Crawling for Art in the Snake Run

By CJ Gronner

Last night was the March Venice Art Crawl, and it was great. It kind of felt like First Fridays used to feel, where you saw a lot of locals and neighbors, and places served up free booze and music. The Art Crawl is actually better than First Fridays used to be, because the whole point is to appreciate local art … the very reason Venice became cool in the first place.

Cool doesn’t begin to describe how excellent it was to approach the Venice Skatepark just after sunset, seeing it all lit up, with a DJ blasting out good jams over the entire Boardwalk. They built a little entrance ramp so that people could go down in the snake run of the park, where the art of Mark Farina was hung.

It was a party, seeing all sorts of familiar Venice faces and catching up, all while checking out the brightly colored and highly political pieces from Farina.

These are the kind of original, fun ideas that make Venice special, and the kind of things we NEED – to show the world that they can keep their corporate chain stores and hum drum sameness.

WE have art openings IN skateparks. Bam.

There was a lot to see and do, so I had to crack the whip and keep us moving along … to Small World Books next.

Among all the zillions of books I covet every time I walk in the best book store in the West, I now also want one of the pieces by Christina Mills showing at Small World.

Her work feaures the typical Venice scenes, with surfers and the Venice sign type images, with scads of tweets from Venice 311 behind them … truly an example of “Where Art Meets Crim

On to The Gallery on Market Street, where we saw the gorgeous photography (featuring a bunch of Venice neighbors – Tawney! Shawn!) of Nicol Ragland.

The sign said, “A photographic exhibit raising questions about our ability to access primal and immaterial forces within the commercial ethos of western industrial society. The images stir a vital and confrontational animism by juxtaposing taxidermied wild animals in the arms of domestic U.S. citizens provokingly situated in the iconic centers of mass commerce.” Phew. That’s weighty stuff … but the photos sure were lovely.

We stopped in to see my girls at Kiki Designs (and spied even more cool rings we all wanted) and raise a glass, then did same at Gotta Have It, where the lovely Venice native, Mattea Perrotta, was showing her work. I knew almost everyone I saw, making it such a delight to be out and about, among friends.

Art was everywhere, and it was hard to take it all in when there was also so much socializing to be done. We did pretty well, but did get to Shulamit Gallery a bit too late to fully enjoy it, since they were kicking people out.

James Beach had Shark Toof and Tom French work featured – always a pleasure – and across the street at the Canal Club, owner Danny Samakow showed his very Venice paintings, that he was auctioning off for his upcoming AIDS Lifecycle Bike-A-Thon. We drank champagne with “Team Venice” and I soon found myself being the person that drew the raffle tickets for the lucky winners of Danny Samakow originals. We had a blast with the boys, even more so knowing that it was all going for such a good cause (that you can still donate to. Contact Danny.)

We covered a lot, but we didn’t cover it all … so there will be a lot to look forward to when the next Art Crawl rolls around June 20th. The night was starry as we strolled back home, way later than I had planned. We passed underneath the Venice sign again, and I smiled to myself that I get to live here, where there are still staunch preservationists of what is truly cool, proven by nights like this.

I love you, Venice. (We say that a lot here)

Emily Winters Writes on Mural Ordinance and VNC

Dear Beachhead,

The Venice Neighborhood Council Board Meeting on Tuesday, January 22 voted unanimously to revisit their vote to accept the Los Angeles City Mural Ordinance due to final changes made by Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) on January 15th that resolved the issues in question. The VNC Arts Committee will reevaluate the final ordinance recommendations by PLUM, and bring it to the next VNC meeting for a final vote. The VNC Arts Committee and myself made a few recommendations to add to the current ordinance for reconsideration.

I am very glad that the Venice Neighborhood Council responded to my objections to their premature vote, and are willing to reconsider their vote to make recommendations to the LA City Council for their final decision on accepting the Mural Ordinance. These final recommendations by PLUM make the ordinance a very solid protection of murals in our city.

There are many muralists, artists, various art groups from all over the City of Los Angeles who have been working on this ordinance for the last 10 years, and came together when the City of LA started a Mural Working Group led by Tanner Blackman and Whitney Blumenfeld for the last 3 years.

Thank you Venice Neighborhood Council and the Beachhead for your support.

