WOMEN RISE

A lifetime of Wondering.

and the color Pink

                                                          

                                                              "Challenger" Deena Altman

When I was small, the only woman that was ever talked about was Eleanor Roosevelt...and  only because she was the President's wife. That was in 1940. Throughout my youth I was told that Art doesn't matter. This was a favorite saying of my Father. You can't make a living doing Art. For many women this has been so. This was also true of many vocations of which women were not encouraged to dream of aspirations owned by the world of men.

In my life time, much has changed. astronaut Sally Ride and her space shuttle Challenger, Senator Tammy  Duckworth, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elaine de Kooning. They overcame great odds in their quest for a place in the Sun...  

Elaine de Kooning self portrait

My daughters have encouraged me to see the movie "Barbie".  I hate pink. It is not on the color wheel of my art world. The primaries, Red, Yellow, Blue. The secondary colors, orange, green and purple. Power colors in the  corporate world are: black, red, and white. Little girls are from the time they are born are inculcated with the idea of pretty pink. Little boys are blue, a primary. It is always blue no matter how much white is added to the hue, it remains blue. Red on the other hand, when white is added becomes Pink. It loses all potency...it is diluted from the power of color.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, at the Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside CA we have an exhibition which documents the many phases of the feminine. A woman's lifetime documented in the paintings by Deena Altman. "Female Rising" It is gut wrenching, the power of her painted stages of the feminine mystic was for me overwhelming...especially the portrait of "Sweet Sixteen". This phase is when the "I" of being becomes subservient to our culture determined by the world of men. . Her shoulders are slumped forward, her dress a faded shade of pink. This image has background images a small girl painted in the color of pink. This cultural bias is still in full Pink Bloom 

I advocate the color for my sex to be Yellow, Gold, and Orange...the colors of great power. The Sunflower grows wild. This is what little girls should be surrounded with, the wildness of self, growing unbounded with the Sunpower in a blue sky...energy which makes our Planet Earth alive. Women in the Arts are now becoming a driving force for the Arts of all genres. We do give birth with passion and physical strength for our art. We glory in our Wildness, and we are very golden living on the great color wheel.... of existence.

 

 

                              The Young  Michelangelo

"Torment of  Saint Anthony". Michelangelo

Art Soul Connection

And a Young Boy

It is there, this connection of "Art to Soul, Soul to Art" deep it springs form the earliest age to bring into being, something that has never been told or viewed before. From where does this connection to the silver strands of the either waves come, and why does it have the effect of addiction to create something? This is the question which has mystified artists from the beginning of time.  This energy demands the instant feeling of now, action, and the incredible feeling of another self doing the now of creativity. This feeling cannot be denied.

 This connection is apparent in children as they play with color, clay, and keys on the instrument at hand. They have no constraints, they are in the moment of another world. One which is theirs only, and can never be from the world of NO.

Michelangelo was the genius of his age. It started early when at the age of 13, he created the "Torment of  Saint Anthony". Somehow, this creative instinct vanishes from most as the young are channeled into the learning of what is competitive and successful  in our world of wants. To be successful, art is not the way.

Last Friday I met a Young Boy.  He had the shinning eyes for the love of Art. His work influenced by today's proliferation of graphic images of the now genre of comic. I wondered if he were a citizen of Florence in the time of Michelangelo, and not influenced by today's media, what kind of images would be his inspiration. I had a few moments of conversation and encouraged him to draw. Draw everything. Learn what you see in the moment of the real, not on a screen of what others post. Look, and really See. Learn from the masters, and use your passion to imbue your drawings with your self, make the connection of your eye to your self with... truth

He smiled, and we shook hands. I left the jubilant scene of Artists Alley First Friday Art Walk, and knew that a young boy would have thoughts of resolve and exploration about his connection to the Silver Strands of making.    

                                            J._M._W._Turner  Avalanche and Thunderstorm, 

The Art of Storm...

Last night I stood outside on my covered patio and breathed in the warm heavy air of  Hillary,  a tropical storm. It  was the first storm of this kind in 80 years, and it is a prognosticator of what will come in our future.  As I watched the trees in the howling throws of winds and rain, I had the feeling that " the chickens are coming home to roost". In this scenario, the chickens being the increasing amount of  burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas.  

