Art View By Jim Christiansen
Here at the Queen Bean, Art View is thankful to have wifi and able to send in this month’s column late for deadline, and still cover what’s coming up for November. Sort of the way artists have a habit of last minute entries into shows and our own Stanislaus County Artist Open Studio Tour. By the time we come out with the December Modesto View, we will be past the December 1 deadline for any artist, any media, to enter the 2014 Artist Open Studio event. $25 entry fee, gets your studio, name, contact information on the official map, and invitation to the public to visit your work. You also have option to enter the Purchase Award competition where if selected you get paid for an art piece to be given away by raffle during the Open Studio. There will be a preview show at Gallo Center, and the event is April 12 and 13.
So, if you are an artist, know an artist, get your application in before the next Modesto View comes out. On the official website, you can pay your fees by paypal, fill the form online, or use our contact info and email, to get a form mailed to you, or look for them at local Stanislaus County Gallery. Open Studio is an initiative of the Stanislaus County Travel and Tourism Roundtable, and open to any artist who resides or works, displays in our County. In the previous three Open Studio weekends, the maps have featured artists in Modesto, Turlock, Oakdale, Riverbank, Hughson, Escalon, Manteca, Waterford, Ceres, and we’re hoping for expanded coverage in Patterson and Newman, where the Del Puerto Artists often featured the same weekend in Patterson Repertory Theater’s Art and Wine Gala. We’ve had artists from Sonora and Merced and Stockton show where they may split studio or gallery space in our area.
The email is openstudio.stanislaus@gmail.com The Web Site with downloadable forms or online application is http://stanislausaos.wordpress.com ENTER today!
The November Third Thursday Downtown Modesto Art Walk is November 21, not to be confused with Thanksgiving the following week. You can plan your trip in advance from the website or get a printed map available at many of the shops and businesses downtown www.modestoartwalk.com<http://www.modestoartwalk.com>
I was at Crow Trading last month where we had a good crowd, many on their way to see the Khmer Youth of Modesto dance performance in the Cambodian Culture in America display last month. Various spots have music, or other performers and art that aren’t otherwise noted on the map. Third Thursday happens all year around. Good time to get your holiday shopping started. The Mistlin Gallery “home for the Holidays” members show opens this month.
The California Arts Council officially announced the recipients of their Artists in Schools grants last month. The Central California Art Association will work with students from the Fremont Open Plan Elementary School in Modesto to acquire an overall understanding of the elements of visual art and their applications. Through examples, directed activities and reflection, students will learn the vocabulary and applications of the elements using a variety of media including pencil, charcoal, watercolor, pastel and papier-mache. Grant awarded was $4,350. This program is part of the C.L.A.S.S. program headquartered at Mistlin Gallery.
Doing the Harvest Festival I had a student friend about nine ask me if my Jesters painting was “cubism.” I told her that may be close, as some call my work “abstract expressionism,” but that sort of conversation got me to ask her who her favorite artist is. “Picasso!” she said. So, I got to surprise her and her mom, that there are real Picasso works at the Carnegie Arts Center, and pretty sure they got to the show. This is what is fun writing this column, showing on Art Walk. You meet new artists.
