House of Cherubs in BA

We've already been back a week and I'm just now writing about our final stop in Buenos Aires, the House of Cherubs. It's a safe house for kids whose parents are in prison or otherwise unable to care for their kids. The children aren't up for adoption, they're just being kept safe and sound until (hopefully) their parents get their act together.

We benefitted the HOC at an International Progressive Dinner Party last year. We were introduced to them through our friend John Matson, who lived in BA for a while and was involved with the home.

If Eric and I hadn't first visited the comedor, this would have been a somewhat sad visit, knowing these children had to be taken from their parents for all sorts of reasons, and now live with a dozen other kids in a not-too-large house. But in comparison to the situation at the comdeor, these children have it pretty good. They're fed well, have warm comfy beds, and are surrounded by cheery, lovely women who are just oozing love for them (you can see them here). The home is tidy and well-kept, and it's in a lovely neighborhood (we heard it's the same neighborhood where the Argentine President lives!). We were asked to not post photos of the children, so here's a little morsel. We brought some crayons, markers and paper, and the girls were so thrilled to draw, creating beautiful little landscapes with happy balls of sunshine. That little girl just loved Eric.

A big shout out to Sarah, Marita, Nicolas and Russel for the amazing and illuminating time in lovely Buenos Aires! They're a special group (and muy international!), and we were so lucky to reap the benefit of their kindness - and translation help!

The Comedor

Yesterday was very intense. We went with Marita and Sarah to a comedor, which is basically a government-funded soup kitchen that provides daily food to some children who might not otherwise eat. Marita, Sarah and Russell have been involved for some time with this comedor, providing it with gas for the stove, clothes, plates and cups, and even food, since the subsidized food basically consists of only lentels, beans and other bare necessities.

Marita prepared gift bags all week for the 100-plus kids - a pair of socks and some candy for each. Yesterday (Saturday) the comedor was celebrating "Dia de los ninos," or kids day, so there was to be a special meal. Marita and Sarah planned to attend and deliver the gifts and invited us to join. We hesitated at first, pretty much just because we're selfish vacationers and didn't want to commit to what would surely be a heartbreaking day, but after watching Marita lovingly prepare the gifts, we decided we shouldn't pass up such a special invitation.

The comedor is about 45 minutes outside central Buenos Aires, but it may as well be on another planet. The entire area around the neighborhood serviced by the comedor is awful. There is trash, literally, everywhere. Piles of burning tires send black smoke into the air, and the streets teem with malnourished and mangy dogs and horses. The air pollution is terrible, and it stinks. The kids' neighborhood has no paved roads, and absolutely nothing beautiful - no flowers, no grass, nothing but rundown homes, filthy air, dogs and garbage. It's unclear how many of them even have plumbing. This is the setting for the comedor, which at last has a gas stove (until recently they cooked with wood), but still no sink or toilet.

The special meal for the kids consisted of a burger patty, some sliced hard boiled egg and mayo on a bun. Plus some soda pop. That was it. No fries or chips, much less fruit or vegetables. There were balloons and Marita's gift bags, and Argentine music blaring out of a jam box (then, inexplicably, REM's "Everybody Hurts" came on). It was so depressing, particularly knowing this was a "special" day. The kids were so beautiful, and so happy to get their socks and burger. The ladies feeding them worked so hard to bring a little lightness to the kids' lives, but the squalor they have to live/work in just made it all so difficult to understand.

Eric and I spent the rest of the day and all dinner talking about it. How can we help? Where can we begin? How can we get that one darling teenage girl to college? Just trying to comprehend the obstacles that face these children, how unlikely it is the any of them will climb up even one step on the socio-economic ladder, makes me want to cry. And when you think of how many millions of children around the world live like this - or worse - it's so daunting. We definitely plan to hold a Progressive Dinner Party to help, perhaps to buy a new building that has a real kitchen and bathroom. One step at a time, I suppose. When I figure out how to post videos you can see some of the kids in action. Over and out for now.

BA: Empanadas Galore

The loft is maintained by the sweetest lady on the planet, Marita. She's here every morning, making breakfast for us, offering to do our laundry, etc. We're planning to pack her into our suitcase, as we're not sure how we ever lived without her. She made these gorgeous empanadas for us. They're stuffed with ground beef and are so yummy. Marita has spent a lot of time this week preparing gifts for the children at the local soup kitchen - the loft is full of candy and clothes for the ninos.

Dia Tres in BA: TANGO!

