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Gallery 90277/ 8
Friends of Redondo Beach Arts
Artwork by Jean Shultz
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PAIRCorresponding
ART that is matched
for use together, regarded as
ONE EXPERIENCE.
Curator BEAUTY 2
Nina Zak Laddon Laura Leigh
Scott Meskill
UNDER CURRENT 4
Judy Herman
Jean Shultz
POETICA 6
L. Aviva Diamond
Aimee Mandala
JAZZY 8
Astrid Francis
Sarajo Frieden
PORTRAIT 10
Claudia Kazachinsky
Diane Reeves
KINTSUGI 12
Paul Anderson
Mike Saijo
ACCEPTANCE 14
Bob Francis
Meghan Quinn
GATHERING 16
Dellis Frank
Vojislav Radovanovic'
1 BEAUTY
Laura Leigh
Scott Meski
By Georgette Gantner
The concept of beauty is subjective and varies according to your perspective, shaped by experience, evolving into wisdom. " What delights in visible beauty is the invisible", " Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them", " There is something beautiful about taking risks". Art is all about risk.
Through her work, we live vicariously through Laura Leigh' s desire for rest. In " Solitaire", " Variations on the Word Sleep", and " Sleep Stunned Sheets", her subjects are somber, serene, subdued - sleepy! There is beauty in their tranquility. Laura is an insomniac, and she conveys her deepest wish of getting a good night' s sleep through her art. She likes dichotomy. The partial covering of the woman' s mouth in " Into Rust", conveys society' s desire to censure women while a hurricane rages in the background. " The Inescapable Experience of the Color Mauve" presents a pensive girl but represents the anguish in the Middle East.
Laura' s medium of choice is alcohol ink which pools easily when applied to a synthetic, non- porous surface, making it difficult to form desired shapes. Nevertheless, she enjoys the unpredictability and " wildness" of the ink that creates patterns and textures, lights and darks, conflict and resolution. Her desire is to paint abstracts, but for now, the Muse is taking her elsewhere. Laura' s subjects are lone women because, like them, she enjoys her alone time. There is beauty in solitude. It creates contemplation and self- reflection. And rest.
Her mother is a bee- keeper living alone in the mountains high above Arizona, which has made Laura a lover of nature, and a friend to local wild animals, and bees, and this is reflected in her art. But, Laura enjoys her husband and son too much to experience that much solitude.
Scott Meskill makes it impossible not to respond to his work. An emotional whirlwind, it's tragic, it's melancholy, it' s pleading, it' s poignant. It' s beautiful. Is he a prognosticator of doom, or does he possess a higher sensitivity to pathos and suffering in the human condition? Is he an empath? Can he predict the future? His work is profound, or perhaps profoundly tragic, because the world is a tragic place, and he' s a visual reporter of it. As the narrative flows through him, he seems to become trapped inside his sculptures, managing only to escape through a portal to his next sculpture, or his next show. As in Laura' s work, his characters often struggle alone.
Forced Reproduction", is an insightful comment on society' s oppression of women, then and now. Clearly despondent, a naked pregnant woman stands alone, her head and posture drooping from the weight of the upcoming unwanted responsibility. " Oh it' s the Last Time", depicts a caged woman with amputated options, as she gazes out the open door to an unknown destination and no way to get there. Yet in both scenarios, somehow, there is beauty in their grace. Expectation is offered in Moral Development. This piece fell apart in the kiln, yet Scott saw its potential and assembled it into a triumphant hero. He explained that damaged crockery is tossed into the " boneyard", but Scott sees beauty in the rehabilitated. The repaired man stabs his elongated arm violently into the air, demanding recognition and salvation, his face still clouded with doubt.
Like Laura, Scott' s art possesses a dichotomy. While his figures stand in repose, they radiate an energy to move, and to fight for something better. Hope looms in his work, and there is beauty in hope. Tomorrow, after all, is another day.