Respectfully,

Emily Winters

Jan. 25, 2013

Edward Biberman Mural

By Delores Hanney

Since the recent slipping into private hands of the 1939 WPA-built post office in Venice, there has been much anguish and gnashing of teeth mainly due to the loss of an almost constant availability of the pleasure afforded by an offhand gaze at its iconic mural, The Story of Venice, tucked up inside the building. The 6’6” by 15’10” oil-emulsion tribute to the town’s past is the work of one Edward Biberman done in 1941.

The Work Projects Administration was a New Deal agency created during the Great Depression to provide useful employment to the otherwise jobless: constructing roads and bridges, parks and public buildings. Many of those buildings were then festooned with murals capturing a topic of local significance, painted by talented artists such as Biberman who were also working under New Deal programs, The Section of Fine Arts in Biberman’s case.

Not being painted directly onto its host wall, The Story of Venice is separated by process – if not purpose – from those pictographs of the cave painting sort harking back to times of antiquity. By contrast, the Venice post office version of visual life recordation is an oil on canvas that Biberman created in his studio on Vine Street in Hollywood. Actually, the oil was mixed with a wax preparation following a recipe he was given by Hilarie Hiler, a WPA mural-maker working out of San Francisco. It imbued the surface with a lovely eggshell quality and a gentle sheen as opposed to a shine. In completion, the painting was affixed to the wall through a technique called “marouflage,” a kinky kind of name for a procedure not that far removed from a do-it-yourselfer hanging wallpaper in the dining room.

He was way jazzed to receive the commission for this, his second mural. “It’s a painter’s dream to run into that kind of rich material, which also happens to be true,” he told an interviewer for the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian twenty-three years later. “Everything about the place is something which one would imagine to have been created from a figment of some very rosy imagination.”

Biberman’s approach, to this pictorial – and picturesque – historytelling project of his, is delicious, as all who ever saw it can readily testify. Following the ersatz triptych model employed on his first mural painted for the Federal Post Office Building in downtown Los Angeles, Venice founder Abbot Kinney is the central image in The Story of Venice, behind him the visionary rendition of his cultural Shangri-La. To the left Biberman depicted its honky-tonk manifestation; to the right in its industrialized form. In this manner, he captured not only Kinney’s fancy but also how it evolved upon making contact with real life. “It’s a wry commentary on what can happen to a man’s dream,” the artist observed. Venetians promptly claimed it as their own.

Stylistically influenced by the work of important Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clements Orozco, all of whom he knew from his days back in New York, it’s not just a sentimental reminder of things past. The piece exudes a certain romantic muscularity that embraces both the idealistic and the pragmatic in a sideways kind of optimism for the future. It offers, however, no hint of the somber social advocacy that later would become the primary focus of his fervor.

For more than seven decades, Edward Biberman’s awesome mural was there to welcome Venice post office patrons who bustled about, task oriented, towards a swift completion of business. The government retains ownership of the treasure but the covenant signed by the building’s new owner, movie producer Joel Silver – of Die Hard, The Matrix and, Lethal Weapon fame – would have him restore it for public viewing at his new digs, by appointment on a bi-monthly basis. That eventuality would have the effect of lifting said mural-viewing from an incidental part of an ordinary day’s errands to the status of a special event. But as Greta Cobar reported in the Free Venice Beachhead, a law suit was filed in Washington D.C. for reconsideration hopefully resulting in re-emplacement in the Abbot Kinney library: the best possible outcome for Venice homies.

In his moody and mystical and impassioned poem, “Sacred Places,” Jim Smith evokes that old post office to enshrine it as a temple, the mural image of Abbot Kinney inside as its resident deity. With it, a piercing howl of pain breaks from Smith’s soul.

Primeval articulation of a community’s grief for things as they stand now.

Artist Profile: Barbara Mastej and John Ransom

By Greta Cobar

It might not be breaking news that Venice attracts artists and fosters creativity, but take a moment and listen to the story of Barbara Mastej and John Ransom, who for nineteen years have watched their love, creativity, co-habitation and body of work steadily grow in a green little bungalow in the Canals.

Beachhead: Why do you create?

Barbara: It’s a compulsion, I can’t stop. Not one day goes by that I don’t make something.

John: It’s something that needs to come out – like an exhale.

Beachhead: Are you a vehicle?

Barbara: I’m a radio. I think that there’s something in my make-up that’s like a receiver.

While John paints abstract surrealism, Barbara experiments with just about anything and everything from realistic paintings to collages, sculptures, mosaic, thread, and so on.

John: Barbara is the most creative person I’ve met in my life. I describe her as the artist in the true sense of the word.

