Venice Art Week Kicks Off With Venice Art Block - The Best

There are a lot of great days in Venice, but yesterday was particularly so. Venice ArtBlock kicked off what is being called "Venice Art Week", with the trifecta of Block, Crawl, and Walk all going down in the same week this year. I'm partial to the Block, because it's all local artists, all opening up their (still) local studios, it's all free to attend, and you see everyone in town. All of the Art events are wonderful, but the  Block is grassroots, and all about keeping Venice not only about the ART but about the COMMUNITY. Which is awesome.

The May grey cleared out by about noon, and it was the most perfect day imaginable to be out and about looking at art and partying with your neighbors. Our first stop was to see dear friend Amy Kaps, who had just won the award for Best Experimental Film at the Fine Arts Film Festival at Beyond Baroque the night before. Kaps is a local legend, and her performance art pieces are some of the bravest and most thought-provoking things you can see. We clinked a glass with Kaps and her darling mother, Joy, and talked about how creative lives can sure be hard, but the Universe really lets you know when you're on the right path, and it sustains you. Somehow. Thank Goodness.

From that lovely visit, we crossed the street to check out the studio - and margaritas - of Rohitash Rao, Alexandra Dillon, Marlene Elise, and Jack Herzog. This might have been my favorite stop of the day, for the great art and for the great conversation. Rao's art is some of the wittiest work around, always with some biting commentary about our society, and painted on found objects, anything from an old fence to a champagne bottle. We talked about art and life and Venice and I felt so lucky to be surrounded by so many like-minded creatives all day. It's extra inspiring to know that so many people really are doing their best to make their lives be about what they love.

I also think Rao is great for having recently done this piece. Of course.

Dillon's dreamy work was great to see, as I'd only really seen her jewelry before, so to know that she also has gorgeous paintings up her sleeves was a delight to discover.

We were all happy to see Rao's young intern not only show his art for the first time. but to make his first sale! That's another angle to this kind of day and people ... people actually WANT to help and support each other. I didn't hear a word of competition or really anything but mutual admiration all day long. That is SPECIAL.

Also special is just how great the people of our community are. Hugs and waves were exchanged everywhere we went, and many times I was threatened to be left behind because my conversations were all going so long at every stop. That's because they were so great! I don't think I engaged in hardly any small talk at all, each chat was in depth, and I'd go so far as to say soulful. I got chills, I got tears in my eyes, I laughed my head off ... everyone was just being REAL. How great, but also how rare these days. I floated off to the next yellow flag, aware that the clock was ticking and there was still much to see.

The Electric Lodge had Gary Palmer and his crew out making a chalk mandala that was beautiful, as well as a dance performance by Heather Rabun and Domonic Dean Breaux. I ran into Block organizers Francisco Letelier and Marybeth Fama there, which was funny because I was on my way to their space right then. I thanked them for all of their hard work, and we all just kind of smiled and beamed, because it really couldn't have been any better. Pedicabs and buses were shuttling people along to all the event locations, but we had the freedom of being on foot (or so I chose to look at it). You see more up close that way.

Cruising down 6th, we stopped in to say hi to Jules Muck. She was busy making t-shirts and giving them all away for free to anyone who wanted one. A little old lady from Moscow came by pushing her little dogs in a baby stroller, and left with new friends and a new outfit. You could tell her day was made. As was mine (I left with a shirt spelling "Disaster"!).

Off to Letelier's beautiful studio/yard, which was another location featuring a whole slew of artists (Letelier, Fama, Ruth Chase Boudreaux, Maude Tanswai, Martha Ramirez Oropeza, Ivo Vergara, Marianne Magne, Hagop Belian, Venice Arts Council, Andrea Bijou, Philip Folsom!!!). It was packed with a ton of friends to talk to, and also new ones to learn from. Like Leonardo Ibanez, who is from Peru and makes incredible masks from all recycled materials.