Both artists channel their sadness through their art, guided by a melancholy Muse, producing relief and release, providing a troubled public something with which to ponder and relate. We have made it to the other side, not unscathed, but intact nonetheless. There is beauty in conquest. 2 M1rr,"
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3 UNDER CURRENT
Judy Herman
Jean Shultz
By Jason Jenn
To view the works of both Jean Shultz and Judy Herman is to be swept away in a journey of unexpected revelations within their intricately crafted compositions. Initially captivating with their alluring appearance, Shultz and Herman employ a palette of soothing colors and a painterly approach to the design of their works that utilize monoprinting and photographic techniques, imbuing them with captivating sophistication. However, beneath this initial allure lies a depth that demands scrutiny to unearth all the myriad layers they contain. Much like the under current of their thematic pairing, there are influences hard at work beneath the surface that pull the viewer in different directions. It becomes a curious delight and a provocative game to parse out meaning and make identifiable connections in both the abstract forms and recognizable aspects they proffer. Shultz and Herman create their works in vastly different ways that possess commonalities within their uniquely stunning results.
Shultz' s contribution utilizes a camera- less technique of monoprinting, where singularly unique images are imprinted into the surface of the paper through the artist' s sensitive hand. Through meticulous manipulation of this process, Shultz orchestrates a symphony of colors, shapes, and textures that dance across the surface of her works. Shultz' s technique leaves plenty of mystery to " how" exactly they are made, invoking a sense of wonder in the " what" is made from it all. They are delicate works that possess a strong sense of order and harmony as if each element has been carefully curated to evoke a specific mood or emotion. In pieces like Sunshine" and " Woodland," vibrant hues meld together forming kaleidoscopic landscapes that pulse with energy and life. Each work is like a Rorschach test feeding the mind with images, inviting the viewer to lose themselves in the hypnotic rhythms of her compositions, where each viewing yields new interpretations.
Herman' s work in the exhibition resides in the realm of photography, which requires a camera to record the light onto an image sensor where it can then be manipulated digitally. The images capture what the eye sees, but she delivers something other. While her compositions often feature familiar figures and settings, Herman' s skill lies in her ability to weave these elements into entirely new narrative landscapes. The resulting images hover between reality and imagination, evoking the ephemeral quality of dreams. In one piece, an elderly figure strolls along the beach, surrounded by ghostly apparitions of children and fish, while an oversized peach rests nearby defying conventional scale. In another piece, figures come and go walking in a double exposure of purple framed by a green and yellow arbor. In another, human forms merge with architectural elements and natural surroundings, blurring the boundaries between the tangible and abstract.
A white square is reflected in a window, becoming a monolith of mystery while wispy pine branches in the background loom like ethereal attendants. In another, a profile of a woman stares back at the viewer, her face covered in the words of a newspaper article, which upon closer inspection deals with the challenges women face in the art world - an aptly pointed message.
Despite their divergent techniques, Shultz and Herman share a common bond in their collage- like approach to artmaking, each piece a testament to the power of imagination and creative expression. As viewers navigate their works, they too are swept away by the currents of inspiration that fueled the artists' visions. In a world where certainty is elusive and ambiguity reigns supreme, the art of Shultz and Herman serves as an invitation to get lost while exploring the endless depths of the human imagination. 4 2
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Judy Herman Woodland
Jean Shultz
PORTRAIT
Claudia Kazachinsky
Diane Reeves
By Judy Herman
Claudia Kazachinsky' s approach to portraiture could not be more different from Diane Reeves', and not just because one wields a paintbrush and the other a camera. In the painter Kazachinsky' s work, people ( women in this case) are front and center. These are not environmental portraits in which the subjects show off their workplaces, homes or property. Kazachinsky' s boldly colored mixed media works on paper frame women' s faces in tight close- ups. Backgrounds are often a way to add even more color and pattern to richly colored works rather than clues to who these people are. Most of the women lock eyes with the viewer, holding us with their frank gaze. Just one, the fiery redheaded " Vintage Girl," gives us a coy sidelong glance.
If I can get a good expression in the eyes it is a successful portrait," Kazachinsky says. If the eyes are window of the soul, we are peering directly into the souls of these women. " Blue Eyes," despite the chickadees chirping amid berry branches over her shoulder and the playful pattern of dots in the background, has a softly melancholy look to those eyes, echoed by the only slightly upturned corners of her mouth.
Who are these women? Kazachinsky says, " My inspiration can come from almost anywhere but I do love using old photos of my own family for my portraits."
Sometimes the backgrounds are more than compositional devices. The beautiful young woman in " Broken" is painted over odd scraps of torn paper collaged onto the watercolor sheet. Ragged edges show through the face. This is Kazachinsky' s grandmother, a refugee from Poland who lost her mother at age two. Torn from her homeland and from her mother, she never regained a sense of wholeness.
Though, as " Broken" shows, there may be hidden depths in Kazachinsky' s work, Diane Reeves is more mysterious in her approach. She is a photographer who turns the lens on herself, but unlike the selfie- stick wielding self- promoters on social media, she plays a bit of hide- and- seek with the camera. Although throughout her career she has made sure to produce at least one self-portrait annually, curator Nina Zak Laddon selected early works from the late ' 90s for this show. In only one, " Self Portrait in Red and Green," does Reeves look at the viewer directly. Even so, her gaze is softened by a slight blur. Seated on the floor, she languidly rests an arm on an upraised knee and crooks the other arm over her head. Her bare feet and hands are in sharp focus though not her eyes.
Color is another point of contrast between the artists. Kazachinsky revels in color. Her women sport deep purple or fire-engine red hair. Reeves' colors are muted. There' s a sly humor in the title " Self Portrait in Red and Green." Reeves is dressed in black in the black- and- white photograph subtly tinted with bronze toner and a bit of oil paint. " Red and Green" refers to a touch of colored pencil in the mid- tone shadows.
Reeves explains, " In the beginning color work was too expensive so I became a black and white photographer. The smell of the chemistry and watching prints ' come up' in the developer were magical to me. But I still wanted to add color. Not regular color but the colors the world should be. So by using oil paints and pencils to color the prints, my world became much larger." Reeves' ideal colors are subtle. " Self Portrait of the Artist Swimming Through Her Own Rainbow" shows Reeves from above, apparently swimming through five separate images. The " rainbow" consists of delicate tinges of aqua, brownish red and yellow pooling in the various frames.
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Blue Eyes Self Portrait in Red and Green
Claudia Kazachinsky Diane Reeves
Reeves states: " My self portraits have always been about where I am mentally, physically and artistically at that particular time. So they not only show what I physically look like but also what my art looks like. I work in series, which means I am exploring a particular idea until I get to the end. So, I have done self-portraits along the way, always in the style, or question that I am exploring." 11 KINTSUGI
Paul Anderson
Mike Saijo
Broken Art
By Richard Sherer
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of reassembling a broken ceramic object using gold trim to create a more beautiful object than it was before it broke. For Mike Saijo and Paul Anderson, it' s a method of combining fragments of images in ways to produce new and interesting pieces of visual art. In addition, each artist uses a different technique, resulting in unique and fascinating images.
Boyle Heights native Mike Saijo' s unique approach to images and art began in high school. " I was struggling to figure out how to make art that' s unique and says something. A friend of mine gave me a Bible that belonged to his father in World War II. His father served in a Japanese- American regiment. I was attending a Japanese church at the time.
I had a really thick book of images that included a 2- inch by 3- inch photo of( future United States Senator) Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in his combat uniform during the war, before he lost his arm and leg. I enlarged it to match the pages of the Bible. Kinko' s was just opening up, and I was familiar with copy machines. There were certain inherent rules, certain parameters to follow. I was fascinated by how easy you could produce images. I enlarged the photo to fit on the Bible pages." The resulting image of a soldier superimposed over the Bible pages became a cornerstone for Mike' s creativity. " I have been using pages from books for the last 20 years," he adds. " I find old books and tear the pages out of binding and lay them out sequentially. Then I find images that fit the layout. I use a Xerox copy machine for printing the image on the page of the book. The juxtaposition of the images is the meaning of the work. That to me is Kintsugi."
Paired with Mike Saijo is Paul Anderson, who, in some ways, appears to be the exact opposite. Born in the Midwest and raised in the Minneapolis area, he attended college in Chicago, and became an engineer. He moved to Southern California in 1970.
