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.

 

Fur Feathers and Fins Reception

Fur, Feathers & Fins is currently showing at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, California, where I have three of my Birds & Teacup paintings. Juried by DeWitt Cheng, curator, critic and teacher, this exhibition explores a variety of approaches to depicting animals and our relationships to them from the purely representation evocations of them in their natural habitat to the utilitarian, metaphorical, symbolic, playful and even removed.  I can’t help but think about this subject matter in terms of the Anthropocene, how do we look at animals now that most of their worlds are impacted if not threatened by ours. Is the new wild, one of suburban back yards, zoos and laboratories? Something I think about anyway – Elizabeth Kolbert’s, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History is a great book on this subject! This show wraps up March 30, here are a few pictures from the opening reception, with links to artist’s websites, if available, when you click on their names.

Devan John, Gallery Manager of PAL announcing the awards.

First place went to Janey Fritsche for her oil on cradled panel,  Sea Shepherds.

Second Place was awarded to Ellen Kramer for her photograph Discarded.

Third Place was given to Maura Carta‘s oil on panel, Nose-less Bunny.

Honorable Mention for Ann Sismore’s photograph God’s Got Your Back.

A second Honorable Mention for Bob Carlin‘s digital print under resin,  Blue Footed Boobie .

A third Honorable Mention was awarded to Beka Brayer for her one of her Waiting for Wings mixed media assemblage pieces, details shown here.

Me with three of my Birds & Teacup paintings, Tea II, Petunia Tea I and Anemone Tea I.

Kathy Kleinsteiber and her acrylic portraits of animals.

May Shei – Joyful Moment – Watercolor on Rice Paper

(detail)

Judy Kramer, Insect Photography – Fur Feathers and Fins

Linda Maki – Fish on Lahina Wharf – Oil on Canvas

Leah (Jay) Jakusovszky – Amphibian Illustrations

Oleg Lobykin‘s Sea Foam sculpture and a crow painting by Janey Fritsche.

Detail from Peter Koronakos‘s assemblage Penguin.

Jihoon Choi with his painted steel Pink Rhino and Yellow Giraffe.

I was delighted to become familiar with Jihoon Choi and his fantastic work!

To hear the Artist Talk he gave click on this link for the video I shot: Jihoon Choi – Artist Talk

Jihoon Choi photographs of his scupltures in Bay Area locations.

womanKind Reception

The womanKIND reception was a warm-hearted gathering on a very cold night at the Citadel Gallery in San Jose. The exhibition, a Cole / Drews Watkins project was held in support of the YWCA Silcon Valley – eliminating racism, empowering women! Last day to see the show is Monday, December 19th from 12 to 6 pm.

Power houses Susan Drews Watkins and Sara Cole who put together the show welcoming us all to the exhibition.

Tanis Crosby, CEO of the YWCA Silicon Valley speaking eloquently about the importance of being there for each other as women, as community. Very inspirational!

                             

We were touched by the powerful spoken word poetry of Diana D’Angelo, Sara Cole and Ashlie Andrade.  Check back soon, I’ll be posting video links to these readings!

Many of the exhibiting artists were present, here I am with my floral paintings.

Jhina Alvarado with her Mixed media encaustics.

Diana D’Angelo and her mixed media paintings.

Ashlie Andrade with Sara Cole’s paintings on paper.

Sara Cole with her self portraits.

Susan Drews Watkins and friends.

Susan Drews Watkins sculpture, metal, water and glass.

Joy Redick and her watercolors.

Lisa Renée Falk and her Citrus Dress – glass, silk and plastic citrus bags.

Lisa Renée Falk and her Citrus Dress, glass, silk and plastic citrus bags.

Trace Galbraith and her slumped glass work.

My Birds and Teacups cards.

Tableart by Henri Mansfield Herns.

Work by Tableart, Gutfreund, Cole, Cameron

       

        

Marti Somers Squirrel over Tumbleweed, Mixed media on panel.

Karen Gutefreund‘s Perpetual Motion,  mixed media on canvas. Karen had been to the show early in the afternoon before racing off to Arc in San Francisco for the opening of the F*ck U! exhibition reception!

Brigitte Carnochan‘s  Pot of Daffodils , silver gelatin print.

Jhina Alvarado’s Alberts, mixed media encaustic paintings.

Jamie Woods, YWCA Silicon Valley’s Associate Director of Philanthropy and Sara Cole.

It was an honor to meet Tanis Crosby and help to support the YWCA Silicon Valley for all that they do – eliminating racism and empowering women! I hope we’re able to raise lot’s of money with this show for the important work that they do in our community!

womanKIND Reception Tonight!

The womanKIND reception is tonight  from 6-9 pm at the Citadel Gallery, 199 Martha Street in San Jose in support of the YWCA Silicon Valley – eliminating racism, empowering women!

There will be an address by Tanis Crosby, CEO of the YWCA Silicon Valley and spoken word poetry at 8 pm! This is a free, fundraising event and a chance to see lots of great painting, photography, sculpture, glass,  jewelry (and cards). There will be a raffle of works donated by organizers, Sara Cole and Susan Drews Watkins and maybe you’ll end up falling in love and taking and something special home with you!

Here is a sneak peek from last night, photos compliments of Sara Cole:

For more on the artists exhibiting tonight: please check out this link: http://www.saravcoleart.com/cdwprojects

 

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

Kristin Lindseth – Metaphysical / Metaphorical

There is a moving exhibition of Kristen Lindseth’s masterful bronzes on currently at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame. More than portraits, these sensitively rendered busts and masks explore states of mind, histories that make us who we are, and the personal process of transformation. Make some time to spend in the quietly revealing company of these sculptures!

