WHAT'S YOUR COVER?

If you were a book, what would your cover look like? This was the question, more or less, posed to the fourth-grade students at Bay View Elementary in the course of producing the school's latest mural. Created by local artist Katharina Short, the mural, "Reading Broadens Your Horizons," celebrates books and the adventure of reading. Tina designed and painted the main image, but as usual at Bay View, the fourth graders got to participate.

This year, each student's challenge was to design and paint a book cover based on his or her life or family or hobbies, or anything else that popped into their minds. They worked on paperback-sized wooden panels in art class, and the panels were then fastened to the wall surrounding the central image, forming a border of fantasy book covers.

The mural isn't quite finished yet, but the faux "books" have just gone up, and they are completely enchanting! My camera malfunctioned the other day when I went to check it out (okay, I ran down the batteries before I could take the close-ups I wanted to share), but here are some of my favorite titles:

My Life As a Kid, by Jesselle; Why Davenport Rocks, by Isaiah; Me and My Crazy Family, by Kalela Hatfield; Sock Monkey Beach Baby, by Alyssa Pack; The Awesome Hamster, by Isaac Marquez; Life Of Hand, by Jacob Cardenas (featuring a riff on cartoonist Jim Phillips' famous surf hand); How To Become Rich and Famous in El Salvador, by Edward Alfaro. And these are just the ones I could scribble down in a few minutes. There are dozens more, all of them irresistibly illustrated, and so worth the time it takes to search out the mural on the Bay View campus. (Hint: it's way around the back, facing the playing field.)

Oh, to be in fourth grade again! (Seriously; I had a huge crush on my fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Sindak, at Hermosa View Elementary School, Hermosa Beach, but his thing was science, not art, unfortunately for me.) But boy, would I have loved to paint a book cover for this project! In fact I think I'll do it anyway, just for fun, and post it here. Anyone else who wants to create a vision of your life as a book cover, send it to me & I'll post yours too. In the meantime, run don't walk to Bay View and enjoy this new mural. Prepare to be beguiled!

"Day In the Bay," 2005

Btw, the tradition of an annual Bay View mural began in 2005, when the Home and School Club (spearheaded by parents and artists Lynn Guenther and Sandy Cherk) hired artist James Aschbacher (aka Art Boy) to design a mural project that would involve the fourth-graders. They wanted something to dress up the boring bunker-like wall that faced the intersection of Bay Street and Mission, and also let people know there was a school back there, behind the wall.

James envisioned "Day In the Bay," with an underwater theme, and invited every single fourth-grader to draw an undersea creature, which James then composed into a mural-sized design, offsite. As the mural went up, each student came out to paint his or her creation up on the wall. By way of a signature, each student left a handprint on the blue border around the central image—a tradition James has continued with the nine other elementary school murals he's painted with local kids since then.

PS: The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has a great website about local school murals. A little out of date, but still a fascinating overview.

ADVENTURES AT OPEN STUDIOS

In case you've forgotten how much creative energy is percolating around in our county, taking yourself off on the Open Studios Art Tour is a great way to fall in love with Santa Cruz all over again. Since Art Boy and I had last weekend "off" (he'll be open again for "Encore" next weekend), we spent Saturday and Sunday visiting other artists on the tour. Some are veterans we've been fans of forever, others are brand new discoveries (at least to us) that I can't wait to tell you about.

We got a jump on the weekend Friday night with a preview party at the home of dynamic mother-daughter duo Beth and Allison Mae Gripenstraw. Long beloved around town for her fun, festive bird and animal-print ceramic table settings, and her more recent series of whimsical watercolor paintings, Beth has now joined Allison in a new venture, Cold Heart Company. Heart-shaped hair clips, ceramic cocktail rings and resin tile bracelets in brightly painted patterns are the specialty of the online shop, along with an eclectic mix of lidded pots, trays, and paintings; red hearts, black ravens, peacocks, and poppies are among the recurring themes. Charming miniature ceramic tea sets (complete with itsy-bitsy sugar spoons) were also part of the OS display, as well as a selection of Allison's extreme stiletto high heels with a kick—hidden paintings under the instep (hearts, Dia de los Muertos, even the Frankenstein monster and his Bride). If you've ever been to Beth's house, you can imagine how spectacular it looked. "Alice in Wonderland" was the theme of the night, and if you know why a raven is like a writing desk, please do let her know ASAP!


Under blue and sunny weekend skies, we joined the crowd at the rambling Victorian homestead of pastel artist Mary Offerman and oil painter Lance Sims. The rustic setting (chickens, fruit trees, vegetable gardens) hidden in the heart of the Seabright area, is a delight, and the rural theme continues in Mary's warm, evocative pastel landscapes and still-lifes with fruit. My favorites are the rural villages in vibrant colors nestled like jewels in the green French countryside (where Lance and Mary have taught many painting and pastel workshops). And yes, they will be open for Encore weekend.