At last, on dia tres, we see TANGO! On our friend Jon's reco, we took another harrowing taxi ride (the drivers here are on some kind of mass death wish with their driving, ignoring lane dividers and threading needles between other cars) to the Esquina Carlos Gardel, a totally fabulous, old-school, somewhat Hollywood-ized tango mecca. Walking in the door itself is an experience: you're greeted by some of the most gorgeous people you've ever seen, men in tuxes and gals all kinds of decked out in sequins and feathers, and quickly ushered to your special, red-leather-clad booth for two. It's totally hysterical. We even had our picture taken with two of the dancers - I literally turned beet red when my "partner" instructed me to hike my leg up over his extended leg - but when they tried to charge us $20 for the pic, we declined.

But the dancers - OY! And the band - perfecto! The little tango orchestra was suspended up over the dancers, as though the dancers were dreaming up the music. And the dancers were really amazing - you could tell this was a young generation, they looked early 20s, and many of them brought a bit of a rock and roll or even punk sensibility to this already incredible dance. At any rate, they were amazing...it was like they were fitted with extra-charged batteries, they moved so quickly and with such precision. And they were all GORGEOUS. There was a shy couple and goofy couple and a sexy couple...each had a little narrative that they acted out via tango. It was so cool. Oh and we had a fabulous dinner and were waited on by handsome sweet men in tuxes.

Dateline: Buenos Aires, day one

Hola from South America! There's something really thrilling about being on a continent for the first time. Just flying here was cool - I wish they would have showed us on a map what we were flying over...Mexico, then Central America, at some point Bolivia. Just seems strange flying straight south instead of east across an ocean. And now that we're here, I keep having to remind myself that we're in South America, since Buenos Aires is so thoroughly European.

It was an epic series of flights totaling more than 18 hours of travel, but it actually went pretty smoothly. Then at BA airport, Nicolas, the lovely Russian neighbor of Russell (whose loft we're staying in), kindly picked us up and spirited us away to the loft (check out the loft in the pic, it's fabulous!). It was a somewhat chaotic scene at first - guys packing up the film crew that had apparently been filming here for several days, a couple of gals cleaning, and really loud American pop music on the speakers. Funny stuff. But it chilled out quickly and then Sarah, Russell's American assistant, showed up and gave us the low-down on the city, and a ton of maps. So we hit the town.

We didn't do anything in particular, stopped at several different wine bars and tried many, very nice Argentine Malbecs. So tasty! Love the peppery ones, and I'm officially a fan of Tempranillo. We wandered over to the Puerto Madero, a former port area that's now all swanky and trendy, and is accented by a really fantastic Calatrava bridge. I'll have to find links for all these things and places at some point. Jet lag kicked in and we made our way back to the loft, where we watched some Deadwood (brought the DVD!) on the huge movie screen from the loft's bed, sipping Malbec.

The city is very interesting, a fascinating blend of Rome (lots of Italian immigrants here, accounting for all the pizza and gelato), Madrid (reminds me a LOT of Madrid, just not as old) and Mexico City (the super-jam-packed-ness of it). But it's lovely, the people have generally been super nice, and it's CHEAP. Russell's wonderful right hand woman is Marita, and she arrived to make us breakfast this morning, and now we're listening to an amped-up, electronica-ish version of Tango music with her. Tonight, the triple threat: Tango, Steak, Wine. Life is good!

Yun Bai at Bert Green

Back to Downtown LA we go, to that corner of Main and 5th that has become quite a hotbed of yummy contemporary art. On the northwest corner is one of my faves, Pharmaka, and on the other side of 5th sits Bert Green Fine Art, a very cool gallery that always has some really challenging work. Bert himself can usually be found at the reception desk, and he's a great little repository of contemporary art knowledge.

Bert reps several terrific artists, including David Meanix (the guy behind Claire's celebrated art on "Six Feet Under"), John Scane (whose donkey series is on BG's site, but I really love Scane's abstract work, which you can see here) and Yun Bai, whose piece The Beauty of Life Is Its Incompleteness is shown here. Her work is so beautiful, it makes me dizzy.

There's not currently a Bai show, but Bert always has several of her works hanging around the office. They are so striking, with bright, playful colors, and depictions of flowers in a somewhat Asian-inspired design, reflective of her Chinese heritage. But upon closer inspection, the flowers are made from images culled from commercial pornography. Whaaa?? Yes, once you get up verrry close to the work, you'll see the petals are comprised of images that are probably inappropriate for me to describe here. At first they are all sweet and innocent, then you discover imagery that is really kind of difficult. They're really challenging, and I love it!

Of course this is influenced by events in Bai's life, circumstances that led her to be involved in the port industry while a college student. Click here to read more about Bai's story. There's also a great interview with Yun ("Yunny Bunny") at White Hot Magazine.

