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:

Christmas Past at Future

Tonight my installation opens at Future Studio, Amy Inouye and Stuart Rapeport's gallery in Highland Park (aka Home of Chicken Boy). Here is a description of the show taken from the press release:

After World War II, sending Christmas cards became a popular way to wish friends well and to keep up with news of new homes and growing families. While dismantling the contents of her parents’ house, artist Deborah Thomas discovered a trove of boxes filled with every Christmas card her parents ever received, beginning in 1948. Appreciating the design and fabrication of these cards – many including singularly whimsical images common to that time, custom family representations, and individualized engraving -- she decided that the cards deserved to be displayed once more during the holiday season. In addition to revisiting holiday festivities of the 50s and 60s, her installation will be an exploration of memory, time and self-perception. Model trains, music and other ephemera will also add to the mid-century holiday atmosphere during “Christmas Past at Future.”

Future Studio is located at 5558 Figueroa in Highland Park; the show opens tonight (December 8) from 7 - 10; also open on Sunday afternoons from noon to 4 or by appointment (323 254-4565 or amy@futurestudio.com.

Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour

On Sunday, October 18, I will be participating in the Arroyo Arts Collective 15th Annual Discovery Tour. I will be showing some of my recent mixed media pieces and a few surprises at Suzanne Siegel's home at 4563 Marmion Way in Highland Park, from 10 to 6. For more information on the Tour, visit the Arroyo Arts Collective website. If you would like to see examples of my work online, please visit my website. (Both links are listed on the right of this page.) The Tour is always an adventure, but if you don't have time for the whole thing, please feel free anyway to drop by Suzanne's to say hello.

Buddha garden design project

I have been working for a number of months on a garden design project for a client who wanted a steep slope outside her dining room windows to be turned into a garden. The garden has finally been planted, though there are still some details to be taken care of -- filling the pot with white roses, weather treating the bronze Buddha statue, and letting the plants take hold. I have been documenting the project all along -- here are some photos --

Before -- showing the rampant ivy, weeds and sprinkler pipe:



After -- a close-up of the Buddha on its stone platform surrounded by succulents and groundcovers.

A song from Grease

For most of September and October, Olivia was living and breathing "Grease" -- her first musical (she was stage manager). The girls did a very professional job with the show, and the music stays in your head for days. Here is one of the songs I liked best from the production.

Cry Me a River

Edith Abeyta invited me to be a part of her upcoming project, "Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow" -- comprised of three installations, "Cry Me a River," "Cake & Soup" and "Heart Follows Bird." "Cry Me a River" will run at El Camino College Art Gallery, Torrance, CA, November 19 through December 14. Each of 50 women artists is decorating a hankie provided by Edith along with a souvenir blue ballpoint pen to use on the hankie. My contribution is called "Six Generations of My Family Lived in Fayette County, Pennsylvania" and includes photos from Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania featuring the falls of the Youghiogheny River, a vintage photo of my family sitting on a rock near the river in 1955, and a quotation from a recent environmental study stating that the watershed area of the Youghiogheny has the highest acid rain levels in Pennsylvania. Here is a photo of my hankie:

Upcoming show at La Sierra University

So "Arroyo Seco Watershed and Surrounding Area" will go on display starting Monday, October 8 at Brandstater Gallery, La Sierra University, in Riverside. It is part of an exhibition called "The Art and Science of Climate Change," which runs through November 1.

Opening Reception -- October 8 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm, with an exhibition program starting at 6:15. For more information, the Gallery phone number is 951 785-2959. Hours: Mon - Thurs 10 am - 4 pm; Sunday 2 - 5 pm.

Driving directions: Exit 91 east at Pierce Street and turn left or 91 West at Magnolia Ave and turn right at Pierce Street. Merge onto Riverwalk Parkway and continue until Sierra Vista Avenue and turn left. Proceed about 1/4 mile then turn left onto Carmine Street. Left onto Blehm Street which curves into Quiet Lane. Turn left into the first driveway. The visual art center and Brandstater Gallery are on the right.

