Dear Family, Friends, and Diary,
Fresno art, there's more than we might think. This week, we saw some new and old.
First, was the monthly ArtHop where we enjoyed that Scarab Creative Arts Gallery had hung a new juried show. This Thursday was special because Marianne had entered her "California Dream" painting for the judges review. It's a relaytively old paining, done back in the Pommersfelden studio, but one that best fit with the show's "State of California" theme and earned an Honorable Mention. Congrats.
Pictures:
Part of the fun is chatting with "art friends".
Not all art hangs. Some just lounges.
Political commentary.
Brave, because conservatives abound in the greater Fresno area.
"California" because the Iraque-born artist thinks of
old-country turmoil every day in her new home.
Saturday was an ordinary day, errands and such. We stopped by the Vineyard Farmer's Market for local produce, artistry in it's own way, I suppose. Across the parking lot a handful of old cars were all shined up as rolling art. I reminded myself that everyone can have different views of what's beautiful, and everyone can be right.
My last errand for the day was to go over to the Fresno Art Museum to pick up a new puzzle. They have a good selection of jig-sawed artist works and I feel I support the museum by buying in their little store. This time I found a couple Charley Harper challenges.
Serendipitously, I found that the museum had just rehung their galleries with a wonderful range of pieces, mostly from their permanent collection, "permanent" but generally unseen, like the holdings of most art museum.
The artists on display fell in two groups: those from the San Francisco Bay Area and those more local, from Fresno and the surrounding communities.
First, the big city folks.
Jeffrey Long's colorful "American Landscapes" were worth reflection.
Ruth Morgan's pictures from the August 2021 Dixie Fire, where
the town of Greenville was destroyed in 15 minutes, reminded me of
our own trips to the fire devastation in Altadena.
Roi Partridge's etchings from the mid-1900s reportedly propelled him
into the leadership of San Francisco's Mills College,
where he made the art program famous.
I especially liked his small post cards, something many artists create to "sell something"
I found Hardy Hanson's array of tiny glass shards and snippings of wire mesmerizing.
How do artists think of such things, much less execute them?
All the rest of the FAM works that ended up in my camera rolls were from Fresno or Fresno-adjacent artists, some current and others from a century ago.
One gallery was devoted to pieces created by FAM staff,
illustrating that they are more than just "staff".
My favorites were a pair of abstracts by Denise Gorham.
"Rise" by Barbara Van Arnam showed how acrylics can match oils in depth and texture.
A pair of statues by Visalia-born Jean Ray Laury. Nice.
An applique quilt by Jean Roy Laury combined exquisite technique with bold colors.
Another acrylic with texture.
This one by Rollin Pickford from the mid-1900s.
And a small 1940 abstract by Ella Moen Odorfer,
created few years before she and other working artists created
the Fresno Art Museum and the Fresno Art Council.
So, a nice Saturday, and to cap it off, Fresno was treated to a brilliant red sunset, just outside our door. Art is all around.
Stay tuned,
John and Marianne