Creative Corp: Far South, Border North recognizing that Artists are Essential to a Civil Society.

 by Patricia Frischer

Debby Kline with assistance of her loyal husband Larry were present to show their video on democracy featuring  Eleanor Antin and encourage everyone to register to vote. One of these towers had slots to collect wishes and were digitally printed enabling them to be easily transported and altered for variations. The Klines make subjects about economic injustice, the voting process, the erosion of civil liberties and the confusion of war, more palatable by engaging viewers in unexpected ways.

During the pandemic, it was recognized that it was individual artists that needed help. Two SD City programs  described by Jonathon Glus (City of SD Commission for Arts and Culture ED) Park Social (for programming safely outside) and SD Practice (the city buying more art directly from artist) could only go so far. So when the state funded the Creative Corp for $60M to put artists back to work, the counties of San Diego and Imperial together, were given $5 million for the project they decided to call Far South, Border North. The Prebys Foundation stepped up and contributed another $1.4 million. It was hoped that these funds given from California Arts Council (Danielle Brazell the executive director) would be used for  pilot projects leading to more sustainable employment.

Jonathon Glus

The job was to administering the grants with the help of  a ecosystem or resources. Christine Jones from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and Felicia Shaw  at SD Art Matters worked with  Megan Thomas of Catalyst.  They looked for  job creator,  communication creators, change makers, community collectors. They wanted artists that were already doing the work for projects based in the proper Healthy Places Index locations. They funded 60 artists in the first phase and another 18 organization in the second phase. Imperial County got 25% of the funds and SD the rest. The second phases is not finished yet and all the results data is not yet tabulated.

The goal was to use the mountain top of highly skilled artists to help catalyze the whole community of arts and culture workers. This was to be done through collaboration and partnership. Being paid was a way to liberate artists from the everyday worries of money and at the same time confirm their value. Hubs of help were set up to aid in every aspect of making the artists successful. And that success had to have defined, measurable goals. The higher vision was to demonstrate what it means to come together with public and private partnership to create more impact that a solo artist could on their own.

The Day of Impact on Thursday, Sept 19 at the Museum of Photographic Arts @ SDMA and the Mingei International Museum, was a check in point to demonstrate progress in some cases and as a gesture of closure for others.  We heard from more than a dozen artists who had prepared slides shows and videos as well as additional artists who had set up tables in the Mingei lobby.

Each one had at least one benefit they brought to public awareness. These ranged from issues about  climate change, to mental health, to nutritious eating, to air and water quality, to social justice, diversity, equality, inclusion, to democracy, heritage, and agriculture. Just a very few more are featured below. 

Berenice Badillo - I made cancer my bitch

Cathlyn Choi, Food for Life, youth health and wellness through culinary arts 

Fernando "Fro" Reza - creating the false reality of Imperial Valley as a nocturnal city  

Amanda Turruella and Seth Gadsden Media Art Center Connected Voces gave stipend to students to make films of their stories. 

But it was really the creativity of delivery methods that set each project apart. There were art exhibitions, play performances, puppets, and talking graphic novels.  There were coloring books, candles, poetry readings, murals, panel discussions, podcasts, and videos. There were swap meets and fantasy nocturnal festivals, There was comedy and drama, portraits and abstracts. There was raw emotion and refined rapping. There was immersive singing and badges and zines and interviews. There were period costumes and fashion shows. There were community quilts and role-playing games. There were public places and safe spaces. There was the discomfort of not knowing and the lesson learned.

Favorite quote of the day - Betty Bangs, “I don’t have to use the fucking cheap supplies from the 99 cent store. I can buy the good stuff for my team for once. “

Neil Kendricks diverse portraits in his talking comic book. QR codes on every page allow you to listen to the stories. 

Thanks to Ramel Wallace for keeping us entertained and inspired
and to all the moderators and the panelist. 

A Fine Time to See Visions at Liberty Station

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt. 

 

The new duo at Visions: Katrina Bruins and Armando Garcia-Orso in the museum store.

There’s a new duo shaping things up at VISIONS Museum of Textile Arts and they’re widening their focus to encompass both sides of the border. Here’s a brief introduction to Executive Director Katrina Barnes and Curatorial and Education Manager Armando Garcia-Orso. 

Katrina has a gift for creating community, building long-term partnerships, and inspiring volunteers and supporters. Her most recent position was Program Manager of an international border shelter, where she had a diverse team of over 100 employees. She lives in Point Loma, close to Liberty Station, and a year ago, when she heard of the directorship opening at Visions, she was immediately drawn to it, since she has a longtime love of textile art.

Armando lives in Tijuana and San Diego and has years of experience encouraging international cultural exchange. He was formerly Deputy Director of Exhibitions at the Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT) and served as Deputy Director of the Municipal Institute of Art and Culture (IMAC) in Tijuana. He also founded and directed the Rio Rita Cultural Association, one of the first bi-national arts organizations in Tijuana. 

