Art, Poetry, and Surf Music Celebrate "Save the Ocean 5" at Front Porch Gallery

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

Paradise Lost in a Sea of Plastic by Ron Yeo.
Best in Show for Art & Poems
Our favorite piece by Ron Yeo is the pelican beside
his full-size prize winning artwork, which is really 20’’ x 20” but we’re sharing
the poem here too since both so well express the show’s theme.

Ron Yeo’s Starving Pelican.

 On March 29^th, Carlsbad’s Front Porch Gallery celebrated its 20^th anniversary with its fifth Save the Ocean exhibition, a collaboration with the Surfing Madonna Oceans Project. The juried show featured pieces by 83 So Cal artists and 20 poets, with surf-rock band Tower 7 providing live music out on the street.

 
“Being close to the ocean is a significant part of our gallery experience,” says Cathy Carey, Front Porch Gallery Director. “We want to amplify the voices of creative professionals who are dedicated to raising awareness of environmental issues and fostering positive action so that the ocean can provide a place of beauty, solace and rejuvenation in the 20 years to come.”
 
The exhibition will run through May 28^th, so you have time to get up close and personal with the artworks and pay a visit to the ocean, just a few blocks away.

Galatea by Christina Rosenthal.  First Place Award for Art.
This Carlsbad-based artist has two other artworks and a poem in the show. We particularly loved her portrayal of the sea nymph in Greek mythology who fell in love with a human.

Endangered by Laurie Mika took Second Place, but we were equally impressed by her
Navigateur.#5.
 

Navigateur by Laurie Mika

Third Place in Art went to this Water Bear Egg by Brett Wallerstein 
but the 12” x 12” x 12” sculpture is a massive look at a microscopic creature.

Under the Sea:  A large-scale piece by Tanis M. Galik.

Sea Nymph, a bubble-wrap ball-gown by Kathryn Peterson.

Golden Summer Shore, an eye-catching oil painting by Cathy Carey, Front Porch Gallery Director, whose artworks can be seen beyond our shores in Santa Fe, Scottsdale and Taos.

Front Porch Gallery
2903 Carlsbad Blvd. Carlsbad, CA 92008
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday: 12-4 p.m.
760-795-6120

Surfing Madonna

About the Surfing Madonna:

Mark Patterson, the Leucadia-based artist who created the 10’ x 10’ mosaic, spent years doing sketches of the Virgin of Guadalupe on a surfboard saying “Save the Ocean.” Finally inspired to create a mosaic, he completed the piece on Good Friday in 2011, when Good Friday and Earth Day happened to fall on the same day--a rare occurrence. Later that day, he and his friend Bob Nichols quietly installed it under a railroad bridge in Encinitas, where it could be easily seen. After some controversy, it was relocated to a spot across the street on the corner of Encinitas Boulevard and South Coast Highway, close to Moonlight Beach.

In 2013, he and Nichols created the non-profit Surfing Madonna Oceans Project, which has since donated many thousands of dollars to worthy causes. Patterson died in 2023, but his artwork lives on. Check out the full story It’s seriously interesting!   

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
 

Artful Workshops Invite Seniors to Get Creative at MCASD La Jolla

 Words and Photos by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt.

 

An almost-finished collage

If you’re an over-55-year-old art-lover who’s ready to try your hand at art-making, there’s a fine opportunity awaiting you at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla.

It’s called Reflections, a series of eight Friday morning workshops that involve stimulating interactions with artworks, museum educators, and other art-lovers. Inspired by what you see and hear, with an array of materials set before you, you get to create your own personal and often surprising works of art. 

Each two-week session explores a different technique of contemporary artmaking. My initial session in late March focused on collage.

 

Day 1: A work in progress

There were 26 of us that morning--25 women and one man--and our workshop space had a number of small-group tables, all with ocean views.  Our instructors, Kelley Katan and Frankie Martin, gave a brief introduction to what we’d be doing and then led us into the museum’s newest exhibition, a tribute to the late Matthew C. Strauss, a passionate art collector and MCASD benefactor. We stopped in front of two large mixed-media pieces that included elements of collage.  

