This horse is following me

Very small-world story to tell. At the LA Art Show, visitors were greeted in the entrance-way by a beautiful, huge, life-sized bronze stallion. It was a beautiful sculpture, but it was hard to tell if it was one of the many artworks for sale or an installation created by the show organizers. At any rate, it was impossible to miss, situated just inside the entryway. And, of course, upon leaving the show, visitors were able to see the horse's backside, and the stallion was, shall we say, anatomically correct. So it left an indelible impression.

The day after the Art Show, I went to visit my friend April, who moved to Claremont, CA with her husband and baby last year. Even though it's only an hour away, I'd never been to lovely little Claremont; it felt like a real adventure to the foothills. After I arrived, April and I started walking toward the "Village" for lunch, and we detoured a bit so April could show me a particularly lovely street. As we approached one house, we noticed a moving truck, from which was being unloaded....THAT BRONZE HORSE!! It was so strange. I blurted out "I saw that horse at the show yesterday!" Turns out the horse was being delivered back to its creator, Barbara Beretich, a lovely painter and sculptor who has lived and worked in that house for decades. I couldn't believe the irony.

Barbara invited us inside, where we were able to see her amazing home and studio. She told us she is rep'd by George Stern Fine Arts in LA, and he arranged to have that horse (one of two!) at the show. Barbara runs her own little gallery out of her home, showing works of the many artist friends she has. For whatever reason the universe brought her and her horse into my life (and April's!) that day. I can't wait to see where this new-found friendship leads.

Art I'm lusting after Part Deux

...and the other artist whose work has now entered my psyche is Hei Myung Hyun, a native of South Korea who now lives in LA and is rep'd by Timothy Yarger Fine Art in Bev Hills. Her work is incredible! She uses Korean imagery (bamboo, cherry blossoms) and Western-style abstraction, creating mixed-media pieces that are truly hypnotic. Some of them contain little glass beads, so they shimmer like a treasure chest.

LA Art Show and art I'm lusting after

It's that time of year again for the LA Art Show, which, for some, is an art-lovers' delight, and, for others, a venue to show their new boots and coats. For me, it's the art that I'm after. With more than 80 international galleries from around the world displaying their goods, I'm like a sugar-starved baby swimming down Willy Wonka's chocolate river. We attended the opening last night, which seems to be much more of a party that an art opening (although I'm not complaining about open bar and rows of restauranteurs shoving food in our faces). One gallery I made an effort to search out is Julie Baker Fine Art. We found her at last year's fair, and I LOOOVVVE the artists she represents. She's located in tiny Nevada City, California but manages to find some really impressive artists. My new fave is Reed Danziger (shown above), an MFA grad of San Francisco Art Institute, and quite the pro with watercolor on paper. I've had to love her work from afar, or rather on postcards and web sites, until last night, but seeing it in person really set my art obsession wheels rolling. Her images are so full of energy and so organic...the kind of paintings you see a thousand times and still disover something anew each time. A big thanks to Paige Petrone at Venice Magazine for the opening night invitation!

Etsy in the NY Times

Go cyber shoppers! Great article in NY Times about rootin' around the virtual attic for gifts. Great exposure for Etsy!

Magritte at LACMA

Eric and I had a great day yesterday, played hooky and immersed ourselves in food and art - my two favorite things. We had a too-large lunch at the ever-yummy Jongewaard’s Bake-n-Broil. I love this place! We split a slice of zucchini and basil quiche AND a BLT. And they have truly awesome cornbread, and I'm pretty damn picky about my cornbread.

Then we made our way to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. There's a great Rene Magritte exhibition right now, designed by John Baldessari, another great artist. The design Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images has many wonderfully cheeky moments - you walk on clouds and under highways, and all the guards wear bowlers, a la Magritte's famous portraits. I can't say the audio tour was really worth it, even though the narrator is Pierce Brosnan, and he has a lovely voice. But I think it's difficult to verbally describe artwork that is not necessarily supposed to mean anything in particular - or, at least, its meaning is wide open and completely up to each person's interpretation.

One treat we'd never before explored at LACMA is the Japanese Pavilion, a separate building that houses the museum's collection of Japanese works dating from around 3000 b.c. to the 20th century, including archaeological materials, Buddhist and Shinto sculpture, ceramics, lacquer wares, textiles, armor, and cloisonné. The building is set up in a wonderful, maze-like manner - you begin your visit on the top floor and wind your way down. The exterior walls look like Japanese vellum screens, but they're actually filtered fiberglass panels, which protect the delicate paintings and works on paper from UV rays, while letting in natural light. It's beautiful!

My new Etsy shop!

And now, for your shopping pleasure, I present marshallarts.etsy.com. At last I'm making a stab at selling my photographs. Check it out, please and thanks!

I love tinyshowcase.com!

I love this site! For seasoned art collectors and newbies alike, this site is truly addictive. They offer a new, original piece of art, usually in print editions of 100, every Tuesday. They're always small, they're always cheap (like, $20) and they're always great! This one here is a recent gem by Federico Pazos. http://tinyshowcase.com/