Sunday, March 10, 2024

Rosemary KimBal: Dancing Brush Demonstration at Art Night Encinitas

by Patricia Frischer
Photos and Video by Kira Carrillo Corser





Art Night Encinitas featured seven different venues and at the Encinitas Library we were totally entertained by the Dancing Brush demonstration by Rosemary KimBal.  This contemporary Zen brush painter commissioned a whole selection of these giant brushes in China. There were 10 participants who got to hold a dry brush and do some practice strokes. Then one of the largest brushes was loaded with three colors of ink to begin. KimBal made the first stroke, first taking a centering breath and exhaling as she pressed the tip and then the side of the brush, rolling it and gently lifting it to the tip as if moved across the paper. The brush was then passed along the 24 feet of  paper to each participants. When needed the brush was re-charged with paint by artist aided by Portia LaTouche

Giant brush display with Rosemary KimBal and Juliana Scoggins (volunteer)


Rosemary KimBal explaining to one of her students Mia, with new Chairperson of the Encinitas Commission for Arts Katy Fox and Encinitas Arts Administrator, Collette Murphy (in white)  looking on . 


Brenda Andrews

There was an enormous crowd ringed around the area enjoying seeing real art created. Some of the participants were artists, but for many it was their first time even holding a brush at all.  Present and fully involved with the demonstration was Brenda Andrews, the new director of the Fallbrook Art Center. If you missed this event, you can see the results at the next Fallbrook gallery show, the 15th Annual Signature Watermedia International Exhibition. 








 

Encinitas Library on Cornish Drive, like many of the venues, had multiple arts events. There was live music, artist talks, and docent-led tours throughout the evening. 

Including at the library were: Chris Tucker - Artist Talk about his exhibition,  Awaken the Poet Within - Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop, Marsha Brook - Artist Demonstration,  "Women Rock!" - Music PerformanceMMYO Piano Trio - Music Performance, Encinitas Library Studio Art Art Workshop, Awaken the Poet Within Poetry Reading. 

Others venues include Encinitas Town Hall, the Encinitas Community Center and a variety of partner sites.  

Future Arts Night Encinitas are on Saturdays, June 29 and Nov 16.

 



Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Pinar Yoldas: Synaptic Sculpture at ICA Central Balboa Park

 by Patricia Frischer


You walk into a large space and see a selection of odd objects, giant test tubes, a cat poster, huge series of balls, what looks like a large round hole in the back wall leading to another gallery. But there is a pleasant feeling of intrigue. The walls have been graded in rainbow colors from green to yellow to orange, red, purple, blue. The is a large swaying incense burner and a film of a lovely avatar. Yes, it is confusing, and the visuals are stunning and everything is crafted very well.  This pulls you in to learn more.

Dr. Pinar Yoldas, born in Turkish and now a UC San Diego Professor, uses her background in architecture and neuroscience, to create a fictional world but documented in the real world.

The test tubes are bubbling away with algae to build a future civilization, the cat is running for office on a platform of love, the balls are a model of a couch where everyone has to balance together to relax. The avatar describes her birth and family and her role in the world. There are even models of her development from multiple parents hosting the fetus.

The hole in the wall was like a view into another world, but of course, it was a mirror with a blue light reinforcing the illusion.

I enjoyed my time in the mind of Pinar Yoldas. Were there real electric signals moving from one nerve cell to another? We will never know for sure, but my belief in the power of art is strong.

ICA Central Balboa Park showing until Sunday, June 23, 2024
1439 El Pradom San Diego, CA 92101






















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grow - harvest - repeat






Sunday, March 3, 2024

Mingei: La Frontera Jewelry and Over Under Woven Craft

 by Patricia Frischer


Haydee Alonso, this unwearable ring symbolizes
 the promise of goals that will never be realized. 

La Frontera
Mingei Museum, Balboa Park showing until Aug 4, 2024
Curated by Mike Holmes and Lorena Lazard. Organized by Kerianne Quick and Jessica Tolbert

Jewelry is traditionally adornment but for the second iteration of this exhibition it is all about communication. The subject is the U.S.–Mexico border and the artist are international but with 24 local to the border, it resonates strongly with our community.

Most of the works are relatively small and take time to study…the notes are important to interpret the artists statements. But you can still glory in the bright and shiny as well as become educated especially about migration and identity. Every piece was chosen to tell a story.

