First Friday, May 6
Artist Reception: 6-8 p.m.
“Wheels of Life” includes the work of two artists: June Glenn and Brescia Rose. They will be showcasing contemporary street photography centered on the current cultures of skateboarding and vintage cars in Santa Cruz County.
Monica Calsbeek and Summer Stiegman both grew up in San Diego, California without acquaintance. Serendipitously, they both attended the university in Santa Cruz in the fall of 2012. Since then, they developed an artistic, feminine, and personal relationship in which they influence one another both materially and ideally. Enmesh is a photographic series where the human form and inanimate materials create a dialogue. The subject matter of the photographs are female bodies interacting with textiles. Ranging from natural landscapes to studio lighting, Enmesh explores photographic techniques by means of experimental digital alterations. The layering process suggests that relationships with the self and objects are bound to be multifaceted and tangled.
Emerson Murray: Shadows on the Wall
Artist Statement: Painting is an emotional endeavor for me. Each piece is a distillation of a story, a theme, or a myth, boiled down to an emotional experience. Whether or not the viewer understands my meaning is irrelevant, as long as the viewer feels something, anything. I paint figures, abstracted into form and color set in abstract landscapes. The figures do not occupy the space volumetrically and light and shadow are generally not part of my tool set. I work in both acrylic and oil paint, the oil paint I mix from raw pigment in order to create my own colors. I generally work with a palette knife and my hands. I oftentimes throw and drip paint onto the canvas. The colors are selected on demand, I do not work from a predetermined palette of colors, but mix the colors as I paint, sometimes mixing colors right on the canvas. I am a disciplined painter and show up for work every day. I may stare at a work in progress for nights on end, but I am in the studio working.
Janina A. Larenas: Graphic Works on Paper A collection of design projects ranging from posters to hand printed sticker images to original book illustrations.
Artist Bio: Janina A. Larenas studied printmaking and book arts at the University of California Santa Cruz. Besides design her skills include relief, intaglio and letterpress printing, as well as painting, embroidery, bookmaking and food preserving. Her designs are most recognizable as hand printed printed stickers and as t-shirts for The Devil Makes Three.
The show is available to view during normal studio hours. Check schedule here. If a band is booked, then the studio is open.
First Friday - June 6 Krusch Rhoades
Available to view for the month of June anytime the studio is open. pillars of my existence,” said Rhoades.
Krusch Rhoades, 33, spent the formative years of his youth in the “armpit of New York, the shoulders of New England and on the polluted teat of New Jersey.”
Since then, Rhoades has travelled all over the country, and currently calls Santa Cruz his home. He has painted, drawn, molded, and scrawled for as long as he can remember.
“Identifying myself as an “artist” at an early age somehow allowed me to view life with a golden preciousness. Being enraptured with the architecture of simplicity, the constant dance of light. I’m so thankful for this perspective,” said Rhoades.
Rhoades enjoys large scale work, especially when working with spray paint, which he calls the “closest synthesis of dance and paint.”
“The large sweeping strokes is so pleasurable when compared to the restricted movements of smaller pieces,” said Rhoades.
That being said, the artist produces work of all scales regularly, and even paints bicycle frames.
“Paint and bicycles have been the most consistent relationships in my life and have therefore becomes the pillars of my existence,” said Rhoades.
First Friday, Nov. 1
The Rock Series by June
The series will be up for the entire month of November and can be viewed any time the studio is open.
"I was watching a documentary about Janis Joplin late one night. More than half way into the film I was in a trance watching her ethereally heaving herself across the stage deeply immersed in the blues. Her hair was flying fiercely about and quite suddenly, like a light wave, my mind saw everything with brilliant clarity...I must put all this energy on canvas....Not just paint her, but somehow convey the emotion and the visceral effect of that music...of that time. I envisioned her hair whipping thru tie dye color....and thus became the birth of the Rock Series.."
The Rock Series by June are large scale, original, acrylic on 2" gallery wrap canvas...some with a little extra like silver leaf and wax, or paper. June is also available to do commissioned pieces of your favorite Rock Icons. Contact.
Don’t bleed so loud, I can’t hear the TV
Artist Reception: 6-9 PM
artist statement:
Shadows are revealed in my paintings through humorous abstract narratives, featuring pop culture symbolisms of femininity. In “Dear Jimmy America”, a darkly intimate poem is paired with a comically painterly bra, while “The Great Mother Tit of America” depicts a red-and-white-striped breast lactating ice cream.
