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.

Golden Gala

May 7, 2015

The Triton Museum of Art celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a Golden Gala last weekend raising money for educational programming. Apart from the great food and bubbly and wonderful company, it was particularly exciting to see the art generously donated by so many bay area artists for the silent auction!

Here’s a piece that Melissa McKenzie of Santa Clara Weekly published on the event, David Stonesifer’s painting is bing bid on in the photograph below:

Triton’s Golden Gala Celebrates Museums 50th Anniversary Melissa McKenzie

Triton's Golden Gala - Mei-Ying Dell'Aquila and Marie Cameron - photo by Ron Dell'Aquila 2015

Photo courtesy of Ron Dell’Aquila

Photographer Ron Dell’Aquila, who had donated one of his gorgeous Pastel Diner photographs from his recent solo exhibition at the Triton, was there with his camera. He took these shots of me with donating artists, Mei-Ying Dell’Aquila and Holly Van Hart. Mei-Ying had donated her impressive oil painting, Dawn of Knowledge and Holly had donated a beautiful giclée from her Possibility Abounds series which also enjoyed a solo show at the Triton recently.

Triton's golden Gala - Marie Cameron and Holly Van Hart - photo by Ron Dell'Aquila 2015

Photo courtesy of Ron Dell’Aquila

The piece I had donated was Frozen Thoughts (that little purple dot on the wall below).

Here’s a close up, it was painted on a convex canvas emulating the paperweight that had inspired it.

Chief Curator, Preston Metcalf and his men in black about to announce the closing of one of the silent auction rooms.

Paparazzi about to capture the moment.

Photo Courtesy of Ron Dell’Aquila

It was such a pleasure to attend the event with my husband Robin. That’s Ron’s Pastel Diner photograph behind us (which we were outbid on). We did what we could to bid on many pieces but only lucked out with one….. and it was a goodie too – an original photograph of Frida Kahlo taken by Bay Area artist Emmy Lou Packard in 1941.

Emmy Lou Packard had lived with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico working as a studio assistant for a time, taking lots of photographs like the one above. She had also worked as Diego Rivera’s chief assistant for the Pan America Unity Mural for the Golden Gate Exposition. In this image you can imagine Frida pausing for a smoke break in the sun outside her studio.

I can’t begin to say how much it means to me to have this photograph of my favorite painter where I can see it every day – so very inspiring!

Also inspiring is how many people came out to support the Triton an institution that has been serving our community for so long and so well!

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!

Last Hours – SVOS 2014

May 19, 2014

I was able to squeeze in a few more studio visits before time ran out on the 28th annual Silicon Valley Open Studios. Click on the artist’s name for a link to their website.

First on my list was Ed Lucey‘s hilltop Los Gatos studio ( Site 271). I have admired his work since I arrived in California in 1997 where I saw it at the Pacific Art League and although we both belong to the Los Gatos Museums Art Gallery and the Los Gatos Art Association, I have never seen his studio!

I was not disappointed. It was overflowing with richly hued landscapes and the occasional still life and that was just what was on the walls – lots more in the pull out racks!

The artist talking with studio guests.

Ed Lucey’s work is really rooted in the local landscape, you can feel that as you gaze out over the valley below his studio.

His plein air easel was set up on the patio – you really need that umbrella for the California sun!

Michael Rogan, who belongs to the Los Gatos Museums Gallery and the Los Gatos Art Association too, was also exhibiting his work at Ed’s. Michael had his great watercolor landscapes and portraits and I’ve seen his roosters before but his parrots were new to me!

Not the only wildlife to be seen at the studio…..

Yes, that’s a rattler – a little one and, sadly, not a live one anymore but it was amazing to examine it up close and to remember that though we seldom see these snakes, they’re close by!

The last stop on my list was Holly Van Hart‘s Saratoga studio. I met Holly this last year as she became a new member of the Los Gatos Museums Gallery and won the Triton Museum of Art’s Statewide Painting Competition (and a coveted solo show). She’s busy preparing an “oeuvre” of nest and egg themed paintings related to her winning entry, Possibilities Abound, for this upcoming exhibition.

Possibilities Alight

Queen of Possibilities

Holly’s nests are very warm and fluid and textured, I especially love Possibilities Alight where the nest is precariously perched among all those lovely magnolias and the activity within the nest is implied but still mysterious. Can’t wait for the show!

Reception at the Triton

December 16, 2013

Yes, it feels every bit as good as I thought it might to have a painting hanging in the Triton! It’s such well regarded museum with a beautiful exhibition space and to have Feathers hanging alongside the works of so many of my piers made me feel truly at home! Thanks to friends and family who came out to share this evening with me – you’re the best!

First place was awarded to two artists this year (I know both of them!) Cuong Nguyen (who also won the painting competition last time ’round and is so good they might just devote a wing to him) and Holly Van Hart (who just joined the Los Gatos Museums Gallery). They each get a solo show!

In fact, the Gallery was very well represented with nine member artists in the show. In addition to Holly and me, there was David Stonesifer (with two pieces), Donna Orme, Will Maller, Ed Lucey, Ellen Howard, Linda Smythe, and Joan Harvey.

Artists I know and love, Jaya King (two pieces), Mei-Ying Dell’Aquila, Teresa Ruzzo and Brigitte Curt were also included. So much really interesting work – I need to go back for a better look!