American Family, Revisited

Happy Pride, museum-geeks! It's been an historic week with Supreme Court decisions to overturn DOMA and dismiss Prop 8 here in California, all in the last few days of Pride Month. We have plenty of reasons to be merry and gay. But for all the progress we've made lately, it's clear we still have a long way to go. Just a couple weeks ago a lesbian family was denied a family membership at their local children's museum. Luckily, children's museums are in the unique position to directly affect change and we do it every day by empowering children in the development of their imaginations. A strong imagination is a powerful tool in learning empathy and empathy is what drives movements of social justice.

Back in April I spoke about this at Pecha Kucha Night at the Association of Children's Museums conference in Pittsburgh. I got such positive feedback that evening that I decided to turn my presentation into a video.

Here it is:

JULY 2013 EXHIBIT @ GALLERY NORTH

Helen and Harry Kottler

Long time meditation practitioners from Southern California are bringing their vibrant folklore inspired art to the Firehouse Gallery north in the Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto.

OPENING NIGHT

FRIDAY, JULY 12, 7-9PM

MEET THE ARTISTS, REFRESHMENTS SERVED, 

ARTIST'S TALK HOSTED BY TOM FRANCO

Harry Chitrakar Kottler

Artist statement:

From seventeen to nineteen I painted watercolors on the kitchen table by the window. It was a meditative experience. All of these paintings were autobiographical. Many were about love. I painted a giraffe who was like me, his head was apart from his body. The last painting I painted was of a Christ rising in a red sky. I knew this would mean that I would stop painting this way for a while, and go through a difficult period
and then resurrect. That is what happened.
During my first year of my Master of Fine Arts Degree at Pratt Institute, I was criticized for painting a symbolic painting, so I immediately switched to making hard edged paintings, the style of the time. Although I would have been successful with this style, I stopped. I felt it was pointless. For a few years I didn't paint, but then I went to the Art Students League in New York City and studied realistic painting. In January 1973, a year before I met my master, I began to draw ink drawings similar to the ones I had drawn at seventeen to nineteen. One of them, depicted me with the giraffe fading while I approached a master who held all the cards of life. I spent four of the eight years that my master lived in his company. For the next several years, I didn't paint. I looked after my father for six months after he had a stoke. We lived the South Fallsburg and the Miami Beach ashrams. A few months after my father died in the Miami Beach ashram in January 1980, I began to paint. I painted thousands of paintings. In a dream I was told, I had worked through many lifetimes of karma through painting. My paintings are now about experiences of transcendance, ecstasy, peace, and universal love. I sign my paintings Chitrakar because that was the name my master gave me. It means God as the artist.

Helen Savitri Kottler

Arists statement:

I always wanted to paint, but I feared the revelation art always is to the artist and the world at large. Every art piece is in someways a self portrait. I could not bring myself to do anything which might reveal my inner turmoil. After meditating for some years under the guidance of a master, the desire arose in me to express the essence of the spiritual teachings of the Indian scriptures in paintings. I met Harry and watched him paint for a few months. I then realized how much I envied his absorption in self expression; he poured his inner world out onto canvass. I now had the couage to do art. Harry taught me to paint from inside. My paintings, at first away to witness and resolve inner issues, have now become the leaves of a spiritual diary which celebrate and reverberate with my experience of ecstasy. I paint symbols of profound experiences and the intuitive moves to complete the paintings develop my understanding of the experiences' significance. The paintings are joyful with a ground of silent energy. I sign my paintings Savitri. Savitri is the spiritual name given to me by my master. It is another name for the goddess Parvati, the wife of Shiva. The Indian goddesses represent the creative energy of the Lord.

FIREHOUSE ART CO

For more information and directions please go to the facbook event page here.

Posted by: Julia Lazar
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STELLAR CCA GRADS @ PUBLIC MARKET EMERYVILLE

NICOLE GERVACIO

ARTIST'S BIO:

Nicole Gervacio was born in Salinas, CA in 1989. She graduated from California College of the Arts in 2011 with a BA in Fine Arts. Although her focus was in illustration, she explored various techniques while attending CCA. Printmaking and collage inspired her to experiment with mediums and to create work of her own.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

My work incorporates textural drawings and paintings with an emphasis on found materials and accumulation. This process of mixed media with sculptural aspects allows the work to express a variety of meanings, which are often influenced by memories, family, history, and Filipino American culture. Each element considered, whether it is a found object, fabric, or a type of medium, stimulates further exploration of the concept. Remnants of what is considered to be mistakes become part of the piece, often leaving signs of its presence on the surface or becoming embedded within the layers. Every assemblage is full of these imperfections. After one is created it may experience levels of deterioration or wear that contribute to the history of a piece.

