TASTY

As we all know, life goes better with art. And everything goes better with chocolate!

This weekend, why not combine the two? get ready for the 7th Annual Art & Chocolate art studio tour in beautiful mid-town Live Oak.

At this popular Mother's Day Weekend event, a dozen artists in the Live Oak area throw open their doors to you, The Public, and invite you in to see what's new and exciting in their creative lives.

To sweeten the deal, free chocolate will be available at every stop on the self-guided tour!

Equally tasty artwork on display ranges from the watercolors of Amy Stark and the pastel landscapes of Lou Renner and Paul Rodrigues to the oil paintings of Maggie Renner Hellman, Aaron Johnson, and Janet Ferraro.

Germanic rote (Lyre) by Ron Cook

From abstract stone sculpture by Mike McClellan and whimsical clay work from Carol DePalma to black-and-white, infrared photography by Kevin Osborn.

Andy Orsini is showing hand-crafted fine wood furniture. And new to the event this year, Ron Cook is showing his hand-carved, medieval-inspired folk instruments and furniture.

In fact, we're lucky enough to be hosting Ron this year at our Live Oak studio, where Art Boy (aka James Aschbacher) will have some fun new mixed-media paintings on display

(That's his New Power Spot above.  What does the title mean? Ask any cat lover!)

Studios are open this weekend, May 10 and 11, from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is free! For a map and a preview of the artists involved, drop by the Art & Chocolate website.

Then grab your mom, or the art lover of your choice, and enjoy!

Did I mention there'll be chocolate???

SWEET on ART

Does your mom crave art? Or chocolate? How about combing the best of both addictions this Mother's Day weekend by taking Mom out on the 6th annual Art & Chocolate art tour.

This is the popular event where a dozen local artists in the Live Oak/Pleasure Point area of mid-county open their studio doors to the public.

Not only is there a staggering amount of original art on view—landscape, abstract, figurative and whimsical painting, stone and ceramic sculpture, art glass—but each participating artist will also provide free chocolate to all intrepid art tourists. Such a deal!

This year's A&C artists include abstract painter Daniel S. Friedman, ceramicists Geoffrey Nicastro (abstract and functional) and Carole DePalma (whimsical figures and colorful mosaics), landscape painters Maggie Renner Hellmann, Lou Renner, Amy Stark, and Paul Rodrigues, figurative painter and sculptor Richard Bennett, abstract stone sculptor Mike McClellan, and painter Janet Ferraro, who specializes in horses and the natural world.

As usual, Art Boy will be on board; that's his For the Love of Apples up top. New this year is that we're sharing our studio space with the phenomal hand-blown art glass creations of Jim and Connie Grant. Here's a vase in their Silver Ribbon series. Pretty cool, huh?

All the artist are located within a two-mile radius of each other in Live Oak/Pleasure Point, so it's a fairly low-impact, high-reward kind of event. Admission (and chocolate) is free, so grab your mother, your offspring, or the loved one of your choice and check it out!

For more info, to download a tour map or find a list of outlets carrying the free A&C brochure, click here.

ONE SWEET DEAL

Any time you get to spend with your mother is its own reward, of course. But suppose you and Mom got to spend Mother's Day Weekend visiting the homes, studios, and garden of a dozen local artists? And what if there was chocolate involved?

Welcome to the 5th Annual Art & Chocolate studio tour going on this weekend in beautiful midtown Live Oak. Twelve artists working in a variety of media will participate in the event: painters Richard Bennett, Maggie Renner-Hellman, Amy Stark and Paul Rodrigues, mixed-media artist James Aschbacher (aka Art Boy), Lou Renner, and Janet Ferraro, abstract painter Daniel S. Friedman, ceramic sculptors Geoffrey Nicastro and Carole DePalma, stone sculptor Mike McClellan, and woodworker Ron Day.

And in honor of Mom (and to keep your energy from flagging), each studio will be offering chocolate to visiting art lovers throughout the weekend. Hours are 11am to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday May 12 & 13). Click here to download a map, or a color brochure, or visit the websites of participating artists. Admission is free!

So make a date with your mom, step-mom, surrogate mom, mother-in-law, kids, partner, or the loved one of your choice and plan to make a day of it. I'll be baking, and hope to see you there!