Across the street from Mary and Lance, we found printmaker Melissa West. Her medium is linoleum block prints in both open and limited editions, and her subjects include a fanciful series on martyred saints, like her winsome piece in the Art League show, "St. Christina the Astonishing." She also has a far more eerie series (in stark black-and-white with touches of blood red) based on that most spooky and suggestive literary genre, children's fairy tales. Her work comes in a variety of sizes, including some sweet little 1 1/2" x 3" original linos of cats and owls. Drop by next weekend and take a look.


It's always fun to visit the workshop/home of fabric sculptor Susan Else. Her house on Escalona Drive is absolutely amok with her lively quilted 3-D figures, caught in the act of scurrying about: they dance in the corners, lounge over the fireplace, even climb ladders in her various wall pieces. Her piece de resistance is a five-foot tall rotating Ferris Wheel (created in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Boardwalk), with her figures—parents, children, gawkers, necking lovers, camera-toting tourists— occupying every seat. And don't miss the giant fabric chessboard in her workroom. All the pawns on one side are babies; all the other pawns are stretching, preening cats. I was so taken with all those quilted kitties, I didn't even notice what kind of creatures the larger pieces are, so if you go check it out on Encore weekend, please do let me know!


And how is it that I've lived in Santa Cruz since dinosaurs roamed the earth, and never before crossed paths with Peggy Snider? Her hand-crafted ceramic sculptures are poetic, inspiring, wry and wonderful, from large, shamanistic totems (with mysterious faces, animal heads, moons, stars, haphazard stairways and intriguing doors) to elegant female figures cloaked by the sun, or by ocean waves, or dancing on the earth, to her smallest, most poignant little creatures. Wandering through Peggy's hilltop garden aerie at the end of Meder Street, you'll find work that celebrates community, the human spirit, and the rhythms of nature and the cosmos. The wise-woman faces with their clear, steady gaze that decorate so many of her pieces suggest the wisdom and healing of time.

I realized I'd seen one or two of her pieces in the sculpture garden at Sierra Azul down in Watsonville. But meeting Peggy for the first time and her delightful extended "family" of work made me a collector on the spot. Although Art Boy joked, "My wife wants to buy your cheapest piece," it wasn't the insanely reasonable price tag that drew me to my treasure; the little half-figure in a rough, matte white finish with turquoise highlights, unfurling its wings to the heavens, spoke to my heart. There are plenty of treasures left if you go see Peggy on Encore weekend, and don't miss Arin Duggins' beautiful beadwork jewelry on the way in.


Over at the Tannery, Fanne Fernow is showing an eclectic mix of vintage and new work. Long beloved around town for her big, bright, graphic paintings of dogs, houses, lips, even dancing salt-shakers, accompanied by wise and witty snippets of text, Fanne has segued into the far more demanding medium of encaustic. Her new work is all about color and form. Her visual mantras of monochromatic squares perforated with neat, even rows of tiny dots invite the contemplative gaze. In her companion "Monkey Mind" series, the patterns of dots swoop and swirl about through geometric shapes in beautiful, subtly shifting colors, like a hyperactive brain that can't rest. Fanne is showing both styles of work through Encore weekend, along with a recent series of Mary/Madonna icons. (Here's the one Art Boy and I fell in love with last year (above); she blesses our kitchen every day.)



It was after 4 p.m. on Saturday, with less than an hour to go in the event, before we made it over to see Katharina Short on Stanford Avenue. As always, it was a pleasure to stroll through her backyard garden with her detached, hobbit-house studio. Tina opted out of OS last year, busy with the raising of her twin boys, but she's back this year with lots of new work. In addition to her trademark large, winsome acrylic paintings of floating couples, families, gardens, and animals, she has some lovely large decorative pieces based on floral and seed motifs, as well as new, smaller work.

We've loved Tina's work for years, but, well, let's just say that part of the deal when you choose to make a living (and a life) as an artist and a freelance writer is resisting the urge to spend money. On this afternoon, however, when I came round a corner and found a small, sweet little triptych called "Life Boat," the urge became a lot more insistent. It pictures a couple nestled together under the stars in the central panel, a tiny house and decorative tree rooted to the earth on one side, and a little boat on the sea sailing off on life's adventure on the other. Art Boy liked it too, and the price was reasonable for its size, but a Libra and a Virgo do not make snap decisions, so we said our wistful goodbyes and headed out for one last studio.

At about ten minutes to 5, heading back across town from the West Side, Art Boy suggested we stop in to see if Tina still had the painting. It would make perfect karmic sense if she did not, we knew, since we're always advising our OS attendees to claim what they like (or at least put it on layaway) right away; chances are it won't be there if they come back later. Nor were we encouraged to see a little knot of visitors standing appraisingly before the wall where "our" painting still hung. But wait: they were looking at the beautiful bird painting above it! Art Boy obligingly took the bird painting off the wall and carried it over to another wall where the other collectors could get a better look; meanwhile, I stood in front of "Life Boat" the way a passenger might be dispatched to stand in the last parking space in a free lot downtown while the driver hastily maneuvers the car around.

