Detail: ‘Comes to Town’ - Two 40×42″ C-prints mounted on sintra with plexi front.

Here is a detail from my piece for Eating Apples in Paradise, a group show at the Contemporary Arts Forum.

A smaller version of this piece was previously exhibited in SUPER SANTA BARBARA I 2 years ago.

To see the whole diptych, you’ll have to go check it (and all of the other wonderful work) out in person.  Edit: Show is closed now. Here are two shots if you were unable to attend:

The exhibit runs through May 1st.  Here’s the info (link to review PDF below):

Eating Apples in Paradise featuring Macduff Everton, Elizabeth Folk, Nancy Gifford, Penelope Gottlieb, Saul Gray-Hildenbrand, Kimberly Hahn, Cyndee Howard, Hank Pitcher, Warren Schultheis, Steven Soria, Jonny Troyna, and James Van Arsdale.

Santa Barbara is a paradise; Disneyland is a paradise; the U.S. is a paradise. Paradise is just paradise. Mournful, monotonous, and superficial though it may be, it is paradise. There is no other. - Jean Baudrillard, America

As early as the 1900’s, the city of Santa Barbara promoted itself and its environs as an idyllic setting. From Pearl Chase’s visions of utopia to the widespread dissemination of the resort destination via the eponymous soap opera and into today’s promotions by the Chamber of Commerce and Conference & Visitors’ Bureau, Santa Barbara has consciously sold and established itself as a modern-day paradise.

CAF dares 12 local artists to take a bite out of the proverbial apple with an exhibition exploring the realities and ambiguities of living in such an Edenic location. Via the artists’ works, this exhibition will reveal the multi-faceted issues of the region, both embracing and critiquing our history, sociology, and current conditions.

SBNP Review:  Artburgers in Paradise: (click image for pdf)

SSB2′s reception went wonderfully. Attendance was supposedly 400+  Thanks to everyone who came.

The goal for the show was to raise awareness and encourage conversation about Net Neutrality.  Seems that part went especially well.  We also wound up with some great art.

Thanks  also to everyone who was involved: Ian Smith, Joe Andrieu, Municipal Winemakers,  Saul Gray-Hildenbrand, SBAC, SBCAC and of course CAF.  And to Doc Searls for the kind shout-out.  And of course to the artists: Julia Ford, Angus Forbes, Laura Devendorf, Jonny Troyna, Steve Soria, James Van Arsdale, Kimberly Hahn, Jake Montefu, Jason Sober, Tristan Tyler Blodgett, Stephanie Dotson, Robert Heckes, Kat Trajano, and Alejandro Casazi.

The exhibition will be up at CAF every day of the week till the 23rd if you haven’t seen it yet..  More info: SuperSantaBarbara.com

SSB2′s reception will be this Thursday. Joe Andrieu will be doing a presentation around 7:30pm. There will be wine from Municipal Winemakers too.

Hope you can make it.  Here’s the website if you want more info: SuperSantaBarbara.com

Moving on to some bigger experiments with resin, tape, pen, acrylics.  Big thanks to Stephanie Dotson for turning me onto the resin (a fantastic solution to what I was trying to do years ago with loose sheets of plexi).  Yay for knowing smart people.

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click for enlargement.  More on the way soon.

I just wanted to quickly point you all to a friend and fabulous environmental artist (and writer) Abigail Doan.  Abigail lives in NY (and rural Italy) and makes intricate fiber forms that evoke the complex effect that humans have on the environment, and each other.  Actually, there’s a lot more to them than just that in my opinion.. They’re alluring little nodules, lumps, and strands that are both grotesque and invitingly fuzzy.
I have always been an admirer of her artistic sensibilities, methods, and convictions.  Though we’ve never met in person (we connected originally through NeoImages), we’ve been plotting to eventually collaborate.  Should that finally happen, the output of our experiment will definitely be posted here in one form or another.

I have a small solo show at Gallery Ocho this month. Details and more images below:
April 19th – May 17th, 2008

Artist’s Reception Saturday, April 19th 5-7pm

GALLERY OCHO
1221 State St. #8
Santa Barbara, Ca
93101
Gallery Hours Tues-Friday – noon – 5pm Sat 11am – 4pm Sun – by appointment (805) 965 – 3054

www.galleryocho.com