Bai does have an upcoming show at BGFA - Sept 13- Oct 28 - I don't know if she's showing new work for the "Porn Flowers" series, but whatever her new work is, it'll get me back to that corner of 5th and Main.

RIP Grandma Norma

A little break from the arts to honor my dear, sweet Grandma, Norma Ploen, who died at the age of 90 early Saturday morning at her nursing home in Davenport, Iowa. I am happy for her that she passed on - it has been many, many years since she lived the kind of life she wanted to live, and I'm happy to know she's been set free to waltz to her heart's content. But it's still a sad occasion, and I wish I could be with my family in Iowa today.

The pics: This is Norma in 1932, when she was 16 years old, and below, Grandma with my mom in 2002, when we celebrated mom's 60th in Durant, Iowa, down the street from where mom grew up.

Since I grew up in Texas and she lived in Iowa, where she raised my mother and six uncles, I didn't get to spend near as much time with Grandma as I would have liked when I was growing up. But the couple of times each year I did see her were pure bliss - she was absolutely the epitome of sweetness, all love and patience, gentleness and humor. I last saw her almost a year ago, on her 90th birthday, and knew that was probably our final visit.

Here, in no particular order, are ten great memories I have of dear Grandma Norma:

10. She asked me last year if I had a boyfriend, and when I told her that I had a husband, she said "Well then you'd better not have a boyfriend!"

9. When she finally met my husband, she looked at him and, sounding like a 17-year-old, said "Ooh who's that handsome guy?"

8. When I was little she taught me to take care of my nails - I had the longest, prettiest, reddest fingernails in the fifth grade!

7. Endless games of pinochle at the kitchen table when I was a kid - how many people can get an eight-year-old totally sold on pinochle?

6. Spending time with her and Steve. One of grandma's six sons, Steve, tragically died when he was 17 in a car accident in, I think, 1968. A couple of years later, another local boy named Steve Muller was severely brain damaged in a car accident. Norma helped take care of him for the next 30 years in his home - Norma and Steve's mother Verna were absolute angels in my eyes, taking care of his every need. I loved watching Grandma make him laugh. She always said that taking care of Steve made her feel like she had a second chance and taking care of her lost son.

5. Walking to Tom Thumb with Grandma when I was maybe eight years old. Don't know why this left such an impression, I guess it just felt very adventurous, walking the couple of miles to the store with my Grandma.

4. I spent a couple of weeks with Grandma and Grandpa Hank in 1981. They still lived in the same huge, amazing cool old house where they raised 7 kids. My cousin Erin and I spent every second of the day exploring that house. I can still smell the musty attic, where we scavenged our parents' old toys.

3. Grandma convincing me, in that same summer of '81, to try fresh radishes from her garden, doused in salt. I liked it! She followed those with fresh, hot rice krispy squares. Bless her!

2. Riding from Iowa to Texas with Grandma, Grandpa and cousin Erin that summer - we drove Hank crazy giving the "honk your horn" sign to the passing truckers all the way down I-35. But Grandma thought it was pretty hilarious.

1. I have a vague memory of visiting the "Ewing Ranch" of "Dallas" fame with her when I was wee young. Do I actually remember her wearing a cowboy hat?

A bonus one...when I visited them in the summer of '94, just after I graduated college, a bumper crop of corn had just been harvested (this was Iowa, remember). By this time Grandma and Grandpa had sold that cool house and moved into a little condo, but she still made the same amazing meals out of that little kitchen, and we had the world's best corn at dinner every night. I can still hear her say "This is the best corn ever!" with such delight at each meal. That was the epitome of Norma - finding something to enjoy and celebrate in the smallest of things.

Click here if you want to read Grandma's bio - it's very brief, I guess her achievements (raising 7 amazing kids, bringing nothing but delight and happiness to everyone who knew her, being a GREAT bowler) were too far under the typical obit writer's radar. I love you Grandma!

My name is Cari and I'm a TS-aholic

I need help. Seriously. Somebody really needs to make a standing appointment with me on Tuesdays from 4 to 6pm far away from a computer, otherwise I'm going to drive Eric and myself into the poor house with Tiny Showcase acquisitions! I really just can't help myself. The work is so great, if I don't act quickly they'll sell out, it's only 20 bucks plus shipping, if I just click the button it's mine...drrooool drroool drrrooool...

So this is my latest addiction, I mean, acquisition: "Open Air," by Jennifer Davis. I knew from looking at her web site before the TS posting that I was in trouble - her work is right up my alley. Fun colors, unusual imagery, somehow mysterious and sweet all at once.

