Leaving Eden: Samuelle Richardson and Snezana Saraswati Petrovic

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Climate change has made the idea of leaving Eden, our planet earth, all too real a prospect.  What happens to the flora and fauna, the animal life – including the human animal – if we allow the continued environmental apocalypse to continue? Art has often stood in the forefront of calling attention to and presenting an action call for salient issues. It has awakened viewers to the necessity for change, to the beauty of the world around us, and provided a sense of hope for the future. So, too, does Leaving Eden, coming February 11th to Keystone Gallery in Lincoln Heights.

The collaborative exhibition between Samuelle Richardson and Snezana Saraswati Petrovic will fill viewers with the joy of Richardson’s expressive textile animals and Petrovic’s immersive flowers, trees, and glistening waters. Gallery visitors will move – as the flourishing creatures and landscape in this art world do – from their lush, green, and blue Eden to a dry, desert world, where all life must struggle for food and water — with hope that they can return to Eden again.

Divided into two rooms: an Edenic garden and a desert filled with Joshua Trees and cacti, the two artists have combined their gifts to create a vision to cherish and consider, one that expresses the beauty of nature and our vital need to protect it.

Richardson describes the journey viewers will take as a circular one, revealing what it is like to live in and leave our Eden and then try to create a more “pristine world…a circular journey back to square one [where] flora and fauna prevail.”

Petrovic says “As an immigrant, I am in search for an idyllic version of the home that I have lost due to war. My realization was that the real home for all of us is the Earth, and for me, it represents Eden, the most diverse and idyllic garden of all.” To prepare for the exhibition, she began to draw studies of plants in Huntington Gardens, Joshua Tree, the Salton Sea, and Oahu, Hawaii. She adds that mythologically the “idea of Eden is connected to the human need for a place of immortality,  an ideal place for human habitation with lush beauty, and it exists not just in Christianity but… is [expressed as] Jannāt ʿAdni in the Quran or [as] Pure Lands in Buddhism…in all of these gardens, there are always references to infinity and transformation.”

Both artists express that sense of transformation in their work. For Richardson, “New work begins with a mental picture of the subject, then I research pictures that express the type of character I want.  I build up each figure in stages to achieve gesture and expression, working with the pictures as a bridge to discovery.”  Here you will see lions, birds, wild dogs, and even a few humans created by the artist.

Petrovic was in part inspired to create her mixed media sculptures of zip ties and dry natural plants from references to the Byzantine traditional blue depictions of Eden, with video installation elements culled from her Oahu and Big Island residencies, while the desert installation was inspired by the Salton Sea and it’s “white shore with fish skeletons turned into mineral dust,” and uses a white, orange, and blue palette – skeletons, sun and sky – in her work in the Desert room.

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to interact with some of Petrovic’s work through AR and the use of iPads in the exhibition or through their own smart phones. The AR depictions reveal dry dirt transforming with a live, growing seedling, what she calls a “symbolic shift of the wheel of fortune from global catastrophe to renewal and healing.”

Richardson and Petrovic greatly enjoyed working together on this project. “It’s uncanny how much Snezana and I have in common regarding our worldview and how we have advanced as artists.  Our collaboration also included outings to Huntington Gardens to observe and compare our impressions on nature,” Richardson says.

Petrovic relates that “We would immerse ourselves in different parts of the gardens, and have conversations related to the nature of different environments, desert versus rain forest. We were looking at the shapes and relationships between flora and negative spaces…we shared some images of our previous works and investigated the works of Henri Rousseau and Hieronymus Bosch.”

She adds that “Sam’s dogs, tigers and birds are bringing my environments and sculptural installations to life. I cannot wait to see all of them being brought together into this unique project!”

Richardson brought to the exhibition new ideas inspired from a recent residency in Rome, and a fascination with the Etruscan culture, which Petrovic also finds compelling.  “We both agree that our creations are coming from the ‘same world’ of connectedness to feminine history as well as our own past design experiences. Sam’s fashion industry experiences brought a deep understanding of patterning, fabric and thread use into her sculptures. My interest in the relationship between space versus object is from professional experience as a production/set and costume designer,” Petrovic relates.

Richardson has added to her wire, foam, and fabric sculptures – with the “fabric covering my work emulating glaze on ceramic” with a new artistic expression – in woodwork. “I am building shapes that resemble boats, joining and cutting pine lumber [for the exhibition.]”