He described their life together as a puzzle piece, where things need to move around to make space for other pieces to move from one place to another. I could see how they graciously move around each other in order to move forward, together. Having met while working in the advertising business for Saatchi & Saatchi, they’ve lived in the same little house on the Canals for the past nineteen years, and are now running their own advertising company while trying to make a living off of just selling their artwork.

Barbara: We were the only people in the agency that lived in Venice, everyone else was afraid of Venice back then.

Beachhead: What’s your definition of good art?

John: Commercial art is mind manipulation. I think that when something evokes an emotion, it’s good art. My abstract paintings are meant to allow the viewer to go to dozens of different places. When someone hangs one of my pieces in his or her place, they may ultimately find secrets in the painting that reflect secrets in themselves.

Barbara: One of my current projects is a series of portraits of popular Venice residents like Suzy Williams, Sponto, Frank Lane, Robert Harris. On some paintings I work for long periods of time, some come quickly. Although they need to be recognizable, the portraits are not photo-realistic and I consider them done when they exhibit that intangible quality of personal energy.

Beachhead: John, your “Top of the Bottom” – the “Ravens” series depicts realistic-looking birds in an other-wise abstract painting.

John: Yes, I often include one realistic element in each painting. It gives people a reference point, and then the mind can imagine things. My observation of ravens and crows in their day-to-day life was the inspiration for the “Ravens” series. These majestic birds exhibit certain behavioral traits that I most admire in humans. They are independent, yet communal. Intelligent animals, they train their young and maintain expectations of fellow members of their flock. Their generally business-like demeanor does not seem to prevent them from experiencing the exhilarating aspects of our planet.

I am drawn to the contrasts and the majestic feelings that I get when I look at John’s work, and I smile at the familiar Venice faces so well illustrated by Barbara. 

Beachhead: Barbara, how did the Venice series get started?

Barbara: When the community I loved so much gentrified and changed around me, I discovered that painting was a way to channel my grief for the loss of friends and landscape. Matt Frost was the very first portrait I did in my Venice series. I didn’t know him, but had always wanted to photograph his cottage with all of the interesting stuff he displayed all around the outside. The place (no longer there…now it’s a tall concrete structure) was on a corner, so you could look at it from several sides and see all sorts of cool things. I was afraid to introduce myself to Matt at first, because he was quite an imposing figure. However, one evening, I asked John to come along, and we happened to see him walking across Ocean Avenue and go into Kim’s Market. He turned out to be really cool. When I asked if I could photograph him in front of his house, he said “Sure!” Turned out he had just found out that very day that the little house had been sold, and he was being forced to leave. It took me a good two and a half years to finish my portrait of him. He used to laugh and say he hoped he’d live to see it, when I’d see him around the old hood once his house was leveled. At last, I sought him out when it was finished, and had him come over. His eyes actually teared up when he saw the painting, and we were friends after that.

Beachhead: John, where do your visions and your inspiration come from?

John: Traditionally trained and a surrealist at heart, I paint from concepts, visions and dreams. The translation of thought into images is the core of my work. I avoid figurative subjects unless they play a requisite role in my concept. I find abstract work a much more direct expression of intimate emotions and sensations, as well as a better conduit to convey them to others. Visual context and feelings aroused are left to the interpretation of the viewer.

I really enjoyed both John’s and Barbara’s art pieces, but I actually got a real kick out of meeting them and seeing how they are able to work together on all of their advertisement projects like two perfect pieces of a puzzle. It’s nice to go to a little cottage on the Canals and feel completely content with the creativity and harmony of the place, inside and out. 

John: The only yelling that goes on in this house is me yelling at the computer.

Their artwork is now displayed on the patio at Hama Sushi until the end of February. The art gallery in the Cadillac hotel is currently being renovated, but some of their paintings that were exhibited there in a previous show are still hanging in the lobby of the hotel. For more about John and Barbara see , www.johnransomla.com, www.barbaraofvenice.com, www.oddmanout.biz.

Must-See Art at the Rose Cafe

By Nike Wind

There is a must-see exhibit Exploring Adam and Eve – Venice Paintings from 1990-2012 at The Rose Cafe now through March 3rd, posthumously exploring the work of Venice Artist, Michael Ayars.

