Category Archives: Art

Weekend Coffee Share #20-Desert X

Coffee’s up. Come in and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would tell you I had a great experience at Desert X last weekend. Several artists from around the world created outdoor art installations around the Coachella Valley. A friend of ours organized our tour and my husband and I viewed several of the displays. We were not able to see all the outdoor art but here are several examples below. You can go to the Desert X 2021 website to see all the exhibits and read about them and the artists.

We did wear masks but felt safe to have the masks off when outdoors and socially distanced. All of our group were vaccinated. We were fortunate that the weather was not overly hot and there was a breeze for most of the day.

The first installation we viewed was ‘What Lies Behind The Walls’ by Saudi Arabian artist Zahrah Alghamdi. We had to hike up a sandy slope to reach it. It was pretty dramatic to see once we got there. Some of material the artist used was desert sand from the local area. The artist talks about ‘the wall’ in the video below. Her hope for the world is not to have walls separating us but walls to connect us.

The next exhibit was ‘The Wishing Well’ by Serge Attukwei Clottey, an African artist. It is constructed in part from the plastic of Kufuor gallon containers that are used to transport water in Ghana.

‘The Wishing Well refers to the wells to which many people around the world must trek daily to access water. Europeans introduced Kufuor gallons, or jerrycans, to the people of Ghana to transport cooking oil. As repurposed relics of the colonial project, they serve as a constant reminder of the legacies of empire and of global movements for environmental justice. Sited in the Coachella Valley, whose future is deeply dependent on water, The Wishing Well creates a dialogue about our shared tomorrow.’ (Desert X website).

‘Women’s Qualities’ by Egyptian artist, Ghada Amer, was the next installation we visited. It was located at Sunnylands Center and Garden. There is more about her display in the video below. She created her installation based on what the people of Palm Springs told her they thought were qualities of women. The qualities are: Nurturing, Resilient, Strong, Caring, Determined, Beautiful, and Loving.

The next exhibit we viewed was ‘The Passenger’ by LA born artist Eduardo Sarabia which represents the experience of those who journey across the desert to get to the United States. It was difficult to walk on the soft sand of the desert in the hot sun to get to this installation. It made me realize that I might not fare well on such a journey.

The last installation we viewed was ‘Jackrabbit Homestead’ by California artist Kim Stringfellow. This was a tiny house that represented the houses of some of the people who participated in a government program called the ‘Small Tract Act’ (1938-2008). This involved up to 5 acres of Federal land sold off for very small price, ($10-20). People could lease the land and if they made some improvement to it, like building a dwelling, they could apply for a patent which was like a deed. There are still some of the structures standing today. Some are still owned and occupied. Click here to read more.

It was a very interesting day and a nice way to step back into what we hope is post-pandemic life here in California.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. Pop over and visit her lovely blog and see a Linky to the contributions of other writers.

Art Deco

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Los Angeles Union Station is done in Art Deco design as are other buildings like the City Hall, my featured image of the Eastern Columbia Building, Griffith Observatory, and more. So much was created in Art Deco design… buildings, furniture, jewelry, art, trains, cars, screens, doors, theaters. Elegant Art Deco.

LA Union Station waiting room

LA Union Station old ticket room

Kim Novak at LA Union Station 1956

Super Chief

California Zephyr

California Zephyr 1949

Pacific Shasta Daylight

800px-Sending_you_a_carload_of_oranges_Santa_Fe_RR

Spirit of the Wind ‘Victoire’ by Lalique

Griffith Observatory

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt for today is -eco. Featured image is The 1930 Eastern Columbia Building in the Broadway Theater and Commercial District of Los Angeles via Visitor 7 on Wikimedia.

Selfie Perspective

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‘Selfie Perspective’ Fooling around in my powder room and noticed the perspective in my closet door mirrors while playing around with selfies.

I don’t like selfies of myself because they usually show my wrinkles and I don’t like selfies in general because I think they are kind of vain but I liked this photo.

