Calling All Angels



Artist Robert Morgan told me about a very cool event happening Saturday evening at Siren Studios in Los Angeles. It's called GET ART 5 and raises money for Project Angel Food whose mission is to "nourish the body and spirit of men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses." They deliver more than 13,000 meals every week to people in need.

That's a lot of meals and in order to fulfill their mission, they need funds. GET ART 5 is one of their main fundraisers. It's a live art experience with music, hosted cocktails and hundreds of original artworks for sale at affordable prices. Morgan is one of dozens of artists participating.

The photo at the top of this post is by Andre Chambers and shows artist Alex Schaefer painting a portrait of Robert at GET ART 3.

Below is artist Gregory Siff painting for last year's event at Siren Studios. The video was directed by John Wellington Ennis and was shot from 8:30am to 4pm.

As Robert says, "Get ready, get set, GET ART!"
Find more info about the event at http://www.getart.org/.

A Folk Art Environment

During a recent road trip along the coast of California, I came across the story of Arthur Beal, the creator of Nitt Witt Ridge. Beal spent over fifty years building his beloved “poor man’s Hearst Castle” on two and half acres of hillside land in Cambria.

Having long ago visited Hearst Castle, I decided to find out what a “poor man’s Hearst Castle” looks like and took a short drive from Moonstone Beach in Cambria to Nitt Witt Ridge. The ramshackle, fenced off site is easy to find.  It’s hard to see a lot of the structure detail from the street, but a closer look reveals abalone shells, beer cans, car parts, and other reclaimed and discarded items.

Beal purchased the property at 881 Hillcrest Drive in 1928. He was a garbage collector for the town in the 40’s and 50’s and apparently used a lot of the trash he collected for his building materials. Initially it was a one room shack, but using a pick and a shovel, Beal built out the property into sprawling “castle.” As the years passed and Beal’s home expanded, he became well known around town as an eccentric by some and a nut case by others. His notoriety soon brought media to his door and he was featured in several news stories.

Beal died ten years ago, but before his death Nitt Witt Ridge was declared California Historical Landmark, No. 939, as a thematic landmark in connection with the Twentieth Century Folk Art Environments. The plaque reads:

Nitt Witt Ridge, one of California's remarkable twentieth-century folk-art environments, is the creation of Arthur Harold Beal (Der Tinkerpaw, or Capt. Nitt Witt), a Cambria Pines pioneer who sculpted the land using hand tools and indigenous materials, inventiveness and self-taught skills. A blend of native materials and contemporary elements, impressive in its sheer mass and meticulous placement, it is a revealing memorial to Art's cosmic humor and zest for life. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 939. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation for saving and preserving arts and cultural environments with the Art Beal Foundation, non-profit and educational corporation. June 26, 1986.

The site is currently owned by Michael and Stacey O'Malley who bought the property in 1999. They offer tours of the site, but reservations are required.  The number to call is 805-927-2690. 

Color Splashed Retail Incubator Delights

A blast of bright color greets visitors when they enter Raymond/Lawrence in Palm Springs' Uptown Design District. The brainchild of entrepreneurs Raymond McCallister and Larry Abel, the space is a "retail incubator" with an art gallery and innovative vendors selling wares from clothing to real estate. Abel says it was a three month pop up store idea that became a permanent lifestyle destination.

The store's tag line is "Where Creativity Comes to Play," and only the most sour cranky puss would not catch the fun bug once inside. Larry says the idea behind the concept is to offer space for new brands to set up shop without the high risk of leasing a store on their own before knowing how their products will be received in the area. It's not a co-op, but the space enables vendors and artists a test run in the marketplace in a creative environment with other forward-thinking merchants.

I found the most striking and eye-catching designs in the store the acrylic pieces made by Abel and McCallister. Abel says they're drawn to the material because of its potential for a crisp, sharp and modern look. Their unique take on the synthetic combines traditional styles with a modern twist. They use the material to create everything from frames, vases and bowls to furniture and colorful eye-popping decorations.

With about twelve vendors set up in the shop, there's a rich variety of products. One of the vendors is Slip, a lamps and lighting company. Slip's aesthetic is "witty, modern, and sophisticated," and a good fit at Raymond/Lawrence. Soup Home, a home furnishings business, uses certified organic and sustainable materials that are "conceptualized, designed, and merchandised in a cross-category lifestyle philosophy." Crate of California, LA Sporting Club, and Katelyn Grayce are a few of the other vendors in the mix.
If you're yearning for European magazines, there's also a small newspaper stand.         

Just about everything in the store conveys artistic expression. If you look closely at the wood display shelving for glassware (above), you'll notice the martini and wine glass cut-outs.
 

