Dear SPARC Artists, The Family Promise organization of San Gabriel Valley is holding a fundraiser to support homeless families in the the San Gabriel Valley. They are asking for donations of ceramic bowls that will be filled with donated soup to help these struggling families.
Here is another opportunity for you to showcase your talent in the community. I am organizing artists and merchants to collaborate on this event from 5-9 pm on Saturday October 22.
The idea is for merchants to host an artist in their store to do an activity, such as play music, do a reading, do an art demonstration, or small workshop or something else of your choosing. It is being marketed as a local event for So Pas residents and businesses to support the businesses and artists/arts organizations in the community.
It would be great if SPARC folks actively participated in the 2011 Arts Crawl.
If you are interested in being matched up with a local merchant in town, follow the link below to find the artist participation form. Fill out the participation form and email it back to me.
IT’S ECLECTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL AND ART WALK TIME OF YEAR AGAIN AND WE'RE GEARING UP FOR THE BIG DAY
SPARC is once again partnering with the Chamber of Commerce on this year’s ECLECTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL AND ART WALK. We're expanding our participation to include both an interactive art experience and an art exhibition and auction. For this year's art experience, SPARC is staging an exciting project designed by local conceptual artist and SPARC genius Marie Miller. Festival goers will have the opportunity to paint and build unique box sculptures called "3-D Graffiti."
WE HAVE TWO OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTICIPATE:
Our last work day to prepare is this Sunday May 1st from 11am to 2pm at the SPARC storage space behind Carrows. (Enter off Hope Street). We'll be finishing up priming the boxes and preparing the armatures that we'll be using for the festival. Please come lend a hand. (Those of us who've been working on these have been having a lot of fun!)
WE'LL NEED EVEN MORE HANDS ON DECK FOR THE ACTUAL FESTIVAL
SATURDAY MAY 7th
5-10 pm
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO HELP MAN THE ART ACTIVITIES DURING THE FESTIVAL.
Put on some old clothes and come help out! It's a fun creative opportunity to network, and meet your artist neighbors/fellow SPARC members. (High schoolers can earn community service hours, too.)
SHIFTS AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. CONTACT margo.newman@socal.rr.com TO SIGN UP FOR EITHER THE WORK DAY OR THE FESTIVAL
Last Sunday we got a lot accomplished on our first 'Art In The Street; 3D Graffiti Sculptures' aka 'totem pole sculptures.' workday. Thank you for all your support and hard work. We are more than halfway done with painting and constructing the boxes.
The 2nd workday is this Sunday, April 10 from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm. We are continuing our work on the construction of the sculptures, mainly putting together cardboard boxes & gessoing (white primmer).
Please bring water, sunscreen and ware comfortable working & appropriate painting clothes.
Location: a cross the street from 1128 Hope St. South Pasadena, (next to Carrows Restaurant back entry off of Hope St.) cross streets Hope & Fremont
The South Pasadena Arts Council (SPARC) is participating with the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce in this year’s Eclectic Music Festival and Art Walk, scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 7, 2011.The Festival and Art Walk is a very well publicized event, historically attended by 5,000 people. This would be a great opportunity to showcase artwork and celebrate the arts in our community while supporting the South Pasadena Arts Council at the same time.
SPARC will be utilizing our Giant Easels, which will be set up at the Eclectic Music Stage on Mission Street in the parking lot at Citizens Bank.We will be looking for 6-10 artworks that can be displayed outdoors on the easels.Artists will be juried so as to provide the opportunity to all South Pas artists who are members of SPARC to be considered.
The jurors for this event will be: Katya Shaposhnik, Director of SPACE Gallery, Thomas Fields, Curator for the South Pas Gallery, and Carlos Chavez-Andonegui, Executive Director of the Fremont Gallery.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Any interested artist may submit three to five JPEG images (72 dpi resolution) of work completed in the last three years, which sufficiently represents your work.Please indicate the medium and the size of the work.If you are selected to participate, you may produce a new artwork or submit an existing artwork representative of the sample you sent in.
Also, in order to participate, artists must be current members of SPARC or they can apply for membership by writing a check for $30 and mailing it to: SPARC, P.O. Box 3272, South Pasadena California, 91301.The check should be made payable to the Pasadena Arts Council with a note in the memo line that reads SPARC.They are our fiscal receiver for all contributed monies.
JPEG images must be attached to an email and sent to Howard Spector, Co-Director of SPARC at howarddspector@gmail.com by 5:00 pm on Saturday, March 26th. If you are chosen to participate, a SPARC representative will contact you to arrange to drop off your artwork. All selected artwork must arrive by Saturday April 23rd.
