Review: Small Images 2008

The Atkinson diet : 'Small Images' at SBCC brings together a diverse group of talents working small but thinking big

By Josef Woodard
Santa Barbara News Press, Scene Magazine
November 28, 2008 12:19 PM


Top: Penelope Gottlieb's Mid-Century Wow! is one of several real estate-themed pieces in the SBCC show Small Images 2008. Middle" Mark Lozano's The Space Between, and below: Nicole Strasburg's Brush Fire, take the theme in digressing directions. COURTESY PHOTOS


For many years now, the Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College has been the go-to place for anti-epic art, thanks to the ever-alluring Small Images show. If the tradition is predictable as calendar clockwork, the artistic viewpoints and specifics heed a nice diversification year to year, thanks to the rotation of outside jurors. As wisely chosen this year by Daniel Dove, a painter and assistant professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, this year's crop is a strong - and definitely wee - one.

One of the charms of the show is the opportunity to check in on regional artists we thought we knew, but in a radically altered scale. Larry Iwerks is a respected member in the landscape painter scene here, and his Aspen at Flagstaff is a loosely brushed oil, almost small enough to fit in a wallet. On the almost comically microscopic scale, Beverly Decker's acrylic-on-canvas piece is truly pocket-sized and assemblage handyman Dug Uyesaka's sculptural bauble is a miniaturist's dream.

Deceptively small in scale and in tactile imprint, the normally concept-driven artist Penelope Gottlieb shows witty, faint, pencil-on-paper drawings of suburban houses, the pencil colors matching the kitschy frames and fitted with titles tinged by real estate marketing language - i.e. Mid-Century Wow! and Handyman's Heaven! But the exclamation points are a stark contrast to the artist's soft touch and dry humor.

Self-conscious compactness isn't the only concern in the show. Among the sculptural entries, Gayle J. Waite's fancifully stitched fabric art/soft sculpture comes equipped with the mock-lofty title nonconforming tactile substrata while Colin Fallat's Tool Time mimics a functional tool box, but in the unseemly material of ceramic and metal.

Jens Pedersen, the longtime Santa Barbara-based artist whose relief sculptures happily violate the boundaries of painting and sculpture, shows his work, in smaller form than usual. Shauna Moses' untitled ceramic vessel is conspicuously tiny, but Jon Go's Crumpled Up Ball of Frustration lives up to its title with its gnarled mass of vari-colored acrylic, an emblem of clenched tension.

In the painting corner, Nicole Strasburg's Brush Fire is a concentrated blast of heat and flame packed into a small square format, and unintentionally all too relevant to recent, tragic events in Santa Barbara.

One of the strongest pieces in the room is Mark Lozano's The Space Between, an enigmatic and impressively detailed realist painting of a shadowy interior, with ragged white curtains both framing the view and casting the otherwise mundane scene in dramatic terms. We're drawn into a realm of space and craftily flip-flopped definitions of subject and ground. Dreamtime visions lurk in the space between the details, made all the more mysterious by its compacted scale.

As before, the tacit mantra and message of this annual show is that, in art, scale can - and does - matter.

'SMALL IMAGES 2008'
When: through Dec. 12
Where: Atkinson Gallery,
Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Dr.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Information: 965-0581, Ext. 3484, www.gallery.sbcc.edu

A Merry Thanks to All

Abundant love and joy this holiday.

Fire Cause Determined

Tea Fire Cause Is Determined
Fire the Result of Carelessness Caused When Bonfire Left Unattended

SB Independent
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
by RAY FORD

At a 4 p.m. press conference, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown announced that as a result of an anonymous tip, investigators were able to identify ten young adults as those responsible for the cause of the Tea Fire. Brown described them as between the ages of 18 and 22, area residents, and a mixture of males and females. Brown also described them as all coming from one school and being cooperative with investigators.

The breakthrough resulting in their identification came as a result of the appeal made to the community to provide information regarding the fire. Over forty tips were received, including one anonymous tip relating to a party that had occurred at an area on the east end of the ridgeline overlooking Cold Springs Canyon known as the Tea Garden.

The cause of the fire appears to be the result of carelessness rather than criminal intent. Sometime Wednesday evening, November 12, the ten apparently headed up to the Tea Garden to party and this including starting what the Sheriff called a bonfire. When they left sometime between 3 and 5 a.m. Thursday morning, those who attended the gathering told investigators that they thought they had put out the fire, which was built near a wall in the Tea Garden area. Rather than dying out, coals from the fire continued to smolder throughout the day and ignited when the strong sundowner winds picked up Thursday evening.

