Fiber & Quilt Exhibit at the Escondido Arts Partnership - with Transformed Chairs

by Joe Nalven

The Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery is featuring Fiber and Art Quilts, juried by Deborah Jarchow.  Notably, there are concurrent exhibits that add to the overall art experience:  Designing Weavers, Bonds and Connections; Escondido Art Talk, Transformed Chairs; PhotoArtsGroup, The Mind's Eye; and Beverley Pecunia, Wild Flowers of San Diego. 

The gallery at the Municipal Gallery provides a condensed experience of media. Each of the component exhibits are self-contained and thoughtfully presented - whether relying on a theme or the juror's or curator's eye for organization. This gallery is the gem of inland North County venues, not only for the art, but the affable and welcoming staff, the high ceilings with natural light adding to the spot lighting, and even an art gallery/reading room tucked away in the back as a memorial to Betty Woodaman. 

Fiber Exhibit, selection
"The ephemeral nature seen in a loosely knit vessel which appears to be traveling
in time helps us to invent our own metaphors of person strength and resiliency.
   Fiber can physically show us the strength of the human spirit through its many 
layers of materials and colors." From the exhibit statement 

Fiber arts are familiar to us in those amazing historical tapestries from earlier centuries with folktales and religious themes as well as the intricately woven rugs with Islamic designs. Quilting is a more modern tradition with layered fabrics sewn together. 

"Fiber artists face the same dilemma of all artists; determining 'what is art?' More so with fiber arts and other media associated with handicraft, because they have long been associated with domestic or utilitarian production. Typically, pieces like potholders, which just follow patterns without doing anything more, are not considered works of fiber art. Fiber art works are works of art that communicate some sort of message, emotion or meaning and go beyond just the literal meaning of the materials. Fiber arts face the challenge at times of the message or meaning of the work of art being eclipsed by the study of the materials used and their history, rather than what they contribute to the overall work of art." Janet Koplos, "When is Fiber Art 'Art'?"

Art Quilts, selection

The Fiber and Art Quilts exhibit features a mix of ephemeral fiber and traditional art quilts by California artists, including Rebecca Smith, Karen Greely, Cuauhtemoc Kish, Nicki Bair, Don Weeke, Mia Bloom, Linda  Anderson, Laura Bisagna, Stephanie Bedwell, Nancy Myles, Hope Campbell, Henry Armenta, Petey Dietz, Keely Berry LeBlanc, Mary Tabar, Karen Markley, Helen Schafer Garcia,Scott Gengelbach, Jean Degenfelder, Rita Zerull, Mary Brown, Ann B. 

Selections from the Escondido Art Talk Transformed Chairs

Escondido Art Talk is an art group that meets on the first Tuesday of every month at the Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery. The group decided that it wanted to do a show that could relate to the Biannual Fiber Show and the Recycle Fashion Show. Thus: Recycled, reused and re-purposed chairs.  The exhibit is located in the Expressions II gallery space and dominated by painted, embellished and captured chairs, fiber and book art. A real transformation of materials.

The chairs express fun, humor, comfort and concern for the environment, as well as treasured memories in a fabulous altered book, and yarn transformed into colorful scarves.

The participating artists are donating a significant portion of their sales to help pay for the annual Student Art Show at the Municipal Gallery.   

Escondido Art Talk / Transformed Chairs, two views

Blue Vanity / Artist, Chrisanne Moats

In spite of the fact that a chair is an inanimate object each has a personality all its own. 

Never minding our ups and downs they support us through life

 with patient integrity, from our first high chair to our last well-worn recliner.

Regina Gallegos / Melange

Scott Genglebach / Sit down and think about it -version #4

The artists in Transformed Chairs are: Flora Barwig, Jean Degenfelder's, Rachelle Farber, Regina Gallegos, Scott Gengelbach, Carol Mansfield, Donna Meyer, Chrisanne Moats, Janet Perkin, Carrie Repking, Karen Samenow. 

A historical note:  Escondido Art Talk was formed in January of 2010.The idea was to take artists out of their studios (often an isolating experience) to share personal experiences and their art. According to Donna Meyer, the group coordinator, "We've learned about such divergent things as altered books, rust, sandwich wrapping papers, Shrinky Dink plastic, and woodburning to mention just a few. We have gone on several field trips to the homes of artists where we have both explored their art collections as well as being treated to demonstrations of the creative process."

FIBER & ART QUILT SHOW

August 8 - September 27, 2014

Reception: September 13 from 5:30 to 8 pm

Tuesday, 11 am - 6 pm;

Thursday through Saturday, 11 am - 4 pm

RECYCLED MATERIALS RUNWAY EVENT:

Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014

Escondido Arts Partnership

Municipal Gallery

262 East Grand Avenue

Escondido, CA 92025

Tel: 760-480-4101

Website: www.escondidoarts.org

Email (Wendy Wilson, Director): wendy.esconarts@sbcglobal.net

CONCURRENT EXIBITIONS

Designing Weavers: Bonds and Connections

Escondido Art Talk: Transformed Chairs

PhotosArtsGroup: The Mind's Eye

Beverley Pecunia: Wild Flowers of San Diego

Note:  As an occasional exhibiting artist, I should note that I have an image in the PhotoArtsGroup show, The Mind's Eye.

