Stars and Stripes and Polka Dots

May 22, 2015

Last night’s reception for Gorgon Smedt‘s Can You Dig It? exhibition at JCO’s Place was a blast (and packed)! Smedt’s overscale work is playful and innocent with a haunting darkside – such an interesting contrast. The images themselves are colorful and arresting but for me the real story is how beautifully they are painted. It was fun to see some of the original items that inspired the work sprinkled about the exhibit – prison uniforms, a little girl’s bathing suit and sneakers. It was a nice bridge from the actual items that sparked the creative process to the larger-than-life finished pieces. The show runs through June 12. Go See!

Full House!

Mrs. America and Untitled.

Dance and inspiration.

Me and Gordon.

Peaceful Hero.

On Pointe.

Guppy and inspiration.

Extra Special.

Top Dog and Jail Break.

Detail From Super GNAR.

Narcissus Tea I

April 17, 2015

Strawberry Tea III

April 17, 2015

Forget-me-not Tea II

April 17, 2015

Strawberry Tea II

April 17, 2015

Strawberry Tea I

April 17, 2015

La Mirada

April 14, 2015

I’ve been wanting to get to La Mirada, part of the Monterey Museum of Art, for awhile now and I just managed to squeeze it in before the obligatory (but no less fantastic) visit to the aquarium. So glad I did!

It’s a quaint museum, full of all the beautiful charm of early California and it exhibits gems like this oil painting, Cypress, Monterey, by Francis McComas amidst crystal chandeliers, a grand pianos, painted ceilings and murals, antique tile work and lovely gardens. This painting was on my mental list of “must sees” as it so perfectly picks up on Art Deco California!

Just look at the Cypresses less that a stone’s throw away from the museum!

And of course the Monterey Bay when you look over your shoulder!

The other pieces I really wanted to were part of the exhibit of Si-Chen Yuan’s work like this gorgeous oil painting, The Sea. Love that palette knife technique!

Castroville Farmhouse was another Painting by S.C. Yuan that makes you feel that you would only have to look out the window to see that kind of local landscape. Such a sublet but perfect palette!

There are so many fascinating period details on the grounds of La Mirada like this tiled doorway above and it’s thick wooden door with it’s charming doggie knocker and this detail of a beetle a fountain in the woodland garden.

It’s officially on my list of dreamy places to exhibit!

Don’t sit on a good idea for long.

March 26, 2015

Damn!
That’s what I thought when I saw this article on David Michael Smith‘s Florilegium paintings in the February issue of American Art Collector.

I knew it would happen sooner or later, the word was too good and I was just letting in languish… and it wasn’t like I had coined it or anything. And I know his beautiful work is very different than mine, it’s figure driven and plays on the early portraits of the nobility ..but still.

I first came across the word florilegium (which is Latin for a collection of flowers, and usually refers to a literary collection) in a fashion mag in 2008 or 2009? I remember thinking, “Wow! How did I not know about this?”, a world that so perfectly described what I was doing with my mixed media assemblage paintings based on the secret meaning of flowers?! That’s when I started referring to these pieces as my Florilegia.

It’s been a long time since I conceived of these layered pieces with their Illuminated glass slides embedded in the canvas and I’ve become very attached to them and I’m so committed to the idea of showing them “en masse” that I won’t sell them without retaining exhibition rights.

They’re intense though and really deserve to have my entire studio turned over to their creation. I need to let each piece evolve, making sure the materials I’ve collected are appropriate to the concept. I try out different combinations, I rework surfaces, I layer, I make a big cluttered mess and I generally work on a number at a time.

This is all coming up for me now as my studio is filled with rotating projects all jostling for priority, my teacup birds, my portraits of neighbors at work, my environmentally themed marine paintings, and some that I’m not even ready to talk about yet.

Mature Elegance was just purchased by a lovely couple celebrating their wedding anniversary (they already own Happy Marriage). I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather have this painting but I was still sad to take it off of my wall when the time came. When I examine this a little closer, it’s not about the loss of this painting – it comes from the deep need to make more of them!

