Notes from the Front Desk: Our Inner Psychologies Regarding Ms. Augustine Greane

Here are my two cents on Wes Bruce and Ms. Augustine Greane; because I know you’re just dying to hear what I have to say!  Sitting up at the front desk, day in and day out, observing patrons and their interactions with Wes’ fort has been interesting, especially watching the difference of opinions. The majority of which range from positive to OVERLY ENTHUSIASTIC! Most days people come out of the curtains with a smile and a kind word or two to say about the space, while others come out streaming tears of joy!

There are also some that have breached the barrier between the fort’s sacred dwellings and the rest of the world, and felt feelings of fear, sadness, and for some, just plain confusion. While the feelings of fear often come from small children who haven’t made peace with the dark yet, there have been adults that have explained that it made them feel joyless.

A piece can mean so many things to different people.  It represents not only the feelings of the artist, but it serves to harbor the personal projections of its viewers. While there are many very whimsical child-like elements to the fort, there is also a very somber, subdued, mysterious, yet strangely familiar quality within the space. A quality that makes us smile while at the same time wanting to shed a tear.  And that’s all one can really say about The Secrets Surrounding the Mysterious Life of Ms. Augustine Greane, no matter what emotion it summons from you, you’re sure to be entertained. Come see it (and me!) before it’s gone, December 31^st. 

xx Carissa

PS. I hope you guys liked the music vid above. Here is more from A New Normal Music. Enjoy.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things. . .

Can you hear Julie Andrews now? The holidays are upon us, and we all know that it is better to give than to receive. Or, in my case, it’s the other way around. Well, whichever way you’re leaning this season there is plenty in the museum store you can buy for me or for the other loved ones in your family, or heck, pick something up for yourself why don’tcha! Here are a few of my favorite things:

Clover and Folly Jewelry: I already have a few of April Cromer pieces, but the ones I haven’t snatched up yet are just begging to be bought. I love her cutesy, unique, and innovative style.

Bottlehood Creations: I’m just obsessed with this color blue.

Vintage Patterned Plastic Totes: All of this rain is making me miss summer weather. Can’t wait till the sun decides to crash the party so I can bring this baby along with me to the beach.

Hand Painted Sugar Skulls: Perfect for that wacky friend of yours who enjoys getting their Dia de los Muertos on every day of the year. . Oh, wait. That’s me!!

Sezio T’s: Local art and culture buffs, Sezio, brought some awesome, one-of-a-kind, artist shirts into the store. They’re selling like crazy, and for good reason. Help the hipster in your life get happy, buy them a Sezio T!

 x Carissa

Wes Bruce on Sezio

Visit Sezio to read their latest article on Wes Bruce.

Video clip - An Installation by Wes Bruce, Ms. Augustine Greane

An Installation By Wes Bruce from Bryan Bangerter on Vimeo.

Above Wes and others talk about Ms. Augustine Greane.  Touching as always.

Tara

San Diego Art Project

Over the past three months our bathroom hallway has been covered with chalkboard paint so that you could write to us about what shade of green you think you are?  Here are a few things that were up on the walls last week. 

Patricia Patterson, Just Another Thursday

For months Now Olivia [Our Museum Director] and Mary [our Museum Registrar] have been working on curating the upcoming exhibition, Patricia Patterson: Here and There Back and Forth.  Every Thursday at 9:30 a.m. they meet at Patterson’s house to discuss and work on the exhibition.  To give you all a peek into this process and Patterson’s home, I snuck into last Thursday’s meeting to take some pictures of Patricia’s house and Studio.  It is an amazing place, every artist should be envious of her studio.  Above are some pictures of my visit; below is a brief statement on the exhibition to wet your appetites. 

Patricia Patterson: Here and There Back and Forth

Opening date: February 12, 2011

This exhibition will attempt to summarize a lifetime of artist Patricia Patterson’s work.  Patterson, a nationally recognized and locally based artist and University of California, San Diego professor emeritus, creates theatrical installations and sumptuously painted snapshots that provide a visual account of facets of domestic and outdoor life on Inishmore (one of the Aran Islands located off the western coast of Ireland) and her home in Southern California. 

Born and raised on the East Coast, Patterson studied at Parsons School of Design in New York before embarking on an adventure that would steer the course of her artistic career. At the age of nineteen she read J. M. Synge’s The Aran Islands, and soon found herself on the island of Inishmore. Patterson was instantly captivated by the island, and set plans to return a year later after finishing her degree at Parsons. Upon her return to Inishmore, she spent the next two years immersing herself in an “ever changing spectacle” of land, sky, water, and language. Patterson found a craggy, rugged terrain and difficult living conditions that provided a sharp contrast to the warm and generous character of the people she met. Since this original visit, Patterson has returned to the island a dozen times for extended sojourns. These experiences serve as the origin to a life’s work that offers a series of individual glimpses into the lives of others like scenes from a film that define a set of characters and places of daily life—an everyday theatre.  At the core, Patterson makes art about “ordinary things,” a subject matter that is, as she puts it, “…tricky…Using domestic material is risky; it can seem too sentimental, too intimate.”

Artist in Residence Week Wrap-up

Artist in Residence week has now come to a close. It was invigorating to have all the artists back in the Museum galleries activating the space once again. In response to all your changes each artist has come back to their artworks and altered or added to them in order to create their ‘finished’ piece. As expected the artists surprised us with great happenings during this process and have left the galleries and hallways with more stirring work for everyone to enjoy. I would like to thank the artists for working with us on this project.  Above are a few pictures of the changes.  The show will be up until December 31, 2010 so get in here and see the changes yourself before then.
Keep your eyes peeled; there are still a few changes to come in Marisol Rendon’s installation, Esperanto.