Riverside Dogs

In September I attended the Riverside Art Museum fundraiser ‘Art Bark in the Park’.  Selected artists had been given a metal dog to paint on and they were auctioned or sponsored as a fundraiser for the museum.

The reception was held in White Park in Downtown Riverside one warm evening.  There were a lot of dogs there.  I was really surprised how many.

All dogs were well behaved!

Oh look. Jeni and a Beagle. It inevitably has the poem about dogs painted into it.

Some dogs were painted on the back too (mine is the colorful one in the middle)

The crowd matched the amount of dogs

No on had to pick up after their dog!  The perfect pooch.

One up for adoption

None of them used the tree…..

There was a huge variety of decoration

…and they all found a new home…

CCMA membership show

Yesterday I attended the reception of the Chaffey Community Museum of Art Membership show.  Saw a few friends, one of who won an award.

The little on at the bottom left (orange and purple) was an award winner by my friend Joe A. Oaks. The blue and white one near the middle with the fruit on also won an award.

Second from the top right in the corner (going towards the left) is my collaborative piece with Helen Pietre

The show was sponsored by Ontario Elks

Quite a crowd

This won best of show. It’s made of pieces of silk.

Southern California Collage Society

On Sunday after my painting class with Mary I went over to the Chaffey Community Museum of Art to attend the reception for the 10th annual Southern California Collage Society membership show.  The reception was well attended and the walls were filled with an awesome show of collage, mixed media and assemblage.

A lot of people asked whether I’d measured the space between the window before creating ‘Rose Ochre Morning’.

There had been several sales already – including one created by Janelle Lowry, who is the chief receptionist at the museum.

Someone actually played the piano for a while.  I didn’t quite have the audacity to show what a bad player I could be….

 

Another nice little surprise

Yesterday I went to pick up my paintings from the Imperial County Fair.  I often enter about 10 paintings but this year only had four that fit the categories well (you can only enter two in each category).  I was pleasantly surprised to find that ‘Arrows‘ had won 3rd place in “Non-objective or abstract paintings, any media”, and “Hope Rising” had taken 1st place in the same category.

Following the county fair, one of our local museums, Pioneer’s Museum, hosts the first and second place winners in each category, so I had to run off to drop Hope Rising at its next venue.  My good friend Ginger Ryerson who curates the art wall there and the art shows was there for the intake.  Hope Rising is a heavier piece so I helped her hang it.

Just leveling it a little more….

La Quinta Museum show

Last night I went to the reception for the La Quinta Museum suprise show ‘Local Color’.  This show happened because the planned show of Generation Z artwork and musings turned out to be a much physically smaller show than anticipated and the museum suddenly had a lot of bare walls.  A little social media work to local artists to bring in a piece first come first served quickly fixed the problem.

The lady in the black dress bottom left is Alana – the gallery owner at sm’Art studio in La Quinta. Finally caught her on camera!  Behind her is Michael Angelo (Hernandez) who also sells work there.  Yes, my work hangs next to that of MichaelAngelo!

Nice of the museum to paint that floating wall to match my painting. Shame about them not putting up the sign I gave them that wrote out the Shakespearean sonnet written for and painted into the painting.

 

Veteran Arts Start-up

One of the galleries I work with, Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley, is on a mission to create a Veteran Artists Cooperative.  Rick’s ultimate hope is to create a Museum of Veteran Art in Southern California – but the cooperative is a good place to start.  It would be wonderful if you feel you can contribute a few dollars to the project.  Or if you are willing to share this to others who might.

Veteran Voice Project.

Going bananas enough to have a day off.

We went to the International Banana Museum on Saturday, one of the few Touristy Things To Do Near Me that we had never done.

This is housed in half a former bar in North Shore, CA. The bananatender is the son of the original bar owner. The other half of the bar is now a liquor/convenience store.

Fred started the museum about five years ago when he stumbled on the Guinness Book of Records Banana-related-items collection available on eBay and decided to make it his retirement business.

There are a lot of bannanery things here as you can imagine.

The banana flipflops were one of my favorites.

I couldn’t believe there was a piece of banana-related artwork in there by an artist we know – D actually has a one of his prints.  Neither could Fred and Kim. They’re looking forward to me getting them in touch with him.

We couldn’t resist splitting a banana split. Can’t remember the last time I had one.  They had a decent selection of ice cream flavors too.

If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth a look – but do go to their website first and call to make sure of their open hours.

An art book with a difference

This is definitely an art book with a difference:  “La mia idea de arte.” Pope Francis’s ideas about art.

One idea, quoted in an Artnet article:

“The Vatican Museums have to be the most beautiful place and the most hospitable. It must throw open its doors to the world,” wrote the Pope in his book, noting that based on the teaching of the Bible, the poor’s inability to pay should not prevent them from seeing the church’s impressive art collection.

The book, co-written with Tiziana Lupi is also now a documentary, apparently available on youtube.  The book doesn’t seem to be available (bummer).

Global warming and art

There’s something to be said about global warming – like ‘it’s real!!!!’ – when even art museums are changing the way they choose and store art because of it.  I found this article very interesting.  Maybe art that is destroyed when it becomes too wet is going to be ‘ephemeral art’ in the not too distant future.  Perhaps I should start sculpting in stone…..

Children and art

Sometimes it is difficult to take kids to art fairs as they always want to touch.  I’m always happy to point out to parents that my work is pretty kid proof and if they poke at it, I won’t have to cut their hands off 🙂 which usually is a relief as it’s often too late at that point.

I follow the Red Dot blog of Jason Horejs of Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.  He covers a lot of interesting topics (though sadly he doesn’t transmit on WordPress).  I was really interested in his blog of August 9th about kids looking at art in museums and galleries.

From what he says about children appreciating museum/gallery art, it seems like art fairs are a little more interesting for little ones – for a start there’s frequently something hung at their eye level in a booth, some of it (like the one below) would be ideal for a child’s room, and there aren’t quite such strict rules about running between displays.  Occasionally I will get a youngster who comes back to subsequent shows with enthusiasm – and I know that I can’t be the only artist who enjoys this phenomenon, so here and there, future collectors are being created.

#1271 Night Watch.  Mixed media on panel (refractured watercolor, poetry, acrylic). 14×24″.