SOCIAL MEDIA/WEBSITE:

http://nicolegervacio.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nicolegervacio

KIRA MARRINER

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

Friends & Strangers
We all have many layers to who we are; you can never completely know all the layers that make up one person because there is far too much to know and understand about each of us. Even so, every day we make our own judgments as to who someone really is, whether they are friend or stranger. All the portraits in this series are images of people I know, and people I’ve never actually met. Just like real people, there are also many layers to these paintings. I began with a layer of gesso on illustration board, creating a foundation of strokes and designs. I then wrote words into the gesso; words that describe the person, either from experience with them or from my feelings towards their photograph. After painting a layer of gouache over the gesso, I lifted out the person’s image from the paint, revealing some of those layers and words beneath.

ARTIST'S BIO:

Since childhood, Kira Marriner has loved to draw. At the age of 21 she decided to further develop her skills by attending the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she received her BFA in Traditional Illustration. Soon after graduating she found her second passion, belly dancing. From the moment she started dancing she hasn’t stopped for 5 years now. Dance has brought inspiration and
influenced to an entire series of paintings. Kira takes inspiration from her experiences and the people

around her, which in her latest series include close loved ones and complete strangers. Since art school Kira has created two main series of work and is currently working on a third. She enjoys displaying her work at restaurants, cafes and various venues around the Bay Area. Kira also works on illustrating personalized children’s books for local families. You can currently find her work on her website.

SOCIAL MEDIA/WEBSITE:

www.kiramarriner.com, read more about Kira Marriner and her work on her blog, www.elvengrove.blogspot.com, or purchase her work online in her etsy shop, www.elvengrove.etsy.com.

FIREHOUSE ART CO 
To know more about this exhibit, please visit our facebook event page.

Posted by: Julia Lazar
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Potential Eagle Project

The City of Houston, Compassionate Houston, and the Coalition for the Homeless are working together to address the needs of the homeless here in Houston. The city is increasing the housing units for the homeless and is looking for help providing toiletries and other household necessities to help these individuals when they move into a housing unit. They have put together a list of items needed.

This would be a great Eagle Project. If interested please e-mail Jamie Johnson, Kingwood Public Affairs Director, for the contact information and the list of items needed. The e-mail is ipmvision@hotmail.com.

MIXED MEDIA MIXER @ ADELINE ARTS HANGAR

Dorian Cohen's MIXED MEDIA MIXER has been a superb exposé of local music, video and photography artists, painters, foodies and performance artists.

In June 2013, the MMM falls on the day of the annual Juneteenth parade, a festival coordinated by a local group of merchants: "Along a five-block stretch on Adeline Street, between Ashby Avenue and Alcatraz Street in South Berkeley. The acclaimed festival will kick off its 26th celebration on Sunday, June 23, 2013 from 10am to 6pm and will feature arts, crafts, music, cultural events and ethnic foods."

Since the Firehouse Adeline Arts Hangar location is smack in the middle of this annual event, we have in the past, created an Art Bazaar in our collaborative Firehouse style.

This year, it's the MMM's turn, to take the spot light.

Here are some photos of last month's Mixed Media Mixer, photos by Julia Lazar for FAC.

It will be a cool chill zone in contrast to the hectic outside activities, starting at 3pm going to 8pm, with an incredible line up of talent:

Music:
LESSONS
How about in the Jaguar?
WILES
2birds

Artists:
Shervin Rostami
Maddy Westcott
Heather Holton
Zephyr Ian Farris
Marvick Garcia
Danya Aletebi
Lindsay Focht
Eder "cheda" Rangel
Tom Myers
Erik Vincent

Videographers:
Mauricio Ageno
Heather Lund
Josh Dennis
Taylor Baldschun
Zac Goldstein
Dorian Cohen
Mikey Garcia
Nick Ambe
Daniella Flores
Paul Nester

More about The monthly Mixed Media Mixer here.

Posted by: Julia Lazar
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