Culver City Art Group Walks the Culver City Art Galleries

Seven members of the Culver City Art Group met at The LAB 101 gallery on March 17 for an informal walk along Washington Blvd and La Cienega to visit the art galleries that have popped up in the last couple of years. (Much has been written about this area recently, so I won't go into that, but a good article can be found here if you are so inclined: Art of the new. How a previously industrial area in Culver City morphed into the latest gallery hotspot.)

I was still feeling a little woozy from oral surgery a couple of days before, but decided to go anyway, rather than spend the day on the sofa. Whenever I push myself to do something I have made a commitment to do, I always feel better that at least I gave it a try! And this try turned into visiting at least 15 galleries along Washington Blvd. and La Cienega Blvd. The thing I enjoy about visiting galleries is not the satisfaction of seeing a lot of artwork that I necessarily love and admire, it is more the variety of creativity on view.

At Lab 101 I was fascinated by the work of Andy Howell. I am always attracted to collages and I liked the juxtaposition of grotesque faces with the fancifully-patterned backgrounds in the exhibition “I Wish I Was Here.”

At Corey Helford the walls of the showroom were eerily decorated with rubbery arms extending out of swooping black drapes. This was appropriate for the David Stoupakis exhibit, "Sheep Will Follow." Paintings of dead children or just ghastly dolls? Creepy in a wonderfully amusing way. And beautifully framed. I am always aware of the choices of framing, as the right or wrong decision can enhance or detract dramatically from a piece.
We visited a few more galleries with nothing particularly interesting to me (which doesn't mean it wouldn't strike someone else's fancy).

Then at d.e.n. contemporary, Carlos Estrada-Vega's "About 4,000 Paintings" caught my attention. Each painting is comprised of tens to hundreds of individual squares or rectangles of varying depths, made of different colors and hues from his own mixture of limestone dust and pigment. At first it seems like a simple concept, one of those, "why didn't I think of that," ideas. But really quite complicated when you look at each piece closely.

At Blum & Poe, we walked into Sam Durant’s “Scenes From the Pilgrim Story: Myths, Massacres and Monuments.” Yep, that’s right. We couldn’t decide if it had been stolen from the Natural History Museum, was a put on, or somebody was serious about it being a work of art. Think a 70s presentation of what it meant to be a Pilgrim in wall plaques and vignettes, and you got it. Well, at least I remembered it.

At the George Billis Gallery, I was particularly struck by one painting of a 76 gas station with a dried-up palm tree in the foreground and a dinosaur in the background, everything suffocating in thick brown smog. Unfortunately there is no artist attribution on the website so I will never know who painted it. Interestingly, as a nod to the sudden hipness of Culver City, they have their address listed as Culver City with an LA address. Although the galleries along La Cienega are actually located in the city of Los Angeles, it is now considered part of the “cool” Culver City gallery neighborhood.

I believe it was about here the lack of Vicodin and antibiotics caught up with me. End of tour, to be completed another day.

I would encourage anybody who is an artist or has an interest in art to make the effort to stroll around current art galleries, whether it be in Culver City, the Melrose area in West Hollywood, downtown LA, etc. Take a friend and have a conversation about the art you are seeing… good or bad, it’s always interesting and stimulating.

(All photos on this blog copyright roslyn m wilkins and not to be used without permission.)

Los Angeles Conservancy March Mosaic Tour

The LA Conservancy is partnering with the J. Paul Getty Museum to celebrate mosaic in Los Angeles in conjunction with "Stories in Stone: Conserving Mosaics of Roman Africa." (See previous blog.) Among other activities, LAC is sponsoring a self-driving tour on Sunday, March 25. the tour will include Watts Towers, St. John's Episcopal Church and the Birth of Liberty at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. For more information go to the Los Angeles Conservancy website.

Another event, which was sold out to the general public when I attempted to sign up initially, is the Wednesday, March 21 Gallery Course at the Getty Villa. As a Conservancy member I was able to sign up for that today. Oh joy!!