There is a component of altruism here. Part of the proceeds from this sale benefits Springboard for the Arts, a group I have never heard of before. Turns out it "helps meet the emergency needs of artists in need of immediate monies to cover an expense due to loss from fire, theft, health emergency, or other catastrophic, career-threatening event." This is so cool! If you're an artist you should totally check out this site, it offers a lot of great resources for you, including workshops and a "job book." See, sometimes addictions can pay off!

Lisa Bufano on NPR

Have I ever mentioned that I love podcasts? It still blows my mind, that I can listen to all sorts of whatnot on my wee little iPod shuffle. One of my faves is NPR's "Story of the Day." Even though I listen to NPR all day long, I somehow miss stories, which brings us to one of their podcasts.

Back in March, NPR aired a story about Lisa Bufano, a 34-year-old performance artist based in Boston. I listened to the podcast of this story weeks ago, and it has really stuck with me. Lisa is a highly-regarded and award-winning performer a dancer, but what's so unusual, and stunning, is that she has no legs or fingers. They were amputated when she was 21, after a staph infection ravaged her body.

The story began with the innocuous sound of Lisa jogging, it just took a moment to explain that she had no legs and was jogging on super high-tech running prosthetics. As the story proceeded I was so moved by just the sound of her performances, trying to visualize them. So her web site is really a gem. Lisa herself offers several splendid podcasts on her site, just click here. You can view some of her amazing, dreamy performances, where she uses surreal stilts or, sometimes, just her own unusual body. They're kind of like watching a surreal show with life-size dolls. Bufano's achievements - without the use of these appendages that we take for granted - are extraordinary!

Jon Burgerman at Tiny Showcase

Summer is here, which means there is a whole mess of stuff to interfere with art perusing and purchasing - stuff like swimming pools, beaches, bike rides and margarita happy hours. Then there’s the duffy boating and family visiting and burger grilling and outdoor movie watching. Don’t even get me started on the new organic garden in which I’m partaking! Oh, and then there’s work, too.

Thank the art gods, then, for Tiny Showcase. As long as I can find myself at the ‘puter at 4:30pm on Tuesdays, TS brings art to me. Last week’s was another winner; “Waggledance”! This fantastically fun little work came at such a perfect time, embodying the kooky, chaotic fun that is summer. The madness behind the method is Jon Burgerman (don’t you know that name caused him all kinds of headaches as a kid, but now it’s SUCH a fantastic artist’s name? Although, he is European, so perhaps he was spared the playground taunts he would have found in, say, Topeka).

For you Tiny Showcase virgins, it’s one of the best concepts in the arts – the TS folks enlist artists to create an original 2D work, then they print a limited run, release it via their web site every Tuesday for a mere $20 to $25, then it sells out like hotcakes on a cold Scandinavian morning. This one sold out the run of 100 in about an hour. You must be quick around TS! Then the artist and the TS kids split the proceeds to split the revenue, plus they give $250 to a charity of the artist’s choice. This one benefits Greenpeace!

This was my third acquisition from TS. Click here to see purchase numero uno, by Federico Pazos, and here for dos, by Gregory Euclide.

Helen Lundeberg at Louis Stern

I've long been a fan of mid-century painter Helen Lundeberg, particularly works like this one, Arcanum #6, 1970, which appears non-objective but can evoke all sorts of imagery - from a stained glass window to a waterfall. Her quiet, minimal works pack a quiet punch of sorts. While much of her early work was more representational and figurative, it was her later experiments with flat, geometric areas of color that I love most.

Which means I love the selection of works now on view at Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood. LSFA is the sole representative of Lundeberg's estate, and it's stunning to see how many works by this seminal West Coast artist are up for grabs! Through August 25.

Edward Hopper at MFA Boston

We were "back east" last weekend, visited Eric's family in old Cambridge and - for the real adventure - attended his 20th high school reunion. It's crazy that it's been 20 years since he graduated, especially since we're only, like, 24 years old! Pays to be a child prodigy.

It was a very hectic weekend, but the art gods were kind to me and carved out some time for me to visit the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Yes, I actually had some time alone on Monday, and the MFA is actually open on Mondays. Thank you, art gods! I love the MFA - they always have some fantastic, comprehensive exhibitions, but it's not such a monstrous, monolithic institution that you feel like you just ran the Boston Marathon. And their audio tours are always worth the few extra bucks; I leave there feeling like I just took a really interesting and understandable class. One without tests.

