My art summer started with Open Studios at the 4:20 Gallery in Jingletown.
The 4:20 Gallery looked great!
The first two weekends in June saw Jingletown packed with art lovers and party goers.
On Saturday, a street party rocked with the music of two bands and a fundraising bar-be-que.
This is me with my dog, Kali. She loves to mix and mingle!
Cynthia - "the mayor" - had beer on sale in Jingletown glasses as well as selling other memorabilia. Nothing happens in Jingletown without beer.
A brand new art event in Oakland is Estuary Art Attack, an art walk in Alameda and Jingletown on the second Friday of each month. The first one coincided with Open Studios so, happily, the 4:20 was packed again! Many new faces came through the doors and were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the art in this little neighborhood.
Some Alamedans organized a bike brigade to cover the miles of art galleries, restaurants and events.
My third art event was Second Saturday in Sacramento, August 8th. Also an art walk, it brings out thousands of art, music and food lovers every month.
My mosaics were in a show titled "The Art of Broken Pieces" in the Phantom Gallery at 1616 Del Paso Blvd. The curator was Mariellen Layne. She did a great job bringing 10 mosaic artists together because, as they say, organizing artists is like herding cats!
It was great to be part of a mosaic show. I jumped at the chance to show my nudes. Check out a video of the evening by Mariellen Layne. The other artists in this show were Madeline Behrens-Brigham, Donna Billick, Lynn Dowing, Frankie Hansbearry, Mariellen Layne, Wenia Lee, Marsha Rafter, Sandy Weaver, Diana White.
Jingletown is having a Holiday Art Walk. Yep, that's right! Just in time for the gift-giving time of year. Buy unique presents during our Open Studios - Saturday & Sunday, December 6 & 7, 2008. You'll find everything from furniture to jewelry, mosaics to paintings, postcard art to garden art...and much much more. Everything unique! Each piece hand made! You'll also see a lot of local color and charming characters. You may even meet the "mayor" - she's always lurking about! So come on down! I'll be showing my art at 4:20 Gallery. See you there.
Well 2008's East Bay Open Studios have come and gone and the crew at 420 Gallery - 420 Peterson in Jingletown, Oakland - had a great time. We were "the place to be" these past two weekends. Hanging out in the sun with beer, bar-be-que and friends is a perfect way to spend two weekends. It didnt hurt that so many of my friends came to support me and I even sold 5 pieces - mostly frogs! Thanks to all of you! You can see my frog mosaics in a few previous posts - they're turning out to be very popular.
Here is the cast of characters at the gallery: Jill Gibson, Nicole Lanzotti, Brian Mason, Selamawit Mekonen (pictured at our table), Bill Silveira, the lovely Heather "my eyes are falling out" Whitehead, Kyle "x-rated" Siler, "Blue-Tape" Susan Parish and me. This is Cynthia - the unofficial and beloved Mayor of Jingletown. As she says: "If you think I did it, I did!" Watch for a tee shirt with that slogan on it coming soon!During the beer-drenched festivities, one idea bandied about was that Jingletown secede from the country to become it's own principality. To that end, it's own currency - JBucks - were minted and handed out. The denomination is 100 JBucks and everything in Jingletown will cost 100 JBucks. Simple! And of course, guess who's picture is on them?This is the Viking Death Machine owned by junk artist and car nut, Bill Silveira. It drew the people in and was a real conversation piece with folks checking out every nook and cranny and even hopping into the driver's seat for photo ops.Heat stroke gave Susan, Cynthia and I a great idea: let's run over tee shirts and sell them.Here we are testing out our brilliant idea.It's simple: Lay the tee on the street, paint the tire, and then run the car over the tee. VOILA!! Bill has a new tee shirt! He wore it proudly the rest of the weekend. He will need to wash it soon though - two days of sweating in the hot sun is enough for any tee to endure.Watch for the blossoming of this idea as the summer progresses. There are major plans in the works for Jingletown Skidmark tees. Some possible slogans: "I Got Hit By a Car in Jingletown and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee Shirt!" "Jingletown Speed Bump" "Jingletown - Life In The Fast Lane"Our friend and fellow artist, Delaine Hackney, enjoyed a good laugh about the tees with the rest of us. We're assured she was laughing with us and not at us! ha ha.As Cynthia, our Mayor, rides away to take care of Jingletown another day, we bid you a fond adieu and invite you back for more art during our Holiday Art Walk, sometime before Christmas 2008. See you then! In the meantime check out the Jingletown website for more information about this zany cast of characters!
You can see "Mardi Gras", more of my mosaics and a lot of other art at the upcoming Jingletown Open Studios in Oakland California, June 2008. Go to the Jingletown website for all the information.
Fernando Reyes began his art career as a self-taught artist. However, after he spent 17 years in banking in San Francisco, he decided to seek formal art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has lived in Oakland for the past eight years and his studio is at the Ford Street Studios in the Jingletown neighborhood of Oakland.Fernando has produced a large and diverse portfolio of artwork. His work is primarily representational and includes oil paintings, charcoal/conte drawings, and printmaking. His primary interest is in depicting the human figure. To me, he captures the "presence" of the figure; not only the weight and volume of the body, but the personality of the model as well. And with his paintings and prints - as with the Japanese erotic art I wrote about in a previous post - the viewer has to become involved with the work, unravelling the lines and colors to actually see the figures and movement of each piece. This is not art that just sits on the wall matching the decor!These works have captured the attention of collectors throughout the region, nationally and internationally.
Over the last decade Fernando has had several solo exhibitions and has been in many group exhibitions featuring his figure drawings and/or print works.
Fernando is one of many Jingletown artists who will be opening their studios as part of the East Bay Open Studios, June 7, 8, 14, 15, 2008.To see more of his work, visit his website Fernando Reyes For more about Jingletown and it's artists visit this website Jingletown Also check out more here : JTown blog
The 4:20 Gallery looked great!
The first two weekends in June saw Jingletown packed with
On Saturday, a street party rocked with the music of two bands and
This is me with my dog, Kali. She loves to mix and mingle!
Cynthia - "the mayor" - had beer on sale in Jingletown glasses
Some Alamedans organized a bike brigade to cover the miles of art galleries,
My mosaics were in a show titled "The Art of Broken Pieces" in the Phantom Gallery at 1616 Del Paso Blvd.
It was great to be part of a mosaic show. I jumped at the chance to show my nudes.
The 4:20 Gallery looked great!
The first two weekends in June saw Jingletown packed with
On Saturday, a street party rocked with the music of two bands and
This is me with my dog, Kali. She loves to mix and mingle!
Cynthia - "the mayor" - had beer on sale in Jingletown glasses
Some Alamedans organized a bike brigade to cover the miles of art galleries,
My mosaics were in a show titled "The Art of Broken Pieces" in the Phantom Gallery at 1616 Del Paso Blvd.
It was great to be part of a mosaic show. I jumped at the chance to show my nudes.
