting artist Holly Van Hart with her abstract landscape oil paintings on canvas.

Samuel Price‘s mixed media collage.

Will Marino‘s wound and folded paper, Shadow (Fig Tree)

Jody Alexander and her Keep installation of discarded library books, and vintage linen and book skins, boro technique worked textiles.

Lisa Wangness‘s mixed media collage Sin / Without.

Dotti Cichon‘s digital photography printed on silk.

Exhibting artist Sara Friedlander and her American Women: Birds of Im/Migration
Mixed media digital collage and paint on wooden panel

Sara Friedlander‘s American Women: Birds of Im/Migration: Ethel on Her Way Home From School – Mixed media digital collage and paint on wooden panel.

George Rivera‘s dramatic oil on canvas figurative work.

Karen Gutfreund‘s bold text pieces.

Exhibiting artist Laura Jacobson with her prints and ceramics.

Rose Sellery – Baby Shoes!

Rose Selery‘s Pins and Needles dress (detail).

Exhibting artist Rose Sellery and her Rags to Riches sculpture with JR

Rose Sellery‘s Rags to Riches

Laura Scandrett‘s Untitled – Photochemicals on Photo Paper.

Cristina Velázquez‘s installation.

Exhibiting artists Kent Manske and Cristina Velázquez.

Marc D’Estout – Pinhead

Tim Craighead – Without Constantini and D. Brent Stephens – El Triunfo

Khaled Akil‘s Requiem for Syria 1- Digital print from painting and photography — with Anne Schonenberg and exhibiting artist Mary Wold Souza.

Exhibiitng artist – Guru and Angel – Mark Henderson.

Robert Larson‘s mixed media paintings – I love the one with the cigarette packaging!

Lorraine Lawson – mixed media on canvas (left)
Mary Wold Souza – oil on canvas (far wall)
Kim Pourciau – wedding china sculpture (center)
Patrick Wädl Hofmeister – mixed media on canvas (right)

Margaret Niven‘s mixed media trees flanking Stan Welsh and Margitta Dietrick Welsh’s mixed media, sculpture, photograph with drawing on far wall

Della Calfee‘s photograph On the Inside.

Robert Ortbal‘s A to Z sculpture.

Robin Lasser‘s photograph & fabulous party goers

Awesome aqua!

Brian Coleman‘s Neon lovliness!

Emanuela Harris-Sintamarian‘s gouache on paper.

Green fairy lights – Joe Miller – mixed media install, Exhibiting Artist Jane Peterman Trace and her acrylic Trace Memory

Wild orange!

Exhibiting artist Mandy Spritzer and her metal pieces

Exhibiting artist Danielle Dufayet and daughter.

Danielle Dufayet‘s acrylic paintings.

David Middlebrook with his missed media sculpture and the lovely April Gee.

David Middlebrook‘s sculpture and Gail Ragains abstact figurative paintings in oil.

Cool vibe – bass and piano.

Indian classical dance with Abhinaya Dance Co.

Best of friends!

Great sax with a jazz-funk-rap group.

Shovelman! I bought his Dirty West CD SOOOO good!

Late night in the VIP lounge.

One final blast of fire before I called it a night.

What the Triton Means to Me with George Rivera

September 27, 2015

The Triton Museum of Art has a new exhibition up, What the Triton Means to Me, which features the work of five artists, Patricia Bengston-Jones, David Middlebrook, Leroy Parker, Nabeela Sajjad and George Rivera. The careers of each of these artist have been substantially enhanced by their relationship with the museum in different ways, which the artists write about. The show runs until January 3, 2016.

George Rivera was the Executive Director and Senior Curator at the Triton for many years, he’s an Associate Faculty Instructor of Art at Mission College in Santa Clara, he has juried some 400 exhibitions and competitions and has mentored and counseled countless artists (myself included) all in addition to making his strikingly beautiful and deeply introspective art (I mean, while not riding his motorcycle or playing his guitar)!

Having touched the careers of so many in the artistic community with his warm generosity and sage advice it was no wonder that the there was a huge turnout of artists, curators, friends and family for his opening reception!

OK, here’s what his oil painting triptych, The Precipice, looks like without all the people flocking about.

Rivera’s paintings have such a bold, commanding presence, there is a strong dramatic flair but also a quiet introspection, they can all across a room but also draw you in with these lovely, symbolic details like the bird and the flame. FYI – those are my hands in the photograph taken by Ron Dell’Aquila – not in the painting.

To see more of Rivera’s work (after you visit the Triton) you can visit Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco where he is represented.

Anne and Mark’s Art Party 2014

September 23, 2014

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!

Marin MOCA Reception with George Rivera

June 3, 2013

I’m so glad I hauled myself up to Novato for the opening reception of the 2103 Summer National Juried Exhibition at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art where my painting Blue Corset is on exhibit for the next 6 weeks! The drive itself was much better than I’d expected – I loved crossing the Richmond – San Rafael Bridge which lies low and intimate over the broad expanse of the sparkling San Francisco Bay and shoots you out into Marin’s rolling farmland of the Lucas Valley. Not far off the highway is Hamilton Field, formerly known as the “Hollywood of Air Force Bases”. It now houses the museum in the Novato Arts Center in a 1932 Spanish Colonial stunner surrounded by magestic palms, tended gardens and other period buildings, one used as a bistro, another as a theater.

I love the Spanish Colonial Porticos that flank the main entrance with all the lovely period details!