So, the Hopper exhibition was no exception. Totally comprehensive, truly fascinating, and completely stimulating. I've been a Hopper fan for years, and not just because of the cheeky repros of his infamous painting, "Nighthawks." But his work is the kind that you like, but you're not sure why. They are so calm and moody, but inexplicably pack a real punch. The show illuminates the ideas behind his earlier work (popularizing lighthouses as romantic beacons and Victorian houses during a time of ultra-sleek deco). But it's his paintings of people, particularly women, that I really love. I could stare at this image, "Chop Suey," for hours. Two sets of two people sit at tables in a Chinese restaurant, but there is no food on the tables, and no apparent conversation going on. What are they thinking? Where are they going from here? Are they happy? Pensive? Content?

The audio tour explained that the year this was painted, 1929, was very different, fashion-wise, than just a couple years earlier, when no proper lady would be seen dressed like the gal in the green sweater. The lip stick, the rouge, the eye shadow, the tight clothing...this was a sign of the times, the onset of liberalization in women's clothing (and rights), and this pretty girl is the epitome of a 1929 hipster. I love how she looks; confident, smart, modern. The painting's acidic colors and streaming daylight are gorgeous, and pure Hopper.

Total shout out to the MFA's web site. They've incorporated several interactive components to the Hopper pages, including making images available for download as desktop images, a slide show of Hopper's iconic work, and a really FANTASTIC slide show of his sketchbooks. This is such a revolution, this internet thing-a-majig, for museums. You can really benefit from the MFA's hard work in researching and documenting Hopper, even if you can't make it to Beantown. The show runs through August 19.

Venice ArtWalk Art & Architecture Tour

A couple of weeks ago we went on the "Private Homes & Art Collections" tour on the Marina Peninsula as part of the annual Venice ArtWalk, which is one huge weekend-long cornucopia of art events that raise money for the Venice Family Clinic.

There are so many components to the ArtWalk - auctions, studio tours, home tours, parties, etc etc etc - that it's literally impossible to attend them all, so this year we chose the home & art collection tour because, you know, we're house and art collection junkies. And it's so much more fun to be voyeuristic on the inside of amazing homes, rather than peering in their windows in the dark of night. So we forked over $50 per person (for a great cause!) and proceeded to salivate all over the saltillo tile floors of some really spectacular homes.

One home really wowed us. It was a contemporary masterpiece, a total show stopper designed by Sean Harrison (architect was Jeffrey Dahl). What appeared to be two huge walls of windows in the living room were actually open spaces - the windows had been lifted into their retractable openings. So the living room just opened to the patio, which looked over the bay that was a couple hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean. Gorgeous! There was so much amazing art that day, including unusual work by a contemporary Icelandic artist who uses volcanic rock to create mesmerizing sculptures. Alas, I do not remember his name (why'd I think I'd remember it??). Anybody know who this might be?

Pete Jackson's Ultrawides

Pete Jackson is an LA photographer, originally from Ireland. I'd never seen his work until a recent show at the LA Center for Digital Art in Downtown LA, where they exhibited some of his "ultrawide" photos, which are just incredible!! Check out these two shots of downtown LA, taken from completely different points of view. Jackson shoots from atop LA's highest points, such as the hills in Griffith Park, to obtain really incredible vistas of the region. He digitally "stitches" together multiple images to create remarkable panoramas. PLUS he shoots in infrared, so the texture of the images and the amazing detail give them such life. The images perfectly capture the vastness of the LA basin, and even emphasize that there are actually several trees out there! They're really hypnotic and make great use of new digital photographic technologies.

These are all available in editions of 20, and are 90" wide.

Pharmaka is Cool - so help them out

One of the galleries that spearheaded the burgeoning (perhaps it's beyond burgeoning?) arts district in Downtown LA is Pharmaka, which opened its doors in 2005 with a mission very different from the typical commercial gallery: to "actively pursue an intellectual and verbal dialogue with painting and its place in history and today's society."

Basically, the founders, who are painters and dealers themselves, wanted a venue to show paintings that challenge the "superficial, market-driven cacophony that has displaced real critique," extending from their belief "in the power of painting as a visual and emotional language, a language that has existed and flourished for millennia, serving a myriad of social, political, religious, and even mystical purposes." Wow!

They actually curate shows with purpose, much like a museum does, but in more of a gallery setting. You can read more about their mission here, but suffice to say it's SO REFRESHING to check out gallery shows that are actually addressing an issue and showing works to reflect that (rather than, as its web site states, galleries that emphasize "shooting stars and signature styles").

Pharmaka is indeed a non-profit organization, which means it needs the help of art lovers like you! Click here to become a member now. Better yet, pay Pharmaka a visit. It's a gorgeous space with a great show right now, "Dear Mr. Saltz," and you can mosey down to Pete's for a drink afterwards.