 He pointed out the everyday items that made up his creations, like wine corks and paper beads he makes himself, and also explained how he makes his pigments for his paintings from beets and egg yolk. It was pretty fascinating stuff, and I could have listened to him a lot longer ... but I could tell the sun was already altering its course.

We clinked a beer in the garden with friends in the sunshine and it was so nice. That's another great thing about ArtBlock, is everyone is in entertainment mode, and set up for a party at each stop. Like, we kind of had to pace ourselves if we were going to still be upright by the end of the day. There's also a lot of walking though, so it somewhat balances out. Cheers!

I chatted with Jason Hill about his Venice-centric work, and was happy to see people not only appreciating it, but hitting him up about buying it. As fun as the whole thing is, that really is the point - giving artists the awareness and the support to keep them here, creating and enhancing the entire town through their work. It seemed to be doing the trick. Everywhere we went.

There was also live music all day, with musicians setting up in the alleys, yards, parking lots and sidewalks along the way. The alley outside of Letelier's studio was particularly raucous, with passersby joining in on the sing-alongs with gusto. No one seemed self-conscious, no one seemed shy, it was just all fun. FUN.

Over on Vernon, we went through all the studios there, with excellent work behind each door. I was sad and disappointed there, however, because a big sign had been put up in the hallway saying it would be this location's last Art Block because the landlord wants to double the rent, in another example of greed failing to recognize the big picture. There were Sharpies attached for visitors to sign their displeasure and it will be rolled out on that person's desk soon. Hopefully they won't want to be remembered as the Bad Guy. Which they will be, should they really kick everyone out. ENOUGH!

This feeling carried over to Sunset, where I saw my friend, Bill Attaway, had set up his wares on the sidewalk outside of his old - now empty and unused - studio. Where he was kicked out of last year. It's just ridiculous. And maddening. But, MAN, was I happy to see him again, and know that he's still here creating, and that our Artists cannot and will not be stopped by someone else's greed. Ever. That alone is a triumph.

The Artiststore was packed with art enthusiasts, and it was cool to see not only Pamela Weir-Quiton's wonderful woodwork again, but also her fashion work, now being brought out and displayed.

This is couture style super creative stuff, and it was fun to see people trying things on and experimenting. You could physically see inspiration happening, as one would wear that orange jacket with their fabulous white skirt, etc ... and you heard the voices raise a notch with excitement. It was cool.

The Temple Of Mediclaytion was a crucial stop, not only because it was so great to see ceramic artist Patrick Johnston and his lady, Sam Savoia, again, but also because they were grilling up awesome burgers and dogs, and at this point in the day, that was extra appreciated. Thank you, TOC!!! It was also great to see the spark in someone's eye as they learned that they too could take pottery classes and it might be a whole new thing to love. Self discovery is one of the very best parts of art, right?

I made a quick hop inside Dustin Otterbach's rocket ship to say hi, and quick catch up with the dude that makes these real great metal bracelets, and also, you just have to jump in a rocket ship when you get the chance.

Bisco Smith and I slammed down some bones in his black and white studio, while Anderson Paak's exceptional Venice album played in the background. With frosty Tecates in hand, this stop was excellent - as is all of Smith's graffiti-influenced work.

Texts were coming in from all over town about where to head next, from rooftop jams to beautiful paintings I'd missed way over on the walk streets. The loudest music was coming from over on Hampton at John Mooney's Moonlight Glass Studio, so that's where we rolled to next. The Venice Street Legends were playing their bluesy tunes, the grill was fired up, and people were dancing in the streets (ok, the parking lots)! Tons of friends were here, so this really became a true party.

I hung with my bff, Erinn, there a moment, and thought that her perfect hat ribbon sort of summed up the day ... Love What You Do ... Do What You Love. Exactly. And everyone was doing it!!

By now the sun was setting and real parties were getting going. Maps in hand, we tried to squeeze in any more art that we could, but at the beach we were met by maybe the best display of the day ... Flags from around the world from every nation were stuck in the sand surrounding the Drum Circle. People were going off, drumming and dancing and yelling in celebration of what had truly been an exquisite day in Venice.