(Above: Gardening as the World Goes By, by James Aschbacher.)

WESTSIDE (AND OTHER) STORIES

Looks like gorgeous weather in store for this month's First Friday Art Tour. Downtown art venues will be hopping, as usual, from the Elijah Pfotenhauer show at Motiv to the Charles Prentiss exhibit at Artisans (those are Charles' luscious aloes, on the left); from paintings by Russel Brutsché at India Joze, to the Barbara Lawrence exhibit at Michaelangelo Gallery, to the multi-artist, mixed media LGBT Community Art & Pride show at Louden Nelson Center.

For something a little off the well-trodden art path, check out the art installation at Saffron & Genevieve by book artist Jody Alexander. Titled "The Odd Volumes of Ruby B.," the installation at the back of the store purports to be "the living and working space of fictional character Ruby B.," and features a variety of reconstituted books, wall hangings and various objets d'art crafted from textile, thread, and photo collages.

This month, there's even an opportunity to make your own 3-minute First Friday movie, the top three of which will be screened next week at the Santa Cruz Film Festival (details here).

And if you haven't already seen it (or even if you have; I'm planning to go again) don't miss the Big Creek Pottery show, going into its second month at the Museum of Art & History. Not only is this exhibit bursting with functional ceramics—vivid, playful, witty, and unique—from students and masters alike (that's a saucy little 1977 pitcher from Maestro John Glick, above), the show is also a time capsule of Santa Cruz cultural life in the 1970s, featuring 140 vintage photos from the heyday of Bruce and Marcia McDougal's fabled Big Creek Pottery School up Swanton Road. Drop in around 5:30 pm, and meet the MAH's brand spanking new Executive Director, Nina Simon.

But there's also some extra cool First Friday stuff going on on the west side. The R. Blitzer Gallery in the old Wrigley Building is hosting a massive show called EDGE: Art on the Westside. Curated by bronze sculptor Lila Klapman, the show features 16 local artists, all of whom live and work on the westside of town, including Barbara Downs, Andrea Rich, Jamie Abbott, Hildy Bernstein, Gloria Alford, Roy Holmberg, Andrew Purchin, and Susana Arias, among many others. Work includes painting, ceramics, steel sculpture, woodcuts, and various mixed-media, so there'll be plenty to see!

Then hike around to the other side of the Wrigley Building and trot upstairs to the Digital Media Factory, for the World Premiere of the pilot episode of Junk Art Scramble. Five weeks in the making, and countless hours of video footage later, Santa Cruz's own home-grown reality show, art competition, and experiment in creative green ecology is ready to be unveiled. (Read all about it here.) Will Team Cabrillo or Team Tannery walk away with the prize? Find out when highlights from the pilot episode air at 6 p.m., and at 8 p.m., Friday evening at the DMF. As an extra bonus, the art structures created by these two enormously talented teams will be on display as well, so prepare to be amazed. (And while you're there, check out the cool DMF facility itself, the best-kept secret in Santa Cruz.)

Need more of an art fix than even First Friday can provide? Come to beautiful midtown Live Oak this Mother's Day weekend, for the fourth annual Art & Chocolate Art Studio Tour. 12 neighborhood artists in nine venues will open their studios to the public 11 am to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday, for this free event. What's the best part? Free chocolate will be available at every single venue on the tour!

Participating artists include abstract painter Beth Shields, figurative painter Richard Bennett, ceramic sculptors Geoffrey Nicastro and Carole DePalma, landscape painters Maggie Renner Hellman, Lou Renner, Amy Stark, and Paul Rodrigues, stone sculptor Mike McClellan, painter/collagist Myra Eastman, Janet Ferraro, painter of horses, and James Aschbacher, aka Art Boy. (Um, we haven't figured out what his painting style is called, but "fun" and "whimsical" most often spring to mind, as you can see by his "Cat Juggling," above.)

All nine studios are within a mile of each other here in Live Oak, for your viewing and sampling pleasure. So treat your mom, your kids, your sweetie, your BFF, or anyone else (including yourself) to an afternoon of dynamic art and tasty chocolate to satisfy your deepest inner cravings. (Click here for maps and info.)