"Bringing the Past To Light" is coming --

So the show at the Lummis home is moving forward -- and we have an electronic announcement.

In addition to doing a lot of curatorial work on the show, I have started my own piece. Here is a description of my project:

"My installation will be designed to mark both conceptual and physical space in behalf of the women who helped to create and sustain the lifestyle of Charles Lummis, man of letters and sometimes notorious bohemian resident of the Arroyo during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These women included his three wives, Dorothea Rhodes, Eva Frances Douglas and Gertrude Redit; an out-of-wedlock daughter, Bertha Belle Page, who cared for him in his old age; and numerous and frequently nameless assistants, “secretaries” and maids who supported the household through their work and devotion to Lummis and his extended family. These women bore the burden in various ways of Lummis’s reputation as a lifelong womanizer, and in “bringing the past to light” it is important to acknowledge their experiences and points of view as members of Lummis’s domestic circle."

I am going to string a clothesline in an area of the grounds near the bedroom and hang a series of pillowcases on the clothesline, each with a photo image and/or a caption ironed on – each photo or caption referencing the experience or remarks of one of the women in Lummis’s orbit relating to their experience of life with Lummis.

Bringing the Past To Light

A photo (by Kevin Hass/Cidne Hart) of the Charles Lummis home in Highland Park, site of the AAC's spring installation project. Lummis was a Harvard-educated man of letters who walked to Los Angeles during the late 19th century and proceeded to learn about the local indigenous culture and live a cultivated life in his own singular fashion. This is the home he built by hand from concrete and river rock -- the center of his literary activities, explorations into photography, and "noises" (meetings of his bohemian salon). We have received over two dozen proposals and are looking forward to an intriguing show. Details to come.

Artist Talk at Avenue 50

As a spin-off of the exhibition "SAA Squared", Avenue 50 Studio is hosting an artists' talk tomorrow (Sunday, March 22) from 2 to 4 -- if you haven't seen the show yet, it is a collection of works in "fiber art" that are all smaller than 12" x 12." Makers range from highly skilled fiber artists to mixed media artists (like me) who use fabric in their work. I will be there and look forward to an interesting discussion!

Fiber show at Avenue 50

I have some new textile work based on domestic memories and a Mother Goose theme at Avenue 50 Studio gallery -- please join us at the opening on Saturday, March 14 in conjunction with NELA Art Night:



“SAA SQUARED”
A JURIED EXHIBITION OF SMALL WORKS IN FIBER

Reception: MARCH 14, 2009 from 7-10 pm

Jurors: Connie Rohman, curator and fiber artist; Kathy Gallegos, Director of Avenue 50 Studio

Honorary Juror and fiber artist Gloria Molina, LA County Supervisor will present the Juror's Choice Award

Nalia Aladdin Sanders, Madeline Bajracharya, Patt Blair, Shelly Brucar, Roberta Chalfy Miller, Phaedra Cheydleur, Joanell Connolly, Maureen M. Cox, Ann Darling, Raoul De La Sota, Jessica Drummond, Jamie Fingal, Dellis Frank, Georgia Freedman-Harvey, Gwen Freeman, Cicely Gilman, Sally Gould Wright, Cidne Hart, Marka Harwell-Bentley, Heather Hoggan, Ruby Horansky, Harumi Iida, Rebecca Janes, Gwen Jones, Georgianne Kandler, Smadar Knobler, Phillippa Lack, Linda Laird, Carol Larson, Susan Lasch Krevitt, Mary Ellen Latino, Sandra E. Lauterbach, Mavis Leahy, Ann Loveless, Pam Lowe, Regina Marzlin, Kathleen McCabe, Linda Miller, Uwimana Moore, Alison Muir, Diane Nunez, Mirjam Pet-Jacobs, Pamela Price Kiebaum, Janett Rice, Ann Ridge, Mary Beth Schwartzenberger, Cynthia St. Charles, Meredith Strauss, Deborah Thomas, Karen Valderrama, E. Vereycken, Binah Waite-Williams, Carol Ann Waugh, Deborah Weir

“SAA Squared”, a small works fiber art exhibition, opens at the Los Angeles art gallery, Avenue 50 Studio on March 14th. Extending through April 5th in the gallery’s main space, this unique fiber arts exhibition is sponsored by the Surface Art Association, an arts organization that promotes fiber art and provides support for local fiber artists.