Brown declined to identify those involved and added that the investigation is still ongoing. At this time reports are being prepared and submitted to the District Attorney’s office which will decide if any criminal charges will be filed. Anyone with additional information regarding the start of the Tea Fire is encouraged to call the Tip Line at (805) 681-4171.

95% containment in Montecito - 40% in LA

specific information can be found on the california government site HERE

blessings and be safe

Tea Fire

Sending out prayers to all those evacuated from their homes last night in Santa Barbara. Prayers and thanks to all the workers (firefighters, police, Red Cross, equine rescue, animal shelters) helping to combat the flames and keep everyone safe from the devastating fire still moving through our hillside.

For up to date, fantastic coverage you can't beat the Santa Barbara Independent. The LA Times also has articles, photos and a map HERE Google has one of the best maps of the area I've seen HERE

To help: the Santa Barbara chapter of the RED CROSS is accepting donations HERE or call 1 (800) HELP NOW

New Notecards

The new cards are here!

Reflecting Pools

Island Hop


I just had new 5x7" notecards printed at PSPrint. I purchased beautiful clear boxes at ClearBags so that I can box them in sets of 6 to be sold HERE in my etsy shop. Happy holidays came early.

Introducing Erika Carter

Noozhawk Talks: Leslie Dinaberg Sits Down with Erika Carter
By Leslie Dinaberg, Noozhawk Contributor
(reprinted online article)

The owner of Studio 3 East gallery discusses the finer points of living an artful life.
(Carter family photo)
Downtown Santa Barbara’s 1st Thursday events have grown into a popular hive of art, music and wine, and few spots are buzzing like Erika Carter’s Studio 3 East gallery, at 3 E. De la Guerra St. above Starbucks. Carter, a Santa Barbara native, talks with Leslie Dinaberg about living an artful life.

Having invested her life in art, Erika Carter says art is a worthy financial investment.


LD: What are you working on now?

EC: It’s a holiday show. It will be the third annual show for Donna Asycough and myself … This one is “Arbol de Vida,” which is the “Tree of Life.” … The paintings I do are all retablos; those are the little tin devotional paintings, folk art. …This year I’ll be doing 100 of them.

LD: Wow.

EC: Yeah, I know. It’s a lot of work. Donna and I are both just very passionate about Mexico. We can’t get enough of it.

LD: How do you psych up to do 100 paintings?

EC: It’s insane. I get all the tins out. I prep them all at the same time. Most of them are collage transfers, so I take photographs, transfer them, and do some things. … This is all collage, this is all photo transfer, and then I paint on it, too, so it’s a mixture. I’ll go and I’ll photograph like crazy, and then I’ll come back and start looking at my images, start laying them out, and then I get to a point where they all get started. They’ll all be to a point where there will be 100 of them sitting there and I’ll start cranking and it will be 10-hour days.

LD: Do you primarily paint here in the studio?

EC: This is it, so it will be a mess in November. It’s very sad for the artist (Melissa Gill) showing here this month.

LD: There’s something kind of cool about that because most gallery space isn’t studio space.

EC: No. This was originally a studio space, that’s all it was, and for me to survive and have a studio space, which of course wasn’t as big as it is now, was to start doing shows to help pay the rent, which has been really great. I would do a show, have a few friends and hang some artwork for the weekend. Then people started hearing about the gallery space and it grew, and now I’m booked through 2009.

LD: Wow. That’s awesome.

To read the rest of the article about Erika goto Noozhawk HERE.

First Holiday Showing

Afternoon Storm 12x12" oil on birch panel

In conjunction with First Thursdays in Santa Barbara
Sullivan Goss will be opening their Holiday 2008 shows
Thursday November 6th from 5-8pm.
(Yes, you read it right... holiday show)

Four shows will open:

Alia E. El-Bermani - Beautiful Vessels
Hecho En Mexico - paintings from the estate collection
Aldo Casanova - Selected Sculptures
Small Works - portable treasures from the gallery artists

I will have 2 small paintings and one large represented in the exhibitions and will be at the reception between 5-7pm (Bill will be in attendance as well!)

Hope to see you there to share a glass of champagne or a good laugh... we all need one!

Sullivan Goss located downtown at 7 & 11 East Anapamu phone 730.1460