Tuesday, January 26, 2010

MorYork and Veralee Bassler

This Saturday, January 30th, MorYork is having a "pop-up" show of the works of artist Veralee Bassler.



Located at 4959 York Blvd, the reception is from 12 till 5.

That same evening at 7, LACMA will be showing Andrei Rublev as part of their Tarkovsky retrospective, and if you like long, bleak Russian filmmaking as much I do, you won't miss it.

Friday, January 22, 2010

LA Art Show, 2010

The LA ART Show is happening right now (this very second!) at the downtown convention center. It's $20 for a day pass, but if you're a member or student member of LAPS you can get half off the ticket price, and it's well worth attending. Printmaking it well represented, with many pieces exhibited from famous and contemporary artists. Wandering around on a short break yesterday, I saw original Chagalls, Picassos, and works by artists with whom I was not previously familiar, such as the stunning work by Harold Paris from 1945. Dave Lefner, an LA based linocut artist, has a booth in the middle of the hall and is demonstrating his technique for achieving photorealistic linocuts of neon signs.

LA Art Show

The Los Angeles Printmaking Society has a booth nestled amongst the nonprofits, just a couple down from the CSULB UAM booth. It has a small selection of member works, among them a piece by me (Camilla), as well as two piece from Jennifer Anderson who taught a class at CSULB last year. I loaned LAPS my baby press for the event, so in addition to the prints on the walls of the booth there will be printmaking demonstrations in various media. I'll be there all day on Sunday, so stop by if you attend and say hello.

If you're coming up from Long Beach, you can catch the Blue Line downtown at the transit station, and it will taking you directly to the convention center. Get off at the Pico Station and there you are. Don't forget to bring an umbrella!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Ya'el and Hazel

Ya'el Pedroza stopped by the printmaking graduate studios to clean out the rest of her stuff, and she brought along wee Hazel.
hazel and ya'el

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Frida Lives! (& sells meat in the Ocotlan Market)


Just got back from (see photos) fabulous Oaxaca, accompanied by fiber artist Carol Shaw-Sutton & mixed-media artist Fran Siegel. It was a tremendous treat to have Carol's take & expertise on all things woven, dyed, embroidered & sewn. Fran's keen sense of spotting the marvelous in the quotidian added greatly to noting the sheer visual
sumptuousness of superabundant color & texture everywhere.

As you can well imagine, flying back after the latest Christmas day fiasco was quite taxing, especially after being subjected to pat downs at all airports. Is it just me, or do the words "Christmas" & "bomber" not seem to quite gel together? Federales were swarming about like busy bees in riot gear throughout the Mexico City terminal. On the plus side, I suppose that the invasive hands-on could count as one of the eight hugs a day we are all supposed to receive to keep our mental health on the straight & narrow.
I managed to get profoundly ill & spent a lot of time...well, ahem, let's just say I was indisposed (thanks to some damn tamales with molé I ate on the zocalo). It dampened my time there considerably - defeated by the body I hurl about once again! Had to miss going to Monte Alban to see the ancient Zapotec sites, which made me very sad indeedy, but at least I made it to the geometric wonder of Mitla. Oaxaca was interesting - the children are all beautiful & trusting, as they've not yet been indoctrinated to be afraid of strangers, the people are in large part friendly, open & warm. Objects that break are lovingly repaired instead of being thrown away & replaced with new (& often inferior) items.

"Saint Migraine" is in reality St. Peter of Verona (for obvious reasons aka St. Peter Martyr) a Dominican ("dog of god") who was expedited to the next world via an axe to the cabeza. Well, I can't say that he didn't entirely deserve it - apparently he was a bit overly zealous when it came to all things Inquisition. He resides in the beautiful blue & white Dominican church in Ocotlan, built in 1572, & restored with major funding from artist Rodolfo Morales in 1999. He seemed a fitting image to follow up New Year's Eve revels, although I doubt an Alka-Selzer could even remotely touch his hang-over.
(Photos courtesy Carol Shaw-Sutton)

Monday, January 4, 2010

Printmaking Related Exhibitions for the New Year

These 2 exhibitions are are the Craft & Folk Arts Museum in Los Angeles. While "The Fool's Journey" doesn't open until 1/24, the exhibition on "Graphics & the California Dream" is open now & closes on the 10th of this month.

5814 Wilshire Boulevard (at Curson)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.937.4230

www.cafam.org

Hours:

Monday: Closed
Tuesday through Friday: 11 am - 5 pm
Saturday & Sunday: 12 pm - 6 pm

Admission: Members: FREE

General: $5

Students and Seniors: $3
Children under 12: FREE
First Wednesday of every month FREE


The Fool's Journey:

The History and Symbolism of the Tarot
Opening January 24, 2010

Curated by Robert M. Place

Curator's Lecture for The Fool's

Journey:

The History and Symbolism of the

Tarot
Sunday | January 24
3 pm
FREE with the cost of museum admission

Learn more about the fascinating history of

the Tarot and its roots in the Italian

Renaissance with curator and

scholar Robert M. Place.

Please RSVP to 323.937.4230 x50