Lydia Nakashima Degarrod Offers Delicate Wonder in Intricate Sculptural Work

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Lydia Nakashima Degarrod is an artist with a deep passion for informing and compelling her viewers. Working internationally, but based in San Francisco, Degarrod says she is inspired by the relationship between place, memory, material, and human experience. “I am particularly interested in things that are not immediately visible—memories, dreams, traces of migration, histories embedded in landscapes, and the ways people make meaning of their surroundings.”

Her expansive knowledge in these areas has been influenced by her background in anthropology. “I am drawn to observing,
listening, walking, collecting, and spending time with a place before deciding what a work should become. Sometimes an idea begins with a material; at other times it begins with a story, a landscape, or a question. I am interested in allowing these elements to influence one another rather than beginning with a predetermined image.”

Over time, Degarrod’s art practice has morphed in many different ways while maintaining “certain concerns” about the world and life itself.

“I began with painting and printmaking, but over time I became increasingly interested in materials, processes, and the relationship between an artwork and the place in which it is made or experienced. The shift toward fiber, handmade paper, installation, and more research-based work allowed me to bring stories, archives, landscapes, dreams, memory, and lived experience more fully into my artmaking,” she says. She details the important methods she uses in her practice as being simply walking through this world and using her keen skills of observation.

“I don’t see my practice as moving from one style to another as much as expanding the questions I can ask through art. The materials have changed because the questions have changed,” she explains.

And speaking of materials, the artist works with mediums as diverse as handmade paper, natural and botanical fibers, textiles, printmaking, photography, drawing, sound, and installation.

She reveals that she is particularly drawn to “materials that have a history or a physical life of their own. Fiber is important to me because it can be transformed through processes of boiling, pounding, stretching, layering, stitching, and tearing. It carries both physical and metaphorical associations with connection, repair, migration, and transformation,” she attests.

Thematically, the artist is most interested in relationships: “between landscape, ecological change, memory, and migration and displacement. I think about landscapes not simply as physical environments, but as places where different histories, memories, and forms of knowledge accumulate.”

But this is not Degarrod’s only focus. “I am also continuing to explore dreams and altered forms of perception. Dreams have been a
significant part of my research for many years, and I am interested in how they can become a way of imagining landscapes and experiences that cannot be represented through conventional observation.”

She is excited about the future, and combining the different “strangs of my practice together, research, walking, material experimentation, and installation—and allowing them to generate new forms rather than knowing in advance what the final work will look like.”

Degarrod was has exhibited work at a wide range of global galleries and museums, including  Diversions Fine Arts in Manhattan Beach, and upcoming exhibitions at Visions Museum of Textile Art in San Diego, Delta College, Gallery Route One, and Ohio
State University.  She is also curating two art exhibitions at the Southern Utah Museum of Art for 2028.

Concurrently, she is developing new work, with her intrest focused on creating what she describes as “larger, site-
responsive installations and continuing my exploration of botanical fibers, landscape, memory, and ecological change.”

She wants her viewers to understand that the beautiful, highly intuitive work she creates is deeper than what they see exhibited.
“The materials and forms are invitations to think about what may be hidden beneath the visible surface—memories, histories, dreams, migrations, losses, and forms of knowledge that are often difficult to represent.”

According to Degarrod, “I also hope that the work creates a space for slowing down. I am interested in art that does not
necessarily provide an immediate answer, but creates a moment of attention and allows different associations to emerge. The work may begin with a specific story or place, but I want viewers to bring their own memories and experiences into that encounter.”

To do so, she often works with materials that are often natural and unique. The work may look delicate but they are not fragile: she is enormously interested in the fact that “resilience  can exist within materials that appear vulnerable.”

She explains that “Many of the fibers I use undergo intense physical transformation. I boil, pound, stretch, tear, layer, and reconstruct them. The process itself involves stress, resistance, and transformation. The materials may look delicate, but they can endure a great deal.”

She finds herself drawn to natural and botanical materials because “they connect the work directly to the physical world. Plants carry histories of place, migration, adaptation, healing, labor, and survival. When I work with them, I am interested not only in their visual qualities, but also in what they might allow me to think about.”

As an artist, she notes that “the apparent delicacy of the materials is part of the tension within the work. I am interested in how something that appears ephemeral or vulnerable can nevertheless carry histories and memories of remarkable endurance.”

She describes one work that is especially significant for her: the installation Scattered Seeds of the Cotton Bolls. Its creation and display allowed me to honor the memories of my family’s migration from Japan to Latin America.”

The process of creation was layered. “In creating the handmade paper, I combined mulberry fiber, associated with my Japanese
heritage, with yerba buena, an herb used in Latin America for healing physical ailments. Bringing these two plants together became a symbolic way of connecting the two cultural landscapes of my family’s history. It also became a way of addressing, through art, the suffering and displacement that accompanied their migration.”