I had been dabbling in photography since I was a teenager," he says. " I retired in 2017 from my job as an engineer. I took a new look at it as a challenge, I wanted to see what I could do with my software skills from engineering. In 2018, I started playing around with it, and I' ve been developing ever since.
In broad terms, I take one source image, break it up into lots of mosaic tiles of different sizes. Then I use an algorithm to reassemble them approximately where they belong, but not exactly. The tiles are stacked in multiple planes." In other words, a visual form of Kintsugi.
My approach keeps changing. Because I' m not trained as an artist, I use critique groups to keep learning.
I' ve gone to Paul' s Photo in Torrance for a lot of classes. One series even started as a class project. I' ve attended critique groups at the Irvine Fine Arts Center and at a coffee shop in Torrance. As a result, my technique. keeps improving. About once a year I come up with a new capability, and I rewrite my software. I use Photoshop and a 3- D modeling program called Blender. That's a big game changer." 12 R ' - VT
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But Anderson stresses that the software is a tool, not a substitute for creativity. " These pieces take two to four weeks. It' s not just pushing a button. There' s a lot of adjusting and tweaking. There' s a lot of human intervention, knowing what photos might work to create these finished products." Having said that, he adds that he may explore the use of neural networks in the future.
13 GATHERING
Dellis Frank
Vojislav Radovanovic'
By Genie Davis
Looking at the mixed media work of Vojislav Radovanovic' and Dellis Frank, the first word that comes to mind is joy. Their joy touches the heart, mind, and spirit, elevating all three.
Despite their disparate techniques, both artists exude that sense of profound joyousness. Regardless of subject, there is joy in their creative process, in their color palettes, in their use of materials, in sharing their art with the viewer. Their joy-filled versatility and propensity to experiment with any medium shapes art which radiates a palpable sense of wonder.
Radovanovic' s richly beautiful, surreal birds with human faces are mysterious, witty, and haunting. There are stunning flowers and mysterious objects such as a key or a discarded chess piece positioned around his avian images. He often features wild plants such as weeds along with more recognizable garden flowers.
His careful detailing and uniquely fresh elements merge to shape images that compel the viewer to study each piece, which serve as their own visual fairytale. Indeed, the artist' s mixed media paintings here tell fantastical visual stories that weave a timeless and alchemic narrative.
Infused with poetry, spirit, allegory, and playful magic, Radovanovic' s richly wrought winged messengers portend a new way of navigating the world around us, one we are encouraged to accept and embrace, even if its embodiment is outside our personal realms of experience. Within his extensive body of work, the artist creates sculptures, installations and wall art, the latter of which is shared in this exhibition. His subjects manifest magical realism regardless of medium. Touching on both the celestial and the prosaic, he lets " fly" his own winged vision.
Frank composes in sculptural form for this exhibition, using a variety of highly textured textile components to shape free- standing images that evoke'— and are named for — sunflowers, fern, coral, and the cosmic.
Her Strange Bouquets series explores the soul of her imagination through beautiful but alien floral shapes.
Otherworldly and dream- like, they charm the viewer while defying all expectations. While often working in unusual and diverse materials, this specific series unfolded from an unexpected gift of ceramic balls which served as the impetus to imagine these unusual bouquets of blossoms.
The artist skillfully employs found objects such as the ceramic balls, bottles, and straws, wrapping them in her signature lustrous, vibrant fibers. She refers to her use of these repurposed materials as the " Greening of Fine Art." While undeniably the flora of fantastical realms, they nonetheless invite the viewer to use her surreal, electrically vivid palette as a jumping- off place, encouraging a heightened perception of nature' s beauty and its role in informing human creativity. As she shapes her assemblages, Frank reveals that she sees her art as " growing" before her eyes— and those of the viewer. Indeed, each piece unfolds with an aliveness that is palpable and exciting.
Both Frank and Radovanovic' weave works that are unconventional, edged with the surreal, and shimmering with the sublime. Paired, one can almost feel a vibrational increase in the artistic energy on display in their exhibition space. Could that increase be joy?