The “SAA Squared” exhibition gives the viewer a compelling introduction to fiber arts. “There is a current explosion in the use of fiber and textiles in the field of contemporary art”, says Connie Rohman, co-juror, “Fine artists are moving into fiber art because they can do things that they can’t with other mediums, and art quilters have moved away from their traditional roots to approach their work with an arts perspective”.

Artists from all over the world were invited to create small fiber works that are 12” square. Jurors Kathy Mas-Gallegos, director of Avenue 50 Studio, Connie Rohman, curator and fiber artist, and Honorary Juror and fiber artists Gloria Molina, LA County Supervisor, chose work from Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and Spain, as well as from all over the United States.

“SAA Squared” will be on exhibition from March 14th to April 5, 2009. LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina will present the Juror’s Choice Award at the opening night reception. The opening reception, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, Saturday March 14, is part of NELA’s Second Saturday Art Tour in the Highland Park and Eagle Rock neighborhoods of Los Angeles.


Where: Avenue 50 Studio, Inc., 131 N. Avenue 50, Highland Park, CA 90042

When: Saturday, March 14, 2009 from 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Gallery hours: Tuesday through Thursday 10 am – 12 noon, Saturday and Sunday 10 am – 4 pm

Duration: March 14 through April 5, 2009-02-21

For further information, please call 323-258-1435 or visit www.avenue50studio.com

The Re-Discovery Tour

Sunday was the Arroyo Arts Collective Re-Discovery Tour, and a good time was had by all, as far as I know. I showed work at Suzanne Siegel's home at the foot of Mt. Washington -- Suzanne's daughter Rachel Siegel and Kay Brown were also guest artists at our location. I installed some of my domestic-themed works in Suzanne's vintage bathroom -- one panel of my "Arroyo Seco Watershed and Surrounding Area" shower curtain in front of the bathtub and several textile pieces on washcloths and a bathmat. Also a few diapers from my "porte bonheur" installation, "Road Trip" (my car window piece), and some other textile pieces in the kitchen. I was pleased with the relatedness of the work and look forward to making more of the textile pieces soon. As soon as I have photos of the new pieces I will post them -- photos of the shower curtain and diaper installations are already here somewhere on this blog! (look under installations).

$2 Show at i5

Recently I was invited to participate in a show at the i5 Gallery in the Brewery arts complex in east Los Angeles. Mat Gleason is curating the show -- he sent out $2 bills to one hundred artists and asked them to make wall mountable artwork. The $2 bill has the face of Thomas Jefferson on it -- so naturally I thought of Sally Hemings. I did a little background research -- which turned out merely to be scratching the surface -- on the whole controversy over the parentage of Sally's children. I discovered a lot of interesting things -- for instance, that Sally was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, and only one-eighth African. So the free children and the slave children shared three quarters of their genetic profile and closely resembled each other. Several of the slave children walked off the plantation once they grew up and subsequently "passed" for white, living elsewhere where their origins were unknown. Others remained near Monticello, living as African-Americans. I decided to decorate my $2 bill with information about the Hemings side of the family, as well as a picture of one of Jefferson's descendants.

The i5 Gallery is located at 2100 N. Main Street #A-9, Los Angeles 90031. The exhibition opens July 11 with a reception July 12 from 8-10 pm. All works are priced at $200, $100 going to benefit the gallery. It should be interesting.

Christmas Past at Future

Christmas Past at Future was a satisfying show -- it took nearly eight hours to install and the cards and other ephemera attracted a lot of positive attention from interested viewers. HOWEVER, chaos broke out! While I was in St. Louis there were heavy rains in Los Angeles, a leak appeared above the display wall in the gallery, and Amy had to quickly take the show down -- before I got a chance to photograph it. Fortunately a week or two ago I was able to turn up one snapshot taken by a friend of a friend. Here is an edited version that shows about half the wall: