art with no pretty pictures…

 

 

Today I took a trek into the city with my sculptor friend Jonna Ramey to ArtMrkt San Francisco at Fort Mason. Her primary motivation was to see what galleries are presenting and I was along for the ride! It was incredibly stimulating and enlightening. I chose to not photograph anything and frankly thought those who did (mostly with smartphones) were missing out seeing and studying the art with their eyes in real time.  Another bonus was just to look at art without identifying publicly as an artist. Perhaps what surprised me the most was how much narrative and (gasp!) sensibility shocking work was present.  I have long wanted to create more narrative work but have worried about the market for it.  No worries…

My favorite works were as follows:

Brenda Mallory –sculpts with waxed cloth, nuts, bolts, welded steel . Stunning work and we agreed you’d have to buy all three pieces!

Chris Roberts Antieau– fabric applique with hand-painted frames. These were wonderful primitive/folk art style ‘quilts’ with unbelievable language stitching.  The gallery owned by the artist’s son is in New Orleans.

Scott Hove –acrylic and mixed media on wood. His work of cakes and guns reflects the relationship between the beautiful and the brutal….such as Chocolate Mint Massacre. It was both shocking and intriguing.

Rogelio Manzo– oil, image transfer, silk, resin substrate. These pieces had a haunting feeling which just drew me in further.

Ian Berry– denim collage…incredible!

Creativity Explored– outsider art. I was mesmerized by the handwritten TV schedule by Daniel Green

Carolyn Meyer– oil painter– She doesn’t use brush, only trowel. Normally I am not a big fan of big glops of oil paint but this work was truly stunning! Of course familiar SF street scenes made it all the more gorgeous!

We stopped at BooKoo in Mill Valley for Vietnamese street food on the way home…which was fabulous!

A change of scenery, a great day and I’m inspired!