Studio visit with Clinton Bopp

May 22, 2011
What an exhilarating experience. What an overwhelming amount of work.
Congratulations to Clinton for his absolutely massive amount of art created in a relatively short time (in terms of years on the earth, that is).
Present at the meeting: Phoebe, Clinton, Peggy, Carolyn, Judith, Clara Llano and Madeline Fraser.
Clinton hails from New Zealand and has been living in LA for the past 12 years.
His life story is fascinating and informs his work throughout. His father was a Navy Seal. Clinton was raised to follow in his footsteps. He learned to survive in the wilderness and was exposed to an interesting hybrid of kiwi, Mawri and US military culture. He followed his artistic spirit and moved to LA. He was homeless for a while but used his survivor's instincts to create a life. Introduced to and exposed to Mexican art and artists and mesmerized by the "street" life of LA, he relocated to downtown. There he spent a decade immersing in and documenting his urban life. Trust me, he's seen a lot. He challenged himself to use those "survival" skills in the thick of downtown, before the Lakers stepped foot near the future hip zone.
That was then. Now he lives in a gloriously bucolic guest house, with jacuzzi, sauna and two pigs near his front door. But he's the sanest madman artist there is.
His fine art is a fantastic amalgamation of his roots in nature, his urban soul, Mawri influences, respect for the cosmic with an eye on the street. He's a whiz of a painter. Mural after mural, painting in every conceivable style for his movie production work.
His installations are engulfing environments filled layer upon layer of narrative, mystic and literal street elements.
He's working on a show in November at Highways. Don't miss it.
Judith described his work as "operatic". The rest of us just dropped our jaws at the sheer output of excellence.
I know that this is an extremely busy time for our academic friends. We missed you and we are sorry that you missed Clinton's visit.

"Marking, Very, Nearly, Away" Beth Leister

Time	Saturday, March 5 · 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location	Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Created By	Elizabeth Leister
More Info	“Marking, Very, Nearly, Away”, by Elizabeth Leister at Highways Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, March 5 – 27, 2011 Opening Reception: Saturday March 5th, 2011, 6:30 – 8:00 pm “Marking, Very, Nearly, Away”, an interactive installation, invites the audience to mark their presence in time and space. Using a live video feed and drawing, traditional and digital approaches to recording the body are explored in real time through audience participation.

Next Meeting: Sunday, February 27, 2:00

We are doing some thing different for the next meeting.
A field trip! Location to be determined. Perhaps the Getty. Some place/show interesting to us and then some lunch after. Please keep your eye out for a good recommendation.
My studio visit will be next.

Recent Meeting, January 23, 2011

Our most recent meeting was at Zelda's house. Despite the sad news of Kate and Tom's departure from the group, we carried on with renewed resolve!
In a small bout of the 'glass possibly being half empty' (some culture shock and just having returned from 5 glorious weeks in Mexico may have had some influence on this), a part of me expected everyone to being jumping ship. But alas, no! It was fantastic to be together, talk and discuss our future.
Here's what was discussed:
Our Group Show
As the basic democratic policy of the group is "you snooze, you lose", those who participated in the dialogue discussed and came to a consensus for our first group show. Everyone who sent in or brought in ideas had an open forum, no judgement. We threw around all of the ideas and agreed that we wanted to have a theme that was open-ended, malleable and relevant to the work that we do.
Here it is: Short Stories
We are encouraging creating new work for this, one to three pieces. If the older work is pertinent, great. A little more, a little less, OK.
As many of us are work-horse, labor intensive types of creatures, we need some time.
Here's the structure:

• June - We'll have a State of the Union style update on where our pieces are. Step one. Get started thinking now, though. Start creating for this.
  
• We'll determine a realistic date for completion.
• We'll discuss gallery possibilities. We liked the idea of being able to take this show to a few venues. DIY spaces, Phantom galleries. We really want to present it in a fresh light and want to resist the comfort of a space that feels tired or "faculty show-ish".
• Since it is called Short Stories, we loved the idea of printing a booklet with our work, info and writing that would enhance the work. We were into all of the new printing possibilities for this. It also nice to have something to take away. We want a book.

Our Group and New Members
OK, so this is the nature of a group. People come and people go. But please don't go!
We are looking to add about three more interesting and viable people to the group.
Some thoughts:

• Serious artists who are truly committed to their art and creating and a career.
• Negativity, downers and super critics... not good candidates.
• Whoever joins is stepping into an already lovely group of people with a group show on the horizon.
• Ask around. Ask curators, gallery owners, other artists who may have friends, etc.
• Man power. A few good men would be nice. Looks count for more than 50 %. Or more. Just kidding, but more men would be great.
• We're not in a rush. But get the word out. Quality first.

Other notes from the last meeting:

• Zelda was excited the John Frame was coming to the Huntington Gardens/Museum. She said that could use your B of A card for free entry.
• Peggy wrote and said that she liked the idea of an annual group show called Salon LA 2011. I think you all received this e-mail with the details of her view. Interesting idea that we'll bring up at the next meeting.
• This weekend is the LA Art Show at Barker Hanger at the SM Airport. That might not be the exact name. I never remember the title, exactly.
• AND! Craig's show in Mexico was a GIANT success! Fantastico!

I truly appreciate all of you and treasure what I derive from the group. Thank you for making the effort every six weeks or so. If you can't make a meting every once in a while, don't stress out about it. We're just happy to have you be a voice in out circle.
Gracias y mucho amor...
Phoebe

Next meeting: Saturday, December 4, 2010

Craig Stanman
Full circle here!
Craig will be the final person to present his work in this round of Salon visits.
Next, we will begin to create the next level of discourse for our group.

Please join us at:
18125 Coastline Drive, #E
Malibu 90265
310-454-1880
2:00 PM
Please note: We are meeting on a Saturday.
His work is beautiful! I can't wait. But I'm a little biased.

Cherie's Studio Visit

Thank you so much, Cherie for letting us in on your beautiful world of insects, birds, fruits, candies and ideas. We are sorry to have missed a few of you (Zelda, Tom and Kate, I believe were the only ones absent).
Cherie walked us through her vision of her project that resides in her mind and will hopefully be ignited to bust out into the real world very soon. I love your idea of using the insect display case, but on a larger scale. Part natural History Museum, part Joseph Cornell and very dream-like.
Cherie displayed her illustration work through the course of her career, showing finished product as well as originals. Such beautiful craftsmanship. Incredible precision and eye for detail.
It was lovely for us to be together. John, you were a charming and restrained host, truly allowing Cherie to have the spotlight.
We were all excited with your proposal. I hope that the Salon helped you with direction and motivation!

Kickstarter

I just read an article in the LA Times that mentioned Kickstarter, a creative way to get creative funding. It seems like an interesting way to seek and contribute funding for creative projects.
Another possibility!
Here's a link to the article: "Kickstarter's growing grass roots food scene"