Flourish

Get down in the Mission

Sometimes it feels like miles away when we are all cozied up in our Napa pads. But I assure you it is worth the trip. This month, one show in particular not to miss: "The Question is Known: (W)here is Latino Art?" at the Mission Cultural Center. On view through May 24, this show features some of the most well known names in contemporary Bay Area art, including 2 Napa artists!

Artist Antony Torres curates this powerful exhibition of 30 artists showing paintings, sculpture, and installations exploring Latino identity. Torres writes that "The Question is Known" "is concerned with making what should be a simple and obvious statement — that Latino artists and art practices are diverse."

Diversity flows in the works of local boys (and pals) Lewis deSoto and Rob Keller. deSoto's piece Pakhan-gyi is a digital print made up of hundreds of stills from porn websites, but the overall image is of the footprints of the Buddha. The work addresses the temptation of lust by examining the simultaneous eroticism and ugliness of the porn industry.

Rob Keller's incredible living sculpture in the show combines a hive of live bees, a fiberglass donkey, "prosperity" wallpaper, and bee boxes. None of us are sure if Rob has Latino heritage but his message about migration and the disappearance of workers is straight brilliance.

After I hit this show, I enjoyed a somewhat steamy performance of the Cuba-Caribe dance festival at Dance Mission. My sexy friend Adrienne impressed me in those 3" gold heels, but so did the half-naked male dancers who inspired "primitive feelings" in most of the female audience! The Fourth Annual CubaCaribe Festival runs April 18 - May 4. Get your tickets through Dance Mission. There's a dance party after the performance on April 26. look out!

Come to the Maker Faire!

Maybe it slipped past your attention earlier in this blog....we are going to the coolest crafter faire in the Bay Area, and we are getting there on a Magic Bus! The Maker Faire field trip is Saturday, May 3. Just $30 ($15 for kids) Starting at the Nest in Napa, you'll be whisked off to San Mateo to see amazing inventions like these personal transport muffins, made from scratch.

Acme Muffineering presents Kinetic Pastry Science Mobile Muffins. Discover the recipe for a full batch of 1:18 scale mobile muffins. Delicious scratch-built, electric-powered, highly maneuverable, and capable of 18mph+!

Also a load of other fun activities like the Swap-o-rama-rama. Bring old clothes, make new clothes. If necessity is the mother of invention, then invention is the father of fashion.

Email me at trinca.ann@gmail.com if you'd like to come with BEFORE APRIL 21.

Can you say Terr-ar-ium?

When was the last time you got to fiddle with tiny ferns and poke fake lizards with a chopstick? Never? Well you missed out, because that what we got to do at our Living Art Terrarium Workshop at the Nest on Saturday, March 29.

A group of creative women came together, along with our Natural History exhibition artists Joy Broom and Valerie Raven, to try their hands at terrariums (gardens in a jar). The Nest provided the materials and immediately upon arrival, we all dug in! It was amazing how many variations and techniques were happening around the table. Some people's tiny worlds extended outside of the glass jars, some became "tablescapes", one even came with a built in living creature (where did that cricket come from?)

The artists were a huge inspiration and provided additional materials such as plants, figurines, and cool biology books--which Norma put to use in a terrarium for her cardiologist husband (awwww). Everyone had a great time expressing their inner 3rd grader and encouraging each other.

THANKS TO ALL INVOLVED. And stay tuned for more crazy craft adventures at the Nest. See photos in our "World of Terrariums" photo album on the right. Thanks for the use of your cam, Ashley!

Out & About in the Art World

Hi folks, I've had an exceptionally full cultural schedule over the past few days. I am grateful for all of the opportunities that have come my way, but wah does my head ache. I think I maxed out on photography shows in SF, but then I was refreshed by a visit to the Mission District where the number of cool things blew me away but also gave me great ideas. The following is a list of things that made my crafty lil's heart palipitate in the past few days:

I am inspired:

by the Chamber Music in Napa Valley series at the NV Opera House--the perfect place to gather thoughts while crushing on the First Violinst's tricky foot moves. (Thanks Ash)

by Lee Friedlander's funny self-portraits and punny hip shots from his car (at SFMOMA now)

by Patricia Sweetow's quirky space at 77 Geary that looks like the 1/2 floor from "Being John Malkovich"

by the bronze sculpture of Yoshitomo Saito that mimic the delicate twists and waves of nature but in a more permanent way

by the uber cool shops along Valencia St in SF--Curiosity Shoppe, 826 Valencia, Little Otsu, Paxton Gate--these places give us something to aspire to and let us know we are on the right track

by my lovely friends Ari, Yoriko and their beautiful girl Rena, for their yummy macrobiotic dinner that I intruded on Friday night

by the scene at Oakland's Art Murmur...growing...growing..growing. When I lived there it was a wasteland. That means there is hope for Napa right?

by a cute Victorian tea room stylings of The Moon on 25th street in Oaktown--they are our kindred spirits.

Get out there sometime soon and bring back your ideas. We'd love to help you stay inspired.
(see some pics in the photo gallery at the right)