Two Views of Contemplation: An exhibit by Cathy Breslaw

Cathy Breslaw: Contemplation at the Gotthelf Art Gallery, San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, ( 4126 Executive Drive , La Jolla, 92037) Sept. 11 until Nov 26. The central installation, is based on the shofar, the ancient instrument created from a ram's horn that Jews have used for centuries. Breslaw takes seemingly ordinary materials that, because of their artistic transformation, transcend their original function. More info: Ann Telford 858.692.2351

As Cathy Breslaw is one of our Picked RAW Peeled bloggers, both Joe Nalven and Patricia Frischer went to see her exhibition,

Cathy Breslaw: Future Contemplations
by Patricia Frischer

I am writing an emotional reaction to the works of Cathy Breslaw at the Gotthelf Gallery. It is delightful to enter this room full of lovely colors and shapes, but certain works attracted me more  that others. There are large works with dark and light contrast and many obviously hand draw and hand crafted collaged elements. I find these works a bit confusing but they are obviously quest for some purpose. I am just not sure what. But those are contrasted with the much more pure net pieces with layers of hand gradient applied colors titled, for example, sunrise and sunset. If you get close to these works and block out all around you, you could get lost in them. If fact, I found myself wanting them to be huge and for the room to contain only four of them rather like the feeling you get when you are in a room of Rothko's paintings.  You could be engulfed and transported. These works truly could allow you to contemplate much the same way at looking at clouds allows your mind to roam. Works that are capable of allowing this type of experience are very special.  

I loved the relationship between the Shofar themed central work and the Jewish Community Center. The net veil records five words: Renew, Awaken, The Call, Reflect, Forgive. And there are miniature shofar symbols forming a circle at the base that reminds me of a maze walk which is used for meditation.  Again I found myself wanting this piece to be larger, to actually walk the spiral and even add layers of net where I could enter into the work. I think this piece has the possibility of being a whole series or an entire room filling installation.

I was also drawn to this work which has these odd shapes attached directly to the wall with delicate wires. They seem to be scurrying across the wall but do not seem to threatening like spiders, but instead some sort of leaf or figurative forms and they create lovely shadows and are more delicately colored than appears in this image. This  work was created in 2014

Cathy Breslaw has intellectual strength tempered with a love for a physical experience.
She is an artist to watch.

Contemplation: An exhibit by Cathy Breslaw
by Joe Nalven

How does an artist ─ working together with an art gallery ─ create an engaging exhibition? Many of us have participated in this experience, others have wondered about it. 

Cathy Breslaw's exhibit allows us to step inside her mindset:  Contemplation, an exhibit opening at the Gotthelf Art Gallery, San Diego Center for Jewish Culture. 

JN:  How did this exhibit come into being? I began to wonder about this question in looking at the imagery that will be in the exhibit as well as the connecting titles.

CB:  When I was asked to do this show, I was asked that it have some relationship to Judaism. This was new to me. I had not done religious-related work even though I am Jewish.

As I began to consider the show, i realized it takes place during the High Holy Days which are the most important religious Jewish holidays.  I am an observant Jew and my maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Rabbi (he died many years before I was born). These holidays are a time of prayer and reflection. Here was my contemplation as the central focus for the show. It is not a religious-based show, but the idea of contemplation as a thought process and a way to frame some ideas and work.

Cathy Breslaw / Sunset  (Nb. layers of industrial plastic mesh and spray paint}

I will have fourteen separate works in the show. The central installation themed piece is called: The Call of the Shofar:100 Sounds. I was inspired by the shofar, an ancient instrument made from a ram's horn which is blown on the High Holy Days. There are many interpretations but the one that speaks to me has to do with it as a call to wake up, to reflect on our lives, and to transform them.

I also found in my research that the shofar blows one hundred sounds on Rosh Hashana which is referred to the piece.

Cathy Breslaw / Above, Below and Beyond

There are other works in the show based on a large series i have done in the past few years called Atmosphere which are like color field painting where I am using industrial mesh layers with spray paint to create wall works that somehow create an atmosphere I feel from nature. 

I am always seeking to challenge myself in terms of materials and new or differing ways to communicate my thoughts and ideas. Materials themselves are a big motivator. I am drawn to simple, accessible materials rather than traditional art materials and ways of translating into art pieces.

JN:  How does this exhibit connect with your way of thinking about the world in other ways?

CB:  I think and read a lot about cosmology, philosophy, and have always been drawn to ideas about light and space. Installation work is a nice way of being able to create things in 3-D space without making them sculptural objects per se.