Though the two never knew each other before, they were both drawn to Visions at the same time--a felicitous coming together.

Their current exhibition, Latine Entretejida/Interwoven, presents textile artists from both sides of the border. It’s part of the World Design Capital 2024 program which honors the San Diego/Tijuana region as a global hub for design, innovation, arts, and culture.

SHROUDS, Nuances of a body by Carolina Betancourt 

Shadow from SHROUDS, Nuances of a body by Carolina Betancourt (Tijuana).

Nervation (above) When Was The Last (below) from SHROUDS, Nuances of a body by Carolina Betancourt  (Tijuana).

My husband and I may not have grasped all Betancourt's “body nuances” but we admired her varied techniques. 

Vivir alBorde: Hanging by a Thread by Marisa Raygoza

 A row of small figures by Marisa Raygosa (Tijuana).

     

Closeup of Raygosa’s She Used Her Head as a Revolver.

Re-addressing Old Patterns through Clothing and Ritual by Irma Sophia Poeter

A-DRESS by Irma Sofia Poeter.

This Mexican-American artist lives on both sides of the border and was a winner of the San Diego Art Prize in 2016. Here she shows five dresses using patterns from different cultures and centuries, transforming the original textiles with paint, dye, and embroidery. Each dress has a slogan printed on it that was used in activists’ demonstrations and each is accompanied by a photo of the dress used in everyday life. This one, made from a mid-19^th-century Palestinian woman’s shirt, says: CHANGE IS NOW.

Domestic Landscapes by Mely Barragán

 Mele Barragán: Landscape.

 

 Mele Barragán: Shallow Water Emerges Til Dawn. A dramatic wall-size hanging.

Mele Barragán, born and based in Tijuana, has done residencies around the world and was a recipient of the San Diego Art Prize in 2023

COMING ATTRACTIONS at VISIONS

 Intimate Wilderness by Charlotte Bird
October 19 to December 28, 2024

Migration Installation, a piece from Intimate Wilderness.

 

Charlotte Bird has been a full-time studio artist for over 30 years. She dyes and prints most of her fabrics and has created contemporary wall quilts, 3-D sculptures, and artist’s books

QUILT VISIONS 2024
October 19 to December 28, 2024

Visions’ 25th international juried biennial exhibition will, as always, feature art quilts that show exceptional quality, innovation, surface design, composition, and craftsmanship.

VISIONS Museum of Textile Arts
2825 Dewey Rd. Suite 100. Liberty Station. Free admission.
Hours: Wednesday/Thursday, 10 am-2 pm. Friday/Saturday, 10-4.
Phone: 619-546-4872  

On First Fridays, when Liberty Station is open 5-8 p.m., Visions has Kids’ Crafts, a tangible art experience for children, where they can get their hands dirty and create a souvenir to take home.
Phone: 619-546-4872  

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

For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

by Patricia Frischer

Simone Fattal, a Lebanese artist who describes “the tremendous toll of
warfare, exile, and violence on the human body and spirit.”

 

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego presents For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability on view from September 19, 2024 to February 2, 2025.

The premise of this large exhibition is simple. Let artists do what they do best and communicate about their experiences with disease, disability, and the diversity of treatments and services offered in the health industry. However, this took years of research and a mass of decision making. Aids, abortions, the American disability act, mental health facility closures, war on drugs movements, breast cancer research all touch on civil rights, antiwar, and women’s and gay liberation. We have chosen just a few of the works to illustrate the breadth of this exhibition and tempt you to spend some time (you have until Feb 2, 2025) to visit and revisit this exhibition.

Yvonne Rainer, still from the video from this famous dancer, of a hand dance
during recuperation and rehabilitation.  

Howardena Pindell used this method of sewing fragments of works together to help regain her memory, bring together fragments of her life after a car accident. 

Senga Nengudi,  a noted black feminist, created this liquid filled sculpture representing a human form draped over the rope to create a shape that appears like a body without a skeleton. 

Juanita McNeely battled cancer, a bad abortion and a spinal cord injury
depicted in the contorted figure in this large 7 panel image.

 Frank Moore was born with severe cerebral palsy that left him
unable to walk or talk. He attached a brush to a hard hat and used
that to paint and he gave himself the nickname unicorn.  (top right)

Ida Applebroog developed a series of intimate drawings while in hospital
after a severe depression and unable to speak. This aided her
communication to staff and helped in her recovery process

Beverly Buchanan switched from medical technology to do what she loved as an artist. She suffered from asthma and the side affects of steroids given to help her. This Medicine Woman is one of her largest creations. 

Emory Douglas was Minister of Culture of the Black Panthers and created these protest posters. The Black Panthers' social programs included free clinics and a push for research into sickle cell anemia. 

Judith Scott now quite a famous outsider artist, was institutionalized and separated from her twin sister very early in her life as a developmentally disabled person. She gathered scrapes of found objects around her to create these wrapped  shapes. 

Judith Scott

Liz Young had a car accident that left her paralyzed, thus the torture device element of this sculpture. 

