‘Personal tales’ that go public
September 9, 2013
EC opened its doors to a new art gallery that offers viewers a window into an artist’s mind.
The exhibit, titled ” Personal Tales,” opened August is now available to students and the public through Sept. 19. It showcases pieces by 19 well-known Southern California artists through which they symbolize memories or a story from their personal lives. The mediums range from drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and video, to mixed media installation and performance.
“I’ve been working on these small pieces for a long, long time,” Susanna Meiers, a contributing artist, said. “They act as sort of a diary for me, its sort of a synthesis of dream imagery and things that are going on in my real life, and its all totally symbolic so nobody will know what it means except for me.”
The exhibit hosted a reception Sept. 5, in which many of the artists talked about their pieces and gave a further explanation about their art. Some of the attendees were artists and their acquaintances, but many EC students attended, drawn by the offer of extra credit.
EC student Jenny Cruz chose “Elixir” by Susan Hamidi as her favorite piece
“I like all the detail to it, and the mindset she might have been in to actually draw that,” she said.
While some of the pieces were obviously memories or representations of real life, others took a bit of time to understand, and even then they were subjective to the viewer.
“I love these two pieces but I don’t like the movie they remind me of, ” Jarno De Bar, a local artist that also takes classes at EC, said. “But I like this painting.”
Susan Hamidi, one of the artist present at the reception, offered some background into her work and described her personal tale.
“Before I start to paint I know what I want, but when I’m done, I have to introduce myself to my painting, and this is something very personal to me,” Hamidi said.
“The best hours of my life, is when I am painting, and I forget everything around me. I forget the minutes, I forget the people, I forget the sounds I hear, I just see myself and my canvas, and hours can go by,” she added.
The gallery’s artists were open to discussion about their pieces, and Hamidi was just one of the many that were present. Other artists included Randall Von Bloomberg, Terry Braunstein, Angie Bray, Eileen Cowin, Stan Edmondson, Susan Hamidi, Zeal Harris, Lauren M. Kasmer, Thomas Whittaker Kidd, Filip Kostic, Peter Liashkov, Lynne McDaniel, Susanna Meiers, Jim Morphesis, Nancy Mozur, Andrew Ortiz, Thea Robertshaw, Roxene Rockwell, and Lizzy Waronker.
Personal tales gives everyone a chance to enter an artists mind as they try to explain life.
“The spirituality, the spirit world, the metaphors, ideas, this is right up my alley, surreal, and dreamy, its about real life,” De Bar said. “Everyday life depicted by metaphors.”
