On A Mission

In concentrating on the success and needs of each day: getting up, showering, feeding yourself, getting to work on time, brewing coffee, checking your emails, getting your tasks done and sometimes just keeping your sanity while you trudge through all of the above, we can loose sight of the big picture.  - Who are we?  What do we want to be?  What do we want to achieve in this life?   This morning the Museum staff, headed and prompted by our Director, Olivia Luther, sat down and brain stormed about where the Museum is today and where it can be in the future.  What do we want the Museum we work for to achieve!  It was an extremely successful morning of big ideas, energy and forward thinking.  Here are some images of us brainstorming...

If it Moves… It May Eventually Break

Well, I may have cursed myself when I said, ‘Luckily so far nothing major or drastic has happened’.  Much to our chagrin, the tricycle from The Green Century is temporarily off Museum grounds being repaired.  Many of you who have visited over the past month rode your hearts out and put the tricycle into the bike hospital!  The good news is, this means you are coming in, interacting and giving it your all.  The down side is, it will take a few days for Ingram to mend the tricycle, but it will be back this weekend, at the latest Tuesday.  Until then, the shopping cart is still working so come by and give us all you’ve got. 

Thus far your paintings in The Green Century have been spectacular.  The closer we get to Artist in Residence Week [November 9 – 14^th 2010] the more I’m looking forward to what Ingram and the other three artists are going to do in response to your many Leveled actions.  See below for some great images of Ingram and the Center team welding the tricycle.

This Week in Art – Last Blog on Earth

I highly recommend using Kinsee Morlan’s blog, Last Blog on Earth, as a resource on what is going on in the San Diego art scene.  I check this weekly and always find things I am interested in, random and small or large and happening.  You will find out about art organizations, small alternative spaces, new upcoming artists as well as learn more about those that have been around the block.  But remember don’t just read the blog… go see the shows!

Check out the latest article on Leveled in the San Diego Union Tribune

Interactive installation takes visitors to a new ‘Leveled’
San Diego Union Tribune
As the youngster rode in circles under the watchful eyes of his parents, Serena and Jason Piniol, at the California Center for the Arts Escondido Museum, …

Your Inner Child

Within The Secrets Surrounding the Life and Psychology of Ms. Augustine Greane there are hidden two-typewriters.  Every day patrons visit the Museum and type to Wes and Ms. Augustine Greane about their inner most thoughts.  At the end of each day the Museum guards [David, Joe, Danielle or Alex] collect these notes and hand them to me.  I put them in a file to keep them safe until I next see Wes.  These notes are some of the most beautiful things I have ever read.  With Wes’ permission I will start posting some of these notes on this blog to hopefully remind you that everyone misses their inner child and is capable of being as vulnerable as we all sometimes feel.  [I will type these exactly as they appear with spelling errors and letters missing.  A lot of these errors are due to the use of a typewriter by those of us who are not born in the typewriter age.  The mistakes are just further examples of the authors unguarded-self shining through.]
a placeto escpe
my heart is almost allways sadi feel
that choking feeling in my throght but
i cnt explainhow i feel. life is meant to
be livedwith passion but it seems mine
has slipped away.here is a place where
my thoughts can be themselves abn not
have to be explainedhhere is a place ive
been looking forthat my heart has been
aching fornow for a moment i cn feel
againbecause i have been able to letsome
emotion out a place to escapea place to breath        
-Anonymous
Dear Ms. Greane,
It,s been so long. I,ve been tossed about on
the shore of an unfamiliar country.What a relief
to be home againinside your menory - sharing
yourhopes and dreams, rekindling my own.
You live on in our hearts. You are thespark
that encourages us to discoverand wonder
and create. Thank you for this respite
fromignoring a childhood dream.                
-Anonymous

So I haven’t yet….

 

Blogged about the public’s interaction with the art and how it’s going.  So here goes…

As always when you let people touch things, some of those things break.  This is an issue the Museum anticipated and as expected some breakage has happened.  Luckily so far nothing major or drastic has happened and we have dealt with things as they have come. 

With that said so many things that we could not predict have begun to happen.  To not be able to predict the public’s interaction and start to see it unravel has been the most exciting part of this curatorial process so far.  In Ober’s, The Green Century, I expected the public’s paintings to closely mirror those created by Ober; this is not the case at all!  The paintings done by you guys look like wild green Pollock’s as opposed to controlled spirograph drawings. 

In Wes Bruce’s installation, The Secrets Surrounding the Life and psychology of Ms. Augustine Greane, you have been captivated, spending copious amounts of time disappearing into its many secreted rooms.  When inside the structure people change, become more comfortable, more childlike and open.  I have taken part in story telling sessions and conversations that would never have transpired outside of the forts walls.  In addition it has come to my attention that Wes hid and tucked away so many secret treasures in the fort that I do not know about and am now eagerly searching to find them. 

What have you found so far?

Ober Fever

Hot commodity, Ingram Ober who is currently showing The Green Century at our Museum and was in Here Not There at MCA La Jolla this Summer is in yet another show.  Let’s rephrase that, is another show.   Ingram Ober’s solo show, Vantasy opened last night at Southwestern College Art Gallery.  Support the arts and enjoy this interesting exhibition inspired by 70’s van art and customized van culture.
Vantasy - August 31 - September 22
SWC Art Gallery