In order for the work to fit on our Giant Easels, the “field” of the artwork must be at least 35” tall x 55” wide. On this field the actual artwork can be smaller (i.e. 20”x24”).Works can be paintings, prints, photographs, and drawings. No freestanding 3D work will be accepted.
SPARC is planning to hold a silent auction of the submitted artworks, so we would ask you to provide your retail sales price and a minimum that you would like the bidding to start. No sale will be below the minimum.You will also have the opportunity to have publicity and contact information with your artwork at the Festival.Artists will receive 40% of any sale of the artwork, unless you stipulate that the artwork is a donation to SPARC for fundraising purposes.
Please Note: SPARC will make every effort in good faith to protect artwork, however because it is an outdoor venue with many people SPARC will not be responsible for insuring the work, and thus will not be responsible for any loss or damage that might occur as a result of participating in this event.
SPARC is calling for Artist/Painters/Sculptors/Art Lovers to come to our kick off meeting on March 5, 2011, 11am-1pm at 1011 Fair Oaks Ave for the upcoming Eclectic Music Festival & Art Walk event that we are participating in on May 7, 2011.
Big Easels If you or someone you know is interested in providing a piece of artwork to be displayed on the Big Easels, (i.e.- we need artists to create a finished piece to display on the easels on the day of the event. The easels will be set up around the main stage area.) Please come to the 11:00 am kick off meeting on March 5, 2011 at our temporary home in the old paint store where the Calder Circus installation is 1011 Fair Oaks Ave. At the meeting we will be discussing and deciding over size, subject, guidelines and if you want your piece to be auctioned at the event.
Totem Pole Sculptures If you, or someone you know who is interested in the Interactive Totem Pole Sculptures, we will be having a brain storming meeting about how people/event attendees will be creating the art with our interactive sculpture, painting cardboard boxes, stacking them to crate a 3D sculpture, adding texture, graffiti, etc. Please come to the 12:00 noon kick off meeting on March 5, 2011 at our temporary home in the old paint store where the Calder Circus installation is. We will go over the structural armature building, cardboard box construction & painting date(s), types of materials people can use and the logistics of how the day will run. See you there, Marie Switzer / SPARC Interactive Event Consultant
This past organizing year has been a good one for our newly formed South Pasadena Arts Council (SPArC)! We are going to have a group meeting Saturday, February 5th at 2pm at our Art Attack Space at 1011 Fair Oaks Ave in South Pasadena.
We want to kick off this year by sharing creative ideas, signing up new members and bringing everyone up to speed on what we have accomplished together so far. Invite anyone you think would be interested in joining us - Actors - Directors - Artists - Writers - Musicians - Dancers etc etc etc. All ARE WELCOME!
Bloggers leave information under comments if you have an event we should know about so we can attend and support any artistic events in South Pasadena or nearby!!
We will be having a workday for the upcoming South Pasadena Art Walk on Oct 16th from 10am-2pm at the Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave, corner of Fremont & El Centro.Anyone is welcome to come.We will be building frames and attaching the canvas material to the frames to get ready for our interactive Giant easel event at the Art Walk on Oct 23.
For the Art Walk On the 23rd, we will need people for the following times:
Pick up Easels and materials: 2pm - 2:30pm
Set up at Meridian: 2:30pm - 3pm
First Event Shift: 3pm-5pm
Second Event Shift: 5pm-8pm
Breakdown: 8pm-9pm
*Event Shift people will be manning the easels and making sure the canvases don't get destroyed and paint doesn't end up anywhere but on the canvases.It also includes encouraging people to paint!
Thanks for spreading the word! If you are available to come to workday or help at the Art Walk contact Karen Sommers Cooper at
karencooper@me.com
Thanks for making this another great event!
If any SPARC members have any upcoming events in Oct please list the details here under blog comments- a great way to support each others performing or visual art events!
Don't miss this opportunity organized, by SPARC Literary Coordinator and South Pasadena Librarian Steve Fieldsted, to celebrate Ray Bradbury's 90th birthday in our own small town of South Pasadena. I will be there to introduce Ray and lead us in singing Happy Birthday. One of our SPARC Gallery artists, Leo LeGaspe, has been invited to have some of his fantasy drawings on display at the event and we will have a SPARC info booth at the Community Room before the event. So come by, say Hello and wish America's Storyteller a very happy birthday! Details are below.
