Perceive This

Posted on by Diversions LA

Kristine Schomaker had an idea. It started with the personal and has become a galvanizing collaborative project that reaches and speaks to a wide-range of viewers. It’s a conversation starter, it’s a collection of absolutely unique artworks, it’s an exultant vision of personal spirit, a creation from and of the soul that’s grounded – both literally and figuratively – by the body that holds it.

Art above by Sheli Silverio.

We’re talking about Perceive Me, an exhibition about to debut on January 25th at California State University Los Angeles.

Artist: Emily Wiseman

According to Schomaker – artist, curator, publisher and founder of Shoebox PR – the concept for the show started with a conversation between herself and artist Amanda Mears. Mears was drawing Schomaker athe time. “We were talking about body image, ideas of beauty, modeling nude, and I brought up the story that I had only been asked out on a date a couple times in my 46 years of life. I think unconsciously I took that as this validation that I wasn’t worth anything. Of course I know it is much more complicated than that,” Schomaker laughs, noting that the first time she expressed this out loud was in a previous interview for DiversionsLA.

Artist: Holly Boruck

Describing the idea as having come “full circle,” Schomaker says “I never realized that that was where a lot of myself worth came from. The need for outside validation. Or the idea that we often take our own self-worth from how we imagine others perceive us. Working with Amanda and looking back to a collaboration I did with J Michael Walker for his Bodies Mapping Time project as well as Chris Blevins-Morrison for a photographic project, I thought it would be an interesting ‘research project’ to see how I look through another person’s eyes. It was like a lightbulb.”

Artist: Austin Young

Over the next several months, Schomaker put together the idea of how Perceive Me would work, meeting with 57 different artists between November 2018-August 2019.

Schomaker selected the artists for the exhibition beginning with artists she knew who created work using a figure. “I have a folder on my computer of ‘Artists to Watch’ and culled from that. Plus, I looked at my walls, my art collection and invited those artists. And I invited friends, of course. I started off with the idea of 20 artists, then it went to 40; because I couldn’t say no then it went to 60. Most of the artists were invited, but there were a few who contacted me and after looking at their websites and seeing how their art practice was aligned with mine, I knew they were a perfect fit.”

What she mosts want viewers to take from this powerful and poignant exhibition is to “feel free to be themselves. I want people to be less afraid of ‘going for it,’ whatever that means for them. I want people to not be afraid to be different, unique, authentic and to not hide from others or themselves.”

Artist: Geneva Costa

The catalog that accompanies the exhibition is beautiful and rich; delving much deeper into both the intent behind it and presenting a fuller depiction of the images that most exhibition catalogs.

What led Schomaker to create such a vital piece of the project, or as she calls it, performance, is based on a fundamental belief in its social practice/impact and community engagement.

Artist: Marjorie Salvaterra

“I think my thesis was to see if my perception of myself changed as I saw myself through others’ eyes. Or maybe by inviting the many talented artists to collaborate with me, I thought they could make me beautiful? I am just now at this moment asking this question. This is just one project in many in my art practice that will continue helping me develop my own identity.”

Artist: Sydney Walters

“I have a story to tell, a message to relay. I want to educate and inspire. I knew an exhibition would not be enough to get the message out there. I knew a catalog would help get the word out there more,” she relates. “We are also doing artists talks; I am working with classes at the colleges, and there will be a video. I want to support others as much as I can. The catalog was one way of sharing the artists’ amazing work.”

Artist: Dani Dodge

Schomaker terms the exhibition a continuation of her own work, which focuses on challenging and finding herself. “I don’t think I will ever get to an end-point, because life changes all the time. Our identity changes all the time. Our weight changes all the time. My art practice is about telling my story of my eating disorder, struggles with weight and self-confidence. So, it will continue on.”

Artist: Nurit Avesar

The genuinely brave and beautiful show is uniquely notable from its lush and individually terrific images to the concept and Schomaker’s willingness to literally and figuratively expose herself. Following its debut at CSULA, the show will travel to Oxnard College in November 2020, Coastline Community College in January 2021, Mesa Community College in San Diego in March 2021, MOAH in Lancaster in October 2021 and the College of the Sequoias in Visalia in 2022.

