Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Sergott Contemporary Art Alliance presents Namaste

By Patricia Frischer

Sergott Contemporary Art Alliance presents Namaste. An exhibition exploring various approaches to religion, spirituality, and the discarnate.  Showing until Jan 6, 2017 By appointment click for directions 

I had to look up discarnate and can now add it to my word of the day list. It means not having a body. But this show is a body of work that does hold together, not just because of the theme but also because visually it is pleasing. I think that happens when color are harmonious and designs flow from one work to the next in a smooth way. 

For me, Nameste, which is a Hindu greeting,  means I hope that the light from my body meet  the light from your body.  We are in such stressful times, with family and friends divided politically, and this is one greeting which seems appropriate as a healing gesture. 

Tom and Ann Sergott obviously appreciating a spirituality of an intimate nature

Leah and Stan Goldberg

Ingrid Croce

de la Torre brothers glass sculpture

Belize Iristay

Anna Stump peaceful incarnate

a mandala by Lyssa Kayra

Gary Walker with a primitive blessing.

Rob Pendleton words to live by or not

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Can Falling Behind, Put You Ahead?

By Patricia Frischer



The following blog was written before the election results. I have to say that more than ever we need a way to pull the community together and art has enormous power to do just that. The arts are fabulous because they are diverse and because art is a great way to show respect to all people. Being inclusive and transparent are cornerstones of San Diego Visual Arts Network. Please remember us in your year end donations.



Falling behind puts you ahead

There are so many times in our high tech lives where we feel we are not keeping up. But I have two instances which demonstrate that sometimes, falling behind puts you ahead.

The San Diego Visual Arts Network (SDVAN www.sdvisualarts.net) was constructed in 2003 and the coding that was used for the site is very old fashion as 13 years on the internet is a lifetime. Even when the site was updated about 5 years later, there was still no drop down sub-menus attached to the top menu bar. Little did we know that drop down menus are not very accessible on smart phones.  So now even though the home site is not the most user friendly on a smart phone, you can access all of our information.

AND our brand new app at www.sdvan.net/app is completely smart phone ready and easy to access. So if you are wondering how to find wonderful art at any time, just access the app, it will locate you and tell you about events near by and locate them on a map for you with directions on how to get there.  

Have you been as annoyed as we have with pop up ads on the internet? We have started to use ad blockers and that helps eliminate them. It turns out that so many people are using ad blockers that the advertisers are really worried about dropping sales and the sites that rely on their revenue may be starting to be in trouble. Although we don’t know what the future will bring, advertisers will probably find a way over this hurdle.  But on SDVAN, we never have put up ads to support the site. We raise funds through private donations, so you will never be annoyed by ads on our site. Nice to know we did something right, right from the beginning.

Help us continue this service to you and the community who knows how vital the arts are to the health of our region. We hope you will join in on Tuesday November 29, and give big to our 100% volunteer organization.



Art to Spare

In this season of giving, let’s think a bit about exploring the possibility of giving away some art. You might be thinking about this if and when your art storage is full to overflowing or if you have to downsize to a smaller space or maybe you are just worrying about what will happen to your art if something happens to you?

Two options have come to my attention lately. One is to announce to friends and family that you have art that needs a foster home. They choose which works to adopt and sign an agreement that they will give the artist two weeks notice if the space becomes unavailable. The artist will give a month’s notice if the work is needed.

The other option is to think about donating your art to a non-profit facility that needs enlivening. Art has the ability to change lives and placing your art in a care center of some kind could be healing not only for the residents but for the staff as well.

These schemes have pros and cons. The obvious pro is that larger numbers of people will see your work than if is stuck under a bed, in a dark closet or in an expensive storage unit. You could save money and even find new clients. There could be a possibility that when you want the work back, the fosterer will be willing to pay to keep it. The main con could be that giving away your work might undermine the sales value of the work you are still marketing.

