Coming back from a week in San Diego

"Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory"
The 3 main walls of the installation


















The fourth wall



It took one week to install the show, I've got some great help from Janine Free and her husband Marvin, had the pleasure to drive every morning the 101 between Encinitas and Solana Beach. Amazingly, Janine and Marvin happened to be in the bay area a few days before the installation began in Solana Beach, and they transported almost all the paintings to San Diego in their truck. I brought myself all sorts of painting material, and I bought my favorite non-toxic paint at ACE in Hillcrest.

Tracing the large geometrical figure on the walls with a great ruler/level.
Using yards and yards of masking tape.
Painting with brushes, small rolls, large rolls. 2 coats.
Hanging paintings for hours, installing the videos (one flat screen, two digital frames).
Installing the very last series of paintings I've made on the fourth wall, which was already painted in dark gray.
Everything worked. Smoothly I can say.


mock up of the main part of the installation

It was interesting to see how the mock up I've made before coming to install the show at the gallery changed as I was working in the real space: they were transformed but not that much. I did not get the chance to do much else than installing the show. Everything was ready Saturday morning by noon, a few hours before the opening reception.

Another great experience for me. Another space, new paintings and new videos. I am very happy to have found a way to make videos which look like my paintings, with those shadowy/ghostly/round people. I'll post the videos soon.

Now I am back here, the show is up until January 14.



Some photos taken during the week the show was installed










With Janine Free and Lori Lipsman

"Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory"
December 11, 2010 - January 14, 2011

Project x Art Gallery
320 South Cedros Avenue
Suite 500
Solana Beach, CA 92075

Open Monday – Friday, from 10am to 5pm
Also by appointment: Chris Martino (858) 792-9685

Defragmentation

My show at Project X: Art is coming up fast: in a few days, I'll be in Solana Beach to install it. I am very excited about this new experience with a different space. Here's the press release - The opening is December 11, from 6 to 10pm!



For Immediate Release
Contact: Chris Martino
858.792.9685
www.projectxart.com

MICHELE GUIEU: “DEFRAGMENTATION”

DECEMBER 11, 2010 - JANUARY 14, 2011

Opening Reception: December 11, 6-10 PM


Project X: Art is pleased to present “Defragmentation: Rearranging Bits and Pieces of Memory” - an installation of paintings and video by Michele Guieu. The exhibition will be on view from December 11th, 2010 through January 14th, 2011. An opening reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, December 11th from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Michele Guieu’s work focuses on large-scale installations constructed from paintings and drawings, with secondary elements including murals, video, photography, furniture, decals, and found objects. Her imagery is both abstract and concrete: it draws on photographic images collected from mass media and her personal life, but is then abstracted through a high-contrast process that derives from her graphic design background. Scale is a crucial component in her installations, as it serves to reduce the constituent paintings and drawings to pure graphical-sculptural units in a bigger whole.

Regarding her new installation, Guieu says:

“I just moved to the Bay Area, and am coming back to San Diego to show ‘bits and pieces of memory.’ I never had a very good memory - that may be why I take so many photographs and videos. The installation is based on photos and video I took over the years and transformed via editing, painting, and digital manipulation. The idea of defragmentation came from watching a computer defragment a hard disk. The installation works the gallery like a large file system - tying together memories while making space for the ones to come.”
Michele Guieu is a San Jose-based artist and a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, France (MA Graphic Design and Multimedia).

She has presented solo exhibitions at Art Produce Gallery and the San Diego Art Institute, and participated in group shows at the California Center for the Arts, Oceanside Museum of Art, and Cannon Art Gallery. In 2009 she was a San Diego Art Prize nominee for Emerging Artist, and more recently was part of the recent Summer Salon Series at the San Diego Museum of Art. Guieu lived and worked in San Diego for six years, before moving to San Jose in 2010.

Project X: Art is located at 320 South Cedros Avenue, Suite 500, Solana Beach, CA 92075. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. The gallery is also open by appointment - please call for details. For more information, call 858.792.9685 or visit www.projectxart.com.

Tis the season

Last week at school (4th grade): owl pellet dissection


Sunday

November

The Last Four Weeks

I did not post anything for four weeks. I've been working a lot on my upcoming show at Project X: Art. And also on assignments for my video class.

Because we moved so recently and I do not know many people, I guess in a way it helps me to concentrate a lot on what I have to do for the show. I have, luckily, a lot of hours to work on my projects before approximately 2:00pm during the week days, which is the time to switch to mom mode.
Often, I can work at night too.



I am taking a video art and editing class at Foothill College which I am really interested in. I am taking the class online: the timing for the class on site at the college was not fitting with my kids' schedule and that's OK. There is a forum online, questions are posted by the students, tutorials and assignments are posted by the teacher, it is really well organized. From what I can see, it seems that the teacher is always online, available to answer any question, which is quite amazing. Of course, I would prefer to share the discussions for real, may be next semester it will be possible.





I divide my time between working in the studio (the garage) on my paintings and working on Photoshop and Vegas on the computer. Also I am still taking lots of photos. And lots of video footage. I do with the video footage what I do with my photos. I kind of create my own image/film bank. And of course, I work with the material which amazes me the most: the kids. But although they are available almost any afternoon or week-ends, they are not always ready to participate! I am very patient with that, I videotape what I can, a few minutes here and there.
A few months ago I bought a bag where I can fit both cameras (photo and video) and I take "notes" with both very often.



Even if I do not stop thinking about my projects and even if I have an opening soon, I cannot be all the time in the studio or on the computer.
The family still need to take some time to visit around!



We had the pleasure to go to a magic house at friends' in San Francisco.





