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Chalk up another Italian Street Painting Festival

Where will you find the Mona Lisa, a portrait of President Obama and child's turtle painting all featured side by side?

At the Youth In Arts (YIA) Italian Street Painting Festival of course!

Each year, kids and adults converge to transform the street into a riot of chalk-colored masterpieces based on traditional Italian street painting. This year's 17th annual street painting fest is happening this coming Saturday and Sunday in downtown San Rafael in front of the Mission. The event, sponsored by YIA, is free to everyone.

"This year's theme celebrates "our beautiful earth" said Miko Lee, YIA Executive Director. "You'll see that in our featured artwork, a 24-foot circular piece representing the four elements."

In addition to the art, will be continuous all-day music on two stages with everything from swing to Italian party music. In keeping with the Italian theme-- food from Il Davide, San Rafael Joe's, Frantoio, Vin Antico and Il Fornaio.

Buoni periodi! (That's "good times" in Italian...)

Details:

• 17th Annual Youth In Arts Street Painting Festival 
• Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, June 13
• 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
  
• Fifth and A Streets in downtown San Rafael

Marin cartoonist wins Pulitzer Prize

Mark Fiore, an editorial cartoonist whose animated cartoons appear in SFGate, has won the Pulitzer Prize. The 40-year-old Fairfax resident was the first online artist to win the prestigious journalism prize since they were created in 1922. Here's the full article in SFGate-- and here's one of Fiore's animated cartoons. You can view more of his creations on his website here.

Earth Day and art, all in one

Earth Day is just around the corner--April 22. Here's an idea to celebrate the day in an artful way! 

The Marin Arts Council (MAC) is sponsoring a new exhibit, called "Where You Are" featuring works inspired by environmental issues. The exhibit, at the Marin Community Foundation (MCF) offices, features the artwork of several artists, and the support of several earth-friendly organizations including Cool the Earth and State Coastal Conservancy.

There will be a reception for the show at MCF on Earth Day to kick the whole thing off. The reception is set for 4:30 to 7 p.m.at 5 Hamilton Landing, # 200 in Novato. 

(Photo shown is taken by Richard Lang, entitled "Strew of plastic detritus, Kehoe Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore.")

Details--

• Exhibit "Where You Are" runs from April 22 to July 15
• Marin Community Foundation, 5 Hamilton Landing, #200, Novato
• For more information, contact MAC at 415-459-4440.
  

Local sculptor's works in new exhibit at MarinMOCA

The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is featuring the works of longtime Novato resident and sculptor, Gary Marsh during the month of December.

Marsh joins ten other artists in a new exhibition entitled, Contemporary Concepts in Clay and Glass which runs until December 28 at the gallery based at Hamilton in Novato. MarinMOCA selected the artists from a membership of 500 artists from the California-based Association of Clay and Glass Artists.

Marsh's art uses high-fired clay which employs painting rather than glazing.

"I seized this invitation as an opportunity to show my newest works which are studies in form and surface treatment," said Marsh.

The exhibit runs through December 28. For more information, check MarinMOCA's website here.

Marin Focus: Inspiration from metal and poetry for jeweler Kate Ellen

"The trained hand does not forget its skill, nor can we lay the precision and speed aside: strength we have, and courage in the acetylene will."

The diminutive, dark-haired jeweler Kate Ellen recites the line from poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, from memory.

"Metal itself is inspiring, adds the twenty seven-year-old jewelry designer,  "It is a really weird property--it is really strong and it's also malleable. If worst comes to worst, and I blow something, I can melt it down and then it becomes a raw material again."

The dichotomy of fine poetry and hard-edged metal, is the inspiration for this artisan's totally hand-crafted and completely unique jewelry designs.

Heritage feast benefits Marin Museum of the American Indian

If you wanted a real dose of Native American food, crafts, art, music and sentiment this weekend--then you were probably a guest at the 2nd annual Heritage Dinner, Art Auction and Exhibit Tour to benefit the Marin Museum of the American Indian.

Guests at the museum in Miwok Park nibbled on seared rabbit rillette hors d'oeuvres on corn and sage cake, and drank wine while perusing artworks for sale by Native American artisans.  There was also a silent auction with a variety of items including sterling silver jewelry and belt buckles, art books, beaded belts and pottery.

Paint Off in Mill Valley draws enthusiastic crowd

(hover mouse over photo for description, and click to enlarge)

Painter Deanne Kraus (left) is applying paint to her canvas which has been placed on--of all things-- the ground.

"The wind was a problem," Kraus explains, "It caused a lot of other pieces to topple."

It is rather windy as we stand in the middle of the Book Depot plaza on Saturday afternoon, surrounded by artists, easels and onlookers.   Thirty-five artists are all competing in the 19th annual Mill Valley Art Commission Paint Off.

The Paint Off pits artist against artist, as they hastily create their masterpiece in the allotted four-hour time limit.  The artists just set up their easel at 10:30 a.m., and work in their favorite medium--oil, acrylic, pastel or watercolor--to capture the downtown scene until  2:30 p.m. when time is called.   

Today's scene--it seems--was not ideal for outdoor painting, weather-wise.

"Indigenous Dreams" translated from mind to paper

"If you were to ask me when I was six years-old what I wanted to be I would've told you a go-go dancer and an artist."

