Celebrating Joyful Sculptures

Artist Gesso Cocteau is a vision herself, before even getting to her art. I first met her a few years ago when I was producing a story for a CBS affiliate. 

We had a lovely afternoon strolling her garden filled with her sculptures, and then later watching her work in her studio. Her work is curiously compelling, and evokes the emotional intensity of the human spirit in a minimalist, pure form. 

For the past 20 years she’s been working primarily with bronze. Joy, jubilation, love, desire, grief and despair are all present in her work.

An Indian Wells resident, she’s has been showing in galleries since the late seventies, with her work evolving from drawings in pen and ink, to painting, to fabricated steel sculptures. In 1990 she began focusing on casting in bronze, evolving toward a celebration of the human form. 

“I want my sculptures to be a language that becomes the tangible expression of thought, to reflect my own life’s journey,” says Cocteau. “The truth that lives in the posture of the body is what becomes evident, a truth that reflects the condition of the human spirit.”

Her monumental works include a 51-ft. cast bronze, Endless Celebration, the tallest standing cast bronze sculpture in America, installed in Bellevue, Washington, and a 20 ft. cast bronze Dragon commissioned by Don Brownstein and installed in Los Angeles, California. 

Some of her many commissions, aside from major private collectors, include Hard Rock Cafes in Rome, Berlin, Niagara Falls, Boston, Cleveland,  and Orlando. When I was in Rome this past year, it was cool to see her work in the Café windows.  

Her show, “20 Years of Bronze,” is currently at Classic Art Gallery, 73-399 El Paseo in Palm Desert. 

Check out her website at www.gessococteau.com.

The Brewery Art Walk Experience

If you've never been to the twice-annual Brewery Art Walk downtown Los Angeles, mark your calendar for the next one in the Fall. It's one of the best opportunities in Southern California to meet dozens of artists and see hundreds of original works in a single location, albeit a very large location. The complex is at the site of the former Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery and has been called the "world's largest artist-in-residence community."My husband and I went to the event this past weekend and did our best to visit as many galleries as we could. We wandered from one loft to the next and discovered artists of all stripes working in photography, sculpture, mixed media, installation, performance art, architecture, illustration, fashion, video, and that which is still undefined.

Chuck Hood's amazing intricate mixed media assemblage pieces are fascinating works, many with headsets for audio accompaniment. His stack of religious books, called "I Swear," was quietly interesting until I listened to the provocative audio recording and it ramped up to startling and powerful.One of our favorite stops was at Guillermo Bert's gallery. His Bar Code series and 24 ct. gold leaf works are illuminating and I love his mixed media Sumo wrestlers. I'll have more on Bert in a future post.We found wearable art at the Dream Luxe loft where Javier Granados creates hand painted silk scarves. Granados graciously explained the batik process and how he works with wax to create his unique designs.

Children were not left out of the fun. There was an area for them to paint on the ground and the Barnsdale Arts exhibit featured paintings and drawings by kids.

In the coming days and weeks I'll be posting about some of the other artists we met at the Brewery. We only touched the surface, though, and will be heading back in the Fall.