Cathy Breslaw /  Free Flow 8 (left); Free Flow 2 (right)

I approach my work with thoughtful intuition. I work from a place of honoring where i am at any point in time and finding materials that offer me an opportunity to express those thoughts and ideas. I have used industrial plastic mesh materials and fabric for several years as a central point because they express my thoughts about light, space and transparencies. It also comes from my thoughts about the temporal, fleeting and transience of life. I am often inspired by nature ─ sea, sky and wind, which are so much a part of my daily life. Running and biking are regular activities for me and part of daily life which also influence my concepts of space and moving through it.

I want viewers of my work to make their own interpretations ─ to react to what they see and feel and not so much be told about what I think the work is about. I believe art should be another experience of living daily life. I don't want to direct viewers to a specific idea I am imparting. For me to create work, I am informing myself about my experience of the world but in no way do I want to direct others.

 

Exhibition:   Contemplation Gotthelf Art Gallery San Diego Center for Jewish Culture Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center Jacobs Family Campus 4126 Executive Drive La Jolla, California 92037 Tel. 858.457.3030 September 11 – November 26 Hours:  9 am to 5 pm (daily except for Saturdays & holidays)

Views from the installed exhibit:

Spirit Moves / Wall installation piece made with paper, wire and paint.  Ideas of the temporal and fragile nature of life, movement and reflections of the pieces of shadows on the wall lending more of a sculptural quality to the installation. The pieces are each literally hanging from a "wire" from the wall.

Installation photograph of several works:  large round piece on left is Metamorphosis, 8' in diameter, mixed media - mesh, tyvek, paint, piece dealing with the ephemerality/ fragility of life. Central Installation (yellow) The Call of the Shofar: 100 Sounds. talks about the Jewish high holidays and idea of the shofar as a call to awaken, reflect, renew.  Seven pieces along the right are industrial mesh, spray paint works that each have several layers, referencing color field painting in overall atmosphere dictated by color and emotion.

From Cathy Breslaw's artist statement: 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines  contemplation as “thoughtful, long consideration or observation, full or deep consideration; reflection; religious connotations.” These interpretations inspired the process of creating my works in this exhibition. Some works are new while others have been made within the last two years. Spirit Moves is one of several installations and uses the accessible and simple materials of paper, wire and paint.  A series of twelve small paintings called Free Flow, were created by the ancient Japanese technique of Suminagashi painting whereby paint or ink is gently dropped onto the surface of water. After creating a deliberate composition, and laying paper or fabric on top of the water, the image is released on to the surface of the support material. There are three works from a series called Swept Away that incorporate drawing, paint and mixed media on industrial mesh that are partially suspended from the ceiling and wall. Metamorphosis is an 8’ in diameter circular work made of industrial mesh, tyvek and paint that has been created through a heating process, having underlying themes of meditation and the impermanence of all things. There is also a series of seven industrial mesh works which originate from a large series called Atmospheres using layers of painted mesh pieces to create a spatial experience having to do with our natural world.

As Cathy Breslaw is one of our Picked RAW Peeled bloggers, both Joe Nalven and Patricia Frischer went to see her exhibition,

Cathy Breslaw: Future Contemplations
by Patricia Frischer

I am writing a more emotional reaction to the works of Cathy Breslaw at the Gotthelf Gallery. It is delightful to enter this room full of lovely colors and shapes, but certain works attracted me more  that others. There are large works with dark and light contrast and many obviously hand draw and hand crafted collaged elements. I find these works a bit confusing but they are obviously quest for some purpose. I am just not sure what. But those are contrasted with the much more pure net pieces with layers of hand gradient applied colors titled, for example, sunrise and sunset. If you get close to these works and block out all around you, you could get lost in them. If fact, I found myself wanting them to be huge and for the room to contain only four of them rather like the feeling you get when you are in a room of Rothko's paintings.  You could be engulfed and transported. These works truly could allow you to contemplate much the same way at looking at clouds allows your mind to roam. Works that are capable of allowing this type of experience are very special.  

I loved the relationship between the Shofar themed central work and the Jewish Community Center. The net veil records five words: Renew, Awaken, The Call, Reflect, Forgive. And there are miniature shofar symbols forming a circle at the base that reminds me of a maze walk which is used for meditation.  Again I found myself wanting this piece to be larger, to actually walk the spiral and even add layers of net where I could enter into the work. I think this piece has the possibility of being a whole series or an entire room filling installation.

I was also drawn to this work which has these odd shapes attached directly to the wall with delicate wires. They seem to be scurrying across the wall but do not seem to threatening like spiders, but instead some sort of leaf or figurative forms and they create lovely shadows and are more delicately colored than appears in this image. This  work was created in 2014

Cathy Breslaw has intellectual strength tempered with a love for a physical experience.
She is an artist to watch.