Additionally she “created flowers from this handmade paper, and each flower became a way of holding fragments of my family’s memories. The flowers are not simply representations of those memories; they are material embodiments of them,” she says, adding that “The work is therefore both material and deeply personal. It brings together ancestry, migration, healing, memory, and transformation. For me, its significance lies in the possibility of transforming an inherited history of migration and displacement into a physical landscape of remembrance and symbolic healing.”

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist and by Davis 

Knott’s Scary Farm: Plenty of Fun and Chills

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Part of what makes Knott’s Scary Farm so much fun is literally getting lost in it. The nearly circular amusement park is kept dark and spooky with fog machines, wandering scareactors inhabiting themed scare zones from the Gore-ing 20’s to the wild west of Knott’s Ghost Town area, and the always-screamworthy coasters and other thrill rides operating with lights off.

In short, the theme park feels like a place where spooky shadows and grasping ghouls might dwell, and simply to be there is to feel the chills and join in the laughs and scares.

Spread out and spectacularly shadowy, the park lets guests literally and figuratively get lost in the Halloween myths that transform Knotts by night.

The scare zones were particularly effective this year, with scareactors catching guests unaware as they studied park maps or focused on consuming popcorn, giant chocolate chip cookies, Halloween themed cocktails, and the requisite slice of Mrs. Knott’s historic Boysenberry pie.

And of course there are mazes. New this year, Inked has a morbidly awesome mix of mad clown circus and wild and crazy animation history that puts the true “looney” into this macabre but delightful world in which wildly homicidal cartoon characters have come to life.  This maze is as  much dark ride fun house as jump scare haven. A particular treat are the rear projected inflatables with their crawly spider motif, which guests must push through. Also new this year is a well-done archeological dig themed maze, Unearthed. This maze offers mummies, moody and mysterious lighting, and monstrous animal hybrids roaming the dark.

The more venerable Cinema Slasher makes its eerie movie theater return with headless theater patrons, ominously dancing popcorn, and more, starting right at the ticket window.

There are ten mazes in all to mark Scary Farm’s 53rd year of fun scares, including Origins: The Curse of Calico and The Chilling Chambers, both in their final year. The latter maze is in enclosed in an eerie haunted cathedral setting externally but within, it houses a variety of highlight rooms from a mental hospital set to a zoo replete with farting elephants.

Mary – The Haunting of Worth Home, The Zoo, Widows, and Room 13 were all spooky scraems and laughs; the speakeasy theme of Room 13 was delightfully immersive, with a scareactor bartender offering imaginary libations before guests entered passages that recalled The Shining.

Stage shows include master magicians from The Magic Castle and voodoo queens evoking the haunted cemeteries of New Orleans.

It was rainy the night we attended, but that put no damper of the fun. Giant pumpkins, skeletons, and dark purple lighting alll sparkled with rain drops, while screams echoed off the terrifyingly steep Accelerator.

For a hauntingly good and yet still impressively lighthearted night of chills and thrills, Knott’s Scary Farm, now a part of the Six Flags family, beautifully walks the line between campy classics and truly chilling moments. Yes, you can laugh and scream at the same time. Knotts is located in Buena Park, Calif.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

Carving Up Halloween Fun at Descanso Gardens

Posted on by Diversions LA

Carved, the Halloween season attraction now at Descanso Gardens in La Canada-Flintridge, is a spooky joy for all ages. Open through November 1st, the magic of following an artistic trail of pumpkins through a winding overview of the gardens after dark remains potent.

Focused on the carving of jack o’lanterns, there is both a small house and a charming sea monster made of pumpkins, as well as as an entire field of grinning pumpkin heads and eerie scarecrow figures. Over a mile-long walk through the dark, eucalyptus scented gardens, the glowing orange pumpkins enchant.

While many of the set pieces remain the same as last year, some have moved or are expanded, and regardless, the beauty and family-friendly fun of Carved makes it an annual treat.

The Dia de los Muertos offrenda alter has expanded and is quite lovely, with faux candlelight dancing over the happy musician skeletons and paper and pencil available to create your own tribute to the dearly departed in your lives.

Pumpkin-head characters and a vast array of carved pumpkins, albeit not real pumpkins, which would never last for the run of the event, fill a tree-lined meadow.

But in the rose garden near the dessert station, massive real pumpkins are carved by artisans who can make highly detailed depictions of everything from key Dodgers baseball players to Dolly Parton.

The neon Rhizome light sculpture rises dramatically up from Descanso’s Oak Grove, while orange orbs literally float on water and the charming model trains have dinosaurs and monster figures alongside the tracks.

Guests can also enjoy the fun of a hay maze, the adorable and spooky wood spirits conjured – or rather cut – up by artist Chainsaw Jenna, and the simple wonder of trees, the leaves, the soft grass, the humming of crickets, and all the natural forest setting beauty that makes Carved the immersive experience that it is.

Pumpkin head scarecrows have their charms anywhere perhaps, but here, there is a sense of being a part of nature, the spectral spectacle of All Hallows Eve, the time of Samhain and ancient tradition.

While enjoying the gardens, you can partake of tasty eats such as churros, delightful black bean and acorn squash tacos, cocktails, hot chocolate, and spiked hot chocolate.

