Monday, May 3, 2010

Busy Weekend filled with great art and good friends


What a busy weekend!

It all started on Friday with a benefit for our beloved friend Richard Godfrey who had a severe fall and has been in the in the hospital for 6 weeks. Last we heard over $17,000 + was raised for him from a silent auction where artists donated works of art. 80 works of art from some of the best artist in Southern Ca. were on display and this included Pomona artists, A.S. Ashley, Fr. Bill Moore, Me (Juan Thorp), and Karen Karlsson. It was a good evening and a great chance to help our friends, Richard and his wife Annette. Thanks to everyone who participated!

The next morning was also a bit of help, but this time for the city of Pomona. It was "Team up to clean up Pomona" day and we did just that. Seven of us from the Colony met at Bunny Gunner for some coffee and donuts, then off to clean with bags and gloves. First on the clean up list was "Lake Pomona" and boy was it a mess. We continued until noon collecting lots of cigarette buts, flyers and some unmentionables. After the clean up, Lincoln Community Church provided a BBQ for all the volunteers at the Fairplex. Yum!

Our day was not over yet. Off to
Torrance Art Museum for an excellent show Set Theory: Roland Reiss Curated by Max Presneill with top artists including Roland Reiss, Lisa Adams, Dean DeCocker, Michael Salerno, and our next months artist, Kristi Lippire, to name a few. The show boasted great large scale works from these artists...it's a must see!

Getting back on the OC freeways, we headed to Santa Ana's first Saturday artwalk, first stopping by at OCCCA. A.S. Ashley made to billing with his signature "Venus" piece hung front and center in the gallery. Peter Frank juried this wonderful exhibition featuring great works from artist all over, even as far as Denmark. Just down the street,
Grand Central Art Center featured great exhibits with extremely talented artists. The main room had the work of Laurie Lipton who created very intricate, detailed graphite drawings on paper. Subjects included a whole apartment building of faces looking on with undisturbed expressions as a woman is mugged and stabbed. Another features a smiling 50's dressed woman turning on a very intricate machine, as if somehow igniting some horrible doomsday device. In the project room, artist Christopher Ulrich created very large scale demon figures in very bright and comic like style. The demons ranged from self devouring human squids to baby doll headed, club wielding video game bosses.

Sunday evening we were back on the other side of SoCal, visiting the
Robert Dowd exhibit opening at CCAA Museum of Art in Rancho Cucamonga. Curated by Cheryl Bookout, this exhibit features "Money" pieces from the collection of Joan and Jack Quinn. Works include paintings of the the Treasury building on fire, Picasso on a dollar bill, and cut up depictions of American currency. It was a great 1960's Pop Art exhibit you have to check out.

All in all, it was a great and busy weekend for art and trash pick up. No brake here, next weekend is Second Saturday.
Slideshow to follow:
-Juan