Breaking Ground in Encinitas for the Arts + Day of the Dead

 by Patricia Frischer

It was a great day for Encinitas on October 28 when we celebrated the symbolic ground breaking for the renovation of the Pacific View Art Center.  The center is due to open to the public in 2024. The renovation contract went to Conan Construction Inc. for $4.56 million and a 20 percent contingency fund. Plus $800,00 will go to Kleinfelder Construction Services to manage and inspect the construction project. Photos: Patricia Frischer

Shovels and hardhats to the ready

Sand sculpture creation

Visual arts represented. Dog paying rapt attention
to Mayor Blakespear's remarks

One, two three...Hurrah!

Danny Salzhandler, Ecninitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear,
Naimeh Woodward (Encinitas Friends of the Arts), Councilman Tony Kranz

Mayor Blakespear and her Aunt Rosemary KimBal,
ardent Pacific View Art Center Supporters

The next day was another successful Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, celebration at the Encinitas Community Center orchestrated, produced and sponsored by the Encinitas Friends of the Arts with Naimeh Woodward leading the charge with lots of city, county and private donations and tons of volunteers.  Photos for this event by John Campbell. 

Community Ofrenda

Callejeros de Encinitas Car Club

Super face painting

Aztec Dancers 

Stage performances by Ballet Folklórico de San Dieguito, Ballet Folklórico Rancho Buena Vista High School, Mariachi Nuevo San Diego, Mariachi Estado de Oro

Tissue flowers, sugar skulls making and art displays abound

Safe broadcast of all the performances outside and food trucks. 

 

Unfolding: Allied Craftsman at James Alan Rose Art Gallery at Francis Park School

by Patricia Frischer

Unfolding: Allied Craftsmen

Irène de Watteville “I love to absorb the absurd.”

 

Clay, metal, fibers, wood, glass, paper are the materials but the craftsmen and craftswomen turn these medium into art. This was a first visit to the little gem of a gallery, the James Alan rose Gallery at the Francis Parker School. We were greatly impressed with the campus and the facilities of the art department…a university quality for a high school. So it is especially important for the students of the school to see the work by the best of our best crafts artists in San Diego. A visit to the Allied Craftsmen website will give you a deeper dive into the artists in this exhibition and we decided to let them speak for themselves. 

There are many others in this show, so please, experience this space for yourself. Some of it was just too difficult for us to photograph at the crowded opening.  It is to the right of the entrance to the campus. 

Irène de Watteville

Irène de Watteville

Irène de Watteville

Cheryl Tall  “My desire for the harmonious existence of human beings with nature is represented by figures that become a refuge for birds and animals”

Cheryl Tall 

Cheryl Tall 

Kathleen Mitchell “I can walk into a glassblowing studio anywhere in the world and know how to communicate. Glass is a visual language. It could be a nod or a gesture and you know your job."

Kathleen Mitchell

Wendy Maruyama “If a viewer can take away or gain something new from something I have made, then I feel that I have succeeded.”

Gail Schneider “I am a woman who grew up next to the Hudson River and the Catskill mountains, a world that has always called to me to enter into a lure of risk.”

Ross Stockwell “Wood is a naturally beautiful material. So a wood carver’s job is to invent forms that are at least as interesting as the wood itself.”

Ellen Fager “A good pot is like a tree or a stone, individual and inevitable.”

Ellen Fager

Viviana Lombrozo “Art helps us to expand our understanding of our fellow humans, our world, and ourselves”

A wee shout out to the clever foodist that arranged these lovely platters. They are artist themselves. 

Our dear friend Irene de Watteville is a new member of this group and we noticed how pleased she was to be included. 

Unfolding: Allied Craftsmen
James Allen Rose Gallery at Francis Parker School
6501 Linda Vista Road, SD 92111
Opening Hours M-F 8am - 4pm
or by appt email Jaclyn Enck  at jenck@francisparker.org
Showing until Dec 9, 2022

Justin Sterling: Chapel of Rocks and other goodies at SD Museum of Art

 by Patricia Frischer

Justin Sterling: Chapel of the Rocks at San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park
Showing until Feb 12, 2023

Chapel of the Rocks is approximately 1000-square-foot 

Arriving at the San Diego Museum of Art and going into the gallery that houses Justin Sterling’s Chapel of the Rocks is certainly impressive. Seeing a church building inside of another building reminds you how important it is for museums to play this role of financing such large art works for our community to experience. The raw structure with the reassembled colored glass windows that have been brutally broken, is a symbol of the violent times we live in. Sterling questions Good Faith (my answer Earned Trust) and Bad Faith (Broken Trust) and asked the viewers to deposit their answers in the collection boxes. There are fire hydrants almost like classical columns or gargoyles and  even an old sink full of rocks with actual water dripping on them as a font. You can sit on pews inside in front of the alter and glimpse a video playing though the shards.  But that experience is nothing like the artist’s home town Houston's Rothko Chapel which is quiet spiritual. We get that extra feeling by viewing the selection of religious traditions pulled from the SDMA collection.  

   

Justin Sterling (b. 1992, Houston, Texas) now lives in New York which is where the materials for Chapel of the Rocks were sourced. Houston is the home of the Rothko Chapel 

A small selection of the multiple belief systems from the SDMA permanent collection on display in the room with the Chapel of the Rocks. 

Art of the Americas

Drawn also from the permanent collection of the SDMA is an ongoing selection of works which gives another chance to see some of our favorite art. These rooms are right next to the Chapel of the Rocks. 

Nick Cave Rescue

Marianela de la Hoz Heaven and Earth and the Determined Freedom of the Undetermined Life

Diego Rivera The Hands of Dr. Moore - So interesting to see this work right next to the local art star de la Hoz

A simple shout out to the wonderful team that catered the special event we attended that opened this exhibition. They are equally as creative as the artists. Fabulous rainbow arranged crudity, deli meats, fruits and cheese. 

Avocado Toast bar.

Kazmier Maslanka: Biomorpheus at Meyer Fine Art

 by Patricia Frischer

Kaz Maslanka is known to most of us as a mathematical poet i.e. using equations from physics to create poetic metaphors.  He was one of the lead artist in our SDVAN DNA of Creativity with a project called PAMM - PolyAesthetics Mapping: The Muses.   This exhibition at Meyer Fine Art in Little Italy is a different more sensual side of the artist from a much earlier period in his artistic career in the early 80's. He was experimenting with time lapse photography and inspired by music. Some of the images like the Biomorpheus series also have a audio element creation that you can check out with the QR code below. All of Maslanka's art reflects his "struggle to comprehend nature's systems which direct and guides my life."

Always on view at Meyer Fine Art is a great selection of prints by modern masters like Picasso, Dali, Oldenberg, Matisse, and many others. Coming up from Nov 4 to Dec 31 is Mid-Modern Revival, an exhibition of works by Clay Walker. (Reception is Nov 12 from 6 to 8 pm.)

Night stand by Clay Walker

Clay Walker, limited edition print

Kaz Maslanka showing until Oct 31, 2023
Meyer Fine Art
2400 Kettner Blvd, Suite 104, 

San Diego, 92101

6193589512

meyerfineartinc@gmail.com