Downtown LA Artwalk

So if you peeps have yet to explore the spate of new-ish galleries that have sprung up along Main and Broadway in Downtown LA (at least a couple dozen of them - just look at 'em all!), get off your keester and head down there! Not that you should wait a whole month to go, but a really great time to check out the scene is the 2nd Thursday Art Walk (happened last night). Eric and I went last night, and it's such a refreshing atmosphere - if you squint, you might convince yourself you're in New York, with all the great old architecture that can be so hard to find 'round here. There are such gorgeous old buildings down there, some restored, some in dire need of restoration, and the galleries are just a cauldron of interesting shows by some really fantastic artists.

More on that in the next entry. Plan now, the next one is Thurs., June 14.

I hear ya, Pig, I hear ya

Andy Haynes at The Venice Contemporary

Jeesh, it's taken me all week to write about last weekend's openings! My last entry is from our last gallery of the evening, The Venice Contemporary. Yet another new gallery for me, it's part art gallery, part uber-hipster party spot. We actually saw Ryan Gosling there. It's heartening to see an opening full of young-ish people, and a lot of them were actually in the gallery, not on the back patio where they could be smoking and listening to the band.

Of course, there was a great reason to linger in the gallery - it's full of really great works by a bunch of emerging artists who are up to their eyeballs in talent. The show features work by four artists, and you can read all about them here, but the one I really clicked with was Andy Haynes.

Just a wee lad of 25 years old, Haynes already shows a technical skill that I expect to see in much more experienced artists. His figures live in hazy dreamscapes that are at once creepy and beautiful, mysterious and whimsical. This image, Skipping Stones, is a great example. A girl, wearing a horned hood, standing beneath a stormy sky and at the edge of an ominous body of water, holds a book whose tattered pages transform into moths that fly through her windowed body. Cool! I love Haynes' work, and can't wait to see what lies ahead in his artistic career.

Matt Adrian's work

More on Matt Adrian's work (kinda sorta started in the post below). There's perhaps no better work to be a part of an LA billboard project - Adrian's depiction of cars wildly flying off the highway is an excellent depiction of what many motorists must fantasize about on a daily basis. The works are a bit dark but also a little cheeky, painted in bright, chipper colors (love the bubble gum pink train!), and with their fair share of whimsy. No LA smog to be found in that bright blue sky! Even their titles carry a certain mirth - this one is entitled "Cancel my 4:30." He also has a great series of bird paintings. These portraits of the wee creatures are really engaging, and also have that tinge of humor. I love this one, "I'm West Nile Positive."

Billboard Art at Eco-Logical Art

So, back to last Saturday's gallery bonanza. We hit the opening for a very cool show and concept at Eco-Logical Art, a gallery I'd never heard of until I met Matt Adrian through Etsy. He and his girlfriend, Kim Bagwill, are two of many artists who participated in OFF THE WALL 3, which is, in the words of the gallery, a "unique indoor/outdoor experiment in renewable imagery." Essentially, the artists' paintings were printed on recycled billboard vinyl, and these billboards can now be seen all over Los Angeles. You can see one of the billboards, actually sitting atop the gallery, in the image above. That's Kim's piece on the far right. Click here to read her great blog about her own process in this project.

I love this concept! Not only does it get out into the public - even better, along highways, where too many Angelenos spend too much art-deprived time - it's recycling used materials, and the art is very cool, to boot.

Maritta Tapanainen at Couturier

I had a gallery trifecta this weekend - three openings, three GREAT shows. I was a kid in a candy store (aside from the driving-all-over-LA part. Oy.). I'll start with the Maritta Tapanainen show at Couturier Gallery.

Somehow, this was my first time to Couturier. I'm familiar with their work, mostly from their booth at the LA Art Show. They always have some wonderful pieces by Jorge Marin, an incredible sculptor from Mexico. His figurative bronze works are so poetic and beautiful.

But on this night, the featured artist was Maritta Tapanainen, a collage artist (*over simplification alert*) from Finland. I'd seen her work on the gallery's web site and just had to see it in person. Tapanainen works in hazy, dreamy black, white, gray and earthy tones, meticulously piecing together, in her words, "extractions cut-out from plant forms, microbes, organs, and obscure mechanical objects." A viewer can easily get lost in her work, staring at a single piece and deciphering what each little component could possibly be. This work Kutsu, from 1999, is a perfect example: somehow at once organic and mechanical, and altogether hypnotic. The show is up through May 26.

More to come on the other two shows...