Today much of art is created to bring to awareness of a cultural problem. I have always thought of our planet Earth as a being on which we depend, much like children depend on their mother for sustenance and safety. Our Earth is sending us events to foretell us that our future environment for human life is in jeopardy. The Planet will be here for millions more years, but the environment for our life's support is what we should be concerned with. Saving the Planet is not the problem. Saving our environment that supports our lives is the problem.

The Life Line   Winslow Homer

 

Over the many millennia, artists have told stories of storms in their paintings, which were inspired by the energy of the storm and the electric impulses of the storm becoming their own energy. The two artists that I mention here, were not aware of our existential crisis of today. The Art of Storm today, therefore is being painted by our Planet Earth, we should view these images with our eyes, our minds, and our hearts, for these new images are real. Not hanging on a wall, but are living breathing events creating pictures of our future. 

Palm Springs August 20, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camille Pissarro

and

The Oceanside Plein Art Festival

It is different. Painting outside and absorbing the vibrations of color, air, and the breezes that make it all possible. The immediacy of the moment when the ever changing sky makes the scenery dance on the canvas. The brush assumes an independence, and covers the whiteness of the canvas with impatient Impressions. Plein Air has never been my first love for painting. I have had moments of delight, but feel that the studio is more in line for my physical inclinations.

Jameson Eureka 2006

Most think of Van Gogh when considering the style of impressionism...the yellow sunflowers and brilliant blue sky. My favorite of this genre is Camille Pissarro.

The muted color pallet, the considerable detail is beyond compare. He is recognized as the Father of Impressionism.

The Artists in San Diego County and beyond will come together July 15 - 22 for the annual Plein Air Festival. This event is sponsored by the Oceanside Museum of Art. The spirit of Pissaro lives on for painters the world over, and so, we in Oceanside and beyond will have the good fortune to be one with Nature as Painters, and Visitors from here and abroad... 

                                          

                        Boulevard Montmartre, morning, cloudy weather, 1897. National Gallery of Victoria

The Exhibition of Henry Moore and Georgia O'Keeffe now at the San Diego Museum of Art  and  closing August 27, 2023. 

Georgia O'Keeffe

the Muse Within

An Artist who declined to be categorized as a Woman Artist, she was a person who lived her life as truth as she saw it. Color. shape, texture,and line. Her imagination created works which will be treasured for all time. I see her work and realize that here was a soul which gave us her self, imaged in color and infused with mystery. Georgia O'Keeffe small in stature, but characterized monumental in her dedication to work, and gives rise to the question of women in art and whether or not they should be categorized as women artists or artists who paint.

I read that women actors are now actors in the media. This should be the norm for women in the arts of all genres. I declined to exhibit in The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) back in the day, for the reason of being labeled. I echo her stance about labels and it is my belief that labels of any kind are not needed, that works of art should stand on their own.

As a small child, she always knew that she wanted to be an artist. When small it was a natural inclination to do the drawing and was encouraged by her mother to be herself. Her Muse within was born early and this gave rise to the unflinching drive which was a lifelong ability to create her art.

This muse within gives joy, purpose, doing, completion, and the secrete smile that comes and means the work is Truth. Done. There is no greater feeling of worth when the nature of creating an art work is done.

It has always been my philosophy that all children have this creative ability. They paint with abandon, sings songs with words that only they know. Somewhere along the way this ability is lost, and most never are never to reconnect for many reasons. (Which is another post). Georgia was the exception in a most wondrous way. Her Bigness, her colors and the emotional impact of viewing her work is seductive and compelling. The Bigness was born when she lived in Texans and contemplated the vastness of the sky. How large it was compared to New York. How blue and big.. This became a conscious guide for her work.

Large Flowers, large skies, large clouds, and large bones. She collected bones from the desert, leaves which became withered sculptures, shapes from nature, and painted it infused with her colors and imagination of her environment.

In this exhibition, Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore share similarities in combining negative space and sensuous forms. They are the elements which give a yin- yang feeling to the over all exhibition. His being three dimensions and hers being two dimensions. Hers bringing exhilarating and brilliant color, and his being of a solid and limited palette of stone, wood, and bronze.

Yes, Georgia, you did so very well. You have given us worlds of wonder from the heart, driven by the Muse within. As a woman and artist, I thank You. Your work will be for All Time as an Artist, and, as a woman who lived outside of the definition of society's of a woman's role and inside of the world of imagination. She became one with Nature...Above all an Artist of masterworks.