There is a concurrent La Frontera exhibition at CECUT - Centro Cultural Tijuana.  It is interesting to note that La Frontera is a Community Event endorsed by the World Design Capital San Diego /Tijuana 2024 (WDC 2024).


Fernanda Barba present the fingerprint below, but each piece can be worn,
 but only if it stays in an impossibly difficult balance. 

Fernanda Barba

Eduado Graue - we have all been there, done that!

William Austin: Clothes on a Fence, Shirt

Kevin Hughes - the simplest necklace,
a red, green and white plastic bottle handle 



Over/Under: Woven Craft at Mingei

Last days so go see this exhibition until March 10, 2024. It is full of every imaginable medium that can be woven. Not just thread but grass, bark, wire, even a mural of paint depicting weaving right on the walls of the gallery by San Diego artist Yomar Augusto. The show spans the ages and the world. I just gloried in the intricacy of the over 75 works , including textiles, basketry, garments, hats, toys, jewelry, bowls, shoes. This is unashamedly craft drawn from the permanent collection of the Mingei. 


Preston Singletary: blown and sandblasted glass

Giant fish traps (unknow makers)

fish trap (detail)
Yomar Augusto.

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Ikabana basket (unknow maker)

Two artists were featured in the glass cases on the ground floor of the Mingei, a space that is free to enter. 

This and the two baskets below are made by local artist couple Francina and Neil Prince. These baskets are all made from our local Torrey Pines needles.


This unique ceramic works by Japanese artist Yukiya Izumita from 2012 are fired and glazed clay. 


Friday, February 23, 2024

See It Now: A Sensory Extravaganza in Escondido

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt

 

Please Stand By. The start of the show, photographed by
Scenic Designer Matthew Herman, who along with
Mike Billings (Lighting Design) and Blake McCarty (Projection Design)
turns the stage picture into a constantly changing
work of art. (Matthew Herman)


If you’re a lifelong theater enthusiast or simply a lover of extraordinary events that feature brilliant performances, stunning scenic, lighting, and costume design and imaginative soundscapes, you have until March 3 to catch The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at California Center for the Arts in Escondido.

This first-time-in-San-Diego production, presented by CCAE Theatricals, evokes all the dictionary definitions of Brilliant: very bright and radiant, striking, distinctive, extremely intelligent and impressive.

The play started out as a prizewinning 2003 novel by Mark Haddon, a British writer, about a 15-year-old boy the author once described as “a mathematician with some behavioral difficulties.” Haddon called his book “a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way.” It’s actually an odd kind of mystery story, that starts out with a murdered dog.

In 2012, playwright Simon Stephens and the National Theatre in London turned the novel into a multi-award-winning production, which then became a multi-award-winner on Broadway. There were touring companies, so my husband and I got to see the show in L.A. in 2017. It was minimalist, but unforgettable.

CCAE’s version of Curious Incident takes the emotionally moving, often weirdly funny play to a whole new level, visually and sonically. Not only is the stage picture a constantly changing artwork, it’s also a central character in the show, further enhanced by Jon Fredette's  sound design. This gives audiences a chance to feel what it’s like to be on what we now call the autism spectrum and makes it thrilling to identify with the main character, Christopher, who is truly special. 

Two more views of the show from the Scenic Designer below. (Matthew Herman)

Christopher’s dad, distraught, after discovering his son is gone.
Note the giant projection of Christopher in the background. (Matthew Herman)


Christopher at the train station. (Matthew Herman)


Daniel Patrick Russell, the actor who plays Christopher, is on the spectrum himself, and his performance is riveting. Born in Australia, he has been making his mark on international stages for over a decade and appearing in films and on TV as well. He’s the heart and soul of the gifted ensemble here, and no photo can capture the way he moves.

 Daniel Patrick Russell as Christopher, addressing the audience at the end of the show. (Maurice Hewitt)


Kudos to everyone connected with Curious Incident: producer, director, actors, designers, composer, choreographer and all the tech people behind the scenes. If you’re reading this now, the best thing to do is phone 800-988-4253.  
For showtimes and other details: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Center Theater, California Center for the Arts in Escondido through March 3rd.

 And don’t miss The Art of Autism, a small exhibit of works by autistic artists on view in the lobby.

