Photograph by Dai Sugano
'Children Bearing Children/Children Bearing Guns' by Jeanne S. Wrede is one of many mixed-media paintings in the 'Walls to the Future' art exhibit in the Los Gatos Town Council Chambers.
Local artists interpret the new millennium
By Shari Kaplan
Although most of the world celebrated the new millennium with the ringing in of the year 2000, the milestone 1000-year mark does not technically occur until 2001. That being the case, the Los Gatos Town Council Chambers is already appropriately decked out for the coming celebration.
Walls to the Future, which runs through Jan. 12, 2001, is the latest installation of Art in the Council Chambers, an ongoing series organized by the Los Gatos Arts Commission that changes once every one to three months. The current exhibit features interpretations of the new millennium in a mix of mediums by 29 artists, all of whom belong to the Los Gatos Art Association. What's unique about this show is that each artist includes a brief artist's statement that explains the theme of the painting, shares an enlightening quotation, or both.
Certain themes are common to more than one artist. For example, Liv Hansen, Lori Krein and Ella Fisher focus on nature and the environment. In her silkscreen Sour Grass Crossing, Salinas resident Hansen paints an idyllic portrait of a pristine mountain stream lined with trees just starting their bright autumn glory. "If our environment is not protected, there will be no natural wonders left for the next generation to enjoy," she tells viewers in her statement.
San Jose resident Krein puts it poetically, using verse to accompany Nature's Beauty, her delicate paper collage of a tree in a meadow, behind which there appear to be sand dunes leading to the ocean. In part of her poem, she reminds viewers: "Enjoy the flowers, the trees, the ocean and the sky. Take a minute each day, you can do it if you try."
Fisher, a Santa Cruz Mountains resident, takes a different approach with Guardians of Nature, using tough welded steel to craft a shield-like circle with likenesses of an eagle, owl, wolf and fish. "My attempt to portray nature's representatives of air, land and sea reflects my vision of the new millennium--a time for renewal of the relationship between mankind and earth," she explains.
Some artists, such as Kathleen Self of Los Gatos, are inspired by the religious aspects of the natural world. In comparing herself to the grapes and leaves in her watercolor Fruitful Vine, she writes: "As a vine takes in pure light, transforming the brilliance of color into the sweetness of grapes, so I hope, in this new millennium, to absorb the pure Light of God's Love, and bear fruit that brings joy to those around me."
Los Gatan Kathy Keenan's wish is symbolized in her oil painting How We Go to the Stars, which depicts an ethereal character she calls "Everywoman," whose face is comprised of the heavens and in whose slivery flowing hair hide small, starry-eyed faces of people in every color of the rainbow. "If humankind is to evolve, and as a species reach our highest aspirations, we must shed our ancient hatreds based on superficial things like race," is part of her thoughts.
Throwing sentimentality to the wind, Saratogan Ruth Rainie Condit's contribution is Wild to Paint, a bright acrylic painting of what looks to be a tribal warrior standing atop a planet. Instead of brandishing weapons, however, the warrior carries painting supplies. In her statement, Condit reveals that she is a little surprised and very happy to still be alive and painting at the turn of the millennium--"With eyes, heart and mind wide open, I am wild to paint!"
Nick White's humor is more obvious, at least to anyone familiar with the "story poles" used to denote where new buildings will be constructed. In Rules Rule, the San Jose resident's acrylic paints have colored a futuristic world of space-age buildings and unusual aircraft belonging to an unknown planet, while other planets rise close to the horizon. On one spot of the terrain, however, stand some familiar orange story poles. "While I see the future of space exploration and colonization exciting, some things are destined to remain the same," he writes wryly.
Among the many other interesting pieces--both visually and texturally--are Saratogan Carolyn Johnson's Hidden, a mixed media scene of engaging eyes staring out from among branches; San Jose resident Carolyn Larsen's The Future, a whimsical pastel portrait of a wood nymph-like girl regarding the insects and flowers of the forest; and Los Gatan Elke Groves' Hand Us the Future, a watercolor that contrasts the real and the "virtual" words with their appropriate symbols: a bright human handprint and a dull gray computer keyboard.
The Los Gatos Town Council Chambers are located downstairs in the Civic Center, 110 E. Main St. If the chamber doors are locked, inquire at the Planning Department.
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