 

                 Georgia O'Keeffe

 

Watching Henry Moore

 

From time to time for this blog, I muse on art events which are not in the City of Oceanside. Last Thursday was one of those times. The San Diego Museum of Art located in Balboa Park is currently now until August is exhibiting the Sculptures of Henry Moore and the Paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe.

As a sculptor painter I view art works differently than those who do not have this background. When I am in the presence of a sculpture, the three dimensions are compelling and enchanting. The lines, the shadows, the music of repeats are so very different from the viewing of a painting. A painting you see only one dimension no matter where you stand. It is always the same. A sculpture, you walk around and the front, sides, and back show a design of splendid alignment. The lines are in tune with each other no matter where you stand, the repeats are giving music to the arrangement of shapes.

 

For abstraction of life forms into sculptures, Line, Shadows, and Repeats are essential. These elements are the music of sculpture. A realistic art work in sculpture has these elements as well, but that is for another blog post.

Let me tell of the shadows. Shadows are the element of three dimensional shapes. Without shadows, the work would look flat. Henry Moore, a master of shadows which fall on rounded shapes throw a strait line. To give an example, look at a car's fender and see the highlight and the shape of the highlight. It is perfect and shows that the surface is perfect in it's self so the highlight is perfect as well. This, then is also true with shadows. When a shadow falls on a curve it also has to be perfect from all sides. The challenge for the artist is find and make the shapes perfectly smooth and round for any small bump will throw the shadow into a imperfect wavy line.

 

Lines are the sharp edges of the sculpture. Some sculptures to not have sharp edges and there are no lines which define where dark and light of where shadows fall. Sometimes I had a hard time conveying to my foundry workers the idea of a curved strait line. It seems like an oxymoron. Again back to the fender on a car. The fender is a curved line, but perfectly strait. Therefor any shadow or highlight will be a perfect line as well.

Repeats are the music in a sculpture. Repeats are a line, shape or shadow which are repeated in the viewing of the work. These repeats can be close together or at a distance when you view the sculpture from different angles. The repeats can be subtle, or of great impact. The dance of the repeats bring a cohesiveness to the work and it is what makes a sculpture a masterwork. 

 

Walking around these masterworks, Watching, I see the dance, hear the music, and see the lights and darks. They sing to me, and give a great sense of a sublime awareness of a gift. A gift from Henry Moore, a master forever.

 

 

 

 20,000 Years

Long ago and far away in time, our Valley of the San Luis Rey was a wondrous home to the Luiseno People. The land was a natural habitat, a beautiful and unspoiled world, for the people of this time. The flora and fauna has disappeared due to our present culture of displacement of the natural lifescape of yesteryear. The Valley vibrates with the State 76 Hwy day and night, the thunderous roar of Camp Pendelton jets and training artillery, the whine of the passenger jets high over head, leaving their polluted contrails drifting through the sky with the toxic particles drifting down on our modern culture of more.

Being one with the City of Oceanside CA seems like forever. My first visit when I was 3 years old sitting in a little rocking chair gazing out beyond the pier infused me with the mysteries of the Sea. A small child becoming one with nature imprinting for all time the beauty of the Ocean. The year was 1938. Our City, then was a small beach town off the beaten track.

Last week I was awakened by a flute song that was being played by Faustino Frederick. He was standing in front a large mural to be unveiled that tells the story of the Payomkawichum, People known as Luiseno. People of the Sea.

There were many people there to celebrate this event, but in the listening to the sweet sounds of the flute, my eyes closed and a vision of long ago emerged in my minds eye, of the way it was. Twenty Thousand years ago the Luiseno people were living in the San Rey Valley. The air was crystal clear, the trees were majestic, the river so pure you could drink it dipping your hands in the cool sweet liquid...

This reverie lasted moments but when in enthralled by the magic flute, it seemed like my time in this vision was beyond time. And so it was, the sounds of life of yesteryear gave way to the whispering crowd waiting for the speeches to end and the unveiling of the mural of history of 20,000 years.

                                      The Luiseno Mural located in East Oceanside at the Public Library

The moment arrived, the coverings removed and there in a golden glow of painted history was a splendid visual art work. The artist is Gibran Isaias Lopez of Escondido. Happy clapping erupted and cries of wonder echoed though the crowd. It will be there in the Children section of the Library for all to see and learn about the the People of so long ago. They, the Luiseno, are still here today and enrich our lives everyday with their wisdom, knowledge of the San Luis Rey and the sweet music of long ago...20.000 years of harmony with Nature...

