June First Friday - Maddie Amelia Lewis: Dreamscaping

Artist Reception: Friday, June 5 - 6-8 p.m.

Bio: Maddie Amelia Lewis is a 2D artist with a fondness for acrylic paint and ink. She is a recent graduate from UC Santa Cruz. She is fascinated by fantasy, the arts, and textures.

Paintings will be on sale from $20-$85, and lithographic prints will be selling from $5-$15. See artist website for preliminary prices: www.noxkitarts.com

Artist Statement:

I like making huge gestural brush strokes, circular voids reminiscent of black holes, drips, and fine lines. I paint abstracted landscapes and attempt to embody concepts like death, anxiety, love, daydreams, and imaginary places. I will go through great lengths to actualize an idea. I try to draw from the beauty and emotion in my life for my art so I can’t forget it. Each of my pieces is a space I create to reflect, and after I take my time with each one, I let it go.As an acrylic painter, I am a texture junkie. I love acrylic mediums—glass beads, resin sand, modeling paste, black lava—I’ve tried them all and I make full use of them. My paintings ensure dynamic and varied surfaces. I tend to work very quickly and use a lot of aggressive mark-making techniques. The larger the canvas, the more energetic I become while I paint it. For small works, I can be more delicate, but the restlessness remains.  They say that drawing from live models gives the drawing itself more life, so I try to instill the energy, emotion, and intensity into my paintings by embodying those feelings as I paint.In the end, it all comes down to an obsession. I paint because I can never get paintings out of my head. A painting will tell me what it needs to be real, and I oblige it the best I can. It’s a piece of the world inside of me—it has always been, and will never cease to be.

First Friday, May 3

Picture of Success Paintings and Prints by Lois Rosson

Lois is a painter, print-maker, radio personality, and self-proclaimed historian. Friday, May 3 Artist Reception: 6-9 PM Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios 118 Coral Street (Harvey West) http://loisrossonart.com/ Exhibit will be available for the entire month of May and can be viewed during normal rehearsal studio hours.

First Friday October 5

First Friday, October 5 Artist Reception 6-9 p.m. Facebook RSVP

ARTIST BIO: RAY HAYES by Darryl Ferrucci

Santa Cruz artist Ray Hayes has spent the last several years engaged in a continuous and prolific exploration of the intersections of disparate phenomena(perceptions).

3rd generation artist on the maternal side, 3rd generation engineer/inventor on the paternal side Ray, 34, synthesizes these two streams of his family history into a unique juxtaposition of the aesthetic and the technical.

Ray's painting process begins with an open-minded approach to visual perception; processing the entopic phenomena of Form Constants into “ghosted-in” inter- dimensional frameworks; in which no form, object, or perception can singularly dominate any part or whole of the construct. Ray takes advantage of the powerful pattern making 'machinery' of the human mind; he allows patterns and visual relationships to reveal themselves , rather than seeking out a subject to focus on. At times using his visual myopia as a tool; allowing that, at a distance, ambiguous details can and must play any number of roles in the big picture.

In the painting practices, back in the warehouse, Ray synthesizes and processes these rich fields of perception in an intensive process of drawing, painting & collage. Juxtaposing and layering his imagery. He deconstructs his vision, mixes it with inspiration and new visual explorations, reconstructing this mix into an ongoing series of vibrant and engaging imagery. In an experimental process of quick free-form design, he fluidly combines a wide range of imagery from both his observation and imagination in a unique and constantly evolving style.

He has a strong interest in the form and design of the simple-practical, the impossible, theoretical, & the intentionally functionless variations that define mechanical objects; stemming from fascinations with Alexander Calder and Franz Reuleaux's work.

Ray freely blends these technologically inspired explorations with other modes of imagery; whether biomorphic, abstract, cartoon-like or straight figurative . In structuring his paintings, he engages in continual deconstruction & re-engineering of perspective, space and experience- to this end, he frequently cuts out, recombines, and layers his images. His paintings may become three dimensional, pointing toward or into the extra- dimensional.

His approach to media and materials used for his work is as fluid as his perceptual practices. He relies wholly upon discarded, recycled, & found materials as his painting surfaces, making a point to never have to purchase the surface.