TPAC Open Studios preview...at Tucson Jewish Community Center

Tucson Pima Arts Council's "Open Studios" event is scheduled to start in a little over a week, where Tucson's can traipse around town to visit local artists in their natural habitat (their studios). However, TPAC and the JCC have created a sampler of that exhibit, with each artists getting to show off one piece, all in the spacious and naturally lit gallery space of the JCC. I visited the preview show this afternoon, and made some notes about some pieces that caught my eye.  The best work, I feel, is the mixed media and the fabric work. For me, that's the most interesting and creative. Those who worked in traditional mediums (that is, painting and drawing) had very conventional and "safe" work. The interesting stuff, as I just mentioned, was in the area of mixed media. Let's check it out...

The first piece that caught my eye was Genni Pell's "Nectarines with blue jar". I guess I was drawn to it's contrast, and vivid color. It looks like it's painted with a palette knife on a Masonite board.  Although the colors are nice, it's a pretty conventional painting. This is just a competent, but very safe, painting of some objects from yesteryear. But great color!

Genii Pell's painting of a Chinese vase, Cezanne's cannon balls, and a fallen flower

Aside from Genni Pell's vivid color, the first thing that jumped out at me was Martin Shaver's mixed media piece, "Drilling Down". This piece looks like a bunch of broken drywall, adhered to pieces of wire screen mesh, and attached to a board. In my mind, any broken or disrupted surface looks interesting, and the bits of color in this mound of drywall crumbs make this piece more...colorful! So here I am, a sucker for bright color again! Martin, I really like that turquoise blue!  Actually, if you linger on this piece for a few moments, you can see that the color is distributed in a pleasing way. There's a big shape of blue at the bottom (already noted a moment ago), with a lighter turquise band at across the top. there's a big white area in the upper left of this photo, which is balanced by mass of grey and brown shapes in the middle and mid-right side of this picure. Although this piece obviously looks like a "mess", closer examination finds that there is actually some order to be found in all of this! Now, the question is, did the artist plan this composition? Or is it completely accidental? We may never know...

Shaver's "Drilling Down": from trash to treasure!

Jessie Shin turns in an interesting black and white piece called "Lucid Dreaming". He says it's made with ink on clayboard, but its got a soot-like appearance, that reminds me of the some of the effects you can get when working with charcoal and water. It's got a dark, overcast, spooking feeling. Nice creatiion of dark, atmospheric ettects here:

Jessie Shin's "Lucid Dreaming"

This picture is abstract enough, where it could be anything. I like simplicity of it, and I like the gritty, moody quality of it. This artist definitely captured a mood, and created a sense of mystery...not always an easy thing to do!

One piece I really enjoyed is a stoneware piece called "Large Vessel", by Roy Lizama. I like it because it reminds me of "The Thing" from the Fantastic Four: same orange, chunky, volcanic lizard skin vibe. Although the title claims that this piece is a vessel, I can't help seeing the fist of Ben Grimm (the "Thing"). Nice!

"The Thing" from The Fantastic Four: major psoriasis ((c) Marvel Comics)

Roy Lizama's "Large Vessel". (Better title: "It's Clobberin' Time!!")

Karen Firber has nice fabric piece in this show. She calls it "Greenhouse Effect". It's a quilt, with mixed media additions to it (such as several tiny beads, and glued-on plastic baubles). The green border on the left of this work is actually a print. Most of the other elements, however, are hand sewn. Various beads have been sewn in to create the impression of a field of flowers, and a bunch of tiny blue beads Firber uses to create a "sky". The title of this piece is spelled out with big letters up in a tree (illustrated on this quilt).

Karen Firber's "Greenhouse Effect"

On the same wall as "Greenhouse Effect" is another quilted pieces that is equally as interesting! It's called "Storm's Coming", by Trish Hastings-Sargeant.  This too is a quilted piece, and it depicts a landscape with gathering clouds. I really like how Hastings has used a variety of textures and colors to create her impression of a sky. It looks like art that you can cuddle!

Trish Hasting-Seargant's "Storm's Coming"

At the far end of the gallery is a bronze sculpture of three walruses sleeping on top of each other. The artist is Kate Iverson, and she calls the piece "Uupas (Sea Peaches)".

A pile o' bronze walruses...goo goo ga joob!

Kyle Johnston has a mixed media piece here (called "As Watchers Sleep"), that evokes shades of Jasper Johns or Joseph Cornell (I'm referring to the row of doll heads at the bottom of this piece). Artwork that incorporates found objects is often very interesting from a texture standpoint. Just as a design alone, this piece has a lot working for it. Johnston did a nice job with this. Nice!

Kyle Johnston's "As Watcher's Sleep"

Artist Kurt Brill has another one of his very large sculptures in this show. This one he calls "Lisa':

Kurt Brill's "Lisa": those feet are thrice the size of her head!

One of the truely surprising works in this preview exhibit was Patricia Bischof's "Springtime in Central Park". If this piece, she's glued a bunch of paper coils to a piece of painted plywood. This work vibrates and shakes at you, like a pair of "googly eyes" glasses. I admire her chutzpah with this one...

Bischof's jiggly paper coils glued to a board!

An artist who also uses paper to create sculpture (though in a different way) is Nick Georgiou, with his paper wall sculpture called "Raging Bull". This piece shows a bulls face made with discarded books.  His work is like a new take on a Picasso-esque vibe: you're simultaneously drawn to it, and repulsed by it. The character is ugly and scary looking, but Giorgious has created it all with rolls and stacks of paper. I'm impressed with Giorgiou's creativity, resourcefulness, and humor...but how'd you like this bull creature staring at you when you're trying to go to sleep at night?? (This piece would make a great Halloween mask!)

Nick Giorgiou's "Raging Bull"

The preview exhibit at the Tucson Jewish Community Center is definitely worth a visit. Like any open studios event, there's a wide variety of syles, approaches, and artistic polish. I like how the who Open Studio's event can be sampled here, all in one room. Save on gas! No need to drive all around town! And if you plan on going around town next week, this show here at the JCC is a great first stop.