Fortunately, no one challenged me. I divulged our plan to Aaron, Tina's husband, and when the other collectors had gone, Art Boy asked if Tina and Aaron would be interested in trading for an Aschbacher. To our delight, they said yes! To sweeten the deal, he offered to do a commission just for them, in exchange for "Life Boat." So now, they get to decide what they want in their personal Aschbacher, and we have a week (until they bring us the painting during our Encore weekend) to decide where it will live in our house.

Meanwhile, my Peggy Snider piece already has a home—on a square of turquoise tile above my kitchen sink, where it greets me every morning with a speculative rustling of its feathers.

ART BEATS

Art is a strange animal, the proverbial elephant perceived by an infinite number of blind viewers. (As envisioned in this great sculpture by local fabric artist Susan Else, "Bent Fable IV: The Blind Men and the Elephant.") We all have our private prejudices. Some people don't get realistic art, when a photo would do just as well. Others believe abstract art is the work of the devil. I was shocked to learn that a good friend of mine—who collects a lot of art—doesn't like figurative art. Why, she asks, would she want a picture of somebody she doesn't know in her house?

Me, I love paintings with human characters in them. I'm not much for static portraits, but I'll pick a pair of Chagall's floating lovers over—well, just about anything else. Two of our most popular local artists (judging from the way their studios are mobbed during Open Studios), Anna Oneglia and Katharina Short, are beloved by their legions of fans (including me) for their figurative art.




What I think people are looking for in these images are reflections of themselves. Not like a physical portrait, a painted figure that looks like them, but something in the narrative of the piece—human figures caught in some simple moment of living, or else navigating a wonderful dreamscape—that captures what the viewer perceives as his or her true inner spirit.

At one of Art Boy's earliest Open Studios, he showed a painting called "Esta Casa esta Benedicto," in which a vaguely hominoid, vaguely female character (with his trademark big hair) is dancing in a room with a dresser, a large potted flower, and a kitchen table set for a meal with a cat prowling across it. I loved it so much, I was secretly hoping no one would buy it. I was doing pretty well steering people away from it—until a woman marched over, took one look, and cried "That's me! That's my kitchen! That's my cat!" It was obviously her painting, and I just had to get over it.

That's what we're looking for. Maybe the figure is blue with hair like a Brillo pad, but there's something in the essence of the piece that prompts us to cry, "That's me!"

(Above: "Clouds Rest" by Katharina Short, and "From the Sea #2 by Anna Oneglia.)

ART vs. SPACE

Dropped in to the Open Studios Preview Show at the Art League yesterday. It's absolutely essential viewing for any intrepid art lover planning to take the OS Art Tour this weekend (or the following two weekends, through October 17). But I have to say, with well over 300 artists participating in this year's even, the exhibit is even more daunting than usual. Every kind of art media is represented in that small space: jewelry, sculpture, fabric, metalwork, paintings prints, photography, glass, handmade musical instruments, ceramics, woodwork, you name it. Yes, it's amazing to have so many skilled artists right here in our county, but a person can reach maximum input overload very quickly.

The good news is, the Art League has finally installed air conditioning! (Yay!) It's especially welcome on these roasting Indian Summer days (our consolation prize with a vengeance this year, for not having had much of an actual summer). But the bad news is the show feels crammed to bursting. Granted, with so many artists, space is at a premium, but in some places the pieces are stacked up three or four deep on a wall; one label is so high up, you'd have to be Yao Ming to read it. In another overly congested area, one label is affixed to a light switch. One small piece of 3-D wall art doesn't even make it onto the flat side of a wall; it's stuck on the outer edge of a wall, like an afterthought.

Believe me, I know how hard the crack OS Committee and its army of volunteers works to get this exhibit (and the event) up and running. But it seems like one more pass could have been made by the hanging committee before the show was opened to the public to make sure each piece of art had a little more room to breathe.

None of which should discourage potential OS Art Tourists from visiting the show. There is absolutely nothing like seeing examples of the work in real life to help you plot a sane course through this extraordinary event. Work in the exhibit is grouped more or less according to region, to help you decide on destination areas to visit. So by all means, see the show; just remember to breathe deep, stay focused, and thank your favorite gods for the AC!

Another great way to see local art is on the monthly First Friday Art Tour, coming up this Friday (October 1). Since the ratio of artists in town to designated gallery space is about 8.6 thousand to one, the art community is always trying to find new spaces to show the work. This event, which began a few years back as a 12-Stop program downtown, involving a few cafes, commercial hallways, and a rickety bus, has blossomed into a busy and popular monthly celebration. It stretches from the Eastside of Santa Cruz across downtown to Harvey West Park, The Tannery, UCSC, even Davenport. Alongside traditional venues like the Art League, and MichaelAngelo, Felix Kulpa, and The Mill Galleries, you'll find art on display in clothing stores, hair salons, tea shops, design shops, wine bars, banks and brokerage firms, even Camouflage. The bus is gone, but you can probably use the exercise as you sip, nibble, and schmooze your way across town.

(Above: "Three Painters: Figures + Form" Artwork by Tom Maderos, Barbara Downs, and Claire Thorson, at the MichaelAngelo Gallery. First Friday Reception, Oct 1, 6—8:30 p.m.)