After a little background on both artists-- Beatriz Milhazes and Mickalene Thomas--we were asked what we thought of each piece. “What do you see?” “What does it mean to you?” “Would you like to have this piece in your home?” Comments of all sorts were encouraged, and some were quite eye-opening.

Back in our workshop space, where the tables were covered with magazines we could clip from, we got down to work. There was also a table of refreshments, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the magazine that was right in front of me as I sat down across from my two friendly tablemates. Its cover featured the Stonewall, a gay nightclub in Greenwich Village whose invasion by police in 1969 kicked off the Gay Liberation movement.

A whole rush of my past came back: I was still a New Yorker in the mid-to-late 1960s, co-writing musicals and living in the Village, and the Stonewall was a major scene then. So my partner got special permission to take me--a straight woman--into the main room, where the music was hot, and there were hundreds of mostly young guys crowding the dance floor and go-go boys doing their thing in niches on the wall.

We stood there awhile, and I think we danced a little…it was all pretty amazing. Everyone I knew in those days is long gone, but that magazine--a far cry from the fashion, travel and lifestyle ‘zines on our table--was clearly meant for me. I started clipping, and cutting up bits of glitter cardstock; I now had a theme for my collage: Remembrance of Times Past.

I came to my second Friday hoping I’d figure out how to make my ‘60s collage look less square, more dynamic. I also brought with me tiny copies of two photos I thought might find a place in my piece.

Day 2: Adding “bling”

 This was “bling” day, and we were shown an image of the piece by Mickalene Thomas we’d seen the week before for inspiration, since she combines rhinestones with photography and painting in her work. So now we had little containers of glitter: rhinestones, sequins, and multicolored gems to add a new dimension to our collages, or we could even try painting in our own shiny pixels of color.

I dug out the brightest glitter-bits, added slivers of glitzy gold cardstock, and wow!  What a difference that made!  

Then I had a chance to look at the other artworks around me… and you have a chance see some of them here.

 

This Writer’s Reflection.

All I can say is: One of the large-scale Murals of La Jolla has it right:  ART IS GOOD FOR YOU.

The weather was cold that Friday, but holding my 11” x 14” collage I felt warm and happy inside. 

If you want to try your own Reflections, the next 8-week series starts May 23^rd and runs through July 18^th. Fridays, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Cost: $200 for museum members, $250 for others. 

A full description of the series will be posted on the MCASD site  at the end of April, along with a link to register. Questions? info@mcasd.org  

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

An Artful Life: A Tribute to Matthew C. Strauss at MCASD

by Patricia Frischer

Anthony Gormley

 An Artful Life: A Tribute to Matthew C. Strauss at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
March 20 – August 3, 2025

Mathew Strauss passed away in August 2024 at the age of 91, but he left a legacy of art that will live well past our lifetimes. His wife Iris was the art major, but Strauss got the bug in 1980 and together they built a 300-piece collection based on their view of what were the best works of the best artists of our time starting in the 1970’s. 

Steven Strauss, their son who took his father’s place as the board chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, said that his father likes edgier work and his mother tended toward the beautiful. But no work entered the collection without the approval of both.

On view in An Artful Life are just 22 works of art that span the world.  But they are large in format and occupy fully 5 rooms including the Iris and Mathew Strauss Gallery. The show was curated by Kathryn Kanjo, CEO of MCASD. The works are very representative of the entire collection of the museum, probably not a surprise as Hugh Davies, past director of the Museum, was an advisor to the Strausses.

Iris Strauss was a participant in an Art Collectors round table, held for the now defunct COVA organization more than 15 years ago. When asked what a collector does when all the walls in their home are filled, she replied, “Buy the house next door.” That is exactly what they did and formed a foundation to house a part of their collection.  That house will now be sold to finance The Strauss, an alumni building in the new Triton Center on the campus of UCSD. The Strauss will house the foundation collection and is planned to open in 2026 and geared especially to the student population. Strauss felt that every major university should have a major art museum.  It was also Mathew Strauss who helped with the expansion project of MCASD, which is now able to show its permanent collection.