                   

A giant tree sculpture is the current centerpiece in the art gallery, a project space operated by Royale Projects. The tree is a stunning work by Pontius Willfors who created the work from multiple avocado tree branches and using chains and buckles to connect the pieces. It's pretty spectacular and for $26,000 it can be yours. 

Abel and McCallister are busy entrepreneurs. This is not their only venture, only their latest venture. They have five other businesses. Their decor store Art Style Innovation, known as ASI, has been in Palm Springs since 2009.

 

One of their most successful ventures is an event business. They produced 187 events last year in Southern California, including a party for the popular Fox show, House. Taking a cue from the story line of the protagonist's prescription drug abuse, portrayed by Actor Hugh Laurie, the couple created large pop-art style pill bottles for party decorations. The bottles were a hit and and have been a big seller ever since.             

                              

Abel says there will be at least five new companies coming to the showroom this summer including a unique San Francisco gift shop, and lighting and window treatment vendors. 

It's not difficult to find Raymond/Lawrence. Just look for the bright orange and green mailbox waving to drivers outside the front door on North Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.  

Visual Conversations

When I first walked into Robert Morgan's gallery in Los Angeles, I was struck by a stunning colorful abstract painting. It was only after stopping and looking at the work straight-on that I realized the abstraction had clear images of three sevens reminiscent of a slot machine's winning roll. The subliminal message of the painting, called "Twenty One," was a clever welcome mat: "You are a winner." It turns out Morgan knows something about Las Vegas. He lived there when he studied art at the University of Nevada, and some of his paintings ended up on the NBC show Las Vegas. 

"The images I create are the physical expression of my imagination and the environment," says Morgan. "The mixture of numbers, letters and the symbols of language combine to evoke feelings of luck, pleasure, superstition, spirituality and history." 

Morgan likes creating signs. The images he chooses are a wacky take on signage from days gone by. These are signs one might imagine in the middle of deserted landscape with their neon lettering humming in the lonely darkness. His sense of humor is apparent with the words he chooses, such as his piece called "Saints and Sinners." 

Morgan's current work-in-progress, "Top Hat," is another neon sign. Against a clear blue sky, it combines a motel sign with a top hat and yes/no lettering. Morgan uses metallic pigments and decay created by oxidation and rust for the aged look. 

Visual conversation is what motivates Morgan, and the ideas in his imagination are often realized through the most simple images. "Something as simple as a plane of color or texture can elicit an emotional response," he says. "The addition of an interesting line, shape or symbol, furthers the dialog started by the optical image. The images and concepts in my mind manifest as a physical expression of color, texture and composition." 

Morgan's subject matter is not limited to letters and numbers. His work is wide ranging from abstracts to portraits, but even in these, it's likely numbers or letters will play an instrumental role, such as his tattoo man above called "Six Forty Five." Why "Six Forty Five?" Check out the man's wristwatch. The time is 6:45.

Morgan also works in photography, assemblage and sculpture.

His work can be seen by appointment at his Los Angeles studio. More info is available at his website, robertmorganart.com.

A Musical Stew

Music lovers will not want to miss "A New Music Concert" at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre Sunday afternoon presented by the Idyllwild Arts Academy (IAA) Orchestra featuring Richard Thompson's Interview with Ghosts, Chen Yi's Tone Poem, Peter Askim's Elsewhere, the World Premiere of the Orchestra Version of John Cage's Credo in US, the West Coast Premiere of So Percussion member Jason Treuting's Oblique Music, and Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood.

I had the good fortune of meeting Peter Askim last year. He is the Music Director for the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra - has been for the past five years - and under his leadership, the orchestra has been successful on many fronts. The students have performed with seven Grammy nominees, performed with the Concertmaster and Principal Violist of the LA Philharmonic and the Principal Oboe of the NY Philharmonic, and performed World Premieres including a new version of Peter and the Wolf with Harry Shearer that was broadcast internationally. 

It was during the Peter and the Wolf rehearsals that I met Peter, and Harry, and discovered the ambitious and innovative work of the orchestra under Peter's direction. Soon after Peter and the Wolf wrapped, Askim began work on a new project - Guitarist Richard Thompson's Cabaret of Souls, a darkly humorous piece about a reception and talent parade for the recently deceased, sort of an American Idol of the Underworld. Thompson calls it a "folk oratorio."

Thompson's work with the students resulted in a studio recording of Cabaret of Souls soon be released.

The success of that first collaboration has brought about another.Thompson's new work with the students, which they'll be performing Sunday afternoon, is another showcase for Thompson's scathing wit and dark humor. Called Interview with Ghosts, the songs are based on alleged interview transcripts of people who have spoken to ghosts. 