I was a docent for the LAC for 15 years and enjoyed every moment of it. Unfortunately, when I decided to go back to school and devote more time to my artwork, along with still working fulltime and other obligations, some things had to go, and this was one of them. I'm hoping some time in the near future I can once again put on my tour-giving hat for the Conservancy...

Sister City Tiles at Vets in Culver City

Culver City has a plethora of Sister Cities, at least five, including: Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico; Kaizuka, Japan; Iksan City, South Korea; Lethbridge, Canada; and Yanji City, Jilin, China. The first four of these were honored on March 3, 2007, with the unveiling of ceramic tiles painted with scenes relating to those places. The tiles were painted by Lori Escalera, who was the founding president of the Culver City Art Group and has other public artwork around the city. The tiles are being installed at the Veteran's Building (at the corner of Culver Blvd. and Overland) on the doors of rooms named after these sister cities.


At left: Artist Lori Escalera with Mayor Gary Silbiger and the Uruapan tiles.

As a tile painter/artist myself, I really enjoyed the speech Lori gave about art as function. Here are a few snippets:

"I would like to address the idea of some that “Artwork may be diminished by its relationship to function.” History proves that art and functionality go hand in hand. It has provided artists with gainful wage, and survival - beginning with cave art, which functioned as a practical method to focus society on a fruitful hunt. In the Renaissance, artwork was a guild business as religious leaders communicated to the masses of spiritual interests and wealthy patrons needed portraits to record and exhibit their prestige. In the 17th, 18th and 19th century artists were hired as illustrators for secular business advertising.

However following the Industrial Revolution there was a clear understanding that artists needed to relate aesthetics to ugly massed produced goods. A true movement of function integrated with art emerged by the 20th century... Work again emerged for artists as they were hired to progandize modern war and politics. I wonder if anyone realizes in the 21st century, how “Public Art Ordinances” service the artist as a viable business [as a] functional reaction to damage caused from urban development. Proving again, combining art with function enhances the world humans inhabit. Art that is remembered throughout history IS tied to function.

It is only a very contemporary idea that art may exist without function – as a sole means of human creativity. But if we look at modern life we see that mankind finally has the leisure time to contemplate his naval - for the sheer fact that it is there. Man is not constantly consumed by survival mode.

...enjoy artwork. Do not shy away from controversy over art. Do not think that art can only be an emotional experience or an intellectual one. We are humans given two separately functioning brain hemispheres that may work together for different reasons at different times. The more art stimulates us in passion and intellect the more successful it is."

(All photos on this blog copyright roslyn m wilkins and not to be used without permission.)

Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture

This afternoon BG and I visited the Skin + Bones exhibit at MOCA. I have wanted to see this since it first opened in November of last year. Living in LA has one giant disadvantage (everybody knows about the traffic so that doesn't count anymore): There Are Too Darn Many Things To Do! Yesterday I remembered this exhibit was closing imminently (next weekend to be exact). I don't mind doing things like this on my own, but it's always nicer to have company. So I emailed BG who works in the fashion industry, and as I have a background in architecture, what better combination to view this exhibit together.

I am a MOCA member and as I am not a big fan of much of their art, every year I threaten to cancel my membership. But just as I decide to do that, something like this comes along and I realize why they need my support. So, okay MOCA, you suckered me for another year, just in the nick of time, as usual.

From beginning to end this exhibit is well-designed, thoughtful and fun. I was hooked at the entrance with several mannequins (or is that womannequins, maybe not...) in a circle dressed in ever-increasingly covered-up outfits, the final mannequin looking like her head was popping up out of a sofa. In fact, many of the styles looked like people wearing sofas. Hey, this would be fine with me and I could probably get a discount as I already have the padding.... One video display showed models removing chair covers and turning them into dresses as they put them on. Very clever.