Artist: Anna Stump

“We are actively sending out proposals to colleges and Universities right now, because I believe that is where a large part of our audience is. If I can reach our youth and make a difference, I feel like there is hope for the future,” Schomaker asserts.

Artist: Bradford Salamon

Perceive Me opens January 25th  5-8 p.m. at the Ronald H Silverman Fine Arts Gallery, Cal State University LA, under the direction of Dr. Mika Cho.

Participating artists include: Amanda Mears, Anna Kostanian, Anna Stump, Ashley Bravin, Austin Young, Baha Danesh, Betzi Stein, Bibi Davidson, Bradford J Salamon, Caron G Rand, Carson Grubaugh, Catherine Ruane, Chris Blevins-Morrison, Christina Ramos, Cynda Valle, Daena Title, Daggi Wallace, Dani Dodge, Debbie Korbel, Debby/Larry Kline, Debe Arlook, Diane Cockerill, Donna Bates, Elizabeth Tobias, Ellen Friedlander, Emily Wiseman, Geneva Costa, Holly Boruck, J Michael Walker, Jane Szabo, Janet Milhomme, Jeffrey Sklan, Jesse Standlea, John Waiblinger, Jorin Bossen, K Ryan Henisey, Karen Hochman Brown, Kate Kelton, Kate Savage, Kerri Sabine-Wolf, Kim Kimbro, L Aviva Diamond, Leslie Lanxinger, Mara Zaslove, Marjorie Salvaterra, Martin Cox, Monica Sandoval, Nancy Kay Turner, Nurit Avesar, Phung Huynh, Rakeem Cunningham, Serena Potter, Sheli Silverio, Susan Amorde, Susan T. Kurland, Sydney Walters, Tanya Ragir, Tony Pinto, Vicki Walsh.

CSULA Gallery is located at:
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles CA 90032
Opening Reception: Saturday January 25, 5-8pm

Artist Talk with Alexandra Grant Sun February 2, 2-4pm
Artist Talk with Leslie Labowitz-Starus Sun February 16, 2-4pm
Artist Panel and Closing Reception Sat February 22, 2-4pm

Artist: Daena Title
Artist: Mara Zaslove
  • Writer: Genie Davis; photos: provided by artists through Kristine Schomaker

Margaret Hyde: Transformative Jewel-Perfect Images Dazzle

Posted on by Diversions LA

Photographic artist Margaret Hyde creates images that are as precise and glowing as gems. Describing herself as a “transformative” artist, she shapes lustrous, natural subjects that are worthy of contemplation.

The Memphis-born and raised artist literally and figuratively focuses on the minutiae of the natural world, using close-ups and macro lenses. The result is a cross between the meditative and the transcendent; qualities that she also bring to her life outside her artwork, exemplified by her work in support of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis through her family’s Hyde Family Foundations.

 Eleven years ago, she produced an Emmy nominated documentary short, The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, detailing the last days of Martin Luther King; she’s also written children’s books; shot documentaries in Bhutan, and photographed orphanages in Liberia.

But her recent art veers considerably away from the documentary. She uses images such as shells and flowers to create an entire celestial universe of emotion and beauty. Hyde says “the purpose of art is to make you stop and look and think…if you keep seeing different things and asking different questions then that’s a successful piece of art.”

Her current series involve the collection of tiny objects such as shells, beach glass, scrap metal, and simple flowers and seeds. From these prosaic, intimate bits of life’s flotsam, she builds tiny sculptures, utilizing water and light to reshape these materials into her own tiny, glowing universe. The dimensionality she creates, the rich and mysterious color palettes she shapes, are matched by the inner shine of her work.

“I collect and photograph things most people would walk by,” she notes in her artist’s statement. “Water… flows through the sculptures, reflecting its infinite memory of the people, places and things that it has encountered along the way.”

It’s a fascinating idea, that water holds memory – one that oddly enough is a key tenet of the current Disney film Frozen 2. But Hyde’s work makes this messaging far more profound.

Her unique vision is an outgrowth of macro photography, most often used to examine something more closely. But what Hyde examined was more an internal imagining than an object itself. “I walked into an alley and someone had drained a swimming pool, and the water was rushing down the alley. It no longer looked like an alley…I put the macro lens on my camera and took photographs of light on water. I realized I didn’t need to go anywhere – everything I needed was right here, beauty, transformation right in front of me, I just was not seeing it…I went from being a photographer with a good eye, to an artist who used a camera to create art.”

