Art as Authority

by Marilyn Mitchell

"Portraits from the Golden Age of Jazz" opened at the Cannon Art Gallery in Carlsbad this past Saturday along with a talk by Dirk Sutro. The collection includes 71 black & white photographs by William Gottlieb and contemporary color photographs of local jazz musicians. Although jazz enthusiasts may be the most appreciative audience for this show, the Gottlieb's images are sufficiently distinctive to make them pleasurable viewing for anyone.

Dirk Sutro's talk gave us some inside information about William Gottlieb. He was a journalist and he took up photography to enhance his writing. Despite the fact that he is not a 'fine art' photographer, his compositions and ability to capture an authentic emotion from his subjects sets his photos apart. Try this challenge - view the black & white photos and then the contemporary color photos and decide which ones you think have greater urgency or a sense of reality. In my opinion, the black & white ones are far superior to the contemporary ones. It appears that Gottlieb had greater access to his subjects and was comfortable showing us an intimate side of these musicians.

If you are not a jazz enthusiast, you still will be able to marvel at the dignity these early innovators exhibit. Gottlieb's emphasis on 'telling a story' comes through visually and we feel charmed by Armstrong's smile or
captivated by Holiday's graceful yet powerful singing. I cannot help but be amazed that the true individualists of that era still wore suits and dressed elegantly. The clothing of those times created an aura of competency, regardless of what the person was doing.

The show is up until August 29th and there are some other events planned, including jazz era films such as "Lady Sings the Blues". Information is available at www.carlsbadca.gov/arts.

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photo: Reuters

For the third time in four years, Alberto Contador has won the Tour de France ahead of Andy Schleck who took second and Lance Armstrong - the last tour of his illustrious career - placing a respectable 23rd in the overall standings. I still love this race.

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from the press release

July 24th 6PM-Midnght @ Visual Art Supply 3524 Adams Avenue

The venue will provide a location to see and enjoy the artworks of 50+ artists in the traditional sense, but attendees will also be able to interact with the art in video game format projected at the event. The game is first-person shooter style and the setting will be frighteningly close to the actual event. The player will fight off zombies, find hidden weapons, unlock secret doors and see art.

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by Lea Dennis

On a recent visit to Barcelona and Madrid I took some shots of street art and graffiti. I just thought I'd share them. Enjoy.

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from the press release

Hello Friends,

Space 4 Art, San Diego’s new community-built, work/live arts facility, is currently accepting proposals for arts related educational events.

We have multiple venues for educational opportunities and community outreach including a classroom, patio area, lounge, and gallery.

The cost for the classroom is $15 per hour. The cost for other spaces is dependent on attendance and type of event.

If you are interested in teaching a class, hosting a discussion, booking a lecture, or even screening a film please go to our website sdspace4art.org, download, fill out, and return the educational space proposal form to sdspace4art@gmail.com.

If you are interested in attending a class, please check our website where you will find a catalog and calendar of classes which are also attached.

Thanks for your participation!
Space 4 Art
325 15th Street
San Diego, CA 92101
619.269.7230
www.sdspace4art.org
sdspace4art@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook
Sponsored by Synergy Art Foundation

Space 4 Art Educational Catalog July/August 2010

Dry-Medium Life Drawing Class
Instructor: Roy de Vries
Instructor email: vries.royde@gmail.com
Location: Classroom
Dates: July 15, 17 Time: 7-9 PM
Cost: $20 per class
$10 S4A tenants
Ages: 18 and up

Description: Students will explore form and motion at first in a series of warm-up exercises, then moving to longer lasting poses in order to explore the human form.

Materials: Board approximately 24 X 28, standard large newsprint pad, carpenter pencils, conte crayon, china marker, charcoal, graphite stick, are all acceptable. White eraser.
  
Goals: Students will have a more finely honed sense of positive/negative spatial relations, a more developed sense of proportion and an increased mastery of the materials.

Roy de Vries is a Space 4 Art tenant/artist with a BFA from the University of New Mexico and a California Teaching Credential for Secondary Education

Introduction to the Human Figure: Drawing from Life
Instructor: Belen Escalante Gutierrez
Instructor email: escalante.b@gmail.com website: www.escalandoarts.com
Location: Classroom
Dates: July 19, 26 Time: 7-9 PM
Cost: $20 per class
$15 for S4A Tenants
Ages: 18 and up

Description: This is a class for beginners open to students who want to become familiar with drawing the human figure. Advanced students are invited to attend class and use the model for their own projects.