This is the gorgeous foyer of what used to be the headquarters for the Hamilton Air Force Base. I wish I got a better shot of the painting of an arial view of the base that you can just about make out above the door. I must have been distracted by the strawberries and brownies! OK, here’s a photo I cleaned up a bit, still blurry but charming none the less.

This show was juried by George Rivera, a pillar in the arts community in the Bay Area. He just recently announced that he’ll be stepping down from his position as Executive Director and Senior Curator of the Triton Museum of Art where he’s been working for the last 28 years and focus on his own painting and plans to continue to teach. He’s taught and mentored so many artists in our community!

Juror George Rivera

I had resigned myself to the fact that juror’s don’t show up to these receptions of exhibitions they judge, after all, it is an immense amount of work to go through all the submissions and carefully judge each piece on its own merits. I’d probably be good and tired of looking at anything by the end of the process. Imagine how delighted I was when I discovered that George Rivera had come to deliver an inspiring address about his experience of jurying in general and of this show in particular! He spoke how each piece is assigned a number, (5s 4s and 3s) based on proficiency, aspects like technique, composition, freshness, consistency. The 5s had all of this in addition to something more that moved him, a point of view, much like great literature, a voice in which everything seamlessly supports what the artist was trying to convey. He said that having a lot of time to jury the work enabled him to enter each piece individually and learn its foreign language, like an opera in which he didn’t need to know each word to be moved to tears. How beautiful is that?! He said juried shows typically have a combination of 5s and 4s selected but in this national show there was so much quality work that they were all 5s and that all the artists had solo show experience and multiple awards or would in their future. He also encouraged artists whose work was not selected to email him for a personal critique -always the generous mentor!

I was honored to have George Rivera speak with me personally about my painting. In fact, I was so excited, let’s see if I can even remember what he said!

He spoke of how sometimes the background of a portrait fails to hold up its end of the painting, maybe it’s treated in a different hand, or distracts your attention or fails to contribute to the portrait in any meaningful way. He felt that in this case there was a nice interaction with the portrait, lending layers of context without competing for attention. He talked too of the intriguing contrast of the bold tattoo and the softly demure dress and pin, this combined with her challenging gaze and strength of character made for a dramatic work.

My friend Mei-Ying Dell’Aquila was awarded an honorable mention for her oil painting Knowledge from History. Can you pick out all the historical figures on her chessboard? Way to go Mei-Ying!

Here she is with husband photographer Ron Dell’Aquila and artist Kristen Lindseth-Rivera.

Lynette Cook explaining her precise painting techniques in her work, Connecting The Dots In My Life.

In this middle room you can see Sondra Schwetman’s sculpture Pain Train reigning over the floor and catch a glimpse of first place winner Glenn Carter’s Transparence on the back wall and Tom Gehrig’s Reconnoitering Site #1 to the right which was awarded second place.

Artist Kate Marsh with her friends in front of her oil painting Berryessa, CA #1.

George Rivera talking with Kate Marsh about her oil painting Berryessa, CA #1.

I wanted to include some of the fantastic work from the exhibition that I was quite taken with, click on the image for links to the artist’s work:

Marin MOCA SE 2013 Rachel Williams Forgotten Saint (detail)

Rachel Williams
Forgotten Saint
Oil on cnavas
(detail)

Marin MOCA SE 2013 Holly Blake Generator - Honorable Mention

Holly Blake
Generator
Oil on board
Honorable Mention

Marin MOCA SE 2013The Artist Hines Every Once In A While I Dream Of You

The Artist Hines
Every Once In A While I Dream Of You
Oil on canvas

Marin MOCA SE 2013 Jizelle Albright 21st Century Image #1 Signal / Noise

Jizell Albright
21st Century Image #1 – Signal / Noise
Collage on board

Marin MOCA SNJE 2013 Angela Young - Sight

Angela Young
Sight
Lithograph on German Etch Paper

Thanks to Mei-Ying and Ron Dell’Aquila for sharing in the transport of the works and for the great photos (and company) What would the arts be without a community?!

Blue Corset Makes Tracks

June 1, 2013

Blue Corset has made tracks to Novato for the Summer National Exhibition at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, and I’m making tracks too – the reception is tonight from 5- 7 pm in the gorgeous, 1932 Spanish colonial Novato Art Center at Hamilton Field (the “Hollywood of military bases”) where MMOCA makes it’s home.

I am honored to be included in this national exhibition, juried by George Rivera the long time Executive Director and Senior Curator of Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art, who just recently announced that he will be stepping down and returning to his own successful art career full time!

Can’t wait to see all the work!

Breathe in Spring tonight!

April 5, 2013

I’m off to breathe in spring with George Rivera over wine, hors d’oeuvres and live music at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto tonight! Sounds good? Come with! 6-8 pm.

My painting Cherry Blossom Spray is in this exhibition!

Cherry Blossom Spray in Breath of Spring

March 13, 2013

Marie Cameron Cherry Blossom Spray 2012 oil on canvas 24″ x 24″

Good News!

I heard today that Cherry Blossom Spray was accepted into the nationally juried exhibition, “Breath of Spring” to be held at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto for the month of April. It means a lot to me as the show’s juror was George Rivera, Executive Director and Senior Curator of the Triton Museum of Art! There will be a reception Friday April 5 from 5:30 – 8:00 in the Art League’s new temporary digs, next door to 668 Ramona Street.