Kelli Hill has held onto that childhood dream.  She does dance- although not go-go- and she's been creating art for as long as she can recall.  But she's never had an exhibit, nor has she sold her work. 

But that's about to change.

This weekend, Kelli will hold her very first exhibit in the Marin Arts Council (MAC) gallery in downtown San Rafael, beginning Friday July 10 and running through the weekend. 

Artists And Wanna-Be Artists Converge In San Rafael For Street Painting Festival

(Complete photo album of all our photos here)

It was all chalk all the time, down on Fifth Avenue in San Rafael this weekend, for the 16th Annual Youth In Arts Italian Street Painting Festival.

Kids, adults and everyone in between, were sitting, squatting and kneeling, creating colorful art murals on the pavement.  There were the recognizable  copies of masterpieces- like the Mona Lisa and Venus Rising- but there were also lots of original 'masterpieces' too.  The popular annual event, is a fund-raising effort for Youth In Arts programs in Marin.

We popped on down, along with our photographer-intern, Ashley Cosgriff, to get some shots of the action, and here's a slide show-

Native American Baby Culture Highlighted At Precious Cargo Exhibit

"We wish this baby wisdom, strength, good health," read the placard on the wall. 

The Native American blessing, which is bestowed after making the receiving cradle for the newborn infant, was one of several lining the walls at the Marin Community Foundation (MCF) offices in Novato.  It's part of Precious Cargo: California Indian Cradle Baskets and Childbirth Traditions, an art exhibit currently on display there.

Art Show At Marin Civic Center Highlights MAC Artists

Art is alive and well down at the Marin Civic Center.  The Marin Arts Council (MAC) is sponsoring a Members' Exhibit and you'll find watercolors, photography, mixed media, oils, sculpture and jewelry.  Note to budding art collectors; many of the works are marked for sale.

Ellen Campbell, Director of Exhibits, tells us all MAC members (the organization has about 1,000) are invited to submit one work to exhibit in the annual show.  About 80 chose to participate in the Civic Center show.

We dropped by the exhibit and saw strikingly original- some beautiful, some strange- and visually compelling works.  Although the art is contemporary, many of them pay homage to impressionism, and one exquisite still-life looked exactly like something you'd find in the mid-19th century. 

Measuring For Money At Art By The Inch Fundraiser!

Everyone from Novato Mayor Eklund to young Maya were gathered in MarinMOCA to choose their own art, for the annual Art by the Inch fundraiser. We ask Maya if this is her first time at Art by the Inch-

"No. It's my second.  But I didn't buy anything last year, so this is my first painting."

We look at the painting she's clutching in her hand- it's a lovely garden-like work with an egret, a dragonfly and a turtle amidst a sea of flowers. Where is the painting going to be hung?

"In my room!"

Marin Museum Series- Marian Eakins Archaeological Collection

The Marin Eakins Archaeological Collection may be a small museum, but it's big on antiquity.  Housed in the library at the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) in Mill Valley, the collection began as one couple's passion and includes significant historical artifacts dating from about 3,000 B.C. 

The collection quite likely contains some of the oldest items to be found anywhere in Marin.

Marin Museum Series- Marin Museum Of Contemporary Art

MarinMOCA was founded in 2007 as part of the Novato Arts Center, a permanent home for artists that originally included studios and gallery space already located on the Hamilton AFB site.  The artists were members of the Indian Valley Artists (IVA), a group of artists from College of Marin Indian Valley Campus. 

Marin Museum Series- Marin Museum Of The American Indian

When you think of Novato, sun, suburbs and soccer springs to mind.  But did you know that the Bay Area's only museum dedicated entirely to the American Indian lies within Novato city limits?  The Marin Museum of the American Indian is located on an actual Miwok village site just off of Novato Blvd. 

Colleen Hicks bounds over to meet us.  The petite, youthful Executive Director fairly bursts with energy as she leads us through the lower, interactive floor and then upstairs into the heart of the exhibits.  She talks and walks and points out things to see, as we wind our way around the cases and displays, which are currently featuring Native American rugs. 

It's clear this museum in particular, and Native American culture in general, are her passions.

Marin Museum Series- Bolinas Museum

Once you figure out how to get into the town of Bolinas, you won't find a whole lot in the way of shops, restaurants and other retail businesses, but you will find a cluster of white, vintage buildings in back of a white picket fence. 

You've just discovered the Bolinas Museum, a fine arts and history museum with a history of its own.

Open Studio- A Tale Of Two Artists

Ian Ross is just applying the first brush strokes on a very large, blank canvas.  I ask him for an interview and he agrees to one, still standing and painting.  As we chat, it's apparent this young artist is used to conversation while he's working. 

In fact, Ian often paints "live" in clubs and public spaces.

Painting "live" is a kinetic, free-wheeling approach to his art that involves not just the painter, but the people around him.  While he paints, a nearby camera that Ian has set-up beforehand, records the action until he has completed a work.  Ian then distills the video into time-lapse and posts the shortened pieces on YouTube.   He says it takes about three hours on average to finish a painting, which then gets condensed into a three-minute video.  Ian tells us the nature of his art- both the act of painting and the videos- "is fast, immediate", just like graffiti.