I love my City of Oceanside, but from time to time, I dream of the White Horse high on his hill above the 76 with his head turned towards the Sea ...

 

 

 

 

OMA Rising

                                                                   Oceanside Art Museum

Thirty Years ago, I stood in front of the old City Hall in Oceanside. It was boarded up and was destined to be the City Clerk's storage building. I was told that the Council had voted on this proposed use and that the City Staff would not consider using the beautiful old Irving Gill building for an Art Museum. The concept was presented by the Arts Commission to the City Council and fortunately, they welcomed the idea of an Art Museum for our City which until then was missing this vital element of human endeavor...

 

 

That was then, and now after our 25^th Anniversary as an Art Museum, I look with wonder at what has been accomplished. Many folks have been given their time, their art, their treasure and hands on support. We thank them all. Our Executive Director, Maria Mingalone, to whom we owe so very much, gave this update at last Saturday evening's annual Patron Party, and shared with us the Rising of OMA. 

 

• OMA is at the epicenter of our Cultural Arts District designated by the State Legislature in 2017. In 2023 the state is now investing over 460K in the arts in Oceanside.

• New York Times … OMA is first on the list to see art in California along with the Norton Simon Museum and the Brewery Art Walk in LA, in the article published April 28^th 2023.

• OMA is one of four museums in the state of California to receive the 2023 Superintendents Award of Excellence in Museum Education. It is award to museums who make a significant contribution in California's K- 12 educational system.

• OMA has been selected for the Getty Foundation's ambitious Pacific Standard Time Initiative, titled “Art and Science Collide” which launches in fall 2024.

• OMA is expanding to bring into our campus the adjoining Gill Fire Station 1. We will have new spaces for expanded Educational classes, lectures and exhibitions. From one lonely abandoned Gill building to an entire City block, OMA stands proud.

So I thank Maria, our Staff, Our Generous Oceanside and regional Supporters, and a growing list of amazing cultural partners who have made this miracle possible. 

     Something wondrous awaits for us as we imagine new spaces for OMA at O'side's Fire  Station 1.

       OMA Rising exists because of the spirit of creativity in all of its many forms, resides within us all.

 

 

Extraordinary works of Art at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Robert Xavier Burden February 18–June 4, 2023

In the previous post, I offered images of Robert Xavier Burden There is no way possible to describe these monumental works which depict stories connecting his imagination with tales we all know and love.

King Kong and Fay Wrey, Bat Man, Peter Pan and inscribing them into frames of imagination that take you on a journey of yesteryear and beyond...The works are anchored by a central theme or image. The intricacies of each painting are profound and the word awe is my personal reaction in viewing these works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melissa Meier March 11–June 25, 2023

From Nature sculptured forms are incredible art creations which can make one wish you could touch. The exception is one sculpture make of porcupine quills. As a sculptor myself, the three dimensional element of the doing is exciting for it has sides, and a back. This aspect of creating is one of 360 degrees with infinite possibilities. The viewer sees the relationships of the form melding into itself and becoming a new image in 3D reality while walking slowly around the sculpture. The media is of Nature's gifts which Meier uses in a whimsical and painstaking effort. Patience is a quality demanded of this artist and she has conquered this challenge majestically.

 

FirstFriday Art Walk Oceanside May 5 Artist Alley and the City Plaza at the Library Courtyard...

Happy Feet and Happy Drumming ... dancing and making art. The Exhibitions by regional artists are now displaying in a venue across the street from Artists Alley. This natural progression is one which has origins of yesteryear in the early 90's. So, it is wonderful and timely, as we return to our Art Walks with the pandemic in the rear view mirror of yesterday... June 2^nd will be the next event.

 
 

Oceanside Museum of Art

First Friday Art Walk

Spring and the energies of the earth's awakening spurs my inclination to finally finish the painting staring at me for the past cold months of this year. Joy, I let it in and now with the warmth of spring pulsing though my artist joints, I set out once more to find and explore the possibilities of the blank canvas inviting me to the chase of the muse...

Join me in the walk of art and meeting the artists in Artists Alley and the  Oceanside Museum of Art.

 

First Friday Art Walk will debut May 5^th, 2023 Oceanside CA