New installation statement

Summer has been a bit more relaxing -- although I have some projects in process, things have calmed down since my dad's house sold. As far as art goes, I have been focusing on putting together a new installation portfolio. Although I have been working pretty steadily on one or another installation project over the past few years, for some reason I never actually thought of my installations as a coherent body of work, which, in fact, they are. So I wrote a new artist statement referring specifically to the installations. Here is is:

"In my installations I enjoy experimenting in both conceptual and material dimensions, working with themes such as family and the remembered past, or local landscape and the environment. I create each piece by combining photographic images (either from my own or found photos), familiar domestic objects (a shower curtain or diapers, for example), and layers of found text. Imagery, word play and metaphorical suggestion work together visually and poetically, conjuring multidimensional meaning. In addition, each piece is grounded in lived experience – retrieved from memory and/or presented to engage the viewer intimately and move beyond the constraints of intellect to a revised perspective.
In constructing these pieces I usually establish formal groupings of the collected images and materials according to patterns and repetitions only marginally related to the content of the piece. Although the contents of each installation are mundane and typically domestic or local, the pieces themselves speak to larger social or environmental concerns. My goal is to bring the viewer with me as I shift emphasis away from subjective content and personal affect to a more suggestive and universal zone of perception neither purely representational nor non-representational."

New photo of Arroyo Seco shower curtain installation

Here is a view of "Arroyo Seco Watershed and Surrounding Area," my installation from the EcoArt show at Barnsdall.

Just back from Pittsburgh

I am still jet-lagged and in re-entry phase after my week-long trip to Pittsburgh. The purpose of the trip was to wrap up the sale of Dad's house that has been empty for nearly two years. (I have reported sporadically on the process of cleaning out the house and discussed some of the art projects that have come out of the experience in earlier entries.) Here are a few photos of the house now:



We ended up removing any trace of green and gold from the kitchen -- cabinets were painted, countertop replaced, and vinyl floor replaced with Mexican tile. Meanwhile, we flunked the sewer test. The whole backyard needed to be dug up so that the line could be replaced. Notice the bulldozer. I packed up the last boxes, sent off the last packets of memorabilia saved by my mother, and left to explore Western Pennsylvania for the rest of the week.

Another table picture

This time, Easter dinner.

EcoArt installation - shower curtain redux

The EcoArt show now at Barnsdall Junior Gallery is a group show with art by women interested in environmental issues. I was able to revisit "Arroyo Seco watershed and surrounding environs" -- a water/shower curtain project that I began during the "Intimate Geography" show last spring. This time I doubled the square footage of the shower curtain(s) and made some adjustments to the fabrication process in hopes that the ink won't discolor. I also spent a lot of time modifying the arrangement of the photos and documentation. The photos were taken during the torrential rains of 2005, in and around the Arroyo Seco and Los Angeles River. I added documentation from various water companies in the area and a map, plus some photos of swimming pools to provide contrast with water flowing from the mountains into and through its channel.

Here are a few closeups of the new shower curtain:








































Here is some catalog commentary that explains the purpose of the piece:

My aim was to create an installation in which the viewer is prompted to recall an intimate relation with water (the shower), and where the scale (tiny) and number of photographs (multiples) challenge assumptions about traditional picturesque landscape presentation. I also hope questions about landscape and power, the act of looking, and specific local concerns about water rights come to mind. Who “owns” local water? Who channels or uses it at what price and to what end? By manipulating the way landscape is depicted and viewed, I want to question where a viewer stands, both literally and figuratively, in relation to landscape -- and what a more enlightened role might be in relation to the natural environment itself.