Shooting at the Korakia

Have I mentioned how much I love the Korakia Pensione in Palm Springs? Eric and I stayed there during our honeymoon and recently returned for our third anniversary. It's so tranquil, situated at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. It's dreamy for photography, lots of earthy colors and weathered, rustic architecture. And oh that desert light! Fabulous. This fountain shot is one of the new ones at my Etsy site.

Steven Janssen in Palm Springs

We had kind of a crazy weekend in Palm Springs - what was originally going to be a quiet get-away to celebrate our third anniversary turned into going out en masse (in a limo!?) with our friends who also happened to be there. I'm so glad, because we actually made it to a cool art opening at Steven Janssen gallery, and the opening was for Steven's own work. It's cool stuff, colorful and energetic, totally abstract. The friends we were with own some of his work so they were like kids in a post-modern candy store.

The works I really loved aren't on his site, though many other great works are, like this one, "Mantrap". In the ones I was really drawn to, he used enamel paints to create big, smooth, round vibrant bulbs of color, layered over an acrylic painted background. They were really lovely in a sort of organic way.

Must give a shout out to one of our all time favorite hotels, the Korakia. Even though it appears to no longer be a secret (lots of poolside peeps there!), it's still one of the most peaceful and beautifully designed places we've stayed. We even got the same room we had for honeymoon. Ooh la la.

DUMPR: Your Own Museum Show

Now you, too, can see how your artwork looks in a Museum, thanks to the clever folks at DUMPR!

David Hockney at LA Louver

David Hockney - The East Yorkshire Landscape

I'm a little late writing about this show, since it closes today, but better late than never, right? It's David Hockney's "East Yorkshire Landscapes," and in case you happen to read this before 5pm today, head over to Venice to check it out! I'm so glad the gallery has such great installation shots on its web site, because it really helps show the scale of these works, plus the power of those blood red walls against Hockney's palette of colors, which are all over the place.

There are obvious connections to make with these pieces - particularly Cezanne's French countryside paintings, Monet's water lillies, and Seurat's frenzied pointilism. But these new works of Hockney's stand proudly on their own, mixing his typical brilliant color combinations with a comfy, easy-going British village sensibility. You can feel the change of seasons as you walk from work to work...you can almost feel the spring breeze in "Woldgate Woods, March 30 - April 21," and view the elongated shadows of the autumn trees in "Woldgate Woods, 6 & 9 November 2006." Even though they harken to the aforementioned 19th century masters, they have their own modernist bent. And did I mention I love the colors??

The works are HUGE - many made of six panels each and hung to symetrical perfection to create a cohesive landscape (kudos to whoever had the unlucky job of installing these works). And LA Louver's main gallery was perfect for the big works - it felt more like a garden than a room, save for those lipstick-red walls.

Featured on Jack and Jill Blog

A big thanks to Robyn over at Jack and Jill Design for blogging about Ernest and my other pics! She also has some great info for mommies seeking cool baby products.

Wall Batterton at Pharmaka

Seems like for every gallery in LA I've visited, there are 2 more that I haven't! I finally checked out the burgeoning "Gallery Row" in Downtown LA, and there are some very cool things going on down there, especially at Pharmaka Art. The current exhibition is work by Wall Batterton. Better-known in the early '70s, Batterton is still working on his frenetic, abstract works, and his old buddy Ed Ruscha curated a great show from his early work to the present.

Batterton's story is fascinating, and a little heartbreaking. In the '60s and early '70s, he worked with aluminum paints and auto lacquer (as with this work here). While he achieved a brilliant sheen and texture not possible with regular paints, it made him very, VERY sick. He was so full of toxins and so ill, he didn't paint for ten years. Of course that is ten lifetimes in the art world, and he was pretty much forgotten about during that time. This show is a great opportunity to see the work of an artist who should be better recognized for his contribution to the LA art scene.

While on Pharmaka's site, read more about their history and mission. It's a gallery, but it's also a non-profit institution, with a mission to show truly great art - and protest the superficial and market-driven cacophony that has displaced real critique.

Ernest Finds a Tree Stump

A comfy tree stump awaited Ernest on his morning walk to the pond. Ernest loves nothing more than soaking up some rays on a well-worn tree stump! Click here to view more adventures with Ernest.

Damien Hirst at Gagosian

Anyone with even a vague interest in LA art already knows about this show, but after seeing it in person, post I must! It's the Damien Hirst exhibition "Superstition," at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. I really wish the gallery would post some photos of the installation, because it is just impossible to convey the whallop it packs upon entering.