Materials: Basic human anatomy packet, drawing board with metal clips to hold paper 23.5 x 26in x 1/8" thick, basic materials for preliminary sketching: newsprint, vine charcoal.

Goals:
Students will learn about the human figure’s three main components: head, torso and pelvis, focusing of these components separately will help students understand the structure and nature of the human figure as a whole. Every student/artist has their own style of creating a work of art; this class will embrace each student’s individual style while teaching the student the techniques needed to draw from life.

Belen Escalante Gutierrez has a BFA Summa Cum Laude in Painting and Drawing from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.

Watercolor Illustration
Instructor: Marcy Gordon
Instructor email: marcykaymolloy@hotmail.com
Location: Classroom
Dates: July 20, 21 Time: 10 am-4 pm
Cost: $85 for the two sessions (includes illustration board)
$65 for S4A Tenants

Description: This is an art form with many possible applications, from fine art to botanical and wildlife illustration. The techniques learned in this class can be applied to all forms of watercolor because it teaches control over results, sequence and method.

Materials: Small tubes of watercolor in the following colors: lamp black, cadmium red deep, cadmium yellow light, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson. A HB or #2 pencil, pink pearl eraser, kneadable eraser, drawing paper, plastic palette, water container, paper towels, ruler, medium round sable watercolor brush.

Goals: By the end of workshop students will know how to achieve perfectly flat and smoothly graded washes which is the basis of all watercolor. They will learn how to apply these skills in a painting and use core and cast shadows to reflect light and to create the illusion of depth.

Marcy Gordon has taught this class for over 25 years locally at UCSD Extension, Mira Costa Continuing Ed and the Athenaeum.

Monoprint Workshop
Instructor: Valerie Henderson
Instructor email:  vshenderson@att.net
Location: Classroom
Dates: August 7,14 Time: 10 am-1 pm
Cost: $50 (for 2 classes + $7 material fee)
$40 for S4A

Description: Experiment with making quick and direct one-of-a-kind prints. Monotype printmaking is very close to painting; it can be very spontaneous and both expressive and forgiving. The print can be further worked when dry with everything from pastels, markers and colored pencils to acrylics, watercolors and collage. The printing ink we will use in the workshop is a soy-based formulation that cleans up with soap and dish detergent.

The French artist, Degas, who worked in Paris at the end of the 19th century and loved to draw and paint dancers, made monoprints in black and white into which he later drew with pastels. Matisse did drawings into inked plates which he printed as monoprints, as did the Swiss artist, Paul Klee. There is something almost magical about peeling back the paper after printing to reveal the print

Materials: Instructor will provide printing ink, Plexiglas panels, tools and printmaking paper. Students should bring a notebook and for the second session, some art materials you may have on hand or would like to use.

Goals: The first session will be an opportunity to play with the process and get the feel for some of the possibilities of monotype printmaking without a press. The second session will be an opportunity to make it your own. See how you can bring something new into your own art practice!

Valerie Henderson received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and an MFA in Visual Art at UCSD. She has taught art-making to people of all ages from third graders on up.

Puppet Camp
Instructor: San Diego Guild of Puppetry
Instructor email: lynnejenn@aol.com website: www.sandiegoguildofpuppetry.org
Location: Studio 33
Ages: 6 to 14

Description:
Work with an artist and learn about the elements of puppet theatre and art. The San Diego Guild of Puppetry is offering a small series of intimate workshops for young audiences. A one-hour, afternoon single-session puppet-making workshop will be held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: Mask Making 7/19, Pom-Pom Caterpillars 7/21, and Circle Felt Mouse 7/23

Cost: $10 for members of SDGP
$15 for non-members

*Kids may also sign up for a 5-day camp to learn closely about movement and making with a fellow puppeteer-artist. Cost for each camp is $150 for members, $200 for non-members.