I was particularly impressed with the idea of showing floorplans of buildings alongside patterns for clothing. As BG noted, it's all about engineering. One theme in the exhibit is how much modern architecture (in particular) is akin to fashioning a dress with all the tucking, pleating and pinning of the architectural materials. Of course, Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall (across the street from MOCA) is front and center with that comparison.

This exhibit is large, visually overwhelming and not for the faint of heart. Two-thirds of the way through I felt dizzy and wondered if my vision had suddenly changed. I took off my glasses in the hope that not seeing everything so clearly might help, and strangely, it did. (Note to self: remember I am not in my twenties anymore and weird things happen!) So I made it through to the end and happy I did, although I did not see one dress made out of ceramic tiles which I thought was clearly a missed opportunity.

So now my question is, which came first? Did the early humans start making shelters first (and I don't mean diving into a cave when it rained or standing under a tree to get out of the sun)? Or was a piece of clothing the first item of industry? I feel as though it must have been the latter, and once they got the hang of making clothing, extended it to housing. Perhaps starting with a patio right outside the cave for a summer barby???

So much art makes one hungry so we drove back to Culver City and stopped at the Cafe Brasil on Venice Blvd. just west of Overland across from Culver Center (and officially in Los Angeles, I believe, although Culver City and Los Angeles do the tango for several miles along that stretch, so it hardly matters). There is a nice blog here about Cafe Brasil which says it all as well as I can. BG ordered the flank steak and I had the Picante Catfish. Whenever catfish is on the menu there is no other choice for me. Catfish is really good or really bad, there is no in between. Fortunately, this restaurant happens to do catfish excellently. Along with everything else, including a good cup of Brazilian coffee with a crystallized sugar swizel stick that I can't resist.

So, another day, another adventure, comes to an end.

My First Light Switch Plate.

I just picked this light switch plate up from the kiln. Of course now I see all my mistakes but that's good as next time I won't make them. I'm happy with it anyway. I'm experimenting with tag-alongs which are small ceramic (unpainted bisque) pieces glued to the base tile with glaze.

(All photos and designs on this blog copyright roslyn m wilkins and not to be used without permission.)

How I got interested in Roman mosaics.

I have a very vivid memory of a field trip to a Roman Villa somewhere in the south of England when I was a child. I remember the remains of some walls perhaps a foot high surrounding some mosaics. One mosaic in particular of stylized plants in blues and greens stands out in my mind. I remember nothing about the rest of the trip, just that flash. I didn't ever actually think actively about that scene, but it must have remained tucked away in some corner of my brain, because when it came to the forefront again a couple of years ago, it was not a surprise to me that it had been lurking there all my life.

Even before I became interested in painting ceramic tiles or collecting them, I was fond of a book in my library on Islamic architecture which of course incorporated photos of tiles and mosaics. I bought it at least thirty years ago and looked at it often over the years, but it did not bring forth that childhood memory. Even when I traveled to Andalucia, Spain because I wanted to see the tiles and mosaics at the Alhambra in Granada and the Great Mosque at Sevilla, I did not think of that mosaic.

But in my first year of classes in the Archaeology Program at UCLA, the students were asked by one of the professors to talk about our specific area of interest. The memory of that mosaic popped into my head and I knew that was why I had signed up for the program. Since then I have developed a true passion for ancient mosaics, particularly from the Roman Empire. This ties in nicely, of course, with my love of tiles. And now, after a lifetime, I know for sure what my mission in life is: to find out anything and everything I can about mosaics and tiles, to immerse myself in that subject. But I don't have a specific goal. Perhaps I will find that as I walk along the path... or maybe there is no goal. It doesn't really matter. I am enjoying my passion, and that is exactly what it is all about.

Postscript:
I lived in Worthing, Sussex when I visited the Villa, so the excavation must have been close by. If anybody has any information about where this might have been I would appreciate hearing from you.

Hand-Painted Tiles
The information for my class at West LA College Extension has now been posted on their website. The class runs March 3 and 10, 2007. You may click here for more information and to sign up for the class. (My class is at the bottom of the page.)