Along with the flags, just about every language could be heard talking and laughing along the way, and it was beautiful. Art and music and sunsets and color and dancing and smiles are all Universal. There were no barriers, just joy and community, and everyone having an equally great time ... right here in Venice, California on a sunny Sunday. And all was well, at least for the moment. Which is all we really have.

A heartfelt thank you to the wonderful Venice ArtBlock for an entire day of perfect moments!

Learn Ceramics At The Temple Of Mediclaytion

As I've set out to tell stories about awesome classes you can take in Venice, I realized that it's more than  all of us learning new things ... it's also about keeping these teachers and artists in Venice by paying them for classes as they face ridiculous rising rents and the threat of a homogenized Venice. Then it creates even MORE artists and people that know how to do cool things, and Venice remains cool. Everybody wins. So today let's talk about ceramics and how you can learn to throw down at the Temple Of Mediclaytion with your teacher, Patrick Johnston. 

Johnston grew up in Newport Beach, and at the age of 6 in Kindergarten, he had a lightning flash after asking for all the scraps from the old clay hand project that kids do. At recess that day, he realize that ceramics was going to be his thing. He would beg, borrow, and steal to be able to keep working with clay, fighting to do it because his parents didn't see a big future in it for him. When you have to fight to do something, you tend to do it as much as you can, and Johnston would bury himself in a clay studio for 18 hours a day if he could, especially once he was exposed to the wheel at the age of 11.

College took Johnston 14 years to complete, with the first 11 bouncing around to different schools, skipping classes to be in the studio and surf (he definitely comes off more as more of a burly surfer than sensitive clay Zen master, which makes it all the more a testimonial to the calming effect the art has on someone). Once he realized that he should be majoring in ceramics, he got into the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, and it was all straight A's, graduating top of his class from there.

After a stint teaching and running the clay studio at Santa Barbara City College (where he could also surf), Johnston came to Venice kind of by accident. He came down to take care of his ailing father, and a friend offered him studio space in Venice, where he built up an entire community of avid clay artists before settling into the current space for the Temple Of Mediclaytion on 4th Street in the Art Block District in February of last year.

"It's therapeutic to throw clay," explains Johnston. "You're touching a grounding material of Earth ... you have to be in the moment, or it will break. There are four stages, with so much that can go wrong, and disaster around every corner, so you learn to be unattached. When you look at the throw lines, you can see where exactly someone's thoughts dropped off. You have to be super focused and present, or it will come back to haunt you ... You have to train your thoughts to not bring in your own b.s. with you, and leave it at the door." Hence - The Temple Of Mediclaytion. Complete with its own altar, featuring both Zen totems and Dirty Harry.

Johnston's girlfriend, Sam Savoia, runs the business side of things, and got the classes going, with Johnston gratefully acknowledging, "If it was up to me, I'd just buy all surfboards. If she dumped me, the walls of this place would fall in." (It's always refreshing when a man gives the props to his woman that she deserves, which Savoia clearly does, because classes are super popular and the kilns are being kept lit, whatever else might be going on around Venice.)

Classes are offered Monday through Thursday evenings, with your group meeting once a week for six weeks. You'll sit and make something pretty, created with your own hands (after wheel/making something, drying, firing, glazing, decorating, and cooling), sure, but you'll also experience a welcoming community of loving and fun people on your same page.

You'll sit and work surrounded by all the works in progress, and walls adorned by fellow Venice students/artists like Priscilla Witte, Diana Garcia, and Isabelle Alfred Lago.

One of Johnston's students/"Family members", Kat Carter, was there working on a project while we were talking, and she chimed in, "It attracts good vibes here."