Ray Navarro refusing to be seen as a victim of AIDS, used humor and sex to define his illness.

Hollis Sigler had breast cancer that spread though her body and the title of this work, I'd make a deal with the devil poses the question as a lesbian feminist, how much would you give up to be cured?

 

Niki de Saint Phalle suffered from frequent parental abuse, chronic lung problems, severe joint pain and swelling from rheumatoid arthritis. She moved to La Jolla, California, for its coastal-desert climate in 1994. "Whenever I met a disease, my art found a renewal."

Carlos Almarez, a Chicano artist,  created a series of car crash and aftermath paintings. 
He had a near-death experience  and was hospitalized with acute pancreatitis in 1971.  

Jerome Caja created these miniature reliquaries for friends of his that died from Aids. 

Bob Flanagan lived a life with cystic fibrosis, but surviving long enough to make fun of the inevitability of his own funeral. His face changes to your own as you near to pay your last respects.  

Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose, his partner

James Luna of Mexican and American Indian descent, created this symbolic AA meeting with parodies of famous poses in art. 

Sunaura Taylor has a disease that restricts her movements of her hands and arms. She was bullied and compared to an animal when young. In reaction, not only has she becomes a advocate for the disabled, but also for animal rights. 

Rina Banerjee is from India and in this work explores the path of the mosquito in spreading disease. 

Rina Banerjee, details of two-head mosquito

Sandie (Chun-Shan) Yi describes her Crip Couture as a manifesto to create disabled clothing for the pleasure of the wearer. 

Kiki Smith created these tapestries of skin samples from wax, gauze, shoe polish and pigment. 

Rigoberto Torres is the creator in plaster of this self portrait with his doctor. Severe asthma attacks affected his eye site and memory. 

King Cobra was one of those responsible for getting a statue removed of J Marion Sims who used black enslaved women for experiments without their consent and with out anesthetics. Her sculptures are examples of  embellishments modifying the female body.  

Guadalupe Maravilla combined western healing methods with indigenous therapeutic practices to heal himself creating retablos to give thanks for curing his colon cancer. 

Guadalupe Maravilla detail of above

Kaari Upson creates what looks like a mattress, but is completely silicon and paint. She calls these sculptures "artifacts of disease" and they were started after her diagnosis with breast cancer. 

Christine Sun Kim, a deaf artist, creates this sign language piece in the museum atrium. Photo by Maurice Hewitt.  

Organized by Senior Curator Jill Dawsey, Ph.D. and Associate Curator Isabel Casso, this  is PST ART’s largest presentation by square footage this year. It is arranged chronologically from the 1960s to contemporary times of COVID with 80 artists spread over 7 rooms of the museum. Surprisingly the grant from the Getty which supported this show was started well before COVID-19 and the pandemic hit the world.

 Jill Dawsey,

A very nice touch is the collection of more seating spread throughout the gallery space with red pillow to accommodate sore feet and bad backs!

Other Participating Artists:

Laura Aguilar, Ron Athey, Nayland Blake, Barbara Bloom, Gregg Bordowitz, John Boskovich, Morris Broderson, Lisa Bufano, Patty Chang, Tee Corinne, Moyra Davey, Zeinabu irene Davis, Jay DeFeo, Emory Douglas, Angela Ellsworth and TT Takemoto, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Pippa Garner, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Milford Graves, Joseph Grigely, Anna Halprin, Barbara Hammer, Ester Hernandez, David Hockney, Camille Holvoet, Tishan Hsu, Kim Jones,  Stephen Lapthisophon, Liz Larner, Carolyn Lazard, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Riva Lehrer, Simone Leigh, Zoe Leonard, Fred Lonidier, Park McArthur, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Mundo Meza, Frank C. Moore,  Alison O’Daniel, Pauline Oliveros, Carmen Papalia, Pope.L, Katherine Sherwood, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, P. Staff, Liza Sylvestre, Joey Terrill,  Mary Ann Unger, Catherine Wagner, Charles White, Hannah Wilke, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong, Richard Yarde, and Constantine Zavitsanos

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability is part of PST  (Pacific Standard Time): Art and Science Collide projects that we are covering this month.  PST is an  initiative of the Getty Foundation with more than 60 exhibitions on this year’s theme in southern California with 818 artists participating. (Of course, you know SDVAN did it first in SD with the DNA of Creativity back in 2014!)

Other exhibitions to watch for in this column are:

A Wondrous Exhibition in Balboa Park Picked RAW Peeled by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.
San Diego Museum of Art: Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World  on view to Jan 25, 2025  

Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park Picked RAW Peeled by Patricia Frischer
Mingei International Museum:  Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo on view to March 16 2025.

For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
on view from September 19, 2024 to February 2, 2025.
700 Prospect St., La Jolla, CA 92037
Thurs—Sat, 11 AM—7 PM,  Sunday, 11 AM—5 PM  Monday—Wednesday, Closed
All second Sundays and third Thursdays of the month offer free admission.