Vita Art Center-Blog

I’ve been teaching a  Mixed Media Painting class for the last 5 years and I find an interesting thing happening lately…whether the student is a novice art maker or an experienced art maker of any sort, I think they come to get a dose of an attitude I share…it’s “try anything and everything.” Sometimes it’s hard to give yourself permission to go outside of what you know and what you’ve grown accustomed to as your own personal style. You may be inspired by other work you see and you may wonder how the artist did that. Maybe you’ve learned to draw but you haven’t yet picked up a paint brush…it’s scary! You’ve painted in Watercolor but you haven’t tried Acrylics or Oils. What is a Monotype? a Monoprint? Encaustics? The idea of getting to a place in your work that you’re feeling confident about but wanting to try new things, can be a little daunting at first, but just remember this wonderful quote from Jasper Johns “It’s simple, you just take something and do something to it, and then do something else to it. Keep doing this, and pretty soon you’ve got something.”  That’s what I call “process” and that’s how I work and how I like to teach my class. I have had painters and printmakers in my class who have wanted to learn Mixed Media techniques and I have had Mixed Media students who want to learn to paint. It’s all one and the same if you consider each artistic medium as another tool in your tool box. And with all those tools in your arsenal…well, just think of the possibilities that abound! As one of my Vita students recently told me ” I had such a fun day! I’ll take your workshops any time. I think you are really getting me over my art phobia! More than any other teacher, I think you get it, ART should be fun. Too make of us take it far too seriously.” Ginny

Amy Schneider - Mixed Media Painting

Class  Schedule:

Sat. June 6, 1-5 or Sun. June 28, 10 - 4 or Sat. July 25, 10-4.

The Art of Chocolate
with Michael Gillet
Dates: Saturday, May 30
Time: 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Spend an evening with pastry chef Michael Gillet, the current executive pastry chef of the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. Gillet has also lent his talent to other exclusive organizations including The Beverly Hills Hotel, Ritz Carlton, and Le Cirque in New York City. Gillet will discuss the history of chocolate along with the different usages. The group will then have the opportunity to taste the different chocolates discussed. Next, Gillet will give a demo while discussing the tempering of chocolate and the process of making different chocolates. The last hour will be spent making chocolate bonbons and lollipops.

Fees: $25.ºº

Somewhere along the way, we all were artists. Everyone picks up crayons or chalk as toddlers, but at some point, we just stop drawing. Radio cartoonist and children’s author Mo Willems says that’s a pity.Willems is obsessed with why adults don’t draw — and he wants to do something about it.

“One of the interesting things about cartooning and doodling and drawing,” Willems tells Michele Norris, “is that people stop when they decide they’re not good at it. Nobody stops playing basketball when they realize they’re not going to become a professional. The same thing should apply to cartooning.”

Willems says just sitting and drawing a character brings out empathy in people, and that’s something the world could use more of right now.

To Read or listen to the full article on NPR click here

ART PARTY

Saturday, March 28, 2009

6:30-9:30 pm

Vita Art Center, 432 N. Ventura Avenue Studio 30, Ventura

805-644-9214

Come learn some art-making basics, experiment with materials, new techniques and socialize with other adults!

Saturday, March 28 - Artist Shrines

Artists Mary Perez & Melissa Kirkegaard will guide participants as they hand paint a tin niche that will display an altered photo we will create. On hand will be plenty of photos of artists, writers, musicians, and saints to choose from to alter or bring your own 2X3 *emulsion photo to alter. *emulsion photos are developed professionally (kodak, target, costco all work). Photos printed from desktop printers will not work.

Click here to register

$25.00

Our Teen Art Program starts this Friday. We have a very exciting 12 week program with amazing instructors.

• John White will lead the group to create a mixed media quadriptyc using found objects.

• Hiroko Yoshimoto will teach Figure Drawing.

• The business of art with Sylvia White

• Head Drawing with Debi Nowak-Hawkes

• Color Theory with MB Hanrahan

• Painting techniques with Chris Kirkegaard

• The 12 week course will end with a gallery show featuring the students work.

Teen Art Program
AGES 13-18
Dates: Fridays, March 20 – May 29, 12 weeks
Time: 6-9 p.m.
Class Code: TAPSP09

The group meets once a week, for 12 weeks. The curriculum is designed to help high school students and Teens interested in the arts become more well-rounded artists and strengthen their portfolios.

In addition to art classes students will participate in projects that will contribute to increasing awareness of the importance of art in our community. A group exhibit will also be included in the program.

Fees: $270.
For more info visit:
http://www.vitaexplorations.com/index.php?name=teen_art

I’m looking forward to taking the one day painting work shop with Jill Sattler!!

Instructor: Jill Sattler
Dates: Saturday, 3/21
Time: 12:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Class Code: ASU
In this one-day workshop learn to paint with inspiring techniques to facilitate understanding color, texture, design, and novel painting applications for both realistic and abstract works. We will apply exciting methods that encourage each person to produce meaningful paintings for personal or professional application. No previous painting experience is necessary.
Fees: $85.

Vita Art Center Presents

Amy Schnieder & Karen Scott-Browdy

Mixed Media Art Show

Opening Reception Friday, April 3 - 6-9 p.m.

Scheduled Lectures:

6:30 p.m. - John White will present and discuss the Teen Programs installation, a mixed media quadriptych (1 piece of art divided into 4 panels) entitled “Junktion City”. Created by the teens in the Vita Art Center Teen Program under John White’s guidance.