Now she shares the butterfly images and Batman’s cape she finds in a protective mussel shell; an eternal moment in a drop of dew that glows like a diamond on multi-hued green leaf.

Arguably, color, light, and her use of water to illuminate are the main components of her macro work, but the textures she conveys are perhaps the true entry point into her radiant world. The ridged striations of a leaf, the ripples in a dot of dew, a sense of rounded, thick suspension in a drop of water.

In Hyde’s Shell Eddies series, the lapis lazuli blue and amethyst crystal quality of works such as “Shell Vortex” and “Shell Pirouette” are smooth and seductive; a whirl that is soft and supple yet somehow as solid as a stone, a universe unfolding in motion.

Her Shell Scapes series, including such opalescent, winged images as “Pastel Pinion” use essentially the same color palette as Shell Eddies, but in lighter shades, and with a quicker, brighter feel that evokes mother of pearl butterflies, seeds, twins, and with an airier more translucent texture.

Mystic Masks turns a simple dandelion flower into something cosmic and ethereal; “Canine Mask” is both wolf and flower; “Imp Mask” the genesis of a fairytale character.

Hyde’s Migration Series takes a single dandelion seed and turns it into a study in perfection in “Feathered Seed;” the simplicity and wonder of this image, an embodiment of life, is both alien bird and message of hope. But it is a translucent cosmos that Hyde captures in another work, “Cosmic Dandelion.”

There are the certainly the origins of this astonishingly minute, perfect work in her earlier photography– Hyde’s travel images in her Seascapes series is pearled and reflective with light; her Memphis images rippled with visceral texture.

Jeweled and mesmerizing: Hyde gives viewers memorable images spun from the imagination in close-up.

Partita II at Durden & Ray Adds Art for the Holidays

Posted on by Diversions LA

Who wouldn’t want to enjoy the works of stellar contemporary artists, have a fun and festive evening, and help support one of the most cutting-edge and globally-linked art collectives in LA? Certainly not you, right?

Artist: Nadege Monchera Baer

Partita II at Durden & Ray in DTLA’s Bendix Building this Saturday night offers you the opportunity to bid on, enter a raffle for, and simply enjoy the art of:

Lillian Abel, Kim Abeles, Mark Acetelli, Daniel Adkins, Robin Adsit, Kim Alexander, Dawn Arrowsmith, Nurit Avesar, Carlos Beltran Arechiga, Christine Morla Armstrong, Dawn Arrowsmith, Kristine Augustyn, Nadege Monchera Baer, Malado Baldwi, Marsha Effron Barron, Quinton Bemiller, Arezoo Bharthania, Jodi Bonassi, Jorin Bossen, Gary Brewer, Janine Brown, Stefan Bucher, Suzanne Budd, Gavin Bunner, Julian Bustill, Gul Cagi, Jane Callister, Debbie Carlson, Jennifer Celio, Chenhung Chen, Sijia Chen, Mika
Cho, Trine Churchill, Norman Clark, Daniel Barron Corrales, Natalie Cruz, Joe Davidson, Ismael de Anda III, Ilknur Demirkoparan, Mark Dimalanta, Glenda Dixon, Dani Dodge, Tom Dunn, Lana Duong, Martin Durazo, Cliff Eberly, Michael Emmanuel, Mitra Fabian, Marielle Farnan, Roni Feldman, Cia Foreman, Christian Franzen, Sarajo Frieden, Josh Friedman, Steven Fujimoto, Sean Michael Gallagher, Martin Gantman, Gabe Garcia, Michael
Garcia, Yvette Gellis, Lawrence Gipe, Audra Graziano, Phyllis Green, Kio
Griffith, Jenny Hager, Steve Hampton, Stephanie Han, Aska Irie, Ben Jackel,
Claire Jackel, Dion Johnson, Brian Thomas Jones, Flora Kao, Yasmin
Kazam, Kate Kelton, Shane King, Nadim Kurani, Jay Kvapil, Connie DK
Lane, David Leapman, Tidawhitney Lek, Stephen Levy, Echo Lew, Nikki
Lewis, Kevin Linehan, Susan Lizotte, Amelia Lockwood, Mela M ( Mela Marsh), Maya Mackrandilal, Alanna Marcelletti, Aline Mare, Jane Margarette, Kim Marra, Anne Martens, Javier Martinez, Lynne McDaniel, Annelie McKenzie, Amanda Mears, Kathleen Melian, Yevgeniya Mikhailik, Hagop Najarian, Hung Viet Nguyen, Khang B. Nguyen, Sean Noyce, Labkhand Olfatmanesh, Elizabeth Orleans, Miguel Osuna, Billy Pacak, Paul Paiement, Kristopher Paos, Chris Pate, Olga Ponomarenko, Elizabeth Preger, Max Presneill, Michael Provart, Katie Queen, Mei Xian Qui, Kristopher Raos, Samuelle Richardson, Frederika Roeder, Ann Marie Rousseau, David S. Rubin, Frank Ryan, Liza Ryan, John Sollom, Annie Seaton, Sonja Schenk, Kristine Schomaker, Nike Schroeder, Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia, Steve Seleska, Rafael Serrano, Shilla Shakoori, Maccabee Shelley, Stephanie Sherwood, Dimitra Skandali, Jeffrey Sklan, Charles Snowden, Robert Soffian, David Spanbock, Curtis Stage, Kayla Sweet-Newhouse, Eric Minh Swenson, Jill Sykes,Vincent Tomczyk, Katya Usvitsky, Emily Van Horn, Melissa Walter, Ann Weber, Joan Weinzettle, Dana Weiser, Stacy Wendt, Tracy Weiss, Valerie Wilcox, Sammy Jean Wilson, Surge Witron, Steven Wolkoff, Alison Woods, and Jacob Yanes.

