Create Art. Teach Art. Release Art Into the Wild.

It is getting to be one of those hot, dusty, Davis Friday afternoons.  This being a University town the weekend after graduation exercises, the pace of activity has ratcheted down somewhat since last week.  Most of the parents and out-of-town guests have departed, many with their exhausted but proud and happy students in tow.  Since we host the most well-known agricultural school on the Pacific Rim, we get to see families from all over the globe.  We draw from all parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Many students stay over the summer months, and those who do are taking a break.  I see co-eds in summer dresses strolling downtown in two's and three's as they shop or wander over to the Tea List behind our studio for afternoon refreshment.  With the break, they have time to relax and linger.  The owner, Nahid, has fresh lilies and white linen tablecloths on her patio tables.  It's quite elegant in the cool, shady courtyard.

I'm looking forward to these next two months of summer, to the summer classes I'm teaching and the social atmosphere of people coming together to make art.  My own belief in the spiritual connection to art dictates that art must in some way be renewing and refreshing to the spirit.  I know from experience and I have had many folks tell me that, through the practice of art, they are more in touch with their own soul.  It is true.

Artmaking is a summer vacation for a busy person's soul.  I am happy to be your travel agent!  Why not join
me on 3rd and 4th Fridays throughout the summer* for a relaxing time of painting and convivial company at Art-is-Davis, 222 D Street, Davis, CA.  I'm here with all the materials you need, 6:00 to 9:00 pm.  Bring a snack and your favorite beverage, and a friend!  Make the Davis summer a bit less hot and dusty.

*Except Aug. 22nd.  Price: $30 per person; No Reservations Required                                                                                                              

Doing the New Thing

"Magic Sticks"

It will soon be Halloween, I realize.  Halloween once meant diving into boxes of decorations and costume parts and pieces accumulated over years:  Masks, fake blood, face paint, plastic fingernails, Happy Meal buckets, even packages of (very messy) phony cobwebs to string around the front windows and porch.  It meant fighting off the temptation to swipe "fun-size" candy bars out of the stash purchased for trick-or-treaters.  It used to involve my sewing machine, as in when I once sewed a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shell for my older son, Michaelangelo.  (Just kidding.  His real name is Jonathan.  We only called him Mikey for fun.)  Pumpkin carving (eww) and playing scary music out the front windows.  

We used to offer a Fall Festival at my home church, where the kids could wear their costumes, play games, eat creepy treats like Worms in Dirt and Hand-Maid Punch.  We'd have quasi-carnival games like a cake walk and decorated pumpkin cookies.  Everyone was guaranteed a stomachache the next day, and everyone had a ball.  My favorite thing to do was to dress up as a gypsy, "Madame Fortuna Casserole" and tell fortunes with a bagful of polished stones and crystals and a pack of tarot cards.  Everyone knew it was bogus but making up fortunes was a lot of storytelling fun.

In my new life as a working artist, I realize that the most fun came from making something amazing using the resources that were readily available to us.  Fruit juice frozen inside rubber gloves became the ice cubes floating in Hand-Made Punch.  Crushed chocolate cookies and candy worms topped pudding cups for the Worms in Dirt.  Pretty pictures on tarot cards inspired fanciful predictions for aspiring ballerinas and astronauts.  

Artists everywhere have helped build culture, historicizing society using the resources that are available to them.  Often artist's images are the first mirrors held up to trends and paradigm shifts in politics, religion, values.  Sometimes however, art is art because artists find ordinary things and are compelled to do something extraordinary with those things.  Great chefs do it with food.  Designers use bricks and mortar.  Storytellers do it with a handful of sticks.  Magic sticks.  And paper.

Anyway.  Now that I am a crone and full of the wisdom and experience of my age, I have a lot of time that won't be spent sewing TMNT shells or painting Darth Maul faces on little kids.  So I have more time for my Magic Sticks.

It's a good thing it's almost Halloween.  It's a good season to make magic.

Join me on October 20th 

10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

at 

Monticello Seasonal Cuisine

630 G Street

Davis, CA 95616

for 

Sketch Sunday Davis

FRESH FOOD and FRESH ART!