I asked my friend, Saori Wall, what she liked about clay class, and she got back to me with this lovely testimonial:

"Temple of Mediclaytion feels like a second home for me & that is because of the love that Patrick, Sam and the rest of the team pour into the space. My first class was with Andy and she completely blew me away with her grace on the wheel. Clay is enigmatic to me, it can take a punch and is the most delicate thing at the same time. It's a meditation on patience for me & I've taken away more gratifying insight about myself from a lopsided bowl or a wonky mug in my hands than any self help or creative endeavor. It's inspiring to see what other students are working on, see their work progress on the shelves. A friend of mine there, way more advanced than I, once took a piece I discarded out of the trash and said, "Don't throw this away..." "It's got a lot of imperfections", I said. His response was, "that's exactly why it's a beautiful piece. You should glaze it and put it in the kiln." I looked at it again with a different set of eyes & am taking this lesson with me outside of those beloved walls."

Everyone can use more good vibes, right? Throw a new skill in for good measure, and you're way ahead of the game. Johnston told me that the symbol for the Temple Of Mediclaytion is an hourglass with no sand in it, because when you're here, you're not really aware of time - like it is whenever you're having the best time.

Johnston loves Venice, changes and all. He has created the dishes for places like Gjelina and The (new) Rose Café, and is kept busy with commissions and gallery shows.

This is all in response to the moment that ceramics is having now, but also, as he put it, "Creatives in Venice need to hustle now to stay in Venice. It's fun, there are a lot of movers and shakers - because they have to be." Johnston had a drawing teacher named Ted Villa that was fond of saying, "Good, better, best, never let it rest, 'til the good gets better, and the better best." Good advice, and good inspiration, as we all go about learning new things, getting better at them, and preserving the artistic integrity of this wonderful, creative vortex we call home.

Take a clay class!
Templeofmediclaytion.com

*Class photos courtesy Saori Wall.

The Venice Art Block - Celebrating Our Home

Sunday was the latest edition of the Venice Art Block, and it was maybe the best yet. Art just everywhere, with friends and neighbors out enjoying it all in the sunshine. A perfect way to let a Sunday happen.

I lucked out with my first stop being just a half block away at my friend Harry Gunderson's house. His beautiful house was decked out with his gorgeous paintings, most of which featured nude women in repose ... all of which I wanted.

Gunderson's partner, Russell Cletta, is a landscape artist, so their house and yard is as lovely as the art inside. This is one of the great parts of the Art Block, being allowed into the spaces where our artists create, as the tag line goes, "See artists in their natural habitat."

From there it was a quick zip over to see the lovely Amy Kaps, freshly back from her trip to Havana, where she performed one of her wonderful unraveling pieces for our Cuban friends. Her home is a beautiful reflection of the special talent that Kaps is. Love her.

This was another packed Sunday for me, so I sped on over to the main hub of the event at 4th and Sunset. There is so much to see during these art events, that you really have to use your time wisely. For me that also meant some real cardio, as we had serious ground to cover. Sunset is a good place to start, as long as you don't get sucked into the vortex of Gjusta and all that chaos. Though everything looked great, we didn't have the luxury of the time that place takes just to place an order. Onward!

Gary Palmer was showing new works made with red wine as the paint.

It gave me a whole new angle on what to do when you spill red wine, and it's always good to see what Palmer is up to in his studio. And keep your ears open to hear about his upcoming street chalk art extravaganza that will be a part of this year's Abbot Kinney Festival.

Jim Budman has his very cool studio open to show the work of Dennis Miranda, in a show titled Naturaleza Muerta (that actually opens tonight at WNDO - 361 Vernon). There is a bit of a Day Of The Dead skull quality to his pieces, some that are recognizable depictions, like Uncle Sam, but most of haunting, The Scream type faces.

Miranda is obviously prolific, with works hanging from floor to ceiling, color bursting out all over. Really good stuff, and someone to pay closer attention to, for sure.