Metaphysical / Metamorical

Labyrinth of Time

Labyrinth of Time (rear view)

Civilization

Spirit Mountain

Union of Opposites

              Time (side views)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soar

 

Soar (side view)

                          

Transformation                                               Inner Alchemy                                               Transformed

Embarkation

The exhibition, Metaphysical / Metaphorical, continues on through to August 7, 2016, with an Artist Talk, Sunday, July 10 at  2:pm .

Charlotte Kruk – Open Studio

Sweet!

I finally got to meet Charlotte Kruk, at her open studio last weekend! I first saw her work through Image magazine (the M&M Toreador and Flamenco Dancer couture) and then I saw Let Them Bake Cake (the Marie Antoinette inspired convection made of sugar and flour bags and all the cake making ingredient trappings) at the Triton Museum of Art.  I’m such a big fan of her fun and fabulous wearable art made from colorful candy wrappers and the like – it’s full of joy and playfulness!

Turns out her studio is just as playful as Charlotte Kruk’s work. She’s having more open studios this weekend and next from 11-5  Sat & Sun so don’t miss it! Check this Silicon Valley Open Studios link for directions.

I couldn’t wear Let Them Bake Cake home but I took a little sugar with me anyway!

What the Triton Means to Me with David Middlebrook

David Middlebrook is one of five artists, whose careers have been greatly influenced by their association with The Triton Museum of Art in the currently running exhibition,  What the Triton Means to Me.

Los Gatos sculptor David Middlebrook, represented by The McLoughlin Gallery, has lived and worked all over the word. I love his playful approach to substantial ideas, by using scale, drama, incongruity and enticing finishes Middlebrook engages viewers immediately, with the puzzle of their meaning unfolding under further inspection.

What Triton Means to Me - David Middelbrook - Haywire  2006 - photo 1 Marie Cameron 2015

In Haywire a packing crate seems to hover overhead while strapping dangles limply to the ground, There’s a floating rock entangled in one of the ends and  another is trapped in the recesses of the crate like an escaped balloon.

What Triton Means to Me - David Middelbrook - Haywire  2006 - photo 2 Marie Cameron 2015

The viewer can appreciate this work on a purely aesthetic level, the harmonious finishes, the towering form in space, the curvilinear elements in juxtaposition to the linear, mass versus weightlessness. This is an enjoyable and impactful experience on its own but when combined with the artist’s explanation of his inspiration it reaches a higher level. When I asked David Middlebrook about the piece he said, “We’ve messed up everything else on this planet. I thought, what would it look like if we messed up gravity too?” Love it! – an inviting window into a sharp social commentary to be appreciated on many levels.

What Triton Means to Me - David Middelbrook - The Queen of Time - 2014 -bronze, alluminium, resin, plastic, pine -  Marie Cameron 2015

Queen of Time, Cast Bronze, Resin, Wood and Paper, presents an egg pierced with holes held up by the curved branches of a birch log, perched on a stand of oversized bent combs…..I wish I’d asked what combs represent in Middlebrook’s sculptural lexicon! I get a sense of thwarted but persistent growth.

What Triton Means to Me - David Middelbrook - Queen of Time and Congress - photo Marie Cameron 2015

Congress (right) Cast Bronze and Basalt, is a highly polished piece of two overscale pipes, fixed end to end in a lovely sinuous union. It’s our congress blowing smoke at each other in a deadlocked, deadbeat embrace.

What Triton Means to Me - David Middelbrook - Queen of Time and Congress - photo Marie Cameron 2015

Incidental Incubator, the giant egg in the nest of garbage cans, may be speaking to our relationship to carbon, both as the building block of life on our planet and our ever growing carbon footprint.

What Triton Means to Me - David Middelbrook, Preston Metcalf - photo Marie Cameron

Chief Curator Preston Metcalf and David Middlebrook in front of Haywire.

The show runs until January 3, 2016  and also features the work of Patricia Bengston-Jones, Leroy Parker, Nabeela Sajjad and George Rivera.

Bed of Violets

A bed of roses………. I’ve always loved that idea.

I have been playing with the notion of using other flowers to create beds based on their victorian meanings  (like my Forget-me-not Casket here and here) and while I envision life-sized beds, I couldn’t resist doing a miniature version when I found this vintage doll’s bed at an estate sale!

Faithfulness – Bed of Violets

Faithfulness - bed of violets Marie Cameron 2015

 

Faithfulness - a bed of violets - Marie Cameron (square) 2015

 

This was such a pleasure to put together. Once I had the dimensions of the bed, I found  sheets of moss and an old white enamel tray to line the bed. I used potted African violets as my garden violets weren’t in season. There were even drilled holes in the head “board” where I just slipped in my twisted wire cursive. I love this dear little thing but it just wets my appetite for the life sized double bed version!

 

New Work at the Gallery

New work was just hung at the Los Gatos Museums Gallery and it looks great! I’ll take you for a quick spin with my camera, but you really must go in to see it in person as my photos do not do any of the work justice!

Flourish at Los Gatos Museums Gallery

We’re located at 24 N. Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos, California we’re open Tuesday through Friday: 10-5:30, Saturday: 10-5 and Sunday: 11- 3. The next art exchange will take place at the end of April.