Page 70 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2016

visual art exhibits
Shows/Galleries:
Mary in the Redwoods
ART
Call to Artists
Jan 13 ~ Grant Application Workshop for Local Artists ~ 1:30-3p. Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St, Sebastopol. The Creative Work Fund (CWF) is inviting Bay Area artists and nonprofit organizations to apply for financial support of collaborative projects featuring performing or visual artists. CWF is offering a series of informational seminars. For further information or to see examples of previously funded projects, please visit www.creativeworkfund.org.
Riverfront Art Gallery’s “Showin’ On the River!” Annual Juried Photography Show ~ Entry deadline Jan 23. Photographs from any photographic process and works derived from photographs, such as photomontage and other creative approaches that are the work of the photographer, are eligible for consideration. Info and entry form: www.riverfrontartgallery.com.
Sebastopol Center for the Arts: ABSTRACT ~ Call for artwork that does not attempt to represent external reality but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors and textures. Juried by Frances McCormack, Associate Professor in Painting at SFAI. Exhibit dates are Feb 12-Mar 20. Submission deadline is Jan 7. www.sebarts.org
Exhibit in Healdsburg Center for the Arts ~ opportunities exist for visual artists to exhibit their art. We offer opportunities for artists to rent display space. www. healdsburgcenterforthearts.com/get- involved/artist-opportunities-2/rental- options
~ art contest for children aged 18 and under. Submit your art, writing, photography and video inspired by farm life. Artists will be chosen for the quality and originality of their work and for their enthusiasm for this unique program. Include - somewhere in your art - the Grange symbol: a barn. Cash prizes, and first place entries will be displayed in the new Healdsburg branch. Deadline is Feb 15. www.grangecu.org
Small Works Show 2016 ~ presented by Graton Gallery. Fifth annual juried exhibition Jan 27-Feb 28. Artists Reception Jan 30 2-5p. Entry form at www.gratongallery.net. Submissions must be hand-delivered to Graton Gallery from Jan 21 - Jan 24. 9048 Graton Rd, Graton.
Unity of Santa Rosa ~ ongoing exhibit time and space for spiritually inspirational art to be hung in the sanctuary for 90 day exhibits periods. Showing 8 - 12 pieces per artist. info@unityofsantarosaorg.
By Maja Wood
A massive branch from a redwood
tree lies on the ground, cut in half lengthwise, to serve as a bench. Two elderly men sit on the pew, one staring up at the rays of light filtering in through the trees. The other glances toward me and gives a silent, solemn nod.
It’s Sunday morning in Armstrong Woods. A few hours from now, small children, bless their high- pitched, happy little shrieks, will be rampaging through the forest, excited and laughing and screaming. Tourists will stand inside the cave-like hollow trunks of redwood trees and ask passersby to take a picture. But right now, as the park opens at 8am, there’s a silence and stillness as serenity clings to the forest like morning dew. Even later, as the children laugh and tourists snap, there’s always an underlying sense of calmness that never quite dissipates from the forest.
Carolyn Wilson @ Upstairs Gallery
Gallery Docent Volunteers ~ Healdsburg Center for the Arts gets lots of foot traffic to Healdsburg. Experience all facets of retail in HCA’s gallery where proceeds help to support the art center programs. Friendly, detail- oriented volunteers who can commit 6 to 12 hours per month are needed year-round. Experience in handling money and working with computers is required. Initial and quarterly training will be provided. To Apply: www.healdsburgcenterforthearts. com/get-involved/volunteer or contact vicky@healdsburgcenterforthearts.com .
Discovering Art Series ~ Classes are held from 7-9p on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at the Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery, 204 N. Cloverdale Blvd. A nominal donation ($5 per evening for CAA affiliates, $7 for non-members) will be requested. www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org
thru Jan 2 ~ Four Seasons: Sonoma County Landscapes ~ featuring paintings by Brooks Anderson, Thomas Creed, and Donna DeLaBriandais capture nature’s pageant of the seasons leading the viewer to new discoveries of the beauty of the Sonoma County landscape. Chroma Gallery, 312 South A Street, Santa Rosa. www.chromagallery.net/
thru Jan 3 ~ Energy Materialized ~ Juried paintings and featured sculpures of Bruce Johnson and Riis Burwell. This exhibit will feature the work of these two nationally and internationally known sculptors. Johnson works primarily in wood and Burwell works in various metals. Occidental Theater for the Arts, 3850 Doris Murphy Ct, Occidental.
thru Jan 3 ~ Riverfront Gallery’s Late Fall Show ~ Henry White and Lance Kuehne featured artists. Henry will be showing his original oil paintings of California landscapes. Lance will have his fine art landscape photographs. www.RiverfronaArtGallery.com 132 Petaluma Boulevard North Petaluma (707) 775-4ART (4278)
California’s old-growth forests once
covered thousands of square miles,
from the Oregon border down to the
southern end of the Big Sur region.
But the logging that has been taking
place for the past 150 years has reduced
the forests by more than 95 percent.
Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve is one of the few remaining stands of those redwood trees.
“I worship this place,” Mary Jarvis, tells me in hushed tones as we hike through the forest.
A few weeks before, I had attended a party at Jarvis’ Fulton Crossing art studio, about 17 miles east of Armstrong. As you walk into the space, there is canvas after canvas of gorgeous, colorful paintings that look like smooth, polished planks of wood in vibrant colors. Each painting holds as many as nine layers of oily glaze consisting of natural resin mediums of varying recipes. Choosing the incorrect formula can spell disaster as the wrong mix can eat into the previous layers. These are some very work-intensive, time-consuming pieces. And there are a lot of them. Jarvis has been creating these wood grain designs—and only these wood grain designs—for the past 10 years.
Grange Credit Union: Youth Art Contest
Why would someone spend a decade painting wood grain designs? When I ask her, Jarvis just shrugs and responds, “I don’t know.” All she can tell me is that she finds the paintings beautiful and she finds joy in creating them. I have to agree that those are two very good things to find.
Somewhere along the line, she mentions how the redwoods have been inspirational, and we decide to meet up for a hike at Armstrong. Coast redwoods are the tallest living things on earth and, “Maybe that’s why there’s this unique feeling when you’re in them,” Jarvis says. “There’s that sense of being grounded, rooted in the earth, rooted in traditions. But, there’s also this feeling of being up in the clouds and soaring and being free to think, imagine, and dream new things.
“The tourists think they’re coming here because the trees are the biggest, the tallest, the oldest...whatever statistic they think is important. They come here to take a selfie and check the redwoods off their list. But, what they end up finding is something much different—much more important— than any of that...” Her words trail off as she tilts her head up toward the thin rays of sunlight and closes her eyes. – To read the rest of the story: Go to www.SonomaCountyGazette.com and search for Mary Jarvis.
thru Jan 3 ~ Marty Knapp Photo Gallery
70 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/16
~ New Photographs 2015. 11245 Shoreline Hwy, Point Reyes Station. www.martyknapp.com 415-663-8670
ART cont’d on page 71