I was more than lucky in that not only did I personally know Mike, but he was a true friend. I met him in 1980 at his Venice studio at a party with a capital P, where such phenomena occurred regularly and were considered meltdowns of creative critical mass. The circle of people I embraced there became my family of friends, and remain the lifeblood of Los Angeles’ artistic heart. Musicians, poets, actors, writers, painters, sculptors, and crafts people all came together to kick it and throw down with like minded people in real communion.

Mike was a certified genius. He refused membership in Mensa because he did not have an elitist bone in his body. He could speak with the authority of deep understanding on any subject, from history and politics to nature and sports.

This deep intelligence informed his work with stirring commentary from our times to ancient times. His work is iconic and the themes deal with the most pervasive aspects of human behavior using elementary symbols in the richest palette of color. It can be argued that Michael Ayars was an abstract expressionist but he would likely argue that himself. His form and style defy labeling. A master of color, his landscapes are nothing like you’ve ever seen before.

He supported his art by house painting. He was commissioned to paint trompe l’oiel wine cellars, rain forests, Moroccan oases, and so much more in the homes of wealthy patrons and friends. Michael also had a genius for living beings. He had a preternatural, almost mystical relationship with children and animals who received and returned the love he gave so freely.

Yes, Mike was one of the best friends I ever had. His manners were impeccable, concern for others genuine; he really knew how to love.  He also really knew how to paint. His oeuvre is available to see on his website: www.michaelayars.com.

Give yourself the gift of seeing the work of Michael Ayars, a Venice treasure, up close and in person, while it is still available.

Emily Winters on Murals

By Emily Winters

A vote whether or not to accept the incomplete mural ordinance came to question before the Venice Neighborhood Council at its last board meeting Dec. 18, 2012. There were four people from the community who spoke against the vote at this time as the ordinance has not been perfected for a final vote. No one spoke for the ordinance. This mural ordinance is going back to Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) for further revisions before it goes to a final vote from the LA City Council. There were people who spoke at the VNC meeting who have been working for several years with the LA City Wide Mural Ordinance Working Group to develop this ordinance to separate the rules for fine art murals from advertising signs. Advertising signs have over-run the mural rules confusing many issues to the point that caused a moratorium on no new murals since 2002. We have worked hard to finalize this ordinance, but there are a few main issues that are unresolved. The VNC was urged to vote down this ordinance until there is a final version, or vote for it excluding the issues of controversy, or table it until a final document is ready to be accepted or rejected. There was no one who spoke in favor of voting for the present status of the ordinance. The VNC chose to vote for this unfinished ordinance without examining the issues, basically making an uninformed vote! I am astounded at their short sightedness!

This kind of disregard of the knowledgeable members of the community who come forward before the board and then just plow ahead with thoughtless uninformed voting, destroys the credibility of the VNC. Kudos to Slyvia Aroth who voted against accepting the ordinance and Ira Koslow who abstained. I voted for Ira for a seat on the VNC for the very reason that he is able to objectively evaluate the issues that arise during the meeting, and can think out side the box.

The LA Mural Ordinance is still in process with PLUM and there is another hearing in January. There are 10 issues that need to be resolved with PLUM before it goes to a final vote from the LA City Council.

The ten recommendations are:

1. Remove prohibition of murals on single family homes.
2. Remove the 100 foot height restriction on murals.
3. Omit the allowance of mural de-registration by property owners.
4. Abide by global standards of mural conservation & restoration.
5. Prohibit the use of vinyl material. (Environmental & aesthetic issues)
6. Remove digitally printed murals from mural definition.
7. Prohibit property owner compensation.
8. Protect murals from destruction under the guise of vandalism abatement!
9. Registration for vintage and existing murals.
10. No fee for mural permits.

Recommendations compiled by UPPA (United Painters of Public Art)

The LA Mural Working Group and UPPA are made up of many muralists and mural organizations from around the City of LA.

The main issue is #6, digital murals and the question of whether they are reproductions or original art. Digital murals are not recognized by Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and California Art Preservation Act (CAPA) as works of art. Vinyl material that digital murals are printed on is an environmental hazard due to its material Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) the most damaging of plastics. If accepted under the mural ordinance, this will be a loophole for the advertising sign companies to continue digital super ads on public spaces and call them murals.

I urge the Venice Neighborhood Council to reconsider their vote under the need for more information, and re-vote when the final Mural Ordinance is completed. I would greatly respect the VNC if they would consider this most important option.