Petrovic has included her latest experiments in organic bioplastic, also using dry plants and palm leaves in the exhibition. She says taht she has long been driven toward reimagining the future, beginning with a residency at the Pomona Art Colony under Judy Chicago examining the “current and future scientific predicament of global ecological catastrophe…if we do not protect our home, there will be nowhere to go. Leaving Eden was a natural progression of my exploration of gardens and homes within the looming danger of climate change and plastic overuse.  It added another layer to my imagined world of the future. I see this whole experience as a love poem to the Earth, our own impermanence and existence that might have a chance for a replay.”

Richardson, Petrovic, and I, as conceptualizing curator, all encourage you to visit our Eden and its aftermath and look toward that replay, one which our world all too dearly needs.

Leaving Eden holds its opening Saturday, February 11th from 6 to 9 p.m.; an artist’s talk and closing event will be held Saturday, February 25th at 4 p.m. Additional gallery hours Thursday-Sunday by appointment.

Keystone Gallery is located at 338 S Avenue 16, Los Angeles, CA 90031

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis and Samuelle Richardson

Jewel of a Stay – Hassayampa Inn

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With its ruby red bricks and courtyard, a lobby with a perfectly preserved shining tile floor, and a carefully staff-operated elevator, the Hassayampa Inn in Prescott, Ariz. is an elegant, old-fashioned gem.

Lovingly cared for, the lobby features a beautiful mural painted over a burnished fireplace, comfortable reading chairs and warmly lit  lamps, and best of all, a convivial atmosphere that makes guests feel welcome and then less like guests and more like welcome visitors.

Located in the historic downtown area of Prescott, Arizona, a short stroll from the galleries, dining, and historic saloons of Whiskey Row, the Hassayampa maintains a lustrous dignity, formal without being fussy.

The hotel’s history glows as much as the hotel iteself. This is not a new, slap-dash construction chain motel, but a stately travel oasis for 95 years, exuding its history with grace. Designed in the 1920s by El Paso architect Henry Trost, Prescott townspeople bought shares in the project at $1 each, making the location a gathering spot for the community as well as for visitors even before it was completed in 1927.

Today, the building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. A member of the Historic Hotels of America, the hotel was a  2022 finalist in The Historic Hotels of America Awards of Excellence, a standout among over 300 entries for the award.  The hotel was a finalist for Best Small Historic Inn/Hotel (Under 75 Guestrooms) as well as for best historic restaurant, hotelier of the year and ambassador of the year. The accolades are deserved.

The Apache name Hassayampa translates more or less as “the river loses itself,” just as the Hassayampa River north of Prescott does, sinking below the ground on its journey toward the sea. But the river’s namesake hotel is in no danger of being lost. With excellent service from the cheerful staff taking turns as elevator operators to the waitstaff at the hotel’s stained-glass-adorned Peacock Room restaurant, the Hassayampa seems destined to appeal to generations of travelers.

Just as it once drew luminaries such as Georgia O’Keefe and Will Rogers, it certainly drew us. The rooms are charming and offer modern comforts – a terrific mattress, flat screen TV, and good Internet, too. Cozy and well appointed, offering features such as a soft carpet with Native American patterning, burnished wood furnishings, deep maroon duvet and arm chairs, the rooms are also quiet – we did not hear our neighbors once.

 

The architecture throughout the hotel is a delight, ranging from Spanish Colonial Revival to Italianate features. Ceilings are handpainted; glass is etched, mosaics line tables, embossed copper panels are polished to a sheen. The courtyard offers outdoor dining in warm weather, and there is live music on weekends.

We traveled in February, and although there was a chill in the air outside, the hotel has a way of making one feel warm and cossetted. A romance package for Valentine’s Day includes breakfast along with touches like chocolate covered strawberries and champagne or sparkling cider add to the ambiance, making February a particularly great time to visit. Sunny days and crisp nights are the typical weather forecast – and were what we experienced as well, with a few patches of snow still frosting the ground.

We loved walking from the hotel into the heart of Prescott’s historic downtown, exploring Courthouse Square and stopping in for a drink at The Palace Bar, which like the Hassayampa itself, is packed full of history. Wyatt Earp and his brothers as well as Doc Holliday once imbibed there. The Sharlot Hall Museum offered interesting insight into the area’s history; Watson Lake provided easy, attractive hiking on trails that weave among large granite boulders.

There are some excellent lunch spots in Prescott, such as The  Local, where we enjoyed a terrific Beyond burger, and the restaurant’s signature grilled cheese, crafted from Havarti and pimento cheeses.

It’s a sandwich worth stopping for. The Greek salad with Israeli couscous and feta is another standout. But the best part: fresh limeade. The Local is a convivial spot with tables inside and out, and fast, friendly service.

