A new month means new art shows. Donald and Felicia set out Thursday evening to indulge in the latest exhibitions. If you saw something that stirred you that they didn't get to -- or you saw the same shows and want to comment -- please share it in The Hive. Donald writes:

Water is never perfectly still. Even when it's in a pond -- no wind, no current, no splash -- it's never static. Whether it's the shift of sunlight on a glassy surface, the descent of a leaf or the tiniest buzz of an aquatic insect, water has a motion all its own if you stare long enough at it. That's what Juliana Harris did at a little, out-of-the-way pond in the Sierra foothills. Her new solo exhibit of oil paintings at Fig Tree Gallery, is inspired by the artist's repeated trips to a special place called "Lucy's Pond" on Finegold Creek, about a half hour's drive from Fresno. Her impressions of the water in different seasons, ranging from thundering white waterways to smooth, quiet pools, give the show a retrospective sweep -- it's like an ethnography of a place. Instead of putting these scenes in perspective, however -- instead of framing the water with earth and sky, say, to immediately signal our brains that this is a pond -- she chooses to simply show us the water itself. You get a sense of its layers: the shimmering surface and the murky depths below. It's like when you're staring at something incredibly intently, and you focus in on it so much that you lose all sense of its surroundings. Instead of just the recreation of water, what you get is the recreation of the feeling of that water, which is a much more transformative experience.

There are a couple of her works in the show that do have a figurative nod. Her "Floating Moth," for example, is dominated by the outline of the insect in the small frame. (It's interesting that with the figure's trim outer shards of texture, my first thought was that I was looking at a human skull.) In "Tule," we get the sense of the shimmering grays and greens of a foggy day. My favorite is her "Dusk 13," in which her thick, wide brushstrokes suggest fallen leaves on the surface of the water -- which has to be one of the most beautiful things you can see on a fall day.

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Felicia writes:

I started my evening at a new spot: The Golda Foundation's Art Space at 1239 Fulton Mall. You'll find it next door to Milano, toward the Tuolumne Street side of the mall. The art gallery is in an intimate, rectangle-type space that not only wants to give artists a place to exhibit but help attract visitors to downtown Fresno. It was good to see that the gallery, which opened Oct. 30, attracted on its first ArtHop night a number of visitors.

[The foundation plans to rotate a group of artists on a regular basis. The hours, except for holidays, are 4:30-9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays.]

The current roster of artists include Donna Locati, whose colorful three-dimensional paper angels in scales small and large are wistful and playful. It also includes Marcos Dorado, who splits his time between Fresno and Santa Barbara. He focuses on the human form (including nudes), usually drawing in a representational style in graphite or Conte sticks on paper. He told me about a project he's working on. It's called "100 Faces of Fresno," and he says it will be on exhibit next fall at the Arte Americas cultural arts center.

Dorado says the project is motivated by his desire to bring people into art. This way, those he draws will be emotionally invested because they had a role in creating images. And he says they will tell their friends and families about the experience: "It connects people with art that way."

He says he's already finished a number of the pieces including portraits of familiar faces such as Council Member Henry T. Perea and and his wife, and KFSN Channel 30 anchors Nancy Osborne and Graciela Moreno. But Dorado also is looking for the faces of everyday folks. He may see a face at a bookstore or cafe that strikes him. The portrait seen here is of Michelle Butcher, a teacher.

So, if a man walks up to you one day and says his name is Marcos Dorado and he would like to draw your portrait, you'll know why.

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Donald writes:

At Corridor 2122, Tom Howell arranged a show titled "Naked Relevance" that is disjointed and disappointing. The subject is nudes. Consisting mostly of Howell's works in a variety of media, the exhibition has a cluttered feel. The quotes from famous artists, splayed all over the walls in different type faces, feel obvious and cliched. Some of Howell's photographs are strong, but there are too many of them: He could have used an editor. My favorite of his works is a drawing done with silver prismacolor pencil on prepared masonite titled "Donna." It shows a reclining female figure who could be sleeping. Unlike the rest of the show, which has a jumbled feel, this spare, minimalist work draws the viewer in, with the light pencil strokes -- especially along the top of the woman's leg and thigh -- dissolving into the nothingness of the creamy blank background. For me, it evoked the delicate action of drifting off to sleep.

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Felicia writes:

Fulton's Folly Antique Collective, 920 E. Olive, this month is featuring Susan Gutierrez. If you're familiar with her work, it's got a delightful pop art twang and humorous touch. The space at Fulton's is small, so she has about a dozen watercolor and ink drawings on display. The pieces stem from her desire to visit Australia some day. Kangaroos, kiwi birds and other figures curve and bend in appealing hues. And, if you look past the fun, you'll spot a message or two about our environment.

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Donald writes:

At Gallery 25, Trude McDermott and Kris Kessey have dual shows that might not have been coordinated beforehand between the artists but still end up complementing each other nicely. McDermott's "Rock and Ice" focuses on Alaska's glaciers and the rocky seaside caves of California and Oregon. (While I think the cave works are strong, I found the glacier series repetitive and rather emotionless compared to Harris' deeply layered works, but perhaps that's just because I used to live in Alaska and have seen so many depictions of calving glaciers.) Kessey's show, titled "On Earth," has a strong political bent. I particularly like her installation piece "In her Madness, Ophelia Was Oblivious to Her Fate," which consists of a "river" of broken windshields leading to the drowned protagonist, which in this case is a satellite image of the Earth. As we all know, Ophelia committed suicide in "Hamlet," and the suggestion here is that we're doing the same with global warming, leaving this planet's fate little more than a floating corpse in a still pond. Two other favorites in Kessey's show: "Counting Claws," in which recreated polar-bear claws are arrayed on an abacus-like device along with the warning that at the current rate, the species will be extinct in 100 years; and "Nine Meditations on the Rainforest," depicting large drooping leaves accented by what almost look like funereal candles. I definitely got the sense that these leaves were "crying."

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Felicia writes:

Clay Mix, at 1003 N. Abby St. focuses on ceramics and is literally a mix of gallery space, working space, supplies for sale and classes. Until Dec. 20, the featured artist is Susan Clusener, with her alluring, and at times, whimsical ceramic sculptures and wall pieces that stem from exploring the natural objects in her surroundings. She's done series in subjects such as stones and prickly seed pods.

She's also done one in fruit. In this show, they take on an inner life and intent. In "Apple Offspring," a hugely proportioned apple is sliced open, revealing a bunch of tiny red apples snugly jumbled in its core as bright seeds of life. "Pear with 1,000 Flowers," another large-sized fruit, is a piece in which half of the pear is covered with tiny flower buds in a profusion of energy. "Pregnant Pear" (seen here) is just as it is titled: The fruit not only is pregnant but bountifully expecting twins. Her work is an interesting combination of what can be fun and accessible in art and yet meaningful.

Clusener writes this about her fruit series on her Web site: "In most of our lives, fruit are everyday objects, familiar, and easily overlooked. Each of my fruit sculptures presents a common image sometimes filled with other ordinary items, such as a ladder, windows, or a chair. In combining these simple images, I'm hoping to allude to something more: a waiting, a wish, a hope perhaps, or possibly even a belief that something might happen . . . something amazing . . . maybe even . . . something magical. When we experience these moments, they usually revolve around simple things, or the smallest things, that suddenly fill us with the biggest feeling, and even though we may not know the ultimate answer, we know we are part of it."

Posted by
Felicia Matlosz

3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)