Lissa Reynolds / SPARC Director
WISH RAY BRADBURY A HAPPY BIRTHDAY
AT THE SOUTH PASADENA LIBRARY ON AUGUST 19
Not very many people anywhere knew the exact temperature at which paper burns prior to 1953. Now, countless millions the world over have the specific thermometer reading burned into their memories, due to Ray Bradbury's now-classic FAHRENHEIT 451, published that year. Considered by many to be one of the most important and influential books of the latter half of the 20th Century, it's also one of the most acclaimed and bestselling science fiction books ever. FAHRENHEIT rose to the heights from a humble beginning. It was originally developed by the young author as a novella while he fed dimes into a coin-operated typewriter in the basement of the UCLA Library. Surrounding students and librarians had no way of knowing the literary magic being conjured up in their midst. Readers the world over can be thankful Ray Bradbury had a steady supply of the tiny silver coins as he ingeniously poured his inspiration into the manuscript. The rest is literary history.
Bradbury went on, of course, to a highly remarkable career and has written more than 600 published works including short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse. Among the best known are DANDELION WINE, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, THE HALLOWEEN TREE, and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.
Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920. Today, as an author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, lecturer, poet and visionary, he is known as one of America's greatest creative geniuses. As an 11 year-old he started writing his stories on butcher paper and by 1934 the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles where he’s resided ever since. He attended Los Angeles High School and planned to become an actor until teachers encouraged him to continue working as a writer. His formal education ended with his high school graduation in 1938, but he continued educating himself in the library while spending long hours at the typewriter honing his skills.
Bradbury's work has won innumerable honors and awards, including the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America and a special Lifetime Achievement Pulitzer Prize in 2007. At an age when most men are long retired Bradbury remains a dynamic storyteller and writer. His incredible body of work exemplifies one of the greatest contemporary imaginations.
The South Pasadena Public Library and the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, with funding support from the Helix Foundation, will honor Ray Bradbury with a 90thBirthday Celebrationon Thursday, August 19 at 8:00 p.m. in the Library Community Room. The free, not-to-be-missed event will feature a showing of Walt Disney Pictures’ adaptation of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, a PG-13-rated 1983 film starring Jason Robards and Diane Ladd. According to Mary Menzel, Director of the California Center for the Book notes SOMETHING WICKED is a wonderful film to show in honor of Ray Bradbury’s birthday, because it is one of the truest and most successful literary adaptations in movie history.” As Roger Ebert noted when the film came out, “it captures the novel’s mood, tone, and style in a really exceptional way.”
Mayor Richard D. Schneider will present a Proclamation to Ray declaring August 22 as “Ray Bradbury Day in South Pasadena.” Lissa Reynolds from the Fremont Centre Theatre and Director of the South Pasaadena Arts Council who has worked with Ray for years will be introducing him and leading the audience in sing you-know-what. A custom birthday cake designed by Fantasy Frostings of South Pasadena will also be presented. The Library Community Room is located at 1115 El Centro Street Fremont Avenue and free parking will be available across the street in the South Pasadena Unified School District parking lot. To augment the 150 seat capacity in the Community Room, a giant screen to show the proceedings and the film will also be set up in the Library Park. No tickets or reservations are necessary and doors will open at 7:30 p.m. Special thanks to Best Custom Frame, Daily Photo, Fantasy Frostings, Rotary Club of South Pasadena, SOSOUND Entertainment, The South Pasadena Review, South Pasadena Unified School District, and Thomas Lake Construction, Inc.
Our first two SPARC events were wonderful so let's get together and celebrate!
Our Bright Star screening was a big success and raised the funds needed for our interactive arts experience at the Eclectic Music Fest and Art walk on May 1st.
The SPARC Giant easels were the talk of the town! Go to our SPARC web site SoPasArtsCouncil.com and click on our photo gallery for pictures of both events (order your SPARC T-Shirts when you visit the site!)
SPARC Meeting /Mixer Sat June 26 2-4pm 909 El Centro at SPARC Temporary/Contemporary Gallery
SPARC Temporary Contemporary Gallery, at 909 El Centro St., is a must see destination on Saturday. This newly built commercial space will debut as an art gallery featuring the works of local artists Liz Reday and Catherine Ellen Money, Kirk Miller, Nathan Rohlander, Amy Runyen, Alice Simpson, Marie Switzer, Susan Singer, Connie Rohman and many others . Most of the works will be available for acquisition.
And don't forget to check out the article on the event and artists at artsbeatla.com!
Here are just some of the artists on display! Make sure you stop by to see these and the many other amazing works of art.
