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!