Healing Art + Creative Opportunities at ICA North’s CU Saturday

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

Artist Ethan Chan, in silent performance with TV and Table.
(He usually ate alone, but would set the table for
others in order to feel less lonely.)

Saturday may be date night for some people but Saturday late afternoon-into-evening is often date time for art-lovers on the five-acre ICA North campus in Encinitas or inside their spacious ICA Central gallery in Balboa Park.

On January 18^th, San Diegans of all ages came together in Encinitas to view new exhibits by ICA’s two 2024 artists-in-residence and have a chance to create their own artworks too. The theme was healing: In the upper gallery, Ethan Chan, an Asian American, displayed his sense of loneliness and isolation--intensified during the pandemic--in an hour-long silent solo performance. What was totally engaging to viewers was his love of kitsch: plastic sauce packets he turned into a comfort-food-laden table, and a wearable, wall-mounted Packet Jacket depicting the uniform worn by archetypal American heroes.

Packet Jacket.

The Sin Ti Series by David Peña.

These are lyrics from “Sin Ti” (“Without You”), a 1947 song by Los Panchos that brings David Peña back to the music he used to hear at the home of his beloved grandparents, who are no longer alive. These ten pieces are cyanotypes, which use sunlight to fix impressions of physical objects onto paper or, as here, onto canvas, assuaging the artist’s grief by recreating the past. 

English translation:     
“Without you
I will never be able to live
And to think that never again
You will be by my side.”

 On CU Saturdays, there are opportunities for visitors of all ages to get creative, with as much help or advice from ICA staff as they need.

 

ICA member Carrie Elwin, one of many eager participants:
 “I come here to craft,” she said. “I’m the perfect crafting freelance creative!”

The next CU Saturday will be February 15, 4-7 p.m., at ICA Central. 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. 

Will you be there?

Plan your visit to the  ICA   

Ethan Chan & David Peña: Heavy as Ghosts.
ICA San Diego / North (Encinitas)
Saturday, January 18, 2025 - Sunday, July 27, 2025
Thursday–Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 pm
Monday–Wednesday Closed 

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