Art View –The Dog Days of Summer
By Jim Christiansen
It’s the Dog Days of Summer, even if billed as the Central California Art Association Autumn Art Festival, and artist Eva Hass making the best of it, with “Dog in Yellow Sweater” as the Best of Show Award at Mistlin Gallery. Chella won four awards in this juried event. Bill Harris first in photography with Bicycle homage “Coral.” Other winners include Anna Barber, Nicole Slater, Aaron Buttram, Brian Paris, Randy Crimmel, Karen Kingsley. Drop in at Mistlin Gallery to look up other winners, and the rest of the show. Diane Sorenson won the “People’s Choice” award, for “Wanna Play?” one her 3d Dragon constructions. Show will be up for September Art Walk, and that’s a good time to check in with Mistlin Gallery, Chartreuse Muse and Dragonfly Art for Life for Fall Classes.
Michael Haack is the featured artist at Barkin Dog Grill. His very involved drawings take a while to look at and already pretty popular with patrons. Take an hour or so for lunch to really see where these inventive machines come from before the show comes down. Patrick Barr is up for September Art Walk. He leads classes at Dragonfly Art for Life, is known for his caricature and cartoon portraits. Get a map for Art Walk at Downtown Improvement District office. www.modestoartwalk.com<www.modestoartwalk.com> This month I ran into Amber Marie Tomson, one of my favorite local artists, featured at Preservation Coffee.
A favorite spot has been the sidewalk artists set up at 11th and J. These artists set up a one night show each month, with a quick set up, high hopes and talent, in a spot that includes Tresetti’s, Preservation Coffee, and near Beads of Contentment. After posting some photos on Facebook, I was reminded to put a shout out to those dedicated artists actually out on the sidewalk corner, where I don’t always get the names, or clear photos of their work in the dimming light. One, who can be seen with her vibrant, black light friendly paintings is Alana Juanita Mayhew, and we’ve featured some of her paintings in previous columns without attribution. She’s going places, including planned shows in San Francisco January 2, at the Spark Art Gallery in the Castro, after recently showing at the Summer Spark Art Park Celebration. Alana will be doing some classes near downtown soon. Other Artist regulars are Done Lee, Nicklous Hunt, Irene Gomez.
Amy Anna Soto noted an event, “Building for the Future” September 14 at 800 Rose Avenue, 11 to 4 pm. This is a vendor event, includes art, jewelry, hand made and other merchandise in the mix. Kristy Moore let me know that the Black HeArts Market at Queen Bean is on hiatus this month, to resume in October. Irene Hooper-Gomez let me know that Third Thursday this month will coincide with Artists also showing at McHenry Village for the annual “Taste of McHenry Village” event. Artists will be over by the wine booth, similar timing to Art Walk downtown. If you’d like to show either at McHenry Village, or as one of the sidewalk artists, look up Irene on Facebook for more information.
Don’t miss the End of Summer Art Bash at the Tri-Chromatic Gallery on September 7 from 2 – 7 pm with some cool one of a kind offerings, merch packs, lessons and so much more. Don’t miss out on the variety of art we have in our community.