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17 I' m a non-representational painter. I do not have the What a wonderful surprise it was when Nina called to desire to draw real life objects, unless they are represented invite me to participate in Pair and she explained her concept in an abstract format. I prefer to express myself with color, of pairing artists who shared something in their approach texture and rhythm, in the hope that my composition to art. " Who will my partner be?" I wondered. It was a is " suggesting" an object, which makes up an abstract pleasure meeting Jean Shultz. We share an affinity for layers painting. I consider painting an exercise, in which one is that add depth to our work. I' m working in 2D, but many open to the unexpected, a surprise, if you will, driven by of Jean' s works have physical depth; I find that inspiring. more than one decision as to what to keep and what not to Maybe this bit will of matchmaking will keep. One could perceive this process as watching a child have a deepening effect on my work. play, starting with an innocent stroke of a brush, leading to a process of becoming a creational exercise, driven by color Judy Herman and rhythm. This process may start out with the search for Illa
feeling of direction and may end up with a The work 1 have on view comes from two bodies of totally different result than first anticipated. photographic work, one looking inward, and the other Here is the experience of surprise.
The
out. One, is very controlled using multiple exposures
on film that symbolizes the strength and resilience of
Astrid Francis women. These pieces are about the beauty that blooms from the darkness while honoring nature and life in all its The Greenmakers Series different stages. The other pieces are from my hand- colored This series is dedicated to the memory of Japanese works. These photographs were taken when I immersed Gardeners in Southern California. My father came from myself in nature to find clarity. I caught images with the 8 generations of rice farming in Nigata, Japan. He was camera I always have on me, my iPhone. By hand- coloring sponsored by Sasajimasan, owner of the LA Flower Market the black and white photographs I am able to give them the to buy a house and establish a life in San Gabriel. He met my colors and auras I felt in the moment, not necessarily saw. mother through an arranged marriage and worked for the Both series share our deep interconnection San Gabriel Nursery for a few years to raise our family. He to nature and accepting where we are in the helped expand San Gabriel Nursery by propagating trees here and now while also paying homage to under power lines after the city had passed a legislation where we have come from. to lease the land to nurseries for a good price in the early 80s. He received hundreds of trees from the nursery for Meghan Quinn our yard, ranging from dozens of Cypress Trees to Large priceless Pine Trees over 100 years old which he planted On a good day, I start the morning with my heart wide in the yard. open— a deep breath to celebrate and acknowledge the Every weekend I was forced to do labor intensive garden unknowns of what' s ahead. I find it best to lean into it. And work every weekend when I would rather have been even if later, I am scurrying about trying to get all the to watching Saturday morning cartoons. We would mow the do's, t' done, the hustle feels slightly more palatable after lawn, cutting around the sprinkler heads, pruning the block this morning ritual. So when I stumbled upon the forms and shaped trees, and picking up the dead leaves. People would shapes that poured out of me in this series of work, I was just drive by, and stop to complement our front yard. as surprised looking at the page, as maybe you are looking As I began high school, my mother pursued a career at it now. The HEART OPENER series was dubbed as such in real estate. She became more empowered and wanted because delving into these abstract silhouettes felt just as my father to become a handyman. My father bought a
good as reveling in that good morning back bend. Pushing sailboat, and would sail to escape the responsibilities of charcoal along the page, layering, smudging, scratching property management and left the house. They eventually pencil to fine tooth— I scurried along, following the twists got a divorce. The garden was neglected and the plants and turns as if I knew where I was going, and allowing started dying. Like the Kintsugi process, some cracks and breaks to rain charcoal bits right down to thesepieces restore mymemoryof loss with its deckled edge. What a sweet little gift it was, to see my a memory reconstruction that connects the soul looking back at me. Powerfully organic, confusingly past to the present. biological, physically unraveling, blooming— ALIVE. Dark wrapped in light, held by a sense of hope, of reaching
Mike Saijo towards something compellingly new, yet simultaneously familiar. Was it me, eking towards my
freedom? My roots? My childhood? My
mother? Certainly my soul. I think I' ll stay a
Owhile. Take a deep breath— lean into it.
Aimee Mandala
20 Friends of Redondo Beach Arts
Gallery 90277/ 8
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