Sincerely,

Emily Winters

Chair and Co-Founder, The Venice Arts Council

Member of the LA City Wide Mural Working Group Muralist and 50 year resident of Venice

Dec. 28, 2012

Mural Illustrating Abbot Kinney Should Be Moved to Abbot Kinney Library

By Greta Cobar

We as Venetians are upholding our reputation of not giving up. So here’s the latest on our up-and-going, not-nearly-over fight with the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the new owner of our former, historic post office, Joel Silver.

The Story of Venice mural by renowned artist Edward Biberman, formerly housed in our historic post office, remains the property of the USPS even though the building has been sold into private ownership. Ever since the sale of the building, which closed on August 2, we have tirelessly tried to obtain a copy of the covenant concerning the mural between Silver and the USPS. Both Bill Rosendahl’s and Janice Hahn’s offices made vain promises of obtaining the document and making it public. It took a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a Mark Ryavek to finally view the document four months after the sale of the building.

The document, dated August 2, starts out by optimistically stating that “USPS agrees to loan the Mural to the Borrower, and the Borrower agrees to borrow the Mural from the USPS, for the purpose of exhibiting the Mural for a term of fifty (50) years.” However, through undisclosed maneuvering with the USPS, Silver managed to add a “First Amendment to Loan Agreement” on August 21, which states that “Borrower agrees to provide public access to the Mural six days per calendar year during the hours of 10 am and 6pm Pacific Time by appointment.”

There goes the request by the Coalition to Save the Post Office, representing virtually all Venice organizations and a wide spectrum of citizens, to maintain access to the mural during the same hours as the USPS had back when it owned the building.

In addition, although the initial loan agreement states that “prior to any such restoration (of the Mural), the Borrower shall send notice to the USPS of the proposed restoration for USPS review and approval,” the August 21 amendment negates any such responsibility by stating that “Borrower shall not be obligated, prior to any Mural restoration, to obtain the approval by the USPS of the proposed restoration provided.”

No wonder Silver was able to remove the mural from the wall in spite of expert and community opposition.

I personally filed an official request with the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) to introduce a motion to move the mural depicting Abbot Kinney from Silver’s property, which does not allow public viewing, to a public space, such as the Abbot Kinney Library. Let’s hope that the VNC will represent the wishes of the community on this issue, and let’s hope that their recommendation will actually have the power to make a difference.

The battle against the USPS is still being fought on more than one front. A new brief was filed on December 19 in Washington DC in our lawsuit against the USPS. The Circuit Court has combined our case with two others, involving Pimmit Branch Post Office in Northern Virginia and the Spring Dale, West Virginia Post Office, all represented by Elaine Mittleman.

The current brief submitted by Mittleman quotes the USPS as stating, in its own document, that “to maintain the spirit of the section in placing artwork in Post Offices, postal policy provides for the relocation of these works into the new facility when a Post Office moves so the art can continue to enrich people during the normal course of their lives” (http://1.usa.gov/12RK0kW).

Although our new mini, hole-in-the-wall post office at the mail sorting annex does not currently have enough space to exhibit the Biberman artwork, the original building has a very high ceiling. With minor modifications the current ceiling could be raised to accommodate the mural. However, after our one-way communications with the USPS over the past two years, we might choose to avoid dealing with them and move the mural to the Library instead.

“The Postal Service will include measures to ensure the mural will remain available for public viewing in any plan for reuse or disposal of the Post Office property” is a commitment that the Final Decision about the Venice Post Office included, according to the latest brief filed by Mittleman in Washington DC.

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), whose mission is to represent the public in dealing with the USPS, “failed to consider the commitment by the Postal Service that the mural will remain available for public viewing. In addition, the PRC did not address the historic preservation issues concerning the Venice Post Office and the mural,” according to the brief submitted by Mittleman.

Yes, we are taking on a big, federal institution whose mission seems to be self-destruction in favor of private shipping companies behind the excuse of a manufactured crisis. And yes, we are taking on Silver, the multi-millionaire Hollywood producer who was recently kicked out of Burbank and decided that Venice is hipper. It doesn’t make sense for Silver to keep the mural after removing it from the wall, without provisions for public access. Could we get the building back? If through our current lawsuit we can prove that the USPS or the PRC failed to follow procedures when disposing of our historic post office, the USPS would have to buy the building back from Silver and re-instate postal services.

Please contact the VNC at secretary@venicenc.org and urge that the motion to move the Biberman mural to the Library be placed on the January VNC Agenda. Then get involved by attending the VNC meeting on January 15 at 7pm at Westminster Elementary School, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd.