"Enchanting Paper Puppet Theatre" with Jenna MacGillis
Ages 9 - 11
Date: 8/9 – 8/13,
Time: 9 am – 12 pm

"Puppetry Gone Green" with Jackie Tauber
Ages: 6 - 8
Date 8/16 – 8/20
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm

"Puppet Life" with Jason Johnson
Ages: 12 - 14
Date: 8/9 – 8/13
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm

July Calendar
August Calendar

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from the press release


3 Pound Balance

3 pounds is the average weight of an adult human brain. Eric has been using his to good effect since his kid version only weighed a pound or so...

“I had a bitchin Atari jacket that I often wore while riding my dirt bike - one day I got lost on my way home from some stripper cuts back in hick town ohio and my monstrous fifty ran outta fuel so I had to leave it in this random field - I pushed it for a while but for a seven year old that little fucker was heavy. Anyways I’m all cryin and shit because I loved my mini bike and I was lost… but eventually I found a house and they called my folks, then we went out on four wheelers with some extra petrol and rescued my little Honda. Long story short it was a crappy day and I got grounded to top it off because I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near as far away as the stripper cuts I was riding at. That said, exploration is never overrated…”


Show runs: July 10 – August 20, 2010
M - F: 9 - 5; Sat 11 - 4; Sunday by appointment

Project X Art Gallery
320 South Cedros Ave | Suite 500 | Solana Beach, CA 92075 | 858.792.9685

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from the press release

Dear Friends,

Times are tough, but there's always room to be a bit naughty...
You're invited to come to the opening celebration of our new business:

Naughty Blonde Redux,
Cocktail Jewelry & Other Bits

Saturday, July 10, 6-9pm
Ray St. Custom Framing
3807 Ray St. (North Park)

Wine and cheese puffs, beautiful one-of-a-kind jewelry and belts,
blonde conversation... Plus we'll have introductory specials on our unique designs, and take commissions.

Would you rather spend your Saturday night doing something else???

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by Doug Simay

Los Angeles is the City of Angels. LA is my favorite city in the world...
Where else can one see so much art using the luxury of personal transportation?

Jean-Leon Gerome at Getty Center (Westwood through Sept. 12). Gerome (French, 1824-1904) was, in his day, hugely popular with his audience. But given his interest in the commercial development and popular spread of the work (utilizing reproduction techniques like photography) and his license in using his stylistic viewpoints to fabricate a view of history — the “academy” neglected discussion of him for most of the 20th century. In the age of the giclee, this highly worthwhile show could not be more germane.

Paul Caponigro at Peter Fetterman (Bergamot through mid Sept.). Caponigro studied with Minor White and this broad selection of his work attests to the skill of Caponigro and the significance of his education. His work follows well the path laid by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.

Hilary Brace at Craig Krull (Bergamot through July 10). Brace’s charcoal on mylar, fantasy landscapes are produced reductively. She coats mylar with charcoal and then by various means erases the charcoal to produce the final image. The work is imagined landscape within an imaginary landscape and demonstrates her exquisite finesse with drawing.

David Thompson at Schomburg (Bergamot closing). Thompson’s complex silk-screen prints take many dozen hand-cut stencils to execute. The nature of the medium produces very “clear”, flat imagery. I am reminded of the work of Gustave Baumann.

Judith Foosaner at Lora Schlesinger (Bergamot through July 3). Foosaner has lots of fans. Her work is immediately recognizable. The choreography of her mark making is her thematic calligraphy. The work is present beauty.

Seung Hoon Park at Sarah Lee (Bergamot through July 10). Park’s unique approach to photo-collaging a scene is to assemble cutouts from 16mm film. The resulting unique images are well composed and arresting.

Yvonne Venegas at Shoshana Wayne (Bergamot through Aug. 28). Venegas received an MFA from UCSD. Her visibility in the current art scene has always perplexed me. In this excellent installation of her series documenting the life of Maria Elvia de Hank of Tijuana she has done a wonderful job of ambiguously documenting a Mexican family of privilege. I wonder why this work is seen in the visual art arena. Seems like a new approach to sociology.

Peter Zokosky et al at Koplin Del Rio (Culver City through July 17). The gallery asked their artists to submit erotic work for this summer group show called “Kink.” I was particularly impressed with Kerry James Marshall, Norman Lundin, F. Scott Hess. And of course, the wit and skilled craftsmanship of Peter Zokosky is without equal.