Monumental Fiber

February 19, 2015

Monumental Fiber : Threads Mapping Man, Cities and the Cosmos is the brainchild of Dotti Cichon which features the work of three artists, Eszter Bornemisza (Hungary), Anitta Toivio (Finland) and Dotti Cichon herself (USA). This exhibition incorporates photography, installation, painting and mixed media fiber art to convey altered perceptions of our environments and each other. It’s running at the Vargas Gallery at Mission College from February 18 – March 28. I had the pleasure of catching the opening reception last night.

Monumental Fiber : Threads Mapping Man, Cities and the Cosmos – Vargas Gallery

Mission College’s Gillmor Center, in which the Vargas Gallery is situated, is quite a spectacle at night!

I love Cichon’s work! She travels extensively taking architecturally inspired photographs which she then manipulates into kaleidoscopic patterns – printed in this exhibition on silk banners. To me, these pieces transform the familiar into something that seems to reveal the spiritual core of its source material.

Eszter Bornemeisza, from Budapest, Hungary, works with bits of ephemera to construct labyrinth-like layered maps as a launching point for exploring personal and community narratives. It’s easy to get drawn in to the tactile details, threads and netting, maps and cryptic equations of nuclear physics.

Detail from Bornemisza’s layered panels, Mission College Instructor and Sculptor, Lynne Todaro and Dotti Cichon, Vargas Gallery

Finnish painter, Anitta Toivio paints people not as she sees them but as she senses them, through the energy they emit the memories they hold onto, their auras. Emotional Portraits are spiritual portraits on silk.

The Landscape in Us, a collaboration by Cichon and Toivo are photographs, a Finnish forrest printed on fabric and a video projection of a California seascape video on an overlay of organza, melding two landscapes representative to each of these artists.

As you can tell I’m a fan of Cichon’s work, sporting one of her silk scarves, the wearable version of one of the panels in front of which we are standing. Mine is based on graffiti from Florence!

Strawberry Demitasse Trio

February 5, 2015

Sequins and Shells

December 12, 2014

Salon at the Triton… 6-8 pm…..time to dress!

Rose Petals VIII

November 4, 2014

Rose Petals VII

November 4, 2014

Rose Petals VI

November 4, 2014

Training Wings – WIP

October 17, 2014

Opps!

How am I saying yes to yet another benefit? I’m going to blame it on Holly Muñoz, she’s not only a musician and songwriter but she’s a real sweet talker! She thought it would be fun if the two of us got together and collaborated on a painting and a song for The Imagine Bus Project and their Finding Your Wings event coming up in December.

So we did! We shared poetry (Anders Nilsen, Emily Dickinson, Rabindranath Tagore) and photos of flamingos and angels with pink wings. Something good had to come out all that and so it has! Holly has already recorded a demo of her song Take It Go Flying! sometime between concert hops around the country (it’s SO beautiful!) and I’ve just begun working on Training Wings!

Here are some of the inspirations we drew from:

Photo I took of a Flamingo of Oakland, loving the soft comfort of its pink feathers.

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark……….Rabindranath Tagore

Antique magic lantern slides of Victorian angels with their heavenly pink wings.

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all……………Emily Dickinson

Sketched in the outlines in oil directly on the canvas.

Layering thin washes of drippy oil.

Painting in placement of pink feathers and leather harness.

Ditching leather harness, it was looking limp and lifeless. A structured one might work but maybe too S&M?

Going for ribbon sashes, hoping they won’t look saccharine against the barbed wire.

Building up glazes, I’m looking for a sharp contrast between the dark and dangerous night and the hopeful pair of inviting wings.

OK, changed my mind again! I needed these wings to feel more self-reliant, like something you grow from within rather than depending on something you need to look outside of yourself for. That’s when I floated the idea of an anatomical heart past Holly – well, she was on her cell in El Paso I think – but she was on board! Now it makes sense to me and I’m ready to let it dry and think up a new title ’cause “Training Wings” doesn’t cut it anymore!