Artist: Christine Morla

The one-night-only small works exhibition and fundraiser is designed to help Durden and Ray to continue its international artist exchanges which this year took viewers on a one-of-a-kind art exploration here in LA with compelling contemporary artwork from Rome, Luxemborg, Greece, Berlin, and Iceland. The result for viewers is an exploratory adventure.

Artist: Max Presneill

For this show, Los Angeles-area artists were invited to make small-sized art that represents, according to Durden and Ray member Dani Dodge, “the unification across distances through image and discourse. They are the physical remnants of experience.” The works are available for $50 each, with 100% of the proceeds benefitting Durden and Ray.

In short, the night is a holiday gift for attendees and might just help you wipe out your entire gift list besides.

The raffle will include larger artworks and experiences such as portrait sessions and studio visits. Raffle tickets are $5 each and will be available at the event. The raffle will be held at 8:30 p.m. the night of the event.

Event curators are Arezoo Bharthania, Joe Davidson, Ben Jackel, Alanna Marcelletti, David Spanbock, Curtis Stage, and Valerie Wilcox.

The evening runs from 6-9 p.m. at Durden and Ray, 1206 Maple Ave. #832 in the Bendix Building. Santa says go, and so do we.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by Durden and Ray and Genie Davis

Jen Snoeyink Has Hope in Trees

Posted on by Diversions LA

 

Snoeyink_GettyTreeSm

With her Hope Trees exhibition upcoming at Geo Gallery in Glendale, Jen Snoeyink has a fresh forum for her wide-ranging, spiritually kind, and vividly lovely artwork, which she refers to as an “emotional response to social and environmental issues, from the devastation of wildfires to the joy of chickens.”

YellowDrawing

While her work is often oriented to nature, this accomplished, multi-medium artist says she choses her color, texture and material based on the message she wants to impart, always “with the intention of lifting viewers’ spirits and raising awareness.”

Snoeyink_TreeWrapping2

Her current work and upcoming exhibition builds on her past work. “How could it not?” she asks. “I have repeatedly been fascinated with texture, color, environment and nature. My previous work as a scenic artist, faux-finish artist, and mural painter have honed my painting skills. The subject of my artwork has stayed within themes relating to nature and emotional responses.”

ClimateChangeSolution

Moving from her previous residence in New York to Los Angeles has affected her work, Snoeyink notes. “Most of the content is about living in California.  My latest work in particular focuses on wildfires and using recycled mediums to further environmental awareness.”