7:30 p.m. - Karen Scott-Browdy will discuss the art of collage

Show Dates: April 3-April 19

Vita Art Center, 432 N. Ventura Avenue Studio 30, Ventura, 805-644-9214

Vita Art Centers mixed media show features works by artist Karen Browdy and Amy Schnieder. Both women incorporate discarded or forgotten objects into their work giving a new life and view to these items that were once abandoned. Browdy uses found objects in her collage and assemblage pieces to create beautiful and aesthetically pleasing compositions. Schnieders work both vibrant and engaging includes a variety of media such as acrylic paints, oil pastels, found papers and her own photography. Virtually anything in her peripheral vision is game for inclusion if it fits.

Opening Reception & Book Signing: Saturday, March 21, 3-6PM

Location: Sylvia White Gallery - 1783 E. Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, noon to 5:00pm

Hardy’s recent paintings on handmade paper exude a surreal stream of consciousness, looseness, and comic style. Depicting strange creatures, they layer an impossible hybridization of mythological characters and totem-like designs borrowed from Asian, Northwestern American, and ancient Mexican motifs. At once funny and disturbing, Hardy’s fantastical creations and dense visual references resonate with the ecstatic spirit of Dada’s most adept graphic practitioners, Francis Picabia and Max Ernst, who also mined and reshaped the pop culture imagery of their day into absurdist fantasies.

Also on view is a survey of prints, done over the last 10 years. All the work relays Hardy’s familiar sophisticated visuals with a painterly intensity. As an added bonus, Hardy has designed a print, unique to this exhibition, as a tribute to the city of Ventura: California’s New Art City. There will be a limited number of signed prints available for purchase. All proceeds from the sales will be donated to the new Ventura Museum of Art.

ABOUT DON ED HARDY
A Southern California native born in 1945, Hardy acted on his childhood determination to become a tattoo artist and underwent a tattoo apprenticeship while simultaneously receiving a B.F.A. degree in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1967. Considered one of the founders of modern tattooing, he developed the artistic and expressionistic potential of the medium with emphasis on its Asian heritage. In 1973 he lived in Japan, studying with a traditional tattoo master-the first non-Asian to gain access to that world. He resumed these studies in Japan throughout the 1980s. Hardy pioneered the pop-culture tattoo-as-art space decades before the worldwide boom in tattoo art that permeates popular culture.

In 1982 he and his wife, Francesca Passalacqua, formed Hardy Marks Publications and have written, edited and published over twenty-five books on alternative art. Now in its second printing, Tattooing the Invisible Man pays homage to Hardy’s lifetime of work. In addition to showing his own works at galleries and major museums, Hardy has curated a number of exhibitions including the groundbreaking Pierced Hearts and True Love: A Century of Drawings for Tattoos at the Drawing Center in New York and he frequently lectures at museums and universities.

His work has appeared in numerous periodicals, books, and films internationally. In 2000, he was appointed by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown to that city’s Cultural Arts Commission and he awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the San Francisco Art Institute. In 2004 “Ed Hardy,” a major fashion line featuring his artwork, was launched internationally. Hardy and his wife now divide their time between Honolulu and the San Francisco Bay area.

I have been inspired watching parents and their kids taking classes together, friends taking classes together as well as married couples. There is something about the calming therapeutic effects of art that create a great catalyst for bonding. Now that my daughter is 18, with a very busy schedule, she hardly has time for me. I’m happy we did spend so much quality time together and for the time we do have together. I’m thrilled that my son has agreed to spend Sunday with me taking a mosaic class with Lori Zimmerman. I’m looking forward to learning mosaic techniques but mostly I’m looking forward to the 4 hours with my son both of us working side by side. Yes, life is good!

Mosaics
Instructor: Lori Zimmermann
Dates: Sundays, 3/15-3/22, 2 sessions
Time: 3/15, 1-5 p.m. & 3/22, 1-3 p.m.
Class Code: AS1
Come join in the fun and learn the art of mosaic. Using broken pottery, tiles, and other found materials, create a one-of-a-kind mirror or frame. Fees: $60.ºº

We had a great turn out for Jill Sattler’s opening exhibit March 6. It was wonderful to see so many people out to celebrate Beatrice Wood’s life and the art of Ms. Sattler. The show will be up for one more week. Don’t miss the chance to see Sattler’s beautiful photos of Beatrice Wood and her amazing paintings on display.

Jill Sattler

BEATRICE WOOD AND OTHER TREASURES

March 6 - March 22, 2009

Bell Arts Tool Room Gallery in conjunction with the Vita Art Center present photodramatist and artist Jill Sattler in celebration of the internationally cherished Beatrice Woods birthday. Sattler had the privilege to photograph Beatrice Wood many times before she died in 1998. Her beautiful sepia tone photos capture the essence of Beatos spirit. On exhibit will be Jill Sattlers treasure trove of photographic images of Beatrice. Including her 100th birthday and her last portrait sitting at 105 years of age. Additional work will include a collection of Sattler’s assemblage images inclusive of a tribute piece to Madame Gana Walska (Originator of Montecitos Lotusland). Sattler will also exhibit her collection of jewelry which she refers to as Folk Baroque. Elle Magazine has featured a collection of Jills work and Cher accepted her academy award while wearing earrings made by the artist. Additionally featured will be Sattlers photographs of historical Santa Barbara sites of Val Verde, the Santa Barbara Mission and Courthouse.