But don’t  miss dinner at the Hassyampa. The art deco-style setting is perfect, the understated elegance and warmth that permeate the hotel itself are just as prevalent here, drawing visitors and locals alike with a changing array of beautifully plated entrees. Dishes such as scallops, rainbow trout and a roasted chili poblano – filled with leaks, corn, spaghetti and squash, vie for attention with classically prepared steaks. The restaurant also serves a heady brunch with delightfully decadent treats such as lemon souffle pancakes.  And, one Sunday a month, there’s an afternoon tea, which we need to return to experience.

Although there are many reasons to call the Hassayampa Inn a jewel – it’s history, the friendly staff, the beautifully preserved historic features – it’s all these facets that will make you want to visit this gem in a perfect setting – a thriving small town with plenty of history of its own nestled in the Bradshaw Mountains, the distinctive Thumb Butte, luring us out and up through the pines on its trails.

With a setting like that for a treasured historic hotel, why wait? We loved our February visit, and I highly recommend booking a stay during the  post-holiday season, or come in the spring for the Smoki Museum’s indigenous art festival,  attend a free June bluegrass festival, or enjoy the thrills of the world’s oldest rodeo in July.  Just save a room for us!

  • Genie Davis; photos – Genie Davis 

 

 

Prime Territory at MOAH Cedar

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Through January 22nd at MOAH Cedar in Lancaster, Dani Dodge holds forth with an installation that soars as widely and wildly as a desert sky. Prime, like many of the artist’s exhibitions, is immersive. So much so here, in fact, that viewers might almost catch a whiff of desert sage andthe fragrance of a Joshua Tree in bloom.

The exhibition, which fills all three galleries at Cedar, is comprised of three parts.  The main room is layered with translucent panels, on which Dodge has created gold leaf and delicately painted acrylic work depicting an ephermeral, mirage-like shimmer of desert images. The experience is a walk-through installation, with viewers able to walk behind and within the panels. Adding to the experiential nature is a soundtrack of cello music the artist created herself and recorded sounds of desert animals at dawn.

Along with the gauzy painted panels, a sculptural form created from a twisted mattress spring hangs in the center of the gallery, with the panels waverying around it. It stands as a kind of monument to how human inhabitants intrude on the quiet grace of the desert, and how the desert itself may banish that habitation in its own good time. 

The artist has provided pencils and slips of paper on which to write what types of places bring them peace – as the desert brings piece to Dodge. Safety pins are also provided so that viewers can pin what they’ve written, adding them to their thoughts to the exhibition itself.

 

Across the hall,  Dodge displays images from three separate bodies of work, as seen above. These include a quite wonderful video installation of desert animals captured during her 2019 artist-in-residence stay at the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve in Lancaster. Here we see animals from jackrabbits to coyotes and desert mice as they come and go during the night.  Also on display is a wonderful, glowing collection of painted gold leaf and photography that was part of an earlier exhibition held at Black Rock Gallery in Joshua Tree.

The artist’s love for the shape, form, and fragility of the Joshua Tree is resurrecting. Dodge is intent on helping to preserve the land, creating a sense of hope that with her passion directed at preserving them, these wonderful living flora can survive man’s worst intentions. There is also a second recovered metal mattress spring displayed in this gallery, its form twisted by nature and time after being discarded in the desert.  

If you love the desert, love immersive finely wrought art, or simply want to experience desert wonder without trudging through the sand, Dodge’s exhibition is a must-see. The fine spiritual sense of her work here is both uplifting and poignant, speaking to the ruthlessness of human contact on the desert, the fragility of the desert itself, and the ways in which we can help to preserve it, if we love those aqua skies and golden sands, those brown hills and small brown creatures that inhabit them, those glorious, uplifted arms of the Joshua, and the land’s spectacular, raw sunrises and sunsets.

Above, Dodge with MOAH’s Robert Benitez (left), and Jason Jenn (right).

Like the artist does herself, we can come visit the desert every  January and pay tribute to it, and this year, we can also head to the Cedar galleries to see how Dodge has done so. The exhibition runs through January 22nd.

It also includes a series of lovely desert images created by children participating in activation classes the artist provided at the Preserve throughout her residency.

MOAH: CEDAR Center for the Arts

44857 Cedar Avenue, Lancaster, CA 93534

Open Tuesday and  Wednesday  |   11 AM  – 6 PM

Open Thursday – Sunday   |    11 AM  –  8  PM

  • Genie Davis; photos, Genie Davis

Casper Brindle Radiates Light and Color at Luckman Fine Arts Complex

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If you were to pass from our universe to the next in a sudden flash of light and time, perhaps undergoing this passage through a wormhole, a dream state, or as they used to say on the bridge of the starship Enterprise, at “warp speed,”  you might emerge transcendent, with a strange glow suffusing your vision. Such is the experience of viewing Casper Brindle’s mysteriously sensory art.

