Los Gatos Weekly-Times Montalvo's artist residents invite public to open house By Shari Kaplan A pass to a creative world filled with colorful images, music and words is available--free for the asking--from Villa Montalvo to anyone with an interest in the arts. Montalvo's Artist Residency Open Studios takes place Jan. 24 on the historic estate at 15400 Montalvo Road in Saratoga. Four resident artists--James Chinneck, Randal Doering, Tom Lopez and Quin PingZheng--will visit with the public from noon to 2 p.m. in their on-site studio cottages. Presentations run from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Carriage House Theatre; a reception concludes the afternoon from 3 to 4 p.m. Chinneck, a native of Hertfordshire, England, holds a bachelor's degree in fine arts and has exhibited his sculptural works throughout England. In the summer of 1997, he participated in group exhibitions across the United States and Europe. At Montalvo, Chinneck is undertaking a new series that investigates the impact of travel and tourism on contemporary society. He is developing new installations based around issues of travelers' collective experiences and the romantic idealistic view held by the eager tourist. San Franciscan Randal Doering holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing and a master's degree in cultural anthropology. The two meld well in his career as a writer, as in his fantasy novel Zahid's Tale and his fantasy war story collection A Feast for the Ghouls. Doering spent a year in Egypt while researching the Medieval Middle-Eastern background for these stories. He has also written many other short stories that have appeared in numerous literary publications. While at Montalvo, Doering is beginning revisions on a new novel, tentatively titled In the Temples of My Fathers. Tom Lopez, originally from Ohio and now a resident of Texas, devised an independent major called Computer Music at Oberlin College, from which he received his bachelor's degree. He also holds a master's of fine arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. The winner of a Fulbright Fellowship and an ASCAP grant, Lopez writes musical compositions in traditional orchestral style as well as for theater, dance, video, graphic notation and CD-ROM. He is now pursuing a doctoral degree. Painter PingZheng received his bachelor's degree from Southwest China Teacher's University and holds a certificate of post-graduate training in printmaking from the Fine Arts Institute of China. Following his first solo exhibition in 1990, he has held many other solo exhibitions in China and the United States. While at Montalvo, PingZheng is exploring animals' relationship to humans in several oil and ink paintings. The multi-disciplinary Artist Residency Program brings artists to Montalvo to participate in a working residency for one to three months in a setting that offers privacy, creative reflection and--during open studios--a chance to interact with the public. For more information, call 961-5818. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.