Lummis Day Print Show. Curated by me.

       I just came back from the first show I have ever curated. I was assigned to enhance the Lummis Day celebrations in Highland Park with an art show. My concept was simple given the space and budget limitations and the environment: Invite 8 accomplished printmakers to display and sell their work.
       Quite a lot of preparation came into this, form choosing the printmakers to designing postcards and acting as a liason between the Lummis Home Foundation , the Historical Society of Southern California and the artists. I can't say I enjoyed the process but what I can say is that it was a treat to deal with the wonderful artists that gave 120% of their effort to make the show a success. I even got to meet my (third) Consul General of Spain. After all, Charles Lummis had been knighted by King Alfonso XIII with the Order Of Isabel La Católica for his writings on the Californio population of this area of the world.

The artists that we displayed were, in no particular order,  Linda Lyke, Olivia Barrionuevo, Roderick Smith, Don Newton, Cidne Hart, Kathy Mas-Gallegos, Poli Marichal and Sonia Romero. The worked with our limited space and resources and were infinitely gracious. LOTS of people came by and admired their work, bought some and enjoyed the historical site.

 I am not sure I'll ever volunteer to do an event like this and I am so glad it is behind us now.  I really need to get painting and preparing my own shows but I think it is a bit of a duty to help  organizations like these that bring art and enjoyment to so many people.

My very first workshop

At the request of the San Gabriel Fine Art Association, I conducted my very first workshop with five "students". It was a two day affair. The first day we painted at the Arboretum while I talked about my every thought for three hours. It was exhausting. It was a cloudy day so we did a low-key painting and discussed selecting subjects , materials , the paradox of overworking the areas we want to focus on and how the fastest paintings are those which have no mistakes. We created thumbnails, used red gels and all kinds of devices to aid our thought process. Mostly it was about the importance of thinking before starting to lay paint.



The second day it was the turn of Liz, Barbara and Rod to try out the new techniques...I chose an urban/gritty setting and so we all launched into our paintings. As expected, there was a bit of initial fear and fumbling because it is hard to break old habits or merely try new approaches but slowly things started to happen....and each persons' style found its way . I think style finds us and not the other way around, we just need to stop worrying about "finding" it and experiment, be playful with it and even try to go against it just for kicks, for example copying the masters. That is the role of workshops and classes, to exercise our "alternatives" so we can come back to our style.

Most importantly, I think we all had a lot of fun despite the light showers, blustery winds and graffiti artists in the alleys. Some of them even paused to admire something other than spray painted walls for a change.

The Arroyo Seco Re-discovery Art Walk

I think this is the fourth time I do the Discovery Tour along with the Mt. Washington group at the Ziegler House . The sales were ok ( the economy is certainly in everybody's mind) but this had to be the best displayed, better advertised and 'minglier' show ever. Everybody that showed up stayed a while and it was truly a very pleasant experience. Here is a pic of Chris Zambon proudly displaying her art with a very schoolgirlish pose.

After the show we all moved to Roderik Smith's house who was also featured in the Art Walk and where Linda, Rod's wife, treated us for dinner and Rod had all his recent pieces on display. If you think you have seen the Dodger Stadium or Catalina Island , you need to check out his amazing renditions of these two locales. He layers his oils thickly in a scintillating array of hues without ever loosing a strong sense of composition. You can check his artwork at www. rodericksmith.com.