The Way It Was…It Was What It Is., mixed media piece by Clark Warren. (Maurice Hewitt)


Some of the paintings on display. (Maurice Hewitt)

 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net


Friday, February 16, 2024

Octopi + AI @ Gallery QI

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt

 

Viewing Memo Akten’s Distributed Consciousness installation on opening night. (Lonnie B. Hewitt)


You may not see any connections between cephalopods and artificial intelligence but an installation by Memo Akten at UC San Diego’s Gallery QI aims to change the way you see and think about such things.

The multi-disciplinary artist, an assistant professor in UCSD’s Department of Visual Arts, is inviting us to move beyond the distinctions we make between humans and animals, living and non-living intelligence, and begin to embrace a more expansive, more rewarding conception of the interconnectedness of all things.

Akten’s current installation, Distributed Consciousness, had its beginnings in a small fishing village in Turkey in 2021, when Covid postponed his coming to San Diego by putting his U.S. visa on hold.

He spent a lot of time in the ocean, and often saw octopi when snorkeling, but a close encounter with a rock-sitting octopus that suddenly seemed to be flashing in brilliant colors made him start thinking about what that animal was thinking and what kind of mind it might have. Octopi share a fair portion of our DNA, he discovered, and they have brains in each of their eight arms--distributed consciousness. What they have may be a kind of consciousness we don’t really understand, but diving into these sorts of issues is what Akten calls hallucinating. Hallucinating, he says, is not something that means you’re crazy: it’s expanding your ways of envisioning new possibilities. And that, he adds, is what artists do: “Hallucinating is part of our job description!”

Close-up of an octopus from Distributed Consciousness(Courtesy Gallery QI)

The talk he gave at the opening event on January 25 attracted a full house, and there were many questions from the audience. The questions, like the audience members, were mostly academic, but the concept behind Distributed Consciousness can be strongly appealing to everyone. He is encouraging optimism, imagination, collaboration, and community.

The installation features custom AI-generated artwork encoded with 256 verses of poetry created through GPT-3, a language model that can generate poems, stories and dialogue out of whatever is input into it. Akten, who has been working with AI for decades, spent thousands of hours interacting with GPT-3, refining his input, and creating images of octopi.

He’s not just doing hyper-bright octopus portraits; he’s trying to change how we look at, think about, and relate to our real and virtual worlds. 

More images from the installation. (Maurice Hewitt) 

You can experience Distributed Consciousness through March 24 at Gallery QI in Atkinson Hall at UCSD. Hours: Monday-Friday. 12-5 p.m.  Make yourself comfortable on the beanbag cushions, stay as long as you want, and see how you feel about real life, AI and yourself when you leave.

For more about Memo Akten and his work: www.memo.tv/

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

 Words and Photos by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt

 

Waiting for a sign

Walking around the UCSD campus after a recent event on a clear and not-too-chilly evening, I was reminded of a song I used to like years ago.

Sign, sign
Everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery
Breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign?
(from Sign,
by Five Man Electrical Band, 1970)

So I started taking photos of some of the many signs I saw.

This sign, where I started my walk, looked pleasantly creepy.

What really caught my eye and kept me standing still to capture varied views of what I was seeing was Bruce Nauman’s Vices & Virtues, a towering neon display of the seven deadly sins and their contrasting virtues that has always been one of my favorite pieces in the Stuart Collection of outdoor sculptures. It’s now hard to see from most places on campus since the university’s penchant for putting up view-blocking buildings. (In my college days we called that an Edifice Complex.)


 

Back home, I discovered a short documentary in UCSD Library Digital Collections where the Nauman talked about wanting to do something that would make people think about those words in different ways. And it was hard to look them up, he said: “Everyone knows what they are until they try to write them down.” I think this image reveals some of those complications.

Mixed Messages
 

Most of the signs were warnings, in one way or another.






One amused and confused me: 

Lost & Found? Maybe not?

 

Some offered good advice: 




 

Some were kind of attractive.


… especially with the moon overhead. 


 And in the end, I found encouraging words. 





And finally, a happy ending to my walk, in the latest addition to the Stuart Collection: Kahnop -To Tell a Story, by artist Ann Hamilton.

 It’s a small part of an 800-foot-long stone path that actually contains a readable story. You can try to put the story together as you stroll through, or just pick out the words that say something to you.

Here’s hoping you find that happiness for yourself. 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net