Hirst's new works are enormous and beautiful - at first glance they appear to be stained glass windows, brightly lit from behind. In reality, they are incredible labyrinths of butterflies - some whole, some in parts - arrayed in truly amazing symmetrical designs. The obvious inference of church windows, some a la Notre Dame's round rose windows, others with gothic-esque peaks, convey an almost memorial-like symbolism to the dead creatures.

I know some folks are really disturbed by the use of these deceased creatures, however beautiful they might be. I'd like to naively believe that Hirst didn't actually kill, or have killed, butterflies in the making of these works, but I don't know the truth, and I'd rather not know. Their beauty is so stunning, I'd like to just think of them as a beautiful post-mortem to the fleeting lives of these little critters.

Ernest Visits the Clovers

The adventures of Ernest recently led him to a field of clovers, inspired by the spring-like weather and the impending visit of his Leprachaun cousins. His hunt for the four-leaf variety continues....

Aaron Petersen - my current obsession

There's an artist rep'd at Ruth Bachofner Gallery in Santa Monica named Aaron Petersen. I've loved his work ever since his solo show there last year, but his new works really blow me away! While his earlier pieces had a earthy, muted and mellow feeling, these new works are so sensual and organic.

This triptych, "Metro," is so beautiful, like a red hot sky full of melting balloons and leaking clouds. It looks like how a dark, smoky jazz bar sounds.

Featured artist at Dandilion Designs!

The lovely Wren over at Dandilion Designs has kindly featured my Etsy store on her blog. I just love it that she's such a fan of Ernest - he feels quite honored! Check out her great blog and give her your comments!

Frostig Collection

Last week we went to a cool little event at William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica. It was the unveiling of the 2007 Frostig Collection, an ingenious concept developed by parents of children at the Frostig Center, a school for children with learning disabilities in Pasadena, California. The annual collection features a series of sculptures and works on paper by some of well-known artists, some of whom happen to be my personal favorites. A limited number of works are produced and sold, with sales benefiting the school. This lithograph by Charles Arnoldi is in this year's collection, available for $1,200 (or $5,000 for the collection of four lithos and one woodcut created for this year's series). I LOVE this fundraising concept!

Make Your Own Pollock!

Got a minute and need to have a quick creative outlet? Check out this nifty online gizmo by Miltos Manetas: jacksonpollock.org. Turn up some jazz music and go nuts with the paints. Left click for color! Now go create your own Jackson Pollock.

A Remedios Varo for sale?!?!?

I still can't believe we saw this 1958 painting by Remedios Varo, "Papilla Estelar," at the recent LA Art Show. It's currently living at the Frey Norris Gallery in San Francisco, but it can be yours for a cool $1 million. Varo is absolutely one of my all-time favorite artists. I first fell in love with her work at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. Her life story - brought up by her engineer father in Spain, hanging with the surrealists in Paris just before WWII, then fleeing to Mexico at the onset of the war - is as fascinating as her incredibly detailed, delicate and other-worldly paintings. Anyone want to give me $1 million? I really hope this ends up in a public institution for all to enjoy. The Frey Norris Gallery has quite a little treasure trove of work by female surrealists in its "Annex."

Pearls Before Swine hits the galleries

My Tiny Showcase Acquisition

I'm so excited to be one of the lucky few to purchase this week's Tiny Showcase, "The Walks I Take Turn To Paper" by Gregory Euclide. I love this work! Its texture is amazing, like you can reach out and touch the felt and the wood he used in the original. The signed and numbered series of 200 sold out within 30 minutes of its release on Tuesday, so I lucked out! TS makes art collecting so fun - and affordable.

Lovely Avalon

We had a great weekend in the cute little town of Avalon, on Santa Cantalina Island. Perfect weather, full moon, great wine. Good times! The best part - we took a bus to the boat, so we never even had to get in a car. I'm posting some of my photos from the trip at my Etsy site.

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/

GuggenheimGuadalajara

GuggenheimGuadalajara
Originally uploaded by holarubia.

Great news for us art and travel buffs! Guadalajara, Mexico is homebase for the next Guggenheim Museum. Better yet, the architect is a relative unknown. Read more at: http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=13913.

Vote for Kim & Eric's Pad

Kim&Eric
Originally uploaded by holarubia.

Reward our friends Kim and Eric for the smallest - and coolest - in New York. They entered the "Smallest, Coolest Apt. Contest" at apartmenttherapy.com. Voting may actually be over, but it's a fun way to view a slideshow of their cool little pad - plus you can see their great collection of Phillip Trussell paintings:

www.apartmenttherapy.com/main/archives/002619.html

Go apartment go!