Timed tickets mean the trails and beautifully lit set pieces are relatively uncrowded and the magic of an All Hallows Eve experience will happily haunt you. Pricing ranges from $29–$52, for adults and $19–$37 for kids 12 and under. ) A new anytime ticket is also available for $85.

Enjoy the spooky fun.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

Steel Art, Committed Heart: The Activism and Art of Karena Massengill

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Karena Massengill is both an artist and art activist. Her brilliant sculptural work in mediums from mild steel to fused glass and painted works is infused with the same kind of committment and rich meaning that she puts into the causes she espouses.

According to the artist, “My inspiration has largely been a desire to inspire other people to become a part of the solution and not be a part of the problem of climate change. When people recognize the power of their own voices to be heard and truly make a difference it is very inspiring to me.” She laughs that “Several years ago, a well-known critic (who will remain nameless) looked at my work and said ‘your work is unique and very special. And I have never seen anything like it! Though with your addressing climate change, it will never sell.'” Clearly that assessment has been incorrect.

Massengill has been an activist since high school. “Air pollution was a big problem from the TeePee burners at the lumber mills in Ukiah, California. A couple of friends and I wrote letters and pressured the city to do something about this problem. It worked. Another girlfriend and I got the dress code at school changed to allow girls to wear pants to school. It is so inspiring to me when people stand up for what is right,” she relates.

Her work and her political passions have both continued to evolve. Referring to her art, she notes that “I always did lots of life drawing in art school, [and I] traveled around South America painting,landscapes and portraits, and was invited into people‘s homes for food,” she recalls.

“Metalsmithing took on a passion for me until I realized the scale was too small. I discovered welding and was able to continue with my love for drawing and painting, and incorporating it within my sculptures,” she says.

Massengill loves to work with metal, and prefers recycled metals. “[I go] to scrapyards and pick up what I find on the street if it works as well. Because I love to paint and work with color. I incorporate that within the sculptures and [what I call accompanying works to many of my sculptures], Echoes. I also work with found materials and juxtapose materials in unorthodox ways, all while seeking to have a conceptual meaning behind it. Sometimes, as I work,very intuitively, I don’t even understand what the work means until I’ve completed it,” she explains.

Thematically her current work reflects her passion concerning climate change. “I work with recycled materials to help eliminate landfill as much as possible. I love to create [by] combining unorthodox materials, things that you would normally not see put together into some manifestation of my current passion.”

Indeed, she has at times included beads, sea shells, and a wide variety of metal scraps in her work.  Her steel working skills are unparalleled, and shape a body of work that is quite unusual.

Welding itself is what drew her to work in this medium. “When I immigrated to Canada after graduating with my BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, there was an ad in the paper offering successful applicants to be trained as welder-fitters to work on the pipeline transporting crude oil down from Alaska through Canada and into the U.S. ,” she  relates. “I applied and got the job! I trained along-side convicted felons seeking a better life for themselves. I had to earn their respect along with [honing] my craft. When I worked in traditional metal smithing, I found the scale too confining, so this was a perfect fit for me.”

 

Over the years, her welding skills have enabled her to work on large public commissions in both Canada and the U.S.

While working on the artwork for her public work, Gateway to Downey, in Downey, California, she used the opportunity to celebrate the aeronautical history of Downey, as well as addressing the food and shopping venues in the area. “The overhead cutouts create shadows that promote [the city of] Downey and simultaneously provide a shaded area as was requested by my client for having a meal outside.”

Massengill also created the public art project, “Rosie’s Dog Beach” for the City of Long Beach. She says that this piece “has reminded me of the power possessed by artwork, out in the public eye. It can stimulate conversation and generate ideas, emotional experiences, and even an intangible thought-provoking impact. I captured the joy of dogs playing on the beach and in the ocean,” she tells us.

The artist has been busy recently, with social exhibitions first at the Palos Verdes Arts Center and currently at Diversions Fines Arts Gallery. Asked what’s next, she reveals that she is looking forward to focusing on work in her studio without other distractions.

“I get so excited when an idea hits me and nothing else seems important until I can get into the thick of it! I love to make things, but I also love to feel like what I’m doing has meaning and is potentially important,” she says.

She welcomes other opportunities to show her work and the “stimulation of conversation…When people look at my work there’s an intimacy when they feel something and are moved to express their own experience of it.”

She says that what matters most to her is the reaction of her viewers, when people “see my work either emotionally, intellectually, or viscerally. I love it when they see things that I didn’t know are buried beneath– and it affects the way I see my work from then on,” she shares. She adds that to her,  “One of the most powerful things about abstract art is that it gives people permission and encouragement to explore the work personally as they have their own filters impacting this experience of it.”

Visit Karena’s multifacted and lovely work at Diversions Fine Arts, 1069 N. Aviation Blvd. in Manhattan Beach: open house and curatorial walkthrough 10/24 1-4; artist’s talk and closing reception 11/1; or stop by during regular gallery hours for a visit.