In “fun fair i-iii” I explore subtle emotive energies through gestural expressions of vibrant color. Triangular and pentagonal pieces of wood are painted with quick, intuitive movements of wrist and finger. Impressions of vegetal and organic forms emerge, but, like clouds, patterns continue to shift, leaving definition open to viewers’ imaginations.
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.
The LP cover has always been considered a form of art and the "holiday" LP cover is a special gem to be uncovered and admired during the holiday season.
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.
First Friday September 7
Artist Reception 6-9 p.m.
Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios
118 Coral Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Chelsea Briggen – a love story
Artist Statement I paint because the color makes me want to crawl out of my mind and join it in its simple vibrancy. I paint to feel the texture of the substance spread. I paint to say something that has no words just a feeling. And sometimes I'm painting to escape or heal or do something external when in fact painting simply brings me to the highest place in myself... consistently. Sitting in front of an empty canvas feels like waking up each morning. I have options. I have a trunk full of colors and my heart pours ideas through me... This is my joy. To paint.
We are thrilled to welcome the Parachute Collective to Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios this month. Parachute Art Collective is locally owned and operated in Santa Cruz, CA. Parachute's services include promoting, marketing, and distributing for artists including screen printed merchandise and apparel online. We help individuals establishing themselves as artists through facilitating them contributing to and in their communities local and worldwide.
Featured artists include:
First Friday, June 1
Precious on the Edge
Artist Reception: 6-9 p.m.
Precious on the Edge is a joint photo exhibit; a collective snapshot into fringe culture from an insider's perspective. The work of Bryan G. May and Jake Ander Simowitz embodies the intimacy of subcultural transience, the comfort of dusty memories, and the luxury of sneaking into art school print studios.
In photographs framed behind glass, as slide film projections, and on the pages of zines, Bryan and Jake include the medium in their work, producing an array of images that urge an audience to both "skate or die" and to "never give up".
In this forthcoming show, Jake's work focuses on nature through a lens of turmoil, seasons in different places, and the exuberance of youth. Bryan's photos capture life at the crosshairs of intoxication and resistance, the ardor of punk house relationships, and crisp portraits of dirty people.
Artist Statement:
I am Geoff Llewellyn. My tool of choice is a camera; any camera-- in particular, for the majority of photographs on display here, a medium format camera was the tool of choice. Mostly chosen for its insane amount of detail without being a giant large format huge box. I feel an addiction to capturing moments that stand out as beautiful or special. The sense that waiting one more second before pressing the shutter release would mean forgetting that specific moment for ever. Most of the photographs on display were printed at the Cabrillo Color photo lab before it was cut for reasons of budget squandering. My hopes are that photography in its traditional form never dies.
[slideshow] First Friday, April 6 Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios 118 Coral Street
Artist Reception 6-9 p.m.
Joaquin Spengemann is a Santa Cruz native returned to his roots after an extended residency in the east bay. His collages are testimonies to excess and injustice, hubris and tyranny, salvation and redemption as they pay homage to and celebrate the fine craft of the illustrators and photographers whose work he dismembers and reorders. His work exalts the power of nature and scrutinizes the nature of power with recurring themes of greed, romanticism, nostalgia, propaganda and bloodlust. His most recent works betray a burgeoning penchant for the wisdom of alchemical hermeticism, and attempt through the glorious cartography born of the age of discovery to reveal the folly of statism, nationalism, and the currencies that bear their standards. The artist is currently examining the concepts of “value” and “worth” from an antediluvian perspective.
After a long hiatus - First Friday is back and better than ever at SCRS.
First Friday, March 2 Artist Reception 6-9 p.m. The Poster Art of Yasamine June Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios 118 Coral Street
Yasamine June is a graphic artist and illustrator currently living and working in Santa Cruz, CA. She paints her originals and silk-screens limited edition prints by hand. Recent projects include works for Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Camper Van Beethoven, The Album Leaf, Fruit Bats, and Vetiver.
Website: www.yasaminejune.blogspot.com
Contact: yasamine.june (at) gmail (dot)com
First Friday, November 4
Dreamboats and Scallywags - Prints and Paintings by Lucas Elmer
Artist Reception - 6-9 pm
Lucas Elmer is a multi-media printmaker and sculptor as well as an avid waterman. He builds his content from the folklore and reverence surrounding romantic and rugged lifestyles that he appreciates both first hand and from afar. Lucas lives in Santa Cruz, California where, after receiving his BA in Fine Arts at the University of California Santa Cruz, he continues to hone his craft.
First Friday, July 1
Artist Reception 6-9 p.m.
118 Coral Street
The Shop Mix Society, a collective of Bay Area artists, showcases the sometimes mundane, sometimes obsessive, always recurring inclinations of everyday life.