Making art available to the public was so important to Strauss family. This exhibition is small but mighty. That might be because Mathew Strauss believed that a work of art was important if it “moved your molecules.” It is the hope of the museum, that this exhibition encourages collectors to get their molecules moving. 

Steven Strauss, son of Iris and Mathew, current Board Chairman of MCASD

Takashi Murakami

Al Held

Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke, detail

Robert Rauschenberg

Nancy Graves

Frank Stella

George Baselitz

Cecily Brown 

Alex Katz

Nick Cave

Nick Cave, detail

Kehinde Wiley

Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas, detail

Mickalene Thomas, video

Ed Ruscha

 An Artful Life: A Tribute to Matthew C. Strauss at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
March 20 – August 3, 2025

Framing Identity at Level of Service Not Required
March 8 to April 11

Also in La Jolla, Framing Identity is a lose phrase to encompass the works of four women during Women’s History Month. Caleb Cain Marcus selected collaborative artists Katie Hargrave and Meredith Laura Lynn from Tennessee and Florida , and both Boston based photographer Hannah Altman and painter Jennifer Ruth Evans. This is a starting place to think about who, how, and why we are.  Altman’s tense photo and  Evan’s figure drawings  were especially personal views. The installation by Hargrave  and Lynn was a parody of a reality TV survival program.  

Hannah Altman

Jennifer Ruth Evans

Jennifer Ruth Evans

Jennifer Ruth Evans

Katie Hargrave and Meredith Laura Lynn 

San Diego Museum of Art Roundup: american minimal, Ruud van Empel: Theatre, For the People: Modern Printmaking in Mexico

 by Patricia Frischer

Gisela Colon 

american minimal  On view through June 1

I am sure I am not the only one that has noticed the world is crazy right now. On the Sunday I visited the San Diego Museum of Art and Balboa Park was seething with people. But when I stepped into the American Minimal exhibition, quiet settled over me like a soothing balm. One can understand why the chaos of abstract expressionism with the seemingly out of control color and brush strokes, was followed by the balance and simplicity of minimalism. Sometimes, one needs an absence of reality. The object is the object is the object. In addition, there are experiments with new mediums, plastics, light itself, even early computer-generated art.

Jennifer Findley and John Digesare are responsible for the curation, and the  works are simply placed to allow them to speak fully. Most of the works are familiar, but the joy of this kind of exhibition is that not only do you visit old friends, but new discoveries are there to delight you. 

The shadow of a guard on duty, a simply yellow wall and the stunning obelisk by Grisela Colon (above)  is so seductive with it swirling purple surface. Gary Lang circular works from 1998 were minimal even though they owe a lot to op art. Larry Bell's experiments bring the light and space. Friank Stella is a highlight, of course, as is Josef Albers, but I as really intrigued with the wall work by David Lasry.  It is just black lines oil painted lines on a white wood background. But it is so much more than that. It is endlessly confusing and that makes it sort of magic. 

Gary Lang

Larry Bell

Installation view including Frank Stella

David Lasry

Josef Albers

 Ruud van Empel: Theatre  On view through July 27

A quick look at these large composition and you might wonder where Rud van Empel found such amazing landscapes to photograph. But these are not just collaged works that make up the fantasy spaces. Every single element is separately placed which must take mindless amounts of time and effort, even using digital reproduction.  And the originals images all come from photographs this Dutch artist takes himself, some even from our own Joshua Tree National Park.  Since you have slowed down in the museum already, take the time to watch the video to see more of his work and how it is compiled. 

Ruud van Empel

Ruud van Empel

Ruud van Empel

Ruud van Empel

For the People: Modern Printmaking in Mexico  On view through August 10

The prints in this small show were all made by members of Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP) founded in 1937. The subject was generally anti-fascism and social justice and in honor of Women’s History Month, I chose images of women with rifles, women who looks like they are immigrants, but they are actually just going to market, and one work by a women Elizabeth Catlett of children playing in masks.  More than any other multiple produced images, lino and wood cuts seem to show the hand of the artist. 

 

 

Elizabeth Catlett

Leopoldo Mendez

Fernando Castro Pacheco

A little reminder, The Art of Americas exhibition has a work by Becky Guttin and you pass it on the the way the Rudd van Emel exhibition.