John Mooney Blows Moonlight Glass in Venice

By Greta Cobar

Venice has always fostered creativity, having drawn and inspired countless artists in endless media for over a hundred years. One such current story of bewildering, shining and colorful beauty is daily unfolding as John Mooney blows and sculpts glass, adding and mixing colors in infinite and never the same variations.

Putting color on canvas, building a castle out of sand, immortalizing a sunset with a camera or putting words on paper can, and often do, produce beautiful creations. But when Mooney puts two hundred pounds of powder in the 2100 degree furnace and draws out a fiery ball of molted glass that he then blows or sculpts into a bowl, a sea creature, or a light fixture, the transformation is one of overwhelming wonder towards the finished product and of admiration and respect for the craftsmanship that is required.

Watching him blow a bowl seemed like a series of thousands of perfectly timed and flawlessly executed movements. “Working with glass helps me become a non-perfectionist, it’s good therapy,” he said. Funny, I guess we are our own worst critics.

It takes hours, sometimes many hours, of an extremely intricate, split-second timely dance to bring to life the splendor of each piece. It also takes talent and consistent practice over a long period of time to master the art of blowing and sculpting glass. Mooney has been at it for 26 consecutive years, but he feels that “the lesson is never over, you have never learned everything.” And so he continues on his path, as if no other path was ever even possible. “The problem is keeping the furnace on,” he said regarding the expense of running his own studio, Moonlight Glass, and having to pay the $500 monthly gas bill to keep the glass molten and ready to play with. “I like the fun and freedom of playing with glass,” he said.

“Venice is cool, it’s the only place to live,” according to Mooney. Originally from Colorado, he spent his first spring break in Venice in 1983, and returned in ’86 after finishing his BA in Philosophy from Pomona College, in Claremont. It was during his last year at Pomona that he got the chance to take a glass-blowing class with renowned glass artist Therman Statom. Once in Venice, he worked with Richard Silver for ten years before building his own furnace and opening his own studio, Moonlight Glass, in 2000.

“Abbot Kinney created Venice to be how we like it, he made it for us,” is how Monney expressed the sense of belonging and the inability to fit in anywhere else that many of us feel towards the little town we call home. “Money is a really powerful thing – but so are people. I’m not going, I’m not gonna sell out,” he said when asked about the latest wave of gentrification taking over the neighborhood surrounding his studio. Located at 705 Hampton Dr., Moonlight Glass is only a stone-throw away from the recently-transformed-into-Rodeo Dr. Abbot Kinney Blvd. “Abbot Kinney would be happy seeing what I do,” Mooney said of his studio and his art.

Venice, Italy, is of course famous for its Murano glass, with a strong tradition going back several centuries. However, the small-studio glass blowing movement, which is different from the factory-like system still operating in Murano, originated right here in the US of A in the 1960s and exploded in the ‘90s and 2000s. It is these small studios, like the one Mooney is operating, that took glass from the decorative, mass-produced mentality still flourishing in Murano and opened the door to self-expression, experimentation, creativity and autonomy.

“I like the freedom – glass is free – there’s no limit to what you can do with glass,” according to Mooney. Not only did he purposely avoid the constricts of other media and of the Italian glass factories, but also those taught by conventional education. After just one glass-blowing class, Mooney proceeded to teach himself the art of glass. “In a school-like setting, people feed off each other and steal each other’s ideas. By not being submerged in art schools, I started fresh with my own ideas,” Mooney said.

And off he goes, to another full day spent blowing glass. His Moonlight Glass studio also serves as his showroom, with over 300 pieces available for admiration and purchase. The selection is almost as wide as the possibilities: tumblers, Betta fish, fish bowls on lit pedestals, his unique candlelit “Moon light bowls”, hanging lights, shot glasses, sea creatures, bowls, vases, and many, many more, each different and distinct like a non-mass-produced piece of art ought to be.

Following the stream of endless possibilities, the glass enthusiast is not limited to admiring or purchasing Mooney’s art pieces, but can also take one of the classes Mooney is teaching out of his studio. That offers not only the experience of working with molten glass next to the 2100 degree furnace, but also of walking away with two of your own original glass pieces of art.

When asked for a quick description of his endeavor, Mooney described it as a “life-long exploration of color and shape through glass and time.” And then he said that he wants to keep it going, because “there’s a lot to explore.”