William Swanson at Walter Maciel (Culver City through July 2). I like the thematic realm that Swanson’s paintings inhabit - the collision of architecture and nature. Despite areas within the painting that might appear CAD generated - the human hand of the artist is fully in evidence. I am reminded of Dmitry Kozyrev.

Tim Hawkinson at Blum and Poe (Culver City closing). Given this exhibition, I would guess that Hawkinson has moved from ACE to Blum and Poe . I like Hawkinson. He is smart and fascinated with fabrication. He is also mechanically inventive which serves his whacky insights well. Still this exhibition, despite its creativity, doesn’t seem up to the power of his preceding shows at ACE.

Angela Dufresne at Kinkead (Culver City through July 24). These are wild amalgamations of appropriated ideas and images. What makes her messy painting work is that her skills as a painter come through loud and clear despite her “punk” attitude. She was trained at Tyler and, god love Philadelphia, they know how to teach fundamental skills back there.

Ellen De Meutter at Roberts and Tilton (Culver City through July 3). De Meutter is Belgian and I think the Belgians have always been great painters (must be genes and the ale). This work is free spirited; not influenced by fashion. Her use of a visual vocabulary resonates with Ernest Silva.

Kenton Nelson at Peter Mendenhall (mid Wilshire through July 17). Nelson’s work is not now in vogue. His outsized oil paintings seem regionalist/populist - a style not in favor in the vaunted circles of current high art. Given how luscious they appear and how they seem based on fashion conscious, heroic advertisement they may well be Neo-Pop.

John Sonsini at ACME (mid Wilshire through July 3). John Sonsini is a tremendous portraitist. Watching his style of rendering a portrait demonstrates the evolution and mastery of his technique. These new paintings show a fierce confidence in the power of gesture. With broad strokes, laid down without hesitation, Sonsini’s painting has become ever more economical. He has obviously thought about and practiced painting for 40 years. What may seem to be elemental strokes and nuance come together to great effect. Looking at this work I am reminded why a portrait in oil offers so much more in experience than simply the image of the sitter.

Alia Malley at Sam Lee (Chinatown through August 21). Two things strike me about Alia Malley’s photographs: her sensitivity to nature and the presentation of nature within the urban sprawl. The quiet power of her work resonates with Gustave Courbet and John Constable.

Arshile Gorky at MOCA (Bunker Hill through Sept. 20). This is a definitive Gorky exhibition. It covers Gorky (1902-1948) from the first to the last with all the salient in-between. Learning of Gorky’s life is a reminder of the Armenian genocide. Seeing his work is to see the titans of Modern art that were working around him (Picasso, Cezanne, Stuart Davis, Leger, John Graham) for some of each of them can be found in his art. I am not a Gorky fan. It was his paintings from 1947, at the end of his short life, that make a difference to me.

Nancy Rubins at Gagosian (Beverly Hills through July 9, and Sept. 3). The work pictured above is heavy paper that has been torn, collaged, and covered with drawn, thick layers of graphite. Hung like drapery on the wall they appear as a great fabric made of lead. This work complements the more recognized, monumental sculptures of assembled canoes in the new South Annex (on view until Sept. 3). Gagosian’s BH space has never been more “Wow.”

Herb Alpert at ACE Beverly Hills (Beverly Hills through Aug. 28). I am in awe of Herb Alpert. He is as fine a sculptor as he is musician. These “Black Totems” are cast bronze and walking amongst them is terrific. The gallery now is chock - full of excellent art - it is an art-full stop.

Elizabeth Patterson at Louis Stern (West Hollywood through Aug. 28). Elizabeth Patterson has used her considerable skill in painting and drawing to capture the romantic notion of rain in Southern California. I find the work to be romantic indeed.

Henry Leutwyler at M+B (West Hollywood through Aug. 14). This body of photographs documents personal articles belonging to Michael Jackson that were impounded from Neverland during bankruptcy proceedings. Viewing this show on the 1st anniversary of Jackson’s death was poignant.

Get out, look at art, have fun.
Doug Simay 6/29/2010

If you want to respond to this article please e-mail me directly at doug@simayspace.com

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http://bldg37.com/home.html

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