Bergamot Station

2009-01-07T00:26:00.001-08:00

Antelope Valley Artists Invade Santa Monica Galleries
Text and Images by Juan Roberts

Robert Regalado is a visionary. As the Founder of the new Antelope Valley (AV) Artist Association, he has begun a trend of positive momentum in the for AV artists of almost every discipline.

Last Saturday, Robert's quest continued. A small group of us piled into Robert's Suburban and traveled 70+ miles to Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. Except for a brief lunch, we spent the entire day at over 20 amazing galleries, the terrific Hiromi paper store, a frame shop that hosted fine art portraits and a specialty store of functional art.

Each location reveals more and more of a world outside the valley that explodes with the brash optimism of self expression through paint, pottery, photography, pencil, print making, metalworks, computer graphics and sculpture.

We meandered throughout the complex, ducking into austere galleries, hanging out in wide open large scale galleries, stopping by smaller cramped galleries to see the obvious and curious. One exterior installation is unique to say the least -- it is a Mercedes converted into a terrarium titled the Farm Lab ... seriously.

Of course the artist styles were varied and encompassing. The show featuring Robert Motherwell elegies is particularly inspiring, so much so that I came home and produced 15 new pieces right away -- I am calling it my Visual Haiku series. Another artist that caught all of our attention was part of a group show with 5 new paintings from Peter Saul. The paper sculpture of Jim Shaw was very cool and we enjoyed elegant photography by Lillian Bassman at one of my favorites, the Peter Fetterman Photo Gallery. They always have captivating black & white images. One series of prints is particularly irreverent and dealt with current events. It features an image of President Bush in a Warhol styling admonishing viewers to vote for Obama + there a collection of shoes ganging above the lithographs, all painted black. Wow, talk about social commentary.

We all seem to collect lots of the numerous promotional materials for artists and openings, many of which were taking place that very evening. All-in-all, the day was great. The return ride was not one of those where everyone sleep until we get there, it was full of topical discussions on future projects, exchanging ideas, sharing peeks at sketches, communicating on multiple levels.

I am not sure if it was what Robert expected, but I was very pleased. I made a new connection with a local mixed media artist, Edwin, and his son, Edward.

I've already made contact with a couple of the galleries and hope to continue a dialogue that may result in me showing later this year. How exciting a trip. Coolness.

The Backstory
For months now Robert has connected dozens of artists, some like Evie Cook from Santa Clarita, to attend monthly meetings that have covered the gamut from house gatherings to full blown presentations by local artisans. All this work has one purpose -- to expose the valley to top quality artists and encourage artists to do what they do.

I connected with Robert through Ana Luz and Arturo Castonon last year. They are a husband and wife team of glass blowers that do amazing work (kolibrifa@raodrunner.com) in their local studio.

AV PROz Luncheon - June 12, 2008

2008-06-24T00:17:00.000-07:00

PROz Vice Pres. Colbert Williams L; Juan Roberts; Former PROz Pres., Vivian Komori R.

What a Wonderful Afternoon
Last Thursday, I had the most wonderful opportunity to speak before a group of powerful SoCal PR professionals at their monthly speaker's luncheon. The Antelope Valley PROz meets at Eduardo's Restaurant in Palmdale, CA and features a plethora of industry pros.

I was introduced to this organization in April and was asked to speak for their June date. I immediately accepted, having been invited to the group by Vivian Komori, of Komori Fresh. She has been great to me since we met in April through a mutual friend, Deborah McGill. They are both strong advocates for my work and how vital they see it being in the AV.

The framed certificate given to me was an unexpected gift, I am honored. By the way, I have no idea why I am cheesing like a goofball, except that this is the second pic, catching me off-guard from my normal cool pose. But I digress. (smile)

The topic for the event was originally branding and marketing, but once I listened to the brief introductions of each person in attendance, I changed my content to speak on a very real situation facing the High Desert region. In short, the 25 minutes I spoke covered the new influences that are impacting the 'way of life' in the Antelope Valley. It was augmented with questions and comments about how deal with the rapid transition from homey community to faster paced marketplace.

I shared that the recent 5 year population explosion is having rippling effects on the need for small companies, AV based corporations and organizations to be more competitive to sustain the influx of major brands and mainstream companies seeing the AV as a ripe market for exploitation. My recommendation is to understand the impact of the influences and strategically respond to them, otherwise local firms are preparing to be marginalized by less vested marketing entities from outside this valley.

As a resident and creative professional, I am passionate about embracing the changes and strengthening the existing creative profile/prowess/power of the valley. I think we should be about the business of Rocking the Valley with high levels of creative thinking/action and showing the world that in addition to being makers of state-of-the-art weapons, we also have the capacity to develop a type of emerging creative culture, similar to what Richard Florida comprehensively defines in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class.

The Antelope Valley has the potential to be a global city, if we can allow ourselves to recognize that we are no longer the drowsy, somewhat isolated town, once accepted as a pass-through destination for commercial productions. This region is an unpolished diamond, poised to be faceted and attract the best creative talents in the world.

I, for one, am excited and ready to see the growth of a respected design, branding and marketing community. Thank you to the AV PROz team, especially Programming Chair, Ann Hill, for keeping me informed about the PROz process leading up to the luncheon -- you helped me to look good.

Thanks again to Deborah and Vivian for your support and friendship.

Creative Lunacy Events

Bergamot Station

AV PROz Luncheon - June 12, 2008