LIZ REDAY:
A lifelong career artist, Liz Reday holds a Master's Degree from the Royal College of Art in London. Her work has been featured in numerous shows and collections in several countries, including Australia, Great Britain and Japan. Liz Reday spent her childhood in rural Japan before moving to Southern California. She had a solo show at the Kerry Schuh Gallery, Newport Beach. David Hockney at UC Irvine, sent her to London.A recent trip to India & the L.A. River have been recent inspirations for her oils on canvas.
CATHERINE ELLEN MONEY: Photographic artist and poet. Graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, CA. Several images from THE PLANET PARADISE COLLECTION will be on exhibit.
Artist's Statement: PLANET PARADISE speaks to the intimate moments in my life. Vibrant and enigmatic, the imagery pokes at the subconscious, transporting the viewer into a world of energy, color and light. Expressed in mythical proportions, on a metallic substrate, the imagery invites the viewer to linger and consider our emotional response to our natural world.
ALICE SIMPSON:
With a background in fashion illustration, it is by instinct that I search for the line that graces form, hair and fabric; to capture the quality of watercolor washes; to reveal how light and shadows create drama. Coil built, pushed, pulled, carved, and hollowed to one quarter thickness, my works are detailed into expression and each contains a secret. The larger operatic works are inspired by suspended emotional moments of sound and expression.
Portrait of the Artist as Queen Elizabeth 1, with her sideways glance and ironic expression, and Portrait of the Artist As Sarah Palin, including her ubiquitous wink, are intended as satiric representations of their time and place in history.
BARRY WETMORE:
About the artist! 1 year, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Fine Arts Dept./ 4 years, Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles/ 24 years, TV and Print advertising Art Director / 23 years Freelance Illustrator, creating art for print ads, TV commercials and book publishers / 12 years fine art painting! My name is Barry Wetmore and I live in, of all places...South Pasadena, California! Tah Dah! wetart@socal.rr.com
CECILIA PAISLEY LEGASPE:
Started drawing since she was 2 years of age. Would make her own story books with folded sheets or paper stapled together like a book to read to her little brother Leo. At age 4-6 she would sketch and design fashion models. Then was fascinated with Japanese anime would make up her own characters using pen, pencil and ink. Cecilia now 18 years has displayed her art work at, The Pomona Arts Colony, exhibition at Bunny Gunner Gallery, SoHo Gallery, and 5ifty Bucks gallery in Pomona.
LEONARDO AMADEO LEGASPE:
Started drawing at the age of 2 immitating his older sister Ceci by watching her and amazingly had the same artistic talent. Since Kindergarten he was chosen to design the schools calendar for the year and every year after that. Leo's medium is also pen, pencil and ink. He is extremely fascinated in Robots and machinary. He draws every piece by thought and imagination. Leonardo now at age 13 has displayed his art work at, 5ifty Bucks Gallery with his sister.
HARRY LIEBERMAN:
Harry Lieberman, who paints representational landscapes, began his art career at High School of Music and Art in New York City and has taken workshops with M. Stephen Doherty, Ross Merrill and Scott Christensen. He has been most influenced by JMW Turner and the artists of the Hudson River School.
KIRK MILLER:
Kirk's education and experience cover a wide spectrum of art and art activity. He has a background in art history, several years experience as a Post-Conceptual artist, twenty three years full-time teaching experience at Cerritos College, and has instructed survey courses as well as courses specifically devoted to painting, electronic imaging, and installation or experimental art.
Kirk received an M.F.A. in painting from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1987, a B.F.A. in illustration in 1979, and in 1973, and received a B.A. in art history from the University of California, Berkeley, CA. He has been a professor of art at Cerritos College since 1988 and has been an adjunct professor at CSU, Long Beach and CSU, Northridge as well.
Description of Artwork
Something About Nothing or No Thing
My works of art are “spacers.” They are the gaps between words, the interval between notes, the expanse between things, the thoughts between thoughts. Put simply, they represent the “space in between.” Some time ago, while pondering the notion of nothing I came upon this quote, which for me succinctly describes what I’m trying to do and say.
“We start, then, with nothing, pure zero. But this is not the nothing of negation. For not means other than, and other is merely a synonym of the ordinal numeral second. As such it implies a first; while the present pure zero is prior to every first. The nothing of negation is the nothing of death, which comes second to, or after, everything. But this pure zero is the nothing of not having been born. There is no individual thing, no compulsion, outward nor inward, no law. It is the germinal nothing, in which the whole universe is involved or foreshadowed. As such, it is absolutely undefined and unlimited possibility --boundless possibility. There is no compulsion and no law. It is boundless freedom.”
