Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Artist Ida Cutler didn't like the theme of the juried art show at the Tait Museum until she started working on her own 'Chaos and Order' piece.

Opposites attract in 'Chaos and Order'

By Shari Kaplan

The coexistence of order and chaos may seem contradictory, but in the Los Gatos Museum of Art and Natural History's newest show, the opposites come together in an artistic and creative way.

"Chaos and Order," juried by DeAnza College professor and artist Bill Geisinger, represents 19 of the best mixed-media works from members of the Bay Area Arts and Crafts Guild.

"The name 'Chaos and Order' for this exhibition is fitting. Artists who live in a normally chaotic world have come together and allowed us to see the order of their unification," Geisinger explains. "Each of the pieces communicates the joy and challenge of living and working within the Bay Area."

According to guild treasurer and Los Gatos Museum Association member Ida Cutler, the guild's purpose is mainly networking for artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. The group holds two shows per year, a fall membership show and a spring show open to anyone.

"I didn't originally like the 'Chaos and Order' theme because I didn't know how I'd portray it in clay until I got started. But once I started, I had fun--which is how it's supposed to be," Cutler says.

Cutler's contribution to the show is a pair of glazed clay masks. One is jaggedly shaped with somewhat undefined eyes and a crack running down its face; the other is smooth and well-formed with more cleanly cut eyes and features.

On a nearby wall are "Asia Major" and "Eagle's Wand" by Tom Azavedo. The pair look like crosses between wands and flutes. Their slender, cylindrical bodies have holes and metal valve apparatuses that look like those found on woodwinds, but the similarity stops there. The pieces are decorated with paint and unusual baubles and beads. A quartz crystal sits atop one wand, a golden eagle on the other.

Honorable mention "Untitled," by Fremont artist Susan Lougini, is particularly eye-catching on its pedestal near the window, where sunlight makes multicolored glass chips sparkle from within two curved pieces of thick glass filled with tiny bubbles. If the curved pieces came together, they would form a beautiful vase; instead, they remain separate and are "sewn" together by wooden rods positioned through several holes and secured with straw.

Other honorable mentions are a large raku pot with an iridescent glaze by San Jose artist Joseph Battiato and "The Greek Chorus" by Linda Mau of San Jose. The latter consists of five pieces of conical-shaped wire mesh, mounted on a Lucite base and covered with a layer of creamy beige and brown paint. They look almost exactly like tasty waffle cones over which ice cream has melted.

Best of Show went to Palo Alto resident Virginia Ferguson for "Guide Boat Series No. 1." This piece consists of a canoe-like boat made of clay, with a blue-green chair situated in the middle. On the chair is a closed book that appears to have been tossed, and under the chair is a slithering coral snake. It appears that the individual once sitting peacefully and reading in the boat has now jumped overboard in fright.

Most of the other pieces, because of the extremely mixed nature of their media or the uniqueness of their shape, size or color, must be seen to experience how they fit into the order or chaos of the exhibit.

The Los Gatos Museum of Art and Natural History is located at the corner of Tait Avenue and W. Main Street. Hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Donations are accepted. Call 354-2646.