Askim says each artist and each piece in Sunday's program is "amazing in totally different ways. So Percussion is a force of nature, Richard Thompson is one of the greatest guitarists and songwriters in history, and Chen Yi's music is beautiful, personal and totally her own."

It's the combining of the ingredients of this "musical stew" into one place and time that he is most excited about. Askim writes in the program notes that he hopes the concert will present the audience with "music and perspectives you haven’t heard, opening your ears to new possibilities. Each piece on the program has its own unique way of thinking about music, sound and what it means to be human in our time."

The concert is Sunday at 4pm, Barnsdall Gallery Theater, Hollywood.

A free preview concert is 7:30 tonight at the Bowman Auditorium on the IAA campus in Idyllwild.

Guillermo Bert's Bar Code Series

Revolution is on Guillermo Bert's mind. It's been there since he left Pinochet terrorized Chile years ago. He now lives in Los Angeles where he has been creating his provocative and politically charged art for two decades. Bert has a wide body of work, including his frequent use of Mao imagery, but his Bar Code / Branding America Series dominates his current collection.

Bert defines the series as a reflection of the current political climate and says the work is "his perspective on the consumerism that permeates the core of American society." The mixed media works are mostly on wood or plastic surfaces. Bert employs industrial and digital techniques to burn images onto the surfaces and then applies a layer of 24 ct. gold leaf or glossy candy enamel paints in red, white and blue. He chose his enamel colors and gold leaf for specific reasons. The glossy colors reference American nationalism and the gold-leaf references religiosity and the sacred.

At the heart of each piece is the bar code or the QR code. Bert takes the symbol and mixes it with social ideals, pop culture, or politics through statements or the image itself. One work is simply a bar code with the word Democracy at the bottom. It's a brilliant justapositioning of consumerism with political ideals.

Another piece depicts the Statue of Liberty dripping with a bar code and the words"Statue of Limitations" at the bottom.

His clever use of the mundane - bar codes and QR codes - reminds me a bit of Andy Warhol's use of the Campbell's soup can, but Guillermo's pieces are more message-driven.

Bert not only draws upon North American culture in his work, but also South American culture. His piece, "Blue Poem," a blue image of a QR code, is a mixed media work on wood with powder pigment and iridescent acrylic that is based on a poem by Mapuche writer Graciela Huinao. The Mapuche are the largest indigenous group in Chile today. Huinao was the first female Mapuche writer to publish work in Chile and become an internationally recognized poet.

A title placard next to the piece contains an actual QR code and pulls up Huinao's poem Psalmo 1492. It begins, "Though we were never the chosen people, they kill us in the sign of the cross..."

Bert is an astute observer of modern civilization and our global environment of 24/7 information exchange. He says he was drawn to the universal Bar Code because of its "branding of information as a standardized mechanism used to define certain products."
There's an elegance to Bert's work. The images are thought-provoking and striking yet it's not heavy handed.
Bert is happy to talk about his artistic process with visitors to his gallery at The Brewery downtown Los Angeles.

99 Buck Art Sale

One of the fun annual art events to attend in the Coachella Valley is happening this Saturday at the Hotel Zoso downtown Palm Springs. Guests can browse more than 550 original works of art by local and national celebrities and for less than one hundred dollars, you can purchase one of them. It's the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annual 99 Bucks Art Sale. Okay, the artworks are only on 5"x7" canvasas but come on, size doesn't matter if you really love it, right? And you'll be surprised at how much beauty and artistry can be created on a small canvas when a wide range of materials are utilized including acrylic painting, oil, glass, fabric, clay, assemblage and whatever else is born from someone's wild imagination. These are photos of previous year's creations.

Last year I had my eye on this palm tree painting, but ended up purchasing a dreamy oil painting of a woman lounging on a beach that I framed and gave as a birthday present to my sister. I felt a little silly when I spent more on the framing than I did on the painting, but the total cost was still only about $200, and for an original framed oil painting, that's not bad.

Some of the celebrities creating works this year are Tommy Tune, kd lang, Bob Mackie, Michael Childers, Linda Ellerbee, Michael Costello, Kaye Ballard, James von Praagh, and Joe Mantegna.

The works are sold anonymously (they're signed on the back) and that's part of the fun. Buy what you like and if it ends up being a piece by Tommy Tune or kd lang, so much the better!

There's no cost to attend. The lower level bar will open at 4 p.m. and doors to the event open at 4:30 p.m. The hostess for the evening is the fabulous Bella Da Ball who will keep the festivities lively and announce the sales of celebrity canvases after they are purchased. All proceeds benefit the museum's educational programming. For more information, go to http://www.psmuseum.org/.