Lyme Away 4: Heading to Germany for Treatment

67264906_10217642381238525_7731628185833439232_n

Featured image, Nurit Avesar; image above, by artist Dani Dodge

We are sponsoring this event along with fabulous folks at TAG Gallery with the help of artist and gallerist Rakeem Cunningham and neon artist Linda Sue Price – whose exhibition will be reviewed here next week – and will be on display during this event!

67101534_10157740737882847_5848969442460958720_n

Above, artist L. Aviva Diamond

And what is the event?
67181811_10217642450680261_2507586560933756928_n
Above, from artist Dwora Fried
At TAG Gallery in mid-city, Sunday, July 21, 3-6 p.m., enjoy an afternoon of food, drink, and of course, ART at Lyme Away 4: Heading to Germany for Treatment – Help Nicole Saari Win the Fight Against Late Stage and Congenital Lyme Disease. It includes a silent auction and raffle featuring dozens of AMAZING art works donated by prominent Los Angeles area artists to raise funds for Nicole‘s medical care for chronic tick-borne disease.
67107480_10217635703791593_4420086131488456704_n
Above by artist Francisco Alvarado
Live music by Adam Even and enough great art and other auction goodies to help you knock off your entire holiday shopping list – in July.
67423747_10217642380358503_5249181112160223232_n
Above, artist Glenn Waggner
There will be over 80 pieces of art, plus gift certificates for everything from massage to beautiful home decor components from Liz’s Hardware.
64927807_10219142040442543_3495138428641607680_o
Above, artist Cynthia Friedlob
Despite an ongoing epidemic in the U.S., late stage Lyme disease is not recognized as a condition by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), so little to none of the complex treatments – which can cost $1,000 a week – is covered by insurance; with Nicole unable to work, this family still NEEDS HELP. The St. Georg Klinik in Germany, which her doctors find promising, alone is a whopping $35,000 for the three-week program.
67446368_10217640928922218_4998822430479745024_n
Above, artist Diane Cockerill
Fundraiser event
Sunday, July 21st, 2019 at TAG Gallery from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. located at 5458 Wilshire near LACMA. Street and lot parking!
Don’t miss it!
67608034_10217635703511586_7282187191478910976_n
Above, Jodi Bonassi

Glenn Waggner – The Stories He Builds

38433245_10156666266094884_497675203665461248_n

Glenn Waggner’s artistic mythology is that of a storyteller with a perfectly rendered aesthetic. A SoCal native, Waggner riffs on familiar images painted in meticulous, diminutive style. His background in architecture shows in his perfect composition, but his oil works are rich microcosms, worlds that viewers can step inside.

DesertHouseWithoutFencing

“Desert House without Fencing,” above.

Waggner says that his works reflect his intimate visual relationship with his home. “Growing up, I spent every summer day at the beach, and think the light and color from that show in my painting.” He adds “I have worked in architecture for many years and am fascinated by buildings, cities and how things work. I like to take the light, details, and ideas to create a world that is slightly different from the one we live in.”

WithATwist

Above, “With a Twist,” a drink one could swim in, like the backyard pool in an LA-home.

His works are designed, he says, to “spark someone’s thoughts and imagination” and cause them to “think of, or imagine, an experience. I encourage the viewer to create their own narrative of what the painting means, and I love it when they see something I did not consider. It creates a dialog and connection.”

There is a strong riff of humor and lighthearted mayhem in his approach, which may come from the fact that he has “always” sketched scenes or cartoons. “I started painting almost twenty years ago. My day job is in architecture, and for years I tried to separate the two, sort of a church and state relationship. When I finally combined them, everything took on a whole new aesthetic and opened new possibilities.”

Lift

Above, “Lift.”

Wherever Waggner exhibits, his work draws viewers in, seemingly through a wide, expansive horizon-line, pulling eye and heart to small, succinct figurative images often on the lower half or in a portion of the canvas.

ItWasConsideredGoodForm

Above, “It Was Considered Good Form.”

“ I do a lot of small scale work because I like the aesthetic of seeing brush strokes. I plan to do more large-scale paintings, and an 8 foot x 8 foot painting soon, which is much larger than anything I have done,” Waggner relates. “There is also a practical aspect in that collectors may not have a lot of wall space. It seems people with lots of wall space have less money, and people with lots of money have glass walls,” he laughs.

The artist’s work has evolved over the years. “My work started as having an illustrative look to it, then became more painterly and expressionistic. I like the idea of the painting having a story or narrative.”

KitchenCanOnlyHave1Boss

Exemplifying wit: “The Kitchen Can Only Have One Boss,” above.

His precise structures may be in part due to the fact that he thinks each evocative story through carefully. “My cartoons and sketches translate to stories on my paintings in many cases. I also like to have fun with titles, which always seem to come to me after the painting is finished.”

Plotting

In his recent “Plotting,” above, two men and a woman stand on the edge of a precipice, appearing to be engrossed in a secret meeting; behind them, inside an illuminated home, three executive-type office chairs are positioned. The piece exudes film-noir and a streak of wit – are they plotting a murder or a board room take-over? “Town House with Lawn View” gives us a long, narrow, expansive view of grass leading to a horizon line, above which swirling grey clouds prevail. In “Gliding,” a galvanizing yet tiny figure skater sails across a frozen expanse, dwarfed by a tree-lined shore and a rich orange sunset sky behind. We ask questions, shape answers from Waggner’s works; they are short stories as paintings.

In “The Tide Goes Out,” below, a vivid red sky is a-flame behind seaside cliffs; the perfect lifeguard tower poised on the edge of a flat blue sea. We have been here in our dreams.