To view a sample of Mooney’s artwork and find more information about taking a class, visit www.johnmooneyglass.com, call 310-399-0999 or stop by 705 Hampton Dr.

Sparkly Party for SPARC’s 35th Anniversary

By CJ Gronner

It has been all about the art lately in Venice, and a recent Saturday night was a big one for it. C.A.V.E. (Center for Audio and Visual Expression)  Gallery on Abbot Kinney had the opening of renowned street artist Shark Toof’s Ping Pong Show AND it was the big celebration for SPARC‘s (Social and Public Art Resource Center) 35th Anniversary. A full night of greatness.

My dear friend, Shana Nys Dambrot, wrote the introduction for Shark Toof‘s new and completely gorgeous coffee table book, and we discussed Shark Toof’s fine art works on canvas with the man himself.

Shark (I’m gonna call him that, as I have a hard time with the f) opined on the state of sexual taboos in the world that gave his show its name.

“Ping Pong” does not refer to the hooker trick of yore, but rather the sex industry mores of Asia vs. here in the U.S.

Bright fluorescent stripes on the walls caromed about and around the paintings, giving the whole gallery an installation feeling, picking up the colors exploding off the art. The gallery was packed with collectors and hipsters, locals and even a couple tiger face-painted babies that could have climbed out of one of the paintings.

Shark is best known as a street artist, and his work has shown up on exterior walls all over the world, often featuring sharks.

With this new, crucial book, and gallery shows like this, Shark has taken his outdoor pieces inside, and successfully bridged that gap previously crossed by folks like Shephard Fairey and Banksy. “Post Art Bills” reads the box that houses his book. Yes.

The show is bright and profound and you can check it out on Abbot Kinney now through November 11th.

I raced from C.A.V.E. over to the SPARC affair at its headquarters in the old jail on Venice Boulevard. The entire building was lit up, with murals hanging from every inch of it.

The back parking lot had been transformed into a Big Fish style outdoor party, with lights strung up everywhere and music blasting from the stage, courtesy of Venice’s own Tom Schnabel spinning his KCRW brand of world beats, and later jazz and blues legend Barbara Morrison and her band getting everybody up and dancing.

SPARC was founded by Judy Baca, Christina Schlesinger and Donna Deitch in 1976 with their first project, The Great Wall of Los Angeles. It is the longest mural in the world, taking the viewer through important moments in our history all along the L.A. River bank. They offered tours of the massive mural (all done by volunteers and at-risk youth), led by Baca. I couldn’t attend the mural tour, but encourage everyone to get down there and see this true wonder of the world as soon as you get the chance. It is truly massive, and makes abundantly clear the importance of art as a tool for social expression and teaching history.

Awards were given, speeches were made, and there was an air of jubilation over the entire affair. It was a delight to see so many neighbors all out and having a good time under the stars, dancing, drinking (theme drinks like “The Mural”), and eating delicious fare from the booths set up by Hal’s, Casa Linda, and Ben’s BBQ.

You could participate in live mural painting on one of the back walls, and it gave you a sense of the camaraderie and effort that goes into creating the more massive pieces that adorn our fair city.

Every surface was adorned with a mural illuminating important cultural characters and events. Even in the bathroom. In a time when street artists (folks like Shark Toof) get busted and jailed for beautifying spaces, and murals are under attack by small-minded building owners and corporate advertising, this was an especially satisfying evening in homage to the importance of art’s role in social justice.

Once all the donation pitches and speechifying was complete, it was time to simply party. Barbara Morrison and her excellent backing band tore it up, and people kept dancing even as the event was being cleaned up around them. A great cause, a great night of wonderful art, and another exclamation point on the SPECIAL! place that we call home.

As SPARC’s saying goes, “BE the Spark – to bring the past into the present to inspire the future.”

Shark Toof

The Ping Pong Show

C.A.V.E. Gallery

1108 Abbot Kinney Boulevard

Through November 11th

SPARC

685 Venice Boulevard

Hopefully Always

Earl Newman Goes From Venice to the Smithsonian

By Greta Cobar

“I want to thank Venice for being open to free-spirited people,” Earl Newman says 53 years after he came here from the East Coast with a wife and two kids in a ’55 Chevy station wagon “in quest of a future.”

And that he found. After being homeless for a few weeks, Earl and his family moved into the boarded-up store-front that now is the Small World Bookstore on Ocean Front Walk, next door to the Sidewalk Cafe. And there, according to Earl, “opportunity came.”