Wanting to get some perspective on all the terrible revelations in the media but there are no short cuts. And I don’t think I should cut short my processing of these painful things. One story after another leaves me reeling. Wondering why this is all coming together now. Could it be because it has built up to a critical mass of evil deeds and the universe is saying, No more! Maybe it all needs to collapse of the rot so it can be reformed into something that raises us all up. ‘It’ being Hollywood, business, the news media, the art world, politics, wherever this oppression ( of women and children) has been fostered and has festered. No more.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt words for today are shortcut/cut short.

Art Project

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The 26 artists were paid $1 per hour to paint the frescos inside the Coit Tower in San Francisco as part of the Depression Era Public Works of Art Project. They created wonderful murals about the theme of “Life in California.”

There was a series on my local PBS station called California Gold hosted by Huell Howser. I found a video of his about Coit Tower. If you have the time to watch it covers a lot of interesting history about the tower and the murals, including an interview with one of the artist’s ( Bernard Baruch Zakheim) daughters.

Here are a few slides of some of the murals via Wikipedia:

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The San Francisco Chronicle has some more beautiful photos of the murals.

This post is my contribution to Stream of Consciousness Saturday hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word is “project.” Featured image is Coit Tower Fire Haze Sunset by Chad1616 via Wikimedia. Photos of the murals from Wikimedia by Daderot (Newsgatherings, Railroad and Shipping, and Library), Saiko (City Life, Agriculture and Department Store), Orin Rozen(Industries of California) , and Wnewton 48( Industries of California).

Coit Tower at Dusk by skeeze via Pixabay

Broad Strokes : Art Fix Friday

Invisable Women Artists Revealed

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Many women artists have been ignored but, while the world was looking away, they went on creating their art. There is a change in attitude lately, to pay attention to some of these women and give recognition to their work. They are being discovered or re-discovered now when they are in their elder years. There is such a diversity of styles and the materials they use. Their creative spark has not diminished.

I want to write about some of the women artists who I have become of aware of through a blog I subscribe to here in LA. It is the Engage blog which often posts about elder artists and provides links to articles.

Here is a group of artists from a New York Times T Magazine article called Works in Progress which, quote, is ” a very small sampling of the female artists now in their 70s, 80s and 90s we should have known about decades ago.” This piece includes some videos, of two of the artists, Judith Bernstein and Rosalyn Drexler.

This is a post from artfilemagazine.com on Jean Betancourt. The post has several images of her artwork which I found very interesting and whimsical. One more from the Tate on artist Geta Bratescu.

by Geta Bratescu

I have done a post on Carmen Herrera in the past which includes some nice videos of her work, including an interview of her, and more discussion of overlooked women artists through a link to a Hyperallergic essay. Carmen Herrera just had a retrospective show. She recently turned 100. The videos I found on some of the artists adds a depth over viewing 2-dimensional images. In many videos the artist is interviewed and able to speak for their own perspective and the videos include some art that is not available freely online.

Documenta Kassel by Etel Adnan

Artist Faith Ringgold

16785342960_85a700902a_z Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian at Guggenheim via Jules Antonio on Flickr

Artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

Wheatfield by Agnes Denes

by Michelle Stuart

Dorothea Rockburne via Netropolitan Artsconversations:

In the video below, the artist Joan Semmel speaks about how she wants her paintings of her older self to express that there should not be shame about being older for women or men. From the T Magazine post: Semmel,…………. is encouraged by the current interest in her — and other older female artists’ work — because, as she puts it, women “are usually buried after about 45 years of age and just disappear completely.” Moreover, she adds, she isn’t just getting older, she is getting better: “I really feel that some of my most powerful work has come in these late years.”

The continued work of these women artists says that creativity does not have an age limit or expiration date. In my research I found this article from The Guardian by Emine Saner. She interviewed a group of women artists who were over 60 years old. She writes, “I spoke to a number of well-established women artists, and found that age certainly does not seem to have had a detrimental effect on their creativity – indeed, for many, their later years have been among their most productive.”

These women artists embody the essence of creativity and the inextinguishable flame of the human spirit.