I went to check out the work of Kate Wolfgang Savage from a friend's tip, and climbing the stair up to her studio was well worth not skipping. Her landscapes and people in rustic, wooden frames were some of my favorite pieces of the day. I have my eye on one lazy river scene that has continued to haunt me since Sunday. I'll be going back there.

Eric Schwabel's studio was a real highlight, with people standing in line to get their photograph taken by Schwabel as you stood with an umbrella under an indoor rain storm. I have to say, I was conscious of the drought as the water beat down over my head, but there was a money jar to offset the water use (I told myself), and the pictures came out super cool.

Schwabel had a purple light on behind the subject. so when the shutter snapped, it created a very saturated aura of color surrounding the person with the umbrella. It was fun, I dug it, and was happy to be turned on to such a cool new (to me) talent.

All the galleries along Sunset were open, but time was limited so there was only time for a quick visit and a beer with William Attaway. It was great to see my friend Attaway, but I was extra saddened to hear that he too is going to be evicted. Attaway - whose mosaics and sculptures are prominently featured all over Venice - will have to be working out of Alhambra this fall. ALHAMBRA!

There is a popular Venice t-shirt by Christopher Gallo around town that says, "Venice - Where Art Meets Crime". Gallo's dear friend Attaway has amended that to say, "Venice - Where Art Meets Eviction" - which in itself IS a crime. I'm even getting sick of myself talking about it, but we have to. We have to keep talking about it, and fighting it, or wonderful days like these are certainly numbered. There will be no more artists left to have Walks and Blocks and Crawls for, because they'll all be in fucking Alhambra or somewhere. Is that what you really want, landlords? You're the ones responsible for all of this mess, and we won't forget it.

Again, onward! Attaway has some gorgeous new works in progress, and it's always just fun to hang out and see all the locals coming through to pay their respects. Believe me, there is going to be one BIG Eviction Party when that dark day arrives (probably at the end of August). Ugh. But we were all happy together on this day, just living in the moment.

And then we were REALLY happy because we headed on over to the studio of Francisco Letelier, one of my favorite Venice artists, not only for his beautiful art, but also for his activism. When we rounded the corner of 6th to head into Letelier's space at Indiana Court, I saw what was my very favorite installation of the day.

Already Home is the project founded by Letelier that speaks to home, homelessness, community and what that means to all of us.

The alley is adorned with photos (reproduced from Charles Brittin, who photographed Venice in the 1950's and 60's), drawers with poems and thoughts engraved in them (from a set of drawers Letelier found in the alley), nests, little paper houses, tipis, anything that people thought represented home ... and the fragility and preciousness of that word and its meaning.

The installation is meant to be portable, public, and collective ... art for everyone. Home for everyone. Venice for everyone.

That is the idea behind the installation being mounted in the alley. While out of town money and insane greed (INSANE! This is VENICE - where none of these money people with ZERO vision ever wanted to live before, kicking out people who have lived, loved and created here for decades) are taking over our streets ... Letelier's idea is to take over the alleys. Venice has so many beautiful alleys, that no one really utilizes, and certainly don't beautify. With the welcome addition of Already Home, that's about to change.

Once inside Letelier's space, it is a haven of art and beauty. Kids were drawing their own art for the alley at a picnic table.

Leonardo Ibanez showed his masks, Mary Beth Fama displayed her work. An acoustic guitarist was regaling the visitors with lovely, flamenco kind of tunes, and enchanting doorways invited you to come in and take a look.

I know that I missed a lot of this Art Block, and I apologize to anyone I was unable to get to, but if I could only see one thing on that day, I'm so glad I saw the Already Home project. It's exactly what people need to see - and to contribute to - right now, especially here in Venice. OUR Home. To people (or more likely the corporations they work for) who would choose to raise rents to unlivable, unworkable, unattainable rates that threaten to turn our fair town into a white bread mall in the name of their sickening greed, I'd just say, too bad. We're already home. And we'll fight you for it.

Thank you to all involved in the absolutely great Art Block .... where the art is for everyone, and all are welcome.