TheTidesGoneOut

Waggner notes that above all else, he wants “to keep pushing new ideas. Hopefully more opportunities will come about by constantly working and creating.”

JoshuaTree

“Joshua Tree,”  above.

Asked about his paintings’ perspective and scale, Waggner proves that indeed, here, size matters. “Playing with scale can have powerful effects. It is fun to do a large, minimalistic painting and add small, very detailed elements like buildings or people,” he explains. “With small paintings, vivid colors and intimate details can be explored with a deceptively effortless look. There is an immediacy about the smaller scale, even though some take longer than the large paintings.”

These are intimate works, carefully woven, each note of color or line adding a bit of deeper nuance.

28279211_10156239951049884_4574048130731604151_n

“ I started out doing really colorful work, maybe a bit much early on,” Waggner muses. “Then I fell in love with using grays, and now I am somewhere in between.” He says “I do love color because there are so many possibilities and effects. It is sort of a language of its own.”

In Waggner’s works, there are multiple layers of language, of color, size, and story. His often vast backdrops pull the viewer in as we study, smile, and absorb the beautiful, sometimes ironic, always charged quality of his work. This artist tells a story, and he makes it live; these are breathing, moving moments caught in time and canvas, exuding energy and meaning, posing questions we want to answer or at least contemplate.

Here is where Waggner’s architectural background really shows: he is designing, building art that takes on more and more resilient shape and meaning the longer a viewer inhabits it.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist

The Brewery Art Walk – Spring 2017 Edition

brewery 27

Above, the work of Sean Sobczak Sandman Creations.

As always, DTLA’s awesome and eclectic artists lofts, studios, and galleries – the Brewery – offered up a tremendous wealth of art to peruse at the April edition of their twice yearly art walk.  Take a look at some of the artists and art – and if you missed it this spring, be sure to mark the walk on your calendar for October. So much to see, intimate conversations with artists, brilliant art work at reasonable prices. Hard to top that, but this being LA, we threw in a bright, sunny day, some gourmet food trucks, and beer. The Artwalk IPA was perfect.

brewery 23

Above and below, artist Samuelle Richardson with her wonderfully haunting “Ghost Dogs” sculptural installation. Richardson created these beautiful pieces especially for Art Walk.

brewery 21

A magical energy in these sculptures, which use fabric and wood to shape powerful and poignant beasts.

brewery 20

Chenhung Chen’s fluid, alive wire sculptures dance with kinetic energy, below.

brewery 42

brewery 41

brewery 39

brewery 40

The artist’s wall art, many utilizing staples, is a fresh take on abstract imagery, works that shine literally and figuratively.

brewery 44

Below, Glen Waggner creates intense and diminutive drawings that tell succinct, perfectly realized impressionistic stories. The prolific artist creates both figures and landscapes.

brewery 29

brewery 45

brewery 46

brewery 48

Kristine Augustyn, below, offers both lush abstracts and figurative pieces that edge into the surreal. Both Augustyn and Waggner showed works at the Brewery’s Jesus Wall Gallery.

brewery 30

brewery 55

brewery 52

Below, a work inspired by a trip to Disneyland.

brewery 53

brewery 54

Randi Hockett’s studio-grown crystals dazzle, below. These raw and glittering works offer a wonderful contrast of sharp crystal textures and the softness of the wax surfaces. This is work that is hard to look away from, which evoke the feminine and the fairy tale.

brewery 18

brewery 17

brewery 16

Kristine Schomaker, below, has reconstructed and reimagined her own work in an exhibition titled “An Ode to a Lost Love.” Tackling complex issues from body image to gender identity, her sculptural installation below explores both the personal and the universal – and still evoke a fantastical candy store.

brewery 65

brewery 64

brewery 61

brewery 63

brewery 62

Bill Leigh Brewer, below, creates photographic works that are painterly in style, mysterious and magical in perception.

brewery 32

brewery 58

From the California desert to the snowy hills of Vermont, Brewer fills his landscapes with a subtext of wonder and loss.

brewery 57

brewery 56

Winnie Brewer, below, has painted bees and other creatures great and small in exquisitely detailed works that glow with light and color.

brewery 34

brewery 60

brewery 59

Below, Tony Pinto, in residence at Shoebox Projects, created dimensional paintings and photographic portraits in his exhibition “Art Seen.” His ability to capture the innate essence of artists, writers, and gallerists in LA’s art scene is revealing and insightful.

brewery 36

 

brewery 37

While her studio was not open for art walk due to deadlines on completing works for other exhibitions, we had a sneak-peak at a piece currently on exhibit at Durden & Ray’s “Going Native” show from installation and sculptural artist Dani Dodge. Here a deeply layered image invites second, third, and many more looks beneath the surface.

brewery 66

brewery 14

Her work, above, is like accessing an archeological dig: there is so much going on beneath the surface, an intense energy breaking through.

Below, Ryan McIntosh and Kati Milan share studio space and a wealth of evocative art.

brewery 11

brewery 10

brewery 9

Artist Ted Meyer, below. A little bit Picasso, a little bit Modigliani in great faces, forms and familiars. These are portraits that tell a story worth “reading” often. Stylized, riveting, and exotic, Meyer’s figures also serve as a healing document for those affected by trauma. Brewery ONE

Below the incredibly rich partnered work of Anna Stump and Daphne Hill blossoms with life – lush and sensual florals.

BREWERY TWO

brewery 3

There is such an overflowing cornucopia of art at The Brewery that we could not do justice to all the artists here – or even those in this article. Find your own overflowing artistic joy at the next art walk come October.

brewery 7

brewery 6

brewery 12

brewery 8

brewery 35

brewery 38

brewery 13

  • Genie Davis; Photos: Genie Davis