So these options might be best for those artists who are at the end of their career and wondering what will happen to their life’s work, especially if they do not have a knowledgably relative to inherit. Or maybe for artist who are socially conscious and have the funds available to support themselves without sales. 


With thanks to Anne Mudge who told me about art fostering and Jan Phillips who reported on Ruth Westriech who has an art for donation explanation on her website. 

Monday, November 7, 2016

SD Art Prize at Art San Diego 2016



By Patricia Frischer

For Art San Diego Contemporary Art Show
 this year (Nov 3-6) SDVAN is sponsoring INTO THE LIGHT: San Diego Art Prize, curated by the San Diego Mesa Collage Museum Studies Program. The most special section of the booth will focus on the outstanding works of the two emerging 2016 SD Art Prize winners William Feeney  and Shinpei Takeda. The collaboration between these organizations is rooted in our mutual interests to promote artists, exhibit their works, and network with the San Diego community. 
This booth will also feature artwork by San Diego Art Institute members who have been past years nominees for the San Diego Art Prize.
Claudia Cano, Andrea Chung, Beliz Iristay, Margaret Noble, Sasha Koozel Reibstein, Bhavna Mehta, PANCA, Lee Puffer, Aren Skalman, Anna Stump and Joe Yorty. It will highlight artists that have made the transition from their studios to solid representation in the San Diego art scene. There will be an exciting range of affordable work geared to young art collectors that want to support local artists. 

Below you will see work from the SD Art Prize exhibition, followed by work from each of the booths at the fair that represented San Diego artists. And finally, you will see a few works I choosen from this international fair. 

SD Art Prize exhibition:


View of the SDVAN SD Art Prize booth at Art San Diego

View of the SDVAN SD Art Prize booth at Art San Diego

Alessandra Moctezuma and her wonderful staff who manned the stand for four filled days

Shinpei Takeda speaking with Chris Fessendon from Artist Odyssey

Shinpei Takeda's wonderful woven tapestry with a reproduction of the sounds waves of a discussion held with a local emigrant

Shinpie Takeda's twelve layers of convicts overlaid with a view of the prison. Very subtle and sensitive, these pieces changes every time you look at it. 

Joe Yorty, Aren Skalman, Margaret Noble and William Feeney

Closer view of Margaret Noble and William Feeney

Anna Stump

Bhavna Mehta

 PANCA

Margaret Noble

Claudia Cano

Lee Puffer


San Diego Artists at Art San Diego



Aida Valencia from Casa Valencia Gallery, SD

Michael  Carini at Carini Arts, SD

Jens Rosen at Empress Contemporary, SD

Jeremy Sicile-Kira at Jeremy's Vision

Anita Lewis at Anita Lewis Art

Walter Redondo at Alexander Salazar Fine Art


Maidy Morhous

David Armstrong at Charles Koll Jewellers

McNabb Martin Contemporary Art

David Fokos at Fine Art Maya


Alex Dikowski  Gallery

Marcos Ramirez Erre for Open Walls Project

Richard Becker at Sparks Gallery

Beliz Iristay at Sergott Contemporary Artist Alliance
Jeffery Laudenslager at Sergott Contemporary Artist Alliance

Cabina Exuro offers the art patrons at ASD a glimpse into the Burning Man culture. An audio recording booth built to document the conversations that will shape the next chapter of humanity, Cabina Exuro is a gift the Burner Podcast crew built for Burning Man in 2016 in order to collect short stories that may be shared on future episodes of Burner Podcast or at burnerpodcast.com.

Aaron Chang Ocean Art Gallery

Debbie and Larry Kline


Marie Najero at The Blue Azul Collection

Stefani Byrd Launchpad artist
Barbara Walter at Purely Zen Watercolors


A few more arts works from Art San Diego outside of SD



Eyevan Tumbleweed Found Wood Sculptures



Ivy Rihlampfu at South African Collection


Paul Messink Studio

Alexis Silk

P. Borkovics at Avran Fine Art

P. Borkovics at Avran Fine Art

JP Greenwood