Snoeyink_HopeTreesBurbankHigh

The inspiration for her involvement with the community, her commitment to informing and to creating art related to climate change starts with the fact that “I am a child of the 70s. ‘Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute,’ ‘Smokey the Bear,’ and the energy crisis started my awareness of the environment, and the effects of the human population.” She asserts that she grew up with the strong believe that “We have a responsibility as citizens and stewards of this earth to do what we can to respect and preserve it. Back in the 70s there was a drive to reduce pollution, and look what we were able to do,” she enthuses. “Smog emissions were reduced, as well as pollution and other taxing environmental issues. This came from a community that cared and demanded change. We are in a similar situation now with climate change, and there are things that we as individual citizens can do about it.” She adds “And I as an artist feel a responsibility to use art as a tool to help bring community together.”

Snoeyink_Amazon_AssemblageSm

According to Snoeyink, she works in as many diverse mediums as she does because she simply loves diversity. Whetehr fire art, assemblage or painting and drawing, certain elements carry through each of the mediums she employs. “Using different mediums is like using different tools. Sometimes I prefer fiber, and other times paint or drawing.  When I studied set design, one of the things I learned was that material helps create the intended environment around the story that you tell,” she says. “Wall treatments and decor do the same in homes as do materials in art. I am fortunate in that I have the choice of mediums with which I enjoy working, depending on the message I want to convey. ”

The artist explains her use of materials, and why different techniques work to create different meanings within her work. “For me, the materials are generally used like this:  drawing is for emotive line, paint provides textural brushstrokes, glazes and color, fibers – tactile texture, and land art – when something just can’t fit on a wall and environment is key.” In addition “I use assemblage when I want to create a feeling or looking at something as an outsider. The elements carried through? Texture and color, and the need to communicate through the medium of the artwork.”

Snoeyink_HopeTreeWoolseyFire

Snoeyink has worked on a variety of public projects. “The Hope Trees projects have been the most meaningful to me, both the wildfire inspired Land Art and the positivity and hope for Burbank schools at the start of the school year. ”

She says her that her vibrant and beautiful Hope Trees are an outgrowth of the current socio-political climate. “I have been drawn to fiber arts in tumultuous times in my life.  After 9/11, I found great comfort in relearning how to knit. The process of the repetition, the texture of the yarn, and the creation of something new was mindfully comforting.” Snoeyink conceptualized the Hope Trees project after the  LaTuna fire ravaged the hillside near her home.

Snoeyink_LaTuna Fire

“It was an awesomely frightening experience that was magnified by the resulting blackened landscape.  I yearned for some form of life, some color and some love to adorn the charred hillside. The hill that had been such a bounty of life had appeared to be devastated.” And so the idea of the Hope Trees evolved for the artist. “I started wrapping branches with colorful yarn and scraps of fabric. Not only was the process itself very mindful, but so was the intention of selecting the fibers, wrapping and gifting it to the branch as a wish to the landscape, and to those affected by the fire and the burn locations.”

The trees came into action when the Woolsey Fire hit the next year.

“I wrapped a few more branches, and brought these makeshift trees to the burned locations. Nature photographer Kerry Perkins assisted me with the project by expertly documenting the resulting Land Art. We have also done temporary installations at the Saddle Ridge and Getty burn areas, and Burbank schools for the first day of school.” She sites the meainging and purpose of the work as “Hope even in devastation, especially when community comes together.  Nature is unbounded.”

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The lovely chickens and roosters that take up a portion of Snoeyink’s painterly work are strikingly cool images. She makes these birds graceful and even refined, capturing how alive and sweet they are. But why chickens as opposed to any other winged creature?

Snoeyink_jumpingchicken

“A few years ago my daughter came home from school with a freshly hatched little chick which she treasured and cared for as attentively as if it were a puppy. At the time I didn’t think much of chickens, but I eventually started to think about them differently. The chick would coo with affection, and my daughter had made a new ‘friend.’ We eventually got a few more chickens, and over the last few years we have learned how fun, quirky, and filled with personality they are.”

While her portraits of friendly fowl reflect their individuality and joyful spirit, each of her varied works reflect that sense of life, its sanctity, love – and hope.

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Feel this encompassing warmth amid the branches of Snoeyink’s Hope Trees. 

Geo Gallery is located at 1545 Victory Blvd. in Glendale, and runs Dec. 14 through January 2nd. The exhibition should make a “hopeful” start to the holiday season and New Year.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist