Art Lives
October 14, 2004

You see those vivid, fuchsia-colored bumper stickers all over: "Art Lives." Distributed by the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County as a means of promoting the local arts scene, the message reminds us that this is a place where art not only lives, it thrives. Boom times or bust, no matter what kind of smirking yahoo is in the Oval Office, art lives.

A great way to meet artists who create the art that lives is on the Open Studios Tour. Launched by the Cultural Council and now in its 19th year, Open Studios invites the public into the studios, homes, and workspaces of local artists to view work, talk about art, and get inspired. With 287 participating artists this year (out of over 300 applicants), the event stretches over the first three weekends in October. Well known for its skillful organization and the high quality of the artwork, the Santa Cruz event has become the role model for other cities across the country eager to start their own art tours. Art lives everywhere.

Thanks to Art Boy, I've had a ringside seat watching Open Studios grow and flourish over the years. As a longtime member of the OS Committee, and chairperson of the event for the last two years (he even heads the team that hangs the annual show of OS artists at the Art League), Art Boy has donated volunteer hours beyond counting to the event; if they were frequent flier miles, we could take a World Tour.

We're also passionate OS attendees on whichever weekend Art Boy's studio isn't open. This year, it was the first weekend, and so we set off, catalogue in hand. It was perfect Open Studios weather: it wasn't a torpid 90 degrees, and it wasn't drizzling (or pouring rain). Like the Baby Bear's porridge, it was just right. After all these years, we always think we've seen it all: the most lavishly appointed downtown studios and the most remote mountain hideaways. We think we've seen most of the artists in town and know their work. What's amazing is our capacity to be surprised and delighted every year by new artists on the tour and/or new work.

Take Beth Gripenstraw, a veteran OS artist beloved at local art festivals for her playful ceramics vibrantly painted with cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, mynah birds, and other totemic animals. A frightening medical condition blindsided Beth a couple of years ago; she had to drop out of the art circuit, and devote her time to rebuilding her life. Another artist might have beat her breast, wailed to the heavens over an unjust fate. Not Beth. She made art.

Beth is back on the tour this year. Alongside her trademark ceramics, she's showing a series of wonderful new watercolor paintings, highly personal interior snapshots of the way she views the world. Some are related to medical matters: a poignant yet whimsical image of a room skewed precariously to the right while she lies curled up, protected by her spirit animals, a trio of cheetahs. Others are simply captured from daily life: herself inundated with piles of bills, or a backyard barbecue with friends reimagined as a formal dance. Many feature the details of Beth's home, with its jungle-like garden and vividly painted walls and wainscoting, and all are beautifully rendered with a graphic artist's sense of line. When future generations sift through the detritus of our culture, these are the paintings they'll embrace for their candid insight into the heart and their wacky sense of joy.

Up the steep, dark, rickety stairway of an apartment complex across from Louden Nelson, we found Tatiana Gorbacheva. A recent UCSC graduate in her first year on the OS tour, Tatiana paints mostly fresh, unframed oils: charming circus acrobats and harlequins, or images inspired by her heritage, Russian folklore and fairy tales, all infused with subtle mystery. Alongside a newer series of humorous still-lifes, she has also reworked some of her images as reverse-glass paintings and prints.

In her second OS year, fabric artist Susan Else creates "soft sculpture" of almost epic complexity and spirit. Originally a quilter, Susan has graduated to sculpted fabric figures remarkable for their expressive humanity (like a witty group of six Bingo players) and 3-D hanging tapestries on such diverse subjects as the Garden of Eden and an OB/GYN waiting room. In one free-standing piece inspired by an old military barracks, she's rendered the building like an ancient Mayan ruin, and added an awestruck tourist snapping a photo.

First-time artist Marc Moss works with surreal assemblage landscapes and monotype prints that reduce recognizable objects to mysterious colors and shapes. Unable to make prints when he moved into a house too small for his press, Marc turned to painting in acrylics. Using deep, rich colors that resemble oils, his "Lovers" paintings feature fragmented couples in abstract landscapes. Art lives by reimagining itself in new media.

Some of these artists will be open this "encore" weekend, and all can be reached through contact info in the OS catalogue. As art lovers, we were enchanted by what we saw; as OS participants, we're always looking for new ways to present the artwork. I wonder if I still have time to grow a jungle and paint my wainscoting.