HAUSGUESTS

William Rabe and Nena Amsler of HAUS gallery recently put together a wonderful show called "HAUSguests" at the Brewery Project in order to raise money to help alleviate the suffering in Darfur. Each piece of art carried the name of a person -- the art works were the conceptual guests. I contributed a small installation called "Frances Jeane Crawford Thomas," consisting of a small towel bar with three huck towels (guest towels) bearing three vintage pictures of Grandmother -- sitting in the garden, in the side yard of the house in New Brighton, and at the kitchen sink.

Although the show has come down, William and Nena have photographed each work and posted the works online so that viewers can still buy art and participate in the fundraiser for Darfur. Please visit the show through the "HAUSguests online gallery" link at right and consider making a contribution.

Roses are Red. . . .

The past two months have been very hectic in the life department, but I have still been able to put up two small installations in two recent group shows. The first piece was for a Valentine show about food at the Acorn Gallery that was organized on the fly -- I put together an installation called "Sweet" that involved word and image play on the old "roses are red, violets are blue" rhyme. Here is what it looked like:



The first bag said "red", the second bag said "blue" and the third bag said "sweet."

Favorite Christmas pictures

Lacy on Christmas morning.


Using the china and crystal from Pittsburgh for Christmas dinner.


Michael in a festive mood.

"Material Girls" opening reception

Michael and I drove out for the opening of "Material Girls" in what turned into rain last Thursday evening. The show is very interesting -- several quite dramatic pieces, including two enormous embroidered white aprons hung from the ceiling, and a lot of good work. The museum employees installed "Porte bonheur," and it was a treat not to have to show up with a drill, contingency plans, etc. to get the thing on the wall! Here are a few photos of the rest of the show. I'm going to have to take more photos of my piece when we go back out to Riverside -- I didn't get any that look right. There will be a catalog of the show by the beginning of February and the show will remain up through March 10.

Material Girls to open the Riverside Art Museum

I just received cards for "Material Girls" -- the exhibition I have been invited to be part of at the Riverside Art Museum. There will be work in the show from 15 women artists working non-traditionally with fabric. The Museum itself is in a Julia Morgan building in the historic district of Riverside. I am to deliver the work during the week after Christmas (next week!). The reception will take place on Thursday, January 4 from 6-9 pm. The show runs until March 10. I can't wait to see the other artists' work -- a good show and an interesting venue. I am also very excited that my piece with Granddaddy's photos has been so well received. I wonder what he would think if he could know that his pictures were being shown in a museum in California? He really loved traveling to California every winter -- I have another series of beautiful slides he took while traveling. (Another project??) I wonder if he ever visited Riverside?

More holiday sales! Post-Postcard 2006

December just turned very busy -- I am now participating in three holiday sales! Tomorrow night I will have two of my new paintings on panel at Yong Sin's studio in San Pedro (see post below). Friday through Sunday I will be participating in "Post-Postcard 2006" with Outpost for Contemporary Art. This sale is small-format work or multiples that will be displayed in shelves full of long, narrow cardboard boxes. It is called "an annual open-invitational show of small-format work that challenges artists to stretch the parameters of media and conceptual strategies by doing what they do best -- subvert and manipulate the theme to their own ends." So I have created packets labeled "A bit of Los Angeles" -- small glassine envelopes labeled with a fragment of various vintage maps and guidebooks of Los Angeles, each containing a quarter-teaspoon of Los Angeles dirt.



Post-Postcard will be open from 7-9 pm (Members' Preview) on Friday, December 8, 7-10 pm on Saturday, December 9, and 12-5 pm on Sunday, December 10. Location is Outpost for Contemporary Art's new Highland Park facility at 6375 N. Figueroa in Highland Park. More info at www.outpost-art.org.

I will also have another of my new, small paintings on panel in the Cash and Carry show at the Acorn Gallery -- work sold straight off the wall, everything under $100. Works will be replaced as they are sold. Reception December 9, 7-10 pm, show goes on through January 5. There will also be a special one-day holiday sale with Avenue 50 Gallery on December 17 from 12-6 pm. The Acorn is at 135 N. Avenue 50 in Highland Park.