We enjoy the market every week-end, marveling at all the wonders it offers. Mostly organic, super yummy and affordable.







We had some great time hiking in Big Basin.







Milo and I won a pumpkin-carving contest at friend's. I used my Dremel for the first time, to get the transparency and "floating elements" (otherwise impossible to do). I never thought about that before, and the idea came when watching a "Halloween" video on YouTube.



We spent another day in San Francisco, at the Fall Opening Studio / Hunter Point Shipyard, and visited the building 101. It took us hours and we did not even visited all the studios. More than 300 studios were open to the public in total, including Islais Creek Studios.
Incredible old industrial place which apparently -and not surprisingly - inspire a lot of the works of the artists working there.









I attended the "ClimateClock 100 Year Iconic Landmark" talk, presented by the artists who are working on the project and are in residency for a few months at the Montalvo Center for the Arts, a stunningly beautiful estate nested in the forested hills of Saratoga. A quiet world apart, minutes away from San Jose. The project is Titanesque (longevity "required": 100 years) but the artists are putting together a smart response: it will be like a relay race. Rather than to envision something sturdy and unique, the idea is to give the baby to other artists after a while to nurture the project further and make it richer and more diverse as the years pass.



We had the pleasure to spend a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.



The room with the jellyfish, with different types and morphologies, is absolutely fascinating and I could have spent hours just marveling at those animals.



Outside the aquarium, miles and miles of beautiful shore offer attractive tide pools.
Big Sur's wilderness is not far from there.





I read the powerful, chilling and riveting "Into Thin Air, a Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster". I found it at the school fair, along with two books I did not read since I went to art school: "the Story of Art" and "Art and Illusion" by E. H. Gombrich. Both brought back nice memories.

Lucy, Darwin and Me / video

A 12 mn video part of my solo exhibition, "Lucy, Darwin and Me", at Art Produce Gallery in San Diego, December 2009 - January 2010.
It was videotaped in Anza Borrego State Park, Southern California, in 2009.

More information:
Photos of the exhibition
Photos of the Exhibition 2
In the San Diego Union Tribune
In the San Diego City Beat
Essais by Katherine Sweetman (SDVAN)
Essais by Jane LaMotte
In Archaeoikon

CoMa @ Edgeware Gallery

"Behind the Iron Curtain"
One of the pieces shown at Mission Cafe, March 2010


Conrad Mecheski and Maura Vazakas
"Insider / Outsider" group show, The Garage, September 2009
in front of one of their collaborative pieces

I had the pleasure to see the collaborative work of Maura Vazakas and Conrad Mecheski on three occasions: at the Garage (group show "Insider/Outsider") in the fall 2009, at the Garage and at Mission Cafe downtown San Diego last spring.

I regret not to be able to see this new show at Edgeware Gallery, but the video is really nice to understand how the two artists collaborate and to see some of their new pieces.
I have always been fascinated by collaborative art work and I am following this work with a lot of interest!



From the press release
Edgeware Gallery is proud to present:
CoMa - A collaboration of Conrad Mecheski and Maura Vazakas
Show Runs Until Nov. 14, 2010

CoMa is a collaboration of Conrad Mecheski and Maura Vazakas. They paint simultaneously, sometimes adding, some-times deleting. They have explored text, figure and abstraction in a poetic form both verbally and visually as line and shape. Conrad and Maura learn to accept the process as something that has no formulated or contrived idea of end result. It is a mystery. They must agree when the work is finished. It puts them in the present moment when the joyous creativity is truly happening.
In conclusion, their work has always been about the relationship of two individuals joining together on one surface.

A portion of the sale of their artwork is donated to the Autism Research Institute (www.autism.com) in San Diego, California.

Edgeware Gallery
4186 Adams Avenue
San Diego, CA 92116
info@EdgewareGallery.com
Phone: 619.534.8120

Gallery Hours
Friday: 5pm-9pm
Saturday and Sunday: 2pm-7pm

artists' contacts
mauravazakas@hotmail.com
conradmecheski@gmail.com

A National Park for the coves near Marseille, France: "Les Calanques"

Les Calanques: Sormiou, Le Canape, cove's left bank

My mom is 76 and she is doing an amazing job working endlessly (at least for 20 years now) for the creation of a National Park near Marseille, France. She lives there, that's where she studied biology at the University before I was born. When we go to France to visit her, we always go to the Calanques. They are a breath taking place, one of the most incredible ones I know - but dangerously close to the town of Marseille.



"Les Calanques", the site my mom and a lot of dedicated people want to transform into a National Park, is a very special place along the Mediterranean sea: white cliffs plunging in the water, secluded coves, old pine trees and a reach flora and fauna.

My mom goes to the Calanques very often (as I did when I lived in Marseille) - she hikes there and she also guides group of people to explain the geology of the site. She is very passionate about the subject, goes to meetings, writes letters, participates in conferences. It takes a great amount of patience, of work, to convince so many people that the creation of the national park is an absolute necessity or the site will be constructed and anything can happen.

She sends me photos she takes, different days, different lights. Here are some of them.


Maïre, Cap Croisette


Sugiton cove from the trail


Rosemary

I hope to have her energy if I reach her age.
Mom, you are an inspiration, thank you for what you are doing! And I hope the National Park for the coves near Marseille will be a reality very soon!


Sugiton cove (where I spent lots of Sundays when I was a child -
one hour hike to get to the cove)


Les Goudes, Ile Maïre (all photos Denise Guieu)

If you want to read more (in French!) about the creation of the National Park, please visit:
"Un Parc National pour les Calanques".