Charles S. Peirce, “Logic of Events” (1898)
MARIE SWITZER MILLER:
Marie Switzer-Miller is a local resident of South Pasadena and is currently moving in a new and exciting direction with her art. During the past twenty years Marie has worked as a concept designer and art director for the global leaders of themed entertainment, including BRC Imagination Arts and Walt Disney Imagineering. Marie’s new works of art, which were recently in South Pasadena at SPACE in a show titled “Textiles on the Edge,” offer a fresh and unconventional approach to the use of natural materials and techniques. Marie received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial/Environmental Design, with honors, from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1987. In 1995, she returned to Art Center as an instructor and taught “Environments for Entertainment,” and Woodbury University in Burbank. She has taught at SPEF and SPACE in South Pasadena as well.
Description of Artwork:
My current works of art deal with a variety of issues, ranging from those of personal sensory and memory to grief and release, and are made of a variety of natural materials, such as hemp, to fallen pods gathered from the base of wisteria vines. Evidence of my strong formal education in design is clearly present in my artwork. In the work titled “Disentanglement in Crossing the Red Sea,” the composition is reminiscent of an early Malevich, but that is where similarity ends. Process is also an important component to my artwork. Most of my art is very labor intensive. Meticulously tying hundreds of hemp threads can provide a space, a mental opening if you will, for me on the one hand, but can also serve to help facilitate memories on the other and aid in moving the artwork forward in an unanticipated direction helping to give it a life of its own. Some of these new works of art were recently exhibited.
Liz & Catherine, curators in front of SPARC gallery space.
Sparc is taking part in the South Pasadena Eclectic Music Festival & Art Walk This Saturday!
Saturday, May 1, 2010 from 2pm to 10pm Fair Oaks to Grand Ave. on Mission Street
Join us for the second annual
eclectic music festival & art walk
in wonderful, walkable
South Pasadena!
Over two dozen musical groups at six venues. For details, see the entertainment lineup.
David Lindley, The Nervis Brothers, Double Naught Spy Car, Moira Smiley & VOCO and Wahid all for just $20, with live music at five other venues for FREE! Tickets at www.SouthPasadena.net
Purchase tickets online in advance. Enter code: SPARC and10% of your ticket will go to the South Pasadena Arts Council!
Art Galleries & Open Studios:
The SPARC Interactive Arts Event with the Giant Easels on Meridian is FREE- come particiapate and paint with us! We will be painting from 5:30pm - 8pm.
SPARC Temporary Contemporary. (909 El Centro St.) This newly built commercial space will debut as an art gallery featuring the works of local artists Liz Reday and Catherine Ellen Money, Kirk Miller, Nathan Rohlander, Amy Runyen, Alice Simpson, Marie Switzer, Susan Singer, Connie Rohman and others. Most of the works will be available for acquisition.
Michael Hollis (238 Pasadena Avenue) will be having a group show with paintings of early California and contemporary American art
SoPas Gallery (1121 Mission Street) will be showing the recent paintings of South Pasadena artist Leslie Saeta.
SPACE Gallery (1506 Mission Street) presents "Our Shaky Civilization with Animals" featuring the artwork of Abira Ali and Gordon Henderson.
Fremont Gallery (812 Fremont Avenue) will present the works of Kikki Eder, "Real, Unreal, Surreal" oil paintings.
Burke Triolo (538 Mission Street) will host an open studio showing photographic works and montage by J.T. Burke and Loraine Angela Triolo.
SOPA Studios (1025 Hope Street) is an artists' collective and will host an open studio.
Upstairs Artists (1034 Mission Street) lofts above Mission Street will have an open studio.
www.sewjoe.com Catch the cutting edge in design at Sew Joe Stitch Lounge at 634 Mission.
Special Exhibitions will be presented by Zinnia, Kaldi Coffee & Tea, Reimagine Your Home, Mission Street Yoga, and more. Celebrate the grand opening of House of Honey. Get into it - literally - with The South Pasadena Arts Council (SPARC) "Art Experience," an interactive exhibition on Meridian.
Watch for the UpStage kids appearing on the community stage at Meridian during the afternoon! Upstage is a theatre school for kids 6yrs-16 yrs based out of So Pasadena for the last 10 yrs. They do an afterschool program and summer theatre camps. For more details go to upstageschools.com
Contact Tom Field of Thomas R. Field American Antiques with questions about the Art Walk or the Eclectic music festival. Call 626.799.8546
Take the Metro Gold Line to Mission Station! www.metro.net. Or exit the Arroyo Seco Parkway (110) at Orange Grove Ave. or Fair Oaks Ave. in South Pasadena.