In a bravura exhibition at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at CSULA, curated by Mika Cho, Brindle’s own passage through time, light, and space was on full and radiant display. Ranging from some works earlier in the artist’s career to a full focus on images created in 2021 and largely in 2022, Hypermodality provided a beautifully complete experience of Brindle’s work.

Dimensional images that pulse with color and light and play with perception are the core of Brindle’s work. His aesthetic moves the eye and the mind, vibrating with barely contained motion, hovering like a UFO just outside our peripheral vision. Both galvanizing and meditative, varying in color from vibrant shades to cloud like monochromatic shadows of varying hues, these works create emotional and cognitive leaps for viewers, bounding between shades and shadows, running into the sharp edges of horizon lines or disappearing like the taillights of an interstellar ship traveling an incomprehensible speed into a thick, floating tube.

Beautifully curated across two connected, open, large gallery spaces, wandering through the Hypermodality exhibition, which closed at the Luckman in November, was like floating on a life raft of light. Seeing these images in this serene space, it was possible to take in both the meticulously applied airbrushed layers of paint, the hypnotic quality of Brindle’s use of gradated color and shadow, and the enigmatic glow of the art.

The artist’s most recent work is so luminous that it appears to use external lighting, while in reality using color and texture to create an aura of soft, regenerative light.

Some works seem to bathe the viewer in bioluminescence, pulling the eye into a softly opaque sea or into the center of a soft cloud. Just as a bioluminescent sea shines when disturbed by a breaking wave, these works shimmer as the viewer moves closer or farther from them, whether they are viewed from the side or the center.

Other paintings recall the opalescent glow of a pearl, or the shifting colors and light flares of a fire opal. Indeed, each of these works could be pulled from the sea or the sky, or within a long-buried geode, cracked by time to reveal the shining gems within.

Uniformly, Brindle’s work is a perfect haiku of light, as well as an epic study of how color contains or expresses that light. Each piece tells a story of transformation, of how our vision of the world changes that world; how our eye creates the place in which our hearts and minds dwell, not just geographically but emotionally.

All this in works that are formal and made with careful attention to line, geometric principles, and a cool intensity of mannered shapes and patterns.

With titles that describe light glyphs and portals, it is no wonder that Brindle’s art evokes time travel, the speed of light, powerful entities and spiritual understandings, worlds that exist within or beyond our own comprehension.

An almost-holy simplicity infuses each work, whether created from pigmented formed acrylic or with layered automotive paint and gold leaf on linen. The impressiveness of Brindle’s technique rests in its quiet power, much as does the beauty of a sunset or the flare of a meteor. His art burns with the fire of color, and yet has an icy perfection that evokes a glass prism, capturing color and encapsulating it, allowing it to shift but not fade to black.

Some of the colors are startling: “Light Glyph VF 11” is the fierce cerulean blue of the hydrothermal Sapphire Pool in Yellowstone Natural Park. “Light Glyph VF 13” is the luscious tangerine of a citrus fruit on acid. Just as startling is the softly opalescent gold – with a layered burnt sienna orange bar at the center, or “Light Glyph VF 8.” The artist’s “Light Glyph VF 23” is no less riveting, an orange sun or a work with a softer, blurred orange bar at its center.

While each of these works are created using thick pigmented acrylic, Brindle’s works on linen are no less startling and rich, just differently textured. “Portal Glyph Painting X,” a massive 120 x 120 work using gold leaf and automotive paint on linen is an aqua sea and gilded sunrise with a glowing gold door cracked open just enough to see and allow passage if we dare.

A pair of sensual curves in hot pink wait succulently behind a wider passage in “Portal Glyph Painting III.” In this work, a radiant, slender rectangle of blue and gold light features a dark gold bar at its center, a portal within a portal, perhaps.

Regardless of format, Brindle’s work is above all else alive. It is alive with light, alive with line, holding within its serene and pristine depths a seething, swimming, sensorial swarm of color. If the images deliberately create a sense of the possibility of passage, or entering an “other” realm or experience, then that passage is as the viewer wishes to shape it, leading where the viewer wishes to enter. The artist offers the portal to enter, or the light to step through, but it is up to the viewer to take that step.

One of the finest exhibitions of 2022, Hypermodality commands viewers to take action, to truly see what lies beneath the surface of art, and perhaps, life itself.

– Genie Davis; photos by Rob Brander provided by Luckman Gallery/Mika Cho; additional photos, Genie Davis