Someone had left, at the back of the Gas House, all the equipment he needed to silk-screen posters. “And I knew how to use it. I started using it to pay rent and didn’t think that it would lead anywhere or that I’d do it years later,” Earl recently told the Beachhead.

Well, it lead to him being a successful self-employed artist since. This year he is celebrating his 50th year designing posters for the Monterey Jazz Festival, which takes place September 21 to 23. He finds 50 to be a “good, round number” to change direction and “maybe stop designing posters for the festival, maybe go fishing or traveling in a ‘Winnebago’.”

Among his large following is the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, which purchased the complete collection of Earl’s signed and numbered Monterey Jazz Festival posters for their permanent collection.

“I found something I really enjoy doing,” he says of creating and silk-screening his artwork. The first poster he printed in Venice was of the Gas House, a coffee shop just steps south of Small World Bookstore, where Vivianne Robinson’s Name on Rice shop is now located.

“My parents came to visit shortly after we moved into the place, and when my mom walked in, she started crying and said: ‘Earl, we didn’t bring you up to live like this.’ ” According to Earl, it was raining and there were pots and pans on the floor to catch the drips from the ceiling. The floor was covered in sand that he had hauled from the beach to cover up the broken tile.

Earl and his family lived a very primitive lifestyle and had little money. At times Earl didn’t think that they would make it, and might have to return to New England with his wife Jean and two daughters Andrea and April and return to being a school teacher. Looking back, Earl is thankful to Jean, who was also an art teacher, for inspiring him to come out West and for being supportive of their common endeavors. With perseverance Earl and Jean fixed the place up, painted it, made an art gallery in the front and set up residence in the back. “My son Dale was born in the back of the gallery. I delivered him,” Earl told the Beachhead.

Meanwhile, in the front, there was a new art show every month, which allowed Earl to “barely make it.” When he got a night job for the Yellow Pages in West LA, Earl thought to himself: “I’m not gonna do this,” and really got into poster making.

The commemorative 50th Monterey Jazz Festival poster depicts and is a tribute to Shelly Manne, whom Earl wishes to thank for “helping me get to this point.” It was back in 1962, in Escondido, that Earl was selling posters for the first time at a fair, and he met Shelly. “He saw my posters, bought a bunch, and invited me to his jazz club, Shelly’s Manhole, in Hollywood.” Earl went on to design two posters for Shelly, and while hanging out at the club he met a woman who was doing human relations for the Monterey Jazz Festival. She asked him to design a poster for the festival, Earl drew Joe Gordon, a trumpeter, and the rest is history.

“My first time attending the 3-day event, in 1963, I made $1000. I knew right then and there what the formula is: fine art, not commercial, at a good festival.”

Back in Venice, a few years later, Earl set up studio a few houses south of Venice and Abbot Kinney Blvd. He bought a parcel of land with two lots on it, built a 2-story building for himself on one of the parcels, and offered the house residing on the other one rent-free to Rick Davidson, Ana and John Haag, all three of whom founded the Free Venice Beachhead and the Peace and Freedom Party in that very residence. Both the Beachhead and the Peace and Freedom Party operated in that location for quite a few years. According to Earl, “nobody remembers how many.”

By the time the ‘70s came around, business in Venice was slowing down for Earl, and big galleries were coming into town. “I didn’t fit into that package,” he said. So in ’72 he moved up north with his wife and three children to experience farm life in Summit, Oregon. “It’s one of the best things that happened to me – outside of Venice,” Earl said.

He still lives on that farm today with two cats, about twenty chickens, a garden with strawberries, peas, lettuce, rhubarb, carrots and much more. The farm is so big that most of it is a forest with a river running through it. And yes, there are bridges under big trees, with chairs and tables, ideal spots to sit and sip some wine.

Fresh off the boat in Oregon in 1974, Earl visited the Oregon Country Fair for the first time. There he found Peace and Freedom Party members selling bumper stickers and anti-war stuff. He thought to himself: “My posters might fit right in with this.” Within minutes Earl was selling posters side-by-side with the Peace and Freedom folks. After a  few years of co-existence, the Peace and Freedom Party members took off on another adventure, and Earl continues to sell his posters there to this day, without missing a single year.

“I could get bored any time now, but for some reason I don’t,” Earl said about designing and printing posters at 82. “That’s the name of the game: find a passion,” he says. He definitely found his passion. “Art is and has been a great companion for me,” Earl told the Beachhead.